OH Bènin!

heeeeeeeellllllllllo people.

i think il y a trois jours that i haven't written a post. i guess not much has happened in the past few weeks.

school is still going good. In my 5eme class (aka 8th grade) we have wrapped up revision of verbs in simple present, present continuous, and simple past. and all 3 classes have taken their quizzes and i graded and passed them all back this week. And so far, so good. Compared to last year, the students are doing much, much, much better. perhaps it's cause i am doing a better job at teaching.

towards the end of the week this past week, i ran out of school/teaching appropriate clothing...so i wore my modelé. which is a top and a long, floor length skirt tailored out of tissue (fabric with outrageous prints). the modelés are generally form fitting and quite cool to wear in hot weather. it was the first time i wore such an outfit to school...and i was quite nervous to show up at school. hence i showed up like 25 minutes early. so there i was, sitting in the teacher's payote and my math teacher buddy, Madame AMOU salués me and compliments me and says that my outfit is pretty. and then it's time for class. and as i am walking to the classroom, i literally feel the gaze of 100 pairs of eyes, all on me. i step into class, and hear the slap on the desk followed by the "good aft-noon teacha."

"Good af-ter-noon class. How are you?"

"Fine, fanks, and yoooooooou?"

"I'm fine. Sit" and then i wait for them to settle. And it's at this point i am told "Madame, vous êtes belle," by one of my students (a girl). And then a second later, a pagailleur and smarty pants kid, Ezèchiel...I could tell he wanted to say i was pretty too. And it was funny to watch him watch me read him as he stumbled over his words. I think he couldn't decide if it would be appropriate or not to say that to me! it was quite entertaining.

yesterday, i came down to Cotonou cause we southern volunteers had a meeting for Camp GLOW and for the GAD dinner in Cotonou. I think that I have explained what Camp GLOW is, so I won't go into that. But GAD stands for Gender And Development. And every year there are these dinner/silent auction things to help raise awareness and funds for various projects all around the country. I am going to help plan the menu and find a good location (restaurant), as well as help assist in decorating--aka choosing a theme and color scheme.

ooooh, and after the meetings and after the supermarchés reopened, i made my way over to erevan. the new hypermarché...which id literally like a super-walmart/target...! it's frickin amazing. they. have. everything. it's literally like walking into America. They even have sliding glass electronic doors. it even SMELLS like America. crazy! the whole area is essentially a centre commercial, a shopping center. They are going to open up a salon! a café, think a nice little coffe shop!!! I CAN"T WAIT! esspresso!! and there's a Wrangler store. And this store something like the Magnolia Hi-Fi?? where they have HUGE, FLAT PANEL, TVS!! and a glasses store, something like a Lenscrafters...WFT?? and there's even a 24 hour bakery--with a window in the back of their store so that one can literally buy bread at any time!!

It's pretty amazing to see how there has been so much development in the past...[whoa, i just had to ask someone how long we've been in country. and OMG...16 months!!!!!!!!)...16 months. they've paved half the terre rouge en route to Angelina's post. They've opened up the erevan. they've recently made it a law that people (aka drivers) have to wear seatbelts and that one must wear a helmet on a moto. Yesterday as i was riding into Cotonou, they had a good chunk of policemen at every major roundpoint into the city with megaphones reminding drivers to buckle-up and to wear a helmet. and it was enough to get my driver to grumble and fumble for his seatbelt! so all that among other things that probably don't even register in my head anymore.

OH Bènin!