12 days down...

Well I have arrived at post, and officially begun my 2 years of service. Swear-in passed nicely and uneventfully. The first picture is me in my official tissue (if you look closely you can see the shape of Benin with 40 across it, and it says in French and English 'In Benin Since 1968') with a PCV pal. And it is, as you can see, magenta. The next picture is me with my host brothers, who had adorable outfits made with the matching tissue I gave them. The third picture is pretty bad, but its just to show the different colors of tissue that the new volunteers were wearing (each sector had their own color, but the pattern was the same). Basically, we were pretty fabulous as a group.

So, Sunday the 7th I packed up to head to post in a very full taxi. School won't start until the beginning of October, so I'm spending the first few weeks trying to get my house set up and generally getting used to living here. My general aversion to housework - of which there is quite a lot around here - is making hte house setting-up a rather slow task, but other than that things are going fine. I spend a lot of time going around greeting people, generally in Nagot, which is the local language here. Of course my knowledge of Nagot is limited to 'Good morning/afternoon/evening. How did you wake up? Fine, thank you.' But people seem generally impressed Ive managed to pick even that little up- although it's a product of several classes and some studying before my arrival here. I've made several friends in the village (mostly inherited from the previous volunteer) and they have been very nice to me, and they are always willing to help me out with anything I need.

The next big task, of course, will be preparing for the start of school. I have to keep reminding myself that while cooking every day, cleaning house, doing laundry, going to market, and keeping up with my social life is difficult, I do actually have a job that will be starting soon!

What follows is a sort of overview of the logistics of life without Modern Conveniences, for those who are interested, then as requested a description of Beninese cuisine.

My house - like, from what I can tell, most houses in the village - has electricity, which is not the case for all PCVs in Benin and is much appreciated by me. So I have lights at night and outlets to charge things like a cell phone. I have no fridge though - it would cost too much to buy and then would use too much electricity. The few fridges I've seen around here, even in the city, are generally used just to keep things cool, only plugged in periodically. The exception, of course, is anyplace that sells beer and Cokes, which are always refreshingly cold. Anyway, having learned to cook (sort of) in the US where there are fridges and other convenient things like canned vegetables, I am having to adjust quite a lot. Basically, I have to cook (on my PC issued gas stove) whenever I want to eat, although leftovers usually last from lunch to dinner or even overnight if I can keep them from the ants. I havent tried cooking meat yet, basically because I'm afraid I'll poison myself, but I hear even that will keep overnight if you reheat it to kill the bacteria. Eggs, incidentally, dont have to be refrigerated, for a while at least. So I am basically subsisting on rice and beans, although I also have access to spaghetti, couscous, and yams. I can get tomato paste, fresh tomatoes, onions, and garlic at the market, as well as salt, sugar, eggs, and various other things that I wouldn't know what to do with. Right now oranges and bananas are available, but I expect they're seasonal. The good news is that I am able to bake - using a contraption that reveals the origin of the term Dutch oven - and though I have yet to perfect this technique (I burnt my first cake pretty badly) I think there are good things to come. My most frustrating kitchen discovery so far has been that it takes over an hour to cook dry beans - and that's after soaking them for half a day. This is hardly convenient when you are hungry. Makes me miss McClurg...

I don't have running water, but this is less inconvenient than it sounds. My concession (2 other families plus me in a semi-enclosed block) has several cement cisterns that catch rainwater off the roofs, plus a well that I'm guessing we use in the dry season. I (or the helpful neighbor kids) haul that water in to the house where I have several large storage containers and I use it for everything but drinking. Although I still filter and boil my drinking water, the neighbors have said I should use the water from the public pump, which is quite a bit farther than the cistern, for drinking. I have trouble believing the pump water is all that much cleaner, since I don't know where it's pumped from, but whatever. For dirty water I have a drain through the wall of my back patio, and I have several big basins I use for sinks. Then there's the latrine in lieu of a toilet, which is also not nealry as bad as you think.

All in all, life here is a little bit like camping - which I know doesn't sound good to anyone who has heard me carry on about my hatred of camping - but only a little bit. Your feet are always dirty, which means your bed is always a little sandy; you have to sleep with a mosquito net; you have to go outside to brush your teeth; when it's sunny you're hot and when it's rainy you're chilly; spiders are ubiquitous. But other than little things like that, it's not so different from 'normal life' like in the states. My house is really very nice - certainly not the much anticipated Hut in Africa. So I'm not complaining about my very first house of my own. I do miss vegetables though. And meatloaf! Speaking of food...

My one disclaimer about food is that I am not exactly wild about Beninese food in general, although lots of Americans are. So if I make anything sound unappetizing, it's probably just my personal taste...

Pâte- The quintessential Beninese food, this is a staple which many Bneinese eat every day. It is made with corn flour, and as the name suggests (pâte is the French word for paste) it has sort of a thick, sticky consistency. Served with sauce (some made with spinach, some with okra, some with tomatoes), it is generally a meal in itself. Though the Beninese are not averse to using silverware, this is one food they insist you eat with your hands (after washing them of course). Pâte is sort of like bread in that it is mostly just to fill your stomach and give you something to eat the sauce with.

Yam Pile- This is probably my favorite Beninese main dish. It is eaten just like pâte, but it is made of the huge white yams that grow here (pictured at left, partially peeled, with a big knife and on a bucket lid, for size reference). White yams are sort of the consistency of sweet potatoes, but they taste a lot like regular potatoes. Pile is a word that seems to mean 'really smooshed up' so yam pile is sort of like really smooth mashed potatoes.

Other than that, staple foods seem to be rice, couscous, and other pasta, all of which are usually served with a thin, oil-based spicy red sauce. Also white beans, which they eat with something called gari, which is sort of like bread crumbs, but made from manioc, which from what I can tell is sort of like a yam. On the coast they ate a lot of white fish, but here I've mostly seen chicken, goat, and pork, but meat isn't a huge part of the diet.

My favorite foods by far here are the snacks. These include...

Pineapple- A whole pineapple usually costs 75 CFA, which is less than a quarter, and they cut it up and put it in a plastic bag for free! Sadly not available at my post.

Dough Balls- Actually called beignets, these are slightly sweet fried rounds of dough. Guaranteetd to speed the clogging of your arteries.

Bissap- Pronounced bee sap, this is apparently the same as jamaica juice sold in Mexico, reportedly made from hibiscus; but I haven't confirmed that. Basically it's a dark, sweet juice put in little plastic bags and frozen. Best part is, according to other PCVs, it has to be boiled when made, so your chance of getting amoebas from drinking it are low.

Fizzy Pamplemousse- Local grapefruit-flavored soda. Deliciously refreshing, plus fun to order because of the ridiculousness of grapefruit in French.

So that's all for now; I've spent basically all my money on internet time. I hope everything is going well at home... send me updates via email if you have time.

And one last photo - the neighbor girls (who arent as unhappy as they look) sitting in one of the classrooms at my school. The room is a little disheveled right now, but that's where I'll be teaching. (there is a blackboard on the opposite wall.)