December 7

**Written December 7th**

Hello Everyone,

So, a lot has happened hasn’t it? I think I have to start right out by saying how grateful I am that my Dad is on the road to recovery after a surprise surgery on Thanksgiving Day. Of course it was very hard to be away from home during that time. I am so thankful to my Mom, Meg, and Kev for being so present, keeping me informed, and really supporting Dad. It’s been a hard time, but coming out of it there is a lot to be grateful for. And soon I will be visiting home for Christmas! I don’t think that I could be any more excited.

To catch you up on things here in Benin: volunteers got together a week before Thanksgiving in Kandi, for a feast. There were a lot of us, and it seemed like everyone got to contribute for a dish or two. I helped out with the two pumpkin pies, a chocolate cake and a little with the apple pie. Josh fried a turkey and grilled another one. Bij made a stuffing from scratch that was so good, I think I will miss it even when back in America. Amber brought green beans from her garden. All in all, it was an excellent meal and excellent company. We were determined to all eat together, so we had to connect up about 5 tables and when we all sat down there was barely enough silverware for everyone. I actually grabbed chopsticks and only later realized I was eating American Thanksgiving dinner in Benin West Africa with Asian utensils. The triple threat. It was an excellent time.

After Thanksgiving feast, Heidi was able to travel back to post with me and see my house! She and I shared a language class back in Training. It was so good to get the extra time with her, and to have a guest visit Founougo. We are not exactly on the way to anywhere, so it really meant a lot.

After that my Program Manager, Salomon visited. It was great to see him and to talk about projects. Talking with him is always encouraging.

The radio show charges on. The radio station is getting a little busier, which is good for them, but we had a few snafus in a row where the show wasn’t played, or wasn’t played at the right time. Camille and I started putting our foot down a little bit, saying that wasn’t ok. They were apologetic, and now I think we are back on course. Camille and I have really enjoyed recording some Christmas episodes. We taught the song and told the story of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and talked about Christmas traditions in America. It’s been fun.

The Environment Club is also doing well. After re-scheduling an absurd number of times, we did successfully make some model mudstoves, and I am really trying to help at least one student learn how to teach others to build them. We also learned about Moringa, a tree with a lot of nutritional and soil enriching properties. Last week we learned about natural insecticides that you can make here. Next week will be the last session of the semester, so we are hoping to do a Jeopardy review game.

Latrines are being built 10 out of 40 have their bases completely cemented, which is the biggest part of the work. Unfortunately, it’s surprisingly difficult to get cement, so further work is more or less paused for the moment.

That’s all the news from here. I hope you are all having a very merry December. As always, thanks for reading.

Love,

Lauren

Es Novembre

Hello Everyone!

Time is marching on here in Benin as we head towards thanksgiving. I hope everything is going well for all of you back home.

I’ve been getting to enjoy some time at post after a good amount of traveling around the country for training sessions, mid service medical, and camps. It’s good to be feeling settled in post, and to be getting down to work on my projects! Latrine construction is moving along very nicely. I am happy to report that there is not much to report there.

I have also been investing some time in an Environment Club at the secondary school. I feel like I learned from the trials of last year, and this year is going really well! One week we did tree identification and learned the scientific names and origins of common trees. Another week we learned about fuel efficient mud stoves (hopefully we will be building two tomorrow)! This week we studied soil types. I brought bags of sand, silt, and clay to class and we practiced different methods of testing the soil. After getting the basics down we were able to scout around the court yard for a good place for our garden next semester. That was educational for me too!

I got the clay sample from the ditches by the flooded road that I cross to get into town. This lead to a moment where I realized people were staring at me, and I almost wanted to say, “What? Haven’t you ever seen a white person digging up clay for an environment club before??” I guess they probably hadn’t…

The kids in my housing compound are back at school, but they still want to cook and cake when they can. I’m a little burnt out on it, but every once in a while I have to indulge them. The last two times we made a chocolate cake that was really great and required no eggs! We were all happy campers.

Besides the latrine construction project and the environment club, the third thing that is taking up my time is the English Radio Show that I do with Camille. It’s been a lot of fun, but power fluctuations at the radio station have been giving me grief. I haven’t been able to charge my laptop (and therefore record the show) a few times now. Fortunately I am currently charging the laptop in Banikoara, the closest town. I am looking at different plans for the future, but for now it is a little stressful. Still, tomorrow or the next day, Camille and I should be able to finish I Thanksgiving episode!

That’s the news from Benin for this week. Again, I hope you are all doing well, and as always, thanks for sharing in this adventure with me!

With love,

Lauren

Halloween and work

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well state side and enjoying the colder weather. It's getting a little cooler here, especially in the mornings, now that we are inthe dry season. I'm sure it's not that cold compared to the US, but it's noticable for us here!

I hope you all had a nice Halloween. I traveled to Parakou and gotto celebrate with a bunch of other volunteers. As always, it was nice to see lots of people that i don't see very often, and I even got to meet some more of the new volunteers who were sworn in this past September. I thought the party itself was a little bit more relaxed then last year, which was fine by me. When I honestly think back to last year and how I was still adjusting to life in village, at Halloween I was so excited to be around other Americans and internet and running water and electricity and familiar music, that I just wanted to stay up all night! This year I guess those things don't seem so exceptional. It's funny to realize both how normal life here has become for me, but also how many tricks I have discovered to keep a charged laptop and internet connection. I've got my priorities. 

A lot of people did dress up for the party, and it's always cool to see what people come up with 'where there is no iParty'! One guy got a local school uniform. A group dressed up together as the flinstones family. One Environment volunteer even got hit tailor to sew him a complete Captain Planet costume (he even had green hair spray). I thought my friend Sarah was going to dress up as Han Solo, so in collaboration I made a Luke Skywalker costume. Sadly, Sarah did not make it, so I was just that girl that dressed up as a Jedi, but I guess I'm ok with that. 

In more work related news, I am very happy to say that construction for the latrine project is underway! It feels like for so long it had to be all talk and no action, so it's great to finally breaking ground. It seems like I'm not the only one that feels that way either, the stone mason who is overseeing the project has been staying busy. Together we marked out the digging sites for all 40 latrines, spread across some 15 kilometers of town, in 3 days! Now a bunch of people have finished digging their pits, and 1/4 of the packets of cement have reached their final destination. Thank goodness! Haha. 

In my last post I mentioned Starting the environment club. I am happy to say that that is continuing nicely. We have had two sessions after the initial meeting. We did a tree identification tour, and explained the enefits of mud stoves. The group has been about 15 students these last two weeks, which suits me just fine. The kids do seem to be interested. I am so glad that I helped with Environment Camp in August, it gave me a lot of ideas!

The radio show that Camille and I are working on is also going really well. We are just finishing our 5th episode in which, after some grammar exercizes, we tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood. We read it line by line in English and French. I love getting to share a little American culture in with the grammar and vocabulary. With a story like this one, we hope that we also get to hit lot of different levels of English comprehension. 

That's the biggest part of what's been keeping me busy these days. This week, after a long break, the kids and I made a chocolate cake, which came out great. Last night Camille and I had a sleep over at my place where we tried again to make pizza (moderate success). 

I am getting more and more excited for Christmas and my brief visit to the States, and for my family visiting here afterwards! There are lots of things to looks forward to and I can't wait to tell you about them!

Thanks for reading,

With love,

Lauren

Grand Popo and a day

Hello everyone!

Things are certainly picking up here. I think the rain has stopped until next spring, kids are back in school, and work is getting rolling!

Before talking about more work related stuff, I have a cultural anecdote to share with you all! A few weeks ago, Camille informed me that the new 'youth center' had opened. It's sort of a large cement event hall, sort of like an american legion, where meetings and social events are held. Camille told me that every market day for the past two weeks there had been a dance competiton at the youth center after the market closed up. We decided to go to the last one. 

It was very exciting to see how many people turned up. 3 or 4 teams of two guys competed, doing choreohraphy they each wrote together with some break dancing thrown in. The judges were professors that Camille and I knew, which was cool and funny. The dancing was very good. In between sets, and while the judges were deliberating they would play music and anyone could go up there. One of my teenage neighbors jumped up there and he was really good! A fun time was had by all. 

A lot of my time not spent at dance competitons has been taken up with the radio show Camille and I are writing. I write out some basic english lessons and we record them in advance together at the radio station. We recently got to listen to the first episode played on the air! We joked around about how we can now say we have sung (the abc's) on the radio. All in all we felt like it went really well, and we were surprised by how many people told us they listened to it. It's been good fun work. 

Last week I, and most other volunteers who started the same time I did, went to a training in Grand Popo. If the studious reader thinks the name Grand Popo sounds oddly familiar, it's because that's where I vacationed for Christmas last year. Needless to say, I and many others were excited to get to go back, and for work related reasons no less. As it happened, the training was really great. People were focused and motivated and the material was well organized. The venue was beautiful and all the tasty, healthy food was a big shot in the arm for me. It was wonderful to catch up with other volunteers and hear about their work. And the ocean was absolutely marvelous. You can't beat sitting in the sand looking at the waves and the stars after a long day of sessions. It was heavenly. 

So I got to tell you all about a whole week of activity in a broad sweeping paragraph, now I'd like to take the opportunity to tell you specifics of my day today, because i think it's noteworthy in it's goodness and typicalness:

I woke up early and set right out so that I would get to the radio station on time. I got to stop and eat beans for breakfast. This was exciting because i like the bean lady and her food, but it's usually gone by lunch time when I'm looking for beans. 

When I got to the radio station I realized we were going to have some major technical difficulties. My laptop charger doesn't seem to be working (I am working on replacing it now). Realizing that put me in a bad mood. Besides all the creature comforts, we needed my laptop to record the radio show. Camille and i decided to do as much as we could. We actually got the whole show recorded and saved but not exported before it shut down. 

We decided to get drinks and lunch at the buvette that has cold drinks and we actually got to eat with two professors while we were there. Then we went over to the secondary school and I did some lesson planning for Environment Club,  and announced it in all the classes. That made for some weird deja vu with last year, but my French is at least a little better now. 

Even though I knew I wouldn't have much time, I went home for a bit. When it was time to leave for Environment club I was so tired and didn't want to go. Still, I did, and on my way I bumped into the woman from my latrine commitee. (She's the one I wanted to be friends with, and she told my couterpart Baron that she couldn't understand anything I said. He said give it a week.) Well, we are friends now, and when she saw me she said 'You just don't get tired, do you?' That put a smile on my face for the whole rest of the walk to the secondary school!

When I got to the secondary school I still felt nervous and thought I would be just as happy to bump the first environment club meeting back a week. However, we did have the meeting, and it went really well. I am co-leading with a different teacher this year and he was not only charasmatic and engaging with the kids but also much more collaborative with me (though my improved confidence and french level probably encourages collaboration too). We picked a club president (a girl!) and two 'responsables' or secretaries. People were attentive and interested. This year we are diving in with a 6 week curriculum, so I hope that will stear us well. 

After that I came home and made some stir fry. I even shared some with the kids, though too many vegetables are always weird for them, at least if they are not made into a sauce. When they all said good night I was ready to crash!

Tomorrow will probably be a day in the house with laundry and planning. I can't even say how glad i am to be getting busier. 

I also can't even say how glad I am to be able to share all of this with you. Thanks for reading, thanks for sharig this journey with me. 

Much love,

Lauren

Grand Popo and a day

Hello everyone!

Things are certainly picking up here. I think the rain has stopped until next spring, kids are back in school, and work is getting rolling!

Before talking about more work related stuff, I have a cultural anecdote to share with you all! A few weeks ago, Camille informed me that the new 'youth center' had opened. It's sort of a large cement event hall, sort of like an american legion, where meetings and social events are held. Camille told me that every market day for the past two weeks there had been a dance competiton at the youth center after the market closed up. We decided to go to the last one. 

It was very exciting to see how many people turned up. 3 or 4 teams of two guys competed, doing choreohraphy they each wrote together with some break dancing thrown in. The judges were professors that Camille and I knew, which was cool and funny. The dancing was very good. In between sets, and while the judges were deliberating they would play music and anyone could go up there. One of my teenage neighbors jumped up there and he was really good! A fun time was had by all. 

A lot of my time not spent at dance competitons has been taken up with the radio show Camille and I are writing. I write out some basic english lessons and we record them in advance together at the radio station. We recently got to listen to the first episode played on the air! We joked around about how we can now say we have sung (the abc's) on the radio. All in all we felt like it went really well, and we were surprised by how many people told us they listened to it. It's been good fun work. 

Last week I, and most other volunteers who started the same time I did, went to a training in Grand Popo. If the studious reader thinks the name Grand Popo sounds oddly familiar, it's because that's where I vacationed for Christmas last year. Needless to say, I and many others were excited to get to go back, and for work related reasons no less. As it happened, the training was really great. People were focused and motivated and the material was well organized. The venue was beautiful and all the tasty, healthy food was a big shot in the arm for me. It was wonderful to catch up with other volunteers and hear about their work. And the ocean was absolutely marvelous. You can't beat sitting in the sand looking at the waves and the stars after a long day of sessions. It was heavenly. 

So I got to tell you all about a whole week of activity in a broad sweeping paragraph, now I'd like to take the opportunity to tell you specifics of my day today, because i think it's noteworthy in it's goodness and typicalness:

I woke up early and set right out so that I would get to the radio station on time. I got to stop and eat beans for breakfast. This was exciting because i like the bean lady and her food, but it's usually gone by lunch time when I'm looking for beans. 

When I got to the radio station I realized we were going to have some major technical difficulties. My laptop charger doesn't seem to be working (I am working on replacing it now). Realizing that put me in a bad mood. Besides all the creature comforts, we needed my laptop to record the radio show. Camille and i decided to do as much as we could. We actually got the whole show recorded and saved but not exported before it shut down. 

We decided to get drinks and lunch at the buvette that has cold drinks and we actually got to eat with two professors while we were there. Then we went over to the secondary school and I did some lesson planning for Environment Club,  and announced it in all the classes. That made for some weird deja vu with last year, but my French is at least a little better now. 

Even though I knew I wouldn't have much time, I went home for a bit. When it was time to leave for Environment club I was so tired and didn't want to go. Still, I did, and on my way I bumped into the woman from my latrine commitee. (She's the one I wanted to be friends with, and she told my couterpart Baron that she couldn't understand anything I said. He said give it a week.) Well, we are friends now, and when she saw me she said 'You just don't get tired, do you?' That put a smile on my face for the whole rest of the walk to the secondary school!

When I got to the secondary school I still felt nervous and thought I would be just as happy to bump the first environment club meeting back a week. However, we did have the meeting, and it went really well. I am co-leading with a different teacher this year and he was not only charasmatic and engaging with the kids but also much more collaborative with me (though my improved confidence and french level probably encourages collaboration too). We picked a club president (a girl!) and two 'responsables' or secretaries. People were attentive and interested. This year we are diving in with a 6 week curriculum, so I hope that will stear us well. 

After that I came home and made some stir fry. I even shared some with the kids, though too many vegetables are always weird for them, at least if they are not made into a sauce. When they all said good night I was ready to crash!

Tomorrow will probably be a day in the house with laundry and planning. I can't even say how glad i am to be getting busier. 

I also can't even say how glad I am to be able to share all of this with you. Thanks for reading, thanks for sharig this journey with me. 

Much love,

Lauren

A month's update

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Hey Everyone!

Wow, sorry for the long pause there. I hope you are all doing well. Here in Benin there have been some slow moments, but in general things are getting busier. Thank goodness.

In my last entry, I was looking forward to a big meeting about my latrine project. I’m happy to say that went really well. I was nervous that the project participants wouldn’t show up. It’s very difficult to organize meetings here. There isn’t a culture of punctuality, or the importance of being on time, and many people don’t really have calendars, or even the correct time in their phone. However, the latrine committee and I did a good job of publicizing the meeting. We announced it on the new Founougo Radio, and committee members delivered paper invitations to each beneficiary. We actually had 38 out of 40 beneficiaries present, and another 9 people who were hoping to take the spaces of absent beneficiaries! That will be an interesting conversation.

Anyway, the meeting was to inform beneficiaries about the important logistics of the project and also to have a short training about good hygiene practices (namely hand washing) that need to go with latrine use. We had one of the beneficiaries translate. In the first portion, the stone mason and I explained logistics together and answered some questions. It was satisfying to present the stone mason to the beneficiaries, even though a lot of them probably already knew him.

I lead the second section about hygiene and hand washing based on some Peace Corps materials. It would have been even better if a Beninese health worker could have lead or co-lead that, but I just didn’t get the networking together in time. I /did/ get to make some illustrated posters which were well received. I felt like pictures would really help since everything was being translated into Bariba, so there was a middle step between me and at least half the audience. They seemed to really follow it and stick with me. The whole process was very successful and very satisfying and I hope that I can do more sessions like that!

About a week after the latrine meeting I undertook an epic voyage to the south of Benin for my mid-service medical exam. I got to meet some of the new volunteers, which was great. They all seem very capable and optimistic. It’s exciting to have new people around! I also got to visit a few ‘old’ friends, which was great. It’s cool to see what other volunteers are doing at their post, and of course it’s always nice to catch up!

I also got to visit my host family for the first time in a long while. I can’t believe it, but it had been nine months since the last time I’d seen them,. All the kids have grown some and are just about to start the next year of school. The craziest part was how much better I could understand them. Even when the kids would speak French to each other, I could follow what they were saying! At one point my host Papa observed me watching TV and he said, “you can follow everything they are saying.” “well, yeah, pretty much.” I said. “You speak French now!” Thanks Papa. That visit went by too fast, it was great to see them all.

Mid service medical itself went pretty well. I was nervous that they would want to keep me there for a long time, but everything was fine. However, we did find that I had intestinal amoebas. I’m not exactly happy to know that I had contracted amoebas, but it is not at all uncommon among volunteers in Benin. It does also explain occasional digestive woes that I had just been writing off. All in all I’m glad to know, and glad to be taking my medicine!

The trip north was pretty tiring, even though it was nice to get to travel. I want to randomly list a few travel highlights: One day I got a ride from a guy named Smeal (like Ishmael) who was driving a car completely packed with green peppers across the country. Me, Smael, and the peppers all road together for 8 hours one day. Another day I was trying to get a good price for a taxi-moto (zemidjan) at a tough time of day, and a man came over to help me out. I had been ripped off a few times earlier due to not knowing the price and this time I was being stubborn. The man who was helping me, (whose name was Raoul, I found out) pressed half the money I needed into my hand and said, ‘Add that to your cost’ I was surprised and grateful and told him I’d pray for him. Another time I wound up in a taxi that was so packed that by the time we arrived at our destination I felt angry, even though I wasn’t angry at any one person. I just needed to get out of the car. It didn’t help that there was the normal politics of unclear expectations. People said we wouldn’t stop in Parakou and then we stopped there for an hour or more and switched cars. Bah! Anyway, the whole trip was mercifully incident free. No major break-downs, and some interesting people along the way.

I had a few days to recover from my travels before the launch of an Alibori volunteer Malaria tour. Five volunteers participated and it was generally supposed to be a bike tour, where volunteers ride their bikes from one village to the next. Camille and I both decided to zem it and take motos for various reasons. Her bike is being repaired and loaning one would be complicated at least. I was still feeling pretty beat, and I guess I didn’t love the idea of biking without Camille!

The tour was great though, in total I think we visited more than 350 households. We asked them if they had mosquito nets and if they used them. We got to help make quick repairs to some and even helped hang up some nets that hadn’t ever been installed! We also did tours around the yard to check for mosquito breeding sights and teach people how to minimize them.

It was so nice to have some scheduled work that really seemed to have a direct impact. It gave us more information and encouraged and informed the people we visited without having to give out any ‘gifts’. The last night we all wound up at my house and we made chili and brownies to celebrate the end of the tour. I have to say I was sad to see it end and sad to see people bike off to their posts.

So what’s next? Latrine construction should start soon, and I’m working on the logistics of buying cement for that. School will also be starting up and everyone is gearing up. I have a couple project ideas in the works for year two, but I think I’ll spare you guys the details until they get underway.

Thanks so much for reading. Sorry again for the space between entries there! I am thinking of you all back east and missing you very much. I hope to get in touch again soon.

With love,

Lauren

Environment Club!

**written August 21st**

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are doing well and staying cool. I hear it’s been a hot summer in New England!

The week before last I did not update the blog, partly thanks to a nasty cold that I think I caught on the rainy trip home from getting my cat Jack neutered. That cold really knocked me back. I just wanted to lay around, blow my nose and read. Fortunately, I was able to do a lot of that and I even succeeded in making a really delicious French onion soup. I also picked up my copy of the seventh Harry Potter book in French – something I bought on the lay over in Brussels on my way to Benin! It’s slow going but I’m happy and a little surprised to say, I can really follow it. It’s turned out to be the perfect sick-day read. I feel like I’m learning a little bit while resting.

Despite the formidable cold, I was pretty determined to get my selected students and me to Parakou for Environment Camp. We teamed up with Josh and his students to rent a taxi all together and were among the first ones there. The camp went really well. It was exciting to see some of the organizational strategies that other volunteers have picked up, like putting the kids in teams and giving points for good behavior. It was also wonderful to see volunteers who live in other parts of the country and I wouldn’t otherwise see. Most importantly it was great to see how invested and excited the kids were to learn and participate. I would say that all the lessons went very smoothly and the kids left excited to put what they learned into action in their communities. Early in the week two volunteers gave a presentation about recycling and reusing materials. The kids were then sent out to collect trash that could be reused or repurposed. They tinkered with their materials all week and on the final day of camp each team did a skit that incorporated what they made. My team, the orange team, did a skit about the importance of hand washing that included a recycled drum and maracas and a paper cat costume. The skits were really funny!

Now I am back in post, trying to get organized. There were lots of ideas that came out of that week in Parakou, including but not limited to the possibility of doing an Environment Camp in Kandi. I have started to ask around about that to see if there is a good venue. Nothings sure yet, but it’s an exciting idea. Sooner than not, we are also going to be doing an information day for the latrine project, and I’m VERY eager to get rolling with that. I look forward to keeping you all informed.

Thanks for reading!

With love,

Lauren

Independence Day Benin

Blog post
Hi Everyone,
Happy August! I hear the weather has been pretty good in New England, and I hope you are all doing well. It's weird to remember that this time last year I was already in Benin, preparing to visit my post for the first time. I have learned and grown so much, but it still doesn't seem like that could be a year ago!
One of those bench marks that helps me remember was August 1st - Benin's Independence Day! Last year I celebrated by taking a language proficiency test and watching the festivities on TV. This year there was no TV watching option, but I am happy to say I got to participate a little more in the festivities.
In the morning I got dressed up in my newest boumba, and took a zem motorcycle taxi into Baikoara. I got there just in time to catch the end of a parade! Aparently it had started at 9am, which was a surprise. I quickly met up with Vincent, a friend from church, Daniel, my supervisor, and Saka, one of the vice principals at the secondary school in Founougo. After the parade we went out for a beer (a 'Beninoise' of course!) and then some of us went to a soccer match. It was so cool to see and participate in community organized events. Sitting in the concrete bleachers watching Banikoara fight it out against neighboring Kerou, felt like being in America. After the game Daniel, Vincent and I went to dinner at a restaurant 'Under the Nime Trees'. The woman who owns it was close friends with some peace corps volunteers 2006-2010 and she loves to say hi and share her photos. The food is also some of the best around. It was fun to talk and joke together.
On Sunday I got to attend my 'home church' in Founougo, which is always a good thing. I had talked with the pastor the week before because, theologically, I didn't really agree with the way the church was talking about raising money. That can certainly be an awkward situation, wth me being the only westerner in the church and certainly having a different background and perspective. However, I thought out what I wanted to say, and the pastor was very open and attentive. That was very gratifying and encouragig. I think we all really do want to make our little church the best we can.
Sunday afternoon my cat Jack and I took a trip into town to get him neutered. I had always planned to do that, especially since I really want him to be an indoor cat and plan on bringing him back to the US. I had heard from other volunteers and it sounds like my experience was pretty typical. While the veterinarian was trained and competent, it was an 'out back under the mango tree' kind of proceedure. There were no problems and Jack seems to be recovering very well. It was a stressful day all the same. It didn't help that shortly after the proceedure it started to rain! Besides not wanting a wet cat, I was really worried about the dirt road back to Founougo. In the end I was more worried about getting my little guy home to recover in the comfort and safety (and kitten food) of his own home. After the rain stopped I got a zem who was willing to brave the mud. It was one of the most stressful rides I've done so far. But, thank God, we all made it to Founougo just fine, and Jack slept on the bed like a little rock.
This week I am traveling with a farmer who raises pogs as part of a Tech Exchange, so he can see other pig raising operations in our region. I am excited to travel and get to do some helpful work. Hopefully the guy will pick up some useful information, he seems excited. This morning we had a meeting in which he kept trying to tell me that he'd love to go, but didn't have the money to travel. It took me a couple tries to make it clear that his travel costs were included in the exchange, that it's free for him!
After I get back from that, it's straight back out the door for Environment in Parakou. I am really excited forthat, but not as excited as the students I'm taking! One of them has been coming by my house asking for environemental materials 'just to review' in advance of the camp. I hope it lives up to his expectations.
I look forward to keeping you posted on how it all pans out. Thanks so much for reading, it's great to tet to share these events with you!
With love,
Lauren

Biking through the bush!

**written on July 22^nd**

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all doing well. Things are good if a little weird here. As I have probably mentioned, it’s a weird time of year, since everyone is in the fields growing corn and cotton during the rainy season, and school is out, adding to the ghost-town feel you sometimes get.

Still, there are things to stay busy with. Plans are underway for an information/planning session with the latrine project. I am trying to plan ahead a little for work with students once the school year does start. I am trying to think now about any materials that will be helpful. I am working on developing plans on the solar light project. My post mate Camille and I have also gotten in some work related exercise!

As I mentioned before, a group of Kandi volunteers is hoping to do a malaria awareness bike tour at some point. Camille and I are both getting more excited about the Malaria Awareness aspect, but were a little apprehensive about the biking. We decided to do a test 20-kilometer ride, since that would probably be one of the longest stretches on the tour. We practiced doing a 10k ride and picked a date to set out. It rained the night before, so we were anxious that the roads would be too muddy, but we decided it was worth trying. I am happy to say that we were able to do the 20k ride without any major problems. We had to get of our bikes a handful of times because of mud, but made it through without a problem. I think we did a good job of taking turns leading, stopping for short breaks, and most of all just keeping on going. It really was very pretty to go by the cornfields and small villages. The trip was definitely an experience.

 When we finished the ride we got to say hi to the surveyant, or vice-principal of the secondary school in Founougo, and he was very friendly and gracious. He even fed us, which was especially generous since, as we came to find out, he was observing Ramadan and wasn’t eating during the day! Oops. Still, I think he was very happy to see us and was a wonderful host. I hope I get to drop by and say hi again sometime soon.

I have made a friend here named Vincent who worked closely with another Peace Corps volunteer back in 2008. He was trying to get some money together to work is own corn field and he solicited my help to get in touch with his friend. There was some confusion, and wrong types of IDs and failed trips to Banikoara, but at the end of the day (and the week) the returned volunteer was indeed able to help Vincent out, and I was able to mediate the exchange. I hope the cornfield is a big success!

I am trying to settle into the idea of being the only volunteer in Founougo for a little while, since Camille is taking a very much-deserved vacation, and getting to see some family. I can’t wait to hear her stories!

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading, hope you are all staying cool in the summer heat.

With love,

Lauren

Waterfalls and Project Supplies

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you are all recovering from a successful 4^th of July. I know there were some good times had, with the Mawe/Carney Luau, and a race in Dedham! We made a pretty strong showing here in Northern Benin. Josh and Bij did an excellent job seasoning and roasting a pig, and we complimented that with potato salad, deviled eggs, lentil burgers, chili, baked chips, apple pie and key lime pie. It is fun to try to make American food here, and some ingredients were a challenge. I would say we all rose to the occasion, had a good party, and everyone ate well.

After the Fourth of July, Camille and I continued our travels over to Natitangou, on the North West Side of Benin for the second Gender and Development fundraising date that I won back in March. (Another volunteer, Will organized the ‘date’ and we won it in an auction and the money goes to the gender ad development program). Natitangou is the last major area of Benin that I hadn’t visited yet. I have to say, it’s really beautiful. Calmer and less crowded than the south, but less dry than the North East, and (thanks to the National Park) not phased by foreigners. The falls themselves were wonderful. We got to swim and the water was the perfect refreshing cool temperature, and you could float on your back gazing at circle of tropical trees, high rocks, and cascading falls around you. It was wonderful. Thanks to the tourist population there was also an African arts gift shop, and I took advantage of that. In village I usually feel shy about buying souvenirs, but out of my element I felt free to do a little shopping. I bought some jewelry, and a medium sized carved elephant that I had seen before we climbed up to the falls for our swim. I was sad to leave Natitangou, and I hope I et to visit there again!

After the Falls Camille continued on, but I spent another night in Kandi so that I could buy materials for the latrine project. The funding has indeed arrived, and we are in the process of stocking up materials before construction begins. It was exciting to buy such large quantities of sheet metal, PVC piping, iron rebar, and gravel. I definitely have never carried so much money on me in Benin. Baron, my work counterpart, met me in Kandi and helped negotiate prices (read as: negotiated the prices). We got a free ride back to Founougo with our big dump truck full of gravel with other materials tied on top. All the stuff was then dumped at my house. I wanted to be able to keep an eye on it in the months to come. The PVC pipes and Sheet metal have required some re-arranging in my house. Fortunately the gravel and rebar are staying outside. It’s so exciting to have tangible construction materials in hand. It’s like a real project, haha.

Those are the updates for the moment. I’ve been traveling a lot, so I am hoping to spend some time at post for a while now. We will see how it all pans out.

As always, thanks for reading,

With love,

Lauren

Girls Camp!

Hello everyone,

Last week was a big week here in northern Benin. Eight other volunteers and I successfully ran a 5 day girls camp for secondary school students in the Alibori, our state. Our camp coordinator had o leave Benin two weeks before the camp for medical reasons, so we were all nervous about how things were going to go. I’m happy to say there were no train wrecks, no sessions that came grinding to a halt, no fights between volunteers or campers. We did have one camper who spiked a high fever on the second day of camp. We all agreed that the fact that she cried and asked not to be sent home was, if unfortunate, a sign that the girls were enjoying the camp!

I got to lead the craft session. Even though they weren’t the most important things the girls learned (I have to hand it to volunteers who led sessions on everything from study skills, to AIDS, to harassment) I think the craft sessions were some of the most well received. It’s always nice to get a break from listening and make something. We made friendship bracelets, origami, and recycled plastic bag purses. My second grade teacher, Mrs. Reagan, taught one of the origami hats we made to me. I took a moment to appreciate the strangeness that an American school teacher taught her second graders a Japanese craft and one of those students grew up to teach that to Beninese teenage girls. Funny world isn’t it?

All in all, the girls were very attentive and seemed very happy throughout the camp.

After the camp we got to do a test run for possible future Malaria bike tour. The idea is that we would bike to nearby towns and villages going house to house to point out mosquito breading sites, help put up existing mosquito nets, and generally gather information. Travel logistics and a midafternoon thunderstorm made for a little bit of a headache, but my group was able to visit 6 different concessions, or housing compounds. Personally, I found the work to be very practical and exciting. We got to set up one mosquito net for a woman who had one, and I really felt good about the idea that, without giving any gifts or money, we were helping encourage someone to protect themselves against malaria. It makes me look forward to the bike tour, whenever that comes to pass.

Those are the big updates for now. I hope you all have a good fourth. I am thinking especially of the Pittsburgh Mawes, and hoping you all have an excellent luau. You all are in my thoughts.

Thanks for reading, all.

With love,

Lauren

Baking in Benin

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Hello Everyone,

I hope you all are doing well as summer starts in America. The rainy season is starting here, bringing some cooler days. We are all pretty happy about that.

Last weekend I got to make a quick trip to the Peace Corps Workstation in Kandi to celebrate the end of service for our two second-year volunteers in our region, the Alibori. Nina, one of the two, held a party in her village and cooked up a huge amount of potato salad, Chinese noodles, and some pork, with the help of one of her work partners. I thought it was really touching, the way that people got so dressed up, as if it was a real Beninese party, like a wedding. It is always encouraging to see when a community gets to show thanks for a volunteer. The party was a lot of fun.

In the change over of odds-and-ends that happens when volunteers close service, I picked up, among other things, a one-a-day Origami calendar, which I have been using with the kids in my compound. So far we have made newspaper hats (thank you, Dedham Times) and flower like pendants (thanks for the colorful church pages, Aunt Gerry). Doing origami with kids makes me think of my second grade teacher, Mrs. Reagan. I still remember how to make the type of origami hat that she taught us how to make for Children’s Day. Lucky for me, the kids here seem to really like the origami too!

The yet greatest moment of culture sharing this week happened just yesterday. But it all started with a social blunder a few months back. Months ago, I mentioned on my blog that one of Founougo’s Delegates had suffered the tragedy of losing his adult son. Now I’m not very good on the phone in French, and I definitely wasn’t then. The Delegate called and said something like, “About the meeting for the day after tomorrow; my son has died.”

I said, “Oh, I am so sorry.      ….So. [just to be clear] We aren’t having the meeting?”

“My son is dead!”

Needless to say I felt awful. It was a moment of communication failure. So, I did what I think any culturally Irish Catholic girl (or Pennsylvanian for that matter) would do, and baked him some Peanut Butter Bread.

When I talked to the Delegate, he said he was sorry he was so curt on the phone. That was more than understandable, and I said I was sorry for the bad communication, and I gave him the peanut butter bread. He loved it! He shared some with a friend that was there, and with his wife. They later joked that he hid the rest of it so that he wouldn’t have to share. His wife (who I happen to go to church with) was really interested in learning to bake it, and said that other women at the church were too.

It was only this week that we got all of our ducks in a row, and Wednesday morning 10 church ladies and I met for a cake baking demonstration. We made peanut butter bread and mango bread on charcoal stoves. They both were big successes, disappearing in minutes. The women contributed key ingredients like eggs, flour and mangoes, while I brought the remaining ingredients and my cooking utensils (they provided the charcoal and stoves). I also wrote up a French copy of both of the recipes for each of them.

That baking demonstration was possibly the most fun thing I have done with Beninese people so far. I got to share something that I already enjoy doing, and teach them something new that they wanted to learn. It was so fun to sit with them and enjoy their banter. Looking around the circle of the ten women I realized that I knew at least a little bit about almost every one of them.

Of course, it wasn’t all picture perfect. Our second charcoal stove got too hot, and my cheaper, back-up metal pot actually cracked. I wasn’t very upset about the pot, but I was embarrassed. I did remind myself that it was an honest mistake. I don’t usually cook with charcoal, and I had seen that the stove was too hot, and tried to bring down the temperature. Apparently the adjustments were not enough and were too late. Still, the women seemed to understand all of this too, and they didn’t seem to hold it against me.

When all the crumbs had been eaten or tucked away for later, Mama Chanelle, Mama Dorcas and the others thanked me, calling me Mama too, and helped me wash down the cooking materials and pack up. It was hard for me to convey how much the pleasure really was mine. Who knows, maybe I will be eating peanut bread at one of their houses someday!

In work news, I am finally getting some good contacts that should be able to help me sustainably ship solar lights here. So that is moving forward.

Next week is Girls Camp in Kandi. Some 30 secondary school girls from around the Alibori region will be coming for 5 days of camp. I have volunteered to co-lead the craft sessions: friendship bracelets, recycled purses, and Papier Mache. In past weeks I have been nervous about the camp, but as I practice the crafts a little bit, I am getting more and more excited. It’s also good to have origami in my back pocket if all else fails! I look forward to letting you know how it goes.

I know that Father’s Day was last Sunday, and I would like to end this post by wishing a Happy Father’s Day to my Dad, my Granddad, and any and all other dads reading this blog. My thoughts are with my Dad, who has been an endless source of support, enthusiasm, encouragement, and copies of the Dedham Times, during these many months of my Peace Corps service. And my thoughts are with my Granddad who has been a generously enthusiastic follower of this blog, and another wonderful source of encouragement and support during my service. Your love and attentiveness has meant so much to me, and I am glad to get a moment to thank you for it. I love you guys!

The gratitude for support and interest goes out to all of you who are reading this post. I am so glad I get to share my experiences with you!

Thanks for reading,

With love,

Lauren

Sacred Monkey Forest

Hi guys,

I am writing to you from the Kandi Workstation, on the way back from an in-country excursion with my post mate Camille. Workstation wi-fi is not working, which is a drag, but it is probably curbing my facebook addiction, and helping me focus a little more. With any luck I will be able to use my internet key a little bit.

This week I replaced one of my Peace Corps issued gas tanks in Banikoara. Originally I let my little neighbor Gael (Guy-yel) do a lot of the planning, he seemed very sure of the options available, and he really wanted to go with me. I’ve always wanted to travel with my neighbors, so I was very open to this idea. However, when time came to get going, I slowly realized how faulty his plan was, and I had to go it alone. I did feel bad that we couldn’t go together. When the second gas tank is empty (which will probably be soon) I will make better plans that he can be a part of. I don’t usually buy ‘gifts’ for my neighbors when I travel (unless they take care of my cat Jack) but I felt bad for Gael, so I bought him his own small loaf of bread, a traditional Bariba travel gift. That did seem to brighten him up.

I had a meeting in Founougo about the Solar lights and all 30 were sold in the first week. Banni, the bike vendor, thinks this is just the tip of the iceberg and word isn’t even really out yet. It’s exciting that there is so much interest. Now we have to worry about the logistics of reliably getting lights here.  That should be interesting. Exciting challenges.

In the second half of the week Camille and I traveled to Bassila, a town directly west of Parakou in the center of Benin. I had won a Gender-and-Development Benefit Date with my friends Heidi and Bethany. We wound up needing a fourth person, and Camille happily umped in. It was very exciting to travel to another part of the country (if a little harrowing logisitically). Bassila seems like the jungle compared to the Sahelian north where Camille and I live. We got to visit with three other volunteers, Henry, Marjorie and Mary, and enjoy their company, hospitality and good food. In the morning they took us to the nearby sacred monkey forest. We got to walk pretty far into the jungle (lead by the local chief, dressed in basketball shorts and a sleeveless shirt). The monkeys were a little hard to spot at first, but so cool when we did see them. It was amazing to watch them jump from tree to tree – they are pretty big! There is something really exciting about seeing animals like that free in their natural habitat. The walk through the forest/jungle was beautiful too.

It was also great to travel with a fellow northerner like Camille. First, it’s fun to have a buddy to travel with, but we also had some similar priorities, namely food we don’t get at post! We ate really well on this trip, and really travel went very smoothly. The first leg of our return trip was an hour and a half long motorcycle ride cutting across the middle of Benin. There was a little bit of a cool breeze, I was listening to my ipod, and it was lovely to watch the scenery and the Collenes or low mountains roll by. All and all it’s been a very fun trip.

To follow up on the illness mentioned last month, I did start taking medicine and am feeling much better (quite a relief before traveling). The neighbors are all doing well, and they are actually taking care of my cat right now. Speaking of whom, my cat Jack is still growing and is doing great. He and the neighbor kids are getting along better and better.

I think those are all the updates for this week. Let’s go Bruins!!

Thanks for reading.

With love,

Lauren

Selling Solar Lights

**I wrote this June 3^rd, 2013**

Hello Everyone!

This week I got to really start working on a solar light project. Planning calls and meetings have been happening for months between my Dad and Unite to Light in America, and Baron-my-Counterpart, and a bike-selling businessman here in Founougo. This week we got to start selling the first 30 lights, and the results have been very exciting. People have been coming to my house and stopping me on the road asking if I was the one selling the lights, and where they could get them. It’s exciting that there is so much interest and that these first things seem to be settling into place. Banni, the bike seller has proven himself to be really willing to work and generally be open and available, which makes a big difference when I think about the future of this project. I am looking forward to telling all of you how well the lights sell, and what our next steps will be.

To assist the solar-light project, Baron and I went around to 26 households and surveyed them about their current lighting habits. On a personal level, it was heartening to see how much more confident and eloquent, and how much better of a team I felt that Baron and I are now, than when I did a mudstove survey back in October. I’m growing guys! Haha. The survey was also pretty helpful.

This week I also got to visit the home of my scholarship girl Adiza. I was relieved to get to find her house before the school year ends because she doesn’t have a cellphone and no one has a house phone, so getting in touch with her would be very tricky otherwise. I was able to give her a French teen wellness magazine, and she was excited about that.

In other news, I have been persevering some digestion related illness that has kind of put me in low gear. Nothing that forces me to spend the day in the house (or the latrine) but enough that my energy is a little low. There’s always something!

In other challenges to patience and fortitude, the kids who live close to me accidentally deleted all the photos I had on my camera. I knew it was an accident, and that they couldn’t have read the English on my camera, but I still was a little angry about it. The kids were very quiet and polite when they realized what had happened, and I was pretty quickly able to move past it. My Mom often quptes my paternal grandmother saying, “the only things in this house that aren’t replacable are the people.” Sharing my life and my stuff with new people has run the risk that something would get broken, and it was honestly good to remember that lesson and move on.

Well, I am excited to see what happens moving forward with these projects. In general it seems like things are clicking together more and more. I hope you are all doing well back in the States. I’m so proud of those Bruins. I’m glad to hear they are doing well. Maybe someday I will get to catch those Bruins/Penguins games, I’m sure they are something to see.

As always, thanks for reading.

With love,

Lauren