tobrè

I have done two major things that have shed much light on what my experience in Benin will be like: last week I visited my post, and I started teaching English.

Arriving to my post required an hour and a half bush taxi ride, and a half our moto taxi ride. The moto part was perhaps one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. The driver hit every bump possible, and there were a couple of times that I swore I was going to fly off and be maimed for life. Luckily that didn’t happen.

I was telling my dad on the phone that before I arrived in Tobre (my village), I thought the puzzle I was putting together had 100 pieces. But then I got there and I realized it actually has 2000. Anything I thought I had figured out about this country is really just the smallest scratch in the surface of what there is to know.

Tobre is small – about 6000 people, and far from electricity, cell phone service, and even a post office. I can walk from one side of the village to the other in about ten minutes. It is exactly what I hoped for. Everyone speaks a local language called Bariba, which I will have to learn in order to get anything I need at the market. My house is in the same concession as the village queen’s, so everytime I go home I’m going to have to do the traditional greeting, which involves bowing and saying “Oh!” about seven times. The nearest well is about 300 meters from my house, so I can either plan on getting some awesome muscles or enlisting any children near me to be my water carters.

I stayed at my school director’s house, since my house is still unfurnished. The way that he runs his house was somewhat shocking, with his wife and daughters quietly working all day as he orders them around. In the mornings while I was there, the daughter and the niece would be sent into my bedroom to stare at their feet and say “Bonjour Madame”, in small pitiful voices.

As soon as I arrived there I was brought around to meet all the important figures of the village, including about 10 elders, the traditional chief, the political chief, the midwife, the nurse, the president of the Parent’s association, the queen, the imam, and the veterinarian.

Overall I’m very pleased with my little village. I kept my eyes open for any signs of need or prosperity, and is an interesting balance. Most houses have tin roofs, as opposed to thatch, but most are also made out of adobe. The school I’ll be teaching at has about 450 students, but less than 70 of those are girls. There are only seven classrooms, but the classrooms that are there are sturdy concrete buildings, as opposed to wall-less huts. It will be interesting to see what sort of secondary projects the community will have me do.

As far as teaching, I taught my first summer-school English class yesterday, and a two-hour class today. And so far I enjoy it completely. The planning is difficult, but at the same time there are many opportunities to be creative. How can I teach classes of over 50 students, without any handouts or books? There are many challenges, but figuring out how to overcome them will be a fun process. I also really like the teaching itself. Teachers here are somewhat more authoritarian than what we are used to in the States, so establishing myself as a no-nonsense, serious educator is what my first goal is. Having students that are almost as old as I am might make that hard.

In other news, yam season has begun, which means good eats for a while. And I haven’t been served gumbo since I last posted, so anyone who was worried about my diet can rest easy.