Peace Corps Update #2

I am sitting in the volunteer lounge at the PC Bureau in Cotonou (the only room in the building with wi-fi), waiting for my interview with my APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director) to talk about where I might be posted. It sounds like there’s a possibility that I’ll be posted in the capital, working with the Beninese Justice Ministry through the Millennium Challenge – but that post is still up in the air. (MKG, more on this if it comes through.)

It has been an amazing few days here in Benin. The country is unbelievably poor, and yet amazingly resourceful. People here reuse EVERYTHING! Almost nothing goes to waste and what does mostly gets burned. Yes, the pollution can get very bad – especially in Cotonou – but that’s a survival trade-off they’ve had to make. Cotonou is ginormous! It is a city of 2 million sprawled out over 110 square miles. It takes 2 hours to drive from one side to the other. At least 75% of the vehicles here are motos of some kind, motorcycles, scooters, mopeds. We had our moto-taxi orientation yesterday. PC issues everyone a helmet, which is probably a really good idea considering the way most people drive here. Safety first! We’ve also had our bicycle fittings, but haven’t gotten the bikes themselves. Apparently the new bikes and the new moto helmets are on a ship somewhere between here and Dakar, Senegal. C’est la vie.

Speaking of which, we had our first French language classes the other day. I landed in the Novice-High class, which is about what I expected. It was nice that most of our first class was review for me. I had learned most of it already and it came back very easily. The volunteers here mostly speak Franglais (Francais + Anglais). This has introduced a number of new terms to my vocabulary which may creep into my emails. Such as:

Stage (pronounced stahj): Training
Stagiaire: Trainee
Bureau: literally, the office – used to refer to the PC office in Cotonou.
Marche: Market
Tissue: Fabric and/or the clothing made from the fabric. (Benin has AMAZING tissue!!!)
Moto: Two wheels and a motor.
Bouffe: to steal

And lots more that I can’t think of right now. It’s really fun.

As I mentioned to a few of you yesterday, this group of stagiaires that I’m in is amazing. I never would have thought that a group of 60 people could bond – as a group – the way that we have. No cliques, no assholes, no loners. The only group that is even identifiable as separate are the smokers, and that’s more out of courtesy than anything else. We all look out for each other, support each other, share whatever we have, and generally just work as one great big team. It’s really incredible. I will be genuinely sad when we all go off to our stage sites tomorrow. … segue…

Tomorrow, we all break up into our sector groups (Ed, Environment, TEFL, and Small Enterprise) and go to live with our Beninese host families for the next 8 weeks. I’m a little nervous about living with a host family, but I’m not sure why. Maybe because I’m older than the normal volunteer, I’m afraid they’ll be disappointed. I don’t know. I’m sure it will be fine. I’ll get to practice my French in a real world setting and actually get to unpack my bags for a little while (YEAH!). All of the SED volunteers will be in the town of Azove (A-zo-vay, emphasis on the first syllable). It’s supposed to have the best tissue marche in the entire south of Benin, so we’ll be stylin’ by the end of 8 weeks. The tradition here is that each sector picks out a tissue design and then they all have outfits made from the matching tissue to wear at the swearing-in ceremony at the end of stage. I’ll send many photos. No photos today, because the bandwidth at the bureau is limited. I should have fairly regular access to internet in Azove, so I’ll send photos from there.

So all is well and we are moving forward past the formalities and into our new world. Bon courage!