Christmas time!

Hi Everyone!

December has been a crazy month hasn’t it? I hope you have had a very wonderful Holiday Season, and that you have a wonderful New Year. Things have been good here, and I am happy to say I am looking forward to some calmer weeks in January and February. Life has been busy, but it has been pretty great.

The week leading up to my birthday I had a little trouble getting traction to get work done, since I had just gotten back from In Service Training. By the end of the week I was getting to have some exciting meetings. On Saturday I got to go to a training Session on small animal raising, which Foussena (who wants to raise rabbits) also attended. I felt good about that, even though there was a lot of pretending to understand Bariba for me. Better that Foussena understood it than me!

For my birthday some of the other volunteers (Camille my post mate, Josh, and Suzanne) all came and visited Founougo. That was so exciting. For Josh and Suzanne, it was their first time seeing Founougo, so it was fun to hear their reactions. Founougo is a pretty big town. Camille and I are pretty decided that it’s great. We all ate some good local food, and chatted a lot , and thanks to charged laptops got to watch a little Star Wars. It was a pretty great day.

For Christmas I met a lot of the other volunteers down in the beach town of Grand Popo. I tried to make the whole trip I one day, and man was it a marathon. The trip was full of uncertainty and lots and lots of stops. At one point we blew a tire, and that was actually one of our shortest stops. They had that tire changed out in 10-15 minutes. I kid you not. I felt like that was telling. I really can’t cross the whole country in a day, and that is sad, but I guess that it’s good to learn.

Grand Popo was really nice. Because there were so many of us, I actually rented a camping tent with my friend Megan. I wound up paying $8 staying there for 3 days. We do need to remember I only get paid $6 a day, but that is still impressively cheap. We all swam a little bit, relaxed a lot, and enjoyed the visit.

Now I’m on my way back up North, passing through Parakou for the night. It’s good to get to literally recharge the batteries. There are probably more deep thoughts to share, but it is late here. We will hopefully have some weeks ahead at post for deep contemplation.

Love you guys. Blessings of the season!

With love,

Lauren

First In Service Training!

*I thought I posted this last thursday, the 13th. Sorry!*

Hello Everyone!

I am writing this post from a hotel in Parakou. I’m here for In Service Training. That means, incredibly enough, I have actually been a Peace Corps volunteer for three months. That seems almost unbelievable to me. Like so many things in life, I thought by the time I made it to in service training I would have everything in life figured out, but there is so much to learn!

That’s seems to be a good place to transition. In the last two-weeks-and-some-change since I wrote a post, I have done a lot of learning.

As I may have mentioned, I was very much looking forward to getting to use the Internet at the Kandi Workstation over Thanksgiving. However, the Internet actually wasn’t working in the workstation that weekend. So, while it was really nice to catch up with people and eat delicious food, I spent the whole three day visit /not/ getting things done on the Internet. When I got back to post, I was really discouraged about that. All in all, it’s been over a month since I have been able to check my email. I felt frustrated and discouraged, and just sort of out of steam. I felt out of control of being able to get in touch with people. Being so close to the holidays didn’t make it any easier to feel like I didn’t have the ability to communicate. My work kind of went into low power. While I still did all the work that had already been planned, like environmental club, but I wasn’t taking the initiative to get people together for extra meetings and things like that.

When I was thinking about explaining to Baron, my homologue, what had me in a funk, I realized how un-relatable my ‘first-world-third-world problem’ was. It’s weird to remember that there really are no computers in my town. The times when my neighbors have been on the computer are probably more noteworthy than the times when computers have been inaccessible. That made me realize, in ways that I haven’t really internalized before, how I really do come from one of the richest countries in the world.

When ever anyone comments on my nice sandals, or motorcycle helmet, or earrings, and jokingly ask if they can have it, I used to think, “well, if you really do like [this thing] you probably could save up for it”. While that is true, at the same time, any one of those things is also symbolic of everything in my life that really is so out of reach for my neighbors. The plane tickets and the technology and the communication and the conveniences of first world life; I have to wonder if when they see any one of my nice things, they partially see that whole life that I have access too.

So that whole revelation was sort of humbling, and it started getting me in a better place. I did also benefit from the generosity of Katrina, a neighboring volunteer who shared her Internet key with me one morning. I still wasn’t able to check my email, but it was good to get a small peak at the outside world. (That was also when I updated the blog the last time.)

From there, I got thinking about Christmas. First I was thinking a little about what would be challenging because I am away from home. Then I got thinking about the religious/spiritual aspects of Christmas, which I can still participate in, and in fact can bring new perspective to this year, based on my new context. I got thinking about a line from the first chapter of John, as it was translated in ‘The Message’. As it is explaining how God became man and came to Earth, it says that God ‘moved into the neighborhood’. I am getting to fulfill a dream in that, in my own smaller way, I am getting to follow in God’s footsteps and move into the neighborhood with the people I would like to help. That revelation kind of knocked me back. In a way, since then, I think I have had a better attitude than I have had the first three months. It’s still taken me some time to get momentum back with work, but it really made a faith aspect click for me.

As a side note, the song ‘Away in a Manger’ says “no crying he makes” but I have to think that Jesus was a fussy baby. I mean that is a pretty huge transition o make. There is a lot to fuss about! But maybe I just take a lower Christology than some people…

After all of that, the last couple days here in Parakou have been so wonderful. The food is wonderful, and other people are preparing it for us and cleaning up afterwards. There is running water and (when the power is not cut) the hotel even has air conditioning. It’s so good to get to hear how other people’s work is going, and just catch up and speak English. The break has been really wonderful. In my opinion, the Peace Corps has a good supportive structure to make these transitions through the different parts of service easier.

This weekend I was at a voluntary training session here in Parakou with Baron my homologue (or work partner). It was really great to travel together and share in the class sessions. I think we bonded over hanging out together outside of village, working together in the sessions, and even times sharing in some humor about how we felt about certain lessons. It’s great to get to bond a little bit. All things little by little!

In one final piece of news, I have purchased an Internet key. It’s like a flash drive that I can buy phone credit for, and when you plug it in to your computer, it will connect you to the Internet as cellphone reception permits. I am hopeful that if I pace my laptop battery out well, I may be able to update my blog weekly, and maybe even check my email. We will see!

That’s all for now. Love you guys and I think of you all the time. I hope you are enjoying the holiday season. It still feels like it’s still summer here, so that is a weird challenge. It doesn’t stop a person from dreaming of sugarplums and future snowstorms though. I hope you all enjoy a little the season!

With Love,

Lauren

Nov 17th

**I wrote this on November 17^th**

Hi everyone,

It looks like I am going to uploading a lot of posts at once. Sorry to dump so much info at one time! These stretches where I go three weeks without Internet get a little long, and let’s not even talk about the lack of movies! However, Katirna, the volunteer in Banikoara has very graciously opened her home to all of us electricity-lacking volunteers in the area. So I have been able to charge my laptop to do some work, write this entry, and with any luck maybe even watch some TV stored on the computer!

This past Sunday was ‘Sunday School-Sunday’ at Church. We had a Bible quiz for the Adult Sunday School Class. I was really excited to get to answer some of the questions. People were sort of surprised to hear me speak up. Don’t worry though, I didn’t blow every one else out of the water. Some of the vocabulary is still very new for me. It was still a lot of fun, and it was great to get to share in Bible-knowledge with my neighbors a little. I also am getting better and better at recognizing the regulars at church, and I’m even starting to catch some of their names.

That ‘community bonding moment’ seemed to add a ton of momentum to my week. While there was still some rest time, compared to weeks past I felt like I was in a whirlwind of meetings and interviews and lucky random encounters on the street. There is a real interest in latrine building in Founougo, so I have been trying to interview current latrine owners to find out what works here. It’s been interesting for a lot of reasons, but especially since (as I have come to realize) there are so few latrines here! They seem to only be in the concessions of the most well-off citizens. Even Delegate B, who is sort of like a Selectman, and Gnon Tori don’t have them! I want to do good research, and I know there will be many challenges, but recognizing a need like that makes me really excited to get some work done.

In other work related news, I had my first meeting with the high school environmental club this week. There is a teacher at the high school, named Messouna (May-SOO-nah) who has been very motivated to get started. So far we have been combining his enthusiasm and momentum to get things done, with my organization and technical resources. It’s working pretty well, but it’s a delicate balance, especially where we don’t know each other that well yet. There is the additional challenge that the students (who are still honing their French skills) have a pretty hard time understanding my accent. I was warned about this, but I was still surprised when I addressed the club, giving a pretty basic introduction of myself, and Messouna jumped in right after me to ‘translate’ what I said into something more clear! That’s a little hard on a person ego, but it does balance out a little bit with the celebrity status you get as a foreigner. Messouna was also very intentional about explaining to the club how I was still learning French, and how if they went to America they would probably be even more lost and confused. Thanks Messouna!

This week I also took the opportunity to show my homologue, Baron, a copy of the Dedham Times, that my Dad sent me. When I read the issue, I thought a lot about what I would do if I were a Peace Corps Volunteer working in Dedham (there are so many organizations to get to know!). I also thought about how proud I was of the various different initiatives to make Dedham better, and how proud I was to recognize many names in the paper. (I made a point to show Baron a picture of Colleen Downing, a friend of the family, playing high school field hockey). That pride lead me thinking back to Founougo, and imagining a day when all the citizens will be able to read, and when they might also have a ‘hazardous waste pick-up day’ and other positive community initiatives like that. Baron was very interested and entertained. I also showed him the Police Log, and he was appropriately awed by the fight against illegal drugs, and appropriately amused by the person who called the police about ‘multiple bee stings’ and ‘loud party at neighbors’. It was so fun to get to share that with him.

Well, we’ve got one week until Thanksgiving, and I hope you are all are looking forward to the holiday. I’m finding myself with a lot to be thankful for, and you, reading this blog, are high up on that list! One thing is for sure, distance makes you realize how awesome the people involved in your life are, and how important they all are to you. So, whether you read the blog studiously, or just flip through occasionally, thank you so much for being interested, and I would venture to say, thank you for being a part of my life. I am pretty sure I wouldn’t be the same without you.  

As always, thanks for reading, and I hope to be in touch soon.

With love,

Lauren

Nov 9

**I wrote this on November 9^th**

Hello Everyone!

Another week draws to a close, and even though I am pretty sure that I won’t be able to post this for a little while, I want to share with you this week’s adventures.

Probably the most noteworthy event of the week is one we all actually got to share: The presidential election. Some volunteers in the area planned to get together and spend the night in Banikoara, so that they could all hear the results together. I really wanted to join them, but I already spent my two ‘mental health days’ in Parakou for Halloween. Still I was able to hang out for a bit on Election Day itself, and it was nice to see everyone, catch up a little, and generally share in the anticipation.

For my part I made sure my shortwave radio had fresh batteries and set my alarm for 5 am (11 pm Eastern Standard Time). It turned out to be pretty ideal timing. When I found the BBC’s broadcast, the race was still neck and neck, but after about 20 minutes, one new station after another was declaring Obama the winner. As I got ready for the day, I listened to reactions, Romney’s concession speech, and Obama’s victory speech.

It was a little strange hearing American political news brought to me by the BBC, but I think it was a good strange. I was so grateful and excited to get to share that moment with everyone who was listening-in and watching back home, and to hear the news and speeches in real time. I won’t deny that I got a little misty eyed at a few moments, one of them being Obama’s last line, “we are and ever shall be the /United/ States of America.”

Regardless of how you feel about the results, I hope you also got a moment to feel like you were participating in American politics. That kind of thing tends to lead to a little introspection, and I couldn’t help thinking back to the election 4 years ago. That was the first election in which I could vote, and I remember watching the news come in from one of the lounges in the dorms at Gordon. That was an exciting time, and I don’t think I ever gave a thought to where I would be during the next election. I definitely didn’t guess Founougo! I have no idea where I will be for the next election, but I hope it’s a good surprise. I hope election time brought back some poignant memories for you too.

But ok, ok we aren’t really here to talk about my political inclinations, we are here to talk about Founougo!

This week I thought that my program director, Salomon was going to visit, and I had kind of planned my week around that. On Tuesday I learned that it was actually the assistant director, Gbaguidi, who will be visiting me on the 20^th! So that changed my priorities for the week, and I have been reeling a little bit to get organized. I am winding down observing classes, but not quite ready to start working with the kids yet. The lack of fence around the school garden is one big reason for that. When I thought that Salomon was going to be visiting I reviewed a lot of the notes I wrote just before coming to post, and it was actually very helpful to see what goals I have really achieved (gardening and composting at home, getting to know the schools, working on my map of the community) and what things I still want to focus on more (learning about latrines here in Founougo, learning more details about the status of the trash organization, and establishing strong relationships with community members).

For your amusement, I will share a journal entry which I recently re-discovered, but wrote the week before I moved to post:

“I am kind of dreading going to post. I am worried it’s going to be hot and I will have nothing to do, especially nothing productive, and I will be angry with myself for that, and lonely, and will have nothing to eat but carbs.

I feel like if I had an easier post I would feel differently and because of that I kind of complain proudly. If I felt confident that I could get good food, and if I had electricity and could easily communicate via the internet, I would feel differently. Those would be a safety net, which I do not feel like I have.

I must imagine it going great. I want to make friends with everyone.”

That last sentence is sort of an in-joke. When I was little I once said, very seriously, that I wanted to be friends with everyone. Now in general, I was pretty harsh in this journal entry because it was private, and it can be good to vent. I am sharing it now for a little bit of 20-20 hindsight.

In fact, when I first re-read this entry, I had to laugh to myself. The thing is, it IS hot here, and sometimes it is lonely, and sometimes I don’t feel like I have much to do (and I certainly eat more carbs than I did in the States), but the thing is, it is o. k. I am learning to make the challenges (like lack of electricity) work for me, and for every moment of anxious frustration there is ay least an equal and opposite (if not greater) moment of feeling lucky to make an unlikely friendship, or the satisfaction of communicating effectively in a different language and culture, or just the joy of appreciating a sunset or a night sky that is new and different and beautiful. I think the anticipation of challenges during training was much worse than working through challenges has been now that I am finally here, living my life. And yeah, I hope and expect that more work is going to build up gradually as I get to know people and needs better and better.

And on that note, a few anecdotes: Summer (the volunteer that I replaced) had the local nickname of Maimoona (may-MOO-nah). People very regularly call out her name when they see me. Some of them still think that I am her (though I think that is getting less and less). I think some people, especially little kids, don’t really know what else to say to reach out to me and say hi. It’s seems like a pretty good place to start, I guess.

Of course, where I am wanting to establish myself as a new and unique person here, and as I want people to understand that I am actually not fluent in Bariba, the “maimoona, miamoona!”’s can get a little wearing. However, in the last week I got two ‘miamoona’s that I was happy to accept.

There is a woman who sells beignets, or fried dough balls, close to market, and I always say hi to her. She was one of the first people to pick up my local nick-name (Bake – BAH-kay) and she always likes to chat with me a little. I recently resolved to learn her name, which is Subaila (zoo – BAY – lah, sorry I have no idea how it should be spelled). It took me a couple tries to remember it correctly. When I finally got it down, I made a point to call out to her, “Subaila, good morning!” and without looking up she said, “Oh! Maimoo-er, Bake, good morning” I just grinned, if I can be mistaken for a person who had two years to learn everyone’s name and the way to greet them, I will take that!

Another small legacy from Summer is biking. She famously once rode her bike from Founougo all the way to Kandi in a day, some 80km! I feel no need to make such a marathon, and in fact I have been kind of staying off the bike. I am pretty intimidated by the flooded road and the general craziness around the market. However, there is a long dirt road that leads away from market, and the other day I decided to get a little exercise (and bike practice!) and take that road a ways. As I was heading out the door I greeted my landlord, and with a smile of familiarity he also said, “Good afternoon Maimoona – Bake!” If I remind my landlord of Summer because I jump on the bike every now and then, I am ok with that!

Incidentally, right after saying good-bye to my landlord, one of the kids in my concession came in on his bike. When he heard that I was going to ‘bike for sport’ a little bit, he said, “We will go together!” I was more than happy to get in a little unexpected neighbor-bonding time. I hope we get to bike together again soon. He was also very helpful when the road was crowded with cows. He knew just the right clicking noise to tell the cows to move aside. Apparently I need to learn a little bit of cow! (And in case you are wondering, biking in the Sahel just at the beginning of dusk is beautiful. I will try to take some pictures.)

To close out anecdotes, some of you have asked about the egg ladies. Awkwardly enough, the price of eggs actually has gone up right now. I can’t stand to risk being tricked into paying too much a second time, so for the moment I have been skipping the eggs. There is always something to navigate culturally. That one is still to be continued.

As I was thinking ahead to this post, I really wanted to make a quick comment on my developing perspective on effective aid (also known as, advice for Christmas donations!). Here is what I am noticing: There is a place for direct relief aid, or the giving out of things that are very much needed. The aftermath of a hurricane is an unfortunately poignant example of a time when food and supply just need to be shuttled to people asap. However, Benin is not in that type of situation. There certainly are significant needs here, but the country is stable. It’s been my limited experience that people are only as foolish, and only as innovative, as people in the United States, they just don’t always have the opportunities (or safety nets) that we tend to enjoy in the United States.

(Just today I was doing a food security survey with my homologue, Baron. There was a section that listed different possible challenges for farmers, and one of them was ‘inability to get credit’ Baron was confused and asked me what that meant. In Founougo, there isn’t even a legitimate bank from which one could ask to get a loan.)

So, if hand-outs aren’t really the answer for capable, smart individuals who want to improve their station, what is helpful? First, I would say education. Any money that can be (reliably) put towards scholarships, or more teachers, or more resources in schools is absolutely money well spent. It is so exciting already, to see a generation coming up that is more fluent in the global language of French, and therefore is going to be more capable of networking, traveling, and gaining new information throughout their lives. Anything to aid and increase that seems positive to me.

After that I would say the more small scale and specific a project is, and the more grass-roots, local support and involvement it has, the better. Cultural translation can be very, very tricky and I am afraid that we in the West have lost a lot of time and money trying to impose our ideas, (because they worked for us), in situations that are just not the same. If we can support people who have good ideas for their own communities, I think that is going to go a long way for sustainable improvement.

If I can take that one step further I would say that also gives a lot of weight to supporting artisans and Fair Trade type organizations. Being a conscientious consumer can take some time and effort initially, but every thoughtful choice does make a small step towards a better world. How cool would it be to do an entire ‘Fair Trade’ Christmas, where you knew that for every gift you bought, the people who worked to make it received a fair pay, which they could use to support their family. Now, I know those sorts of changes happen gradually, and it would be tough to completely change one’s buying habits in one gift-giving season (for my own part I I don’t think I will be succeeding 100% this year). I also haven’t really done my homework on Fair Trade, and have been pretty carelessly throwing that name around. Not For Sale, Global Girlfriends, and Equal Exchange, are other organizations that I know try to get fair pay to craftspeople in developing countries. Like I said before, each and every thoughtful choice does make a small step towards a better world.

Ok, I hope this all has been entertaining and interesting. I am sure my perspectives on development are going to keep evolving as time goes on. I hope I get to keep sharing my ideas with you as I go.

Thank you so much for reading. Being able to share my experiences with you motivates me to stay focused and to see the humor in the tough times, so thanks for being on this journey with me!

With love,

Lauren

Nov 6

**I wrote this on Tuesday November 6**

Hello Everyone!

Can you believe Halloween is already behind us? Time certainly does keep moving right along. Still, I am missing you guys back east! I hope everything is going well. Life stays interesting here.

The weekend before Halloween I went to the Peace Corps Workstation in Parakou, one of the bigger cities in Benin. (On my way south to Parakou I spent two hours in the workstation in Kandi, and that was how I was able to update the blog the last time). I knew that I would need to travel to Parakou sometime this fall, since that is where the closest branch of my bank is, so I budgeted out money so I could be in Parakou the weekend of the Halloween party.

The Halloween Party was a lot of fun. I made a ballerina tutu by re-using small black trash bags that are everywhere here. People thought that was clever, and very ‘environmental action’! I also got to carve a watermelon-jack-o-lantern. Apparently papayas had been tried in the past, but watermelon really does make for a better pumpkin proxy. It was nice to catch up with so many people that I haven’t see since Swear-In, and it’s always nice to get to chat, dance, and eat some delicious food!

While I was in Parakou, I also got to do some shopping. Since it is a larger city, there is a greater selection of goods for sale. While I was in a grocery store, I actually met a Bible Translator, and she told me that there was a Christian Book Store, with copies of the Bible in various local languages, just a few blocks away! It’s hard to explain how excited I was to hear that. Bookstores are pretty rare in Benin. Previously, I had really only heard about them existing in Cotonou, the biggest city. Printed material in local languages like Bariba, is even more rare. The Peace Corps has been able to give most volunteers basic workbooks in local language, and when we show them to our neighbors they are usually amazed and demand where we got them.

            I put away the things I had been gathering at the grocery store and darted to the bookstore before it closed. I was lucky to be shopping with Bethany, another Peace Corps Volunteer and Bible-enthusiast. And yes, I was able to purchase a real, live, printed Bible in Bariba. The euphoria was significant. It’s been amusing to look through familiar passages with good agro-pastoral vocabulary “Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham..” and “And he called the light day, and the darkness night…” Getting that Bariba Bible was one of those moments where I felt so proud of Benin. I love it  when something is created that is both of reputable quality, and distinctly Beninese culture. Hooray for Benin.

After the excitement of Bible-buying and Halloween party-ing, life went into low gear for a few days /because/, when I returned home to Founougo, I pretty promptly got food poisoning. I hadn’t been very careful about making sure my water was clean and there you go. Fortunately, I did get to chat on the phone a bit with my friend and fellow volunteer, Amber, who was also enjoying a bout of food poisoning. With a little rest, and an aggressive cleaning of the filter, I recovered pretty quickly. I had told the two principals, or directors, of the primary schools that I was sick, and they actually came by my house to wish me well! That meant a lot to me. They are good guys. My homologue Baron also came by for a meeting, so we were able to at least plan forward a little bit, even while I mostly wanted to sleep most of the time.

In the second half of the week I was feeling much better, and was able to get some good work done. Baron and I planted some cuttings at the primary school, hoping to make a hedge fence. We also had the help of about 100 little kids, that got out of classes about half way through the endeavor. We had hoped they would be able to participate a little, and many hands make light work! We will see how the fence does, it certainly gets a lot of wear from animals that want to browse around for a snack. I am glad we tried moving forward with it, but I think that is all that I will be able to do with the school garden until December when we can better protect the plants from grazing animals.

In anecdotal news, I have come to realize that in the afternoon it usually hits 105 degrees Fahrenheit here. That was a little intimidating to realize, but mostly encouraging. I have been running around getting my work done in some noteworthy heat. It’s gonna get hotter in January through March, but I think this is a good start for toughing out some high temperatures!

Alright friends. I hope you are doing well. I think of you often, and I can’t wait to share this post and here how things are.

Oh! And happy Election Day! I hope you are out voting! J

With Love,

Lauren

The trouble with eggs

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you are doing well, and I hope you are enjoying the blog!

It’s been a pretty good week, but before I get into that I want to explain a little about traveling.

In our first three months at post, we are allowed to be away from our village at most two nights per month. This is to encourage us to get to know our community and the assets there. After the first three months we have three ‘mental health days’ a month instead of two, and we will also have access to our vacation time. For the time being I have budgeted out my time so that I would get to spend a night at the workstation every three weeks. Last weekend however, I got a little extra internet in because I went and visited the Kandi Workstation for the day and got back to Founougo before dark. All in all I spent 4 hours in the workstation and 5 hours traveling, so it’s not a trip I will be making every weekend, but it’s nice to know that it’s an option.

Now for some anecdotes. The day after I got back from my Kandi day trip, I had a tricky social experience. I came to find out that the price I had been paying for eggs was more than twice what the price should have been. Now prices are often flexible here, and I sort of new it was only a matter of time until I paid too much for something because I didn’t know what the price ought to be. However, I had started to develop a rapport with the women who sold the eggs. They would recognize me (which admittedly is not that difficult) and we would go through some friendly salutations in Bariba before they utterly ripped me off. At first I was just embarrassed, but the more I thought about it the more annoyed I became. I decided I would have to talk to them.

Even though it wasn’t market day, I went to the place where they usually sell the eggs and asked some men who were standing there were was the woman who sold these eggs. It was lucky that the men were there, and got a little bit involved, because they spoke French, where many women do not. Also, shame is very significant in this culture, and I was ok with letting a few people in the community know that I wasn’t going to stand for being treated that way. I explained to them that I am a newcomer here, and everything is new for me. (I knew that in this culture it is an important mark of politeness to welcome newcomers). I explained that I am a volunteer and am not receiving a full salary. I told them how I am here to help Founougo and these women had tricked me. They could see that I was upset, and were able to reflect back to me what I was saying and translate it into Bariba a little. The women for their part looked embarrassed.

When market day came around two days later, I didn’t need to buy eggs even if I had wanted to. However, I did make a point to say a very quick hello to the women selling the eggs, and they were looking out to see if I would greet them. I hope we can move forward with some positive respect for each other. I am optimistic that we can.

Tuesday was Suzanne’s birthday, (she is one of the five volunteers here in the Banikoara area). Because I was traveling for some meetings, I got to visit her town, Toura and along with Josh surprise her and wish her a happy birthday. It was really great to see another volunteer’s town, and get to catch up with Suzanne and Josh. They both seem to be doing really well. Suzanne is an English teacher like Camille, so classes are really starting to get rolling for her. Josh is an Environmental Action volunteer like me, and he said that there was a lot of interest in his work (and his knowledge of English!) at the high school in his town. It was great to hear about little things that are starting to get moving for each of them. Suzanne and Camille were in a Bariba class together during Training, so Suzanne speaks Bariba a lot with her neighbors in village. For me, it was really encouraging to see how much I could understand based on the studying I have been doing here in Founougo. Some days it seems really daunting, so it’s good to have those moments of recognizing that growth is happening.

For my part, I had a very edifying meeting with a supervisor this week, and he encouraged me during my service to look seriously at latrine construction. Financially significant projects can be a little tricky, but I am glad to hear where there is an interest, and a project like that that has tangible lasting benefits certainly has it’s appeal. I also got to visit classes at the local high school. It was really exciting to make the jump from the primary schools to the high school and see how much the French level improved. One of the teachers is even interested in starting an environmental club! So work is piecing together, little by little. This week felt busier than weeks past, and I am trying to push myself to maximize my time. It’s always a challenge in a culture that almost can’t focus on promptness.

Well, those are the thoughts for this week. It could be three weeks, (or thanksgiving), before I get to post again, though you never know. I will try to type up a weekly entry regardless and post when I get the opportunity.

Thanks so much for reading, I’m so glad to get to share these experiences with you!

With Love,

Lauren

School in Benin

Hello everyone!

I hope you are doing well. I am enjoying being able to be in touch, even if it is in little bits and pieces.

This week I got to start observing classes at the local primary schools. It has been a big learning experience. I am hoping to possibly guest lecture in some classes, and also continue the environmental club that has been running in years past. There are lots of other small opportunities for summer camps and scholarships and things. That will all come with time.

With all that in mind I really wanted to get an idea of the teaching style, and general school protocol here. Let me share with you some of what I have learned.

To begin with, classes are often between 80 and 100 students. Teachers seem to try to be engaging, getting examples from different student and doing exercises where everyone holds up there answer on their black board. However, students really have to sit in their seat for the whole day (in fact, it is common in between lessons for the teacher to have all the students stand up and sit down a couple times). I was surprised to see that the system really works as well as it does because all the students are pretty engaged and motivated. I haven’t seen one student sleeping in class or trying to get attention by being bad or acting out. I suppose it is only the first week, so I suppose there is time for more observation in that department. Still it does impress me how much students need to be personally responsible for following the lesson, because there is just no way that the teacher can personally interact with each of them meaningfully each class.

Uniforms are required for school. I find this a little funny since, here in Founougo, pretty much all clothes are either hand me downs from the west or custom made garments in bright traditional fabric. So when it comes time to buy uniforms, parents by meters of khaki fabric and have something stitched up that basically follows the criteria of the uniform. With older and younger siblings to consider, you have students coming to school in several shades of khaki, some too big some too small, some with pockets, some with buttons… It’s an interesting mix and match.

Classes also have a long break in the middle of the day, that give things more of a college feel. Class goes from 8 am to 12, and then 3 to 5. Especially for girls, there are a lot of shores that need to be done in the day, and I think having things broken up helps with that. Also the afternoons get pretty hot, so it’s nice to break things up.

I have to say, for me, really trying to follow the French for four hours of class straight has been surprisingly tiring. It’s great practice though.

That’s been the main action in this week. I also scrubbed out my filter. Let me tell you, it’s been doing some work. I also successfully made a quiche. I was very proud of how it came out, but also felt like maybe I need to get a new hobby. So I picked knitting back up. I haven’t been working at that since August, and it’s good to be back building something. The hat is coming together pretty nicely too!

Tonight I was listening to some of my rationed-out podcasts and I was listening to a sermon from my church back home. It was from psalm 94 (“better is one day in your courts…”) and was generally about the concept of home. I was a little nervous that it  would make me homesick. However, one of the first points was about how home is somewhere you feel like yourself, and also somewhere you grow. That made me think about how I am making a kind of home here, and that made me happy. But one of the last points was that with whatever else we strive for, as Christians, God is Home. That was really powerful to hear. It’s really what I want, and what I believe. I miss my family and my home in New England very much, but I know I am traveling with my most crucial home with me. My greatest hope is to be doing God’s work so it’s also a major source motivation of growth.

Ok, I try not to get preachy on the blog, but every now and then I want to make sure I share what motivates me, as well as what I’m doing. Thanks for sticking through it.

In more anecdotal news, the other day I came home and greeted my neighbors, only to be quickly told to be careful. I immediately looked down for animal droppings. It was probably silly to expect a warning for something like that. In fact, what they were trying to warn me about was a huge swarm of bees that was in front of my house! As one of my neighbors said, they were trying to saluer, or greet me! Fortunately, bees are one animal that the Beninese and Americans seem to have a pretty even fear of. They wouldn’t let me go near the house. As it happened, hey were getting ready for lunch and invited me to join them. I’ve been wanting to share a meal with my neighbors for a while, so I said a quick prayer that everything was prepared ‘kosher’ and dug in. It seemed like a real turn of good luck after all. I am hoping to bake something for them this coming week.

I think that’s all for now. Thanks for reading!
With love,

Lauren