Training begins!

(from an email from Sunny's dad)

Sunny called her father from a from a phone booth in her training village, *****(name not shown for descretion purposes), on Monday, July 30. They spoke for twenty minutes or so and the connection was very clear.

After two or three days in the capital city Cotonou the group of 60 trainees were divided into specialty areas with all the health education trainees going to *****. After arriving they were assigned to their families and that's where the story starts. Sunny loves her family and she said they are taking a keen interest in her well-being. She even said that the father of the family was going to call her father, Mr. Alley, and reassure him that she was well-cared for.The family took her to church on Sunday. She is not sure if this was a Christian church or a voodoo church but there was plenty of singing and dancing. The service went on for three hours. Among the highlights:

1. Sunny had her face painted
2. For every coin she contributed to the collection plate she had to do a dance in front of the entire congregation.
3. She had to eat something that had been ritualistically rubbed on the faces and heads of everyone present

Her schedule leaves little time for idle speculation as to the meaning of all these new experiences. She is in class every day from 8:00 AM- 6:00PM studying French, Beninise culture and health education topics. There is a six hour time difference between Benin and the east coast of the United States. Food is continuing to be an issue. She says she is eating better not that she is living with a family but there is not much in the way of protein or vegetables. Lots of tropical fruit, however.

Overall, she sounded good. She ended by saying that she could talk for two hours about the new, sometimes unusual and sometimes downright bizarre things she has seen, heard, done, and eaten. So there are likely to be some great installments for the blog in the future.