This is gonna be a long one. Sorry bout it.

They say in Peace Corps you will have some of the highest highs and lowest lows of your life, and sometimes they will seem to happen in the same day. I have definitely found that to be true. Unfortunately right now is one of the times I'm frustrated to tears so I hope my blog post doesn't reflect that much. This is also my first time using a French keyboard so excuse the mistakes. I'm too tired to write a witty, cohesive post, so this is more or less excerpts from my journal. You should be so lucky.

I moved to Porto Novo last Wednesday and into the house of my family d'accueil (host family) where I'll live for two months. It took me days to figure out which of the many people in the house were family, Beninese culture is very collectivist. My maman and papa have 9 kids, 3 of which live with us. Their orphan niece also lives there and we have a domestique who is 15 I think. These are orphans or children of poor families who work in homes in return for a bed and some pay. I'm still figuring out the dynamic with that, it makes me feel weird. She helped me with my laundry and I tried to pay her which apparently was not appropriate. I'm used to people giving me strange looks and laughing at me constantly. Its frustrating but necessary to accept to be able to do this kind of thing. My host maman is a gracious woman, very quiet. She carries herself like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders and would take on more if her family or friends needed it. She is really quiet, maybe tranquil is a better word, and has a low, deep, soothing voice. She and her daughters spend what seems like all day buying and preparing food. I've eaten well at my house, better than the first few days in training. It was near poverty rations and stale bread was the only sure bet for some meals. I heard at our health check up Tuesday a lot of people had lost weight haha. (In all seriousness we did eat enough. And I was not one of the ones to lose weight.) I have to fix my own water- get it from the faucet, filter it overnight, boil it, let it cool, then drink it. Takes some getting used to. I was pretty dehydrated for a few days before getting in the swing of things.

We have class Monday through Saturday from 8 to 4 and I literally feel like an elementary school-er again. I have a huge backpack with loads of books and my maman gives me lunch money every day. The first morning I woke up early-6 am- to run and my maman didn't want me going alone so she woke up all my sisters and made my 9 year old sister run with me in a square less than half the siwze of a track while my other sisters were posted at each corner. Awkward, I felt real bad. But they insisted and now they let me run alone. Which is like my mom letting me run to the end of the street and back at home. I'll post pictures of my room in the next few weeks because I don't have time to explain it.

My school is abuot a 25 minute bike ride from my house. Through sand. Amidst constant screams of yovo! (foreigner), honking motos (yes, we ride on the same small path) spewing exhaust in my face, trash piles with the occassional wild boar, midget goats (they don't have the full-sized ones that we do), with a huge backpack and a tres chic bike helmet, in the heat of the day. The sand is the worst part though. Better than going with my little sister who usually drives me and has road rage.

It is Benin's Independence Day but I dont know if my family is doing anything special. I spent most of the day at the neighbor's who have a baby they love me to hold and take a million pictures of. Her name is Leila and she's stunning. My neighbors loooove to teach me French words and I think petit a petit I will speak it well. They also love to laugh at or with me every second. Earlier we wrapped the baby around my back like the African women do and had me bounce up and down like that to lull her to sleep. They almost peed laughing. Then we spent days looking for a mirror so they could show me how funny I looked avec bebe.

Way too many things to share but most will have to wait for another day and an American keyboard. Love and miss you guys