It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Yes indeed, they do have Christmas in Benin. We get a school holiday and everything. But of course, there will be no snow (thank the good Lord) and they dont really do the Christmas tree thing around here... but my family sent me a paper one to stick to my wall, and as you can see it is pretty fabulous. It was sorta hard to explain to my neighbors, though...

The lack of American seasons here makes the holidays seem sort of improbable, like we're just pretending it's Thanksgiving or whatever. But it is actually getting a little cool here. There is a season called the Harmatan that is very dry, windy and chilly at least in the mornings, and I think we have started it (although i keep getting conflicting reports of the weather). In any case, it hasn't rained in like a month and it is legit cool in the mornings, like below 70, although it is still really sunny so it's hot by afternoon. All the Beninese run around in jackets in the morning, while I just enjoy not sweating for a bit. Plus, everything in my house is covered in a nasty layer of dust. That part isn't so awesome...


So anyway I was in Parakou (the second biggest city in Benin) last week for a Peace Corps TEFL training. The training part was appropriately informative, but the main attraction was that all 14 TEFL volunteers got to hang out together and have a little fun after being mostly stuck at post alone for nearly three months. This is us on the left, in our fabulous 80's attire that we selected from the piles and piles of used American clothes they sell at markets here. (Next time you donate to the Salvation Army, imagine a little Beninese kid wearing your shirt.) I am way in the back in the picture, but my outfit wasnt great, and we all look like we are having so much fun I had to include the picture.




The other obvious perk of my stay in Parakou was having Thanksgiving with Americans! We went all out and had a really marvelous - and fairly authentic - dinner for 18. Being in the big city, we could get most of the stuff we needed, although sadly there was no cranberry sauce. We had turkey (not a whole one - we bought a whole bunch of what we were told was 'shoulders' and turned out to be delicious) and sweet potato casserole (which i made) and mashed potatoes (not even yams! real potatoes!) and bread and butter and gravy and stuffing and salad and cornbread.

It was all delicious, and we felt very domestic (since none of us had ever coordinated a thanksgiving dinner before) and proud of ourselves. Of course we all had calls coming in from the family at home, but it really was the best Thanksgiving you could ask for if you have to be away from home.

I had to take a picture of my plate because I figured this would all sound wayyy to good to be true, but I am not exaggerating! Look at that turkey shoulder!


Well thats about all I have for today. School continues, although having a break last week was amazing, and this week we have tests, which the whole school takes in every subject at one time (it has something to do with keeping them from cheating) so all i have to do this week is supervise tests, which is boring but doesn't require any planning. And Christmas break is coming up fast! Our first semester doesn't end until February though.

As a general note, thanks for all the emails slash comments slash letters I am getting from everyone! It's good to hear what's going on at home. I'll try to post again soon!