As of December 23rd, I am oficially a Peace Corps volunteer! Yay! We had the ceremony under tents outside at the Prefect's house in Lokossa with an incredible backdrop, a view of lush tropics meeting the blue horizon. All sorts of notables showed up to partake in the ceremony, including the U.S. Ambassador, who swore us in, and the national media filmed the whole thing. I had to give the Bariba speech (most of the local languages are represented). I don't think I made too many horrific errors, though Bariba is a tonal language, so for all I know, I might have said I had a booger stuck in my ear.
My mama hired a video guy to film the entire glorious event and then some! He arrived at our house bright and early, just in time to film me eating breakfast. Lovely. The video (and my performance) certainly won't win any Oscars or Emmys, but if anyone wants to see it, I can offer you a viewing for the low low price of a ticket to Benin!
The Sunday following the ceremony, my mama and her boyfriend the Prefect took me to Dassa to attend an enormous mass inside a cathedral at the mouth of a cave, made famous because of a siting of the Virgin Mary there long ago. Once a year in August people from all over the country and West Africa pilgrimage to Dassa to celebrate and pray for a weekend. The mass, despite the fanfare, was quite boring and mostly in a language other than French. I slept through most of it, as did my mama and probably three fourths of the congregation. The great thing about Catholic churches here is the fact that you can put your head down without causing a stir because everyone just assumes that you are so moved by the service that you feel a need to pray. The ride to and from, on the other hand, was quite exciting! I was in a motorcade! We were in a line of cars occupied by ministers and other prefects and were led by gendarmes and policeman who cleared the highway with their sirens and energetic leg kicks and gestures the entire way between Abomey and Dassa. I must say, it does make the travel easier.
No motorcade the next day. After sad goodbyes, Kelley, a volunteer in Bemberecke, which is just north of N'Dali, and I climbed into our nine-seater taxi and prayed that we would make it to our posts safely and without losing anything that was strapped to the top (nearly all of Kelley's belongings - mine were inside the car - and both of our mattresses and bicycles). We probably wouldn't have fit under a bridge in the US...it was stacked THAT high. Our bush taxi rattled and shook all the way to our destinations like the Little Engine that Could (I think I can, I think I can!), and I arrived thinking that the real miracle didn't happen in Dassa but on the entire paved road of Benin.
And here I am. N'Dali. I'm sitting with my neighbors in the shade of a sprawling tree in my concession as I write this. Mama Isbath (aka Fatima) is nursing Isbath nearby. Sena, a six-year-old, is humming and playing with a doll's head, twisting its hair. Three young men slap their cards down with vigor as that play 6 pas (6 steps). Fauziat, Mama Isbath's 2-year-old girl, sits on the bench that is the men's card table, watching their game. It's a typical afternoon in my concession. Sometimes people come in to sell things, so I can get tomatoes or bananas for the night's dinner.
The shade tree is where everyone passes the time. Yesterday, Mama Isbath brought over her little coal stove and her big marmite (pot), and we made peanut clusters and popcorn. Last week, I entertained the kids (and finally got one kid to not be afraid of me - she used to scream bloody murder any time she saw me with my white skin. maybe she thought i was a ghost) with my bubbles. I blew bubbles, and all the little girls jumped up and down, giggling as they tried to bat them down. Fun!
The people of N'Dali are friendly. I can't walk to the marché without everyone calling out "Baturé! Baturé! Bonne Arrivée! Ka WEru!" (In Bariba, Baturé is white person and Ka WEru is Welcome). They are eager for me to learn Bariba; sometimes they speak to me in Bariba and use gestures so that I can guess what they are saying, only using French as a last resort.
I am anxious for school to start so that I will better be able to fill my days. As it is now, I mostly do household chores (clean house, wash dishes or clothes), which takes longer than it would in the U.S., read, write letters, take walks or bike rides, and hang out with my neighbors. I go to bed a little earlier than usual because of the lack of electricity. The pace here in Benin is much slower.
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Hello again! I actually wrote the above letter last week and intended on typing it and finishing it the next day, but I didn't make it to the internet place.
Let's see. Since I wrote that letter, not too much has happened. Life continues in N'Dali as usual.
I took a long walk the other day. I ran into some little girls and one little boy on their way to the fields who decided to speed walk with me. I thought I might end up leaving them behind after a bit because they were carrying pots and such on their heads, but they were kept up! Before I knew it, one of the little girls was holding onto a few fingers of my hand, and she told the other one (who translated this for me) that they had to hold on so that I would slow down a bit. So, we walked down the road hand in hand, and eventually, I made them all laugh by trying to put their pots on my head. I did successfully carry one pot (with nothing but a rag in it) on my head without dropping it (and while walking at a BRISK pace) for a few minutes! After a while I carried a heavy one for one of the little girls, but I had to use one hand to hold it up there. Everyone we passed turned to gawk at the white girl going off to the fields. I did visit their fields and wave hello to all their brothers and fathers who were working the soil, and they sent me back with a couple of heavy yams and an ear of corn.
Also, I discovered that I can watch movies in N'Dali! There are three video places, where they set up TVs and DVD players (run by generators) to show movies two or three times a day, and they show movies on a big screen at the local Centre des Jeunes (Youth Center). I saw part of Crouching Tiger, Crouching Dragon (or whatever the name is), but it got cut off because of the rain (we were only under a straw roof, so it could come in). Last night, I went with some neighbors to the youth center to see an action movie. UGH! It was a Chinese Martial Arts movie that sort of reminded me of watching a video game for a couple of hours. It was horrible! So horrible that it might have been slightly funny if I hadn't been so tired. Unfortunately, most of the movies they show in Benin are bad action movies, so I don't know that I will be going to the cinema so often. But, you never know...Crouching Tiger's not so bad.
Now, I am in Parakou. I came down to take care of some business, and tonight some other volunteers and I are going to make pizza. YUM!
I have a new address where you can write me, but remember, the other address also works.
ADDRESS REMOVED AS NO LONGER CURRENT
N Kuan Sosi! (see you soon in Bariba)
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