Pre departure update
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2003
1
8
62
Trip End
Dec 13, 2005
Comè,
Benin
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
We can't remeber if we already mentioned the fact that we spent almost all day Sunday washing our clothes by hand. The week before, our sisters showed us the PROPER way to do it, in which you wash each item twice and then rinse, and turn inside out before hanging on the line. Well, we were on our own this week with a lot of clothes, and after getting knuckle blisters from scrubbing and doing it too pitifully slow, Mama gave us the time out and said the sisters would finish. Doing laundry for 3 hours we found brings out the philosophiser in oneself. One of our great ideas was that if the washing machine was introduced to this country, how families would no longer need 8 or more children for such tasks. Therefore, the washing machine could in fact be considered as a population control mechanism. The other thought we had, as we were bent over the large basins of water and scrubbing and sweating and rinsing and sweating and wringing and sweating was that our family could make a killing by charging admission to come watch the Yovos do laundry. (Yovo is the term for a white person.) The neighbors that did stop by certainly got a kick out of our pathetic attempt at being domestic here.
One question we received from a friend was about the technology and Beninoise perception of the US. Well, our family has a TV and watches it religiously every night. Theres a national news program that includes some international events, such as issues in the Middle East, Arnold winning Governor of CA, but mainly things in Europe. But most people do not have a TV or even electricity, so most have radios that can pick up news and info from around the world. I had a good conversation with my brother last night about development. I asked him how he viewed development, and he said it isn't always a good thing. He liked how it improves health and living conditions, but at the same time some of the culture of the people developing is brought along and this tends to enforce Westernized ideas on young people and the true culture of the country is not as valued by the young people. This can also lead to corruption in the government and imbalance of wealth/power. He mantioned that teachers go on strike often due to their poor salaries but yet the minister of education has a nice salary, car, and clothes, all provided by his position. People don't really ask us about the US much, I think because they don't know what to ask. Another volunteers family asked her, "so, whats it like in your compound?" assuming that people in the US live in walled compounds just like they do here. Most of the questions about the US are from younger people and are steered more towards the pop culture, i.e., music, movies.
We began leazrning local language yesterday. We're learning Dendi, and will find out next week if this is the most common mlanguage at our post. Dendi is the most spoken language throughout the north of Benin and we have been told that its the easiest to learn.
Jason got his first boomba made out of local fabric. Boombas are the typical dress here, straight drawstring pants with a long shirt, all made of the same fabric. We jokingly call it his pajamas, since thats what it really looks like. He gets to try it out tomorrow when our supervisors come from our post for the conference. Rebecca gets her boomba and pants tomorrow evening. Very exciting.
Well, we'll write again upon returning from the big journey up north. We'll try to begin doing Instant Messenger to people if they're online when we are. We'll try to set up a time when we get back to do this.
Hope everyones well.
Rebecca and Jason
