Technical training

Hello everyone!

How are things in the States? Things are pretty good here. We have now completed our first week of technical training and two months (and some change) here in Benin. For me, this is pretty reaffirming. Whatever happens from here on out, having lived in West Africa for two months is nothing to sneeze at!

My first package from home arrived two days ago. I got home made cookies from my Grandma. A more perfect sentence was never formed. I was pretty surprised by how excited I was to receive something from home. My mom says that there are a few other items in the mail somewhere in the world, and it’s taking us both an extra measure of patience to wait for those to get here.

Technical training has been going well. The Environmental Action volunteers (including myself) have started a practice garden at Songhai with cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, and a few local legumes used in Beninese sauces. We split up watering the plots every morning and evening. We also got to help with Songhai’s composting system. It’s smelly work for sure, but really exciting to learn more about composting. Those ‘in the field’ activities have been interspersed with lectures in the classroom. Today for example we talked about organizing different meetings in Beninese towns.

We have pretty quickly fallen into a pattern of meeting for class every day at Songhai. There’s negotiating Zem prices in the morning, or biking, then watering, then class for two hours, then a break. A lot of people like to buy avocado on a baguette at break time, but I usually refrain. After some more class time I usually cross the road with a couple people and buy lunch from the rice and beans lady on the side of the road. Sometimes I get the rice and beans with cheese, but always with a spicy tomato sauce. It’s pretty tasty in my opinion. After lunch I often buy a chopped up pineapple. In the afternoon is more class, then biking or zemming home. It’s a good system and being in technical training is giving me lots of little ideas for post. I try to write them all down. Still, I find that I really enjoy being with all the other volunteers and it’s sad that we don’t have any more classes with the three other sectors until right before we swear in as Volunteers. Baby steps to life at post I guess!

That is about it for right now. With any luck I will post more tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

With love,

Lauren