10:30am

I realize I havent been a very good blogger lately but its not my fault. The story is the internet cafe at post had to change its connection and now doesnt use satalite internet as its very expensive. Now they use an internet service provided by the local cell phone company and whenever the cell phone service goes down or the electicity goes out there is no internet. Also now that the internet cafe is getting more popular and people are seeing how cool it re. ally is more people are using it. This of course causes the internet connection to be slower and with the new type of connection the internet is VERY slow and frankly most of the time doesnt work. Google doesnt even load correctly after 10 minutes of sitting watching the page attempt to load. Guess sattalite internet at post was just too good to be true.....

But anyway Im pretty sure I forgot to tell you all that on my clock of my Peace Corps service it is now 10:30am, about the time that high schoolers are waking up on saturday morning. Cool huh? Approaching mid-day. Here are some cool that have happened to me:

The Snake

I was over to my friends house for lunch and I see by her foot something slither along. What is was the biggest snake theyve ever seen in Benin (theyve been here much longer than I have) it was this big black snake with a white underbelly. Now in Benin there are poisonus species of snakes that will bite you if you piss them off enough. So in reaction to that all the Beninese people are dealthy afraid of all snakes. The Beninese woman who was at their house hid inside the screened-in poarch and yelled at my friends when they left the door open longer than they had to. My friends freak out enough to realize this is a big problem and one of them goes out to find a bunch of Beninese teenage boys to take care of it. The correct cultural responce to a snake is to cut off its head, beat it to a bloody pulp, then burn it. So the boys come with big long sticks which they whack all willy nilly at the place the snake is hiding. Then my friend kills it by chopping off the snakes head. Now my friend says "lets identify it so that we know if we see this type of snake next time if its going to kill us or eat the mice around the house" the Beninese were extreamly afraid that this wasnt a good idea and even though the head and body of the snake are about a foot away from eachother they tell my friend that its not dead and that he needs to beat it until it looks like hamburger meat and then burn it in a big brush pile. My friend succeeds in telling the Beninese teenagers that the snake is in fact dead, it will not harm him and he will dispose of it correctly. The snake didnt seem to be poisonus after all, darn. But it was still fun to watch the reactions of the locals.

A Bike Ride

I had a meeting in Kodawari which is about 20 kilometers north of me in the morning. I had done a composting workshop with the same group of women before so I knew them and knew they were capable of planning. I think to myself, you know Ive yet to ride my bike out to meet another volunteer who is only a few more kilometers down the road. So I ride my bike to my workshop. When I arrive in Kodawari Im actually early by 45 minutes. The women feed me and explain that the meeting wont be able to start on time because there is a ceremony taking place where a family is adopting a daughter. I believe that this means a family was welcoming a bride of one of their sons into their family, normally when a married couple cannot live on their own (perhaps they are young or do not have money to live by themselves) they live with the family of the husband. So I see all these people dressed up all nice and they walk, men first in a group then women, clapping and singing and walking down the road. My friend explains that the fathers family is going to visit the bride of his sons family to thank them for allowing them to adopt their daughter. They go into a house, five minutes later they come out and go back to the same house they started from. Ceremony over and its still 15 minutes before our meeting was supposed to start. I ask my friend if they already have the things ready to start making the mud stove, and she responds no but we'll do it. Sometimes finding the correct earth takes time and if its a long way from where they want the stove than this could take more time. Finally everyone sits down to the meeting an hour after it was supposed to start I explain what they need and the women then say, oh well we need to choose a place to put this stove. This was also something that they were supposed to have figured out before I arrived. They decide the house of the queen, who is also the leader of the womens group is the best place to have it. We arrive at her house an hour and half after we scheduled to start and nothing is prepared. I though I wasnt going to be able to meet my friend for lunch afterall, as its now 10:30 it takes me an hour or so to explain and make a stove and they dont even have the mix ready. And I have to bike those extra 6 Kilometers (15- 20 minutes or so), down the road to my friends house. But these women surprised me. They delegated tasks, worked really well together, and then only wanted my advice as to how to build a stove. They remembered what I had told them about how to build one from my first meeting with them. This is the first group to do this. They also wouldnt let me help them, they wanted to do. Which I was fine with. With the 5 women who were helping make the stove there wasnt enough work for everyone anyway. They also were the first group to not stop putting mud on the stove before it was done most of the women stop about 1/2 way up and say 'thats good isnt it' but these women kept adding mud and at noe point I said 'ok ladies I think thats enough' and they told me it wasn't perfect yet and thats how they wanted it. Overall the stove was up and looking nice in about 45 minutes to an hour including the time it took to find the materials. The women also participated enough so that I feel that they could easily build another on their own without difficulty. I then biked to meet my friend for lunch and came back to Bassila. Overall I biked 52 kilometers that day, roughly 35 miles. and what have you done today?

As a last aside.... I read Silent Spring and it blew my mind. Everyone should read this book.