Important: I HAVE A COMPUTER!

Thank. The. Lawd. I have a computer again!

What this means for me: the ability to watch hours of mind-melting TV and movies, edit photos in which I am sweating too much, and prep typed things before I go to Cotonou.


What this means for you: Actually edited blogs! Hopefully better writing! And probably a lot more inane updates about the large insects I find in my house. Cheers!

Finally: Camp GLOW Post

I've written a lot about the challenges girls face in this country: lack of school-related support from parents, sexual harassment from teachers (some teachers, not all), pressure to marry and have babies right now, and an overwhelming pressure to value household duties over educational/professional goals.  It's hard to see such bright, strong girls being shoved aside to make way for the boys just because of their sex.

That's where the idea for girls' camp came from.  Camp GLOW started in Romania in the early '90s, dreamed up by Peace Corps volunteers who saw basically the same problems there as I see in Benin in 2011.  Our Camp GLOW is held in Porto Novo every year, and this year we invited 50 girls, six of whom were from Daagbé (thanks for your donations!).

To stop myself from rambling for years about how awesome it was to see these girls learning, interacting, and taking control of their own sessions, I'm going to just give some highlights.

• We taught them about themselves.  Kids don't get the sex/puberty talk here until they're in 3eme -- usually at 17ish years old.  That's a little late, especially when all there is to do in village for hormone-filled teens is... ahem.  Because it's always better to have a Beninese person teach these culturally sensitive things, we invited a Porto-Novo-based female doctor to teach the girls about their bodies: puberty, periods, abstinence, and preservatifs (condoms). Personal opinion: when pregnancy is such a huge, education-ending problem here, this is one of the most important topics we can teach them.
• We taught them about their rights.  A fantastic man (Beninese) from the NGO Victory Way came to talk to the girls about sexual harassment and their rights as both women and children.  Victory Way is an organization that works (really effectively, I think) to combat the mistreatment of women in Benin.  The man was incredible, challenging the girls to think and ask questions and argue for their own equality... it was amazing.  The girls really, really got it, and at the end of it they couldn't stop talking about everything they'd learned... how equal they are, how they can push for the same treatment as their brothers get.  Definitely a highlight for me.

The girls playing Zoom. : )

• Zoom! This is probably only entertaining to my fellow Jonesians, but when it was my turn for songs and games, I taught the entire camp an edited version of "Zoom"... which may or may not be a part of King's Cup.  A game we perfected on Saturday nights in college.  The girls loved it. :)  
• Arts & Crafts!  Among the items created: Fanmilk pouch purses, handmade bound books, and beaded necklaces.
• (I Brag.)  One of my girls, Flora, was in my group, and she wanted to know if we were going to go home after the camp.  Home, as in America.  I explained that some would go home because they'd finished their two years, but that I and lots of others would be staying another year.  Flora jumped up and shouted "yaaaay! Madame is staying!"  I'm sure that that was a Class A Suck-Up moment for her, but hey, I'm susceptible to flattery, and that was good to hear. :)
• Seeing My Girls Be Girls.  In class, they're all super respectful, kinda quiet, and not excited or emotional about anything.  By the end of the week, not only did they have friends from other villages across Benin, but they also jumped around, laughed, were silly... they were girls.  Real, free, excited-to-be-alive girls.  

I can't get more photos to upload right now, but here's the full album.  Thanks so much to everyone who donated the funds to make this happen... it was amazing, and I'm so glad I got to be here.  Stay tuned for next year's camp!

Meet My GLOW Girls

Bernadette was kind of a surprise pick for me -- she's an absolute sweetheart, and kind of in the high middle of her class.  I didn't really plan on bringing her until the very end, when I saw how deferring she was to the boys in her class.  She seemed like the perfect candidate for Camp GLOW -- smart, nice, and in need of a little girl power education.  And that's exactly what she got.

Flora (wearing an Obama girl t-shirt in this picture) is the overall top student in her 6M1 class for 2010-2011.  The girl is smart, and towards the end of the year she finally started gaining some confidence in my class... in the beginning, she'd cover her mouth every time she answered a question, and by the end I'd told her to stand up/speak up/put her hands down so many times that she did it automatically!  Yaaaay!  That's just posture, though, and I wanted her to get the full benefit of a week of health, education, financial planning, and women's rights sessions.  She was in my Red team, so I got to spend the whole week hanging out with her and enjoying her enthusiasm.  She asked me if she could come back next year.

Elisabeth is not shy.  She's already a burgeoning feminist (in a questionnaire I gave my girls' club, she wrote, "It is NOT true that men are more powerful than women, because a woman can do anything a man can do and probably worked harder than he did anyway."  She's the second girl in her class (after Flora), is always the first to raise her hand in girls' club, and is rarely too shy to share her opinions.  She also stole my notebook one day, just to write "I love you" (in English) on its cover.  I think I kind of love her, too.

Estelle was the girl I took to Natitingou with me for the spelling bee: an incredibly hard worker, smart student, and sometimes painfully shy girl.  It takes a lot of work to have a conversation with her, and in a large group of people, it's tough for her to talk.  I can sort of relate to that... so my biggest hope for this week was that she would come out of her shell, make some friends, and just let herself be silly.  It took a few days, but by the end of Camp GLOW she was teasing other girls, dancing enthusiastically, and even laughing at my mediocre Beninese dance moves.  I'd call that a success.

Pauline is the oldest girl I brought, and the only one from 5eme.  I found out after inviting her that she's also the little sister of one of my fellow English profs, so that's an accidental positive.  She's a good participant in class and gets good grades, but often isn't very outspoken otherwise... see a pattern with the girls?  Beninese culture dictates that when a kid given an honor by a grande (me), he/she doesn't usually act excited or happy.  They should thank you, curtsy, and walk away.  Pauline tried to do that when I gave her her invite, and even though her eyes were dancing, she kept her face calm.  When she turned away, though, I saw her cheek round out and her mouth turn up -- she was grinning like mad at her friends across the schoolyard.

Odette – Odette’s the littlest of the girls I took.  For most of the year, she was really quiet in class, volunteering to answer a question here or there, always getting good grades, but never really seeking any sort of attention.  At the end of the first semester, while doing grades, I suddenly realized that not only was she the top girl in my English class, but that she was the top student overall in 6M2.  Amazing – little girl’s kicking the boys’ butts. J  She’s got a big, gorgeous smile and a great giggle, and I couldn’t wait to see her soak up all of the important info we were going to throw at her.

Photos! Spelling Bee and Camp GLOW

They're on Facebook!

Spelling Bee!

Last weekend was the 2011 National English Spelling Bee in Natitingou -- this is the one with Estelle and Soulemane, my awesome kids from CEG Daagbe.

The transport was, in all honesty, kind of hellish.  Getting there involved a taxi at 4:30am (or, well, 4:50, because it was raining and the taxi driver didn't want to walk outside), a speed-drive to Cotonou, and a nine-and-a-half hour trip to Nati.  Nine and a half... that's about eight and a half too long.  On the positive side, we got there in three pieces, and were in time to eat lots of riz au gras.

The day of the spelling be started early -- we ate, spent an hour or two studying, then were ready for the competition.  First up were the boys, and it was a fierce fight.  Soulemane made it to the top eight, and got out on the word "organisation" (all British spellings) because he forgot the R.  He was disappointed, but the two kids who got first and second certainly deserved it:  it was a 30-40 minute battle between the two, and they were throwing out words I probably can't spell: haemhorrage, anoemia, etc.  Intense.  The one that finally won (from way up north in Banikoara) was shaking he was so pumped up -- he definitely, definitely deserved it.

Kind of sadly, the girls' competition was way, way faster.  Half of the girls were out on the first word, including Estelle, who spelled "animal" as "element".  That's a clear example of how much harder school is for girls: whereas a motivated boy can go home and study for a few hours every day, a motivated girl has to clean the house, take care of the kids, make dinner, wash the dishes, and wash the laundry first. 

We had a girls' winner in about 20 minutes, also from Banikoara (what do they put in the water up there??), and then we spent the rest of the day playing volleyball, watercoloring, eating pate, and watching "B Movie" in French.  Also, Soulemane and two other boys took over the dishes for the girls one night, and made a point of yelling to me, "Madame!  Look what I'm doing!  It's dishes!!" 



Traveling back down was even more hellish than the first trip thanks to an accident on the one road between Allada and Cotonou, but we made it!  My kids had a great time overall, and it was really cool to see Estelle come out of her shell a little... she's normally really shy, sometimes too shy to even smile in front of me, and this weekend she actually laughed with me!  We played volleyball together, and that, somehow, just relaxed her and made her friendly and social and happy... : )  The things I get to do and the kids I get to know here, yall, are so, so cool.

IMPORTANT: New Phone Number!

In a long, not-necessary-to-tell story, I lost my old phone number.  It's irretrievable.  Is that a word? 

The new one:

(229) 96-37-59-49

Skype me!

Weekly Update: 6.17.11

•  Mama Models Trip = Awesome!  Our trip to Cotonou with Lea and Brigitte, two 4eme girls in my CEG that won a what-do-you-want-to-be essay contest, went well!  They stayed with two very successful professional women, who gave them advice and fun presents.  Plenty of questions and a day at work later, they came to fancy schmancy fundraising dinner at the American Ambassador's house and helped us raise money for gender and development projects.  We made bank, the girls LOVED the outing, and I loved seeing them all proud of what they'd learned!
  

• Lea, Me in full Africa gear, and Brigitte.  I swear I told them to smile...

  The dinner, full of rich ex-pats and delicious food.  Good night!

  Popsicle Got Caught In A Trap.  Popsicle, my cat, went out exploring, as he is wont to do.  This time, though, it was at night, and he got caught in a trap: the snappy jaws kind, like in the Fox and the Hound (I think).  He uprooted the trap, still attached, and ran all the way home, dragging it behind him.  L I was in Cotonou, but luckily my neighbor found him and got two men to pry away the jaws, leaving my cat’s foot mangled, bloody and swollen.  I got home and thought a) it was broken, and b) he was going to die of infection, but after a teary call to the vet, he’s doing fine.  Still a little hobbly, but whining for fish, which is probably a good sign.

Poor kitten (see front left paw and his generally miserable expression).

• End of the Year Meeting.  I'm a  normal, not-excellent-but-not-bad teacher.  A terrifying number of kids didn't pass the whole year (in one 3eme class, only 4 out of 39 kids will move on)... Normal for Benin, but sad.  In positives, two of my classes' top grades were by girls, and in one of those classes the top score was a close call between two girls I'm taking to Camp GLOW in 2 weeks.  Yay!  The meeting itself took 5 hours, and we discussed the proper test-taking format (studiously written by each teacher in a notebook), and sexual harrassment (with the exception of a few of my favorite teachers, the professors took the talk as a giant, hilarious joke.  Angering).  We survived the meeting, got out of the room, and are now free for 3 months!
• I Got A Cement Wall!  For my world map project -- I've been bugging the director since February.  Will hopefully get it painted in August, as soon as I have the time and the grant comes through.  Stay tuned!

My hard-won cement wall.  I'll keep you updated!

• Other Events: Visited orphans (favorite word in French, by the way: “orphelins”), who were really cute, and gave a test-taking strategies talk to 3eme students about to take the national exams.
• 
  

  Got a New Neighbor… He’s about 55, I think, and a traveling eye doctor. He’ll be living next door for two months, and after introducing himself, he asked about my husband. I told him what I always say, and he responded by pausing, staring at me, stepping a little closer, and saying, “I will become your husband.” At which point I left… reserve final judgment, but I’m not optimistic about this one.
• Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay furniture for a great price!
  

  Got a Couch!
• Gearing Up for a really crazy next couple of weeks -- excited!  This Friday I leave for Natitingou for the National Spelling Bee with Estelle and Soulemane.  Come back Sunday and go directly to Camp GLOW with Estelle (same one, she's awesome), Elizabeth, Odette, Flora, Pauline, and Bernadette.  A week later I take them back, go to Cotonou to welcome the new stage (yaaaay new volunteers!), then spend a week in village.  Mom and Auntie B come for a week!  France for a week!  New volunteers might visit my house, then taco night in the Mono Couffo region.  Then, finally, a break in August... during which I'll paint my world map.  Yay stuff to do!

Weekly Update: 6.4.11

Not a whole lot happened this week (I was in village for a total of 4.5 days), but here are the highlights:

• Got really nasty bug bites on my foot, which then swelled like a watermelon and itched like something really really itchy.  Turns out they're infected, so I'm on 8 days of intense antibiotics... to go with my already daily routine of anti-malarial antibiotics.  Cool.
• Almost burned my house down.  Decided to make hardboiled eggs on Thursday morning: I had an hour before the girls showed up to go to Mama Models (oh, wait, let me explain that first:)

INTERJECTION:  So this weekend I'm at a project in Cotonou.  A bunch of the southern volunteers held essay contests with our 4eme girls (13-15 years old, in theory) on the topic, "What are your aspirations in terms of career?"  The essays were in French, and one or two winners from each school were chosen by a PC panel.  We brought all of the girls with us to Cotonou this weekend, and they're each staying with a very successful Beninese woman ("Mama Models") -- doctors, nurses, businesswomen, agricultural consultants, etc.  They shadow them for a day, then we do a goals-planning workshop with them (I get to help!), and then tomorrow night we're going to a really fancy ex-pat-inclusive charity dinner at the Ambassador's house, where the girls will make a presentation about what they learned.  Back to our regularly scheduled program.

• K, so I was making hardboiled eggs at 9:30 and waiting for the girls to show up at 10:30. Stove was on, I was curled up with a book, and then at 9:50 on the dot, I heard knocking.  BENINESE PEOPLE SHOWED UP EARLY.  I was so shocked that I just picked up and left, forgetting completely about my second breakfast.  I realized that night (when I was already in Cotonou) what I'd done, and called my closemates frantically to see if they could go to my house.  Thank God for Lou -- I'm out two eggs and a little pot, but my house and furniture all still exist.  Hallelujah.
• I think that's pretty much all.
• Oh!  I finished my 50th book!  Grapes of Wrath -- so good.  Go read it.  But be prepared to crave bacon and biscuits the entire time.
• The End.

Village Love

My mom called me this week and asked if I was happy lately.  This lead me to realize that I've forgotten to tell you something important I figured out a little while ago:

I kind of love my village.

It's certainly not without its faults, and every single day there's something that frustrates me about either the place, the people or the culture, but I think that's normal.  And when it comes down to it, I feel incredibly lucky that Peace Corps put me where they did.  It took me a long time, a lot of work, and a lot of forced positive thinking to get here, but here I am. 

Every evening in Daagbe, the sunsets are stunning, like the kind of thing you see in postcards or computer backgrounds: a pink sky with blue, rolling cottonballs, or bright red-orange scattered with dark slices of cloud.  The people treat me like a rockstar: everywhere I go, I hear my name (or some version of it).  I even have a nickname: the ladies across the street call me "Kpon ene," which is the Gun word for 100 cfa... the amount of beans I buy practically every day.

I go to school, and my students love me.  Respect me? Sometimes, but love me almost always, getting my bag for me, and searching me out in the schoolyard to say "Good morning, Madame."  They do things just to make me laugh in class, and I love that.  My fellow English profs have my back and help me with ideas/projects/teaching advice, and last week my homologue Epiphane snapped at a guy in my defense, then when everyone else said, "Geez, it's just a joke!" he announced loudly that it was his duty to protect me.  My director has yet to shoot down one of my project ideas, and his wife calls me regularly to make sure I'm doing well.

Finally, my friends.  I have friends in village, women who will help me buy a couch or just invite me over to sit and watch TV.  Two professors this week invited me to their daughter's naming ceremony, and when I showed up, they thanked me about a billion times for being there (when it was really me who should have been thanking them for the invitation).  People invite me to sit down and eat, or sit down and just hang out, and they're genuinely curious about how things work in America: how do we travel, what do we eat, how does the school system work?  And I know for certain that if I ever need help doing something -- finding rice in the marche, arguing a price for a couch, switching a lightbulb, or buying biscuits -- anyone I ask will take the time to show me.

It took me a long time to love this place.  In the beginning, I spent hours crying on my cement floor, or writing desperate journal entries wondering if I was going to make it here.  And you know what?  I did make it.  I love it.

Weekly Updates: 5.27.11

• If You Give A Kid An Old Box... he'll make music for a week.  I'm not sure why I find this so adorable, but I told a kid who works (manual labor) on my apartment complex to throw out a cardboard box.  At first he refused, and I didn't know why; turns out he just wanted to play with it.  For the last week, Burton's been practicing his drumming skills as soon as he gets off of work, singing and marching with it around my concession.  It's a little sad that this might be his only toy right now, but also heartwarming that an empty box, with a little imagination, can be entertainment for a week.
• Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!  Something like 26 years now?  Whoa....
• Congratulations, Lauren & Rick!  One of my BFFs from high school just got engaged to her boyfriend Rick, right after completing basic training for the Air Force.  That is both badass and romantic, which kind of fits her perfectly.  : )
• Self-Confidence for Girls!  I was sitting with a couple of profs at the school just chatting (I'm chattable!  Cultural integration win!), when one of my 6eme girls came up to get food for one of them.  He thanked her for the food, then said, "Hey, your uniform's getting awfully tight.  Do you eat every day?  You should be eating every three days!"  He's a nice guy, and that was said in the joking, kind tone...  Fat is pretty here, so I think that was a compliment, but imagine if a US teacher said that to a girl... probation? lawsuit?
• Peter Piper & the Fresh Prince.  That's pretty much what I did this week.  And "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys, which I think is an important addition to any English class.  I also went over the exams that they just took (not great) and gave them their final semester grades (they asked for lots of free points, and I refused), but I think the important thing here is that I rapped in front of each of my classes, and they LOVED it. : )
• Final Remarks.  One of the stressors this week: at the end of my classes, I gave a little "happy vacation" speech.  After that, all of the students would crowd around me and say "Goodbye Madame!" 8,000 times, ask me if I was going to teach them next year, tell me that I should teach them next year, ask me for presents, etc.  One girl spent the entire class period asking for free points on her overall grade, then followed me around asking for a gift.  I jokingly chased her out of the classroom, and two minutes later she reappeared... to ask me for money.  "Madame, give me 50 cfa." No please, no reason, just a demand for money. I told her that she was being really impolite and reminded her that she would never, ever ask another prof for money, and then I stormed off so I wouldn't scream at her.  It was so, so frustrating -- I spent a year teaching her, and she still thinks I'm Santa Claus. 
• Power Up.  Yesterday, I shocked myself with and electrical outlet.  Not much of a story here, but it felt like someone punched me in the ring finger.  Also, I did not know that my voice could naturally hit that note.  It was in the Mariah Carey/fruit bat range.
• Confession.  I kind of love my village.  I'll write more on this in a separate post, but just so you know... Daagbe, for all of its frustrations, is a pretty great place for me to be. : )