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