Oh my, has my life been interesting, sometimes it feels like I've been here forever but I only arrived on June 14th.
It's very hard to write blogs because I am so exhausted every night or I want to hang out with people not to sit in my room and write. I now have moved into my house families house I have two younger sisters and an older brother and a wonderful mom who cooks food for me day and night.
My French is getting so so much better but also my brain feels like a sponge that has been soaking and water for 8 years. It's getting moldy and needs to be thrown away. At least that's how it feels. I love hanging out with my other volunteer friends but I don't get to see all of them except for once or twice a week which is painful since I got so close to a few people that don't live close by.
Half of the day I feel extremely overwhelmed by all of my time here and the language and the other half of the time I'm just so proud of myself and having a genuinely good time. A lot of this has to do with the people I'm with and the staff at work here just being amazing. Honestly with my group of volunteers if one of us was missing this would be a whole different world. I am so grateful that we do not have any problems and that everyone shares a little bit of themselves with us.
I am writing this paragraph at a different time. Wow, today was great and horrible at the same time. I'm not sure how that is possible but it is. First, the day was great
My French language class taught me how to barter and I effectively did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I bought a drink and she asked for 350cfa and I said no I have 300cfa and paid that way. Yes, I didn't give a big difference there but doing it once makes me feel great. 300 CFA is 50 us cents just so you all understand. Then I got an avocado sandwich (my usual go-to) for 400 CFA maybe .75 cents since I added an egg to it. Love these sandwiches. It's just a soft baguette with avocado, oil, and possibly beans, pepper paste, and egg if you want. But I would probably eat any meal for .50 cents.
After this, I tried to buy internet for my phone and this was the big oof. You have to recharge your data at a little shop that will put money on your phone. I have done it before but this time it was more complicated. The worker and I could not understand each other at all and as I am used to this it's ok but it was an even bigger barrier since I also had no clue what I am doing. I wanted a new plan, which was hard since I had to cancel and buy a new one. The worker ends up calling over a very kind semi English speaking man. He helped us a TON but while it was my friend Xochil trying to solve the issue our other friend Charlie was across the street holding our stuff. The man yelled at Charlie to come and "protect us" and say we need "extra guidance". For one or 100 women a man should be there to be the protector. This was extremely funny to me because Charlie knows the least amount of French compared to me and Xochil and we were doing fine. We spent almost an hour just recharging the phone. After all that stress I was mentally drained but we have an entire 3 hours of French class left and it is hard to stay in one room and just speak.
I love Benin. It feels like it has been more than 2 weeks. I enjoy the food and the people are so kind and patient. I will stay these two years!!
Salut