Pass the bush and to the left

My host family placement far exceeds my expectations. I must say, I really lucked out. In fact my colleagues have deemed me one of the “haves” as opposed to the majority being the “have not’s”. But they are lucky in that they get the gritty experience now as opposed to experiencing true shock when they arrive at post. Because it is highly likely that myself and the other volunteers will be living extremely rural. “En Buisson”, or in the bush. We are only here in the lovely village of Dangbo for 3 months and then we move on to our permanent post for the next two years. So it is very likely that I won’t have all of these conveniences for very long, but I’ll enjoy them while I do.

So what is it that makes me a have? Well I have a fridge for starters. Even though it is not used nearly as much as it should be, I have a full size refrigerator. In fact I’ve never seen an egg, or milk, or any other dairy product inside of it. They mainly use it for La Beninoise (the local beer), left overs, ice, and other things that really have no need to be refrigerated, but I take full advantage of its ability to provide me with cold water on a hot day. I also have coconut and papaya trees that provide me with deliciousness every day. As for my living quarters I pretty much have my own section of the house. I have a sitting room, a bed room, and an attached shower room. I still have to use a latrine outside but I actually find the latrine to work better for me. Gravity gets to really do its thing. I have a couch, a dresser, and a bed frame. In the family room where I eat my meals my parents have a pretty decent size TV (bigger than the one I had in my dorm room) and a sound system. My house is a 5 minute bike and an 8 minute walk away from the school which is wonderful.   The biggest luxury is that I have electricity! It does cut off unexpectedly but I hear that’s because Benin is in debt to Nigeria and they keep cutting the lights out as a way to conserve. But For the most part I always have charged electronics. However Dangbo does not have a Cyber Café and I am not able to afford an internet card on my stipend. Though I may invest in one for post if I’m not near a Cyber Café there either. 

My family is composed of a mama (over 50), a papa (over 50), a brother (24), 6 sisters (19, 27, 30,?, ?, ?), and a male cousin (between 14-19) who does most of the cooking and cleaning for the family but never eats with us. I think he may be living with us to go to school. I know that happens a lot here. However big my family seems, on a daily basis I only actually see my mama, papa, cousin, and neighbors on a daily basis. My siblings are spread out around Benin and all either in school, working, or married. I can tell I have pretty good parents because all their children seem super sweet and smart. My neighbors rent the house in front of mines from my papa, and from what my brother tells me they have been living there for a long time and are now more like family than neighbors. They consist of an aunt (no older than 25), a big niece (23) who is married but whose husband is away working, their son (1yr 8mths) who cries if I come within a foot of him but will smile at me from afar, and two little sisters (8 & 12). They all come over daily and the sister’s even taught me to wash my clothes in buckets. The big sister enjoys asking me to give her my clothes but I just laugh that off. The little sisters do so much work. I enjoy talking to them because they have weaker accents and take it easy on me when I mess up. My papa is a retired primary school teacher and my mama is a vendor of fabrics, beer, and other random things. On my property I have plenty of goats, chickens, and a dog named Yoopie that is 17 years old and going blind Oh and let me not forget about the squirrels that have been hanging out in my ceiling and fight or mate every night. They are so loud! And their poop sometimes falls through the cracks of my ceiling but luckily I sleep with my handy mosquito net every night that has come to protect me from so much more than mosquitoes.

I’m very happy here despite not having internet and I’ve already gone sightseeing with my brother. I saw “Fleuve Weme” wish is apparently the second largest river in the world. Its only 20 minutes away from me! It was breathtaking! It looked like the Africa you see in the movies. Again, I think I really lucked out with my host family and placement. I only hope I’m as lucky with my permanent site. I also love that the majority of the time I feel like an only child because I am able to have a decent amount of me time which I can use for studying French or just clearing my head.