Goals for PC Benin

1. Write in my journal almost every day.  But actually write -- not just "I did this and this and this," but reflecting, digesting, taking time to think.  Writing's the best stress reliever for me, so I'll probably need journal time anyway.  Sub-goal: to remember to make it visual.  My Italy journal is full of little mementos  -- tickets,  candy bar wrappers, newspaper clippings in other languages -- and it's fun just to flip through all the little pictures and things.

2. Learn enough French to be comfortable in it (not fluent, but comfortable).  Learn enough of my village's tribal language to communicate.  And remember to not hate myself when I don't magically acquire both overnight.

3. Have some really hilarious/awkward culture shock moments, and learn to deal with them gracefully.  I anticipate having a couple of oh-my-god moments, some embarrassing misunderstandings and at least one accidental insult.  Goal: to roll with them, do what I can to fix them, and then move on. 

4. Control my temper when Beninese gender roles make me angry.  Two major issues to watch: dramatic gender inequality in Benin, and general intolerance of LGBT relationships.  Goal: to bite my tongue and breathe deeply before I accidentally kick somebody in the face.

5. Make a Beninese friend.  Not just someone who'll have me over to chat, but someone I have a connection with, even over the language barrier and cultural differences.  Tough goal, but I'll try.

6. Go on adventures, and come back with stories.  As long as I'm in Africa, I might as well travel, and I hope I get lost at least once.

7. Get over my somewhat debilitating fear of bugs, particularly cockroaches and spiders.  Right now, my main line of defense is to trap the offending insect/arachnid under a glass bowl (so I can see that it's still there), name it something like "Voldemort," and wait until someone with a stronger set of nerves gets home. I'm guessing that's not going to work in Africa.

8. Eat something scarily exotic, something delicious, and something I don't think I'll like.  I hear they serve gigantic snails over there.

9. Respond to every letter I get.  I'll need mail to remind me that people care about my existence and work, so I'll make it worth the $0.98 or whatever it costs to mail me a letter.  Promise.

10. Be a good teacher, and a good investment for the Peace Corps.  It sounds a little too idealistic to say that I want to make a difference for Benin as a whole, but I do want to do something positive for the people I work with.  I want to, above all else, show them that education is important and worth the effort/money/frustration.  In Benin, education above primary school is all private, and it's often really expensive, so lots of kids drop out at a young age. If I can get a couple of kids to stick it out a little longer, it'll be a big thing to me.

It's Official: Benin!

It finally, finally came -- almost a full year after I started the application, I finally got my invite...!!!!  I'm assigned to Benin (info/map here) as a secondary TEFL teacher, which means that I'll be teaching English classes for 7th-12th graders.  I'm so excited that I think I just emailed everyone in my address book, and I'm still brainstorming to think of more people to tell.  Happy doesn't even begin to cover it.

So now I have to prepare, in three main areas:
1.  Complete the 8,000 lb. packet of paperwork that the Peace Corps just sent me.
2.  Learn French (or at least start to).
3.  Shop for important Benin-friendly things like deodorant, a solar charger, and knee-covering skirts.  To quote a particularly fantastic Facebook group post, in Benin, "knees are like boobs.  Keep them covered."

I think I'll probably knock the paperwork out within the next week or so, because the application for a Peace Corps Passport (different than a normal one) has to go in ASAP.  Learning French is... well, I've started.  All of the French books I can find use only examples about France, which means that my conversation starters in Benin will all have to do with the Champs-Elysees or baguettes.  Oh well, the Beninese eat too, right?  So I'm trying to study a little every day -- the faster I get to intermediate competency en francais, the faster I get to learn a tribal language.

And then there's shopping.  Making a shopping list for two years in a developing country is intimidating.  Thus, I'm copy and pasting from other websites, hoping to somehow build a magical master list that will preemptively solve all of my cravings and needs.  It won't happen, but it's a nice goal.  I'll post it after this -- feel free to suggest other important items (remembering that I can only take 80 lbs. of luggage total).

That's it for now... *&#^$(*Q&#^0598 SO EXCITED!

 - L

Working Shopping List

Clothes:
Current volunteers say to bring the basics and have a lot of clothing made there, because it's cheap and more culturally appropriate.  So that's what I'll be doing.
 - lots and lots of underwear
 - hiking (ugly) sandals
 - 2 long skirts (below the knee)
 - 3 pairs of pants, at least two nice ones for teaching
 - 4 t-shirts
 - 2-3 thick-strapped tank tops
 - one-piece bathing suit
 - hat or bandana thing for shade
 - better sunglasses

Toiletries:
 - Toothbrushes for two years
 - Toothpaste for six months
 - Lots of conditioner (hard to find there)
 - Tampons and chapstick for two years
 - Lots of deodorant
 - Razors for two years
 - Bottle of Claritin
 - A cycle of antibiotics, just in case
 - Multivitamins

Kitchen:
 - Can opener
 - Good pair of scissors
 - Zip-lock bags, maybe small Tupperware containers
 - Measuring cups
 - Spices (cinnamon, chili pepper, etc.)
 - Tea.  I need tea to live.

Misc.
 - Duct tape, and lots of it
 - Swiss Army knife
 - Satellite short-wave radio?
 - A watch with 24-hour time
 - Solar charger (Solis, probably)
 - Rechargeable batteries (+ charger)
 - Head lamp
 - Sticky tack and classroom craft supplies
 - Transformer
 - Cash in fresh-looking bills (or they won't exchange them, apparently)

I Just Gotta Have Patience

...'cause patience is a wonderful thing.
Hurry up, hurry up, gotta have it now,
I want it more than anything!

When my younger sister Mandee was little, her level of patience was, to put it lightly, basically nonexistent.  Somebody taught her this rhyme to repeat when she felt like she couldn't wait any longer... imagine it said at top speed, over and over, by a front-toothless little girl who didn't pronounce her Rs.  So cute!

Anyway, so that's how I feel now.  I started my application last June, so it's been almost a year since I first sent my name to the Peace Corps.  An interview, eight doctor's appointments, several follow-up emails, and two states later, I'm still waiting.  But exciting news!  A guy emailed me a couple of days to ask if I could possibly leave in mid-July to go to West Africa, which means (drumroll please)... I won't be spending the summer in New York, but I should find out my assignment within the next week!  And also, that I'll probably be learning French.

This is particularly funny because my current repertoire of French phrases includes only the following:
Bonjour, bonsoir, au revoir, enchantee -- basic greetings gleaned mostly from Disney's Beauty and the Beast
Je suis la soupe du jour. -- I am the soup of the day.
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? -- A line from Moulin Rouge that I will not translate here and promise to never use in everyday conversation
Luke, je suis ton pere. -- Luke, I am your father.

Basically, I'm screwed.  My friend Lauren has Rosetta Stone for French on her computer, so now that I've graduated from college and have more time, I'm going to have to buckle down and start studying.   Soon, I'll be astonishing everyone with my complex and thought-provoking sentences, such as "Please pass the mustard." and "Where is the restroom?" Survival in a foreign-language-speaking country?  Don't even worry about it.

So that's my basic strategy.  While I wait for my assignment, I will learn French, search for sturdy (read: ugly) hiking sandals, shop online for various outdoorsy things I may need, and recite the rhyme: I just gotta have patience, 'cause patience is a wonderful thing...

PS.  Hilarious example of kids trying to be patient: The Marshmallow Test