lauren laughs

well… i’ve moved! mostly. brian, kim, marianne and matt were all very helpful in moving all the furniture i bought a month ago from storage to my “compound.” see, my new home is actually 3 separate buildings… the main house (bedroom, bathroom, living room), the kitchen and the guest house (bedroom and bathroom). click here to see the virtual tour.

pictured are josue’s “mama,” me and isaac. we’re all pretty happy i finally have a place of my own!

it’s not yet a fully functioning home. i still need to get fans, a gas stove and gas tank, and a voltage stabilizer. tonight i’m staying at my friend melissa’s place one last time (thanks melissa!) i have LOVED staying here. great view and free internet! but tomorrow i’ll stay at my place, and yes, i have a guard, so don’t you worry!

so tomorrow will be a big day. lau’s first night staying in the compound. woohoo!

tomorrow is ALSO a big day because ALVIN is coming to town! YAY! alvin is working on his second book on eagle scouts and is traveling to benin to interview 4 scouts working for peace corps now. (more importantly, he is bringing my Christmas presents from my parents!) i’m very excited to see a friend from home. we’ll be traveling to the northernmost part of benin. it’s pretty much a symbiotic voyage. i’ll help alvin communicate and survive, while he’ll help me to see the rest of the country and potential ministry opportunities. please pray for our safety 🙂

okay, maybe a few too many exclamation marks in this post, but you’ll need the excitement to hold you over while i’m away this next week…

lau: [pronounced- loh] noun. a nickname given to lauren while living in argentina. most english speaking people mispronounce the name, making it rhyme with “now” instead of “know.”

lau-mad: brian came up with this word in my first post about my nomad status back in june. my nomad days are nearly over! i move tomorrow!

lau-cal: the new state of lau… see below.

another wednesday night journey to and from porto novo… so many potential stories to tell… i’ll just highlight two.

so i’m sitting in the back of the “bush van” when we stop to pick up another traveler. the only “empty” seat is next to me in the very back, so we open the trunk, and an old man climbs in. yes, i really mean the trunk… and yes, he really had to climb. now, we were already pretty crowded back there, since two big “mamas” were sitting on the other side of me. the lady in front of me laughed and asked if i was okay. typically, people try to let the “yovo” sit near the front. i smiled and nodded. the old man next to me said something along the lines of, “she’s in africa. she can be like the africans.” i nodded again, “c’est vrai…” 10 minutes later, the old man was asleep on my shoulder.

fast forward 3 hours…

i’m back in cotonou, just jumped out of the bush van, and i’m flagging down a zemi jan. you should remember zemi jans are a form of taxi… you climb onto the back of a motor bike with a man wearing a yellow shirt and tell him where you want to go. “zemi jan” is fon (local language) for “take me fast!” anyway, i’m telling my “zem” where i want to go, when another zem pulls up to ask for directions. the guy on the back of his bike wants to get to “senede.” the poor zem driver must have just moved here from the bush, he had no idea where he was going. and the guy on the back of the bike was nigerian, he also had no clue. so local lau gave them directions. mmm hmm!

to give you a better idea of the zemi jan experience, i’ll post a picture.

my dad and i were talking about zem rides over the phone last week. our conversation went something like this…

dad: so you just hold on to some stranger on a bike? (laughing)
lau: of course not! you can’t hold on to them!
dad: well then how do you stay on? you must hold on to something?
lau: well you can hold on to the seat, but it’s actually easier to just relax and go with the flow.
dad: kinda like riding a horse?
lau: kinda.
dad: and i guess you can squeeze the seat with your legs too?
lau: definitely not! the guy on the bike is likely to be wider than the seat, so you’d be squeezing him with your legs instead of the seat! not a good idea.

note to people traveling to benin: when a zemi driver asks if you’re married, the answer is ALWAYS yes!!

we had the most unusual weather in cotonou today… i think it must have been below 80 degrees! breezy and cloudy… i thought maybe if i sat on the deck with earphones, my eyes closed, and a shawl wrapped around me, maybe i could pretend i was sitting in the mountains on an autumn day. eh, no. couldn’t escape reality, despite my wild imagination. still, it was a welcome change in temperatures, which made me realize that part of my mind is convinced it’s still august.

since the weather has been consistently hot from the first day i arrived, it’s kinda like that movie “groundhog day,” i wake up to the same thing over and over. but as i was skyping with one of my friends this morning (skype lets you talk and see each other over the internet for free), i could see that he was wearing warm clothes. even the contents of his room gave evidence of cold weather. at which point i realized life goes on without me. part of me subconsciously has believed these past few months that my life is in “repeat play” (you know, when the same song plays over and over and over again) while everyone else’s lives are in “pause.” like people back home are just sitting still, waiting for me to get back. or maybe they’re watching my life on a movie, sometimes biting their nails and whispering, “no! don’t do that!” or “gosh, how’d she come out of that alive?” (like today when i got hit by a zemi jan (moped) while crossing the street… but it only barely brushed me!)

but, as it turns out, life goes on with and without me. the weather changes in other places, even if it stays the same here. and peeps back home aren’t waiting on standby, watching me live life… they’re living life too. of course i’ve known this all along, it just doesn’t feel that way.

speaking of skype, if you don’t have it, you should consider getting it. it’s free and easy. but friday is the last time i’ll have consistent internet access for a while. i’m moving to my new house, and it could take months to get internet set up!

tomorrow, december 1, is world AIDS day. according to the world health organization, in the parts of the world where HIV/AIDS is most prevalent, only one in ten people with HIV know they’re infected. knowledge is power. no, really, it is. you know about AIDS, so you have the power to do something to make a difference. what will you do?

i’ll be praying with a LOT of people from 7:00 to 17:00 (1-11 AM EST). you can join us if you want. don’t think prayer can make a difference? agree to disagree… then do something else. visit www.worldaidscampaign.info to learn more about what you can do.

tonight i took a bush van to porto novo (by myself! at night!) for class. i find that listening to my ipod shuffle on bush rides really helps to put things in perspective. odd. i know. but it’s like i have to have a backdrop of familiar music to remember just how unfamiliar my surroundings are. watching a woman walk down the road with a huge load on her head and a baby on her back… common enough… watching that same woman while listening to coldplay? or robert earl keen? or ani difranco? exotic and surreal.

so as i got comfy in my 6 inches of space this evening, i pressed play, wondering what the musical genius that is my shuffle would select for my listening pleasure. “all the trees of the field will clap their hands” by sufjan stevens. i closed my eyes, exhaled and smiled. here are the lyrics…

If I am alive this time next year,
will I have arrived in time to share?
And mine is about as good this far.
And I’m still applied to what you are.
And I am joining all my thoughts to you.
And I’m preparing every part for you.

And I heard from the trees a great parade.
And I heard from the hills a band was made.
And will I be invited to the sound?
And will I be a part of what you’ve made?
And I am throwing all my thoughts away.
And I’m destroying every bet I’ve made.
And I am joining all my thoughts to you.
And I’m preparing every part for you.

in the same way that the music colors my surroundings, my surroundings filter the music. words take on different or deeper meanings, songs become new again. i would discuss just how this song became new to me tonight, but i can’t write well enough to do so. and it wouldn’t mean the same to you anyhow. i mean, the lyrics are just one part of the entire experience. how can i possibly describe the effect of pitches, sound color, syncopation and repetition? and then all the memories that come with it… early mornings alone at MEA, contemplating preceptorial papers and fund raising while closing out grants… who was i then? who am i now? okay, enough already…

i’ve blogged about sufjan before. if you’re not already a fan, check him out.

one thing you learn quickly in africa, is that if someone asks how you’re doing, you always respond asking about their family…
“ça va?”
“oui, ça va. chez toi?”
literally, it’s asking about your home… up till now, i’ve felt silly saying “my home goes well.” i mean… what home?
until today.
today i can say, “chez moi va tres bien!!!!!!”
yes, after nearly 6 months of being a nomad (4 months in benin and 2 months in the states), i have found a home. and it’s perfect. it’s the best place ever, and no one can convince me otherwise.
i mean, it has a YARD! do you know how rare that is? very. in the smoggy city that is cotonou, i, lauren, will have trees. TREES! palm trees and banana trees!!!!!
it’s like my whole life just changed! TREES!

saturday’s english class was in porto novo, the political capital of benin. i teach in porto novo every wednesday night and every other saturday. to get there, i flag a “bush van” (as i like to call them… like a bush taxi, but bigger), which is essentially an astro van that has been equipped with 4 bench seats. 20 people (and their stuff) fit in a bush van. this is the standard number. there are no seat belts. it’s at least an hour’s ride each way, which costs about $2 roundtrip.

though bush vans are exceedingly hot, windy and cramped, they are fun. especially if you enjoy people watching. i would describe it, but fear some of my observations would seem irreverent to someone on the outside looking in… so ask me about it next time you see me.

anyway, the school where i teach in porto novo is partly a boarding school for girls. anyone can come to my classes, it’s just that we meet at the boarding school to accommodate the girls that board and are not allowed to leave. this technicality makes it difficult to do the fun things i get to do with the students in cotonou, but we make do…

so saturday we had a dance party in class. we talked about dance vocabulary (including body parts and movements… shake, twist, etc) and listened to african music. they tried to teach me african moves. then it was time for some american dance moves… my friend sarah was visiting, and we chose the tune “get down on it.” easy enough lyrics to teach the students, catchy tune, one of the best dance songs of all times. sarah and i totally “cut a rug” (that was a difficult expression to teach), and the students mimicked our every move… meaning they looked absolutely ridiculous. it was awesome.