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Training Day
These are the women who attended the training for the competition. The men are Ghislain, Florent, and Patrice. See what I mean by color?No, that’s not a type-o; the first of May in Athieme was almost cause to send out that message.
It actually started the day before. May 1st is the Beninese Labor Day, so to correctly celebrate the holiday, I drank beer the night before. While I was at the buvette with friends, I learned that Elisabeth’s father had died, barely a week after I had seen him to ask permission for Elisabeth to travel with me to Porto Novo.
This news unsettled me, to say the least. My first typical-Erika reaction was to think the worst, and that I would never see Elisabeth again; but coming back to my senses, I realized she would at least be around for the funeral. I thought I might not ever see her again, though, with reason; she has now lost both parents, and her stepmother will soon be leaving town, without Elisabeth. I don’t even know what happens to orphans, whether they go far or are able to stay close if possible; nothing, I know nothing. Her father has no family for her to join, and her birth mother’s family is, to my knowledge, disconnected somehow from Elisabeth. I talked to her a few
Nancy Pagne
See the flat feet on the pagne? That's why it's Nancy's. days later, and she told me she was moving in with me. After a little more pressure, she told me she has an older sister in the same town with whom she can stay, but school is not certain.
So, I was disturbed. She scolded me for not having been home the weekend. I had slept at home, but the days had been occupied. I knew as soon as I found out about her fathers’ death that she had been sleeping on my porch, waiting for me to come home. That punished me enough.
Monday, May 1st was the actually day of craziness. Though it was a national holiday from work, Patrice, Florent, and I worked, and real work at that. The three of us held the training session for the “Clean and Green City” competition with As.P.E.L.
The morning started well. I had to clean the bathroom, which kind of stunk (I don’t wanna talk about it), but otherwise enjoyed “hot chocolate” and a nice bath in a clean shower. Well, bucket bath in a clean shower stall to be more exact. Just as I was leaving my yard to retrieve the key for the meeting room, a surprise arrived at my fence gate, on moto from school in Cotonou, decked out in his bling. Being in the state that I was, of worrying about Elisabeth and having cleaned the bathroom, and being on unsure terms with the man, I immediate assumed the worst and thought all of the planning Patrice, Florent, and I had done would be taken over by the surprise arrival. He said nothing of that though, only that he wanted to bring a journalist to publicize the training session and competition. Okay.
African time changes when a yovo is involved, meaning the women started arriving at 9h as we had told them, and not at 10h as we had expected. Athieme has never met a Kraus before.
In any case, we had the room ready to go my 9h15, bucket of water, chalkboard, benches, music, everything. When the journalist arrived with the man that had surprised us with his arrival, I rather curtly put my worries at ease by explicitly telling the surprise arrival, not the journalist, just what I would allow him to say so that Florent and I could continue as planned. The only hang up after we started was that I was asked to do an interview while conducting the training session. Uh, no.
But the session did go well. There were about thirty women to represent the women’s groups from each of the ten villages. A lot of the information was old news, and the women easily supplied all the points Florent and I had hoped to make. This was good, but was a little discouraging to see some women nodding off. I was able to contribute some new information, and most importantly, we made the competition official-like. We may be amateurs, but we are there! All the women were awake for the expectations of the competition, and again for the sandwiches and drinks.
After the training session, after Patrice and I had swept and arranged all as it was, the Boss (who had surprise-arrived) decided he needed to talk. I had an appointment to keep, so after humoring him a bit, I decided it was time he should stop talking and I needed to deliver the keys. So we left. I don’t have patience for people who try my patience like that, which makes sense. I sound really mean, so I am moving on.
At this point I really wanted to visit Elisabeth, but I had already agreed to celebrate “Labor Day” with Philippe, my maternal “uncle” from family Asse. Turns out we had to go much farther than I had known to party, but the food and company was worth the trip. I hopped in a taxi to return quick-like and get to Elisabeth. I should mention here that because of the training session, I made the party with my uncle wait two hours (I hadn’t known it was so far away!) and the should-have-been-packed courtyard of Elisabeth’s home was empty by the time I arrived. Maybe it’s not Kraus-time, but just Erika-time. I either don’t do things fast enough, try to do too much in a day, or just don’t care about time. Or maybe all three.
I saw the girl grin as I hopped off the zemidjan. (I do a lot of hopping in Africa, especially while on Erika-time it seems. Maybe I should stick to running…) I said hello to the family and made my appearance, then walked with Elisabeth and her sister to the road to go back home. As I walked the distance, I realized I had forgotten to say the consoling phrase in Mina I had learned from Mathurin the night before, and I was utterly disappointed in myself.
I was exhausted, and tired of wearing nice clothes. I needed desperately to unwind. I bathed, put on the good ol’ Nancy-pagne and a tank top and perched on the porch with the swallows, listening to Blink-182 and reading favorites from my poetry anthology. Un-winding exposes my extreme nerdiness.
No mayday message, but no May Day baskets, that’s for sure. Mais ça va, ça va quand-même.
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Dad Kraus
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Kraus Time
Hey Erkia! I really associate with the Kraus time thing! It not that I do not care about being on time, it is that I'll get there when I can, I have to finish what I am doing first. Who coulda thunk things would go the way they do and now the project I am on just blew the whole schedual! What schedual!! If it doesn't get done today, maybe I'll get to it tomorrw! A person has to have time to have a cold beer once in awhile! Keep plugging along, we're proud of what you are doing. We love ya! Dad.