Hi Everyone!

Hello!

Ugh I have just not been keeping up with my blog and for that, I apologize! I am going to do a much better job, I promise!

Things have been going extremely well here- I really like it here! The people are just great- I live with the most amazing host family and I have so much fun with them. My fellow volunteers are spectacular as well- we’re all getting along so great. Last weekend we had an “Iron Chef” competition with three teams of five. We had two hours to make a dessert and entrée with a secret ingredient- coconut. We made fried turkey marinated in coconut milk with a pineapple, onion and lime salsa over green beans and carrots, and for the grand finale, banana coconut cream cake. It was phenomenal, and my team ended up winning! It was a really fun day.

Training can be really draining, the average day I’m gone from 7-7 and then I usually have to come home and lesson plan. Peace Corps just throws you in there- I’ve already started teaching English classes of about 30 African fifth-graders. I’m really a teacher! With my own class! This week I teach 2-hr classes four times a week. The Peace Corps offers free summer school English classes- and the kids just show up for a chance to watch the Yovos teach. Still, its incredible. Some of the other volunteers are just so fantastic at teaching, you would have no idea they just started a few weeks ago!

I taught my kids how to sing “Umbrella” by Rihanna and they just loved it; ella-ella-ey-ey-ey. I videotaped it and I will post it on facebook as soon as I get a good internet connection!

The kids I teach are so freaking adorable. At any given moment, I have about twenty children charging at me screaming; “Madame Nora! Madame Nora! Ca va?” and then they try to carry my bag for me. They also pick me flowers or if I drop a pencil or something, I have five little boys diving for it! This is their first English class ever- so now we’re working on colors, parts of the body and the verb “to be”. My kids are so cute- and they’re even starting to imitate my hideous Midwestern accent!

Being in Benin is like being a famous celebrity, it’s hysterical. “Yovo” means “whitey” or “foreigner” in the native language, so everywhere we go it’s just “Yovo! Yovo! Bonjour Yovo!”. The kids also sing us a little song and its very cute. The Beninese are not used to seeing white people, and when I go up north, babies burst into tears at the sight of you. Hahaha sometimes it’s hard not feel like an alien that landed from the Planet White Freak, which is exactly what we are. We are such fish out of water!

I’m also called “Blonde” all the time which is funny. Little girls cannot resist the urge to pull my hair- I see the moral dilemma in their eyes, like “I know this is really rude, but I have to pull her hair anyway”. It cracks me up. I just laugh and feign shock at their braids.

I officially swear in as a volunteer on September 5, 2008. Training is beginning to wind down! Our swearing in ceremony is going to be a big fete and the President of Benin is coming! I seriously think it will be the proudest day of my life, more so than graduation from college! On September 7, I leave for my village, Biro, and begin my two years of service. For the first three months, we’re on what we like to call “lockdown”. We are not allowed to leave our village for more than a day for three months, until Thanksgiving! So don’t expect to hear much from me during this time, I’ll be lost in the African bush!

Other fun things I’ve done here: visited a voodoo temple, a natural healer, a shrine to twins (twins are sacred here!) and a former slave port. Next Saturday, we get a little break by going to visit a beach town not far from here and lay on the beach all day. I’m so excited! In addition to tons of French lessons, I’m also learning Bariba, the native language of my village. In French.

Please keep me updated with everything, I love emails and letters and packages! I also have no idea what’s going on on the other side of the Atlantic, so I’d love some news about the US! I love you!

Love,
Nora