8/1/09
I don’t even know where to start off; I feel like there’s so much to say! Well, I guess I can start with the fact that this is the hardest thing—emotionally—I have ever done in my life. It’s weird to think that it’s possible to feel so alone and so isolated when surrounded by people, but it is. The first night with my host family (Wednesday) was exciting, terrifying, confusing, lonely, and so much more, all at the same time. And it has been nothing but ups and downs since then. I suppose this is the true beginning to my Peace Corps experience.
We first received our pictures of our host families on Tuesday, which simply said our names and the names of our families on the back. Mine was a wedding photo with simply three couples in the picture, so I had to assume that my host parents where in fact the newly wed couple in the center of the photo. This led me to believe that this was most likely a newly wed couple, possibly (fingers crossed) with some very young children. Luckily, when we were thrown into a room full of host families (my friend Erin and I holding hands like scared little children on our first day of school) and expected to venture into the crowd in search of the people who most resembled those in the photos we’d received, my host mother was in the very front calling my name from the second I walked in the room. She actually did resemble the picture and I was excited to see that she had a young boy with her. Basically the first thing I told her (after our awkward greeting that vaguely resembled a hug, yet also had the awkward cheek kissing thing) was that I only knew a little French. This was most likely very obvious from the way I tried to tell her; I think what I said was, ‘I don’t speak more French.’ Anyways, after sitting in silence for a while—although not complete silence because there was still many an awkward first meeting to witness—I asked how many kids she had. From what I gathered she then said something about a two year old (the one sitting with us), a two month old (yay!), and possibly another two year old. Well, later on that evening my host parents took me down the street from their house, to their other house (that’s what my host dad called it), where their grown up daughter lives. Apparently the other two year old and the two month old are actually her children. I’m sure I could go on with this play-by-play for much longer, but I’m just going to skip ahead a little…
On Friday—I think (I really have no concept of time here)—I was introduced to another daughter of my host parents who apparently is the mother of the first two-year-old I met. It turns out my host parents actually only have grown children, and the youngin’s are their grandkids. This other daughter lives in the same house as me with her son (I’m not sure where her husband lives, but I just met him today), and I guess she was just gone for the first little while I was here. It was very nice when I finally met her though because she asked if I had any pictures of my family, so I brought my pictures out and shared them, and then I was able to look at some of their pictures.
From what I’ve been writing it probably seems like I don’t have to do anything else but hang out with my host fam all the time, but au contraire! We basically have language, cross-cultural, and technical training from 8am-4:15pm on Monday through Saturday (although we got this Saturday off because it’s the Beninese independence day). This meant that we would not have class again for two whole days, which was a very daunting thought considering I have no idea where any of the other trainees live, or even have any way of contacting them. I think the hardest thing for me is feeling like I am cut off from everyone else. This feeling usually seems to hit me when I am alone in my room; so if I go out and watch some Spanish soap operas in French with my host mom (yes that’s right, TV) it doesn’t take too long to get over. Anyways, luckily a few of us decided to meet up at the school where we have our classes everyday, so the thought of an entire weekend in my host family’s house wasn’t so daunting. We met up earlier today and I really wanted to find a cell phone (because I feel like just having one would make me feel a lot better, even if I don’t really talk to anyone on it), but the only place we could find said their cheapest cell phone was 20 mille (which roughly converts to about $40-$45), and I definitely don’t have nearly that much on my Peace Corps budget. I suppose I will just have to wait until the next time we get paid to buy a phone, which is only in like a week so it should be fine.
Anyways, I know I have a lot more to talk about, but this post is already super long, so I’m going to try to wrap it up. Since I haven’t really talked much about my favorite things yet, I think it would be nice to end on that good note. I really think we have a great group of trainees and I am making some amazing friends here; they are what I look forward to most everyday. Of course, its also awesome to know that I am learning more and more French (I love my French teacher), and its really comforting to know that I’m being taught and given all the skills necessary to do a great job once I get to post. But for me, knowing that I have a group of people I can count on and turn to in this country is really—I think—the backbone for it all.
To end, I just want to leave you with a few random tid-bits that I’ve experienced here:
1) The other day I saw a grown man walking around with a bright pink PowderPuff Girls bag on his shoulder (apparently this is actually a normal occurrence here…they do not have the same concept of masculine and feminine as we do in the US).
2) My little two year old host brother (he’s really my host parents’ grand son, but that’s too long to say each time) wants to marry me, and he calls me his wife.
3) My host sister (mother of this two year old boy) and my host mother told me that I am skinny and I don’t eat enough and they think I need to eat more so I can get fatter (which was pretty much word-for-word what they said, except translated to English).
