Settling In

So finding the enough time and a stable enough internet connection has been more difficult than I thought, but I believe I have found the fastest internet connection in the country (it loads pages in like 30 seconds rather than ( minutes), so I finally have a chance to give some real updates about what has been going on the last two weeks.

So far most of my Beninese cultural experience comes from my host family. My family lives in a compound in the Gbezounkpa(?) neighborhood of Porto-Novo. I’m actually not sure how many people live in in our compound, but I would guess it’s around 15-20, with a real solid 10-15 of them kids under the age of 13. Since I’m the neighborhood’s white guy there are always extra kids hanging around clawing at me, pressing my skin (to make it change colors). Another thing they like to do is to pet my leg hair whenever I wear shorts since they apparently have never seen that much hair before.

But I can’t complain too much since we have both electricity and running water. The electricity cuts out probably 2 or 3 times a week, but if anything it’s kind of nice. If there is one thing Beninese people like, it is loud music and grating noises, especially at night. No power = serenity.

At our house we have a lot of animals that sort of roam around our courtyard. There are a few ducks, chickens, goats, and a lot of rabbits. Like my second day I was sitting outside when I got to see a rabbit give birth, so that was pretty cool I guess.

There is a toilet in our house, but I have never seen anyone else use it. I think the other adults will use it, but I know for sure that the kids poop in a bucket outside our front door. The first time you see it, it kind of shocks you. I am no longer shocked by seeing kids pooping outside our not wearing pants (to be fair I think most American kids go through an I’m not going to wear pants phase).

So far the food has been pretty good, they give me protein at pretty much every meal. Meal times are weird though since I always eat just with my dad, and there is almost never any talking. That is all very customary in Beninese culture apparently. Lately I’ve had a lot of fish, almost always fried in peanut oil, but the main staples at our house have been rice and pate blanche. Pate blanche is a corn dish, I guess they grind up the corn and add water until it is a little firmer than mashed potatoes. It has almost no taste so it is almost always served with a sauce of some kind.

Last weekend my family invited me to a festival in Calavi, which is a city on the coast about an hour and a half long drive from us. The drive wouldn’t have been that bad if there weren’t 10 women singing the whole way and banging a cowbell with no apparent rhythm six inches from my head. The festival we went to is called le dot, and the closest comparison I can think of is like a bridal shower.

Oh, also, let me preface this by saying that when my host father invited me to this, he also told me that family is special in Benin and that he has 27 brothers and sisters that I would be meeting. So the festival, as much as I understand it, is to guarantee the purity of the bride before the wedding, which is done by having the groom’s family give the bride’s family gifts. I’d say 95 percent of the gifts given were alcohol, which I present without further comment.

I’m running out of internet, so I think I’ll end it with that. So far things have been very interesting, but I’m having a good time, and after seeing the squalor qnd poverty that exists, am as motivated as I’ve ever been.