Week One: I'm being a big baby today, missing my friends!

I can't believe I've only been here ONE week.

I miss home, miss my friends, miss Toronto. I miss:
- having a Starbucks on the corner
- a GROCERY STORE on the corner (I hope to find one nearby today, it's my mission, for breakfast I had to hit up a street vendor who was selling rice with a chicken wing and a piece of meat-something -- pork maybe? in this spicy-ish sauce and a baguette which cost me 450CFA or 85cents -- because all i have at home is gross gross Wonder-type bread that's too sweet and kinda tastes like soap)
- a 7/11
- a washing machine
- a TV with more than 4 channels
- an awesome internet connection at home
- peeps i can call up whenever i want to (and talk to for more than 20 minutes without it costing me $10)
- being able to cross the street without reciting a Hail Mary
- Toby! ;)
- RUNNING WATER FOR CHRISSAKE!!! apparently the owner is coming Monday with the plumber. geebus.
- a toilet that flushes properly and doesn't gurgle (now i know why my co-workers were saying i should get air freshner for the bathroom... eesh!)
- a shower
- i miss knowing where i'm going at all times... not knowing where i am is disconcerting to say the least!

... ok, enough missing, i'm taking my ipod and hitting the beach. apparently Sunday's the big beach day, everyone comes in from out of town.

when i went to the beach yesterday, this dude Roger (the fact that they all have French names is so weird, cuz it's like Roger Abolomo or something...) started to talk to me (African men... luckily they're very nice) and showed me the business he started, a small bar on the beach. He's got big plans and kept making fun of me and calling me Yovo and making fun of how i pronounced the name of the neighbourhood i live in. Jack-ass!! So I made fun of him back. His friend Richard was really interested in hearing about Canada, and I was very happy to talk all about it. He asked if it was hard to get a bursary to study in Canada... but I have no idea.

I rode a motorbike taxi (they're called Zim) and lived to tell the tale!!!!!!!! It's actually not that scary... I just try to find a bike that looks like it's in good condition, and a driver who looks nice. LOL - cuz who needs a helmet when you look like a good driver?? (says the girl who always wears her seatbelt when she gets into a cab...)

Ok, enough. I'm getting out into the heat and sunshine.

"Let the rhythm take you where you want to be...
Let your troubles all go by...
Release the pressure from your inner life...
Just get your groove on... lose track of time..."

Hope my friends all shook a leg for me last night. I was SO there with all of you.

There's a first time for everything

A lot of firsts this week. Last night Jean took me to try to get money at a bank machine. The thing is, they have bank machines for Visa cards, and I don't have a pin number for mine. Shit. I'll have to call or email the bank to see what they can do. A lady Jean knows who works for a bank says that the bank in Canada can transfer funds to an account in Cotonou. Either that or my dad will have to send me money through Western Union - there's a ton of those here. (update: found a bank machine at the Novotel Hotel.)

So, last night, on the way back from banking, Jean stopped the car on the side of the road because there was a coconut stand and I had mentioned that I'd never had a fresh coconut. They chop the top with a machete and stick a straw in it.

It wasn't as sweet as I'd expected, but apparently there are different varieties, which makes sense. When you're done drinking, they chop it open and give you a hard part of the shell to use as a kind of spoon to eat the mushy inside part. It was gooey and kinda gross, but not un-delicious.

I'd have it again, unlike the pinapple I had to eat this afternoon... I feel bad because it was fresh picked and I should think that it was delicious, but it just wasn't. I'm sorry!! I'll save the 2 that Jean gave me to have on pizza... although I may give one to a neighbour... I'll never eat 2!

My god this week was so action packed I don't know where to begin. On Tuesday they took me to Porto Novo to meet with some Gov officials. A combination of boring and nerve-wracking, cuz, well, they're government officials. You get what I'm sayin? Porto Novo is a cool town, I'll spend more time there and hopefully get to know the town a bit more.

Everything here is littered. I keep catching Jean throwing shit out the car window, even though he agrees that it's gross and unnecessary. "Did you just throw your can of Coke out the window??" :head slap:

I guess it's just not a big deal to them. I put a little plastic bag in his car to avoid him throwing stuff out the window... he looked at me the next time he finished using a napkin and rolled the window down to throw it out. He smiled, rolled the window back and used the bag. We had a good laugh. There's hope for him yet.

Benin is one giant Capacity Building seminar. They need classes on how to do everything. They're uber-eager and very very capable, and their mistakes are totally ignorance-based. I REALLY want to try and find a rake so that the next time I go to the beach I can rake up some crap.

They have the hugest beach I've ever seen and it's covered in litter - including broken glass (won't anyone think of the children??). Of course, the area where the waves roll in is completely fine... The problem is that there are no garbage cans, no infrastructure in place to take care of these things. So garbage lines the streets, the beach...

Today Jean (he's an awesome guy, I'm glad there are people like him in the world) took me to a "manifestation", which in my French means "protest" but in his French means "ceremony"!!

Anyway, it was a graduation ceremony for a career college. They asked me to participate in the ceremony and give one of the students their new sewing machine as they were graduating from the tailoring class and some students who qualified under specific criteria got equipment to use. They asked me to make a little speech, introduce myself, etc. and shake hands with the dude and give him his new kit. Another colleague said he saw me on TV that night! I was sitting in the front row and shiz was going down right in front of me - I'm almost famous! It was cool.

Actually, it was not cool at all, it was boiling hot and in an area of the country that was very open and dusty. I came home very very dirty only to find that... I HAD NO WATER. I would've had to go to the well around the corner to get water, but I don't have a rope for my bucket. I'll have to get one this weekend. I had to open the tap every 5 minutes and let whatever water was there fall into the bucket, and then I gave myself a sponge bath. Aye aye aye... what a life.

GAH I could go on and on there's so much stuff to talk about.

I've been having problems with my power. My landlord happily installed an air conditioner for me, but didn't think to check if the electric box could handle it. So now when I turn the air con on for more than 10 minutes, the power goes out and I have to go around the corner, (right where the well is, actually), and go into the shed where everyone's electricity counters are to click the black button for my apartment.

The lady at the corner store says she knows someone at the city's electricity department who can help me up my amps from 5 to 10 or 15 really quickly, so I'll bring her my bill tomorrow so she can ask her friend. Cuz if I wait for the landlord to do it, it'll take weeks. I love how things work here. People are way too nice. (update: power issues are taken care of! no thanks to the landlord, and thanks to a little under the table cash...)

Spent most of my night on the phone with my parents and I also called my friend Jenny. I wanted to hear about a meeting that was held for the Brenda Foundation, a charity Brenda Healey's family is starting to help pay for counseling fees for the families of victims of violent crimes.

It went really well, apparently. I thought a lot about Brenda today, since I heard that the wife of someone I work with is very sick and may die. Jean was the one who told me about how sick she was. (update: my colleague's wife died this morning at 6am, leaving behind 3 small children under the age of 9. Please send your comforting thought to my colleague and his family...)

We had a really long chat about death. Jean is 37 or so, and has had quite a few friends die over the years.

We are all in between life and death my friends.

(oh! a chicken just started making freaky noises outside!!) ... where was I? Oh death. Ug. I should probably get to bed. Tomorrow's Friday... I think I'll bring what I need to hit the beach in the afternoon.


... death makes angels of us all and gives us wings where we had shoulders, smooth as ravens claws ... Jim Morrison

Home Sweet Home

Got an email from Bénin today, letting me know that they found an apartment for me in Cotonou.

Il y a un ventilo au plafond, il y a un climatiseur, un lit, des fauteuils, une salle de bain, une television, une petite table et deux chaises et une cuisine... La chambre coute 100000 le mois. Le propriétaire de la maison va placer une cuisinière et un réfrigérateur dans ta maison.

What more could I ask? A ceiling fan, an air conditionner, a bed, some sofas, a bathroom, a TV, a little table with 2 chairs, and a kitchen, all for the low-low price of 100,000 South African Francs ($250cdn) a month! Plus, the owner has agreed to buy me a little fridge and a stove before I get there. BEER FRIDGE!! ;)

I still have no idea where this place is within Cotonou, or what kind of building it is, but I'm pacing my questions so as not to overwhelm these poor souls.

They're paying first and last month's rent, so at the very worst, I'll be stuck with this place for 2 months. The peeps there seem really, really nice though, and I very much doubt they'd put me in an apartment that isn't kosher.

I'm in North Bay now until the 14th. I better get some work done! I slept in til 11am this morning!! It's so nice and quiet here. Taking full advantage of sleeping in peace and quiet, eating deliciously rich food and enjoying the cold before I leave.

I want to get started on my reading now, but before I run off, I wanted to share the last line of the email about my apartment (from a lady I'll be working with):

Nous sommes pressés de te voir très bientot et de vivre ensemble une expérience extraordinaire. A bientot. (We are eager to see you soon and to live together an extraordinary experience. See you soon.)

:humbled: