Thursday, October 26, 2006 Yes, I'm still alive. The internet has been somewhat difficult as of late, but c'est comme ça en Afrique.

Yesterday was the coolest day ever. I went over to the West side of Benin to attend the coming of age ceremony for the Lokpa tribe. Each year everyone who has ties to the Lokpa tribe is required to come back to the village to attend la fête de chicotte (which may be spelled entirely wrong, i can't seem to find the word they use in the dictionary! It means "whip"). It. Was. AWESOME.

The night before the ceremony there was an all night dance party with drumming. The whole village convereged on the main crossroads, dust was in the air and it was just very exciting. We left early, because the activities begin at sunrise. The next morning was crazy. Everyone was so excited, and we followed the parade of whippers and spectators down to the staging ground for the quartier. (Each quartier in the village has their own whipping, and then later they converge). On arrival, I was expecting a very orderly, and very boring ceremony. Oh man, it was so not. I'd been told that two opponents are given the opportunity to whip at each other three times each (in succession). Each whipper has a stick to defend himself, and will try and block the impending blow. So, I thought that it would be sort of a tournament style, one on one thing that would take hours. Nope. Everyone went, it seemed, at the same time. As many elders as there were to judge, there were an equal number of matches. I was in the center of it.

I don't know what it was like to be on a battlefield when hand-to-hand weapons were still in use... but I swear to you that it couldn't have been much different than this. It was chaotic, confusing, exhilirating... and I wasn't a participant!

Afterwards, they had a smaller one on one version for the kids. When I say kids, I don't mean like 11 year olds. I mean like 4 year olds. Yeah, they went at it to. It was so cute... in an oddly violent, disturbing way.

If you ever come to Benin in October, come to the whipping fete in Lokpa land. It's amazing.

(Pictures to come soon)

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 In addition to not feeling like crap, I would like to congratulate the JET Programme on their excellent support of applicants (as you may have now deduced, I am one of).

In any case, applying from Benin is somewhat of a challenge and they have been more than helpful and responsive with my questions. I wish Peace Corps had been this communicative during my application!

Damn. I thought I was going to finally get to go to the med unit. The supposedly magical place with air conditioning, hot water and a hefty per diem. I appear to be on the road to recovery. Damn my sickness fighting abilities!

Tuesday, October 10, 2006 Being sick sucks.

Being sick in Africa sucks more. I've been running a fever and have been generally unhappy since early, early monday.

I am getting better, so don't worry.


... but do feel sorry for me!

Sunday, October 08, 2006 All right, this is crazy.

Looks wise I've been compared to these dudes:


On the left is Jérémy Chatelain, husband of the ultra-sexy Alizée. On the right is the Animal Planet host Jeff Corwin.

So, verdict?

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Oh. Freakin. Yeah.

Doritos have touched down in Parakou. They are expensive... but oh so delicious.

Sunday, October 01, 2006 So this is it. The end. Okay, not for me. But this week essentially all of the remaining elements of PSL-17 are leaving. It's crazy and scary to think that PSL-18 is now in charge. God help us!

So, that means Alison is gone, and the Borgou forever changed. No doubt we've not heard the last of her though. Courtesy of her mother I got 1lb of Garlic Salt as a parting gift! Yeah!

Carrie and company came back from their wild foray into Niger. Sounds like they had a very good, albeit interesting time. I'm jealous. I really want to go... just have to find a prime time.

Speaking of finding a prime time: I have a year left, but breaking it up into chunks makes it seem like it's really almost over. Observe:

Oct: Regional VAC, National GAD meeting, Whipping Festival, Halloween Party
Nov: National VAC, Thanksgiving, HTML Formations
Dec: Visit USA
Jan: Tabaski, National Voodoo Day (okay, "Traditional Religions"), IST
Feb: Possible visitors, FESPACO (Burkina Film Festival)
Mar: Relatively quiet
Apr: All-Vol, Gaani fete
May: Relatively quiet - Possibly COS conference
Jun: Camp GLOW
Jul: First possible COS dates start, people start heading home.
Aug: I turn 26.
Sep: Last round of people heading home do it. C'est finit, quoi.

Quite frankly, that's frightening. Throw in to the mix things like applications for grad-school, JET, and jobs as I stuggle to figure out what I'm going to do for the next couple years / rest of my life.

In other news I've expanded a bit in my work partners, and am now working with borgou.net. They win. They're all extremely technically competent, they have a lot going on and they can actually use some of my skills beyond the "website bitch" capacity. Right now I'm working with them on investigating and prototyping WiFi antennae made from locally available materials to extend their coverage in Parakou. That's the sort of project that I joined Peace Corps for! Freakin' sweet!

I've actually known about them for awhile, and Ben'dali has suggested on numerous occasions that I go talk to them. I'm glad I finally did. It looks like it could work out to be a fun cooperation. It may even end with Internet at my house. How awesome would that be? I don't have my fingers too crossed... but still the possibility is intriguing.