Training and a little bit of that! :)

Week 5-6 Training the newbies
Back in Porto-Novo after a very long time. I forgot how much I do not miss it. It is just not my neck of the woods. The little children need to get back to school is all I am saying. One day I will be saying that about my kids. Funny what age and experience with children does to you. Anyways, the reason Porto- Novo and I do not get along is the men always cat-calling me, hissing at me, just annoying men. And the children literally hang all over me as I am just walking down the road. I have to pry them off. It is just really sad, but their parents just laugh and sing the yovo song along with their kids. Also, you might see a little girl or boy and absolutely no one; no parents, no big sister, no one to watch the girl. What if she gets hurt, abducted, lost? Coming from Lokossa, my part of the woods, it can be difficult to handle and accept. Also, there are a lot of so called “fools” here. Most of the time they will not bother you as they really have no idea where they are at in the world. On my ride over to the market to buy some fabric to make some new clothes, I saw a man probably around 20 years old just running around in a big circle in the middle of traffic. What do you do? Mom and I were talking about these kinds of things on the phone the other night and it just shows how much we take advantage of in the states. No matter how much money you make, you can get into see the doctor in the states; people are just not left on the streets with nothing. There are shelters. There are places for the mentally ill. Here in Benin. There is nothing like that. It is super hard to watch that go on here and go about my daily life watching the people. It is something I am used to seeing, but I will never be used to it.
Well, I have hung out with the trainees for one day and they seem pretty outgoing, afraid of the water, eating and getting sick. Sounds normal to me. This week, I am going to be teaching about CBA-Competency Based Approach, Giving and Receiving Feedback, GAD panel questions and answers based on my experiences thus far, teaching a model lesson on greetings and introductions, lesson plan writing, talking about post visit anxiety, and cooking in Benin. Yea, glad I will be with other volunteers because believe it or not…dum dum dum I can’t cook! Haha I think everyone knows that. Anyways, I taught the trainees what CBA was with a power point and an example text comparing effective and ineffective teachers. Here in Benin, they have an old system and new system of teaching. The government is training the teachers to lesson teacher talking time and increase student talking time, include more activities such as group work, pair work, individual work, role play, and write lesson plans which include a warm-up, presentation, practice, evaluation and an assessment for each class period. This proves to be difficult for many teachers as they were taught with just lecture and being talked at all of the time or supplies are expensive or hard to come by or the skills are just not there to teach in that way. So, our volunteers will help a lot of villages to train the teachers and help build the education system up. It is USAID that is helping/providing money to run the program for Benin and other countries around how world. It was a boring session for me last year, so it might have been boring this year as well, but it is good to understand what exactly CBA is and the history behind it. I now see the importance of the CBA session. I believe I was able to make it quick, yet informative.
Victoria and I are staying in a house together for RCH-Health and TEFL-teaching. It is an okay house that I can handle for a week or so. It lacks supplies for living such as bowls, rags for cleaning, etc. I am sure it will all come together soon enough…by next year’s training at least. We went looking for food today and we went to a place where they have schwarma which is a big sandwich with veggies, meat and such inside heated up. They are amazing in Cotonou, but you know what? The waitress was like we do not have those today. We said okay, what do you have? She said we have some eggs. And then she said at 18h (6pm) we will have your food. I said okay, please write that down somewhere on your sign so people know next time. She said it is…I asked where? She said oh right here in this small print at the bottom of the paper. All you can do is laugh and find another solution. Live and learn.
Oh, how I have missed so much in the States this week. For one it is shark week and another, I missed Fatima’s baby shower through webcam. She is going to have her baby very soon. I bet he is going to be a cutie!!  Celebrating my 2nd Independence Day here in Benin. It has been 51 years of Independence for Benin. Good for them. Bon fete!
Finished my first week of training. It was fun being at the front of the room explaining the technical sessions instead of being the one in desks learning. I feel like the MAMA and then next year I will be the GRANDMAMA. Haha To end the week, we had a cooking session where we and the trainees prepared chili with wagashi cheese, tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc. It was super delicious thanks to the other trainers who are excellent cooks unlike me! We also prepared a salad where we had to bleach the veggies and salad dressing was made. (vinegarette I believe!) Everything was eaten. The trainees in TEFL have a two day seminar with their supervisors and then they get to see their posts! Post announcements went well for the most part, I believe. I hope TEFL has a good time as well as a stress-free trip. The northern sites might have to take a two day trip to get to their posts because the roads and such are not up to par. Bonne chance! (Good luck)

The last days of summer vacation for Benin. There are volunteers who are leaving and more who are coming in. Puppies are being born and leaving the house soon. The rain is going away and the sun is coming out slowly then quickly. The cool nights are ending and the sweating nights are coming. The months are quickly passing me by. Four months and I will be home for a three week vacation. Starting new projects for the orphanage and going to work with PSI by handing out free condoms to those in need. Going to try and get every sector in my Peace Corps experience; Education, Health, Environment, and Small Enterprise. I will have a post mate that will help me with the Small Enterprise stuff I hope. People from home often ask me, “How ya doing? “ My answer as of now is, “I am doing great! I am very happy and motivated to do well in my projects.” It is true after the first year, everything seems to come together one way or another. I hope it stays on the positive track. For all those who want to know-Sylvain and I have been together for 5 months now. Doesn’t sound like a long time, but seeing how we come from totally different cultures and share different points of view, it is going great. He is a great guy and would do anything for me. He has helped me with a lot of projects along the way. I can’t wait to get the tire playground set up for the kids. It is a long process. For example, we need tires. Tires are just lying around all over town. We all know this. That is not the problem. The problem is if I go asking for these tires, they are all of a sudden going to cost a fortune! Even though they are free and just lying around! Ugh. So, I have to do some talking and asking around to get this done. Baby steps.