lauren laughs

so… my visa states that i have to leave the country every 3 months, meaning i have to leave benin by november 8. granted, i could just drive to togo, and i might, but i was really hoping to visit friends that happen to be in tanzania at that time. interestingly enough… it cost about twice as much to travel IN africa as it does to travel OUT of africa. shoot. paris would be cheapest, but who do i know in paris? so, i’m wondering… anyone have friends i can visit in paris or elsewhere?

ron and ruth just sent me some pics from their visit last month. here we are enjoying a coke at a bar on stilts in ganvie (benin’s venice), the village on a lake. you can see appliqué hangings that are typical of benin hanging behind us.

pictured are ron, ruth, alexis and me. alexis is one of the peeps i work with here. he does all our bookkeeping and he speaks english pretty well too! he’s a ray of sunshine in my life.

the past couple nights i’ve gone out with some girlfriends to a little patio bar around the corner from where i’m dog sitting. a lovely beninoise woman just opened the place, and i think we may have been her first customers. i keep going back because i love the sense of pride she exudes. at one point she asked me to follow her to “regardez” look at something, she was so excited, and led me to the bathroom. i wasn’t sure what she meant at first, but then realized she was just glowing with pride at how nice and clean it was, and she wanted me to tell her so. so i gave her as many compliments on the bathroom (which really was nice and clean) as i could think of. each time i go to the bar, she gives me a “cadeau” or gift… last night it was an apple. i shouldn’t have eaten it, since the yovo are supposed to soak their fruits and veggies in bleach water before eating them (unless they’re cooked) to ward of parasites our bodies aren’t used to, but i ate it anyway. it was a cadeau! my stomach seems just fine so far…

so this actually happened about 2 weeks ago, and i didn’t mention it because i didn’t want to alarm anyone, but i hear it made the news back in the states, so here’s a link to the story. there has only been one beheading in benin, but it happened to be in the village where my friend sarah lives. she’s a peace corps volunteer. luckily, she was visiting cotonou, safe and sound… but she is back there now, so please pray for sarah’s peace of mind. and safety. and a good start to the school year.

on the bright side, it’s a very beautiful day in benin today!

i just discovered a bath tub in the house where i’m dog sitting. WOW!

and i’m using a much more posh internet cafe for the next 10 days than i usually get to enjoy, complete with a much faster connection… so i have successfully uploaded a few new pics to my photo gallery. i’ll highlight a few now…

this is one of my many roommates. he’s about 3 inches, in case you can’t tell. i call him gregor (i hope some of you can figure out why.)

this is my carpenter who works in a shack down the road. he was making my bed in this picture, which is waiting in storage for a home.

this is a navy guy and the benin flag on the navy boat that took us out “whale watching” (if you can call it that). you can see the city of cotonou in the background.

i’ve pointed you to rob’s blog a few times before, because really, there’ s just too much here for one girl to cover. it helps to have blogging friends. but rob also has a series of videos on youtube that will give you an even better idea of life in benin, as well as life with the baker family, if you’re interested… it is one of my homes away from home!

click here to see rob’s videos.

i’ll try to upload some of my own one day… i’m also thinking of podcasting. wouldn’t that be fun? but first things first. the apartment hunt continues. and school starts tomorrow!! (we think…)

apartment update… i looked at one yesterday that was great, but too big and too expensive. 3 bedrooms, living room, huge kitchen, huge terrace, 2 bathrooms… $275. i know. you think it’s a steal, but it’s over my budget. plus, 3 bedrooms is really more responsibility than i need! i saw two over the weekend that were waaaay to dark and dreary.

the good news is that starting tomorrow, i get to dog sit for some friends, AND stay in their house with hot running water! not that i’d want a hot shower at this point. the temperatures are climbing here, and i’m waiting for my body to adjust.

which reminds me… something weird about this place… while i basically sweat all the time, i find there is no such thing as BO. i guess when you sweat enough, it just stops smelling? an odd discovery, i know, but intriguing enough to share with the broader public, i think.

i’ve been told the mail situation gets a little crazy(er) in december, so anyone wishing to send christmas cards or gifts should do so now. not that i’m expecting anything, but i was relaying this message to my mom yesterday and thought i might is well just share the news with the world. so here are some mailing do’s and dont’s:

do send mail to my po box
Lauren Robbins, JPC-Benin
06 BP 2250
Cotonou, Benin

envelopes (and padded envelopes) should go straight to my po, but boxes will go to the airport, where i’ll have to go through customs, which is fine, just take note of the following…

don’t include receipts or any price tags
do write “donation” clearly
do low-ball the value of contents
do realize it may never reach me 🙂
don’t let that discourage you!! 🙂
don’t giftwrap items

it may also be good to include a letter saying the contents of the box are a donation and not for re-sale, but only if you’re sending lots of stuff.

if what you send is intended for christmas, just write “xmas” somewhere on the box, and i’ll do my best not to see what’s in it while customs people sort through the contents, k?

again, envelopes avoid all this mess, so good gift ideas could include pictures or a mix cd of all the new music i’m missing!

sitting in the hot sun, working on my permanent farmer’s tan, sweating up a storm… i look out at the thousands of faces in the market and think, ‘this is the life.’ not forever, but for now, for sure.

the dantokpa market is the busiest in cotonou. it’s not a place the yovo frequent. but today i went with pelagie and juliette to shop for fabric. i bought 6 meters of two different wax colored cloths. i picked one and juliette chose the other. i wish i could take pictures of the market so you could see what i see, but carrying a camera is asking to be mugged. i could sit for hours and people watch, though. i did sit on a stool for about half an hour to do just that. i bought “fan milk” (frozen yogurt in a pouch) for $0.20 and sucked on the cold vanilla flavor while feasting my eyes on the sites and colors.

after the market, i went to juliette’s house. like most people here, juliette lives in a concession, which are little rooms off a central open space, sharing water and bathrooms. they’re like miniature villages. augustinne, living in the same concession, makes clothes. she took my measurements and my fabric. i’ll have two new african outfits in a week’s time. while visiting chez juliette and augustinne, i was offered lunch. i can never get used to taking food from people who have so little, but they see it as a blessing, so i accept… it’s a good thing i like food so much! the kids living in the concession thought it was so funny to see a yovo in their house. they were shocked when i sat on the floor, but pelagie explained, “she is a missionary, she will accept anything.” i laughed and said, “c’est vrai! it’s true!”

the kids wanted to touch my skin, my nails, my hair. i smiled as one of them counted to see if i too had 5 toes on each foot. i mean really, what could be better? these are the moments i have to hold in my heart when i feel discouraged.