End of stage
Trip Start
Jun 30, 2008
1
10
17
Trip End
Sep 04, 2010
Porto-Novo,
Benin
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
is probably going to be one of my last posts during 'stage' as it is now very
possible to see the end of PSL and the swearing-in ceremony. Since post-visit the last week just flew by
with lots of language classes and two TDAs (Training Directed Activities) where
we had two afternoons of teaching some local artisans of Porto Novo accounting
and marketing. All this needed to be
taught in French and was a bit of a struggle to get through. I was working with N, and the
accounting was a bit more of a struggle, but we quickly learned (in-time for
the Marketing formation) that the best way to teach these are to split the
class into groups and do activities, which created a much more productive class
atmosphere of them figuring it out for themselves and sharing ideas (and if
they're giving ideas to each other, that works out so we need to speak a lot
less french and just facilitate the learning).
This
week was also about the french, which accumulated in us having our final
language interviews on friday morning.
I was a little less happy with my performance this time than in the
mid-PSL interview, although I was able to use more tenses properly. I had a particularly random question when
she asked me to describe my house in Porto-Novo, and I realised I had never
learned the vocabulary for buildings, I didn't even know the word for
'wall'. However, to my delightful
surprise on friday afternoon I found out that I hap jumped up to 'Intermediate
High' (which means I surpassed the required level of 'intermediate
middle'). Unfortunately not everyone in
our group was as lucky, and two people need to take another interview next
thursday where they have an opportunity to reach their required level so they
can be allowed to swear-in. Of course,
we're all pulling together trying to make sure that noone gets left behind.
The
other big activity of the week was all the volunteers got invited to a gala
hosted by the Mayor of Porto-Novo, who asides from feeding us dinner we had
some speeches and a show of traditional music and dance which was a lot of
fun. I took some photos of the
traditional dances, which were really really great.
At
the end of the week, with the final hurdle of language interviews over for many,
we (the stagiares and our trainers) took a well-deserved break, and we did a
big group excursion out to Grand Popo.
Grand Popo is one resort-like area of Benin, with lovely beach et al. It's an approximately 2 and a half hours
drive from Porto Novo - but it took our bus (one of 3 ferrying the volunteers)
5 and a bit hours to get there as it broke down on a number of occaisions. It even looked like at one point we would
throw in the towel and wait til we could get passing bush taxis back to Porto
Novo. But they eventually managed to do
enough repair to get us to Grand Popo safely.
Although it's a lovely beach, the most entertainment is wading. The sea is incredibly strong, and you have
to exercise a lot of caution. If you're
not careful the wave breaking will knock you down, and the backwash drag you
in. Of course the boys were putting the
waves to the test, seeing how far you could go in before you got wiped out by
the next wave. Because our group
arrived so late we got to stay late, but that meant I returned to the host
family's house, all sandy-and-salty, only to be greeted by a large fete for the
eldest daughter who passed her BAC (university-entry) exam. I danced and conversed, but then was quite
relieved that because my family is muslim there was no alcohol to be forced on
me, and it finished at the rather conservative time of 11pm.
This
nest week is going to be pretty relaxed, and should involve very little, just
wrapping up training, preparing for the swear-in ceremony and getting ready to
depart for post. At the moment
everything is a bit up in the air regarding my post, because last time I spoke
to Jacques on Thursday they were still in the process of finding me a house. It was deemed that the house I saw on
post-visit had security issues, being on it's own and so large. So we'll see what happens with that. Hopefully they'll find me a place in time,
and I can move up on monday as planned. What is most annoying is that they're
not telling me anything at the moment.
As for the swear-in ceremony/40th anniversary which is this friday it
seems to be getting more and more extravagent.
We're having it at the Palais de Congres in Cotonou, in their largest
room. The ceremony actually starts
around 9am, but we've also been invited to a banquet with the government that
evening. President Boni Yayi will be in
attendance and I've just had my 'swearing-in' outfit made. It should be very grand. It sounds like it's going to be a series of
speeches and receptions. They also have
a song which some of the volunteers are meant to sing, so I'm a part of
that. I'll be sure to post lots photos at some point.
