Weekly Update: 9.10.11

Whoa, today's 9.10.11.  I love patterns.

• Stage!  I'm in Porto-Novo this week training the new stage (Peace Corps trainees) before they swear in as volunteers on the 15th.  Despite the fact that stage is draining, frustrating, and sometimes boring for the trainees (and, hey, for the volunteers that have to sit through the sessions with them), I'm really loving getting to meet everyone.
  
  This group is pretty fantastic -- lots of great personalities, stories, and conversations.  And no one, not a single one, has gone home (ETed) yet.  It's amazing.  To give you a benchmark point, my year lost four people during stage.  And I think 12 have left in total up to now.  Kudos to them, keep it up, and congrats in advance for making it all the way to swear-in!
  
• Model School Hilarity.  One of the stagiers was overseeing the model school exams.  She told the students to silently bring her their completed copies, then sit back down and wait to leave.  The students stand up, walk toward her in a giant mass, and all start MEOWING as they hand her the exams.  What??  I was giggling hopelessly in the back of the class with another stagier... What is it with this country and cats??
  
• Lou Left. :(  Lou, my closemate in Tchaada, finished his service this week and flew out for home last night.  Hope he and his puppy Rex have fun in l'Amerique! Eat some sushi for me, sir, and remember not to discuter in supermarkets.
  
• Bryant Identified the Spider!  This is huge, as now I can yell at the spiders by a real name (though "person spider" was entertaining) as I hop around them with my broom and can of bug killer.  It is some species in the Huntsman spider group (Sparassidae), and its relatives in Australia can get up to a 12-inch leg span, but mine was only about a 4 inch leg span.  Ho hum.  It looked way bigger on the wall.
  
  Upon further spider investigation, I think the big but less scary flat wall spider is called a "wall crab spider," Selenopidae (Anyphops or Selenops). "Anyphops" is a hilarious word.  I'm going to call them by name from now on.
  
• All for now.  Plans for the next week include: lots of shopping with new volunteers before they go to post, going to swear-in and the swear-in party!, and enjoying time with the awesome other trainers I'm hanging out with this week.  And then... in a week and a half... GHANAAA!