The World Changes Every Day

That's what the scientist leading my whalewatch boat trip today said at one point, which gives you an idea of how many whales there were around us. It's Whalefest in Sitka, which is basically a three-day symposium of talks on whale (and other marine mammal) related research, with cool side events like whalewatch boat trips led by scientists and a (loosely) whale-themed community talent show. Sitka is great. I've attended some of the lectures, and went on today's whalewatch, which ended up being spectacular. Sunny, crystal-clear skies, beautiful snowcapped mountains, cool whale facts from the three scientists on board (did you know that bowhead whales probably live to 200 years old, and can break through 3 feet of ice using their heads?), and lots of humpback whale sightings. We even saw a whale breach! No photos of that, I'm afraid – In a way I'm glad, because it was so beautiful to see and if I'd been behind my camera shooting away I'd ...

Many times during my last months as a Peace Corps volunteer, my mother encouraged me to post one last “Goodbye to Benin” blog post.  Most other volunteers did on their blogs.  I didn't, and to be honest that's partly because leaving was difficult, in many different ways, and sitting down to write a blog post about how I'm feeling always makes me feel it more acutely.  But I've had some time, so here you go. I had a good departure from Peonga, all in all.  I was emotional at times (pretty often actually) during my last two weeks at post, and learned to give myself long walks or bike rides outside of village almost every day, time to think.  Work continued right up to the end, something I was pretty proud of.  In fact, two days before I left I was out in a rice field, transplanting seedlings with the farmer I've been helping.   I also had the opportunity to meet my replacement, which made leaving easier.  She came for her two-week post vi...

I recently had one of the biggest "this is why I joined Peace Corps" adventures of my service.  A few weeks ago, my "mama" (the mother in my concession where I stay) started telling me about a wedding that was coming up.  In my area, weddings are a lot different from what we're used to in the states.  The ceremony is brief, between the men of the families getting married, and the bride and groom aren't really involved.  The biggest part of the wedding is when the groom's family goes to the bride's house, during the night, and collects her to bring to her new house, along with her dowry.  The dowry, a huge collection of household items such as pots and mats and bowls and fabric, is then divided up between the members of the groom's family the next day.  In the case of this wedding, the groom was from my family.  So the morning of the wedding, the courtyard in front of my house was already busy with women making big pots of food...

I live in a very special post, and I've gotten to see many really remarkable cultural events.  Most were small-scale, local events, like the fetiche intitiations that happen regularly in Peonga.  Recently, however, the king of Nikki died and I got to attend his funeral.  (Nikki is a town about an hour and a half from my village by motorcycle).  This was a huge deal .  The king of Nikki is the most important king of the Bariba people, a group that spreads throughout northern Benin and Nigeria.  Every year, all the lesser Bariba kings visit Nikki to pay tribute to the king and ride their richly-decorated horses in a festival known as Gaani.  This funeral was similarly large, with kings and their entourages coming from as far as Nigeria and Ghana.  Not all who came were Bariba; there were also kings from other ethnic groups in the south of Benin.  Benin's president, Boni Yayi, even flew in by helicopter to make a speech!  About five of u...

Was the last post I wrote really about Ramadan?   It’s certainly been a while.   I remember during our Peace Corps staging how we were told that you find lots of first year blogs online, about all the struggles of getting ones service started, but the writing falls off sharply once volunteers get into their second year.   I guess I’ve fallen into that trend.   So many things have happened that have made me think “what a good blog post topic!”   But that’s as far as the ideas have gotten.   So to get things going again, I’ll write about a very simple topic – what is Peace Corps like now, 4 months since I last wrote, and 6 months until the official end of my service?   1.        Peace Corps is Comfortable   It doesn't feel like a major accomplishment to get through a day now.  Sure, I have hard days - but it's sort of the same as having a hard day back in Boston, or in college - just a tough...