A very Peace Corps Christmas

Happy 2009 everyone! Thus begins the first full calendar year I have ever spent outside the US. Not sure why that's important, but it helps me to get a better handle on exactly how long I am going to be gone. I just hit the 6 months in-country, 4 months at post mark, and we are coming up on the end of our first school semester, so there are lots of milestones coming up. Plus, of course, I celebrated my first Christmas and New Years in Benin!

The holidays were pretty good, especially because I got two weeks off of school which was a very good opportunity to lay around and bake a lot. I also went to visit some friends who sort of live in my region, and we did lots of very Peace Corps -esque things to celebrate Christmas. My friend John Mark dressed up as Santa for an orphanage Christmas party (check out the suit - a local tailor made it based on a picture of ol' Saint Nick). Then we killed (ok actually we watched a neighbor kill) a chicken, then deplumed it and fried it for Christmas dinner. Yep, I actually pulled the feathers out of a chicken. The highlight for me was cranberry sauce made with Craisins. Delicious.

Then, I was at my friend Claire's house, and her postmate was doing a world map project where they paint a world map on the side of a school, which is really common for PCVs. Anyway it ended up being more work than anticipated, so my friends and I spent the day helping with that, which was fun, but hot and thirsty work. What I found out, basically, is that I am familiar with an extremely small percentage of the countries in the world. I can find Benin on a map, which is more than a lot of people can say I guess.

I was home for New Years. I had gone to a Christmas Eve service in my village before travelling on Christmas day, which was a 10 to 12 pm service in local language followed by a singing concert. There was a repeat performance scheduled for New Years eve, but I opted to stay home, to the chagrin of my neighbors. On New Years Day I was stuffed to bursting with food by some friends in the village. Then, on January 2, people kept dropping by my house for the 'party'. I was way confused, since I thought the holiday was the day before, and they were disappointed that I didnt have any cookies to give them. Oops...

I took this picture with Roseline on Christmas Eve. She's wearing the hat my grandmother gave me for Christmas, and which I proceeded to wear with my new holiday outfit to church. It was a hit. I think we should bring goofy hats back into style at church.

So school is back on now, which is okay I guess. We will have tests in a couple of weeks, which brings us to the midpoint of the year. My Peace Corps boss is scheduled to come visit in February, so I might be coming home earlier than planned. Well, not really, but I am nervous about it... she is going to watch me teach, and I don't think that is a very good idea at all. Then we have a training at the end of February.

In other news, I am developing several projects around the house (aka thinking very hard about them). These include cementing the gaps in my ceiling, composting, growing vegetables, embroidering a table cloth, teaching Roseline to read, and drying fruits and veggies. If anyone has any insight on one or more of those things, I would be happy to hear about it.

That about sums it up for here. I'd love to hear about your holidays, and lives in general, so drop me an email!