Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Work Trip to Porto Novo!


Hi Everyone!

I am very happy to tell you all that it has been a very productive trip, even with a lot of hours on the road.

The day that I arrived I got to have a quickly rescheduled meeting with my program manager. After scouting around for rabbit raising association in the first three months at post, only at this meeting did I find out that my program manager actually works with rabbit raising groups on the weekends! So that was exciting to find out. We also got to talk a lot about the latrine project and all that fun stuff.

After the meeting Zoe (the volunteer with whom I was staying) and I tried to watch the inauguration on her supervisor’s TV. Unfortunately after about 5 minutes the electricity went out. We went back to her house and, along with another volunteer Michelle, downloaded a text version of the speech and we read it to each other paragraph by paragraph. It was really fun to share that experience together and feel like we were participating in the inauguration. The picture of hope for a more just and equal future that the president painted was definitely rejuvenating for me.

The next day I met with Zoe’s supervisor to learn about his rabbit raising project. I didn’t really know what to expect and it turned out that he prepared a whole training session complete with outline! We spent the whole morning covering one topic and then another. The supervisor answered a lot of my questions, and was able to give Benin-specific examples of food and weather considerations. I am so grateful to have had the chance to meet with him!

In the evening I visited my host family for the first time since I moved to post, to celebrate Sena’s 10th birthday. It was such a trip being back there. Things that I hadn’t realized that I had started to forget came back to me, like the warm welcoming smell the house has, and the way that the kids all flit in and out of the rooms speaking a combination of quick French and Fon. I was really glad to see them all again, and I was really struck by how nice their life in Porto Novo is, compared to life up north. I tried to tell them how awesome it is that the kids speak French so well and read and write so well. The opportunities they are going to have in the future are exciting.

Now I am making my way back north, excited to tell my work partners about what I have learned and very anxious to see my cat, Jack! It’s been a good trip and I look forward to what it is going to bring for the future.

As always, thanks for reading.
With love,
Lauren

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