Hey Yovo, donne-moi a banana...

The EA volunteers went on a botanical gardens field trip so we could learn a little about park management...i guess. But guess what we saw....a roving band of monkeys. I think a group of monkeys is called a troop, and I don't know what kind of monkeys these were but I'll post pictures this weekend. One of the small ones was angry that we weren't giving him any food, so he ran round the tree limbs about us, shaking the branches. The bike ride plans are coming along. Getting final routes approved, med kits assembled, tee-shirts designed. I hope everything works out. I was put on the list to go to the Park Penjari for chirstmas with a bunch of TEFLers so that should be fun. It is soo weird over here for the holidays....even though people say FLA has no real seasons it does have the 'not soo hot time'. Not here. Can't wait to get out of the south and head back up north for that dry air. Go Gators...I have a steep bet riding on the game. And Kelli, tell me if you ever get the letter I sent in grandma's mailbox (it will be the one with Benin stamps)...i think i sent it over 3 weeks ago, so it should be getting close. Anyway, everyone stay tuned for monkey pix on my flickr site this weekend! I should be out of internet contact from the 23rd of December to the beginning of Feb...everyone will have to wait until then to find out how my bike tour fared and have to wait that long to find out how the Gators did!

So what is it, would you say, you do here...exactly

So I'm stuck in the south doing some trainings for another week and I'm trying to get to Park Penjari for x-mas, and the 2nd year volunteer who I am planning the bike ride in Jan has lost her phone in the capital of Niger. Suffice it to say, I'm a tad bit busy. PC has us schedualed from 7:30 to 5ish every day and I have to stay in Cotonou until the 23. Travel up north takes 13 hours...so that is another day...I have to do some planning with the other volunteer before i head for the park...it is going to be tight. but most of the bike tour is planned out but its all those details that could come up to bite us if rushed. Everything is going well here in Benin. A very merry holiday season at 86 degrees and humid in the south. hope everyone has a great holiday and the Gators gain another crystal football for the mantle-piece

Busy busy...

Right now I'm writing up a report on my current post. Unfortunately I've only been installed in my new post since nov. 16. Also, during the interval between then and now I have been very busy and in surrounding villages. I also have not met my new work partner as of yet, so the work partner conference Monday should be interesting. Other than the above mentioned issues everything is going along swimmingly. I sent Kelli's gifted class a note with an example of Beninese money as well as a sample of my English club's work from a 20 year old student (who is in our equivalent to sophomore year). I had to send it to my grandmothers house because that was the only Bradenton address I knew by heart and I figured Aunt Jill would be collecting the mail while grandma was away, that way Kellie can just bring it to her class. That of course is assuming the letter makes it to the States...I mailed it from Kandi. I also tried to knit something so I could teach women how to knit little change purses from old plastic bags...but failed completely. I'll try again after I get back to post. I put some new pictures up on flickr of my AIDS awareness formation at a high school and my recent bike ride through the north with Tom.

Greetings from the great brown north...

My new post is going well. I have been very busy. I just finished a 4 day bike tour along the Niger river and near park W scouting out villages and road conditions for a large enviroment-themed bike ride that I'm planning/coordinating. This going to be a pretty large project (10 volunteers, translators, places to stay and eat for all participants, and chase vehicles) so it will be nice to write it up on my first quarterly. On my ride I went with another volunteer from my stage named Tom. I am soo glad I did because the education system in the north is even simpler than that of the south so VERY few people speak french and Tom can at the very least say hi in Dendi and explain who we were and where we could find translators at the villages we came across. I also talked to some guards from the park W about working for the park taking a consensus of the animal population there. I have to go now, but I'll be online later.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm in Kandi right now for a Thanksgiving dinner with all the volunteers from this region. Post is well, but to tell the truth I have not spent that much time there. I participated in an AIDS formation and mural painting at a health volunteer's post for a few days. I also went to Niger (illegaly) to be on radio Fahel to talk about american culture and the thanksgiving holiday. The past two days I was at the northern most volunteers post, organizing an enviromental themed bike tour. Baisicly 10 volunteers will mount biokes at the end of Jan and travel around these back roads to teqch the villigers about desertification, reforestation, and the nutritional benefits of a tree called Moranga. Right now I'm organizing the logistics and such, so I've been pretty busy. Here in Kandi I just mailed a letter off to Ms. Kelli Gault's gifted class. Unfortunatly I had to send it to my grandmothers house, so when it comes she can give it to Kelli and Kelli and take it with her to school. I hope it makes it! I also ordered a bed, a table, and a bookcase type thing to put my cloths on...sounds familiar doesn't it? Oh well. So far everything is going well, I am going to start pushing on the organization that controls the park to see if I could possibly get some work near the animals. Speaking of animals I saw a school boy walking past the other day with a hedgehog in his hands (dead of course, they were going to eat it)...now I know when the pet store says African Hedgehog they mean it! My new house is nice, twice the size of my old house and it even has a proper latrine and screen on the windows! I hope everyone enjoys the holiday season...I'll be in the south for training for 2 weeks in december so I will be able to get on the internet more easily then. I'll update everyone then, and hopefully post some more pictures.

What a difference a day makes...

I left Cotonou by taxi this morning for Parakou. Tomorrow I will leave Parakou for my new post even FURTHER north, just south of Malanville. It was interesting to see the grasses turn brown as you exited the south, even the trees seemed weighted down by the sun. I am very excited to be moving from the south-south to the north-north (there are only 2 volunteers more northern than I will be). Being from FL and living in the south for my first few months in-country, this is my first experience with the northern Benin dry-heat as well as my first time seeing the collines (aka small granite mini-mountains rising from the grasslands). While I am not sure, I think my work with UNDP will be related with the W National Park. I am also not sure on my internet availablity for the next couple weeks, but I have to come back down south for some training meetings in the middle of december.

Relocation...

I went to my old post this morning to collect my things. As I got there and the crowd gathered I felt it was best to leave my newly acquired furniture there. I can order a new bed and table when I get to my new post and I thought it was better to spend as little time as possible exiting my old village. I move tomorrow morning to go to Parakou. Sunday I leave the Parakou workstation for my post. It is way up north between Kandi and Malanville. I think I'm going to have to get a new sim card (MTN does not work up there) as well so that means a new number. I'll post more as I know it. Which will prolly be at the Parakou workstation. I'm going from the jungle to the desert.

Only in Cotonou...

So I was going out of my mind with boredom here in Cotonou...even tho there is a TV room it only takes about 5 days to see all the movies you want to see and another 3 days to see all the movies you don't, and I wasted all those days on my earlier malaria experience. Luckily today some 2nd year PCV's came into the bureau and I benefited from their knowledge of the area. We went to a pizza place on the water...it was awesome. And on the walk home I visited Benin's modern art gallery in Cotonou....I have passed this building about 8 times since it is right next to the bank but i never knew what it was. The exhibits were interesting...somewhat like what you would find at Ringling School (some good/some not). I think I go tomorrow to get my stuff out of my old post but I still do not know when I will be moving to my new post.

So I have good news...

I have been re-assigned to a recently vacated post up north! I am not sure as of yet what my new focus will be since there are no fishery activities up north, but I'm sure I'll find something. The host organization I think I'll be working under is the UNDP. Actually having the backing of a real organization will also be a welcome relief from my current organization's structure of 'a guy and his house'. Whatever I end up doing up there, I'm looking forward to it. I'll post an update later on when I'll be placed.

Sitting on standby...

I was supposed to have a meeting today with top PB-Benin brass, but nothing materialized. I think the security head already had something planned for today out of the office and my APCD for EA had a family matter he had to take care of. The Bureau was very quiet today. It is not any skin off my back since whatever their decision may be, I'll probably have to hang out in the Bureau for another few days if not weeks while they arrange my relocation. Living in Cotonou is interesting. You are closer to all those comforts of home, but you have to pay. Living here is easily nearly twice the cost compared to living in village. Normally volunteers receive a per diem for being in Cotonou on business but I have not yet asked if my situation allows me the same courtesy. We'll see how the next few days goes and what type of schedule PC develops for my relocation before I start crying 'bankrupt' like Circuit City...luckily I had started saving at post for and eventual States-side visit for the next holiday season...now I can eat in Cotonou! No need for anyone to spend your hard-earned American dollars calling me (unless you really want to hear my voice) because I'll keep this blog updated on any comings or goings here. Thanks for every one's support.

Answers to Ms. Thompson's 5th grade class...

Since I'm here in Cotonou with wonderful access to power and Internet I can take this opportunity to respond to your questions...1: Francophone is an adjective used to describe someone or something are french-speaking. Benin's national language is French and for this reason the people here are francophone (Americans speak English so we are anglophone). The keyboards for computers over here are also francophone which means some letters are not in the same place as they are on our keyboards back home and you have to hold the shift key to type numbers. The french languages uses many more symbols than the English language so they had to fit more things on the same number of keys. 2: My village has a population of about 800 people. It is a small village, not even on the map! Many people (I would say almost 80%) do not even speak french but speak a local language instead (Gun, Tori, Nado). Most of the people in my village grow crops, such as beans or corn, for food and to sell at market. A typical family here has about 6 kids! 3: No, I have not yet gotten a CIA shirt. 4: People keep dogs for security but they are not like your pet dog at home. They are not well fed or taken care of, but they are surprisingly obedient. Along with dogs people own and raise many chickens and goats for food here. Every once in a while you see a cow. All these animals live around their human owners...sometimes even sleeping in people's houses for safety! I have a picture of one of the dogs at my post and I will put it on my flickr site or post it here for you. 5: I was researching topics on Select Palm...it is a type of oil palm that has a smaller inner kernel inside it's fruit. They harvest the fruit bunches here to make palm oil, and they use the oil for cooking. 6: I have a cell phone but my reception (called rizzo here) is not very good. 7: In the market you can find rice, corn, flour, potatoes, yams (not the orange/yellow yams you are used to but white yams), large potato-like tubers called manioc, spaghetti products like macaroni, eggs, tapioca, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onion, various canned items such as instant coffee/hot coco/sweetened condensed milk. Typically I buy some rice and beans with pepper/tomato sauce for breakfast. I have a spaghetti and two egg mixture for lunch (they fry it all up in a pan with peanut oil). And for dinner I eat a 2 egg 'omelet' which is really just 2 eggs fried in more peanut oil and served with on a french bread. The market cafeteria that I go to to eat cooks with a gas burner but most villagers cook using charcoal or wood fires. 8: The term for my house is concession. That can be roughly translated to apartment. I live there with about 7 other families and I have 3 rooms. It is a mud building that has been plastered with cement to fulfill Peace Corps regulations. I have an outdoor latrine/shower area. I will post pictures of this on my flickr site as well. 9: I eat 3 meals a day. 10: Malaria is very common in my area and throughout the developing world. The flu is common here and so is meningitis, tuberculosis, and typhoid. People can become infected by amoebas or worms because they don't wash their hands before eating and no one uses soap. 11: There are international agencies that come to the schools to vaccinate against polio and to do AIDS testing but that is about it. 12: Yes, I did recover from my encounter with unconfirmed malaria. After taking the anti malarial medicines my fever disappeared completely! 13/14: Sunday is church day in Benin. So is Wednesday. This was a French colony in the past so there are a lot of churches in the country despite the fact that the people follow their traditional beliefs as well. This country is known as the birthplace of voodoo. 15: The differences are amazing. Other than cellphones (which everyone seems to have and everyone wants the white guy's number) everything is very different here. The school system is different, transportation is different (mostly by motorcycle or by shoving 7 people in a compact car with no working dials), the way businesses operate is different (service at food places is horrible at best and very, very slow), the family structures are different, the workday is different (they take a 3 hour break in the middle of the day for lunch, it is called repo). But a couple things you do recognize that we all have in common...babies cry for their mothers when they are scared (sometimes they are afraid of me because they have never seen a white person before) and the kids laugh and play and fight with siblings just like we do in the States. 16: I have learned to play a local version of checkers which allows the king to move much like a bishop in chess, a game a lot like Sorry, and a game resembling Mancala. All these games resemble the American versions but changes to the rules and/or playing board differ slightly from our versions. All right guys...it is midnight for me here but only 6PM for you in FL...there is no daylight savings time here because I am soo close to the equator...so I am going to bed. I will probably be here in Cotonou for a couple days so feel free to message me and I will try to send your class something in the mail from Benin!

Houston, we have a problem...

I am in Cotonou right now trying to convince my Country Director to relocate me to another site. Earlier this week I called the office with serious security concerns and after a visit from my APCD and PC security chief I thought I was on my way out of there. That was until yesterday when my APCD called to tell me that the senior staff had held a meeting and decided my problem was a cultural misunderstanding and not a security threat. I obviously did not articulate my site problems accurately and decided I had better come to Cotonou and have a face-to-face with the woman in charge myself. Right now I am waiting for her final decision. It is obvious she is reluctant to reassign me if I'm just going to quit the next time something bad happens...but I'm not. My present site is just TOO DANGEROUS. I think our meeting went well and I'll post an update when I know more. Also, I posted more pictures on my flickr page and I plan on trying to send Kelli's class an example of student's work. I don't know how everyone back home is handling it but all the Africans here think it is great an African was elected president of America...they don't understand that everyone born in America are Americans....and I think they are going to be very disappointed when Obama does not give them all free plane tickets to America (sounds like a joke, but I am serious)

Back in Porto-Novo again...

I am back in Porto Novo to do some research on Talapia production as well as find some information on how to produce a specific type of plam tree so I can start up a tree farm here. My schedule is really filling up and in the 1st three months PC says you are not supposed to be doing anything. I am certainly keeping far busier than the other vols I have talked to. I am also avoiding certain punctuation marks because I am tying on an americain keyboard with a francophone computer...it is not so much fun. School has STILL not started yet! They were supposed to start the 6th but education here is not that high of a priority. I have a meeting with the director of one of the schools next monday so I can begin a envirometal club there. I am also planning a cross-sector formation with Andrew from small-enterprise-development. Basicly I want him to help me teach the local fishery villagers that bookkeeping and knowing EXACTLY your costs and revenues, in addition to your fish inputs and outputs are important! But that is next week. Thank you to grandma for sending soup mixes. They provide a welcome relief from the fried eggs/bread/instant hot coco combination that I eat every day. In Benin food prices are lower in the north because the people are mostly subsistance farmers...unfortunatly there is not a lot of diversity in the diet up there. Down in the south, prices are higher because there is at least a small amount of economy down here...but you get a good variety of goods. MY village has the worse of both worlds: higher southern prices coupled with a bare minimum of product diversity! Also, a happy early birthday to Grandma since I will be in-village for the actual day. I have to get to work now researching my stuff. Will be back online the first week in Nov. and I should be loading more pics at that time.

Hard at work 2...

Even thought it looks like a huge undertaking to begin a aquaculture program here in Benin (I'm looking to get a center running to produce Talapia fry as well as run experiments to determine optimum harvetsing cycles as well as fertilization and feeding rates and frequencies) I'm very excited and motivated to start. In the past, aquaculture in Benin has been seen as a hobby for rich people, since in order to have a functional fish farm you needed equipt., ponds or pools, in addition to stocked fingerlings (baby fish). PC, FAO (the agricultural development arm of the UN), USAID, UNICEF, and numberous other organizations have been trying for decades to build sustainable small-time fishery programs in Africa with variing degrees of success...most tries are a distinct shade of failure. Reading about past fishery development and extension programs developed by PC confuses me on my role here. Past fishery vols, in addition to being far more numberous than 1, had access to motos or trucks for travel between sites and transportnig fish, scales, tools, nets, scientific instrements to measure things like water Oxygen levels, fertilizer levels, and soil/water acidity levels. In addition, fishery vols recieved training state-side on fishery science before they even arrived in country. I have a bike and a Mech Eng. degree. Despite the problems I have really studied all I can and now I'm at least semi-competent in warm-water fish culture. At least competent enough to recognize that my work partner has a faulty and inefficient harvest sched. for his Talapia pools. While I know progress will be mild at best, I am very excited to start my real work here. In addition to all of this, I have already visited 2 schools in my area and I plan to hold english/enviromental group meetings there with interested students!

Hard at work...

Im in Porto-Novo for the day attending a PCV meeting with all the Vols from the south-east region. I have spent the last 2 weeks really searching around my village to find groups of people to hold composting formations with. Also, a main focus of mine has been trying to gain enough technical and generql knowledge about small scale fish farming in tropical Africa. I've been reading a lot of books and I've discovered this is going to take a much larger commitment from PC as well as the government of Benin. To develope a fish culture in a country PC has tradtionally placed anywhere from 7-17 fishery Vols in-country. These PCVS revieved fishery science qnd pond constructon training before they even reached thier country of service! Well, Im the lone fishery vol here in Benin and I think I'm the 1st one to arrive in-country for a long time. I have to speak to my APCD to determine if my posting is a viability assessment as compared to a jump-start for a future fisheries program. The small rainy season stops in a couple weeks. Its is starting to rain now so I will post this in case I lose power here at the cybercafe!

Pix...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28258658@N05/
i think this will get you to my pictures but Im on flickr.com as peacecorpschadsey. there is a limit to how much i can load per month so i will add more next month.

Update...

Im in Cotonou again to hit up the internet and charge my electronics. On my way here I had my 1st real monkey sighting (for some reason I really wanted to see a monkey in Africa). I had already seen someones pet monkey in Porto-Novo but today, beside the highway in a tree, was a large black and white monkey!! So, post is going well. I have already started holding composting sessions. I hope the people I reach with these classes continue because in my second year I hope to start a tree nursery for mangoes. There is very little privacy because I live in a concession with about 7 other families right smack dab in the middle of a cluster of buildings in my village. Its not too bad, although from time to time you would like a break from the 20 African children running around. Right now the small rainy season is about to end and in southern Benin the long dry season will start. The weather actually gets hotter in November-January because the rains stop! At the beginning of the small rainy season (aug/sept) the people in my village plant manioc and corn. When dry season starts up they will start their gardens. They garden in the dry season because the rain here can be pretty harsh. School starts today for Beninese children, so Im sure they are all excited. Right now I am busy posting pix on flickr.com. I will post the link to those pics here when Im done. I'd like to ask everyone to send me pictures the next time they send me packages/letters. I mean pix of ANYTHING...houses, cars, aircraft carriers, supermarkets, factories/offices, just about everything in everyday life. Things are soo different here and when I explain things to the people here about America I think sometimes they can't quite grasp the concepts...but if I had a picture everything would be easier!! Thanks. And thanks to my mother I was able to order some furniture...by weds. I hope to no longer be cooking/sleeping/stacking my cloths on the floor...so thats exciting! I'll be in Cotonou for another 6 hours (its 5 am EST right now) and I'll check up on my blog before I leave so maybe you guys back home can catch me on your way to school/work. Miss everyone, and can you believe the Gators lost to Ole Miss?!? Incredible!

Some answers to questions...

Kelli's class has sent me some questions about the schools here in Benin. The education system is based on the French system. It is divided into Primary school (6 years) , Secondary school (4 years) , and 2nd cycle (which is like high school, 3 years). Primary school was recently made free to all children so most kids start going to school at 5 y.o., just like when the kids in the US go to kindergarten. Unfortunately, secondary school costs money and many students do not make it into secondary school and far fewer graduate from it. Very few girls go to secondary school. This is a problem in a lot of third world nations because families usually have a lot of kids and they cannot afford to continue to send their children to school to attain a higher education. The children (girls in particular) are used to do work in family fields or around the house.
One thing that is nice(I would find if I was still a student) is the grade scale:
The Grading scale: From 0 ( zero) to 20 with 20 being the highest grade.
Passing Grade: 10
Fairly Good Grade: 12
Good Grade: 14- 15
Very Good Grade:16- 17
Excellent:18 to 20
A 60 percent equals a fairly good grade!! I wish the folks at UF followed the french system more closely.
Another difference between our schools and Beninese schools are the class sizes and the age range of children found in these classes. 60+ students in a classroom is not uncommon. Ages of students in secondary school typically range from 11 to 22 y.o. Critical thinking and other skills are ignored as the student learn by copying everything their professor puts on the black board verbatim. In fact, the students are soo meticulous, that if you start writing things all over the blackboard or erasing sections and re-writing them or drawing connections between 2 earlier items on the board ...instead of writing in ordered rows, like writing on a computer or a typewriter... the students get very confused and upset that they cannot copy what the teacher is doing EXACTLY.

At home the girls participate or take the lead in most of the household chores. Boys mostly play with siblings/friends or do school work. For fun boardgames are popular and soccer is of course their favorite sport here. I don't believe I've met a Beninese who knows what American football is, yet. And as for music...Akon and rap is very popular here (especially Nigerian rap). So is Celine Dion and Peter Gabriel and other late 80's / early 90's music personalities.

That's all I have for now, but keep those questions coming!

Continue to improve...

I just finished my medications and tomorrow I will have a bunch of blood work done to make sure everything went well. I felt better in the past 2 days than the entire past 2 weeks. I felt bad that I left my computer at post when I can here and lost a great opportunity to upload bunches of pix. But I saw my buddy Jesse, the volunteer who I went for tech visit near Come, and he had a couple from that visit. The following pix were taken on Lake Aheme on Aug. 1st, the Beninese day of Independence.

This is me and a fellow EA member of my PST (pre-service training) named Tim. Tim is getting his masters in agro-forestry or something like that as he works in PC. I think he lived in Tanzania or someplace like that growing up and he got his undergrad at some Ivy school. Tim, Tom (the blond in the back), and I all went to Jesse's post for a couple days for tech visit (in an earlier blog posting)

Here is our host Jesse with his friend and french tutor who took us out on the lake. And below is a picture of Tom doing what Tom does best...chat with locals.

The next time I end up in Cotonou for an extended period of time I'll be able to upload all MY pix, maybe around mid-December at IST (In-Service Training). And finally, I found this in Jesse's pictures, so at least I know they do exist...

I heart cbssports.com...

Because CBS just made another pact with the SEC they web cast live certain SEC games on Saturdays. Guess what Im watching right now?!? (in 10 second increments of play and then 8 sec for buffering) So its not great but at least it is some FOOTBALL!! And UF is walloping the Vols, so I've got that going for me. I continue to feel good, so the medications I'm taking seem to be working. For all the cookies and candy I eat from home I lost over 20 lbs living just 2 months in Benin...no joke. And that was the 2 months I lived with my host family with a host mother who fed me well, now I have to cook for myself (that was not going well before I had to leave post). But i really appreciate all the goodie bags...even when you find some tasty treats from home here in stores (ie. a Snickers bar) and you eat it, it does not taste the same, for reasons I addressed in earlier posts. I did sweep my rooms at post a couple times for scorpions before I left, and while I did not find one I did find many VERY large spiders...they look like wolf spiders 3.5 inches wide. We had a few sessions about scorpion stings in our medical training and I hear they are more prevalent up north, so that is good.

Will someone explain to me why Tebow is RUNNING the ball with under 5 min left in a 30-6 rout??? We have running backs!!!

My surroundings...

The med unit is nice. There are three bedrooms with multiple beds (with spring mattresses!!) in each room. Each med room has it's own bathroom and A/C unit. Volunteers come and stay in the med unit for COS (close of service) exams, Mid-service exams, and general sickness (like me). There is a movie room with a large number of bad movies and, of course I have access to the bureau Internet room and library. Eating in Cotonou is expensive (and by expensive I mean 6-10 dollars a meal compared to .50-2 dollars in village) but volunteers get increased per diem (money allowance) for staying here. In Benin the currency is CFA, or West African Francs. It comes in coins of 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 250, and 500 franc denominations and 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10000 CFA billls. It is different from Americain money (and other moneys of the western world) because American dollars have US symbols and pictures on them since they are minted and controlled by the US government. The CFA is used by many West African governments, so there is no symbols or pictures on the currency linking it to Benin, specifically. All the sodas here are made with REAL sugar...no high fructose corn syrup or anything, so cokes and sprites and especially Mt. Dews taste different. As far as NEEDING anything, I don't. This will be the second day of anti-malarial treatment and I had no fever yesterday so I am very optimistic. I am 90% certain I will be out of here on Monday. I went to a western-type super market (we call them yovo-stores) and bought some cereal and milk to eat with my medications (it says milk increases absorption) but the milk here is very interesting. Since they have little/no refrigeration and this milk comes from France or the Mid-East it is some special 'long-lasting' milk. It actually has a 1-year expiration date (if you don't open it) and you can ship it unrefrigerated. As you can imagine it does not taste quite like real milk but it was good enough for my coco chrispies (these were imported from the UK and they also did not taste quite right. Foods for foreign markets, even produced by familiar companies are formulated for that foreign market and their tastes). I'm here till Monday so if Kellie or any of her classmates have any questions just email or leave a comment, thanks!

'Duck and Cover...All Clear'

That is what I awoke to this morning as the PC office ran some safety drills. These drills are pretty normal in US gov posts in foreign nations after sticky events (ie. Yemen) occur.
Before I go on, I have good news and bad news. The good news is I'm still in Cotonou and will remain here for the next couple days. The bad news is that after taking medications for amoebas I still suffered from a slight fever and my liver enzyme lvls were raised, prompting the doctors here to place me on anti-malarial treatment. Just a clarification: This is a precautionary treatment...I have NOT tested positive for malaria in ANY of the many blood tests they have already done on me (and there will be more in the coming days). But a continued, cyclic fever with no other symptoms is suspicious and now that my body should be free of amoebas the doctors felt it best that I should just cleanse my body of any malarial parasites, just to be safe.
Since this is my first time out of country and my body is not used to all the various native microbes in addition to all the things (viral) common here but uncommon in the states so I figure I'm getting off easy right now.
The plan now is: Monday will be a re-evaluation day. If after this newest round of medications I am not right-as-rain (2 consecutive days w/out fever) then they will send my blood out to the CDC in Washington to test for things they cann't here, and they will contact the regional PC doctor (Dr. Savage, nice guy), and if he approves it I would be heading to Dakar for specialist treatment. While I would love to have another stamp on my government passport, I would much rather be rid of this strange malady and have the opportunity to go back to my post!
Since I really did not spend much time at post I haven't been able to convey in my blog much about the people or happenings there...but at least everyone is getting an inside look at PC medical doctrine:)

This has been an excercise in 'Hurry-up...and wait'

Im STILL in the Cotonou PC bureau because the doctors wanted to see how I responded to the groups of pills I've been taking. I believe that TOMORROW I WILL be leaving for my post. This gives me an excellent opportunity to explain a little about the Beninese sense of time and schedule which has invaded the PC hive mind here (it is only natural since peace corps has been here for 40 years now and many of its employees are host country nationals). Let me preface this analysis by saying that this is not a negative critique...if the doctor wants me to stay another day to make sure my health is on the right track then he/she is the boss and I am behind him/her 100%. Unfortunately when I left post to come to Cotonou I had no idea what to expect as far as a time frame for my eventual return was concerned. I thought I was going to get some blood work done and put on beefy anti-malarials and sent back to post, either that very day or the next. I thought this because for northern volunteers they have to take the trip all the way down to Cotonou and they take their beefy meds on the way down if they think they might have malaria and they get approval from the docs over the phone, being a southern volunteer means I can come into the med office more readily and let them take their time in correctly diagnosing me (all of this is to my benefit). After arriving and being told that they were going to take blood samples at various times of high fever in order to 'catch' some malarial parasites (malaria is a serious disease and only a very small concentration are actually needed in your blood to make someone very ill, this way it is very hard to actually find the malarial cells in the blood) I figured that I would probably be out of this office by Monday afternoon. After multiple negatives in my blood screening and the eventual confirmation that I had amoebas I was sure that i was going back to post Monday or Tuesday. But, in the name of thoroughness the date kept getting pushed back to make sure the plethora of pills I've been taking to kill off the amoebas have worked, my final date of departure is tomorrow...thursday....i hope. My homologue (work partner) probably thinks I skipped town on him since I told him I would probably return last Fri/Sat.
On another subject, being in the office means I still have access to the mail and I just got 2 packages from Grandma (cookies/candy/protein bars) thanks! I'll give the animal crackers to the dozen or so kids that live around me in my concession.

One good thing about Cotonou...the mail!

I got some mail today from my mother! A letter and a package of cookies. I shared some cookies with the medical staff that spent their weekend coming into the office to take my blood and run tests to find out what has been trying to kill me (j/k). Looking forward to getting back to post so that I can actually START my work here. I really did not hae all that much time in the first week since thru most of it I was running a triple digit fever. I'll probably check this blog once more before 8AM EST before heading back to post. I'll be back online October 5th. See everybody then.

Med Update Redux

Had some more tests run, presently it looks like I just contracted a 4 day long tropical mystery fever and its probably not malaria. Made current my cell phone #. Apparently you have to leave out the 011 prefix while using Skype and just use the country code. Catching up on the football scores...man, not watching football is NOT awesome.

Medical Update...

So after three blood screenings the lab tech have failed to find Malaria in my system. They tell me my week-long on again / off again fever is viral...aka we are not sure what it is so we don't want to unnecessarily throw medications down your system. Luckily the fevers have been lessening so it is not a concern. I took a hot shower today and that was pretty awsome.

So that was quick...

Normally I would still be at post right now and for the following few weeks, but shortly after moving in on monday I developed a fever. This fever continued with varied severity throughout the week and today I called the Medical office here in Cotonou and they asked me to come in to do some preliminary screenings to see if I have malaria or not. Chances that I actually HAVE malaria are VERY low because I regularly take my anti-malarials, bugs don't bite me, i don't hang out out-doors at dusk/nite, and I sleep under a mosquito net. But, all that said, malaria is a serious illness which is very prevalent in W. Africa and PC Benin takes possible infections very seriously. On a more positive note I'm now in the Cotonou office for a few days and can enjoy all those things only living with water and electricity can bring :)

My cousin Kelli's gifted class with Ms. Thompson at Stewart Elementary got their first look at my blog on monday. Hopefully they will start sending me questions via email or on this blog and I can answer them the next time I am near the internet (ie. Oct 5th). In the meantime, Kellie asked 'How do the Beninese people choose a president?' Benin became a Republic like our own nation in 1991. They have a national assembly (like our Congress), a constitutional law court (like our Supreme Court), and a executive branch. They held elections in 2006 and Yayi Boni won the presidency. I believe he serves until 2011.

OK, thats all I have for now. If any of Kelli's classmates get to read my blog before Monday, go ahead and email me a question or two and I can probably answer it before leaving the PC office my monday morning...your monday 2AM (because I'm 5 hours ahead here in Benin!)

So I'm in...

We just had a long swear-in ceromony and now everyone is in the Cotonou office, sorry i cant tell you guys where my post is because of security reasons. I m going to let someone else on the internet now. C-you guys in a month!

Wrap up and grad bash

This is a final note on calling me...on my post visit i found out my cell coverage does not work there so i will have to buy a new SIM card = new number sooo you won't even be able to reach me at my original cell number (if you have been trying to call i hear there is calling cards that work and apparently keepcalling.com only costs ten cents a min)...Also, when i go to post Im not supposed to leave my post for very long or very often in the first 3 months so I WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO REACH THE INTERNET ONCE A MONTH!! Prob on the fith of each month...so keep the email traffic down and don't expect quick answers from me unless you ask on the fourth.
About my post visit, i went to my post and did more labor in 3 days than most volunteers do in one year...it was interesting, a little gardening, a little fishery work, and a little coup couping (cut down with machete) 400 square meters of forest and an entire tree...thats right, im a enviro volunteer on the front lines of deforestation.
I got packages from the Mr. and Mrs. Morris and Grandma, thanks a lot. I passed my french exam so I will be able to swear in on friday. All volunteers selected special tissue (cloth to make clothing) to represent their sectors and we all got outfits made for the ceremony. It is going to be a big deal because it is the 40th anniversary of PC in Benin and the president of Benin will be there. Afterwards all the new volunteers are invited to a dinner with the president, so many are excited about that!
Right now were are learning local language: mine is Gun. We are also doing a lot of admin stuff...like when/how you are getting paid, budget yourself, what things PC will pay for and what things they won't. We get paid pretty well to live in village but if you do a lot of traveling around benin or your starting a new post (like me) and need to buy stuff like a bed or a table or spices or basins or buckets to carry h2o or anything you can think of when starting a house from scratch then you will be poor for the first few months...they call that bien integré. Its ok, i think while i cannot leave post during the first three months i'll just eat rice and drink boiled filter water so i can save up for a trip to the center of northern Benin to do a world map and a biodiversity project.
I realized that I don't put much on here about life here in benin so here it goes. Trash is a huge problem here. In the states we have laws and dumps, here you just throw your trash on the ground and sometimes prople gather said trash and burn it...there is a lot of plastic bags so one of the enviro projects i can do is do some crocheting with plastic+bag+strip+yarn. Big cities have electricity but it can go in and out...most places in Benin have no potable water and no electricity (like my post). We are pretty spoiled right now by living in this big city for the first two months. I will be living in the south so there are two rainy seasons and two dry seasons and it is always hot or muggy( for those in FL think april thru august on a loop). People in the south seem a little higher strung, for example when a volunteer like myself bikes down the road you are the only white person these people will see all day or all year (if you are au village) and most yell out at you. the word for whitey here is yovo or le blanc. the children scream a song and here is how it goes: Yovo, yovo bon soir. Ca va bien. Merci. Translated it means white person, white person good evening. I am well. Thanks. It basically is a way to teach children some french when they are 3 to 4 years old so i don't take offense to it. That said it does get old because the same kids will yell it very loudly EVERY DAY. Apparently there is a youtube video of children doing this in africa, just search yovo yovo bon soir. There are not many if any native land mammals in the south....people have been living here for thousands of years and basically have hunted all animals from the south. In fact there is little native fauna because people have been cultivating the land for soo long. The hills around my post are nice, think Georgia gone tropical. The big cities are polluted by all the motos scooting around, there are no emission requirements. I went to the beach near Cotonou with a few other volunteers and that water was not clean. But on a day trip with Peace Corps to Grand Popo ( the tourist beach town) we got to hang in the big waves and that water was nice. My post is near the Nigerian border but since im american i cannot go there, volunteers near togo/burkina faso/niger might be able to get visas to those countries thru PC for work.
tomorrow I have to buy a lot of things for my new post because I will be moving on monday and friday is the swear in ceremony. It is fun to go to the bank and pull out thousands of cfas...unfortunately it will all be spent in short order and my bank account now reads zero, haha. I hope everyone has a good school year and New Orleans still exists when i get back near the internet on the fifth of october...peace out

Reminder

a couple people seemed to misunderstand the skype option...if u call me it is free for me. i repeat: incoming calls r free for me, so if you use skype we beat the system. thanks. also, come october/ september if anyone could send me a world map, some of those little candy canes that come individually wrapped and a couple packages of good pens....like the gel type, that would be great. i am plannning a trip around northern benin at x-mas time and i will be painting a couple world maps with the kids and i would be great to give them some candy canes or pens for cadeaux....kids here really like thier pens. hopefully i get back on here in a week and a half. swear-in is on sept 5th and i become an offical government volunteer

Hurray 4 packages!!!

I just got grandmas packages today...thanks for the candy and protein bars!! Also i want to wish my lovely sister a happy early b-day since i cant call her (here in africa i started a tradition for all the volunteers who celebrates a b-day by giving them a b-day beer with a candle in it and singing happy birthday...people seem to like it). It has been a while since i was on the internet last and a couple more people ETed (early termination). No kellie im not still sick. I go on my post visit tomorrow and see the village ill b living in for 2 years...there is no electricity or running water there so that should be fun...just a FYI between september to december i cant leave the village so communication with me will prob drop to nill, but i will try to get to a computer from time to time. Grandma= if you could give me the email of kellies teacher or just direct her to this site that would be great, i dont think peace corps processed my request to be in the letter program because other volunteers have recieved comfirmation and i havent. I hope everyone is having a great time watching the olympics and enjoying A/C!! Talk to you all later, peace

halfway thru

Another week down....i think next week EA visits our actual posts. everything is going well, but another EA trainee ETed after tech visit. I think tomorrow i help to build a mud stove

Things EA has done since arriving

Enviros have: planted veggie garden, planted avacado trees, made a compost pile, constructed a clay oven, lots of French, eniromental education, seeded teek trees and others.
I think this week we r going to a sustainable farm to learn some methods and also build ovens for local community people. On thurs I think we pair up and teach a class on a envrio topic, mine is the water cycle....in French

Tech Visit

I went to Dahe, north of Come, with 2 other trainees for a tech visit with a current volunteer for 4 days last week. It was neat, we saw beehives being built and how to attract bees to them. Also, independance day was the first and we took a boat ride on a large lake. We were located in the south but other trainees travelled farther north and the TEFL english teachers got to travel to thier REAL posts. If somone could send a male-male audio plug....the kind you plug into headpone jack ...that would be great. I have had only moderate sickness so far...so everything is going well

The Hot and Not List of Benin PSL 21, 2008

HOT
Dark clothing.
Quick dry clothing
cell phones
Tasty treats from home (see below)
Flip flops
Internet 4 communication
Having personal french tutors
Large Beniniese beers


NOT
Anything Kakki or White
SPF clothing
SLOW internet connection
Fish fried with heads still attatched
Keens that say they r waterproof but that is really a lie
French Keybords
Having to learn French only to learn most of the people u will talk to speak a local language
rehydration salts

I forgot..

If you want to send things send them to the adress under my contact info....if possible send things in bubble envemopes: cost around 10 bucks. If not, you can send stuff with those flat rate boxes and I pay for larger packages but it is fine.
Things us PC trainees would love:
Oreos or Milanos or Choc chip cookies....all r good
Hard shell gum: ie. eclipse
Peanut or normal m&ms
drink mix: ie. gatorade or kool aid or any of the like .... seriously
protien bars...but flavor is a top concern. I found that the South Beach Living brand by Kraft was pretty good, at least the cinn raison.

Also those cheap windup flashlights at kmart/walmart r serious money here

Finally Im going to try and read some mails now, but 1st I can tell u all that i am assigned to a post in a village a little north of Porto Novo and i will most likly be participating in a fisheries project. I can't be more specific due to PC regulations. Talk to u guys later, i think im 5 hours ahead so call around 7 to 10 in the morning to catch me at lunch

i told u once a month

Right now i am in Porto Novo for stqging. I live with a christian celeste family. Everything is fine. 5 people have already quit. I wish I could put pix up now but the connection is SOOO slow and the power has gone out 3 times already...i have waited an hour to type this! call me if you get an african callling card: 011 229 98 52 74 84 around this time i am free (my lunch). Peace out folks, and no jimmy the fly ladies don,t come to W.Africa :/

Finally here!!

Very hectic, right now I am at the Peace Corps office doing my bike fitting, more vaccinations, and language training. I have lots of pictures but I have to set up a account on picasa so I'll put a link up later. Food is good, high humidity. I have my own room at staging.

In the airport

Sitting in the Philly airport with my new Gov. passport. 7 hour plane trip to Paris. 5 hour wait. 5 hour plane ride to Africa. Interesting way to celebrate the 4th of July...if anyone is trying to get a hold of me with my phone it is on vacation (for 5 something a month). I might get a new cell phone in country

Africa Bound

Finished 2 days of pre-departure training (very boring). Everyone seems very nice. On thursday we get some shots and leave the country. Pretty soon I'll be speaking French every day.

Eve of Leaving

Spent last night in Grand Hyatt so no one would have to drive me to Tampa Int. @ 3 in the AM. Currently sitting in the terminal waiting for my plane to board in about 20 min. Good-bye to anyone at home I missed. Hopefully I'll meet my bags in Philly and after surviving the 1st day I'll meet up with my relatives for some dinner.

Small issues....

PC wants me to bring a WHO 'card' with me to staging so I do not get duplicate immunizations. Unfortunately, Manatee health department does not have any cards, but they handed me a printout of all my immunizations. I expect this should work for the PC's needs, but if anyone knows otherwise please tell me and I'll make greater pains to get the card form.

After finishing up packing my travel weight is still well under limit, but it still seems like a lot of material.

Packing, the requiem...

The Peace Corps says I need 'at least' 2 sets of business casual wear. That means another 2 pair of khakis, button down shirts, and 1 pair of boat shoes. This is because idk if Columbia-style shirts count as business casual. I also need to get a copy of my WHO immunization card from the health department.

Rosetta Stone

I've completed around 28 hours of my 40 hour commitment to studying French. That comes to about 1 hour a day of French until I leave so I should be able to complete my studies before I leave.

New shoes...

Yesterday I bought some Vasque Breeze Low XCR hiking shoes. Low-tops so I don't feel like I have 12 lbs blocks on my feet and water-proof with Gore-tex. Hopefully they will c some action.

Itinerary...

July 1: Leave Tampa International at 6AM for MIA. Leave MIA for Philly @ 8AM. Arrive Philly @ 12ish. 1PM registration w/ Peace Corps @ the Sheraton University City. 3 - 7PM Peace Corps training.

July 2: 8:30AM - 12 training continues...then lunch, then training form 1:30 - 6PM.

July 3: 7AM hotel check-out. 8AM Vaccinations. 1PM airport.

July 4: ????

July 5: 8:30 - 10AM PC policy. 10:15 - 12:30 PSL overview, S & S pre-test and helmet form handed out. 14:00 - 17:00 S & S pre-test and signed helmet forms collected. Language interviews, bike fittings and more vaccinations!! Notice the switch to 2400 time.

July 6: 10-10:30AM brunch @ community director's. Meeting ambassador and RSO for rest of day until 15:00 - 17:30 language class.

July 7: 8AM - 1700 project overview. 10:30 Zemidjan orientation and walking tour.

July 8: Same orientation as July 7 until 14:00 - 16:00, host family orientation. Vaccinations. 16:15 - 17:15 overview of Benin.

July 9: early morning, vehicle loading. 8 -11AM S & S incident reporting/responding and vaccinations. Depart for training sites. 15:00 meet host family.

July 10: 1st night processing. 10:30-12:30 visit local authorities. 15:00 - town exploration.

July 11: 8 - 10AM language. 10:30-12:30 technical orientation. 15:00 - 17:00 language.

July 12: 8 - 10AM language. 10:30 - 12:30 cross-culture orientation and pre-test. Time with hots family after lunch.

3.5 more weeks...

I received my pre-departure packet and reserved my plane ticket for Philly on Friday. I leave from Tampa @ 6 in the morning on July 1st. After an hour long stop in MIA, I'll make it to Philly by 12 PM. Three days in Philly and pre-departure training will be done and I'll be Africa bound, probably with a flight transfer in Paris. I've tested my hammock and bug netting and everything is a go. Over the last couple weeks I continually stuff small foodstuffs in my check-ons.

Even MORE packing fun...

Thanks to my Aunt Mags and Uncle Nick I have some more things to add to my packing list.

• 1 MSR hyperflow microfilter
• 1 Sweetwater H2O purification solution
• 1 deodorant crystal
• 1 ENO single nest hammock
• 1 ENO guardian bug net
• a few protein bars
• a few dry mix flavorings

1 more month until I'm Africa bound!

Some more things to pack...

So I have added a few things to my packing list...I'm still way under weight:

• 1 photon light
• 1 wand black light (for scorpion sweeps)
• 1 rain jacket ( in actuality it is a rainproof windbreaker)
• 1 box swiss miss hot coco
• Another hobo-like tool...maybe i'll keep it for guests?
• 2 regulation size soccer balls
• 1 hand pump for balls
• 1 pair tongs
• 1 shoulder harness money/i.d. pouch
• 1 pack clothespins
• 1 fingernail brush

idk what shoes other than my keen's that I'll bring. Prob some hiking/sneaker hybrid shoe. Suggestions?

I also want to get some chem-treated mosq netting for my hammock, but maybe I'll just wait to c what PC gives me, or what will be available locally.

One step closer...

All visa and passport papers are in the mail. I finished my aspiration statement and revised resume and emailed then to the appropriate recipients. Now I am just running the Rosetta Stone software a great deal so that I will not be completely helpless in July.

Gov Passport and Visa Applications away...

Since today marks the 6 week deadline for my July 1st staging date I needed to hurry and get everything out. Tomorrow I'll get my updated resume and aspiration statement.

My Assignment

The enviromental program I am accepting from the PC is Community Natural Resource Advisor in Benin. (Map provided by Google)

Packing List so far

In my 50lb checked bag I have:

• 1 hobo tool
• 2 veg peelers
• 2 p-38s
• 7 boxers
• 4 t-shirts
• 2 SPF inpregnated columbia style long sleeve shirts
• 2 columbia short sleeve shirts
• 1 Camel Bak, 100 oz.
• 1 kitchen knife
• 1 cap
• 1 collapsable 5 gallon water jug
• large assortment of ziploc bags
• 1 pair Keen sandels
• 1 multi-head stubby screwdriver
• 1 Kershaw knife
• 1 multi-tool
• 1 pair scissors
• 1 Big Agnes REM sleeping pad
• 2 packs of sunflower seeds for planting
• 1 harmonica
• various cords for computer/camera
• 3 bandanas

I have lots of space in my bag for more stuff but that is all that is in it at the moment... (will update later)

In my carry-on / Granite Gear Vapor day pack:

• 2 Combination locks
• 1 first aid kit
• 1 compass/thermometer/whistle
• 1 micro-thread travel towel
• 1 Big Agnes sleeping giant inflatable pillow and pad
• 1 3-pack camper toilet tissue
• 4 10-pack pens
• 2 decks of playing cards
• 1 container of flintstones vitamins
• 1 plastic pancho
• 1 spool of paracord
• 1 emergency blanket...think large expanse of Al foil
• 1 bag of various germx/suntanlotion/shaving cream/asprin/bug-b-gone
• 1 pack cotton swabs
• 1 new toothbrush
• 1 pack vitamin lollipops
• 4 dry bags
• 1 LED headlamp
• 2 SPF impregnated convertable pants
• 1 large blue tarp
• a lot of socks
• 2 collapsable frisbees
• 1 roll duck tape
• 1 .7 mill large plastic throw sheet
• 1 AM/FM/shortwave/noaa wind-up combo radio/flashlight
• 2 airfoil x-kites
• 1 hand mirror
  

This pack is full. I have not decided if I will carry my laptop with me or leave it in my checked bag. Will carry on my my wallet and I.D.s and camera.

Just starting out...

I received a call form someone in Peace Corps who is in charge of placement yesterday and she said she was sending me a packet and that I was chosen for the West African Agro project. I have to be quick about sending off my gov passport info as soon as my packet comes in because the program departure date is July 1st.