Is training over yet???
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2003
1
10
62
Trip End
Dec 13, 2005
Comé,
Benin
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Well, we forgot to share a funny story from last week. On the way out of Materi, we were in a taxi, and the driver stopped to pick up another person on the road, and the guy goes and gets his cow from the field to bring with him. So we look at eachother and at the car and are wondering where this "not full gronw but not a baby either" cow is going to fit. So the cow walks up to the car, they flip him on his back and tie his legs together and then they get another passenger to help lift him up on to the roof rack. I think they might have tied the rpe to the rack but really the only thing keeping him up there was gravity. So everyone piles back into the car and we head on our merry way. As we were driving along we got a lot of weird looks, but we realized that the cow on the roof was not the most unusual spectacle to these people, but it was the two white people in the car..;)
Not too much exciting has happened this week, we're ready to boost the training activities sso we're learning cool stuff. Jason's group learned how to graft Mangoes which increases their production and size. During the hot season, Mangoes are about the only thing around besides your basic corn flour for making pate (pronounced pot). This is the main dish prepared in every household of Benin. Its made of corn flour and water, and is like a very think cream of wheat that maintains its shape like jello. It can be made plain or with tomatoes and peppers and other seasons, and we prefer it this way. Our family thinks its hilarious whenever we request it, they think its funny that we like it. But they didn't know it wasn't in the US until we told them, so they have this grand idea that we can make it and sell it when we get back and make a fortune. Because all the Beninoise LOVE it and think its the best thing ever and eat it f or every meal everyday.
Rebecca did a presentation at the high school this week with a few other trainees. It was about AIDS. The students mostly knew the basic info about AIDS already; which is a positive reflection of the school system, but they had a lot of questions about the topic, so it was good. It was a positive experience for everyone, and it was good practice, since I may be doing this with the school in Materi.
We've begun Biali lessons with a police man in town. Its very challenging. Its not a written language, so we just write it down how it sounds. But the basic sentence structure makes sense so hopefully we'll be able to speak better once we learn more vocabulary.
Yesterday was laundry day, and not fun again. But today we took off and went on a great bike ride down these dirt roads through the corn fields. It was beautiful. There were lots of baobob trees (those trees that look like they're upside down because the branches look like roots, and the trunks are very very large) and pretty birds. We ended up in this other village north of Comé and everyone was very friendly and smiled and salutated us as we rode by.
Today's a big day for the Benin Soccer team because they are playing in the African Cup. If they win today the continue but if they loose they're out so for the past two days the major news stories on the nightly news were about the team. Hopefully we'll watch it with the family and hopefully the squerills (the team nickname) will come out victorious.
Well that's all this week,
Hope everyone is staying warm back in the States.
Love,
Jason and Rebecca
