Time to learn
Trip Start
Jun 30, 2008
1
5
17
Trip End
Sep 04, 2010
Porto Novo,
Benin
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
in Porto Novo last wednesday (the actual capital of Benin, but not as
hustle-bustle as Cotonou) which is our training site for 'PSL' (Pre
Service Learning). With the four sectors (SED&ICT - avec moi; RCH
- Rural Community Health; EA - environmental action; TEFL - teaching
english as a foreign language) being split up (SED&ICT grouped with
TEFL, and RCH grouped with EA) the volunteers are spread out over the
city, each volunteer with their own host family and attending PSL
classes in a local school (currently on vacation) 6 days a week. Once
a week the groups combine, for core learning (i.e. health and security
lectures). That actually happened today, and after a week of not
seeing anyone was an opportunity to meet up, and discover that a couple
of people had left (or ET-ed - Early Termination). Overall 2 people
left in Cotonou, and 2 have left since Porto Novo.
Ma famille de Beninoises is a pleasure to be
around. For Benin they are regarded as affluent, with the house being
large and clean, a computer (circa 1997 - but a big deal for them;
Amelia - be grateful of the Wii :-D), a car and a couple of motorbikes,
tv and stereo. Also a western toilet and cold shower - no latrine for
me yet). Funnily enough at the moment they're in the process of having
a new kitchen built in, so I feel remarkably at home with the builders
milling about. The family is fairly nuclear and speak french with
different levels of comprehensibility, consisting of the Papa being 48
years old and when I asked him his proffession I got a very vague
'contracteur ... entrepreneur'-type answer. The Mama is 45 and a
definite character, laughing easily but I get the feeling can get
pretty stern. There's two daughters - Sara, 19 currently studying for
le BAC (university entry exam), and Kadi, 14 who is very quiet but
looks after me very well. There's then 2 sons, Kaled, 17 who is a
little aloof and 'too cool to hang with the Yovo', and Kamil, 10 who is
a saving grace with the frisbee and the french. On arriving on
wednesday pm I was met by the Papa and Kamil, and within an hour I was
throwing a frisbee around on the street outside the house (dirt path
being a better description). Including the frisbee in my french
tuition, Kamil and I use it as an opportunity to learn the numbers,
throwing up to 'cent' and beyond. Also the Obama sticker on my nalgene
was a big hit with the family, not hard to see where the allegiances
lies here.
So
to give you an idea I will begin with a brief description of how my day
general day pans out. I generally wake from beneath my mosquito net at
6.30am, on my PC issue single mattress, which has been elevated off the
floor by a few planks of wood, I now have a fan, so I can get some
sort of breeze going. At this point I can hear the kids sweeping and
cleaning the house (I try to help, but they laugh at the concept of the
guest helping and I'm rebuffed). Shower and change (sharing one
bathroom with 6 other family members), I eat a breakfast prepared for
me, generally made up of an ommelette, du pain and tea/ovaltine/citron
hot drink mix. I then pack up my study materials, fill up my Nalgene
with the my self-filtered-and-boiled water (which tastes a bit like a
swimming pool - but that's the taste of safe water here). Again PC
provided the filter system and I have a gas table-top stove in my
room. Ma petite chambre, complete with all this, my stuff, lock box
and study area is filling up. So after all this I put on my PC-issue
cycle helmet (you see the trend here, in that PC is providing so much)
and get on mon velo and pedal towards school for first class at 8am
(about a 15 min bike ride). Despite being at home cycling the streets
of London, Benin roads (well, washed out dirt paths) are a world away.
When it comes to navigating sand, puddles (it is the rainy season),
ravines and rocks, I am glad that it's a mountain bike. Alongside that
there's many motorbikes, not that many motoring rules and the
continuous shouts of 'Yovo' and stares. A world away from Camden.
The
school is typical of an African school that you see pictures of;
breeze-block buildings, no windows or doors (breezes are welcome),
blackboard and the odd chicken or goat wandering in and around the
school yard. From 8am to 12.30 we have classes, usually French , which
we learn intense in a group of 5, completely taught in french with no
translation, then a class on cross-culture, bike maintenance or
technical training for businesses (such as accounting for illiterates,
the Beninese economy etc). Continuing on the french theme all these
classes are taught in french too with some translation. A midi I
return home for lunch, and hang around, play with the kids or nap until
I need to return for afternoon classes at 3pm. Again it's more classes
until 6pm or so - all in all, pretty intense. This happens Mon-Sat,
apart from it's only morning classes on saturday. The rest of the time
I tend to spend with the family, where I am something of a novelty and
there is a constant flow of relations and friends to meet and greet. I
play cards with the kids, basic Mario on the computer (again,
this is a far cry from Mario Galaxy), and watch some television (latin
american soup operas translated seem to be a big hit). I constantly
have on me my french/english dictionary and a notebook so that all the
french that they say can be written down. I go to bed around 10.30,
and generally need to personally diffuse by reading (loving
Ryanland at the moment) or watching a dvd in english. Go to sleep with
my head full of french, and generally have some pretty radical dreams
(an interesting side-effect of the Lariam anti-malarial medicine).
Of
everything the french is probably my biggest challenge, starting from
rock bottom, not being very good at learning languages and the pressure
to reach 'high intermediate level' by Sept 1st to be able to swear in
as a PCV. Generally depending on how tired I am, I have good french
moments and bad french moments. The father can speak pretty quickly
sometimes, and mumble so I have difficulty hearing it anyway, although
I think I'm getting better. There's been some opportunity to have
1-to-1 tutorial sessions at the end of the school day, so i've been
making the most of that (spent 45 mins with the teacher yesterday just
going over how to form questions). I'm beginning to hear it better,
but I carry around a notebook and pen constantly. It is all very
draining, so if ever I seem to be worn out french is probably behind
it. Though it's a pain, becoming good at a language was a big plus
point for me when considering the PC experience - so I have no
intention of letting the language get the better of me, however
difficult.
More stories soon,
