I got a puppy! His name is Jasper and I bought him at the marché last Tuesday. They randomly sell kittens and puppies in the chicken section, actually, and their usually cramped in cages with them too. Jasper was in a small cage piled on all of his brothers and sisters, but the only one up and active. He is mostly brown (better to hide the dirt I think), with white paws and tail, and a black snout. The vet says he's about 8 weeks old, which is comparatively pretty old for the dogs and cats sold there (my friend Dennis in a nearby village bought a puppy that can't be more than 5 weeks old). I paid extra because he is older actually, but it was definitely worth it. He can already eat food and learn commands. He's so smart- after 4 days he already knows his name, "leave it", "sit", "come", and is basically house trained!
The first 48 hours were horrible. I was so back and forth about getting him in the first place. A lot of new volunteers around me have gotten kittens or dogs, so I was kind of peer-pressured into it. I was at the marché with Katherine (the other PCV in Dogbo), who has a kitten, and she really encouraged me to do it. Well, that first night as I lay awake for 8 hours straight as he cried, all I could think of was how I could get rid of him and all the problems I'd have if I kept him. My neighbors hated me the next day, the neighbor's kids pestered me even more (as if that could be possible), and he would not stop peeing. Well, luckily for him he's a quick learner, he no longer cries at night, he sleeps most of the day anyway, and he's so darn cute! He loves to curl up at my feet and sleep, which of course gets me everytime. I let him sleep inside last night and he actually didn't get into anything, so I'm feeling hopeful he's gonna stay! I also can't really bear to think about what his life will be like if I gave him away. It's so sad but so true that my dog will likely have more vaccines, more toys, and eat more protein than the average Beninese child. While I have mixed feelings about that, I also feel like the least I can do is suck it up and keep him.
Despite the first few days I was tied down w/ Jasper this week I've still just been trying to meet more people in Dogbo and explore little by little. A fellow English prof took me to 2 orphanages neary my house and I'd really like to work with them in the future, even just to drop by from time to time to play games with the kids. We also toured the surroundings village areas, which were breathtaking. Despite my pretty modern amenities in my own home, I've only got to go a few blocks off the main road to find all mud huts and people performing back-breaking work all day long. Quite often only children could respond to my French because older generations didnt go to school to learn it. There are such huge differences between ways of life here, my host family in Porto-Novo, for example, compared to the villagers of Dogbo, but there is also avery strog mutual respect between them. City people are very aware oftheir village of origin and often return to visit family still living there. I hope I can spend some valuable time in the villages on some sort of project, just to get better understanding of how that major portion of Beninese society lives.
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