month two and onward

Two days ago was Thanksgiving, the holiday that, in my opinion, kicks off the American holiday season. I am very jealous of all of you who enjoyed delicious thanksgiving food (turkey, turkey skin, cranberry sauce, pies, mmmmm), and even more jealous that you where most likely with family and friends.

But don't feel too sorry for me, because I'm in Benin. You should probably even be jealous. My life is rich, if not slightly absurd at times. And there is no place like the place I'm in.

Since my last post, plenty of things have happened:
1. School is in full swing, meaning that I teach regularly. My classes are big and diverse, with sixty kids ranging from nine to twenty years old in the same class. My classroom resources are the blackboard, chalk, and my own creative mind. On the whole the kids are well-behaved. I don't think this is necessarily because I'm a great teacher, but because Tobre is so small that it would be especially shameful for any of the kids to get in trouble in my class. Everyone would know about it.
2. I took a weekend trip to another town around Halloween to see a Whipping Fete, which is a coming-of-age ceremony for boys. They start at around eight years old, and though I don't understand the whole story, the main gist is that men and boys dance around with whips and whip each other. There's plenty of drums and dancing, and the point I think is to take the whipping like a man. Its pretty crazy.
3. I've slowly been learning Bariba. I'm far from fluent, or even functional, but learning a local language is completely unlike learning a western language. There are no dictionaries, no grammar books, no cognates. Most of the people can't even explain the structure of the languages, so its more like trying to crack a code than anything else.

There are also plenty of small, day to day interactions that can range from incredibly awkward to unbelievably touching. Most of the time though, they include me looking like an idiot. Since I don't know how anything is supposed to work here (do I bow to everyone or just elders? What’s the best method of hand-washing clothes? Should I wear a headscarf everyday? How appropriate is it for me to disagree publicly with my school director? ...), I think most people see me as a sort of half-person. Or woman-child. I am in need of a lot of education and people in my village are not afraid to give it to me (i.e. "Guannigui, that's not the kind of shoes you should wear to market"). Most of the time I feel like people look at me and just shake their heads.

While playing the role of the ignorant outsider is often fun, if not slightly demeaning, it does mean that its harder to be considered a source of advice and help. For instance, I spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out how I could get my neighbors to wash their hands before they eat. I couldn't just say "Hey, you should wash your hands with soap before you eat", because really, why would they listen to some girl who doesn't even know how to carry water on her head? I finally took a high-context approach, and bought a bar of soap, a little plastic bowl, and tied the bowl up in a tree next to the barrels that hold water in our courtyard. Then I innocently asked my neighbor if I could keep my soap there "so I can wash my hands". Wink wink. The first time I saw my neighbors using the soap too, I was so proud you would think that I just found a cure for cancer. In fact, a few days later somebody stole the soap, and I had to buy more. I really can't complain about people stealing soap though.

But hand-washing is an easy topic to address when compared with some of the bigger issues. For instance, there wasn't any way for me to tell people that they shouldn't tie a newborn baby's umbilical cord off with a piece of plastic bag from the ground, when I have never delivered a baby before in my life. Whereas, the village women have delivered countless babies. And so it goes on: how do I address inappropriate relationships between teachers and students? How do I address water sanitation? Proper nutrition? I have no credentials.

But my impression is, these things come with time and with effort.

As for now I will focus on establishing myself as a good teacher and a ready student. I will also focusing on staying amoeba and parasite free (I'm being treated for it as I write this). Other goals include befriending the nuns in village, weaseling my way into the hearts of farmers so they'll bring me fresh produce, keeping my house dust-free (its the windy season so that's harder than it sounds), and making myself a real part of the royal family. I won't however get the facial scars that the old ladies keep insisting that I get.

If anyone is feeling especially charitable and jolly, as you should, since it is now the holiday season, here are some items that you could send to a certain Peace Corps volunteer:
- Wood furniture catalogs (the carpenter in my village asked for some so he could get new ideas for furniture)
- A mini-mag light (for my neighbor)
- mix cds (for my pleasure)
- spice/sauce packets (like taco, alfredo, gravy, mac’n cheese, etc)
- any good books
- anything else you feel like sending (I’m easy).

Likewise, if you have time to add the following to your prayers:
- Continued patience, both on my part and on the part of my community, as we live together.
- Good health. I realize I had almost no idea how much poor health can affect everything. So good health for me and for my neighbors.
- I want to be a good teacher. So pray that I would be creative, be good-humored, and never be lazy.
- That I can begin to see the needs in my community that I might be able to address in my time here. Being a teacher allows time for secondary-projects, and the sooner I see needs and am approached by my community with things they’d like help with, the sooner I can begin.
- For my fellow volunteers. This is a hard time to be away from home. Also that I would be a good friend to those around me.

All my love, Betsie