In the Groove

Eka Ro and Bonjour! Figure I’m due here for a quick entry. Things are going well! This week I got to start my formations for accounting for illiterates AND literates. I’m also in the early stages of planning out whether or not I’m going to build an orphanage. I’ve been keeping relatively busy also with my French lessons. I’ve been doing them for 2 hours, 4 days a week. Honestly, I didn’t realize how beneficial the Peace Corps would be in terms of my own education. For 1500 CFA and hour, a little more than 3 dollars an hour, I get my own personal tutor. Considering that I paid about 35 dollars an hour in the US, I’d say that it’s a pretty sweet deal. I’m also learning a little bit of Nagot from him that I’ll be able to use at my formations.

Trombone lessons

In an attempt to not forget everything that I learned in college, I’ve decided to start a science club. I thought it was a good idea after I ran into this kid at church who has been trying like crazy to build both a model airplane and model helicopter. I’d like to get a consult from my fellow alumnus of U of I Engineering: Please look at the attached pictures and let me know your professional opinion about why these craft aren’t flying. Please ignore the cords that are attached to them. Funny as it is, I’m actually really impressed with how crafty this kid is and even though there is no way these things will ever fly short of having a rocket attached to them, I admire his curiosity. He even managed to rig up motors that he took out of radios to make the propellers turn. He powered them using either an adapter plugged into the wall or a stick of about 6 D batteries taped together. He says he “kinda” likes math, so sadly I don’t know if I’ll be able to recruit another enginerd.

As for the formation, I guess it was more of just an introductory thing. Normally, Madeline(pictured here) and I go to the formations together, but this time she was running late. So, because I had done 2 lessons of Nagot, I felt confident enough to do one on my own. Ha. What really ensued was me standing awkwardly in front of a group of confused women while frantically searching for the Nagot word for blue, red, green and the different denominations of money. I guess my only saving grace was that I was actually speaking some Nagot, which amused them. Once my friend did finally show up, my group seemed a little tired from counting colors, circles, squares and converting them into numbers. I went into showing how they could use this, but because this wasn’t really an official session, I quickly noticed that they weren’t to content listening to me speak French (which they don’t know). When all was said and done, I’d say it was a partial success, I just hope they stay interested.

My house is doing alright, but I’ve been having problems with bandits stealing my bread in the morning (I think it’s just the girl next door). So, as any responsible Peace Corps Volunteer would do, I’ve hired a guard for my bike. I think people will think twice before trying to get through him. His name is Fauzad and he is 3.

Last weekend I headed to Porto Novo for a nice lunch and a gripe fest with all the volunteers. Andrew, who is the guy that I visited on my Tech Visit, and I just kinda stayed out of it. I’ve started to realize how easy going I can get when it comes to red tape and fun things like that.

It being Halloween, I guess that it wouldn’t be fair to not have a scary story to tell.
So after lunch, it was getting close to 3pm, so we figured we’d go hang out the local buvette and have a beverage. Well it started getting closer to 4:30 and I realized that I’d probably need to get going soon if I wanted to get home before sunset. When I got to the taxi station, I was informed that I was the first person to show up for a 9 person taxi and that the 5 person taxi had left literally 2 minutes before I got there. I wasn’t thrilled, because I had to leave my friends, beer, and English, and not to mention that I’d probably end up waiting another 2 hours to leave. Luckily, it was only an hour, but that put me leaving at 5:30 when the sun goes down at 7. So per usual, we crammed way too many people into the taxi and got underway. The man sitting next to me was a Pentecostal pastor that spoke English, so while it made for good conversation, I constantly had to defend misconceptions about Catholicism. Regardless, I still made another friend in town. I found out about half way through the trip that my new friend had come to Porto Novo on a moto which had broken down. This meant that we had to stop for another 30 minutes to strap this thing to the roof, and we weren’t even close yet. When we came over the top of a hill, I noticed that there was a wall of clouds coming in from Nigeria that was flashing like the 4th of July. Though beautiful, I was a little unhappy to notice that it was coming straight for us. As we started to get closer, I just sat in awe of nature’s beauty blah blah blah. It was really pretty neat, but as soon as we got to my town (which was at about 9:15) and everyone was out of the cab except for me and another lady, the skies opened up.

Really, I’d never seen a rainstorm like this before. There was lighting all around us and the rain drops felt like they were going to break the car open. Just as we were on the way to drop this lady off, the taxi stalled. As we were sitting there waiting for the storm to stop, I couldn’t help but notice the driver and the lady in the front say “Zangbeto” while they were speaking Nagot. Just what I would need is another run in with the Vodun in the middle of the scariest rain storm of my life. So it was nearing 10PM, and I started wondering when this storm was even going to end as water was quickly pouring into this 30+ year old Peugot. I realized that my headlamp, which I had debated buying before coming, was waterproof up to 1 meter! So I handed it off to the driver who pointed it straight at his nose after strapping it to his forehead, which I think effectively blinded him. He must have known the engine pretty well because he managed to fix it and we got underway. After dropping off the lady at her quartier, we headed back up the goudron to my place. The driver refused to pull up to my quartier since it is nestled back in the woods. So, I strapped on my headlamp, rolled up my jeans, and said a little prayer. Just as I was about to step out, a lightning bolt crashed about 200m up the street and knocked the power out. The driver looked at me kinda funny, and I gave him a “here it goes” look and I hopped out. At first I was a little confused because I didn’t remember there being a river in my quartier, but I guess that it only shows up during torrential rain storms. As I was sprinting back I just remember frantically repeating “Jesus don’t let me die” over and over again in between flashes of lightning. The last river I needed to pass was literally about knee deep and I almost got knocked over trying to ford it. As I recall, fording the river was always the thing that got you killed in The Oregon Trail, but there were no ferries or caulk handy, so I was forced to take my chances. I lost 4 oxen and Timmy drowned L . So after drying off, I managed to get some sleep. Probably the scariest Halloween I’ve had since the Hambone Haunted House. Needless to say, no more traveling at night.

Alright, that does it for me. Happy Thanksgiving if I don’t get a blog up by then! Odabo!

Prayer Requests:
Continued guidance with the possible planning of an orphanage.
Continued diligence with French and Nagot.
Safety and happiness of all the volunteers.