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Published: August 16th 2005
I am eating peanut butter with a spoon. Beninoise peanut butter. What’s funny is that peanuts are a staple crop in Benin, but aren’t used much in cooking, and as far as I know, not for peanut butter either. I bought this peanut butter from a woman who works for the Peace Corps. She recognized the opportunity to earn a little extra, and learned how to make peanut butter for all us deprived Americans. Of course, the peanut butter doesn’t have the sugar I am used to, so I will still appreciate some good p.b. from the U.S. Until then, this is pretty darn good.
I have a latrine story for you. Excuse me if I offend someone, but I really think it is too funny to not share.
The latrine is a distance from my home, but close enough I don’t use a flashlight (I am NOT scared of the dark!), though I do leave the door open at night because it stinks a little bit. It stinks during the day too, but there are too many people around to leave the door open then. This amount of light keeps cockroaches in corners. This amount of light also keeps cockroaches just inside the mouth of the concrete I sit on. Yes, what I had previously thought of as only imaginable became reality: a cockroach was crawling on me as I relieved myself. I did not panic mostly because I was in shock. My initial thought was, “Is that dripping? Or, crawling?” And then I had to check. Gah! Ew! Stop! (The only inhibitory thought I have telling this story is that in two years, I will have to face you knowing you read this…)
Another story less amusing but a little more disturbing, in a way, is that the next morning a cockroach was on the floor of my “office.” I was not feeling very friendly with cockroaches, so I stepped on him. He squirted, disgustingly, kind of like the tomato worms dad and I warred with. I thought, “There’s one heck of a goner” and went to the next room thinking he was finished. When I returned to the first room, I saw that the roach had moved. There was no wind and I hadn’t touched the sucker, so in disbelief I nudged the guy. Yup, still moving. Ugh. I crunched him again.
I do have pleasant stories though. Dr. McConnell, you especially will be pleased to know that after four weeks in country and my second oral communications test I have advanced from intermediate low to intermediate high, totally by-passing intermediate mid. I mean, whoa. I can eat peanut butter and speak French? Why haven’t I been here before? My brother Darly reassured me that I was improving A LOT in French comprehension. He said I was only stupid about four minutes everyday on average. Have I already mentioned that my family Asse makes me feel right at home? I am also learning a local language called Adja. Adja is a root of many languages in the Mono River Valley in Benin. With this language I am also learning Mina, a variation of Adja. These languages are just spoken, which makes learning them very challenging to say the least.
Similar to the mix of languages, there is a mix of religions. Today I listened to an Imam tell his version of the creation story. I love creation stories and have decided to find a tape recorder and blank tapes to record as many stories as possible. (If I can’t record them vocally, I will write them down!) Each story is so different in delivery and particulars, but so essentially the same. I am amazed each time I hear a new story. The Imam’s story was parallel to Genesis, of course, because Islam and Christianity have the same creation story. But his version was only parallel to Genesis because his story had been amended to suit the life of his culture ages old. According to the Imam, Adam and Eve argued before eating the Forbidden Fruit. Adam had gone for a long walk when the Devil came up to Eve and told her that Adam was looking for another woman in another paradise. Eve didn’t believe the Devil, so to convince her, the Devil made a mirror out of his poop. (The Imam didn’t speak French very well, so he had to act a little bit of the story.) When Eve looked in the mirror, the Devil told her that the woman she saw was Adam’s other woman, when actually it was herself. When Adam returned, Eve made him prove his fidelity by eating the Forbidden Fruit, and thus we fell. Now I wonder if there is some Northern Benin proverb about how looking in the Devil’s poop is not the best way to see yourself. Maybe something like “look to ones' own poop for the truth!” I think that’s a proverb from the Peace Corps medical office, actually.
As before, all is well with me in Benin. I heard on Voice of America today that the famine in Niger is actually a “food crisis.” I have heard nothing about how this is affecting Northern Benin, but I do know Benin cotton farmers have not been paid for their harvest for two years now. You will have to read up on cotton subsidies to familiarize yourself with that problem. The south of Benin, where I will live, is a corn/bean-based economy, so I’m okay here.
I pray you all are well-
ebk
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Greta
non-member comment
EWW!!!
Yea, that might be a little too much information on the bathroom story. Cockroaches are awful, I agree and apparently industrial strength!! I'm so glad that you are able to enjoy peanut butter. I think I have a tape recorder somewhere, I'll see if I can find it and mail it to you. Maybe Stuart has it.... Love you!