Post Visit

Back in the city again!

Two weeks ago I left Porto Novo with my homologue (my counterpart for the organization that requested a environmental PCV to work in Todé). Though I was nervous the morning that we left, my excitement started to build as I climbed on the zemi for the 45 minute ride out of the city and into the village, and everything became less crowded and greener. 

Before departing for site, Peace Corps warned us that conditions in village were not likely to be as luxurious as with our host families in Porto Novo. I was 100% ready to rough it by the time the zemi pulled up outside my host family’s compound in Azowilisse, the large village where I stayed. Azowilisse is the biggest village in the area and I will need to go there to get to a school or market, etc. It is about 3 km from Todé, the village where I will actually work on the farm, and 5 km from Houeda, the village where I will actually live.

As it turns out, my 2 weeks of “roughing it” became a 2 week vacation. My host mom, the sister of my supervisor, is a preschool teacher, but she also runs the closest thing I can imagine to a Beninese bed and breakfast… I was given my own room with a bathroom which included a flushing toilet and a SHOWER! And for the first 2 days of my stay, I shared the guest house with 2 French tourists who had come for a taste of village life. (Family and friends, take note: if you come visit me, I have connections for an excellent place to stay… you will be able to see where I live and work, what village life is like, and also have the luxury of electricity, running water, and a woman who knows how to prepare excellent meals / water for your sensitive American stomachs!). I think at first it actually bothered me a little bit that I wasn’t getting the nitty gritty village experience, but then I realized that I will have 2 years to experience that in my latrine-equipped home, sans running water or electricity. Let the vacation begin!

My mama and my three host brothers (ages 14, 19, and 22) were incredibly welcoming and interested in talking about our different cultures. Admittedly, the first couple days with the brother my age were a bit awkward. General cultural note: Beninese men are extremely forward and macho. It can get exhausting having to ward off romantic advances and flattery: “You are so beautiful; It pleases me when you wear your hair like that; I like the shape of your body; Ma blanche, vient” etc… Pretty much I ignore such comments or just say merci with a straight face and move on. If you giggle or smile, it is considered an invitation to continue. This is difficult for me, to avoid smiling and laughing, not because I’m flattered, but because I find it a little creepy and ridiculous, and that’s my “I feel awkward right now and don’t know what to do” default response. I’m becoming more used to it by now, so it doesn’t bother me much, and it also makes for good conversation about cultural differences. 

Over the course of the two weeks, my brothers paraded me around and helped me complete various tasks to get to know the village. I got to take a gorgeous canoe ride around the large river that goes through the valley that is my village, meet with several authorities and community members, and tour the farm at Todé and my compound at Houeda (I am renting a small house in a concession with 2 other families. I won’t actually live where I work, because the “Peace Corps appropriate housing” is one village over). The stay was very different from training so far, in that I got to make my own schedule and there was a lot of down time. But I really enjoyed the quiet village life and getting away from the city. I basically just did a whole lot of resting and eating and networking, especially with different women’s groups in the area. I walked around a lot to greet people and introduce myself as a volunteer, and like my host family, most people were just really excited to have me there. One group of women even sang for me at the end of our meeting, as an expression of their gratitude for my coming to Benin to learn and work with them! It was a very touching and incredible cultural experience.

After speaking only French during my stay (with the exception of a 20 minute phone chat with my mom!) and living with a family who had a real interest in me and my work, I think I learned more about the language and culture in the 2 weeks I spent with them, than in the past 5 that I’ve spent in training. Now, I am excited for how much more I will learn once I participate in the upcoming technical training and finally move to my site.

Post Announcement

Last Friday, I received my post announcement! After I swear in on September 14, I will spend the next 2 years in Todé, a small rural village (~500 people) in southeast Benin, about 30 km outside of Porto-Novo (the capital city where I am currently living with my host family and training). I will be the first PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) at my post, but I am near another larger village, Azowilisse, that has hosted PCVs before. My house will have a living room, bedroom, and private latrine; I won’t have running water or electricity.

My counterpart is an NGO for whom I will serve as an environmental action advisor. My duties may include organic gardening and farm management, mud stove construction, education, and fish production (according to my Program Manager, this latter project is the reason why I was assigned this post in particular).

Last week the stagiaires had language placement interviews and I was able to test out of French, so I am now starting with a local language. My community speaks French, Weme, Fon, and Gun… These three local languages are very similar, so I am told that if I can pick up one, I should be set on basic communication with the others.

Though I won’t be traveling very far from the parts of Benin I have already seen, I am happy with my assignment. I am in a rural area but also close to the city and Cotonou work station if I need to get away. There are other volunteers not far from my post (the closest is about ~30 minutes by zemi), and many of the people I plan to visit / travel with are spread out among other parts of the country.

My immersion process seems to be going well as I am now comfortable navigating the city (as well as I can with my directionally challenged nature), speaking with locals, bargaining for goods at the market, etc. But it seems to be the Peace Corps mentality that once one feels comfortable with something, the thing to do is push the envelope. So next weekend, I will leave Porto-Novo to live at my post for 2 weeks with my counterpart. Three cheers for challenging my comfort zone! I am nervous / anxious to see how different life will be at post, but my training and adjustment so far have also given me confidence that I will find a way to integrate there as well. After the visit, I will return to training for 4 more weeks until swear-in. I’ll be sure to update about my mini-experience at post in 3 weeks!

One Month

Ironic how I made several posts in the month leading up to the grand departure, yet one of the most blog-worthy months of the experience will be represented by only this post here. But remember (mom), no news is good news! I’d like to give some snippets from along the way, but I warn you this is a long one…

Getting here – I made it!

Departing Atlanta for Philly was one of the most rushed and stressful and absolutely worst mornings possible to start off the whole experience. Though we left in time, nothing went right. Somehow I made my flight by cutting lines (I have never been that person. Ugh), running through the terminal, and taking advantage of how girls can get away with things when they cry…

During staging in Philadelphia, I met the other 60-some volunteers and signed a whole ton of papers. My fellow stagiaires (the French word for “trainees”) are from all over the US and of many different backgrounds. One woman is embarking on her second round of Peace Corps service since she previously served in Jamaica, 20-odd years ago! Most volunteers are young / recent graduates like me, and there are 4 sectors of work in Benin: Environmental Action (chyeah!), Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Rural Community Health, and Community Economic Development.

The morning after Stage, we took a bus to NYC. We spent a lot of time in lines and in airports over the next two days, traveling from NY to Brussels, and finally to Cotonou. That was a good time to get to know each other and get used to feeling dirty.

Cotonou and Porto Novo

We arrived late and exhausted to St. Jean-Eudes, a school / hotel / church in Benin’s largest city, Cotonou. We ate a late dinner (with our first dose of anti-malarial prophylaxis for dessert!), and went to bed under our mosquito nets. Oddly enough, I spent my first night in Africa freezing…

The next two days were a series of meetings, presentations, and vaccinations at the Peace Corps office. On the third day, we strapped our luggage to the tops of vans and headed to Porto-Novo, the capital city, to meet our host families.

Before meeting our families, each stagiaire received a photo of them. Though I had already been through five days of minimal sleep, multiple time changes, relentless heat, pouring rain, a new diet, AND my first zemidjan*, the host family gathering was my first “oh shit, here we go” moment. I received a photo of a very scary looking couple, Claudia and Justin Lodakpa, and the same woman greeted me at the PC gathering and took me home to my new neighborhood for the next 10 weeks.

*The zemidjan (the word means “Get me there fast” in Fon, the local language) is the most common mode of transportation around Benin. In Cotonou, we learned how to wave down a zemi, bargain the price, and hop on! No worries, I’ve got a PC issued motorcycle helmet and a really good grip… I also have a bicycle that I prefer to take everywhere instead – free, eco-friendly, and I’m not putting my life in someone else’s hands. Check out this Beninese music video about Zemis. Classic.

My Host Family

I have a Mama, a Papa, and several siblings. While my host parents have 4 children of their own: Innocent (boy, age 11), Jean-Paul (boy, age 8), Houefa (girl, age 4), and Grâce (girl, age 1), there are also cousins who spend a lot of time here and extended family members who live in the compound as well. Greetings in Benin are incredibly important, so each morning when I wake up or each time I arrive home, I have to be sure to greet the family and ask how everyone is doing. The house is large and my family has electricity and running water. There is a bathroom inside with a seat-less toilet that sometimes flushes, and a bucket for me to bathe from.

While my host family is a good way to experience culture and lessen my burden since I have training and language classes all week, I already look forward to being on my own – it’s difficult to feel and behave like a guest for 10 weeks!

Learning the Language

I have language classes 4 days a week from 8 AM to 5PM. The first few days were exhausting but I was able to build the endurance to speak (or at least listen) to French all day. Now I have no problems jumping right into French. My Language and Cultural Facilitator is very encouraging and supportive, and I get along very well with my classmate.

The accents here are very strong which also took some getting used to. My family mostly speaks Fon together so at home, Inno is especially helpful to me since he speaks clearly and slowly in French – he tends to be my go to guy for questions or practice (also, he is learning English, so we trade!). My Papa is well educated and works in Cotonou where he speaks French all day, so he is always easy for me to understand, too.

During class, we spend part of the day in the community, just talking to people around town (carpenters, tailors, vendors, technicians… whoever we can find to chat, really) to practice French and learn a little bit about life in Benin.

When I’m not in language class, there are other scheduled seminars on health / safety / culture / bike maintenance etc. My favorites so far have been an African Dance lesson and a Fashion Show where I got to model some Beninese couture! I’m real big on participation here.

Sunday is my free day, which I usually spend speaking English with other PCTs at a buvette, jogging, and doing laundry in my bucket.

Other Observations

I am very happy here so far. I am in good health and I feel safe and comfortable with my surroundings. I am now used to seeing chickens and goats run around all over the city, and when I bike by children on the road, I am no longer shocked each time I hear the Yovo song: “Yovo, Yovo, Bonsoir! Ça va bien? Merci!” (Translation: White foreigner, white foreigner, hello! How’s it going? Thank you!). Overall, I am amazed at how quickly the body (and the mind) can adjust to a new diet, a new climate, a new environment, fewer luxuries, etc.

There are of course many times when I’ve felt powerless because of language and cultural barriers, but that knowledge comes little by little, and every day is full of triumphs and failures. One difficult aspect for me to adapt to in this city is the immense amount of pollution – smoggy, barely breathable air, and a complete lack of a trash removal system (though some people can pay to have theirs dumped in the ocean, if that counts). At the same time, I suppose that is motivation for me to stay, learn, and see what I can do to address those problems here and in general, which is part of why I am here in the first place! I still have a lot to learn and a long way to go, but I always seem to find the strength or support I need, so I’m excited for whatever comes next.

Thanks and congrats if you made it through this blog post J

Ready, set

So it turns out that everyone was right – the time between graduation and my departure tomorrow really did fly by. Now only if I could convince my mom those two-odd years will be nothing…

The past two months have been about preparing for the next two years.

I've made lists, purchases, and piles. I’ve packed, repacked, and gotten Rosetta Stoned out of my mind. I’ve achieved self-cleaning hair (Really people, don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it. Five months strong and my curls have never looked better). I ate meat! I’ve visited family and friends across the states for final goodbyes, and I’ve read countless books and blogs about Peace Corps / Benin. While I know there will be a lot to figure out once I get there, I can confidently say I’m ready to leave the U.S. of A. for a while. Adventure calls, so I suppose all I have left to do is go! I’ll do my best to keep you posted.

 

From "Ahhh!"                                           To "Voilà!"

“Désolée, je ne comprends pas…”

was the most common phrase spoken during my French phone interview last week. Translation: I’m sorry, I don’t understand… Often followed by “répétez, s’il vous plaît?” (Repeat, please?). While the woman from Benin was very kind and patient, the exhausting 15 minutes of confusion and embarrassment were only a preview to what I can expect during my first few months in French-speaking Africa. But the worst part was after the struggle of the interview was finished and I spent the rest of the day having what-I-should-have-said moments and ah ha! epiphanies as to what she was asking me. For example, when I thought she kept asking about “décor” (Is she asking how I will decorate my new hut? What the place I am now looks like? What tense was that? “Répétez, s’il vous plait…”), it took me about an hour post-interview to figure out she was saying “de corps” as in the corps as in Peace Corps, the thing I am going to be doing for the next two years… idiot.  Alas, I should probably forfeit the blog and go pratiquer mon français.

T Minus One Month

Yesterday I booked my flight for staging in Philadelphia. It's real!

I will leave Atlanta at 8:45 AM on Sunday, June 24 and arrive in Philly around 11 AM. A few other volunteers who get in around the same time plan to share a shuttle to the hotel where orientation will take place from noon to 7 PM. We will take a bus to JFK at 9:30 AM on Monday for a 6:15 PM flight to Brussels (7 hours and 40 minutes flight time). After a 6ish hour layover, we leave Brussels for Cotonou and will arrive 6 and a half hours later, at 7:35 PM on Tuesday, June 26 (2:35 PM EST... 5 hour time difference). Yikes.

NextPCVSE

A blurb about Michelle Chirby (a blurby!) was published on a blog about upcoming Peace Corps volunteers from Atlanta. See me here! Is this partially cheating because I was not initially recruited in the southeast? Oh well, still pretty cool!