Hi all!
I'm writing on an english-keyboard (thank goodness, I can find the a!) at an american agriculture/recycling/compost center in Porto Novo, Benin. I've been here just over four weeks, and everything is going really well!
Most days I spend the morning at the clinic, either learning Fon from the pharmacist (who, of course, has no actual degree in pharmacy) or observing the procedures. If there was ever any doubt that I shouldn't go into medicine, it's been cleared up pretty well by now :)
The organization I'm with sponsors children who have difficult family lives (or no family life), provides malnutrition treatment/counselling, and takes on social cases when they present themselves. The woman who started the organization has been in Benin for 15 years and is pretty incredible. The Beninois man who is the Director of the Clinic is incredible-- he's good with children, can talk to both the female and male patients, and has a way of settling family disputes that's really remarkable.
In the afternoons I either go to the little library on the grounds of the organization and give english/french/statistics lessons to the high school students who come to use the text books (oy... me, a stats teacher???). If we have something scheduled, I go with Emmanuel (the Director of the Clinic) and the other woman who's here volunteering with me, and we drive into the bush to a "lost school" and give hygiene talks to the primary students and HIV/AIDS prevention talks to the high school students. Yes, in French! The dictionary I brought didn't have the necessary vocabulary for the HIV/AIDS talks, so I passed a pretty amusing day with some of the nurse's aides who work at the clinic, trying to figure out what the french is for some key words.
I've been able to do some travelling, too-- a small village up to the north of where I am, where you "shower" under the stars using a basin of water and a bowl, and where the health center has no electricity. We also went to the City of Pobe, where one of the sponsored children attends a technical school-- it's nicer than my high school! Last weekend a group of us went to the ocean and the city of Ouidah, which is where the Kingdom of Dahomey sold slaves to the Portugese. We were in a hurry, and I wanted to spend all day walking around the beach and the Slave Road, and the Tree of Forgetting-- legend has it if you turn around the tree three times you become an amnesiac and won't remember your family (so you can't be sad) when you get on the Portugese slave ships.
Because of the internet connection, I can't post pictures, but I'll try my best once I get back to the states.
Oh yes, Emmanuel calls me Madame Soleil (Ms. Sun) because the first week I got here I got a sunburn on my arm-- he kept touching it... I guess he hasn't seen many sunburns. Now he worries every time I'm outside for more than five minutes at a time :)
I hope you're all well-- I wish I could respond to everyone's emails-- thanks to everyone who filled me in on March Madness, and thanks for sending me gossip and news, I really appreciate it!
I've got to get going now, but I miss everyone!
Love, Lauren
P.S. If your birthday is in April, or if I've missed it, please know I thought about you on your birthday!
