Heading North

I have been in Benin for over a month now, during which time I have honed my bargaining skills, added a few words to my French vocabulary, and, most recently, learned how to make natural insecticide. The environmental sector has now launched itself almost fully into technical training and we spend our days wandering the Songhai gardens, meeting with local village garden groups, and finally, learning how to talk about these activities in French. And, lest you think that I am starving in Africa, we are also indulging in quite fine Beninese cuisine. Think of cheese (often fried), beans, vegetable sauces, hot peppers, a mysterious and always tasteless starch, and onions, and you have nearly all of the ingredients for a number of quite tasty Beninese dishes. Not to mention very cheap and very fresh fruit- Just today I was horrified when a pineapple vendor tried to squander me out of 50 francs - an entire 10 cents! – which is an amount large enough to put the peace corps volunteer out of house and home. 

The past week has been one big celebration: last Friday we learned where we will be posted for our service. We are still marking where everyone will be living on our maps, asking about what languages will need to be learned, and figuring out which volunteers will have running water and electricity, and therefore who will be hosting the rest of us for mini-vacations in the future :) . I have received one of the most northerly posts, way up in the boonies of Benin where the nomadic Fulani live and where the temperature can supposedly creep up to a scorching 120F in the summer months. This was, however, just what I wanted. The north may get a little warm, but it is also home of the coolest winter months, the calmest people in the country, and, most importantly, the longest mango season. I have heard only good things about the north, and I can hardly wait to visit my post in two weeks! Several of us got together on Saturday to bake one of the most delicious chocolate cakes I have ever had and celebrate this exciting news. 

And, of course, we were given a little bit of a vacation today to visit the cultural center of Ouidah, where a variety of religious, cultural, and historical factors coalesce into a thriving tourist center. There, we learned more about Ouidah’s history as a large slave-trading port and visited the cultural heritage site in the city: the gate of no return. Ouidah is also the home of a sacred forest (there are actually many of these in Benin, but this is the only one which the uninitiated are allowed to visit). Voodoo’s roots are embedded within Benin’s history and a large proportion of the population continues to practice voodoo to a certain extent. Volunteers in Benin need to be wary in certain parts of the country and parts of the year to ensure that they don’t accidentally stumble upon an Oro ceremony, the consequences of which could actually be deadly. 

Anyhow, all has been very well in the past few weeks as I have become very accustomed to Beninese life. Only a few more weeks until we all head out to post, and we already have elaborate plans to celebrate this event in style (read: amazingly absurd dresses and “boombas” for the guys). Expect pictures of our swearing-in ceremony to be gloriously ridiculous – all of the trainees in the environmental sector as well as our language facilitators will be wearing the same beautiful fabric. Undoubtedly a spectacular event. 

Hope all is well in the States and elsewhere!