It's been awhile...life goes on. Period.

My way back to Benin!
Hung out with my parents for a few hours, sat down after a worked said, “would you like to rest your weary bones?” haha priceless! I went through security, a full body x-ray and made it through fine even though there was a lady worker yelling orders left and right. I guess you have to in order to keep the order. Get it? Ha ha anyways, I went to my gate and of course no one let me know that they changed the gate to one down and around the corner. Good thing another lady went and asked about it. I was super confused. It all worked out though. I got some burnt chicken fingers and ranch sauce and ate up. I got on my small plane; two seats on each side. I was ready to go. I flew Cleveland to Detroit which was only 25 minutes long and got to see a nice sunset. I took a picture and the guy I was sitting next to me had no idea. He was sleeping by the window. There was not much turbulence on the way but a little on the descending –got my stomach pretty good! Yikes! I got off the plane and the Detroit airport is huge! There is a train and escalators everywhere. I had to walk a long way to gate A60 and I saw that my flight is on-time, so I went and bought a cherry pepsi. I have no idea why a pepsi, but it sounded good. I tried internet, but I would have to pay out “the you know what” for just a couple hours. So, I am going to sit here and watch tv on the big screen and get on my plane when the time comes. It is going to be a long flight. Hopefully, everything goes as planned and on-time!
So, today is my 24th birthday and I feel good. I have been to the states, had our second round of testing for the school year, already have a strike going on in the school systems, and am actually used to sweating my booty off in Benin, West Africa. It is kind of a relief to be able to say, I am doing okay for all that has happened. Let me start off right before I left for the states in December. Thanksgiving was coming up and I was ready to kill a rooster, cook some sweet potatoes and have a good meal. I did all of that, no problem. It was the second Thanksgiving away from home and that meant the last. I will be able to have an ALL AMERICAN Thanksgiving from now on; unless you know I travel again…haha. Anyways, that was all good and dandy, then there was about two weeks left in my countdown for The United States of America! I was dreaming of pizza, chicken wings, cream sticks, and some 1% milk. Yes, MILK! I was planning on having a Worlds AIDS Day at my school as well. I had everything planned-female and male condoms, posters, translators, teachers and students combined. It was going to be a great day! Then, the unexpected happened. My grandmother passed away. I went to Cotonou and stayed with my PCVL for a couple of days and I had to change my ticket and get a flight home a little earlier. Peace Corps was very understanding and helpful throughout the whole process. The doctors were great as well. I really have to send a special thanks to Sam! She was with me through it all! Thanks Dione as well! You were there when I needed to talk! Love you girls! Good thing we are so close and live in the same STATE! O-H-I-O! I say this because I am very lucky to be a part of Peace Corps Benin as we are like a family! Seriously, every time I am in the office, I stop and greet as many people as I can. I love to see their smiling faces. They are very grateful of us, the volunteers. Anyways, I got a flight home and went from 100 degrees to about 10 or below degrees. I was freezing getting off the plane. I almost can’t explain how cold I was getting off the plane! I mean, seriously, Frosty the Snowman was playing in the airport! Can you believe it? No lies. Then, I saw Papa and Dad. It was such a relief to be able to hug them! Papa had a cream stick donut for me! It was perfect! Got all my luggage successfully once again. I have had the best luck with luggage, but I won’t say that too too loud. I don’t want to jinx anything. So, I got to the van shivering, brain was going to explode and put on some sneakers, a sweatshirt and cranked up that heat! We were on our way to Ashtabula! It was just a little rainy and organized highway systems. I haven’t seen one of those in 16 months. It kind of made me nervous though as everyone was using their turn signals, going to speed limit, and had all their lights working in their vehicles. We made it home and Mom had an American flag and Peace Corps Flag up on the house! It was great! So festive for my homecoming! Thank you!  I saw Mom and she just hugged and hugged me! No crying allowed. Yea right!?! I showed the parents the things I brought back from Benin and jumped in the bath! It was amazing! I was so tired. I went to bed around 8pm that night and woke up at 5am. Jet lag really stinks. But, I got used to the time change pretty quickly because I was super busy helping out the family and getting things organized. We celebrated Christmas and New Years and a little of bit of snow came while I was home. I was able to go visit a 2nd grade class and talk to the children about Beninese students and their schools. They were so interested and had great questions. I enjoyed my day with the kids. They asked, “why do the students have to shave their heads? Why isn’t your head shaved? What do they do for fun? What animals do you see in Africa? Do you miss your Mommy and Daddy? “ I could go on and on. Being with the 2nd graders made me realize how much fun it is to teach about new cultures and how much we, as Americans, are well-off compared to Benin. I have chalk and a chalkboard offered to me and then that is all for the teaching tools. It is up to me to supply visual aids, colored chalk, etc for teaching the students. That is one of my responsibilities in Benin; I help the teachers to use visual aids, more Student Talking Time, etc because every student learns differently. I train teachers to see the options and use them instead of just talking at the students and writing lots of words on the board. My Mom also organized a get-together for family and friends to come and see “me” and talk about Benin as well as see artwork, listen to music, and view pictures and videos. It was a great time. Everyone who came brought a toy for the orphanage. I had a suitcase FULL of toys for the orphans. Thank you everyone once again. You have no idea how happy the kids are to have those toys. Some of them just stared at the toys, not even knowing how to use them. It was a very special day for them and I appreciate everyone who helped out from the bottom of my heart. At the get-together I wanted to show everyone my dance moves I learned in Benin, but time flew by. After all the business of the vacation, I was able to decorate the Christmas tree with my sister. It was a good time and great to be able to decorate a little for the holiday because it is my favorite holiday of the year. We enjoyed cinnamon rolls Christmas morning made by me this year of course and opened some presents. YAY! Now, 2012 has come around and I am ready for a new year! Out with the old, in with the new they say! I made it back to Benin all right! Super jet lagged of course. I had a lot of luck as I was able to travel from Paris to Benin with another volunteer so we were able to get our luggage in a taxi and drive over to the office for the night. Lucky lucky! I made it back to post the next day and my house was a mess. For anyone who knows me, I HAD to clean it right then and there. I had to, but you know what I did? I went and ate some PATE and passed out in my bed with a hard mattress and not so comfy pillows and woke up the next morning and cleaned the whole house. Not that it is big, it is just not easy getting on your hands and knees and scrubbing, killing bugs, chasing after my puppies, and getting used to the HEAT once again. But, you know I would prefer the heat over being cold any day and Mom would agree. ;) After all the cleaning, I went back to school the following Monday. I was able to enjoy the herds of goats that would run through the school fields and lizards coming from every which was chasing bugs and bat droppings all over the place. I was happy to be back. The kids were so surprised I was back. They thought I was never coming back. Maybe because I told them when I was mad that if they didn’t shape up, I was going back to the states. They take things to heart you know. Everyone was happy to see me as I was them. I graded tests for hours and hours and finally got on a little bit of a normal schedule. But then, the strike started. It has been going on for a couple of weeks now. The teachers work Monday and Friday. That is all. They are not getting the correct pay or something. It is not fair for the students or the teachers. I wish they would figure something out and soon because I am going to be ahead in my classes while the others are going to be behind. How are we going to have a 3rd test when everyone is everywhere in the books? Ugh. Anyways, things will work themselves out eventually; they always do. I just think about when the school year will end. Are we going to go until July or August? Oh Lord, I hope not! Oh before I forget! When volunteers go back to the states, they usually gain a lot of weight and come back a little heavier to Benin. Well, I guess I lost weight because everyone here tells me that I have lost a lot. It is like I am the neighborhood talk, all the zems, mama’s, and even students are like “Madame, you’ve lost weight!? Are you eating? You need to eat!” I have been working out more, getting up earlier in the mornings, and have been really busy these last couple of weeks! Who knows?! Can’t please them all, right? Sometimes, friends come over and cook for me! I am so full after those days! I am super spoiled sometimes! Okay, so today I am not having a really huge thing for my birthday. I am getting old, I know it! Haha. I think I am just going to watch a soccer match at a friend’s house and drink a Sprite. I have no school today, so it all works out for the best. Thanks again for all of the support and wish everyone a happy new year. I will be going to the COS conference in May and will find out the exact date I will be coming home for sure (August/September). See you then. Love you all. Until then, enjoy the famous photo shoots that happen in Benin. I will keep the pictures posted! xoxo