My Post!!!

I’m new to blogging but am attempting to use titles and tags from now on, for your viewing pleasure.

I have huge news people! (Did the title give it away?) I now know my post!! In case you forgot or didn’t know, my first two months in Benin are spent with all the other volunteers in the capital, Porto Novo, training. I move to my post, my home for the next two years, on September 26. My very first house! Housewarming gifts can be sent to the address on the right side of this page.

Drumroll please… and my post is… Allassankomé! I know what you’re thinking: “Really?!? Wow, I’m so surprised! You must be… I mean who wouldn’t feel… just… wow.”

Totally joking, you all have no idea where that is. It’s like when I called you so excited and told you I was going to Benin, but even crazier because this place doesn’t have a Wikipedia page.

I have the southern most of all 55 posts. This means:
- I’m practically on the coast, near Benin’s one and only resort city of Grand Popo
- I’m right outside Cotonou, where I can access internet and where the airport is located
- I’ll have loads of fruit and veggies year round (the North isn’t so fortunate)
- I’ll be living and working with the aggressive, colorful people characteristic of Southern Benin (whereas the North is more religious and conservative)
- My mailing address won’t change and I should get packages quickly (shameless plug)

As yet I know nothing about my housing and whether I have electricity or not, or, most importantly, whether there are two strategically placed trees/posts from which to hang a hammock. I’ll update my wish list as necessary when such information becomes available. Allassankomé is a village outside the bigger town of Hevie (one you can actually Google). The details of my job are still hazy but I will be working with Benin’s largest NGO, Bethesda, which has joint projects with the American NGO Mercy Ship. Projects range from promotion of sustainable income for women including commercialization of gardening and environmental products, training of uneducated youth in masonry or weaving (both of which I am a master in, as you are well aware), and encouraging women’s increased participation in development and community. The focus on women and youth was totally unexpected- I couldn’t be happier with my job assignment. There are a few drawbacks to being in the extreme South: the North is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous, less densely populated, and have all the national parks and cool animals and gems like that. Also, I’m a day’s journey from my friends in the North of the country. Sore subject.

Things I forgot to mention that are totally unrelated but that I find amusing:
- There are no trashcans here!! No method of trash disposal. There are impromptu landfills where wild pigs socialize in the middle of things, but nothing organized. I have a trashcan in my house but I have no idea where my family tosses it. My guess is in the neighbor’s yard.
- Malaria really is everywhere. My sister has it. And I have upwards of 40 bites even though I sleep under a net every night, check meticulously for holes, and spray myself religiously. I take my medicine every week but they say 10% of volunteers get malaria every year. A thousand francs ($2) says I will be one of those rogue malaria cases.
- I have officially stopped biting my nails. Nothing kicks a habit like fear of an intenstine-eating disease every time you put your finger in your mouth.
- The Beninese LOVE Celine Dion and Elton John. Then again, who doesn’t?

I'll end with a funny story. Today my domestique pulled me aside, not wanting anyone to see, and pulled out a picture of my friends and me at graduation. She said one of the girls in the house said I gave it to her, and she was upset because she really wanted one. I was totally confused because I never gave anyone a picture and started fretting about people breaking into my room and taking things while I'm gone, but why skip over the Mac and take a grainy picture? Thats when I realized I had thrown that too-grainy-for-my-liking picture away a week ago. A little weird. We were warned about people going through our trash-they say our neighbors will do it at post not because they need things but because they think our trash could be interesting. So in addition to the ring pops, I am giving them each a picture of yours truly (and my roommates because they are all graduation photos) when I move out. Thought you might get a laugh out of it.