More pics and an update....

Training has gone really well. I really love the trainees so far. Peace Corp quote~"In an effort to increase the exposure of dedicated Volunteers in the field, and the work of the Peace Corps, the Press Office has developed a “Volunteer Matrix” of star volunteers from all over the world." Guess what. I was selected to be the spokesperson for the health sector in Peace Corps Benin! So I might be on the website and other places. Cool right?! My bestfriend is coming to see me in less than two weeks!! I am so excited. Jealous that she will be in Nigeria while I am not allowed. It's all good though. We'll figure a way to see each other since she's sooooo close. Like and hour and a half. So Nia (volunteer from the north) came to my village for a day and we took some VERY interesting pictures.

So one of my friends went through my trash and found this Peace Corps article. And he speaks minor French so he wanted to keep it to remember me and my role as a volunteer. Next to Tom Kat. Isn't that cute?!

Yes that is what you think it is. A friend wanted to sell it to me. This is NOT agouti, the bush rat that I usually eat. However, regular rat is pretty good too : ) Don't knock it till you try it.

Group picture with some friends. The boy closest to me with his leg up is my "boyfriend." He is such a sweetheart. When people ask me where is my boyfriend or husband and I need to have one, he's my backup. Everybody gets a kick outta that. But eventually, people stopped asking me. Surprisingly, his french is really good and he's been taking English lessons with me.

Yes it is what you think it is. Good thing they weren't used. This is what happens when people go through your trash. I have a latrine to put the others but I totally forgot to get rid of the broken ones I had. One woman's trash is another man's treasure. Should I tell him what they are??

Me and Nia. The pic was taken in my house. I use a sheet as a door to seperate my two rooms because it gets hot. People respect the barrier so it's all good.

Stage

Training is going very well. They are adjusting to the culture here very well. It's also great to be with my host family again in the same town. Hopefully we can go out tonight. Coming back to Benin has been a good experience. Spending six weeks in the states really had me missing my second home. I went back to my house and I found it termite infested. Lovely right. Good thing I brought back a huge can of Raid. It seems to work better. I was expecting a package to come so I could start a cultural exchange program but it has yet to come after over a month. I don't know what's up with that. There are 56 new trainees and I already feel like some of them will be my new best friends. Peace Corps volunteers I feel in my own opinion are the coolest people on the face of this earth. If any of their family are reading this they are being taken VERY care of. We have been waiting forever for them to show up and it has truly been a breath of freash air. It's great to actually be about to give advice now and talk people through their problems. When I was new I didnt know ANYTHING and it is great to see how much I have grown in a year. I will be 26 in about a week and I feel soooooo old. But I guess it is great to be celebrating another birthday in Benin. I will try to make the best of it. Dont really know what to say besides I miss Nat already while she is away for two weeks, my village is still awesome, and I couldnt be in a better place. I'll write again soon. Aizande (later)

Back to Benin

I had an awesome time at home. But home also had way too much drama. But in a way, it was as if I never left. That's the ghetto for you. It is so strange to come back to where I once lived and find so many differences between Baltimore and my village. Where I live, there are drug addicts are on every other corner, you hear police and ambulance sirens as often as the birds, and you can never have a dollar without somebody trying to take it from you. HOWEVER, this does not describe all of Baltimore City. Just up the street everything is so much more peaceful. Although many will not like where I'm living, it was very exciting to be back in it. IDK why but it was. Maybe it was the action, or the idea that there is always something to do in Baltimore. I miss my friends already. I should've spent more time with my closest friends. I regret that but at the same time, I'm hoping they understand that Peace Corps in DC took a lot of my time I could've used to spend with them. When I was in DC, I wanted to do one thing, then all of a sudden something else pops up. As if I was on a Bmore addiction where I wanted to do everything. Now all that is over and it's time to get back to doing what I love most. Being in my village, getting back to work, and seeing my fellow volunteers in Benin. Can't wait to get back. I really can't. Don't you wish you loved a new place like that as much I do? It really is a great feeling.

Oh yeah, so when I got back from Benin, I found out that my weight dropped from 146 to 137 lbs. Everybody was talking about how thin I looked. I do not understand how that happened. Now I think I'm back to 146 lbs. It was ridiculous how much food I ate. I'm bringing back sunflower seeds, peanut chews, gummy hotdogs, and beef jerky for the kids. I also have a few baby clothes for my boss and some other stuff to give out. Hope everybody likes them. A toute a l'heure Amerique! (See you soon America!)

Moving along in Benin

Things are really picking up in village. I also have a slight addiction to Cotonou, the big city. I always have a great time there and I have really cool friends. One volunteer is being transfered to Botswana and she will be missed very much. I've been really sad about it. She is one of my best friends in the Peace Corps. I could tell her anything and she always understood me. *tear* But life goes on. She is very happy about her new placement and I sincerely wish her the best. I also lost all my pictures in my camera so I'm really pissed about that.

Now here's the good news

I have been selected to be a volunteer trainer for the next group coming in July! I'm really excited about it. I will be helping out with child nutrition training and will be taking volunteers to my village during their technical visit. I can't wait to meet them. Not too long ago, I was one of the new volunteers confused, frustrated, excited and curious at the same time. It's nice to be one giving out advice and counseling when they come in with many of the same questions we've once had. It's all a cycle. Before I know it, my service will be over and a new chapter in my life will have started. I'm really thinking about grad school. I was so sure before I joined Peace Corps, then I started changing my mind so I could go straight to work, and once again, I am thinking about it. I spoke with the country director today and she really gave me some good pointers about paths after Peace Corps. We'll see what happens. What I need to do is crack open that GRE study guide again. I'll be taking the exam in Accura, Ghana either at the end of the year or early next year. I always get my work done so don't worry about me.

I also have been selected as the Volunteer Advisory Committee representative for my region! VAC reps are responsible for getting the volunteers together in each region to discuss new ideas, problems, and changes in Peace Corps policy. VAC really gives volunteers a voice and I will be with 5 other VAC representatives dicussing with the country director and administration what fellow volunteers in my region need. So it's good to have an impact.

I completed the PD Hearth Nutrition Recuperation program in my village! It was the first one done in my village and it was a huge success! We had 45 children and 28 mothers participate. Out of the 45 children who were underweight and malnurished, 43 of them gained weight. There are four color phases in PD hearth which determines your weight based on age. If you are in the blue, you are overweight and green if you are a healthy weight. Yellow is slightly malnurished, and red is severe. Half of the children who were in the yellow moved to green, and all children in the red moved to yellow. And this was over the course of 12 days!! So work is going VERY well. We have added moringa powder as a nutritional supplement to their porridge and the kids can't taste a difference. Although there is a slight color change. We also have added other foods to the porridge such as soy, fish, eggs to help pick up the weight. Each day the porridge was made with a different key ingredient. I think for the next Hearth program I will show them how to make mango porridge. I think they'll like that one. Why porridge so much? Because it's an EASY, LOW COST, and FAMILIAR food to make in Benin and it's easy to add key ingredients such as moringa powder. I had some great pics of the program but they were lost. I'll take more at the next Hearth.

We are starting a moringa tree garden in the village. We will begin planting by the beginning of next month. If you didn't know what moringa is, I will explain this miracle plant.

It filters water
High in protein, vitamin C, vitamin A, Iron
Great for diabetes
Great for people with high blood pressure
It grows in parts of the world most affected by malnutrition
It grows in harsh weather environments
It grows VERY fast

So people are excited. Hopefully, in the next 5 years, they will be able to make revenue by growing the plant and selling the powder in the market. That's my update for now. A la prochaine (till next time).

What's new?

Things are going okay. I had a program in my village about HIV/AIDS awareness. I think I mentioned I was going to have an event in an earlier blog. It went very well. Over 200 people showed up. Most have not heard about the virus so the information was well received. There was a pretest on what the participants knew about the virus before the program was started. They didn't know very much. Many thought you could get HIV/AIDS through mosquito bites. Some though kissing can pass the virus. Some though the virus was in condoms. So there was a lot to talk about. A woman who lives with the virus came to the village to talk about her experience. Also we had a condom demonstration and had a series of films about HIV/AIDS in Fon. Lots of questions were asked and many people took the matter very seriously after hearing about it. So it was good work. Today I will be heading up north for a training on moringa planting. We will be starting a moringa garden in my village and the women are interested in using the plant in their cooking for malnutrition recuperation. So things are going really well. It's good to finally be working. Things here go so slow but when it goes, a lot can be accomplished. Also, I went to the Gender and Development dinner and auction. It was very fun. And all money raised went to a good cause.

Burkina Faso was great. I met up with a volunteer I went to college with. It's good to see she's doing well. She plans on extending her service too! What else is new. I am a little homesick. I miss my friends and family. I spoke to my mother last week and I miss her a lot now. I haven't been gone this long from her. But I think it's normal to miss mommy every now and then. You only get one. I am still upset with my folks though. They should make more effort to try and keep in touch. I can probably count on one hand how many times I have spoken to my folks since I have been here. It's kinda pitiful. Also if you wanted to know I am also still single and me and my ex finance never worked it out. Oh well. Sh*t happens. Also, I dyed my hair. It's a good look. I will put a picture up when I can. I also was selected to be a trainer for the next group of volunteers coming in July. Exciting right?! I can't wait to meet them. That's all for now.

Work in my village

Me in my village after a health formation. Images are the best way to get messages through to people with language and educational barriers. They were very happy with the program and wanted to take a picture with the drawings.

Update

I am now single once again. WHY?? Because HE is a workaholic. I mean a REAL workaholic. When you tell your fiance that you were in a moto accident AND robbed and he doesnt call you back because he's too tired from work....we have a f*cking problem. Excuse my french. But that isn't all. Everything with him is about money and you can never compensate not being there in exchange for gifts, money, furniture, clothes, ect. All of it is nice but that's just not my style. He can have it all back and I'd rather be with the guy in my village who lives in a mud hut without anything else but at least I would know that he gives a sh*t about me. Not even a phone call on Valentine's day. AFTER I reminded him. I even called him the day I decided to give the ring back at his job but he didn't pick up the phone. I called him three times in a row. I asked the manager if I could use his cell to call him and guess what. He picks up on the FIRST ring! WHAT THE HELL!!!!

SOOOOOOOO what do I do?? I drop the ring off and made the decision that it would just get worse later on down the road. As fast as I got engaed, it ended just as rapid. Life in Benin....What a ride indeed!

On a good note, I am in Burkina Faso for the African film festival. It is awesome!! The bus ride was 22 hours long. And my body wants to sweat but the air here is so dry I can't. But other than that the country is gorgeous and I am having a great time with the other volunteers!!