Sweet Tissue Picture

Hello everyone! I am on the internet for the first time basically in ages for the express purpose of uploading this picture of my friend Claire (not Atlanta Claire) and I in our sweet tissue outfits. The fabric here is called tissue - its basically just cotton cloth with all sorts of crazy prints. This is my third tissue outfit, and I am totally psyched about it.

We were all dressed up for a party hosted by the mayor of Porto Novo on Wednesday night for all the PC trainees, since we're about to leave his city. There were like a bunch of cultural dances and music and stuff, so it was pretty cool.

In other news, we have just finished model school, which was four weeks of like a summer English school for kids around here that we (the PCTs) taught to practice teaching before real school. It was super intense, and we are all exhausted and glad to be done. But it was definitely good training - I have never taught before, but I feel moderately prepared to walk into a classroom of 60 fourteen year olds in a few weeks. I do have a new appreciation for the horribly time consuming task of lesson planning, although that probably gets better with practice. Mostly I have been working on my stern face (because these kids, like American kids, are pretty obnoxious).

Swear-in, when I will become a PCV and begin my two years of service, is in one week. It's going to be a pretty big deal this year because it is the fortieth anniversary of Peace Corps in Benin, so there is a big celebration planned, which the President of Benin will be attending (he's a big supporter of PC - apparently he invited some former PC teachers of his to his inauguration ceremony). Plus all our host families are invited. We even have specially made tissue that has the Peace Corps logo, a map of Benin, and 40 years or something stamped into it. Each sector has its own color and TEFL got magenta - so get ready for that outfit. It's gonna be fabulous.

I think I never finished my post about my post visit (post = the village where I'll be living for two years, starting next Sunday). I of course had a brilliantly written post composed, but it seems somewhat irrelevant now, so here is the rundown:

My village is sort of in the middle of Benin, about five hours from Cotonou by bus. I was fully delighted by the experience of Beninese bus travel, which was nostagically similar to Ecuadorian bus travel. My village is right on the main highway, which is convenient because it means the bus stops there, but it is still a village - as in not very big, no internet or post office. It does however have a market every five days (yes every five, not once a week), electricity, and a cell phone antenna. My post visit was uneventful, which was good. I stayed with a very nice host family and went around and said hi to basically everyone in the village. The main conclusion I came to while there was that I am going to need a hobby, since school won't start for 3-4 weeks after I get there and even then I'll have quite a lot of free time ... I'm open to suggestions, since I am having trouble finding local crafts/musical instruments to pick up. I'm considering getting myself unofficially apprenticed to a local tailor, but I'm not sure how that will go over...

So anyway, that's about all I have. This last picture is of my two host brothers, Nassif and Ismail, and Rebekah, who is sort of a 'domestique' at our house, and goes to sell at the market with my host mom. I havent taken a whole lot of pictures recently, but I think this one is really cute. It's in the outdoor part of our house (the whole house is surrounded by a sort of patio surrounded by a wall) and you can see the well behind the kids. Also note that Nassif is wearing my bicycle helmet backwards, and saluting Beninese style. Ha.

Hasta luego (I'm trying to keep my Spanish up.)

Kendra