You Know it is Humid When...

1. The cover of your hard cover book has actually begun to curl up
2. The envelopes that you brought have begun to inconveniently seal themselves
3. One can sit perfectly still while expending little to no energy and STILL be sweating.

Yes...it IS as delightful as it sounds...haha. It's actually not THAT hot out today because there is a nice breeze. Okay, so I just got back from my technical visit with a volunteer in Pobé (an hour or so away from Porto Novo). Wednesday we went "au village" to do a sensibilization (teaching session) about cooking. We basically teach how to work within the parameters of what is available within their community to build on and enhance what they already do. So for example, the women were there cooking these beignets, and what we taught them was how to find, ecrisée (crush or grind) and add soy for protein in them. So they were the same thing, but healthier. We also made a moringa sauce with it which is that really nutritionally dense plant. The men of the village came too and they dont really do much but apparently they make sure the women do what they learned at home later on. The men and the women always work seperately and the men always get served first--I don't know if I am ever REALLY going to embrace that aspect of this culture.

So, Friday August 1st was Benin's Independence Day. I wish I could regale you with some spectacular tale of how it is celebrated here. As it is, I myself spent the day lying in the volunteers house with a 102 degree fever, throbbing head, and a stomach so bloated it hurt to even touch it with a finger. C'est la vie, right? Thus, having left the United States on July 3, this brings the tally to 2 independence day celebrations that I have missed this summer. Apparently there was a fete and parade and a lot of dancing, etc. but I guess I will have to wait until NEXT August to tell you.

Something that I did not know was that the actor Djimon Hounsou from Gladiator and Blood Diamond is Beninoise, and he was here yesterday. My "papa" met him and if i had been a home a little earlier, I would have gotten to go with him, but oh well.

Training is going well even though it feels like it is taking forever! I am pretty excited to see my post and I think my post visit is coming up on August 20...I go for 5 days there with my work partner to see the village, my house, my ONG (NGO en francais) that I will be working with, etc. It will be good, though I am nervous too. Another trainee decided to leave after the technical visit so we are down another one and usually a few more duck out after the post visit too. It tends to be RCH and EA (health and environment) over SED and TEFL (Small enterprise development and teaching english as a foreign language) who tend to early terminate and no one really knows why except that those two programs lack as much structure as the other two. So it actually felt nice to get back "home" in Porto Novo and my fam was pretty excited...especially Mariane and Matthew. Apparently being away broke some kind of barrier, and now they are all over me all the time to play and hang out. It's kind of cute...exhausting...but cute. But I am struck by how badly the littlest boy acts sometimes because his siblings are so well behaved. So I don't know if it is that he is spoiled and can get away with throwing tantrums or if he will just grow out of it and more like his brothers. Kids in this culture generally do EVERYthing for their parents...they are the go getters-definitely different from the U.S.

But yes mom and dad, I help out in the kitchen cooking and doing the dishes and it makes my 'mama' really happy because most of the other trainees aren't when she speaks to their families (you think you're soooooooo funny writing in french). But then again a lot of families don't want us to help out of they have domestiques to do the cooking because we are in the city so a lot of families here are pretty well off. I think that is really going to be a rough transition when we get out to post. I usually eat bread for breakfast with some hot cocoa or tea and butter or confiture, and lunch and dinner consist of eggs, pate (a pretty much nutritionally defunct mix of flour and water that is the staple of the diet here and many AFrican countries by different names) pasta, fish (i swear the fish is getting to be a bit much) etc. It is pretty repetetive. Cant wait to get more fruits and veggies when i get to post...I am definitely craving it.

Kuehn!!! I plead the fifth on that one but you MAY be right. lol. ask her. Zildlife so far actually hasn't been THAT extensive except for farm animals alllllll the time. Seen some interesting birds with these really long tails flying around. They are pretty and blue colored. I have an awesome picture of a spider to post so I will try to bring my camera later this week to the cyber.

Thanks for all your comments! Sometimes I start to feel reaaaaaally lonely here and then I get online and read your stuff and it makes me smile again. If there was a printer here, I would print it out and bring it back with me but there isn't so i can't wait for snail mail. lol. Alright. THat's all for now! à teut à l'heure! Miss you all!