yesterday was my half birthday.

3.26.09
Today is my half birthday. I am 24.5 years old.

I’m having one of those moments where I feel like I have a lot to say…but I will probably get distracted or side tracked and in the end will have only talked about a fraction of what it was I was gonna say. So here goes, and please excuse my randomness…

A lot of people have made plans for the summer. I don’t really have any. I think a majority of people are flying home for at least a couple of weeks. Or at least having visitors and then traveling around West Africa or Europe or something. Not my case. I don’t know if I am ready to come home yet, not even for a visit. For the next 18 or so months…Lokossa is my home. And traveling is a bitch. Also, I don’t know how I would fit in back home. Stupidly, I gave away most of everything that I owned. So I wouldn’t have any shampoo, conditioner, hair products, a good portion of my clothes, purses, etc. Not to mention I would have no money.

Peace Corps doesn’t give us substantial amounts of money…but for living in a developing country, I guess you could say we do pretty well. So I guess theoretically I could save money, maybe a few hundred dollars…but that doesn’t buy you much back home. And with that money here, I could do a lot, buy a lot, and go a lot of places. My three hour taxi ride from post to Cotonou (not sure how far that is in distance) costs me three dollars!

Yesterday I bought real butter! And I made cookies with it! Mmmm! They are sooooo good! And I bought bread just so that I could spread the butter on it to eat, plain. And then this afternoon, I made myself some scrambled eggs, yup, using the real butter, and it’s amazing to taste the yummy difference. However, the butter cost me nearly as much as a taxi ride to Cotonou!

I bought the dog a tennis ball yesterday. I stopped in at this little supermarket…think—one of those old fashioned shops the pioneers used to go to, kinda like a super mini Fred Meyer. I went to buy spaghetti noodles and tomato paste (to make lunch tomorrow for Ellen and Amber—my yovo friends!) And then as I look around to see what else they have, and what I may/could use, I see tennis balls! Weird! No one here plays tennis! I have never even seen a tennis court! Nor a racquet. But I thought that Marley may enjoy a tennis ball. And he did! At first he was confused as I bounced it. He saw it hit the ground and then looked around in puzzlement as he could not figure out where the ball had gone (as it bounced back up, and into my hand)! Hahahaha! I had a good laugh. And it took him a good few minutes to figure out that the thing bounces. And he’s pretty good about playing fetch. Though, I don’t think he purposefully brings it back to me. He just consequently likes to curl up and lay down on my feet. He is content so long as at least part of him, if not the majority of his body can cover my feet. Which would be cute and whatnot, were it not 85-90 degrees plus 100% humidity. THANK God for my fan. And my shower.

I have noticed that a number of large and disgusting, though sometimes cute, bugs make their way to the back area of my house. And then they get stuck. I have like an outdoor hallway between my bedroom and the kitchen or bathroom. I have found all sorts of things. My favorite has to be the preying manti. Did you know that they can change color? And their eyes are so cool. I find it hilarious how they look at you and put their arms up like they have a fighting chance against me if I somehow decide that would fight them. Ok, all that to say that usually, and I don’t know why, but a lot of these bugs, seem to be on their way to die. Yesterday as I was taking a shower I noticed a gi-normo moth. I ignore it. Usually they fly away. And then I had to wash a few things…which I do in the bathroom because there is a handy spicket there…and the moth had died right by the toilet. So what do I do? I put it in the toilet and try to flush the thing down. Bad idea, and I should have learned the first time (a while ago, there was a bg ugly cockroach that died near the bathroom and tried to flush him down) And in both cases (I should remember for the next time that…big ugly dead bugs float! And it’s nearly impossible to flush them down!

********(sorry if this next paragraph is long and confusing…basically, if you wanna skip it, go ahead, just know that 2 of MY students have made it to the second round of the English competition I am helping out with.)***********
So this English competition thing that I am doing…today I found out that 5 students from my CEG (middle/high school) have made it to the second round. They will compete with students from other, I guess, districts, to see who the three students from each grade level will make it to the third round. The first round…every school participating had 2 students from every grade level…a total of 14. The top, I dunno how many students from every school—their grades on the test were compared to everyone else in the district. So I think that there will be a total of 14 students representing our district of Lokossa…and they will compete against, 4 or 5 other districts. And five of our students made it! Including 2 of MINE! Yay! And one of them is one of my favortites: Urbain (aka “urban”, opposite of “rural”. People here are VERY creative in naming their kids sometimes.). He is such a little cutie. He is the class responsible (like a little teacher’s aide). And when I am teaching, he is always participating and if there are no students who know the answer, I can count on him to be sitting there patiently, with his hand raised before anyone else. And sometimes it’s funny cause I look at him and I tell him, “I know you know the answer, but I need to see if anyone else can get it, (plus, more than likely I have called on him 4-5 times already!) So I am VERY happy to see that he has made it to the 2nd round. I congratulated him today, and told him I would be at the 2nd round. And that he should study for it.

I have made tentative plans to travel to Mali this Christmas. I will be going to Dogon Country. And if possible, Timbuktu. And I really wanna go to Ghana.

I really [heart] my students. Today I went to school because the 6eme kids took their English test and I wanted to see if there were any errors on the test, and to take the tests home with me when they were done. And as I was waiting, some of the kids finished up and they came over to the teacher’s “pi-ote” aka where all the teachers hang out. And they were excited because they had finished their tests and asked me if this answer was correct and whatnot. And before I knew it a whole mob of them came up to me and the other teachers had to chase them away but they thought it was funny at the same time.

I’ll try to get some pictures of my class before the school year is up. But I am scared that if I take the camera to school, EVERYone will want me to take their picture and it could be, well, overwhelming. Hahaha, I can picture it now, and it makes me laugh.