First few days

Tuesday 7/20/10

Today is day 5 counting Friday (we got in around 10:00 pm), but it seems like we’ve been here at least a few weeks.  I think in a new place it takes a few days for some (some) of the craziness to wear off and for you to begin to look around and realize where you are, who you’re around, and what you’re looking at.  It has been a JAM PACKED few days though.  Here’s the rundown:

Wednesday and Thursday –

Wednesday was pre-orientation in Philadelphia, which was a lot of information, skits, coping strategies, and “you’ll find out more about this in country”.   There are 60 of us and it’s a really fun, good group. We got some free time Thursday and got to see the Liberty Bell (from outside actually because the line was too long) and some of the city.  Thursday got yellow fever shots so they’d let us into Benin, and then hauled our stuff onto buses and drove to JFK.  In Paris we got shepherded (remember, 60 people) onto a bus to a different terminal, went through security, and got right on the plane to Cotonou.  We flew Air France so it wasn’t half bad, but two back-to-back 7 hour flights is not the most fun thing to do.  

Friday –

Time change, fast forward to Friday. We got into Cotonou around 10:00 pm.  I wish I could have taken pictures of the baggage claim mêlée.  We had a few people looking out for our bags (we had to tag them with yellow ribbon) and then they’d chuck them to the next person and on until they got to our corner of the room and then we’d yell out a name for whoever’s bag it was.  That taking place in a small, crowded, hot hot room, plus jet lag was chaotic but oddly sort of exciting.  We were met by Peace Corps staff and current volunteers (PCVs, we’re actually PCTs – Peace Corps Trainees - until swear-in) who gave us an awesome welcome, and then we loaded our stuff again into big vans and were driven to our ‘hotels’.   My guitar made it in one piece!  The place I’m staying is a priests’ college, we think, and the rooms kind of feel like dorm rooms in a Catholic girls’ college.  We have our own rooms and bathrooms with flush toilets, which is a lot nicer than I was expecting.

We had dinner at the other hotel where the other half of the group is staying, and were kindly given an appetizer of malaria meds as an appetizer.  We eat most of our meals at that hotel in a little room outside with two really long tables.  Standard breakfast: bread, jelly/butter/nutella, sometimes fruit, ovaltine/tea/instant coffee; lunch: carb like rice, couscous, pasta, meat (beef, chicken, fish), some kind of salad, bread; dinner: pretty much like lunch, plus more bread. 

Saturday and Sunday –

Full, full, full of information, meningitis shots, books, language interviews, and bike fittings.  I got a brand new Trek mountain bike (!!!) and they give everyone saddle bags, tools, a helmet, etc, and we got our zemi helmets.  Quick word on zemis.  Zemis are zemidjans which are motorcycles, or really more like mopeds.  Zemis = Cotonou.  They are everywhere.  Really.  There are cars, but there are soooo many zemis.  We had sessions on language and culture, safety and security, how to deal with Beninese men (as in what to say and what not to say, i.e., it’s a pretty good idea to lie and say you’re married when you’re asked), met a lot of the Peace Corps staff, and met the US ambassador. I tried and am now hooked on Fan Milk.  Fan Milk is a cheap Beninese equivalent of ice cream, vanilla or chocolate, sold in little plastic pouches you eat it out of for like 250 cfa (~520 cfa = $1).  The Fan Milk guys drive around little carts and honk so you can find them.

Monday and Tuesday –

Medical interviews, sector specific interviews (sector meaning environment, health, TEFL, or small enterprise development (SED)), zemi training, and group walking tours were split between yesterday and today. The tour was pretty cool – we walked around in groups of 10 or so with a PCV who’s been here for at least a year in a big marché area of Cotonou.  It made the area we’re staying in feel like the suburbs.  It was crazy – lots of zemis everywhere, lots of people selling anything (shoes, food, plates, cds), and lots of trash.  We walked down to the beach and saw the water but didn’t actually get too close.  You wouldn’t want to.  It could be this beautiful tropical beach complete with sand, but it’s a trash-infested playground for kids.  I saw a little girl dragging the head of a doll by its hair. None of it really hits home though because I’m still so overwhelmed by all there is to see and absorb.  

Today I had my medical interview and I’m now on a weekly instead of daily anti-malaria medicine.  Most people switched unless there was a reason not to.  Mefloquine is the one that gives you vivid dreams and sometimes even...hallucinations!  Tonight will be my first time taking it so I’m pretty curious.  We get typhoid shots tomorrow.  Also, zemi training.  Papa vélo (the guy who handles all the bike fittings and bike gear) hired a bunch of zemi drivers and we had a lesson on how to get on and off, how to negotiate the price (you barter for everything here), and what to say to the drivers.  Then they took us out on a couple of short trips so we could get a feel for it.  You hop on, hold onto the back, and that’s pretty much it.  Honestly the scariest part about the whole thing is the roads, but somehow the drivers manage to swerve around the sinkholes and random missing pavement and piles of sand.  I met my language teacher, Rigobert, and he actually helped found an environmental NGO (ONG in French).  I’m pumped that I can still speak in French – we talked about the government in Benin, cultural differences between here and France and the US, and why going to the doctor in the US is complicated.