Lots of ridiculous things happen to me all the time here. This is a selection of them:
-I accidentally got pee in my eye once.I was at a restaurant that actually had a real toilet but no light in the room. I hovered over the abyss that I couldn't really see and when I started to go my urine hit the brim of the toilet bowl and shot up at the perfect angle and hit me right in the eye ball.
-One time while I was riding a Zem in Cotonou the Zem driver reaching up while still in motion and almost caught a pigeon with his bare hands and then continued on driving as if nothing happened.
-Once at a buvette in Dogbo (which, by the way has an awesome African mural painted on it that includes Mickey and Minnie in safari gear taking pictures) I had to go to the bathroom so I asked a woman where it was. She pointed to the back area. I went back there, past a group of women doing laundry and cooking, and found the “bathroom” that was actually a 4 foot wall behind which I was apparently expected to pee while making eye contact with the women while they worked. Some thoughts that ran through my head while I did this: “What is a person’s face supposed to look like when they are peeing?” “Should I talk to the women and act like this is normal (which it is for them)?” “ I wonder what they are cooking?” and finally “OMG What is that creature?!?!?!?!”. That last thought was in reaction to the thing I saw laying in a basin on the other side of the wall. It looked like a 3 foot long, hairless, hampster. I stared at it in wonder for a good five seconds and then ran/skipped back to my friends to tell them all about it in excitement. I think it was a bush rat, which apparently taste pretty good.
-I have had a lot of ridiculous, scary, and uncomfortable “taxi” rides here. A taxi here is a car that you flag down on the side of the road that is going the direction you want and carrying other people that are going that same direction. It is quite common to be showed into these taxis with 4 other people in the back seat (plus a baby) and 3-4 people in the front seat. Sometimes it’s nice to sit in the front seat because it’s a little roomier and the Beninese will often give it to you because you are white. One time, though. I had a horrific front seat experience. I got separated from my friends and had to sit in the front seat with an enormous Beninese woman. She would not move over at all so I ended up sitting where the gear shifter was. One option in this situation is to sit with one leg on each side of the console and the gear shifter between your legs. As can be expected, I didn’t like this option much. The one I ended up choosing by default was to lift myself up every time the driver had to shift all the way down and hold myself up like that until he shifted back up again. At various times in the trip he would try to push my back down while the gear shifter was still down. It was hellish.
-Last weekend I went to a funeral fete near Lalo for a Beninese woman who was reportedly over 100 years old. The Beninese have huge parties for funerals with lots of food, drinking, dancing, and obnoxiously loud music. I went with five other volunteers from my region, one of whom had actually been invited. When we got there we had an opportunity to see the body and of course we jumped on it. The woman was being kept in an air conditioned box that was big enough to fit her and six other people perfectly. We waited in line and then piled into the death chamber. As we stood silently in the glass box surrounded by Beninese people pressed up against the glass to observe the white people observing the dead woman, a song began to play from a tiny toy next to the casket that captured the mood exactly: “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”. One of the most unique and beautiful moments of my life so far.
As for a real update on my life, I am doing really well. I am feeling more comfortable in my village and my French is getting better. It’s my goal to force a bunch of the female teacher at my school to be my best friends and then get them to start a girls club to encourage girls to stay in school. I am also thinking of working on a Book Club with my students. Beninese people don’t read much and don’t have easy access to books so maybe I can help my students discover the world outside Lobogo through books. The previous volunteer had a bunch of books donated to the school from America and I am going to look at those after Christmas break to see if any of those serve my purposes. For Christmas I am traveling to the north of Benin and then going to Niger to see giraffes in the wild with some fellow PCVs and then spending New Years in Parakou. I miss and love everyone and hope you are all doing well! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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