Obladi, oblada…life goes on

Today is my one year anniversary for arriving in country. And it has been quite a year!

I have relearned my French, pick up a little Fon (afonganjia = you got up well?), read 34.5 books, watched countless movies, taught 150 students English, participated in a girls’ empowerment camp, learned how to crochet, had 3 dogs, went on safari, lost a friend to violence, gained 100 friends, stayed healthy, learned how to do laundry by hand, survived the hot season in Africa…and I am sure there is a lot more, but that’s about all I can think of at the moment.

As I was filling up my water containers I was thinking about how truly amazing sliced bread is! I mean you can find bread in just about any part of the world, but in how many places is it already sliced? And how many places in the world do you have 101 varieties of bread to choose from: white, whole wheat, 3-grain, raisin, buttermilk, honey-wheat, rye, sourdough, pita, baguettes…it’s great!

I am listening to the most played songs playlist on my itunes…and it totally reminds me of the times right before I left. It’s funny how songs can invoke memories like that. I remember sitting on the computer, I was on facebook and blogger looking at a volunteer’s pictures and reading her blog totally freaking out about Africa and what I had to pack and just trying to get a general idea of Benin and I remember it was a pretty hot day…I am sure it was like 85 degrees or so. And my dad says to me something along the lines of it’s this hot in Benin at night. And on a side note, when I got to Philly with the other west coasters, we went out for dinner and I grabbed my fleece thinking that it would get a little chilly as the evening wore on. But I was wrong about that. It pretty much stayed warm that evening. Is that like a Seattle thing or a west coast thing where it gets kinda cold at night?

So yeah, 4th of July. I am heading down to Cotonou early, well I’m hoping early enough to arrive at the bureau, take a hot shower and then head off to the ambassador’s house for a potluck(/BBQ?). But I don’t really think that any volunteer is planning to bring a plate…I mean how can we? If I were to make something at post, there is no way that thing is gonna survive its way to Cotonou. And I guess I am a little sad that I will be missing out on fireworks 2 years in a row, and it’ll be 3 years in a row by the time I am back.

And I guess, speaking of summer. To me summer entails long nights. Warm days. Camping. BBQs. Picnics. Bonfires. Trips to lakes/bodies of water. So I guess where I am going with this, is that to anyone in charge of dessert for a potluck or BBQ or something…I have a recipe for “key lime” pie that is super easy and pretty darn good:

Any kind of pie crust you like (graham or regular…I like the graham one best)
3 eggs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
½ lime juice

Make the crust and bake it till it’s light golden in color. Mix the other stuff all together. Pour it over the crust. Bake for 10 minutes. And that’s it. I don’t have a temperature for you cause I don’t exactly have an oven. I have a makeshift “peace corps dutch oven.” But I can tell you that I don’t have the temperature on high.

And lastly here are my pictures from Camp GLOW.

(these will come up later today/tonight when i get back from swimming and pot luck)