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Benin Slideshow
Travel Blogs from Azove, Benin
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Entrepreneurs
... i am working with them as a consultant to see how we can improve their businesses i am loving it joined a church here in azove the preacher trnslates the message in french for me from the local languages of fon, dendi, and adja i am very happy Oh get ...
VOODOO!!!
... your maps out, here it goes. Drum roll please..... the name of the town is Pobe. It is on the east side of Benin about one mile from Nigeria. I will be working with entrepreneurs there along with, specifically, a large palm oil company that is hoping ...
Entrepreneurs
... i am working with them as a consultant to see how we can improve their businesses i am loving it joined a church here in azove the preacher trnslates the message in french for me from the local languages of fon, dendi, and adja i am very happy Oh get ...
life in azove
... i had to take a bush taxi to a small town named dogbo. I left off with my last post with great anticipation of going to azove to meet and stay w my host family. Azove is a town to the west of cotonou about six miles from togo border. All the business ...
Exam day
Today was the language exam...The exam is an oral one, where somebody unrelated to PC comes in and asks us questions. The conversation is recorded and then listened/reviewed by a group of people who then decide on a "grade". My tester wasn't very clear ...
Just another day
Breakfast: Eggs (which are not as good as USA's eggs, but they are bareable), with (Take a guess...) tomatoes, peppers, and onions. No tofu like cheese this meal though, YIPPIE! Language class all morning. Lunch: fried yam strips, with GUESS ...
Dinner chez-moi
Language class and then a Health session in the morning-received another shot, Tetnus #2, I think. Lunch: non-American style Spaghetti w/2 eggs (ever since I said I didn't like the gross cheese, I get 2 eggs with every meal now). Spaghetti here ...
Meeting my Homologue
... with their hands....electricians, mechanics, tailors, sculptors, carpenters, hair dresses, etc.). She grew up in Ivory Cost, and moved back to Benin 7 years ago. She seems ambitious and excited to be having me work with her. I hope I can live up to her ...
A normal day
And yet another "normal" day: 8am: Language class 10:30am: Health session, no shots today...yippie 12pm: Lunch break 3pm: Culture class 4pm: TDA preperation (aka, lesson planning for Friday's teaching session) 6pm: Tutoring 7pm: Dinner time, ...
Re-tressing
Breakfast was homemade tapioca (obviously homemade, it's not like they can go to Wal-Mart and get the Jell-O brand kind...). They found out I like tapioca, so I get it about every other day. Yummy! It's interesting to finally find out what the little ...
A Miracle Tree!
Boring morning class sessions.....language, computer usage rules at the PC Bureau, and how to use the Library in the PC Bureau. During my lunch break, I showed Tante my dress design for the Swear-In ceremony. She gave me the impression that she is ...
Ordination Day
Maman, Papa, Tante and I went to a church in a neighboring city this morning. It was the Ordination Service for 7 new Catholic Priests. The service was done in 2 local languages, Adjah and Minah, so I didn't understand much of it. The people were all ...
Polygamy in Benin
... She's 9, and I think she looks average for a 9 yr old. I learned today that Grand-pere has 2 wives. (This is very common in Benin.) He has 3 kids with the wife I thought lived here, and he has 8 kids with the other wife. Papa and Tante and 2 of the ...
A FanMilk Full Day
8-10am: language class 10-10:30: a short break at the omelet stand; only I had a FanMilk instead...yum, frozen ice cream-like stuff. 10:30-11:30: GAD-Gender and Development...basically, how we can raise awareness in our communities that women can do ...
More bike repairs...
This morning on my way to class, I got a flat tire! Sucky. My tire had been acting/feeling a bit odd lately when I had been riding it, but I never got around to looking at it to see what the problem was. This morning though, it was totally flat. ...
Another great start to my day...
Instead of a flat tire today, my water bottle wasn't closed tightly in my bike bag...it was in the same bag as all of my folders, books, and camera. Luckily my camera didn't get wet, but my papers were SOAKED. When I put the water bottle in my bag, I ...
Swear-In Tissue!
Today @ Stage was pretty normal: Language, Cross-Culture, lunch, and TDA processing & simulation. When we came back from lunch break, the "tissue committee" had put the tissue (fabric) they picked out for Swear-In on everyone's chairs. It's looks ...
Breakfast @ Dinner
Language class, and then a Health session-the electricity was cut though, so we had a delay from watching the AIDS and Rape videos. The Dr. made us stick around though just in case the electricity came back on. Eventually it did come back, so we ...
A slough-off day
No more language classes-yea! (Actually, I'm not sure that I'm happy or not...there's still so much to learn; I'm definitely not fluent.) There was a waste of time Cross-Culture text and Technical test this morning. After that the Environment and ...
Christmas Eve with the Family
... Simple things can make a wonderful Christmas gift. This Christmas night we are happy to be together as a family and to be able to spend this special night with Jen's Benin family. We wish all of our family and friends back home a very Merry ...
Mail is fun!
I received 2 packages from my family today!! She had made photo CD's of Tanya and Marquel's wedding and my going away party. I also received pot holders (very handy), sticky notes, folders, key chains, maps of the US and World, non-parishable food, a ...
Rain, rain go away...
Started packing my things this morning before going to meet everyone at Pascal's omelet stand at 11:30 for brunch. After eating, Pascal took Charles and I silverware shopping. We were looking for the stainless steal plates/bowls/cups that seem to be so ...
Just another day.
Had training in HIV/AIDS this morning. PC would like Volunteers to teach their communities about the sickness. After lunch we had our Accounting TDA session. It's such a broad topic that I feel we didn't do a good job teaching it in the 2 hours we ...
Cooking chez-moi
TDA preperation, Peer Support Network informative session, TDA Session (the actual teaching), & then Cooking Class at my house with ALL of the Stagieres....Everyone came to my house to begin the preparaton of tomorrow's meal. They (NOT me) killed 7 ...
Voodoo demonstration
Cross Culture class was actually interesting today. We had a guest speaker, a Medicine Man. He did a demonstration using a chicken; I think it's some sort of Voodoo thing. Someone had to tell the chicken a secret message. It was supposed to take ...
The next 2 years of my life...
... 's a city about an hour and a half from Cotonou. It's located on the "goudrone", the main highway that goes north and south in Benin. Since it's on the main highway, it has access to a lot of goods for it's marche...Nice. I'll be in Houegbo with a ...
The road back home
... it and talked him down to only paying 500; but it still shouldn't have cost us anything for having bags. Gggrrr.... We got to Azove around 3pm. I hung out in my room writing emails. My family thought I was napping. After my "nap", I had dinner. ...
Fashion Show
We had a "Fashion Show" today for our cultural training. I volunteered (can you believe that??) to be one of the models. There are 4 different types of "typical" African dress for females: boom-bas, bou-bous, jupes, and pangnes. I don't know which is ...
A day in Azove
... the PC had supplied the family with a few bottles of bottled water... During my afternoon training session, we got to walk around Azove and become familiar with the town. It seems much "kinder" here than Cotonou. Still as dirty and poor, but the ...
SALAD!! =)
My new Fon vocabulary: "Kwah-bo" = Welcome "Oooo" = The response to Kwah-bo "Aw wa new" = Thank you "A-O" = No "AAAAnnnnn" = Yes "Why do new" = Come eat "En go ho" = I'm full Spero (my brother) and Emily (my cousin) left today for 2 weeks. ...
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