Eats and Drinks

Mom, as per your request- a picture of me with the kids in my concession. (I'm the white one! haha)


December 10, 2009
Water and Food
First of all, sorry. I had no idea it’s been so long since I’ve written! (hopefully the WiFi in Cotonou will be up and running Friday so that I can post this!) So here are some blog posts that have been stewing in my head for awhile. As far as recent developments, nothing much going on here except that it’s getting really hot, it so does not feel close to Christmas at all and my kids are having their first exams for my classes (*fingers crossed*). So here goes…

Waterlogged
Do you have any idea how much water you use? Really? I’m guessing not. I know that I only had a vague idea about an abstract number of gallons before I got here. But now I know (even if I know in kiloliters) I use over 200 kl a week! That’s around 100 gallons a week, just for drinking water, showering, washing dishes and washing my underwear. I don’t even do my laundry, I pay a girl to do it, so that number a lot bigger if I were to include that. I also don’t cart water all over (like from the well to my shower or from the pump to my kitchen), I pay the same girl to do that too. But even just seeing all that water carted through my house once a week is enough to make my head spin. (Side note- how strong are women’s necks here that they can cart 20 gallons of water on their head like it’s nothing?) So what do I do with my water? I cart it around some more. I don’t have running water, so I cart it from my back porch/shower area to do dishes and then I cart it back out again to dump it out. I usually dump the wash water in the concession because the chickens and the dog will usually eat the yukies and crumblies that are at the bottom. When I’m at the workstation in Cotonou, if I have some time (say while music and movies are downloading) I do the dishes there (not my dishes, you remember you communal kitchen in the college dorms? It’s like that) just for the joy of doing them with a sink. Yeah, I know, I’m weird. I also obsessively clean my house, so yeah. Can I just say for the record that I totally suck at washing my undies by hand? I can never seem to get the soap out so I end up doing 3 or 4 rinses.
Drinking water is a whole nother story. It originates from the pump (as opposed to the well, where my other water comes from). I don’t even know where the pump is, I should probably find it. Anyway, once it gets here and I pay for it, I filter it with the filter that my predecessor left me, then boil it in my biggest pot, then filter it into the filter that the Peace Corps gave me. Why filter it twice? There’s not really a need to filter the water twice (there are plenty of PCVs here that don’t filter or boil at all) I just do it because the filter that the PC gave me has a handy spigot at the bottom. It’s the stupidest thing in the world really. The doctors tell us to filter and then boil, but once you have gone through this process how are you supposed to get the water from the large pot to something you could actually drink out of, like a water bottle? So, I filter the second time so that I don’t have to dip my hand/water bottle into water that I just spent time and gas (we all have gas stoves) filtering and boiling. I do this everyday. Really, I drink that much water everyday (between 3 and 5 liters). I am also storing up some water for the day that I can’t go through this process but need water because I will inevitably get really sick at some point and not have the energy/patience/will/strength to get out of bed and make myself some water.

Cookery
Beninese food is great, in moderation. It’s full of hot peppers, gelatinous starches and sauces resembling both blood and snot. Yum! So I do most of my own cooking. I cook a lot of pasta. How I lost 30 pounds eating pasta and white bread at least once a day is up for scientific debate. I have no idea. I’m also sure that whoever invented Béchamel Sauce is bloody brilliant (and thanks Katrin for introducing me to it), you can add anything to it and make a pasta sauce. I will add anything to it: Taco Seasoning (so-so), Uncle Ben’s Ranch Dressing (good, but salty), a can of mushrooms (excellent), Herbes de Provence (also great). Beyond pasta I have made pan pizza, corn bread, chili, grilled cheese, and I plan on making more soon. I will say that it is a challenge to cook with just a 2 and a half burner gas stove, how I long for an oven! I mean, dutch ovens work great for baking, but are too small to make say, baked chicken, which all my former roommates and most of my friends know is one of my favorites. The other challenge is ingredients. I live in one of the best parts of Benin for produce and while I can get almost any type of fruit the only non-sweet produce I can get is onions, tomatoes, garlic and okra. See why I make a lot of pasta? I have also discovered that okra with vinaigrette dressing is pretty good. I can get other things, like avocado, green peppers and “jungle greens” if I can get to the market at 8 am, which is only possible on weekends, since 4 days a week I have class at that time. I really miss the American supermarket, where you can get anything that I would ever think of cooking. I also miss butter an inordinate amount. This is not helped by reading “Julie and Julia” at the moment, but the book is fun, how’s the movie? Anyway, I have a fridge at my house (which is pretty awesome) but when I try to get butter from Porto-Novo to here it always melts! (I love butter, just not melted all over the inside of my backpack) Cheese is also something I miss all the time. I eat about a wheel of Vache Qui Rit (Laughing Cow) a week, which (along with eggs) is my main source of protein. But Vache is just NOT cheese. You can get cheese here, but it’s pretty expensive, hard to get back to my house and always either Wagasi (an African cheese that’s pretty good, but doesn’t melt) or French, nothing wrong with that, except that my absolute favorite cheese is sharp Cheddar and there is absolutely none of that wandering around. Sometimes I even find myself craving Marie’s crazy good Norwegian brown cheese (mmm…creamy). There’s another thing I miss cooking with, cream, and milk. Or just drinking milk really, I do drink milk here but it’s of the powdered variety and although I do get separate sometimes and drink it straight, I mostly just cook with it and put it in my tea. Anyway I realize that talking about cooking has turned into complaining about things I don’t have here- but as an endnote I want to thank everyone who has sent me things (food things in particular), I’d be stuck with spaghetti every night if you didn’t!

Love and good eating,
Glenna

Several Blog Posts at once! Its like Christmas, early!

This is the moon set from my back porch- you could see the moon better before I ran to get my camera ;)


This is the river-as seen from a little called a pirogue.


This is my Post Mama, in front of a beautiful sunrise over the valley.


This is Sadie, she sleeps in my mosquito net. She's so cute!







November 3, 2009
The Joys and Woes of Teaching in Benin
Woes-
1.The French System seeks to weed out the weaklings, rather than make sure everyone gets an education. Thus, when I give a quiz and 40% of my students pass, that’s totally normal.
2.My smallest class is 42, my largest is 52.
3.All the kids’s names are crazy! Some are straight-up French, which are the ones that are easy. Then there are the crazy African names, which are pronounced totally phonetically. Then there are the names that I think I know how to pronounce (Kevin, Geoffrey) that are totally NOT pronounced the way they look!
Joys-
1. The kids love to sing whatever dorky (in a good way) song I can think of and/or make up to go with my lesson. If it has motions or a dance, even better!
2. The kids are super interesting in me, which means I can do things like have them review asking questions about people “Where are you from?” etc by having them ask me any question they want- as long as its in English.
3. They have figured out that I only speak French in class when they are in trouble. Which means that the moment a French word comes out of my mouth, they are all dead silent. It’s a good trick.
4. I get to be totally goofy in class- the goofier I am the more they are interested and more likely to remember what I’m teaching them.
Both-
1. All of my classrooms only have walls on two sides, meaning that they both catch a lovely breeze, and that there is always something happening outside.
2. The kids don’t have textbooks, which means that what I write on the board becomes their textbooks. In general, I think this makes them get more out of things in class, but it also is really bad if they don’t copy things perfectly, because their copybooks aren’t correct so when they study its not correct.

Crazy Everyday Occurrences
-Chickens running through my classroom
-Dogs running through my classroom
-Rain coming in and soaking everyone, as well as erasing the board
-Rain coming down so hard on the tin roof that I just write things on the board and have the kids copy, to explain later, because nobody can hear me
-Fumes from burning garbage filling my classroom so that I have no recourse but to evacuate!
-Muddy soccer balls flying through my classroom
-The Principal coming into my class and kicking almost all (except 6) students out because they haven’t paid their school fees yet
That’s it for now… but there are sure to be more later!

October 21, 2009.
An Interesting Day All-Round
So today was one of my short days. They are nice. So I got home around 12 and had just changed out of a teaching outfit (one of the dresses I had made here, out of crazy local fabric) and two boys who are in 6th grade and I know by sight (I have 5th grade so I will have them next year- the grade numbers here go backwards) come and tell me that the Directrice (female principle) and “the other whites” want to invite me to lunch. And of course I’m all, sure, just let me change and off I go traipsing through the village. So I get there and I find out that there are indeed “les autres blanchs” and that they are a French couple who decided to retire to a small jungle/river village in Benin! Interesting right….So I stayed for lunch. They were very, very nice, which I figured out when I got used to their Frenchy-French accents and fast talking. I figured out that they had no idea that I am the 4th American to teach at the CEG (middle/high school), which honestly is really weird. I mean it’s not like the people here see a white person everyday. Its more like seeing an Oompa-Loompa, you know, that somewhere (in Loompaland) there are pleanty of Oompa-Loompas, but when one moves in next door all you and the neighbors want to talk about is those crazy Oompa-Loompas and the crazy things they do (not to mention go through their trash and scream “oomph-Loompa! Oompa-Loompa! Every time you do see them). This being the case I am really shocked that one of the other volunteers hasn’t figured out that there have been French people living here for the past 8 years. And for the record, I didn’t figure it out either- they found me.

Yesterday was also a good day. Again, it was one of my short days, and also a market day, so, of course, I went to the market. It was the market. Which is pretty sweet, but that’s a whole post in itself. Anyway a couple of weeks ago at the market I bought some popcorn. Yes, popcorn. And it was damn good! But I haven’t seen the popcorn mama since then so I decided to ask the other mamas in the vicinity of her stand where I might obtain some more popcorn. After a lot of explanation and gesticulation, because I have no idea what the word for popcorn is in French (still don’t) I figured out that here, they call popcorn “poof-poof.” Which is awesome. So I went in search of poof-poof (Wouldn’t you?) along the way I went past the mosque and a bunch of Muslim establishments, so I figured this must be the Muslim part of town. Sweet, I had been kind of wondering where the 5:30 call to prayer was coming from. Eventually I found what looked like a bouvette (a bar) with a popcorn, or poof-poof, machine displayed in the open door (I say door, but most businesses here have doors that open up all the way- so more like an open shop front). And what a popcorn machine it is! Its exactly like the one that they have at Swain’s, where my grandpa used to get my a 25 cent bag of popcorn every time we had to go in (and sometimes when we didn’t), which is, of course, why the popcorn is AMAZING! So I bought some of the incredible poof-poof and got to talking with the owners, I think. Anyway there was a youngish guy who sold me the popcorn and an older woman who was putting bisap (really good, really sweet hibiscus juice) into sachets (baggies) that sell for 25 francs. Anyway so I asked, “You sell bisap? I’ll have one of those too!” (it was really hot and I can actually drink bisap because in order to juice a dried hibiscus they have to boil them for awhile) when the guy was all, “We also sell ice cream.” ICE CREAM! What!? I didn’t ask to see the ice cream just then, because I know I would have wanted one and popcorn was enough for the day. Also, I know that if I know there is ice cream there I will go back- it’s a good day excursion. So from talking to the guy (and to the busy mama a little as well) I deduced that this amazing establishment of my dreams was not, in fact, a bouvette- which sells beer (and sometimes wine) along with suceries (soda pop) but is what he calls a “bar” which is basically where Muslims (guys, of course) can hang out like it’s a bouvette, but where there aren’t all those pesky temptations (unless you call ice cream a temptation, which I do, but Muslims don’t). As he shows me around I also find out that there is a foosball table, man those Muslims in my village really know how to party! Popcorn! Bisap! Ice Cream! Foosball! Sometimes it really sucks to be a girl here, because I know it would be absolutely culturally inaprops to hang out there with all the Muslim guys one night. But man, that would be fun! Don’t worry… I won’t actually do it!

In other news, my birthday was pretty awesome, in large part due to the fact that I got two packages (thanks Mae and Mom!) and also that I spent most of the day (a little too much actually) in Cotonou with my friend Laura. It was really great to hang out with her and also get to chat with everyone at the office, it was the most time I had thought all in English all in a row for a long time! And when I got home I had Annie’s shells and cheese (thanks again Mae) with Cherry Kool-Aid (thanks Gram!) and God decided to give me another present. You see, here, unlike in Porto-Novo, the electricity usually goes off during the day, which is pretty sweet, but also a let down. A let down because as my neighbors will tell you (they think I’m crazy) I really like to look at the starts. But even here there is quite a bit of light pollution. However, on my birthday, just as I was finishing eating my amazing mac and cheese all the power went out. It was an amazingly clear and clean night and with the view from here I could see more stars than I’ve ever seen at one time before. It was absolutely beautiful, although I did find myself wanting to know what constellations I was looking at (nudge, nudge, wink, wink if you are thinking of sending me a package!)

So long for now, I think this will get posted fairly soon!
Love, Glenna

Oops...

So appparently that video didnt turn out so well; ill try again later. Im in Porto Novo right now; but i stupidly forgot the flash drive with a few blog posts on it already so this on is live people!

First of all, thank you all for the birthday wishes weither they be in email, failed or sucessful phonecall or facebook message, which i cant read due to technical difficulties, but i know are there!I had a pretty awesome birthday weekend, with a trip to Cotonou, cupcakes and a little party in my consession with my neighbors and even some packages that got through customs, thanks Mom and Mae!

Since then, I have been well, if a little busy! School is starting to pick up and this last week I gave my first quiz. The results were dishartening, especially considering that all we have done so far this year is review from last year, I should say that the results were only really dishartening to me; for Benin, and the French type school system in general they were very good, as more than half of my students passed. Being in a system that teaches to the top of the class while leaving the bottom of the class in the dust takes some getting used to... and Im still not entirely sure how to go about it!

Sadie the kitten, more awkward adolecent cat already, is doing well. Still eating lizards in the house and more recently in the consession at large as I have started letting her run around when i sit outside grading papers or reading or what have you. The Mama of the consession thinks that she will still run away, but because every time she comes in the house I give her little smoked fishes she always comes bounding up the steps when I call her. She treats my mosquito net like a kitty jungle gym and hammok and has recently started sleeping up there, so that when I wake up at 6 am, there she is looking at me with hungry eyes and saying *feed me mom, feed me*.

You know your a PCV when...One of the packages that I got on my birthday was from my mom, thanks again mom, and when I opened it I didnt really get to look at the contents too much before shoving everything in my bag and heading back to my post. When I got home I was so tired it was all I could do to simply pour myself into bed and sleep, therefore it wasnt until the next day that I pulled everything out and really looked at it. The first thing I did was put all of the choclate into my little dorm sized refrigerator; yeah, i know, i have a fridge. anyway I noticed as I was pulling things out that a ton of ants had gotten into my bag during the night! I thought this was really annoying and kinda weird since everything was sealed and I hadnt had an ant problem until then, but I dealt with it and whatever... So a couple of days ago I got an intese chocolate craving and headed for the bag of m and ms that were chillin in my fridge. Opened the bag, noticed theyd melted a bit, oh well and started munching away. Then I noticed, the entire bag was filled with dead ants! What did I do? The only thing to do... I went through the bag and picked out the ants. All the time, not grassed out but slightly annoyed that A.damn Beninese customs for having ant intfested wearhouses where they kept my package for weeks and B.damn Mars CO. for not having well sealed bags! After the sorting was through and I was eating some m and ms I mused that in a year I probably would eat the ants for the extra protean and that in two years i wouldnt have to rationalize eating ants, and that a year ago I would have thrown the whole bag out! Life is sure interesting...

Every once in awhile when Im planning classes or something where I have to think of the date I think of how weird it is that its OCTOBER, which ends today. and that it feels as if I have really only been here a few days, except that when I think back to when we first got here it seems like a million years ago! As I sit on my porch and drink tea while looking over the breathtaking Oweme Tiver Valley I think about the fact that at home its cold and rainy and it will soon be winter and Im sure that the next two years will feel like endless summer to me.

With that! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
love and miss you, Glenna

Sadie eating a Lizard

It was a little gross, but I hate those little bastards pooping all over my stuff and popping out of places unexpectedly.

Happy Birthday to me...!

October 16, 2009
Happy Birthday to me!
I’m in Cotonou today buying a few things at the Hyper-Marche Arivan (cake pan, litter box, anything else that catches my fancy), which according to reports of other volunteers is pretty much a Wal-Mart, but in Africa. And meeting up with my friend Laura for lunch and some catching up, including a chat about our chats (cats) like two little old ladies (no offense Gram! it’s a good thing!) speaking of which, hopefully I can figure out how to load some of the videos/pictures of her (and other stuff too).

Other things… school and my post is really great. I’m learning some local language, Gun (pronounced Goon, like in The Goonies, that amazing movie from the 80s), with a lot of practice to be had in my concession (the compound that my house is in, which is: a Grandma who sells African moonshine in the market, 3 of her daughters, and all of their kids, the Censour-VP- of my school, and some older boys who board here during the school year as they live to far away to commute and their villages are to small to have a high school) as only some of them speak French but they all speak Gun, except me, I spend a lot of time watching things, like the stars and the kids running around. I also like just to wander around the village randomly “saluaing” (saying hello, it’s very impolite on to do it) people, which is pretty fun and has lead to meeting some really helpful people, like my vet. His name is Dr. Josef and strangely, he is just like every other vet I have ever met in my life, including that everyone calls him Dr. First Name and he remembered my cat’s (Sadie, for Sexy Sadie the Beatles song) name more readily than he remembered mine- an admirable quality in a vet! I’ve also laid some groundwork to do some work with the nuns here, who are pretty cool and not only take in all the orphans who are left (literally- there’s a basket there) on their doorstep, who are disproportionately girls and there are also many disabled kids that live with them. The more I talk with them and get to know the orphans (a few of the girls are in my classes) the more I think that they actually have it pretty good, in comparison to what might have been. First, they all go to school- which is by no means obligatory here, and which you pay a fee for, even at public schools, not to mention uniforms and school supplies which are not terribly expensive, but are expensive enough. I’m hoping (and I think the nuns are too) to work with the disabled kids (I’m sure your very surprised, haha) because I feel like with them I could really make a difference, because I have some experience and some training ( I know I don’t have much, but since it’s unheard of here…) and I have been really upset by the plight of the disabled in the developing world; because here they don’t pay taxes, on anything, there is no money, for anything. There is no money for schools, hospitals, roads, and certainly not for the disabled; so they are beggars on the street and I can only assume that those are the lucky ones as they are not severely handicapped, but only mildly handicapped, so the others… anyway I hope I can help!

So school… is interesting. Learning names hard! Both of students and of teachers, all of whom have a very unfair advantage because I stick out like the only white person within ten kilometers! Because I am! Not that its that bad… it’s just weird. Although I have fairly successfully trained all the kids that I see on my way to the school every morning not to call me “yove” but instead call me “Madame”, now if only it would trickle up to the marche Mamas! Classes are really good. The kids are (usually) interested in what the crazy white lady is doing (miming, saying everything, including their names, with a funny accent) and although I’m a little worried about what will happen when the novelty wears off however, I’m certainly going to milk it while I can. What is really nice is that unlike all of the other TEFL volunteers I know I only have one grade- cinqieme- about 7th grade (kinda) in the American system. 5eme is the second year of English for all of my students, which means that they understand the VERY basics, but I am planning on reviewing for a few more weeks. Another thing about having only one promotion is that I only have to make 2 lesson plans a week, although I do have to do each of them 4 times, which is a little redundant and makes one class hard to separate from the next in my mind. The thing about it is that I am the only teacher for 5eme, which means that I get to set my own agenda for the classes and when it comes to making tests, I just get to write them and I don’t have to collaborate, on the downside it does also make me an island unto myself in the English department. Oh well, they are all really nice, just a little stand-offish and awkward, as one would probably expect, but I’ll get to them (muahaha).

A crazy cat lady ramble…. Have I mentioned my cat? She’s adorable! Although she is already a bigger kitten than when I bought her. She chases, plays with and eats the lizards that infest my house and they are already starting to leave, although I will miss them, if only for her amusement. Hopefully one of the videoes I loaded is of her playing with her food… it was a huge lizard that she caught and when she ate it she looked like she was pregnant! She’s a lover cat though- hence the name, and she LOVES me, pretty much I touch her and she starts purring like crazy, my theory is that she really just loves the fish that I feed her on a daily basis. She also thinks that my mosquito net is the best cat jungle gym/hammock/cat bed combo. At first I was worried that she would tear it, but then she figured out that she can move around easier without her claws, so I guess it’s alright.

Anyway, gotta go! Hopefully it won’t be another month until I can write!


September 18, 2009
MODEL SCHOOL IS OVER!!! Yay and sad day. Can you detect conflicting emotions? That’s because all at once I am sad that it’s over, because I learned a lot and it was fun in between being terribly hard, but I am also very happy because it was a lot of work and a lot of teaching and a lot of training and a lot of stress. It was just a lot. As we look toward swear-in on the 25th I feel the same way about it and moving to post. It’s exciting because I will finally be on my own and doing my own thing, but I am also sad to leave all my friends. On second thought, I’m not leaving them, it’s more like we’re all leaving each other. Not to mention that the prospect of being at post, the only Yovo in my village (although, luckily not the only one they’ve ever seen) and with a post-mate 10k away, but pretty much tout seul.

Last night I was at school (it’s a CEG, a kind of combo Middle-High School) waiting for my friend Laura to get done with tutoring so that we could bike home together, and as the sun snuck behind the cement buildings it started to cool off from the raging heat of the afternoon and was very peaceful. I hope I have enumerable moments like that at post. I felt the same peace that I often feel at home, watching the sun set over Admiralty Inlet or seeing the lights come on in the darkening city.
August 24, 2009
Back in the Med Unit again! And again, nothing too serious, but gross this time… I won’t go into the details.

This last week I went to my post on a visit and I am really in love with it!

The village is about 40 minutes north of Porto Novo, over “terre-rouge”, a dirt road through the jungle/banana plantations. The ride is absolutely beautiful, if a little bone-jarring. The first time I drove along it, I was amazed at how breathtaking the whole scene was. The Oueme River and its surrounding valley on one side of me and seemingly endless lush jungle on the other. Every once in a while we would pass through a small village (and a few big ones) that are made of the red mud with either palm-thatch or corrugated iron roofs. It was like driving through a National Geographic magazine on the back of a moto.

My house is very nice, and as it has been lived in by 3 other volunteers, it’s fully furnished (score!)- although I really need a new mattress for the bed, and a fan would be really nice, and a fridge, maybe... but that’s what a move-in allowance is for!

The village is on the small side, but because if it’s proximity to the river and the valley it also has an AMAZING (by all accounts) market that happens every other day, although the markets alternate between the pitite and the grande. I was also very excited to learn that because of the fertile river valley that there is always something along the lines of fresh fruit and veggies in the marche, although they will vary depending on the season.

All for now! Love you all!

Beatles, Bob Marley, and the Bathroom

August 24, 2009
Back in the Med Unit again! And again, nothing too serious, but gross this time… I won’t go into the details.

This last week I went to my post on a visit and I am really in love with it!

The village is about 40 minutes north of Porto Novo, over “terre-rouge”, a dirt road through the jungle/banana plantations. The ride is absolutely beautiful, if a little bone-jarring. The first time I drove along it, I was amazed at how breathtaking the whole scene was. The Oueme River and its surrounding valley on one side of me and seemingly endless lush jungle on the other. Every once in a while we would pass through a small village (and a few big ones) that are made of the red mud with either palm-thatch or corrugated iron roofs. It was like driving through a National Geographic magazine on the back of a moto.

My house is very nice, and as it has been lived in by 3 other volunteers, it’s fully furnished (score!)- although I really need a new mattress for the bed, and a fan would be really nice, but that’s what a move-in allowance is for!

The village is on the small side, but because if it’s proximity to the river and the valley it also has an AMAZING (by all accounts) market that happens every other day, although the markets alternate between the pitite and the grande. I was also very excited to learn that because of the fertile river valley that there is always something along the lines of fresh fruit and veggies in the marche, although they will vary depending on the season.

Model school starts this week and I can hardly wait!



So recently my host family’s house in Porto-Novo got broken into, nothing of mine got stolen, but my family’s TV, DVD player, all the DVDs and the fan! The scariest thing is probably that this all happened while we were all home, and asleep. Anyway as you can imagine the day after this fiasco was a pretty depressing one around the house, so I decided to get out my iPod and speakers. (Also, two days before this I had bought a guitar- and played the few songs I know on it, mostly Beatles stuff.) The result of the whole iPod/guitar conundrum is that now my family LOVES the Beatles, and goes around the house singing ‘Hey Jude’ which is the biggest hit of all with them, and generally makes me smile. The other big hit is Bob Marley, who my host mama thinks is particularly good for Sunday as he sings about peace and tolerance and brotherly love.

I got locked in my bathroom. I actually have a whole bathroom/shower/sink to myself, which is pretty great, but also apparently dangerous. My bathroom is connected to my room, and only my room, and as nobody ever comes in without knocking or calling I usually just close the door, which doesn’t really shut all the way unless you lock it, but this is not usually a problem. However, last Sunday my friend Laura was over and we were hanging out in my room and I had to use the bathroom, and of course I locked the door so that it would shut properly. It shut a little two properly for my taste and I was utterly stuck. Luckily Laura was there so I had her throw my Leatherman to me through the open window-like ventilation and I took the handle off the door. This didn’t actually work as the door was still locked, but fortunately my host papa came to my rescue with a screwdriver and got the door unlocked. In the meantime, I am in laughing hysterics (my family thinks that I’m crying) on the floor of my bathroom, laughing my butt off at the total ridiculousness of the situation!

All for now!
Kisses and misses! -Glenna

A good, long post... hopefully

I am in the lap of luxury at the moment... I just ate a cheeseburger, I am chatting AND blogging AND on iTunes AND watching DVDs, ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Why this amazing feat of American leisure multi-tasking you ask? Because I am at the Peace Corps Office (known around here as "the Bureau"- which just reminds me of "the Burrow" in Harry Potter, and it does have a kind of unplanned, magical quality to it) to have my blood drawn tomorrow morning, and I tell you it seems like a small price to pay for all of this awesomeness.

In other news...
We find out our Posts on Thursday!! Yay!! I will finally have an answer when people ask me where in Benin my post is, then next week we get to meet with our principles and actually go and see our schools. The week after that we start model school, where we get to teach English to real, live, Beninese kids who come to get free English lessons from real, live, American Yovos. (Yovo being the name that we all get called- my new favorite thing to yell back at them is "maywe" which is "black person" in Goun, the language most common in Porto-Novo)

Training is going really well, it can be a little tedious at times and sometimes I get confused when they switch from French to English and my brain doesn't switch with them. Model school starting should really switch things into high gear as it is a pretty good taste of what really teaching here will be like (at least with the kids, as kids are kids and teaching is teaching no matter where you are- even if it does have it's own challenges in different environments). One of the reasons that things are so tedious at the moment is that I feel like it's just a tease of what is to come, it's like showing us a huge ice cream cone in a glass freezer and saying, we're going to tell you all about the wonders and pitfalls of this ice cream cone, but you can't have it just yet...

My host family is amazing!! I love them! (even more so after hearing about some of the other stagiers families) There is Mama and Papa, Mama is a mid-wife who has her office in a detached "cabinet" that is in the house compound and Papa, who is on vacation right now, but who is a Physics professor at the private, Catholic high school that all of my siblings go to or will go to. Arselle, 17, just graduated from Lycee and got her BAC (which is the test they take to get out of high school with a degree- and because its called the baccalaureate, which is why I thought that she was graduating from college) and there was a huge party at my house, which was amazing and I wish I could have stayed up for, but it was on a Sunday and I had school the next morning so I just went to the "family" part of the party and didn't stay up for the discoteque part of the party (I slept through it- which was kind of amazing). Next is Anais, 15, called "Neso" at home, who is pretty cool and a little shy, but a good kid, he does a lot of work around the house and is very sweet. Then there is Harry, who is 12 and very precocious, his favorite activities include playing with my bicycle (which he has been told not to do several times, but I get it, it's a shiny new bike which he's been told not to play with) and bouncing the super ball I gave him all over the house (which is all cement so it's perfect!) and of course, in the tradition of brothers worldwide, fighting with Deo. Andeole, 7, or "Deo" as everyone calls him, is cute as a button and ADORES me (which is SO cute) he always wants to carry my bags, get stuff for me ext. (which I feel bad letting him do so I don't very much, but he loves it when I let him so...)he has also started to imitate my accent, which is cute and also makes it really easy for me to understand him. Last, but not least, there is Katherine, or "Kathy" who is a niece of Mama's but is also our domestique, which isn't actually as bad as it sounds; because most of the families that we live with in Porto-Novo are very wealthy by Beninese standards, many of them have domestiques, in the case of Kathy she works for the family (but she doesn't do very much more than Arselle and Mama, but she does do a little more)but they also send her to school during the year, so it's beneficial for both sides.

I learned how to do my laundry (by hand, of course) this weekend and man, does my back and my knee pits hurt! (from squatting and scrubbing and wringing) It is an intense operation, and I am so glad that my sister Arselle was helping me! First, you fill 4 buckets with water (from the well, pulling water is really fun, and I can feel my arms getting toned well from doing it everyday), in the first bucket you lather the garment well, paying extra attention to the areas that get dirtier and/or smellier than the others (armpits, collars, hems, knees, butts) then you gently lather everything against everything else, taking care not to stretch things out, rinse, wring and pass to next bucket. In the second bucket you soap and lather again, but less this time, and you beat the crap out of it more, rinse, wring and pass to the next bucket. This is the first rinse bucket. Almost all of the soap should be out at this point and there should be very little dirt, rinse, wring and pass to the last bucket. This is like the "tester" rinse bucket, the water should stay clear (which I have a problem with because I don't wring the soap out well enough- I'm learning!) As you progress, the first bucket needs to be replaced and when it does the second bucket moves up the line and the first bucket gets new water and goes to the end of the line to become the rinse bucket, and so on. It's really hard. I have a whole new respect for all of the women here, not to mention my great-grandmothers who also did their laundry by hand. And to think I used to complain about running up and down the stairs of my apartment building to change things from the washer to the dryer! Hand washing is really hard on things though... some of the shirts and jeans that I have had for years bleed out in the wash, and it was all cold water too!

My French has gotten a lot more fluent and I am even starting to have a Beninese-American French accent instead of a French-American French accent, which is good because now when I discouter (barter, you do it for everything) people can actually understand me, which is key to discoutering. Most of my French class is review for me, granted a much needed review, but still, I will be glad to start local language classes after we get our post assignments. Except that that will also mean that I have to give up Inez, my French teacher, who I love and is amazing and also has one of my favorite names in the whole universe.

Some of you have been asking me what a typical day in training is like, and you won't take my word for it that's it's pretty dull so I thought I would give a description.

5:30 AM- The Mosque starts doing it's thing. Roll over, go back to sleep.

6:00 AM- The butcher across the street starts slautering for the day, and the cries of the goats sound erily like those of children... Roll over, go back to sleep.

6:30 AM- My actual alarm goes off. Get out of bed, fish for glasses which have slid somewhere down the side of the mosquito net, get up, get bucket, pull water from well for bucket shower.

6:40 AM- The Bucket Shower: is really pretty simple, you have a bucket and a conveniently sized bowl and you shower with them, the water is so cold that I still can't get myself to stop gasping the first time I get wet, but it's getting easier. Get Dressed while trying to not get my cloths wet on the wet floor of the bathroom (always a challenge), do something (ANYTHING!) with my hair, which is currently at an awkward length, and it's really hot here' so I want it up!

7:00 AM- Wander into the dining room to see what's for breakfast usually some variation/combination of this: Tea, Hot Chocolate, Porridge, Beninese oatmeal (which is amazing), omelet, and of course French bread (which is always warm and amazing as it comes from the bakery that's right by our house)

7:30 AM- Laura calls. I hang up on her. This is the way that we have worked out for her to tell me that she will be at my house in about 5 minutes, so that she doesn't have to spend credit on her phone everyday.

7:35 AM- Laura and I bike to school, which is always entertaining... getting called "Yovo", getting the Yovo song sung at us, getting hit on by every man under 30 and some over, getting randomly touched, getting honked at my Zemi (moto-taxi) drivers, you know, the norm for a white person riding a bike.

7:50 AM- Get to CEG Davie, talk to our friends about what crazy antics our host families got up to last night, what they tried to feed us, etc.

8:00 AM-12:30 PM- Morning classes, in two blocks consisting of Language or Technical TEFL sessions. Language is amazing, because my teacher is excellent and there is only one other girl in my class, so it's really interactive. Tech is thus far just talking about teaching in Benin, the Beninese school system, teaching without resorting to French, etc.

12:30-1:30 PM- Lunch is always an adventure as we can either by from the Mama (any older woman is a Mama) who sets up at the school, or venture into the streets to try the that fare, which can go either way but is usually pretty good. My favorites thus far are fried breadfruit and toasted coconut.

1:30-4:15 PM- Two sessions of either Language, TEFL, or Cross-Culture classes, by the end of which stretching my legs on my bike feels amazing.

After school is a wild card, I either hang out with some of the tranees at a bouvette (bar) or head home and hang out with the fam, I try to keep it kind of equal so that I get feel socialized while still taking advantage of living with a French-speaking family (not to mention my family is cool). And also going to the market, or the tailor, or something like that.

8:00 PM- Dinner time! Always an adventure...

9:30 PM- At this point I am falling asleep at the dinner table, so I go to bed, only to start all over again in the morning :)

And now, as I am doing the same trick at my computer keyboard I suppose I should post this blog and give up a few precious hours of potential free internet time to sleep.

Love you all and keep in touch!

Goings on...

August 3, 2009

Sorry it’s been awhile, but I have been busy!! And chances to get to the internet have been few and far between.

Training- things are going well, I am getting to know the people in my sector really well and the training is pretty basic right now so not all that interesting, but it will hopefully get better!

French- my French is improving a lot! But I feel really lucky that I started with a strong background in French before I got here because I don’t really struggle to communicate with my family at all, as long as they don’t speak too quickly.

Health- Doing well, a few minor things, but it will all come out in the end.

My Host Family- is really, really nice! I have my parents, a sister who just graduated from college, and 3 brothers ages 15, 11, and 7 and a plethora of extended family members who are always stopping by to say “Bonjour” (and to check out the Yovo).

Being a Yovo- it’s weird, being the minority. It seems like every time I am not at home or with all the Peace Corps kids (and even sometimes then), that I get pointed at and called “Yovo” on the streets, the little kids have this pretty annoying song that they sing “Yovo, Yovo, bon sois…”. It’s just difficult to give up any and all anonymity that I have at home, not to mention that you have to bargain at the market twice as much as anyone else because everyone thinks you are rich.

My first weekend- was very eventful. Saturday was Independence Day here and then on Sunday there was a big party at my house for my sister’s graduation. Saturday we stuck pretty close to home because my mama, sister, mama’s sister’s “woman” and another hired woman worked for two days to cook a whole goat, a turkey, two rabbits and countless potatoes, rice, bananas, tomatoes, and I don’t know what all. Independence Day here is pretty much the same as the 4th at home, but less commercialized and there are no fireworks. But there is a military parade and a bad-ass soccer game on hard packed red clay. Sunday my host sister had a graduation party and it was crazy!

First Post In Benin!!

July 27, 2009

The last few days have gone by all too quickly. I'm getting to know my fellow stagiers (trainees) and also some of the current volunteers. We are living in a hostel/monastery in a suburb of Cotonou; as it is an enclosed compound we don't get to go out much, so most of what I have seen of Africa is from the van going to and from our training area to the PC office for shots, various interviews, and to use the wifi! Today we have zemijohn (moto-taxi) training - don't worry Mom, we have helmets- and also interviews with our program directors (ikes!). So I don't have much time, but I will probably get a chance to call later this afternoon (morning to you). Love you all!

PS- I am going to add a sidebar with things that you should feel free to send me! Yay Packages!!




July 25, 2009 (I think)

I’M HERE!!!
Got here tonight (hopefully I’ll get to post this tomorrow, there has to be internet somewhere!!) at around 10 PM, got to our first place to stay. It’s called St. Jean Etudes and it’s a monastery/school that the PC rents for us the first few days, it’s a dorm-like situation. We meet our host families on Tuesday, so until then- it’s home!

Our flights were LONG!! With a two hour delay in Philadelphia and then another 40 minute delay in Paris. I slept off and on and as a result didn’t see one whole movie during the total plane time of 18 hours. I did however, receive a gift from the Airplane Gods- a pair of ridiculously swollen feet! I’ve never had that happen before and now my feet and even my lower legs are swollen so that my chicken ankles look like cankles!

On the ride in from the airport I got my first glimpse of Africa, and it looks good enough to eat. We were all crammed into a couple of vans and as we drove through the city every so often over the smell of burning gasoline would come a delectable snatch of something better, I can’t wait to have the chance to explore!

Time for bed now, under my mosquito net, which is both functional and aesthetically pleasing...

Love you, Miss you, Write more soon!

Philadelphia!!

Hi All!
I got this far! I've met a few of my fellow PCVTs, we went out to dinner last night and had a great walk/chat along the way. Training starts at 1 PM so I'm getting some sight seeing in with the girls I met last night and I'll update you all after some things start to happen.

I love and miss you all!

Good News!!

Today was a day filled with good news from the Peace Corps!

First, this morning I called the PC travel agency and got my flight info settled. I'm leaving on the 21st at about noon and arriving in Philadelphia at around 10 PM, with a stopover in Nashville. All of that makes it seem like it's really real and is really going to happen.

The next bit of excitement was that I will not be delayed because of my Hypothyroid! Yay! I do have to make sure to have it checked out once I've been in Benin for about 2 weeks (which will be two months after I started taking the medication, so it's really just a check-up), but I won't be delayed! Yay!

Really the one down point in my day was that I started packing in earnest, so my room now looks like an alcoholic lives here due to all of the liqueur boxes piled high (they do make the best packing boxes though!- so good and sturdy!). And now that I have my flight info I can pretty safely say that I can take my guitar with me to Benin without too much of a problem, although Delta did say to have it in a hard case, which worries me... Oh well, I guess there is always something to fret over!

One more week in my Seattle apartment :( I sure will miss it, from Babar upstairs to the drunks in the alley, but especially I will miss my roommate Marie and my half-roommate Andrew! And maybe my super-huge closet too!

30 DAYS!!

So as of today I have 30 days (and a few hours) until I leave for Benin.

I thought you might all like an update...

First, the last day of school was yesterday. I met this particular milestone with both excitement and sadness. While I have been subbing in Seattle Public Schools since October, I have been at mostly Thurgood Marshall Elementary since the beginning of the year, working in two different rooms of Autistic boys. Over the past few months I have grown really attached to both the staff and the students and I will really miss it; however, I can hardly wait for my Peace Corps assignment to begin.

Excitingly, I got my staging information on Wednesday! Unfortunately, because I was still working and the PC travel agency is on the East Coast, I haven't made my exact travel arrangements yet, but I will on Monday! When I think of this I begin to think that this is really going to happen. Yay!

Depressingly, I think I might get delayed. I recently got a physical done to be on the safe side before I leave and the Doc discovered that I have a Hypotyroid (sp?) which should really not be a big deal (the pharmacist told me that the side effect for an overdose of the medication is "jitteryness"- yep, it's that serious...) but because I'm leaving so soon and the PC likes you to be on any new medication for 3 months before you go, it's a problem. Hopefully it will all work out, but in the meantime my palms have broken out in hives from the combined stress of this and some family stuff as well. I WANT TO GO TO BENIN!!!! NOW!!!

In the meantime I am going to try and see everyone before I (fingers-crossed) leave. I got to Spokane for my friend Anna's wedding (which was a blast) but I would like to get over for a week or so and see everyone now that I am on vacation, but it will really have to wait until I my Seattle apartment is pretty much packed up to go. So if anyone reading it is driving the ol' 90 cross-state let me know. I'm also moving to Port Townsend at the beginning of July, so come and visit me!

Tata for now!
Glenna

Back from Hawaii!

So, luck me, my Gram decided that because I am leaving for Africa in July that I should come to Hawaii with her for two weeks, and I just got back on Tuesday. It was a really, really great trip. I got to spend some time with Gram, get to test my high heat/humidity endurance (although I'm pretty sure that Benin will be both much hotter and much more humid than Hawaii), and have some R&R. I also got to test my big duffel bag: it works great- but I think I am going to need to take advantage of Osprey's amazing warranty because bringing back Deruas (Tahitian bamboo instruments)for the class I'm working in at the moment put a couple of little holes in it (and I don't want it to fall apart en-route to Benin!).

I am also going to take this opportunity to steal Camille's amazing blogging skills and upload them on Picassa with a link from this blog- coming soon!

A Packing Dry-Run.

So me being me (hyper, pro-active, slightly OCD, REALLY excited about the Peace Corps and Benin!, too much time on my hands) I decided that it would be a good idea to try and pack the things that I already own before I went out and bought more stuff (good plan? right?) and this is how it went. I have included pictures because I wanted to try and put them on my blog (which I haven't done) before I was in a developing nation with dubious Internet. Enjoy.

 
 
&nbs

Picture #1-The Problem
This is all the stuff that is on "The List" that I already own. So roughly about 3/4 of the stuff that I believe I want to take to Benin. ("Do I want to take it? Do I need it? Can I get it there?" Blog is probably coming soon) Everything is laid out (or in the case of the cloths thrown from the closet into a pile) on my double bed. I was dubious about this plan from the beginning... who's plan was this anyway? Oh, wait. It was mine.

Picture #2-The Solution
These are all of the bags that I am taking with me: my "big bag", the Osprey Porter 90- basically a duffel bag with backpack straps; my smaller bag, the Kelty Redwing 2500W which I took around Europe for 2 months; my trusty "large" Timbuk2 messenger bag; and, my guitar case. As far as I can tell these bags will pass all airline, airport and Peace Corps guidelines for luggage and such (the guitar is the only questionable part, and I have researched it enough to put myself at ease).

Picture #3-The Miracle at Summit Place!
That's it! All packed! And there is nothing but my guitar in my guitar case (I plan to pack some cloths around it for added protection) and "wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles" good ol' Tammy (my Timbuk2 bag) is COMPLETELY EMPTY! Not only that, but I didn't really even have to try to pack my other bags, no sitting on them, no straining the zippers, not even the layering of cloths and less squishy stuff to maximize space efficiency! I think packing for two years like this might be a possibility! Even a pleasure and joy! I can't believe my good fortune! I hope that I still think so when I have to pack for real!

The next challenge: Is it too heavy? But I would have to have a scale for that!

Thus ends my pre-Peace Corps musings! Good night!

Happy Easter!

I'm at home, in Port Townsend for the holiday this weekend and I am glad that once again the weather forecasters were wrong once again. It's beautiful outside! The sky just has the wispy remnants of clouds and the sea is its azure deep blue. The wind is cool, but not so cool as to cool the sun's rays overmuch and my soul aches for the beauty of it. My surroundings are perhaps more heightened by the fact that I know I will be leaving soon and that I will long for this glorious panorama. Even more piqued is the fact that I am cherishing every moment that I can spend here with my family. Cooking and singing along to classic rock with my mom while we cook. Talking about old movies with my gram. Teasing my step-brother about everything. In a way I don't ever want to leave, but as I look for the tell-tale signs of spring around me I also know that it is time for me to leave, and in the leaving, change and become a better, stronger person.

It is with this contemplative air that I am approaching this new period of, you guessed it, waiting. I have submitted all of the paperwork that the Peace Corps needs for now, and now I have to wait for my staging packet- which will arrive sometime in late June. Oh well, at least I'm practicing patience!

My Mail Came!

A not so exciting title to a VERY exciting post! You also might have noticed my new blog title! That's right! I'm heading to Benin! (Google it if you need to, I promise I won't judge you, although the map I can make of Africa with my hands is pretty kick-ass) I'll be leaving for Staging (the pre-departure training) on the 21st of July. After 2 days of that (I think in Philadelphia-but I'm not sure) I (and the rest of my group) will leave for Benin together. Once I get to Benin, then I will live with a host family for 2-3 months, practicing my French and probably also learning a new, African, language- awesome! Then from there I will get my actual, two-year assignment, and I will move to my own house (or potentially, mud hut) and start working as a TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) teacher at the 7th-9th grade level, to a class of up to 60 kids (scary!). I'm pretty stoked! Yay! I know something! Yay! I have something to do! (even if it is in the form of a ton of paperwork...) Yay! I'm going to Benin... now I just have to call and tell the Peace Corps that!

I'M INVITED!!!!

Yay! I am officially Invited today! I got an e-mail telling me that my Peace Corps profile had been updated and that excellent news was awaiting me. Unfortunately, my profile doesn't tell me WHERE or WHEN I'm going- I now have to wait anxiously for the mail to come- which will be made more difficult by the fact that school is out for Spring Break so I am not working this week. I will probably just end up re-arraigning and power-cleaning my apartment (sometimes the jitters work for good!)

Some Good(ish) News

So today I had a phone interview with the my Peace Corps Africa Placement Officer. I think that the interview went well, and that's the good news. The "ish" news is that I still don't get to find out where (and when) exactly I am going. Because of some Medical Issues (nothing serious), they have to make sure that I can be close enough to get checked regularly and also get my medication; I'm not really sure what this entails, but apparently it takes 2-3 weeks. At this point I hope it ONLY takes 3-4 weeks. In the meantime, I thought I would give everyone an idea of the time line that this has taken (and it will also remind me that 2-3 weeks is NOT a long period of time).

February 2008: Begin On-line Application
April 2008: Submit On-line Application
April 2008: Submit On-line Medical Application
May-August 2008: Compile and Submit Medical Application
(June 2008: Graduation)
October 2008: Peace Corps In-Office Interview
October 2008: Nominated with Medical Hold
January 2009: Submitted Final Transcripts
March 5, 2009: Phone Interview

So that is my complete (up to now) Peace Corps Experience, paper work can be fun...right?

OK, I need some help. I have here a detailed packing list (complied by reading the Official Peace Corps packing list, plus several blogs of Peace Corps Volunteers, plus what I think will be good for me to have). "The List" is split into two sections, the "HAVE NOT" and the "HAVE". Being rather broke (and cheap) and knowing that I have a ton of friends and family out there with full garages and keen eyes, I have decided to post my list and ask for the things that I "HAVE NOT", and all of you would search your homes and your heads and your hearts and give me some of what I need (I say give because I cannot promise to bring it back safely and in one piece), or tell me where I might get a good deal on it, etc. So, here goes:

HAVE NOT

Solar Panel (Sunlique? or Brunton?)

Solar battery charger

Rechargeable batteries

Small (pocket size) shortwave/fm/am radio

Red Cross emergency shortwave radio

Ipod armband

Extra Memory Cards

Skype Phone

Handheld tape recorder (+tapes) or Ipod recorder?

Extra Camera Battery

Gorilla tri-pod

Lantern/Flashlight

Travel vacuum bag for pillow

Sea Pearl Tampons or Diva Cup, reusable pads

Hand Sanitizer

Dr.Bronner’s Magic Soap (Tea Tree and Peppermint)

Prescription Sunglasses

Glasses Repair Kit

Glasses Cleaner

Razor that takes replacement blades, razor blades

Pepto-Bismol Tablets

Sunscreen

XS Timbuk 2 ($60ish-more durable) or le SportSac Deluxe Everyday Bag($40ish-less durable)

Guitar Case (Gig Bag?-can probably carry-on or Hard Case?-would be OK to check)

Seal Line Case/Pouch

Sleeping Bag Liner (silk or cotton)

Bug Hut ($39, REI.com)

Hammock (travel/backpacking- lighter)

Thermarest Pad/Chair thing

Carabineers (2?3?)

Aluminum Water Bottle (have one, want another-with wide Nalgine top, for water filter)

Camel Pouch

Headlamp

Small Wallet (that will fit weird bills)

Letherman (Surge?$53.49, futurepowerpc.com or Wave)

Thermometers (outdoor and medical)

Macabi Skirt (one black, one stone)

Cotton Pants

SPF shirts

Running Shorts

1 piece swimsuit

Chacos? (PCV 50% discount)

Cotton Pants (3 pairs)

SPF sun hat

Cotton Slips

Long and Short Sleeve SPF tops

Buzz Off bandanas

West African Bird Guide

Appropriate Star Charts

National Audubon Society African Wildlife

Compellation of Favorite Songs for Guitar (Make)

US map (one pocket, one wall)

World map (one pocket, one wall)

Parmesan cheese

Koolaide

Uncle Dan’s

Powdered Cheese (like in Mac&Cheese)

Popping Corn (also figure out how to do this)

Taco Seasoning

Instant Oatmeal

Scissors (2-3 for paper/sewing, 1 for haircutting)

US Stamps

3 Moleskin Journals

2 Moleskin Pocket Notebooks

Photo Albums (one personal, one to share)

Plastic Document/File Folders

Solar Calculator

20 Passport Photos

Stickers

Pens

HAVE

Guitar

Playing Guitar for Dummies

Diver’s Towel

Water Purifier

Sleeping Bag

External hard-drive

Ipod (and 3 sets headphones)

Otterbox

Ipod speakers(Sonic Impact iF3)

Analog watch (Solar)

Pack – Osprey Porter 90

SPF hoddies (green and orange)

SPF skirt

North Face Windwall

North Face Shell

SU Sweater

Timbuk2 Large Messenger

US to French Power Adaptors

Bible

6 Tank Tops

PJ pants/shorts

Hiking Boots

Running Shoes

Bandanas

Laundry Bag

Umbrella

Spatula (both kinds)

Non-stick frying pan

Can opener

Sharp Knives (2)

Ziploc Bags

Duct Tape

Pocket Knife

Frisbee

Uno (National Park Edition)

Cards (one red, one blue)

5 Crowns

Glasses (2 pairs) (+cases)

Glasses Cloths

Toothbrush, Toothpaste, Floss

Hairbrushes, Long Tooth Comb

Accordion Folder

Moleskin Planner

Moleskin Address Book

Moleskin French Notebook

Moleskin Pocket Notebook

French Dictionary (Le Petit Robert)

French Grammar Book

Pens, Pencils, Paper Clips, Stapler (+staples), Scotch Tape (the tare kind)

Camera (get it cleaned!!!)

Aluminum Water Bottle

Kelty Redwing Daypack

Spices(comboIndian, Mexican, or Chinese spices and things like lemon pepper, seasoned salts

[e.g., garlic salt], cilantro, dill, and rosemary)

Jane Eyre

The Feminine Mystique

Blank CDs (CD envelopes)

Hand Crank Flashlight

Battery Flashlight

Combination Locks (2)

Sewing Kit (Make)

Index Cards

Postcards, Posters (to decorate)

Deodorant

Ear Plugs

Echinacea

Hand Towel

Washcloth

Lotion

Nail Clippers

Passport Holder

Wire Train Lock

Gram’s “Family” Calendar (it wouldn’t feel like home without it!)

Jeans (2 pairs)

Capri Pants (2 pairs)

Belt

Socks

Underwear

Stationary and Envelopes

Full Size Sheet Set

Potato Peeler

Nesting Tupperware

Sharpies

Pillow (vacuum bag for transport)

Chapstick!

Collapsible Steamer Basket

English Dictionary

Thanks for reading, and if there are any Future PCVs or RPCVs out there tell me what you think!

Welcome 2009!

Hey all- thought I would write a little update if anyone out there is reading this at the moment.

I am still anxiously awaiting any and all news that the Peace Corps is willing to send me, and in the meantime I am trying to see all of my friends and spend as much time with my family as possible. I just read my last post and realize that when I wrote it I was still working at Lochner. I have since quit there and am currently working as a substitute instructional assistant (teaching aid and/or assistant) for both general education classes and special education classes. Other than being a lot of fun ( I can't believe they pay me to do it!) I am also learning a ton of things that will be really helpful to me both when I have my own class in Africa and when I teach in the future. Subbing has really been helpful for me, in that it has helped me figure out that teaching really is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Subbing also gives me the flexability to NOT work when I want to. For example, this weekend my step-brother Brian and I took a little roadtrip to California, so that he could look at a school that he is going to there and so that I could see my good friends Nikki and Camille. With a "real job" there is no way that I would be able to do that and having that kind of flexability when I am planning on leaving the country for such an extended period of time is really excellent.

Speaking of my friend Camille, she is also going to Africa with the Peace Corps this February. She and my friend Chris are both leaving next month and seeing them gearing up to go has really started to make the whole thing closer to reality for me. While at times leaving still seems like a pipe-dream, when I am talking to them (even about things as mundane as the endless paperwork) it somehow comes closer to fruition in my mind. I am really excited that I will be able to share (as much as anyone can) this totally amazing experience with two such amazing friends. As both of them will also be writting blogs (Camille in Senegal in West Africa and Chris in French Guyana in South America) I will also add links to them here (as soon as I figure out how!).

I am also trying to put together a list of what to take, that I will hopefully be posting here soon!