It’s been an eventful couple of weeks for Benin. Last weekend they held elections for the national parliament, which at least in my part of the country were peaceful and orderly. Campaigning was interesting to watch, it’s all confined to a two week period before the election, and as far Read more…
It’s Easter break now and things are pretty quiet. School is off for a week, partly to give everyone a break, and partly because the rainy season is just starting so many families are sending their kids to the fields for planting. We’ve had a couple of more rainstorms, but Read more…
Great news, the rains have started. The other night we had a real nice storm, it rained off and on through the evening and night. This is of course great news because it means that it won’t be quite so unbearably hot all the time. March is without a doubt Read more…
In Parakou for the moment so I’m throwing up some photos of how our classroom building is going. The big changes from last time is putting in backfill to get all the floors to the same level, which I’ve been told should be finished when I get back to village. Read more…
The New Year is on us, and school has started back up. Harmattan is starting to finish up now, but this year harmattan has been much stronger then last year (both colder and longer lasting). With harmattan over, the hot dry season (chaleur) will be starting up before we know Read more…
It’s burning season in the Collines. Every year, once the dry season has started, people burn all the grasses and low-lying shrubs. So the sky fills with smoke, there is burning ash all over the place, and it is means it’s time to hunker down because the dry-hot season is Read more…
It’s hard to believe that I’ve already been here for about a year and a half. Time is starting to go bye a lot faster, mostly since my schedule has been getting a lot busier since the school year started up. Got my haircut again yesterday, trimmed down to the Read more…
School is starting to get in the swing of things and things seem to be settling down. I think we’ve seen our last rain in village until April, so that’s a bummer. On the other hand harmattan is starting up, so the mornings can be kind of chilly. It’s peanut Read more…
Classes have started. Well, sort of. At least some classes have started. This last week was officially the first week of classes, but schedules and what not are more of guidelines around here. For the most part, the kids spent the week clearing the land and getting the school ready Read more…
It’s October, the rains are slowing, and the school year is hopefully right around the corner. I’ve been busy the last month or so with Peace Corps training and seeing other volunteers, and also shocking my neighbors by remaining in village when school isn’t in session. Rainy season still is Read more…