First few days at post

Well, folks. I made it through stage and am now officially a volunteer! The swear-in ceremony was on September 21 at the US Ambassador’s house in Cotonou. There were representatives from each Beninese Ministry that we’ll be working with (artisan/tourism, education, health, and environment). The best thing about swear-in; however, was the abundance of incredible mustaches. Yea, you heard me. The SED guys first decided to grow “swear-in beards” for 9 weeks, but that later changed to a “swear-in stache.” Represented staches included the Chester A. Arthur and Nintendo’s Mario, among others.

After the ceremony we went back to our training site town for a few days to pack up our stuff and head to post. I left for my town last Monday morning with another volunteer who is posted in a nearby town. Hopefully, I’ll get some pictures up soon because it’s incredible how they load things into these cars. I’ve definitely seen some taxis with so much stuff on top that they look like they’ll tip over at any moment. Anyway, I got to my post and unloaded my things and then went to a nearby town to get some furniture that a previous volunteer left for me. Unfortunately, my house isn’t finished yet, so I’m staying in another apartment right next door. I should be able to move in next week and finally get settled into my first house!

Oh! I bought a cat! She doesn’t have a name yet, and any suggestions would be welcome. I bought her at the marché in my training site town and brought her with me to post. She was definitely terrified in the taxi ride over, but she’s ok now and will probably enjoy her life as Benin’s most spoiled cat.

My first few days at post have been really great. I walked around the marché and other areas of the town with my postmate. The marché isn’t too impressive, but you can find all the basics like tomatoes, onions, rice, beans, oranges, bananas and stuff like that. My postmate and I are going to attempt to cook a few times a week, but we’re both pretty lazy when it comes to stuff like that, so I’ll probably end up eating street food a lot. Street food probably sounds a little sketchy, and it can be, but I’ve found some good places that serve rice and beans and yam pile, which is this delicious mashed yam dish with peanut sauce.

The one thing that I really love about my town is that it’s beautiful and fairly tranquil. A large road goes right through the town, but my house sits far enough from that road that the nights are really peaceful. I have also had the chance to go running this week on this dirt road that branches off from the main road. It’s a little hilly, but that makes my run even better because you can see the countryside when running away from town, and then you can see the town (which sits atop the hill) when you run back. Most of you know that I’m definitely a “big city” girl who still thinks Central Park is all the nature one needs, but I think I’ll really appreciate my 2 year break in “real” nature. I like to think of it as my version of Walden.

This week I also went to Porto Novo for a day with some other volunteers and then went to Cotonou because I went to my host mama’s papa’s funeral ceremony today in a town north of Cotonou. The cousin of my host family drove me up there and it was a really great experience. It was basically a big party with lots of food, music, and people dressed in similar tissue. While people are definitely sad when a loved one dies, the ceremony itself is more about celebrating their life than mourning their death. I don’t think that’s something that could be done everywhere, but it’s just a different take on that.