hello girls ugh i just spent 45 min of precious comp time writing you alll an email and the power shut off so im having to start over. no fun. also im on the french keyboard again so please excuse the errors and i apologize for the frantic writing as ill try to send this one off before the power gets cut again, and it inevitably will: so nice to get your update chelts, very happy to hear everything is working out well with you, but what is tmj? maybe ive been out of the world of American acronyms for too long.
oh big news=i got a cell phone! really exciting for me:not that i have the money to call people but at least i have the means for family and friends to call me and for me to call peace corps in country in case of emergency which gives me some ease at night:its ridiculously expensive to call here so dont even think about it but if any of you know how to use skype online and wanna give it a try my cell number including the international and country code is 011-229-97-91-63-53-feel free to share this w others on the blog. there is a 5 hour time difference from the east coast. it may be 7 hours from the west coast: so how are the rest of you doing? updates on you, life in general; america, trashy gossip. i love hearing from yall--I miss you girls tons still, i keep waiting for the homesickness to subside but I still think of yall alot: ok news from me:this will be sporadic and may not make sense whatsoever but bear with me--the power is consistently finicky and i dunno when ill get to a city with internet again. i cut my hair out of shear boredom--the nights are long here since i have night curfew=I've been warned that being so close to the Nigerian border prevents me from being safe outside at night. basically theres a lot of messy civil strife across the border and Americans walking around have a huge bounty on their heads as American passports are priceless to a desperate Nigerian, so that means from 7 pm on I am stuck in my house trying to waste away time until I am tired enough to fall asleep. this consists of doing things like hand washing my clothes which does take a considerable amount of time, fiddling with my shortwave radio to try to find a station that works and thats in french or english, reading, or cutting fun shapes into my hair=nothing drastic though=did get a little carried away trying to fix crooked lines i cut since i dont have a mirror in my house=my hairs about shoulder length now and i did manage to cut some decent looking layers into it) many girls have aleady shaved their head from heat and boredom. dont count on me doing that. good clean beninese night time fun what can i say: other news: i met the king of the village where I am at post. very nice funny little man who gave me his cell phone number and wants to go dancing. i was given a local name as well=ireti=means hope,i think. im learning how to cook using what little materials and ingredients I have and cooking by headlamp or candle when the power goes out which is frequent. the only vegetables in town are tomatoes onions and hot peppers, fruits found in town are bananas oranges and pinapples. theres lots of white starchs and oil so lots of fried stuff still but im experimenting with other stuff gradually:when i first moved in on the24th i ate straight pasta and couscous3meals a day for the first8 days since i didnt know how to do anything else but boil stuff: ive since learned how to make and use a dutch oven and threw a big house party last weekend with 11 other volunteers who came to visit making bean dip, garlic bread with marinara sauce, pineapple upside down cake, and banana bread. yesteday i baked sugar cookies and made some fudge like stuff for the people at my work. the local ngo I'm working for has kept me busy working to put clothes together to give to the village orphans--mostly orphaned from AIDs--putting packages together for local children who cant affford school supplies, and preparing nutrient infused foods like soy flour and baby formula for this festival coming up that the organizations is putting on to support rural women. other news: got peed on by a goat..on the head. ohhhh africa: yes, one of the many joys of Benin is riding by what we call bush taxi where 13 ppl and usually a handful of goats and chickens pile into a 5 person car that is often lacking windows, floor, or parts of the roof=the one i took on this fateful day had no room for the goats in tow and so they were strapped to the roof)me being the smallest person of the group got stuck in the corner seat with half my torso sticking out of the window=so goats on top and me protruding out of the side on a 2 hour taxi ride through rough terrain equals just one more memorable experience to add to the rest: there's really not much else you can do in that situation but laugh and shrug it off though, ya know. Also my house got broken into=it's fine though nothing was stolen and thankfullyI was'nt in the house when it happened so I'm fine=it initially freaked me out quite a bit--mostly cause there are so many crazy stories you hear here of strange things ppl do to ppl here which had me questioning the intentions of my intruder, but I'm realizing that safety is yet another luxury--along w health--that is neither to be expected or guarenteed here; it's just part of the package deal of living in west africa: basically they've told us if we can't handle it then we can leave:so I'm learning to just suck it up and deal:some of the encounters I've had that reflect questionable intentions are of a road blockade me and a bunch of other volunteers came upon one day where a village was holding up a search through cars to find the culprit of a crime of which we later saw pictures of=a woman was beheaded and apparently her head was sold to a witch doctor who promised the man that if he brought him the head of a certain woman with x characteristics, that he would put a spell on it to make money spout out its mouth=a sort of atm head i guess. mostly i just try to stay on the good side of the witch doctors in my town and stay clear of voodoo business: other than adding to my bizarre encounters; dodging the village crazies=one has a thing for attacking me on the shoulder with kisses which is really gross and scary when all I'm doing is trying to buy bread for the day or get home from work, and rerouting my walking trails to avoid the herd of cattle that comes by house twice a day, I'm just trying to maintain my sanity, keep busy with work; and brainstorm new ways to entertain myself at night so the silence doesnt get to me: I'm gonna try to get my dad to buy me an i pod and speakers and get some music on it so i have something to keep the eery silence at bay at night an keep my mind from wandering to dark places: i know there are some ppl who keep inquiring about things to send so lizzie if you wanna add mp3s and cds of happy,upbeat,or calming music that will play on the mp3 player you gave me to the blog thatd b awesome. also any quotes or inspirational literature or things to keep me motivated can be sent via mail and is much needed--there are days when the frustrations of harassment by men, along with numerous other cultural barriers makes it difficult to find incentive to stick around) well i cant think of anything else to write at the moment and im afraid to wait any longer to send this since the powers so finicky but i love you all and miss you lots=xoxoxo=sunny
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