Look up Benin in any book or website and one of the first things you’re likely to see is that it is the birthplace of Voodoo (Vodun). While I don’t really like to play up or write about this aspect of Beninese life (I think it’s hard to do it Read more
It’s been a very busy couple of weeks here. Work is picking up, we are almost at the end of the first semester (the first semester runs from October through February, the second March until sometime in May, don’t ask why the semesters are so unbalanced). Also, for a dry Read more
The holiday’s are over and I’m at about the 25 percent mark of my Peace Corps service (but who’s counting). Anyways, with December come and gone, I’ve learned one more thing about this country; December showers bring December dust and sand. Not catchy but I think you see where I’m Read more
Sorry for not being able to put up any updates lately. Although much has been happening, I’ve been without Internet access. I think I’ll be dialing onto the World Wide Web only once a month or so for the foreseeable future, so I’ll do my best to keep up to Read more
After a long stay at the Parakou workstation I’ve finally made it to my village and started trying to integrate/work. Overall life has been pretty slow and uneventful since getting to post, but there have been some pretty interesting things. First off, I’ve previously written about my great relationship with Read more
It’s day four of my move-in experience, I fear there are no other survivors. Soon I will be the only one left. So, the Peace Corps has three work-stations (basically houses with internet) in the north of the country for volunteers far away from Cotonou. This way they have somewhere Read more
My time in Porto-Novo is drawing to a close, and starting this week my work as a “real” volunteer will start. On Sunday I will be going up to Parakou, where I will stay for a few days to make some purchases I will not be able to make in Read more
Last week marks the start of my teaching experience. After one week of teaching Beninese summer school these are the three things I’ve learned: I don’t mind teaching; I hate lesson planning; I really hate kids. Long story short, it’s really hard to control a class of 40 Beninese 11-15 Read more