Playing the Africa card

I know, I know, I just got here, but since packages take a while to get here (can’t imagine why… Benin? That’s a country?) here’s some stuff that would guarantee lifetime indebtedness, a real live thank you letter from Africa, and most probably a smile on my face.  If you happen to want to send a package (but by all means letters would be received with just as much eagerness), you can use the Cotonou address I put on here.  There’s a shuttle that comes to Porto Novo from Cotonou every day to carry mail, sick people, etc back and forth.

Wish list/stuff I can’t get here:

-       Magazines

-       Snacks

-       Chocolate

-       Air conditioning

-       Stickers for my zemi/bike helmets (they are very undecorated)

-       Duct tape (for inevitable duct tape fixable breaks)

-       Stationary

-       Ben and Jerry’s (any flavor)

-       Spices, sauces, drink mix, brownie/cake mix, tuna packets (lighter than cans) (to use when I get to post)

Quick note on mail – current volunteers told us that bubble envelopes are better than boxes because they cost less and usually run into fewer problems.  Also, DON’T send anything FedEx rush shipped or something because that will make it way expensive on this end.  Even though you pay for something to be shipped out of the US, we have to pay to receive it here.  For declaring stuff on the customs form, don’t be too specific – just write something like candy and magazines.

Turning to more exciting stuff, I got my post assignment!! After September 15^th, I’ll be living in Tonri, population 3,200, located in the Atacora department and the Péhunco Commune in northwest Benin.  For post announcements, they bused us over to the school where the other volunteers have classes.  The trainers had drawn a huge map of Benin on the floor of a classroom in chalk with all of the post locations labeled, and after your name and post was read you walked in and found your village.  It was neat because we were able to see who was around us. From what I’ve heard, the northwest is a really pretty area.  I learned that I will be enjoying the beauty of the north from a cement house sans electricity and running water. I’m replacing another volunteer, but she was the first at this post.  I don’t have a post mate (volunteer in the same village), but I do have two ‘close mates’ who will each be about 10K away.  The previous volunteer’s primary project was working with a well established and organized women’s gardening group called Unité Communale des Maraichers that consists of 14 different groups of women from surrounding villages that farm communal land. 

I know my response was ‘something environment related but really I have no idea’ when asked what I would be doing here, and now I can explain why.  The way Peace Corps works, at least for EA volunteers, is that you usually don’t have a specific work assignment.  It’s more so your job to integrate into your community and figure out what they need and want the most, and then what needs you are able to tackle given your length of service and the community’s resources.  There are a lot of project opportunities with the women’s gardening group including: starting composting, starting a seed collection system to decrease seed buying, installing fencing for pest control, vegetable drying to deal with the issue of food stocking and conservation, and a literacy program because oh forgot to mention none of these women speaks French.  I’ve been basking in the relative comfort of being able to pretty much talk about whatever I want to in French, but now I need to learn…Bariba!  Supposedly we can start learning local language in our language classes soon.  My host maman already told me that whatever Bariba I learn in class I have to come home and teach her, since she speaks French and Fon, another local language.  There’s also a high school not far from Tonri, so there’s the opportunity for environmental education stuff.  I’m also interested in doing some mud stove building and Moringa planting (look this one up, it’s a drought resistant tree with ridiculous health and other benefits).

I find it really hard to stop once I start writing about stuff here, and even then I feel like there’s so much I’m leaving out.  I hope this at least has been giving you somewhat of an idea of Beninese/Peace Corps life.  We get a break this week – classes Monday and Tuesday and then Wednesday – Sunday is our tech visit, where we go to stay with a current volunteer (different from post visit where we stay in our own village) to see what life is like there and to get to relax a little.  If you ever want to send me a message but don’t want the world to see, my email address is: molly.rosett@gmail.com. 


Love and miss you all!