Thursday, August 24, 2006 I'm back!

Ghana was awesome. I could type pages.

Highlights:
- Nachos and Chili Fries in an American style sports bar
- Street food in Ghana is chicken and fried rice, hamburgers and spring rolls.
- Strawberry Fan Milk
- Awesome hotel room in Accra - sattelite tv and air conditioning
- No zemidjans - Trotros!
- Nigerian dramas
- Rainforest Walk
- Elmina and Cape Coast Castles
- Castle Milk Stout (Excellent, excellent beer)
- Busua: best beaches and best pizza in West Africa
- The meat man in Cape Coast. I'd eat his meat any day.
- English!
- Did not kill/was not killed by Ly.


There is probably a lot more. Let it suffice to say though that Ghana is an amazing place and I want to go back.

Sunday, August 13, 2006 I'm leaving for Ghana today! It's hard to believe it's already here. Awesome. Nothing really that new to report. I spent the last couple of days in Parakou in a PHP coding frenzy with Ben'Dali working on the first version of a database for our national girls scholarship program. Actually, in retrospect, this past week may have been the most productive week ever. I hashed out a template for a webpage with Lisa, all of my partner organizations kept their appointments, and I had a useful meeting with the Secretaire General (a high up in the Mairie) regarding the site.

So yeah, bon voyage me!

Saturday, August 05, 2006 I got stuck at the workstation last night because of the rain. Then the rain stopped, so I went home... but I forgot my light. Riding home in the dark and mud sucks.

There are a lot of Benin PCV blogs out there. My link section sucks. I'm sorry. I really will update it. If you want to be linked to, email, comment, whatever. Please though make sure you're following official PC policy regarding websites. I don't want to get you in trouble. Expect a full list after swear in.

Our new PCVL is now officially installed in Parakou. Things are going to start changing around here! Or maybe not. In any case, welcome Annie to the Para-crew.

Friday, August 04, 2006 http://www.theonion.com/content/node/32659?issue=4227&special=1996

This is hanging in the Peace Corps office in Cotonou. Thank you Onion!

Where have all the bloggers gone? Is blogging out of style and no one told me? It seems like most of the people on my blog-roll update sporadically or not at all. Of course this may be a situation of the pot calling the kettle black, but at least I have a good excuse! (most of the time).

In other news I continue to prepare for the GRE. It sucks. I've also discovered the joy of Google Alerts. I now get all of the news that's fit to print regarding Benin. It's pretty sweet.

I've just read three books by Chuck Palahniuk; Fight Club, Lullaby and Choke. All of them were excellent. Fight Club actually wasn't my favorite, although it was probably more because I had seen the movie and knew what was going to happen. Lullaby and Choke were quick and interesting reads.

That is all.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006 Happy Birthday Benin.

Today is Benin's independence day. I celebrated by going to the parade. It stood in prety sharp contrast to the independence day parade last year in Lokossa. The Parakou parade was huge, organized, and actually a parade. It was actually really fun, and really good. Of course getting up early in the morning sucked.

I forgot to mention yesterday that not only was Sunday of the turning on of stop lights, but also the day of the departure of Ellen. First one in the Borgou to leave, and not the last (until October). This time of year is a weird emotional roller coaster. New people arrive: Excitment! Old people leave: Sadness! New people go to post: Happiness! You realize you have to live with these people for another year: Sadness! (Haha, just kidding PSL-19. I probably love you)