The First 24 Hours

The Flight:

          So yesterday evening we finally arrived in Benin. The flight from Paris to Benin was quite different than what I expected. I won't go in to what I expected...but the plane was a normal sized continental plane. Each seat had a tv monitor on the back, so that people could watch a movie or play a video game of their choosing. Everyone on the plane spoke French. The African people on the plane were all dressed very formaly in western clothes, i.e. polished shoes, slacks, jacket, tie, blazer, and sometimes a hat. Even the African children wore this for the flight. The white/European people, on the other hand, all seemed to be dressed very casually. One French group seemed to be whole-heartedly embracing the African experience by dressing entirely in what appeared to be fly-fishing vests, 3/4 length khakis, and safari hats. Through all the random conversations around me, I have been able to understand a good majority of what they're saying. My French lessons from years ago are coming back to me.

While my other 2 counterparts seemed less than impressed with the airline food, I welcomed as much as i could get before the mystery of Beninese cuisine would be revealed. It was interesting flying over the Sahara, despite its monotamy. I only saw two very small towns through the entire desert between Paris and Benin. But other than the ocasional surveyance of signs of civilization, I mostly just slept on the plane. Arriving into Cotonou, the city looked very flat. Its shaped similarly to San Francisco, with an inlet and a huge bay that surrounds it with water on three sides. Many of the buildings seemed to still be under construction in some way, and some of the structures were partially or entirely in the bay. It was interesting to fly in after the sun set because I noticed very few lights were on despite it being the biggest city in Benin. There were scattered street lights, and an occasional building illuminated, but that was it.

Arriving:

Everything since getting off the plane has been very easy for us. Abnormally easy. Since the rest of our staging group has moved on to Porto Novo for training, the three of us have the Cotonou staff's full attention. We were greeted at the airport and led into a VIP room (too small to accomidate the other volunteers when they were here) in the airport with air conditioning and couches. There, we talked with a couple of the staff members we would be working with and we were given bottles of water and bread to snack on. Meanwhile, another staff member braved the mass surrounding the luggage carousel and hunted down our baggage for us. We took a Peace Corps jeep back to the Peace Corps Headquarters, but stopped to pick up a couple pizzas along the way. The hq is located in the wealthier part of town, adjacent to all the various embassy buildings and such. When we pulled in, a guard opened the gate for us, but before could drive any further than the gate, the guard did an inspection for bombs all around the undercarriage of the car and under the hood. We did a quick orientation of where everything is as we ate our pizza.

The Peace Corps Office:

The peace corps office/hq is a three story building surrounded by walls with spikes on the top. The entrances are guarded by one or two guards at all times. The architecture will take some getting used to. There are random steps in hallways or in doorways. Because they want the air conditioning to escape into the hallways, the doors mostly remain shut, which makes it somewhat of a maze to get around. One wing of the second floor and the third floor are all administration and medical offices. The other wing of the second floor is a lounge, bathrooms and showers for volunteers. The first floor is the volunteer computer room (where I am currently sitting), and the volunteer library and sleep-room (about 6 bunkbeds, and a shelf full of clean sheets and towels). Unfortunately I am not allowed to post pictures online, as it is a security risk. I'm not really supposed to take pictures of Cotonou either, since the people believe it will steal their soul. Apparently I will be able to take pictures when I arrive at post (my assigned village), because the people will know me and be able to see the pictures instead of in the city where they think I'm a tourist stealing their soul and immediately flying back to the U.S. to do god knows what with it. So, I will have to describe it instead:


A view of the city from the Peace Corps office:

In the City:

The deveoping world cannot be more literal. Many of the buildings seem to still be under construction. The most of them, I have not seen any lights on inside which makes me think they're abandoned. Not all the roads are paved but even some of the paved roads will have enormous dips in them, probably from when the rainy season compacted the dirt beneath it. Sometimes chunks of the pavement will be missing entirely. Today, I saw a small boulder in the middle of an intersection. Not sure what that's about. The roads are mostly filled with motorcycles/electric scooters. This is how everyone gets around in Benin. They're the taxis. Today, we were issued a motorcycle helmet and were orientated on how to hail one and heckle the price. In front of what seems to be every other building, there are piles of dirt, cement, bricks, fruit. Anything. The scaffolding for the buildings are just long, straight branches.

This would be a pretty depressing sight, if not for the trees, and vivid colors of the street life. Down most of the busy streets, there are people selling things on the side of the road. Clothes and african fabrics are hung up along the sidewalks. Electric keyboards, cell phones, fruit, belts, pictures, are all being sold on the side of the streets, but most of the vendors are in designated markets. The volunteer who is orientating us said it best: "anything you want you can find on someone's head." It was funny for me to be shown around the market by a current peace corps volunteer. Every once in a while she'll point to a person sitting in a corner selling stuff, and she'll say "oh and over there is where we usually get our peanut butter." etc, etc. There are stores here, but sometimes the person on the side of the road is just more convenient.

The People:

Hopefully that paints a picture well enough. The people here are all very friendly. Suspiciously more so in the markets...There, you are a rock star if you're white. People do favors for you hoping to get some cash from you. One guy stopped traffic on a very busy street for us so we could cross. Regardless, I still see them all being nice to each other too, so I dont think they're just sucking up to us so we buy their stuff. Here, its rude to be not nice. As weird as that sounds, if you do not say hello to people and ask them how their day is going or how their family is (this is for anyone, your taxi driver, a food vendor, anyone), then they think you are rude.

My job:

So today I was fitted for a bike, given a 10 week supply of antimalarial pills, given the meningitis vaccine, interviewed by my boss for what type of assignment and village fits me best, and interviewed in French to know what level of French comprehension I am at right now. I'm pretty sure I am being placed in intermediate, which is able to understand, talk and ask questions, talk about yourself, hobbies, family, etc. Advanced level is if you can debate whether the death penalty is morally wrong, or give a presentation on the role of government in a society - more philosophical, advanced stuff. I'm not really stressing about it; throughout training there are so many french teachers that our class size is 2-3 volunteers per teacher, and we have class up to 4 hours a day I think. My boss who's in charge of all the health volunteers is pretty cool. We chatted about job skills related to health, as well as totally un-related. He seemed particularly excited about how I play soccer. Apparently every tuesday for the rest of training, the volunteers and staff meet up together in the middle of the city for a soccer brawl. He was also interested that I was a Boy Scout. I think this inevitably means I will be assigned to one of the rougher parts of the country to live in. But yeah, he was very fun to talk to and I think I made a really good impression.

Future:

Tomorrow, we are leaving at 7:30 in the morning to drive over to Porto Novo, which is 45 minutes away. It is there where we be for the duration of training. Tomorrow the three of us tardy volunteers will finally meet up with the rest of our staging group. We will start training a day or two behind the rest of the trainees, and we will stay our first night at our host family's house, which will be sure to be an awkward experience. Stay tuned.