Yovo, Yovo. Bonsoir. Ca va bien. Merci

Hello from Porto Novo!

The title of this post is a song that all the kids like to start singing when they see me, or any white person for that matter. It loosely translates into White Foreigner, Good Evening, How are you, Thank you. Wherever I go there is a small troop of children either yelling Yovo or singing that song. I dont know if I will ever get used to being starred at everywhere I go, or being called Yovo for that matter. One of the reasons I liked Madison over UW-LAX is the ability to disappear in a crowd of people. Haha, not so much the case here.

Training is fairly intense, but light hearted. We train 6 days a week until the end of September, which is when I will move to my post somewhere in Benin. We are learning anything from how and what to plant in Benin, how to start a tree nursury, how to build a mud stove, how to teach env education, learning about the fauna here and how to use it, weaving plastic bags into fun things, as well as organizing the community, and trying to build up their resources. I will not know exactly where I will be in Benin until next week sometime.

So, I have lived with my host family for almost a week now. I have more space that I could have asked for and an amazing family. My host mom is super patient and helps me with my french whenever i try to say something. She has actually spent time in the United States since her husband, whom I have yet to meet, works for the Beninese Embassy and he was working in DC for a period of time. She also speaks some english, so communication can be frustrating, but accomplished. My french is coming along much faster than I thought it would be and yes, my university education in french has not been exactly helpful. We spend at least 2-hours/day in language class, but since it is strictly conversational, I am learning more here than at UW.

One of the most interesting things about where I live and Benin overall is that, as far as I can tell, the wealthy do not separate themselves from the poor as they do in the United States. I clearly live with a wealthy family and yet across the street lives the poorest of the poor. I was completely surprised by this since the very rich in the US live behind gated communities in McMansions where they even create their own religions (achem...Scientology). Benin's society is not like that and I think it actually creates a much more inclusive society. Instead of having someone go to a grocery story, my host mama walks across the dirt road to the family who bakes bread. By spending her money there, 100% is going diretly to the family (not being spread out in a corporation), which directly supports that family's livelihood. Their children grow up together and are still friends; they go to school together. Their appears to be much less 'us vs them' in Benin and it may be related to that. Just some food for thought.

Ok, i have to go since it is getting dark out and I need to be home before dark. Their roads are absolutly nuts and i would rather not compete on the road with hundreds of scooters in the dark. Know that I found a good cybercafe, more updates will follow more regularily.