Finally a post!!

I know, I know, I'm a horrible blogger! In addition to being very busy without much time for internet cafes, the truth is really that it's impossible to know what to say. At first, everything was just so new and overwhelming that I couldn't even express it in words to myself let alone on my blog. Now that I've been here over two weeks I've been able to sit back and process this new environment a little.

When we first arrived, we spent five days in the largest city of Cotonou and since July 10th we've been living with host families in the smaller capital city of Porto Novo. I am the newest member of la famille Agossou, living with Maman, Papa, my 20 year old sister Nora and my three young nieces. I also have 2 older brothers and an older sister who no longer live at home, not to mention tons of cousins and aunts and uncles who randomly drop by all the time to meet me.

Here in Benin, there is custom called "saluer", which in French means to saluate, or give a salutation to someone. It is common practice to receive an unexpected visitor or even random quick phone calls and text messages. "Hello, Kristin?" "Yes, hello..." " Oh good, how are you?" "Good, and you?" "Good, just calling to say hello, goodbye!" The same goes for saying goodnight and good morning and everything. It can be a little overwhelming, but I think it's very telling about how kind and generous the Beninese people are. My host family have been so generous already, and although sometimes it's hard for us trainees to not have our usual amount of freedom, I think I'm beginning to establish a good balance with my own family. They even let me come to the internet alone by myself today!!

For the most part, we're all really lucky and happy with our host families despite some small frustrations. We've already lost 5 people out of the 64 who came, :-( but for a wide variety of reasons, none really having to do with our current living situation. In fact, we're being quite spoiled by training in a city. I'm pretty sure we all have electricity and the majority of us have toilets (including me!) and running water. While post will almost certainly have a latrine and a well, I think this is sort of a nice transition into it.

I get my post assignment on Friday, then next week we go for a 4 day post visit! I'm so excited to find out where I'll be posted in country, but of course anxious to know as well! All the current volunteers say that you end up loving your post, no matter where it is, so I'm not too worried about it;

Overall, things here have been great so far and quite an adventure. I haven't gotten sick yet (although of course its only a matter of time :-) ) and I'm learning so much everyday! I'll post again soon with more details of my daily life and of course my post assignment!

p.s. these keyboards are different, so please tolerate weird and random typos!!