Under Hardships If Necessary

This week I had no electricity.

It isn't hard living without electricity.. in fact before I moved to Benin I EXPECTED to be living without electricity. When you come to expect something like electricity... it becomes hard to live without.

Sometime during the night between Wednesday and Thursday my entire neighborhoods power went out. Power Surges (or whatever) are very common in Benin.. obviously. However, I live right outside the Capitol City.. and I have come to expect extravagant things like electricity. Up until this week.. I had never lost electrical power for more than 2 hours. AKA I was unprepared.

So as I was saying.. when I woke up Thursday morning there was no electricity... no biggie. Then I went to shower... no water!! Oh well. I went to work and assumed all would be right when I returned in the afternoon. Later I learned that the water pump.. doesn't work when there is no electric to make it work.

When I returned at lunch time there was still no power. My neighbor told me there was “a problem la ba”.. which means “the problem is over there” which is the vague and unhelpful answer given for many questions in this country... if you ask where anything is.. it is “la ba” In this case I think that la ba.. meant the power source. Yay.

I was assured it would all be fixed before nightfall. I stopped believing that shortly before bedtime. At this point both my computer and my phone (which needs to charge once a week) were dead. Because I was unprepared.

Friday: My landlord delivered us jugs of water in the evening.. which I guess I should have realized was a bad sign. I keep my water filter well stocked so I wasn't worried about dehydrating. But I did have a lot of dishes to wash.. and it was nice not to have to waste my drinking water to cook some pasta. At this point my kindle (which I charge once every 2 months) and my Ipod were flashing battery warnings saying FEED ME FEED ME!!

Saturday: Still no power. BUT It will definitely be back on today! My landlord pantomimed at me “The men are working on it!” and then did a car motion.. maybe that meant a car hit it.. maybe it just was another one of his weird hand gestures he uses when trying to communicate with me. He barely speaks any french so who knows. At this point I was becoming a skeptic as to the return of the power.. so I decided to try to charge something with the solar charger I brought from home... which doesn't have an adapter for my phone anyway. Saturday was my anniversary (sorry sweetie) and the only thing I was really concerned about charging was the phone. The solar charger (which holds charge) wasn't charged.. or working.. I figured I would be able to fix that on Sunday. Now the kindle and the Ipod have both completely drained.

Sunday: How ridiculous I felt by Sunday. I moved to Benin expecting no electricity.. packing all sorts of solar charging devices and fun stuff.. and day 4 of a power outage... I had no electronics.. no way to contact the outside world.. and NOTHING to do. Of course.. it rained all morning and was cloudy. Natures attempt to foil my plans. At this point I was concerned that Erik probably thought I was dead... and my boss was coming to visit during the day Monday and I needed a phone so he could contact me. I discovered that the solar charger peace corps gave us while not being as nice as my other one.. did have an adapter for my phone. BUT the charger didn't actually work... AT ALL. Now my camera battery is dead too.. I tried to take a picture of the solar powered chain of command I rigged up in an attempt to charge my cell phone.. but as soon as I turned it on.. it asked to be charged and shut off. (I'm a failure at this living under hardships aspect.. I have been spoiled)

Monday: As of today at 5.. when I left my post to come here to Cotonou (to watch the elections.. and apparently football.. which would have been exciting if it wasn't so incredibly disappointing) My power was still out. I was able to charge my phone up in the morning at the office though. Hopefully when I go back home it will be fixed. My landlord said it would.. but then I heard one of my neighbors saying this happened where he used to live.. and he had no power for 3 months.

All in all I discovered that I am completely unprepared for the situations that I moved to Africa being completely “prepared for” Now that I no longer expect them. I also now know that if the power goes out that I will eventually die of dehydration.. at least I was prepared enough in that I always keep enough water in my water filter to last a few days.

Other News: I finally received my absentee ballot today. REALLY HELPFUL... and I finished an entire journal this week for the first time in my life!! 

Love

Z

Trick or Treat: Send Me Extra Candy!!

It's the Halloween Season at home. What a weird time of year to be missing... the costumes, candy, haunted houses, pumpkins and parties!! Here in Benin it is not getting colder... there is no noticeable difference in day light.. and palm trees are definitely not turning red and orange. I don't think children here would be allowed to celebrate Halloween like we do... even if (especially if) they knew what is was. This time of the year.. life is definitely way more interesting back at home. I can't wait to hear about everyone's holiday adventures! We better start planning Halloween 2014.. I'm going to have a lot of Halloween-ing to make up for :D

I have been watching Halloween movies all week... and I'm going to go buy myself some candy to eat on Wednesday!! WOOOO PARTAY!! I tried to find some pumpkins to have a pumpkin carving party... unfortunately I didn't find any in Porto Novo (they do have them in Cotonou though so maybe next year!) 

Speaking of back home (and subjects I can actually relate to). My East Coastness is going to be the death of me in this country. I will be the first to admit that I have an East Coast personality.. generally speaking I am high stress.. overly organized... fast paced.. I live on a schedule. I have never viewed this as a bad thing... I walk a little faster talk a little faster and get things done a little faster. I had my first palm pilot when I was in Junior High (my dad let me take his old one when he got a new one).. and I am definitely addicted to schedules and making lists. I love office supply stores.. and I may or may not have a serious love affair with post-it notes. (I usually jump up and down like a 5 year old when I see the bulk packs in Costco). That being said.. I don't see me putting down the planner anytime soon... but what I plan to work on is just accepting that my perception of what makes a successful day.. and what I should actually be considering a successful day.. is something I have to take a serious *soul-searching* style look at. I learned the term “soul-searching” at Drew U.. not by choice... Hey ADMIN I'm using your vocab!!

This week I made a very packed schedule for myself. Monday went as planned.. Tuesday tumbled... Wednesday didn't happen... Thursday might possibly have moved backwards.. and so on and so forth. There are to many variables.. like rain, does the other person understand the point of the meeting.. or rain.. or lack of communication.. or rain.

On Thursday I changed my schedule for Friday to “Harass People” hoping maybe to light a fire on some things (like finding me a language tutor so I don't have to be reliant on others).. however it was raining and also some sort of holiday... OH WELL. Luckily for me, I live in a country where socializing and wandering around the marche is considered acceptable form of work by most onlookers.. So I spent a lot of time talking to people. I met a teacher and talked to him for a bit, I am going to start with my school part of my community study next week (something that I have been wholeheartedly avoiding). I got really lucky and caught my bread lady walking around the marche.. so I was able to ask her about some different products I saw. Lots of red bananas being sold this week.. a normal thing for Porto but I have never seen them around here.. maybe they are seasonal? There is something weird about bananas being red.

In the Peace Corps world this is a fairly successful week.. I should be thankful.. must stop beating myself up... I had the realization that I am stressing myself out. it really doesn't matter how much work I feel like I did this week. There is no way for me, someone who grew up right out side of Philly.. to have any real grasp on how much work I did or didn't do this week by anyone's local standards... right now my standards are irrelevant. This story will probably be strange to you in a you probably needed to be there sort of way... but it is what made me realize this:

Yesterday evening, my landlords son knocked on the door to find out if the water was out. We went through the normal greetings Bon Soir... Cava Bien... Tu fais un peu? (Did you do a little?).. To which you always reply Oui, Un Peu. (Yes a little). It is considered impolite to imply that you did more than a little... and as far as doing “a little” is concerned,  getting out of bed in the morning.. and breathing... both count. At which point he asked me if I ate an orange today.. which is a slightly bizarre question.. I think he could tell I was confused by it and then added something along the lines of “If you ate an orange today that's good.” I'm still not sure if he was concerned about my health.. or if he was implying that eating an orange is hard work. Either way, his concern wasn't over the amount of work I did do.. or I felt that I did.. or it looked like I did... his concern was that I ate an Orange. For some reason that made me feel a little better about things. It is funny how someone saying something so little and unrelated can just make things click. 

Enough with the differences.. This week there is one thing I can say is the same as at home. 

I am getting a lot of rain.. and judging by the weather reports my friends on the East Coast are about to get lots of rain too! I hope everyone at home is being smart and preparing for the storm that is coming that way :( Hopefully it isn't as bad as they are saying. However, the best thing to do is to be ready!

Cory posted this link on his twitter with tips for preparing. Be Prepared for Hurricane Related Weather!

Everybody Have A Happy AND Safe Halloween <3

Z

No Juicy Stories.

Instead I can tell you...

How to eat an orange in Africa!! 

1. Roll the orange on a hard surface (as if you were going to juice it)
2. Using a razor or a sharp knife carefully peel off the colored layer (but NOT the white layer)
3. Cut off one end of the orange so you can see the yummy part.
4. Proceed to suck all of the juice out of the orange squeezing until there is no more left.
5. Toss the rest on the ground for some goat to eat.

That is about as juicy as my life has gotten recently..

I'll try to find you the juicy story i was asked for..  and get it to you next week <3

* * *

Nothing super duper exciting happened this week so I figured I would just do a general update.

Since I arrived here at post things have been moving.. forward.. in true Beninese fashion.

The first two weeks I sat around.. pulling my hair out.. and waiting for... anything.

During this time I spent a lot of time walking around my local market. I made friends with a bread lady in front of the boulangerie.. so now I always get the fresh bread in the morning which is nice! And the guy who sells locks nails and tires knows me now too. I also spent a lot of time sitting with my landlords wife.. I think she will be very helpful for me as I try to get to know the community because she seems to know everyone and she is very nice to me. My landlord doesn't speak any french but his wife does which is completely backwards to the norm.. he talks to me in hand gestures and grunting noises which might be his local language or an attempt to speak english to me. Since he doesn't speak english or french he might as well go for the language I know. The two of them have been very helpful to me since I moved in.. fighting off termites.. fixing door issues.. they even gave me a broom!

Outside of my "community study" I have been visiting the different farmers I will be working with... and going to lots of office meetings/formations. I even had a few meetings specifically scheduled to let me know that there wasn't time to work with me that day.. but I'm really glad there was time to schedule an official meeting to let me know that... (sometimes I have to try really hard to remind myself that I can do this).

I think the hardest thing for me since I moved into my house in Misserete.. harder than being away from anyone else who speaks english or who has any grasp of what my life is like at all.. and even harder than feeling like no one has work for me to do (even though every one seems to think I'm doing a lot of work and then seem to be offended when I look for work elsewhere).. is that people keep asking me for money.

The Reason For My Problems.

--I am not accustomed to this and I have found it very stressful. I had to remind myself this week that I can't hide in my house.. I have to go out and get to know my neighbors. I also realized that the root of me hiding wasn't the constant shouting at the YOVO or the fact that I wasn't feeling well.. I just was mentally exhausted from people asking me for money and not understanding/believing that I don't have any. I really don't enjoy that every friendly person who seems to strike up a conversation with me then wants me to give them money :( and the worst part is they are offended that I don't think that they are entitled to the little money that I have.  I'm already overcharged for everything based on the fact that I'm obviously a foreigner so PLEASE STOP. Even at work I was getting the feeling for awhile that people didn't want to waste their time working with me... since I am not yet allowed to start applying for grants for their projects. Fortunately, I think I pushed past this barrier (at work at least) and people are at least starting to let me tag along and talk to the farmers I will be working with. It isn't at the point I would like yet.. but its getting there.

Today a friend of mine who lives in the village of Vakon brought me to church with her for a little bit.. which was interesting. She is Christian Celeste and church is an all day affair for her. She was walking me to the road.. because I had stopped by her house and when I went to leave she wanted me to stop in and see her church. It was very interesting.. I obviously couldn't understand a word of what was being said it was all in a local language. It was much different than church at home. Everyone was dressed the same.. there was a band with a full percussion section.. and everyone was dancing (the whole time). I'm assuming the sermon was in the singing but I'm not really sure. I was given a piece of cloth to cover my hair with.. and then I was given a chair and it was insisted that I sit in it. Which was very strange – very few people were sitting and I was the only one with a chair. On top of that I was sitting in the corner with all the small children (who were staring at me) and I was the only person not wearing the matching white outfit. Not to mention.. I'm a yovo but maybe they didn't notice that. Benin is predominately Catholic and Muslim.. but in my region.. even with the Mosques being so very loud.. and I would say that the Christian Celeste Church is the most visually prominent. She said that next time there is a big party (such as a baptism?) she will bring me because it is a lot of fun...

This week I have a bunch of meetings and outings planned with work. I found a place for my garden so I hope to get that started as well.. and I am going to do some mud stove work too! Each week feels a little more full and satisfying.

Moving in the right direction.
Z