For the past two weeks I was ‘working stage’, basically meaning that I decided to help out the new kids on the block and teach them what I have learned in the past year. Ironically, I never actually applied to help out at training (I was planning on going to visit and just play), but it worked out for the better because I do like meeting new people and I got to work with Lindsay and Andrew (on the SED side), and Claire and Kendra (on the TEFL side).
I like to look back on past entries of my stage experience(s) and see how these new trainees view their host families, react to the same situations we had (their reactions have been a lil’ different than ours were), and deal with the daily challenges due to language and being in a new culture. The 1.5 weeks I worked training at Porto-Novo went by without much problems: a person who needed medication called us up one night, a parent of a trainee called to wonder where their ‘son’ had gone, and not having a set group to give one of our presentations to, were some of the few problems.
Thus, I didn’t think that having four people over at my house for technical visit would be very tough. I’ve already had experience at hosting more than one or two people at my house before, therefore, this couldn’t be too bad. Man, was I wrong.
We left on Wednesday morning at 8AM and got to Djakotomey approximately at noon. We immediately headed out to the Azové marche and grabbed lunch and walked around the insanity known as the marché. Luckily we went during the hottest time of the day so there weren’t as many people walking around. We came back to my house after fighting a small bout of rain with a quick drink at a buvette. Once we got back I made some food and we watched a movie. Tame day. The next day we headed out to Dogbo to meet up with the other RCH trainees, who were also on their technical visit. This allowed me to get away from my own trainees for a few hours, have a few drinks and some good food. I think we accidently sat around that buvette for around four hours or so, which we followed with a quick trip to see both Catherine’s and Kristin’s homes. My trainees cleverly noted that their two houses were much larger than mine. Such is life, is what I told them.
The next day was our busiest within Djakotomey: a meeting with the mayor at 8:30, a stop by all my favorite hotspots in my area (pretty much the bike video), and a formation at 4PM. Amazingly the mayor actually did want to see some foreigners and graced us with his presence earlier than 8:30, which was awesome. After meeting with the godfather of Djakotomey we hit up Emile’s stand and he bought us all rice, beans, and fish, and of course got a photographer to take a picture of us. I ate around two plates of food because I love that stuff, but the trainees are still newbies (meaning their stomachs and taste buds are still on the pickier side). When we got home my mama was preparing our lunch (chickens and pâte rouge) and we waited for Erik (a TEFL trainee who is replacing Eric and Sheena) to arrive. After a nice lunch with my neighbors (and another picture) we sat around until the formation.
I’ve never had anyone come visit me and watch me ‘teach’ in French, so this was a new experience for me. I had fun and it was hard trying to explain the intricacies of keeping inventory, but luckily for us the Mayor randomly decided to make an entrance! I must note here that in all the time I’ve been in Djakotomey I’ve met with the mayor three times and have never seen him twice in ONE day. It was amazing. The godfather walked into my meeting and started welcoming/greeting the participants and gave a speech, I wouldn’t have expected otherwise. Honestly, when a ‘dignitary’ comes in from somewhere you just shut up and watch. So I did. The trainees didn’t like that he just walked in like that, but I was surprised at how natural it seemed to me.
Anyway, that night we had a lot of beers and some sodabi (like Beninese moonshine) so I just whipped up some fried rice for the second time in three nights and we hit the sack. Saturday was full of just lounging, reading, watching movies, eating, and drinking. So it was a ‘chill’ day.
The weird thing that I noticed about all this wasn’t that I was fatigued from hosting people. No, that wasn’t too difficult. The difficult part was that I was hosting trainees. I didn’t think that it really mattered, but looking back I was stressed about how they would perceive my place, if they were comfortable, and (in general) they didn’t know how things worked. For example, most PCVs realize that we have screen doors to keep bugs out. So even though occasionally people may forget to close it when leaving or entering it isn’t as often as I saw the trainees doing. Also, thinking back on my technical visit, it is hard for a trainee to wrap their brain around the fact that this is a PCV’s house. A PCV lives here and this is his/her space, just like in the states. For some reason, after living with a host family and being away from home in the states, trainees have the tendency to just think being dirty is what PCVs do, that this place isn’t someone’s home but just a transit location, and have a different mindset from a PCV. I’m not sure I explained myself well, but I will try to think of other ideas later.
Anyway, I will have two ‘postmates’ for the next year as long as they don’t leave. One is actually going to be living in Djakotomey (he is an EA –Environmental Action - volunteer) and the other is a girl living in Azové (potentially Jordan’s old house). This will be interesting since both of them won’t have any furniture when they get to post (I know what that feels like), so I will be inviting them to use my house whenever they’d like.
I know I never have any pictures of my work, thus having visitors was the perfect photo op. Here I am doing the chicken dance. Just kidding, I was explaining how money comes in when you sell something.
Here I am explaining the inventory system and its relationship to the sales/expenses.
Here I am smiling at the treasurer of one of the women’s groups. She is a smart cookie and really does want to understand this stuff. Too bad she hasn’t started any of her own notebooks. Hopefully this changes in the next week.
Here I am looking at the ground as the Godfather of Djakotomey makes his impromptu speech. Oh, how I love those!
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