Post Visit

So here it is folks! My home for the next two years! Again, I can't say where it is, but I will say that it's beautiful. After meeting my homologue, I had to make it to the market at 7:30 am so I could catch a ride up to post. After cramming into a taxi with Jackie, the volunteer one town over, we headed to post. The second half of the ride was beautiful, not to mention spacious, because I was literally alone in the taxi. We actually passed one of the other taxi's on the way up, which had like 10 people fit into an 8 person vehicle, and then there I was completely alone. It was pretty funny.

Upon arrival, I noticed that the CLCAM was just next door to where I was dropped off, and since that's where I'll be working, I just walked in the front door and introduced myself. Everyone there was really friendly, and as I discovered in the following days, incredibly capable and reliable. Obviously, since this is the institution on which I'll be depending for any kind of advice for the next 2 years, I was obviously pretty excited about it.

Evan the Giant, as he's affectionately known, is the guy that I've come to replace. He's 6'7", so I think it might be a shock for the Beninese to not get a cramp in their neck when looking at me. Evan was a pretty cool guy. It didn't seem like anything really bugged him, which I suppose is the ideal attitude for a PC Volunteer. Over the next few days, we slowly made our way around the town, once in a while stopping to point out where the good places were. I got a chance to meet the Chief of Police, who took down my info and informed me to make sure I respect the traditions of the town…check. I also got to meet the king of my town, who is apparently the most powerful Yoruba king in all of Benin and Nigeria.

He has a palace and a throne, but I couldn't take a picture out of respect. When I met with him, he was extremely kind and well spoken (I guess anyone is who speaks French fluently), and he even spoke some English! After asking me if I have any questions, I kind of froze up and just repeatedly said, "I don't know" in French. He smiled and continued on in. After that, we headed to the Sacred Trash Pile (it's exactly what it sounds like). Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me, but I did notice while climbing it that people in my town eat a lot of escargot!

It was at first pretty overwhelming, but at one point, the other volunteer had to meet with someone and I got the opportunity to walk around by myself. Though the children probably call me Iyovo more here than in Porto Novo, it seems that adults don't do as many double takes as you walk by. I hope that I'll be able to at least have one strip in the town where everyone knows my name. So on my walk, I introduced myself to some folks, but I also stopped off at the bakery. I started talking to the women outside, who continuously asked me how my wife is doing…ha. I told them that my family is part owner of a bakery in the states. Not 2 minutes later, the owner of the bakery came out and introduced himself to me, and after a bit of me explaining, he was happy to show me around. Overall, the place looked pretty awesome, and I told him that I'd be happy to work with him on some business process management, not to mention giving him some other ideas. Either way, I have a bakery 2 blocks from my house and fresh French bread every day!

My house is simple. I was surprised to find out that I didn't have a toilet, but rather a buggy latrine. I suppose it'll just add to having that "classic" Peace Corps experience. I do have electricity though, so I will be quite content not having to set my solar charger outside every day. Overall, I'm sure I'll have to repaint…and stuff. It'll be interesting to see how I handle all of the bugs. I am at least ½ the distance that the other volunteer was from the center of town too, to it will be easy for me to head home and make myself lunch. I can't wait to start making Italian food!!! Just gotta wait until I get my slapchop….

The last thing I did before heading out of town was go to the inauguration ceremony for the handball court that the other volunteer had built. With a maximum 75% of the funding coming from the US, this is a great way for communities to get a hand up while still having to take some ownership of the project. It was great to see that Evan had another project that was outside of SED. It's nice to know that I can mix up my responsibilities while I am there as well and not be stuck with CLCAM the whole time. Overall, I am glad that Evan has paved the way for me in giving the Peace Corps a good name and putting me in contact with the right people to be able to get some valuable work done.

With that, I'll leave you all with some pictures of my trip to Ouidah, where I got to see the sacred forest and the OCEAN! It was not without a bit of a melancholy note though as we also had the honor to visit the slave trade trail where thousands of Beninese were sold off to Brazil. Ok, I'm out, and under a 1000 words!!

I'm working on the pictures, theyll be up saturday probably.