I finally finished training and leave for post tomorrow. It’s a bittersweet time- I’m ready to be out of the host family’s house but not really ready to live completely alone. I’m ready to start cooking for myself but not ready to buy all my food at the market using local language. I’m ready to not have class for 10 hours, 6 days a week, but not ready to leave the company of all the other Americans. I definitely have some butterflies in my stomach and intestinal tract (making friends with the parasites and amoebas, it’s a shindig in there).

We have been taking our final tests and finishing up last minute things to know, including emergency exit plans and locating helicopter landing spots near our houses, in case of things like medical emergencies. No ambulances. In most cases our nearest landing spot was “the neighbor’s corn field” or “any nearby fallow field.”
I passed a level of French high enough to start taking local language, so now I’m studying Fon and Aizo. They’re tonal and ridiculously hard. Not only is it not the same alphabet, but completely foreign sounds, sounds my mouth does not know how to make. It sounds more like Chewbacca (sp?) talking to me than a form of communication.

Friday was our swear in ceremony. Since last year’s swear in was the 40th anniversary of Peace Corps in Benin, the ceremony was lavish: held at the Congress Hall with an after party at the Ambassador’s house. All the volunteers were put up in a hotel to facilitate a last night of general debauchery before leaving one another. But since 41 is not a special number, and probably because Peace Corps is so low on funding, we had some lawn chairs under tarps in the parking lot of the Peace Corps office. It is crucial in Benin that no individual of any importance be omitted from speaking at an event like this, so not only did about fifteen people speak- government ministers, Peace Corps staff, trainers, reps from the Ambassador’s office, volunteers- but each person is required by cultural norms to begin their speech with an acknowledgement of the presence of everyone in attendance. “Dear Monsieur Minister of the Environment and Protection of the Nature, Dear Madame Director of Peace Corps Benin, Dear Monsieur Minister of Primary and Secondary Education,…” and so on until “Dear Dude Who Put the Toothpicks in the Hors D’Oeuvres.” You’re a good ten minutes in to any speech before you hear the meat of it. Each speech is then ended with a series of hopes for the continuation of the various institutions included in the ceremony. “Live the Republic of Benin! Live Peace Corps! Live America! Live Bangkok Terrace-the only place to get Thai food in all of Benin!” (I kid I kid.)

In the end, an even 50 people took the oath that is given to, I’m assuming, all employees of the U.S. government, to uphold the constitution and serve our country’s best interests at all times. I was incredibly touched by this part; I’m not sure if it’s being a Peace Corps Volunteer or just living in West Africa the last two months, but I love America more than ever. Yesterday, while buying a mattress for my new home with some other volunteers, we saw the ceremony and each of our glowing faces on the national news station. There apparently was not much news going on this weekend because I think that 5 minute clip played on repeat all day. I wait no longer for my 15 minutes.

There was a party that followed after, just for volunteers. I won’t go into much detail except to say that our collective BAC was higher than I can count in French and by the end we had a crowd of 25 or more people observing from outside the restaurant’s patio gate. A cigarette company even heard there was a yovo party and came with cartons of free cigarettes, taking pictures of all the white kids smoking their brand. I’m pretty sure some unsuspecting PCV is going to end up on a billboard somewhere in Africa with a caption along the lines of “The preferred cigarette by 9 out of 10 yovos.”

Now current time. I’m not feeling well at the moment, stomach sick and feverish. My hope is that it’s just nerves, the result of the realization that by this time tomorrow I’ll be completely on my own. If it’s not just nerves then I have some tapeworms or parasites to keep me company in Ze. On the subject of things that eat your insides, while at the Peace Corps office Friday a lot of people weighed themselves and probably half the group has lost weight, some just a few pounds, several people 20-25 pounds. I think the most lost in the last two months was 27 pounds. It’s mostly men who are losing weight, probably a lot of muscle mass. There are a couple volunteers who are having a really difficult time keeping weight on, so much so that it’s becoming a medical concern. The guys had a beard growing contest the duration of training and when they shaved yesterday, every single one of them had more defined faces than we remember.

As I said last time, my blog posts and internet access in general are going to get a lot fewer and further in between. So if you email me and don’t get a response for a few weeks, understand that I probably haven’t even received it. I’d love your addresses so I can write letters instead. For those who have written emails lately but have not received a response, Im saving writing letters for lowkey nights (every night). But emails or letters, doesn’t matter. Just write me, please. Or call if you have Skype. Or just come here if you have money.