Life as of July 29th

It’s been a crazy couple of days. My host family is still amazing. My Papa, George, bought me a little box des gateaux, and my Mama is an amazing cook! Yesterday I broke out the Uno, which was really fun. I actually made it through all the instructions in French without too much trouble. Some days it just feels like the French just pours out of me, but sometimes I just get to a point where all I have left is the empty stare.
Well, today is a very exciting day. I’m getting my hair tressed (braided) today. I’m so excited about it. It’s going to hurt for a while, but it will be a new experience. Besides, I think it will be easier to take care of. Maybe not, but I’m doing it anyway. I think I’m going to get really thin braids with weave that matches my hair color fairly well, maybe a little darker even. My Mama and I are going to do that together. We are also buying tissue today. Tissue is the French word for cloth. This is exciting too. I’m going to have some paints made, and maybe a bumba. A bumba is a dress for both men and women, but the womens’ version ties around the waist somehow while the mens’ is just loose. The mens’ looks SO comfortable. Men always get the comfortable stuff. Why is that?
Besides that, my language classes started yesterday. Those haven’t been fun so far. Don’t get me wrong, they could be, but I don’t think I’ve been matched up with my level yet. There are 16 business and ITC (Info technology) people here in the same village, and we all split up into language groups of 2 or 3 people per instructor. The other 2 people I’m with are struggling with things that I really don’t have trouble with at all, so I’m just waiting to be bumped up. Apparently we change the groups up every once in a while, so I hope that’s sooner rather than later. Who knows, maybe the first day was just a refresher on the basics. I’m sure I’ll find out.
I kind of wish we had today off (Saturday), but it’s not like it’s hard work or anything. I love the group of people I’m with. Last night we went to get a drink after work with some of the volunteers who are training us. That was a lot of fun. It’s especially interesting to see the bathrooms in the bars. The one we went to yesterday was a shower/bathroom… I mean it was a shower that people pee in. I don’t know what they do about the doo, but I assume that goes somewhere else. Luckily that wasn’t an issue for me. If you’re the type of person who’s disgusted by bowel movements, then you might not want to keep checking this blog. Apparently the stories only get better, as everyone gets interesting illnesses along with many other problems. Just imagine having explosive diarrhea in the middle of the night when all you have is a chambermaid. Haha. That happened to one of our guys yesterday. Hey, I’m just glad I wasn’t the first to get sick. I was betting on myself for that award.
Besides all that, I guess I’m still just trying to take in everything. I think I’m falling in love with Benin. I can’t stop staring at the women with babies bound to their backs with a piece of cloth and a tray of goods balanced on their heads as they stroll down the street. I’m completely at odds with myself over the trash issue here. Everyone here just throws their trash on the side of the road. If you’re eating a Fanmilk (local ice cream) and you’re done with it you just throw it on the side of the road. You just leave it there. That’s the hardest difference for me to accept so far. I have been very meticulous to throw away my trash in trashcans, but I can only wonder what happens to it after that. I really want to know. Does it get burned? Is it just thrown out into the road by someone else? Does it end up polluting a riverbed? Why do we pick up trash in the US? We are so worried about image at home. We don’t go to that store because it looks shady, even though they carry the same goods as any other store. We curl our lips up at the sight of trash or dirt or anything that’s not beautiful. Why? Isn’t it a joke we’re playing on ourselves? Everything gets dirty. Everyone has trash. In fact, America more than any other. Aren’t we teasing ourselves by trying to make it disappear? It never really occurred to me before, but at home I never really thought about my trash very much… I mean, you close the trash can lid and you never see it again. You know what I mean? Here, you see your trash again… I mean, either you have to dispose of it, or you reuse it. I’m amazed by the resourcefulness of these people. The kids here play mainly with homemade toys. The most creative one was just a Coke bottle cap with 2 holes poked into it and a string running through both that had been tied into a loop. They will hold the string in both hands, twist it up by spinning it, then pull on both ends and watch it spin for a while. Nintendo, what? Coke caps. Think about that for a while.
Okay, I’ve ranted for long enough. It’s time to do something else. I woke up at 3am this morning and had to use my chambermaid, and I guess that was so exciting that I haven’t gone back to sleep. It’s 5:30 now. Maybe I’ll boil some drinking water. Well, till next time.

Sarah