Amoebas and Mangos

Last week I checked off another “rite-of-passage” from my list of inevitable unpleasantries in the life of a West African PCV (or perhaps a West African in general). Among them: transportation accidents, stepping in feces, getting splashed as a mama gracefully throws out her basin of dirty water, and as you may have guessed, parasites. Yes, I am now the official owner of three amoebas all in one gut! I admit I feel a little proud... And also frequently nauseous, fatigued, and lacking in appetite, which is why my doctor instructed me to poop in a cup in the first place – a glamorous life we lead here. No worries, it’s nothing that taking some strong meds and paying better attention to food and water can’t fix.

Despite the dip in health, it’s been a fun month for projects, as we are in the short window of mango season here. These juicy delicious fruits are cheap and plentiful from April to June, so I took full advantage to eat, bake, boil, and brew these babies. What made the menu this month? Mango bread, mango curry, mango jam, mango wine… keeping my eyes open for more recipes before the season’s up!

The new month brings more gardening and tree planting, so not much is new there. The year-in-country mark is fast approaching, and they say the second round flies by. Didn’t the first?

Mango Jammin'!

April Chaleur brings May Showers

The stress-to-success of last month’s girls’ camp was followed by several stints of comfort in the city. I celebrated my birthday with friends in Cotonou, attended a week-long In-Service-Training with the other PCVs in Porto Novo, and shortly thereafter got to return to Cotonou with two girls from my village for a “Take Our Daughters to Work” program. Now, it’s back to village life for the next two months, where I need to put in some valuable face-time, and get my next projects up and running!

Here’s what I’ll be up to, “work”-wise, the next couple months:

• At the farm: we’re breeding our bunnies, growing a tree nursery, building some compost piles, replanting our garden for the rainy season (finally!), and soon will be installing an irrigation system (take that, dry season 2014!)

• At the school: the girls’ club continues, the environmental club flounders, and apparently I’m in love with Peace Corps camps… July brings Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and Camp BRO (Boys Respecting Others), and August brings Environmental Camp. I’ll bring some students and help lead sessions during those three weeks.

• In the community: The farm and I are hosting a community tree planting event on June 1^st, World Tree Day! My homologue and I are also planning a series of information sessions for mothers about nutrition, malaria, and hygiene. Similarly, another work partner and I are starting an “Amour et Vie” (Love and Life) team, a program run by Population Services International, that trains community members and two high school-aged “peer educators” to conduct informational sessions for youth, predominately concerning family planning and sexual health.

As Peace Corps Benin prepares for the new batch of volunteers, I realize that I am now in the thick of my service. That’s an intimidating thought, as I sometimes feel so very lost and wonder “now what?”… . It’s undeniable that many people who join the Peace Corps hold a desire to change the world, or maybe even save it. However unrealistic I knew that was, I had to see for myself that real change will take time, much more than two years and one foreigner (in fact, forget the foreigners. I’ve developed opinions on development, folks!). Anyhow, tangible accomplishments in that direction are few and far between. So what’s next? I can also admit that joining the Peace Corps was, for me, a selfish venture for self-discovery and self-improvement, with hopes that the rest of the advantages will follow. I suppose it’s time to grow, to hold myself to the challenges of independence and initiative for which I came here. While I try to figure all that out, I’ll leave you with some humorous anecdotes of village life:

• I was working alone on the farm one morning, thinking far away while engrossed in building raised garden beds. One of the high school boys who works on the farm with me, Evariste, came home for his lunch break. He stood watching me for a while, and then asked: Mishu, who are you going to burry there? I looked up, confused, and then realized that in my intense effort to “raise” a garden bed, I had actually just dug myself into a sizeable hole... So we planted a tree there instead :)

• Another boy from the farm, Rodrigue, is struggling with his English class. After his last exam, he came home and wrote down for me all the words that he didn’t understand. It was a long list, meaning his exam was probably half blank when he turned it in, but he was surprisingly chipper. When I asked him why he was so pleased: Because I knew that even if I didn’t know the words there during the test, I had a big dictionary at home, and her name is Michelle! 

• Upon my entering a weekly women’s group meeting, all the mamans snickered and chattered in Wemε. One finally explained to me: Yovo, when you walk, your butt bounces! I laughed it off and blushed a bit, but I’m somewhat used to comments about (or even the feeling up of) my body by now, from older women. But they didn’t stop there: Yes! Look at that! Yovo, this is very good. A young woman’s butt must bounce when she walks. Right, left, right, left… They proceeded to stand, clapping and dancing, while chanting “à la gauche, à la droit, à la gauche, à la droit!” To the left, to the right, to the left, to the right! It didn’t stop until I obliged them in standing up and dancing with them, in celebration of my own bouncy booty.

So while bouts of homesickness and frustration do come, I'm still learning, having fun, and even getting some work done! It's been a fast but long ten months.