say cheese: an update in photos

First, let's start off with a pic of your's truly. I realize it's been over a year since you've seen mug shots, so the following is from the Swear-In ceremony held this past Friday - congratz to all the new Volunteers!



Downtown Lome, Togo (so happening)


The Point of No Return in Ouidah. This place was a haunting memorial to the slaves that were taken captive.



The stilt village of Ganvié in Benin. most of these people escaped Cotonou (the capital) to settle on the ocean a few hundred years ago for protection because the main warrior class in Benin is not allowed to traverse water. It's an incredibly touristy place, but was still worth seeing.

***

I meant to have a bigger update, but loading a grand total of 4 pictures just took away a 20 minutes of my life that I will never get back again. Ever. So in a nutshell, that's it.

lonely planet: my choice of literature for the past 10 days

Disclaimer: In the past 3 days, I have spent a grand total of 28 hours on 3 different bush taxis, cramped against the dashboard, listening to Togolese nationals argue loudly in Ewe (eh-vay) on the merits of Ivorian music versus Togolese music, with cigarette smoke from the chauffeur's nasty habit seeping into my eyes and fumes from the taxi seeping into the rest of my senses, and as a Fulani woman from Burkina Faso kept jabbing me in the back with her elbow and asking if I was a Fulani as well. This post may not be the most coherent, as I am incredibly tired.

Next to the country of Nigeria (where your spam comes from) and below Anderson Cooper's Niger is the tiny African nation of Benin. Last week, I hopped on the bus met my fellow PCV Anna in the capital, Cotonou. Benin has a lot of interesting things to see for tourists - the voodoo markets being the main attraction, the beautiful plateau that attracts a lot of hikers, and the "stilt villages" - villages built on stilts over water for protection from slave traders. Anna and I spent a few days checking out most of these attractions and meeting up with PCVs in Benin and backpackers. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer who lives amongst locals in a community and adopts the habits of host country nationals, it's almost mortifying to find yourself in the company of other westerners with large cameras and camcorders, telling locals how to smile and position themselves for the camera and bastardizing the experience by making all ceremonies and performances for the rich foreigner's benefit. Nevertheless, I saw some interesting things. The Beninois markets were just as lively as many of the West African markets tend to be, but this time with fetishes (things you practice voodoo with). Ouidah was fascinating and had a lot of scenic views, despite the tourists asking how much the Yoruba masks were (I stood to the side and cringed because Ouidah itself is not an area of Benin that has mask festivals). Once it was clear that we had seen everything we were interested in seeing in Benin, we decided to hop the border to Togo.

Togo is even tinier than Benin, and even more awesome. Why is it so awesome? For one thing, it's even more laid back than Benin, not overrun by tourists, and incredibly beautiful. We got into Lomé in about an hour and headed to the beach as soon as we checked into our hotel. The problem with beaches in both of these countries is that they aren't exactly sanitary, so after an hour of admiring the crystal blue waters and wrinkling our noses from the smell, we headed back out into town. Thanks to the Togo PCVs we met up with, Anna and I got a chance to experience Lomé on a Friday and Saturday night. Bar crawls that include Madonna karaoke (to the new album, I might add), with US Marines, Hebrew toasts to a very nice Lebanese bar manager, and me dropping 2000 CFA (roughly $4) because I didn't believe the Togolese describing a cocktail on fire, and ending up in a house that had signs indicating directions in German. This is all very random and sadly true. After a fantastic 3 days in Lomé, we headed up to Sokodé, in central Togo. It wasn't as tropical as the south was, but still stunning. In Sokodé, I randomly met a fellow GW alum and spent a few hours catching up on mutual 2nd and 3rd degree friends. It was all very random - just like the past 12 months have been. After Sokodé, we continued our trek back to Ouaga and stopped in Dapoang (roughly 50km from the Faso border).

The trip itself was short, but sweet. I'm glad to have avoided tourists for the most part of this trip and fairly revved to be back in Burkina to start up new activities and projects back in Djibo. In just a few days, the new Volunteers in the Soum province will be coming up to start their service - they seem very enthusiastic and I am confident that they will do well in their service.



currently listening to: The call for prayer. I need to catch some sleep.
currently hoping for: A night with no mosquito bites. Insh'Allah.

five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes

It’s been one year in the Faso (already?). I was sitting in Djibo with 2 other PCVs, celebrating our duration and the day came and went. I’ve gone from thinking that every day is a challenge to wondering how long it will be until I Swear-In and move to Djibo to hoping I’ll make it to In-Service Training (IST is, conveniently, the French abbreviation for STDs, btw) to realizing I have a hang of things after all and don't come by awkward moments as often. Sweetness.

Former Volunteers have warned me that there’s the slump that most people hit once they’ve completed a year and realize they still have 14-15 months left to go before they do their Close of Service (COS). Though I’m expecting it to come, I’m trying to concentrate on what all I’m looking forward to for the rest of 2006 – Togo & Benin trip this month, the harvest in September and the arrival of new Volunteers in my province, the Ramadan festivities & one year mark in Djibo in late October, Thanksgiving with all the Volunteers, and finally, visiting the States end of December for a few weeks.

I hope you all continue to write your letters! They've been especially a source of inspiration and smiles. A lot of people claim they don't write because they feel there is nothing interesting in their lives. How freakin' WRONG you are. Write about everything and anything. What the weather is like. What you ate for lunch. Why you think Britney Spears is still with that monkey Kevin Federline. What the latest episode of your favorite sitcom was about. Because all these are the little details that I'm missing in my life right now and they are the details that make all the difference. Send pictures, the latest ad from the Gap, or any other source of inspiration you can think of. And if you're intimidated by writing out a letter by hand, then type it out. Hell, you can write me 3 lines on a greasy napkin and I'll be excited to have it arrive in my box in Djibo. So please do write.

Currently enjoying: High speed internet.
Currently listening to: White Shadows, Coldplay (feel free to email me MP3s or mail me CDs. No Celine Dion, for the love of God)