I brought back a baby wild animals calendar with me ($1 at Target) for 2010 and put it on the wall right by my front door. The picture for January is a lion cub and it even says in large letters- LION, which is the same word in French. So far, three people have seen it and asked if it's a picture of my dog from the states. Gets me every time.
***
My dad bought me a blow-up globe to use with my geography club and we used it for the first time last week. While one boy went to the road to get it pumped full of air I taped my world map to the chalkboard. We started naming the continents and oceans. Most of them didn't know them, but atleast everyone could find Africa right in the center and had an idea of where the Americas and Asia sort of were. Well, in comes the globe. First, I had a little boy stand up and act as my 'sun' and I explained that the world was round and rotated around it. I ran around him and said...this is one year! They were full of oohs and ahhs.
The thing that really struck me however, was that once we started playing with the globe, they lost all sense of direction and location of the continents. We stood up in a circle and played a game where you name a continent or ocean, throw it to a friend, and they have to find it on the globe. They ended up turning the globe every which way and in some cases even had trouble finding Africa. It was amazing to see how working hands-on with a 3D object was really a new sort of experience for them. Given that their classrooms have no walls and no floors, of course they have no blocks or legos or balls to ever get them use to spatial reasoning. But it was fun to watch them have fun with it anyway and get so excited just to hold and touch it.
While I was home I found mini-globes in the $1 section of Target!!! I bought about 25 and I'm having my friend Ryan bring them over to Benin next month when he comes to visit. I can't wait!!!! Especially now that I see how much they are going to learn from them just by being able to take them home and play with them all on their own.
***
We've all heard about the recent tragic earthquake in Haiti and even many Beninese people know about it from the TV. A lot of them think Haiti is in Africa though, maybe because they know it's French speaking and see darker colored people on TV. Anyway, another PCV said that people told him that lots of Beninese people in Cotonou and another big town of Bohicon are sleeping outside now because they think the earthquake is going to come here to Benin and they know they'll be safer outside. He explained it's far away, and they don't have to worry, and he even made the huge mistake of trying to get into plate tectonics. I told him he should have just told them the bad "gri gri" couldn't come this far :-).
Monday, January 25, 2010
Back to Benin!
So there are a couple of missing entries to fill in the past 2 months...most importantly...I went home!! Spending 3 weeks at home for Christmas and New Years was amazing, delicious, freeeeezing cold, and refreshing. Overall, the weirdest thing about being back was that it didn't feel that weird at all. The first time I approached the dishwasher and the washing machine I admit I was apprehensive for a split second about all the buttons, but all of a sudden my fingers knew exactly what they were doing. My first night home I did have a moment of wonderment at my parents "five fires" on their stovetop. I even said out loud to them, "Oh my god, do you realize you have five fires right here?" Of course it was the family joke for the rest of my stay. By the end I got to spend lots of time with my friends and family and I was so exhausted that all I could think about was getting back to my puppy and my couch in Dogbo!
For about 2 weeks now I have been back to Benin, and I couldn't have been happier when I got back. I was just so excited to realize that Dogbo really does feel like home to me, too. Sort of like returning to the dorms in college after break, I think. In the plane coming into Cotonou from Paris I looked up and saw the stars in the first time for 3 weeks and realized how much I missed them. When I arrived I also noticed a scab from a scratch on my foot- I didn't even know I had scratched it. In the cold winter weather I hadn't been able to pay any attention to my body because all I wanted to do was cover it with layer after layer of clothes!
Despite all of my joy for returning to my life here in Dogbo, this past week has been a lot more difficult due to 2 unfortunate events. The first being that last Sunday my postmate and one of my best friends here, Catherine, left for home for good. She has been in 3 moto accidents in the last 8 months and found transportation to be too difficult for her to continue her time here. We all already miss her, and it will be harder for me now that I won't have her in Dogbo to relax with on a bad day. At the same time, I know it was the right decision for her and I wish her all the luck with moving back!
The second unfortunate event happened last Sunday as well, the day of Catherine's departure. Three volunteers coming down from the North were in a huge bus accident when their bus collided with a semi-truck head on. Miraculously none of them were seriously hurt, but people in the rows directly in front of them were actually killed. Understandably this sort of event has all of the PCVs a bit shaken up, but truthfully there is nothing we can do. The bus is still undoubtedly the safest mode of transport and we all knew the risk existed- it's just a bit more real to us now.
So, this last week wasn't quiet as great as the first, but I'm trying to focus on the positive and remember why I was so excited to come back. I think that one of the biggest realizations I've had since going home is just that this experience is almost over. It's only a few months until the end, and those months are jam-packed with event after event. Right now it's a little exciting to think about what's next, but also scary and overwhelming and mostly just sad to think about leaving friends and life here. It is possible for us to extend a 3rd year in Benin or another country if we want, but I think I want to go back to apply for grad school next fall. Of course it's all still up in the air, but if I do decide to finish this year I will get my official date of departure in late May. So stay tuned for that!!
For about 2 weeks now I have been back to Benin, and I couldn't have been happier when I got back. I was just so excited to realize that Dogbo really does feel like home to me, too. Sort of like returning to the dorms in college after break, I think. In the plane coming into Cotonou from Paris I looked up and saw the stars in the first time for 3 weeks and realized how much I missed them. When I arrived I also noticed a scab from a scratch on my foot- I didn't even know I had scratched it. In the cold winter weather I hadn't been able to pay any attention to my body because all I wanted to do was cover it with layer after layer of clothes!
Despite all of my joy for returning to my life here in Dogbo, this past week has been a lot more difficult due to 2 unfortunate events. The first being that last Sunday my postmate and one of my best friends here, Catherine, left for home for good. She has been in 3 moto accidents in the last 8 months and found transportation to be too difficult for her to continue her time here. We all already miss her, and it will be harder for me now that I won't have her in Dogbo to relax with on a bad day. At the same time, I know it was the right decision for her and I wish her all the luck with moving back!
The second unfortunate event happened last Sunday as well, the day of Catherine's departure. Three volunteers coming down from the North were in a huge bus accident when their bus collided with a semi-truck head on. Miraculously none of them were seriously hurt, but people in the rows directly in front of them were actually killed. Understandably this sort of event has all of the PCVs a bit shaken up, but truthfully there is nothing we can do. The bus is still undoubtedly the safest mode of transport and we all knew the risk existed- it's just a bit more real to us now.
So, this last week wasn't quiet as great as the first, but I'm trying to focus on the positive and remember why I was so excited to come back. I think that one of the biggest realizations I've had since going home is just that this experience is almost over. It's only a few months until the end, and those months are jam-packed with event after event. Right now it's a little exciting to think about what's next, but also scary and overwhelming and mostly just sad to think about leaving friends and life here. It is possible for us to extend a 3rd year in Benin or another country if we want, but I think I want to go back to apply for grad school next fall. Of course it's all still up in the air, but if I do decide to finish this year I will get my official date of departure in late May. So stay tuned for that!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
