October 20

So I have come to the conclusion that I think I am becoming mean over here in Africa. Not something you would have thought huh. Well as I said before I used to love children and now I am starting to hate them. I can not stand to here the Yovo song one more time and I here it at least a million times a day. So therefore I have started to be mean. To the children who sing the Yovo song I give them mean looks and ignore them, and then when a child says my name, I smile and praise them and am very nice to them. So I suppose I am in turn teaching these children through some sort of positive deviance not to sing the Yovo song. I feel bad being so mean but it is like nails on a chalk board to me now.
On a more fun note coming up soon is my big regional meeting for Peace Corps. I am super siked for many reasons. First it is on Halloween so I will some form be able to celebrate my favorite holiday with friends. Also the meeting was originally going to be in Bohicon, the town that I go to all the time, but now they have moved it to Parakou, a bigger city up north that I haven’t been to yet so that will be super cool. And lastly our regional meeting is at the same time as the people that live in the Parakou region which means I will get to hang out with twice as many of my friends and my good friends Nora and John Mark will be there. This could definitely not have come sooner. I can’t wait. After that I also have only 1 more month of “grounding” here in Djidja and then I can travel and do what I want. YAY
I also wanted to inform everyone that I have finally conformed to the African dress code. When I first got to Benin I was told I could not wear speghetti straps and that I most definitely had to have straps. Well that is really only for business purposes and ridiculous considering how freaking hot it is over here. So I have branched out and I now wear spaghetti straps with my Pagnes or I just wrap a pagne around my chest like a towel and just wear that. I am pretty proud of myself if I do say so and it is soooo much cooler. It is what all of the African women wear who have lived here for centuries so why should I fight it. I do still wear the occasional American clothes and I definitely still indulge myself and wear jeans because as we all now I am a fashion loving, girly girl at heart. Oh and did I mention I still haven’t given up mascara and I don’t think that I ever will. I look deranged without it. Oh and I almost forgot, I will NEVER not shave my legs.
As all of you can see (if I was able to upload the photos, I am writing these blogs from my laptop) I put up some photos. All of the people in the pictures are my neighbors who have really been great to me and helped me out a lot. The young boy eating is the one who is teaching how to cook Beninese food. I bought a ecraser the other day. This is a stone slab, that is probably 8 by 12 inches, that comes with a stone where you grind things down. Usually you will use it too make pepper sauce, tomatoes sauce, and making you garlic very fine. I now have the hang of it and I can now make many more Beninese dishes because of it. The other people are just more of the neighbors that I have.
So that’s pretty much all I have for now, oh I can’t believe MU has lost the past two football games, but I will say it does kind of make me happy because I know I was there for the best and exciting year of football we have had in years. Au revoir