- Africa Hates Technology. Ever since I've arrived in Benin, Africa has seemed somewhat angry about all the gadgets I brought. It puts up with my flashlights and (so far) my iPod, but had a hissy fit when I found my headlamp and thus destroyed it. It's also murdered a handheld fan, many pairs of headphones, a cell phone, and now, two more things. Ladies and gentlemen, it pains me to announce the death of my room fan and the third and final passing of my Mac. The fan, of course, died suspiciously close to hot season, which leads me to believe that this continent is now annoyed with me personally. Mac, a close personal friend who shared many memories and important documents, lived his last two months in the comfort and constant air conditioning of the Cotonou workstation, but was unable to fend off the evil spirits Africa sent his way. Both Fanny and Mac are survived by a resigned Peace Corps volunteer, several young flashlights, and an absolutely desolate iPod touch.
- It's almost avocado season! And I can see the mangoes in the schoolyard in front of my house-- they're getting heavier and heavier, hanging from the tree branches. Still a month or two to go before mangoes, but avocados in a few weeks!
- Skillz. Spent a good chunk of Wed translating American rap phrases into Gun for no good reason. Rapping in gun, I feel, will be a marketable skill when I start job searching in October.
- Report Cards. Spent the majority of last week and this week calculating grades for my three classes, then entering them into all of the different books with the appropriate colors of ink. Yes, the ink matters. Last year I had to retrace the graded for an entire class because I wrote in blue instead of red. The verdict: predictably dismal, but I now have solid proof that the kids I had last year are doing better in English than kids that had the other prof (my last years' classes had between 39 and 49% pass, whereas the class that had him last year has 28% passing). This is comforting- I am at least a little bit effective. In other happy news, the girls I took to Camp GLOW last year who are still in my class this year have generally awesome grades in English, and I think overall, too. Yay!
- Girl's Club: just to keep y'all up to date on what we're doing, the last two lessons have been about how to save money to buy school supplies (saving money is not really a thing here for cultural reasons), and how to set and reach goals. That was this week, and I had each of the girls set a goal and make a step-by-step plan to get there. Hope they do-- if so, we're going to have a lot of female lawyers here in 10 years!
- Safari! Having finished the first semester, we now get a full week off of school. I'm organizing a trip for 6 of us to go to the wildlife park up north (Pendjari), and I'm really excited. Can't wait to see monkeys and elephants! Will post pictures ASAP. Cross your fingers for lions!
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