à Lokossa

ok, so my group, TEFL, is in Lokossa now, which is a lorge town of about 40,000 people near the southern border of Togo - I think we're only 7 miles away. I've been living with my host family, who are all really nice. We have basically been kept really busy here, and will be for the next 9 weeks or so of stage. Not much else to report, except I handwashed my cothes for the first time, which was really tiring, but worth it. My host family was excited it was the first time I hqd done this, so they offered to take a picture for me...but as it doesn't seem to be working with this internet connection, I guess you'll just have to wait. I hope you're not too dissappointed. It was a pretty awesome picture...

Je m’appelle Yovo

We’ve been in Cotonou for two days day now, and there is certainly one new word we all have down now – “yovo,” or foreigner. Whether we are taking our busses to another location, or walking down the street normally, everyone, men, women, children call out to us Yovo! I think the youngest one we got was maybe just 2 years old… It is not always a negative thing either. I mean, that little boy was incredibly adorable. He just kept waving to us and yelling yovo over and over again.

We’ve been meeting a lot of current volunteers, all of whom so far seem to really love their posts, and really love what they do. Granted they probably wouldn’t have volunteered to meet us new trainees or (“stagaires”) here in Cotonou if they were miserable in the Peace Corps, but still their enthusiasm for what they do really does make me feel much more confident in my decision. They all say their location is the best, whether they are in the north or south, urban or rural, which makes me less nervous about where I get placed. It seems work out for most, which is all I need to know. All the volunteers and other trainees I have met have been really cool and nice, and I think this will be a great 2 years… easy to say when you’re being pampered and living in a sort of hotel. Ciao!

Last night in the US...

Tonight I went out to dinner with some fellow trainees - I may or may not start calling them PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) soon. One of the first things you learn about the Peace Corps during training, by the way, is that they LOVE to abbreviate everything! And for some reason, everything practically starts off with PC. You'd think they would be able to drop the PC since everything has it...but no. (after another long day of vaccinations and staging stuff - which basically consists of sitting in a conference room going over logistics and the like) We went out to a wonderful dinner at a Cuban restaurant, complete with ceviche, which was served on a plate with dry ice, and squash ravioli, and white pear sangria. Basically I was in heaven. Umm, so its late and we will be traveling for about 14.5 hours tomorrow, with about 9 hours in the airport (we totally win, though because the group from Mali that staying in our hotel has a 14 hour layover in Paris, where we have only 5. Anyways, good night!

Staging

Well, I'm in Philadelphia for my staging, and so far I like the people I have met here. And, I now know where I'll be in Benin, if any of you were curious - I'll be in Lokossa, which, since no one knew where Benin was to begin with, will probably mean absolutely nothing.... but, it has an internet cafe, so yey! I will likely be able to stay in touch with people for at least a bit longer. I will however, mention a few concerns that have arisen since the beginning of staging:
1. Benin has scorpions
2. I have never wanted to ride on a motorcycle, and now it looks like I will be doing so quite frequently, and on scary roads with scary drivers...
3. In an effort to reassure us, our staging director told us that if we were really careful, we could avoid being sick for a long time... when asked what a long time was, she said about month...

only 3 days to go...

Well, I am leaving for my staging in Philladelphia with the Peace Corps on the 17th, and then it's off to Cotonou, Benin on the 19th! I have to say, this has really come up on me fast, and though I am incredibly excited, and am definitely ready to leave my little town, I am a good bit nervous as well... but seriously, who wouldn't be nervous about going to live and work somewhere they've never been before and where they don't know anyone - not to mention the fact that they're going there for 2 years! But, as I said, I'm more excited than anything else. My family had a little going away party for me last weekend, which was really nice. Actually, perhaps the most useful part of it was the cake.

It meant that at least for that one day I didn't have to explain exactly where it was I was going. I have gotten quite used to saying,"Benin, it's in Africa, between Nigeria and Togo."

I have basically been spending my time the past couple weeks wrapping up stuff here and getting ready to leave, trying not to over-pack (the limit is 80 pounds of checked baggage, which is really not all that much), from what I can tell from other volunteers' blogs, it seems like most people worry too much about packing, so I'm sure I'll be fine with what I've gotten together. Oh, for anyone who was wondering, I am now officially done working at Subway. (No, not like the last time I was officially done. this time is for real. I swear!)

My plan for the next three days is really just to take it easy and make sure I'm not forgetting stuff. Last time I went abroad, I got really sick immediately because I had crammed way to much in before leaving, so I really am going to try and take it easy and get enough sleep and all, so I can at least get off to a good start. We'll see.

Once my trip actually gets going, I plan on posting up pictures, to make things more interesting, but I don't know how often I'll have internet access, so we'll see how all this works out...