The World Changes Every Day

I could easily write pages and pages about my two week visit to Peonga, and maybe that’s why I haven’t written much yet – it’s hard to choose what to tell.   How can I sum up an entire place?   Every day in Peonga was filled with some moments of inspiration, heartwarming interactions, learning and accomplishment, and other moments of extreme boredom and lack of direction and purpose.   Site visit was easy and hard, exciting and slow, joyful and frustrating.   One afternoon I got a phone call from a current volunteer in Peace Corps Benin’s peer support network, to ask how I was doing.   I was sitting under a beautiful mango tree and feeling great, gushing about how great my site was to her over the phone.   Just five hours later, after having spent a long evening sitting at my host family’s boutique (convenience store) with nothing to do, all the conversation around me in Fulani which I couldn’t understand, not interacting with anyone, I had a tearful pho...

Peonga is off the beaten path.   Very.   My journey there on Sunday, August 6, started at 4:45 am when my alarm clock went off.   After a bucket bath and a bowl of baobab “bouillie” (gruel) for breakfast, my host parents drove me to the intersection where I and other volunteers were to meet our bus.   Our counterparts from post were also there – they had come to Porto Novo to meet us.   The two previous days had been a workshop with them to go over the work we will do together.   Twilight turned to morning as we waited for our bus, got on, got off to take a more comfortable bus, and loaded luggage, finally leaving at 7:40 (instead of the official departure time of 7:15).   Our destination: Parakou, Benin’s second largest city, 7-8 hours away from Porto Novo.   Other than the speed bumps (which were placed in sets of 6, one right after the other, far too frequently along the road),   I enjoyed the ride.   It was our first real foray ou...

I just got back from my 2-week post visit to Peonga!  Several blog posts are to come about my adventures there, so stay tuned.  Several of you have asked about other ways to stay in touch with me, especially my mailing address. I've finally gotten around to posting my address on this blog - it's at the right-hand side of the page.  I might get another address later, but this one should work fine for now.  A shameless plug for contact from home: letters and care packages would be great!  I will have lots of free time at post, so I'll try to write back to anyone who writes to me and send it using a cool Beninese stamp.  For care packages, anything you can think of would be great.  Unperishable food, seasonings, etc.  Reading material is also a good idea.  We have a good book sharing system among volunteers here, so if you send me a paperback book, or magazine, or anything I'll pass it on once I'm done with it.  Padded envelopes are much ...