Lost In Benin

2007-07-29T00:14:00.001+01:00

I'm leaving for Japan 1 week from today. That means I've been home from Benin for exactly 3 weeks. It's scary how quickly the time has passed. It's also astonishing how little I've accomplished. It's been great!

Now that isn't to say that I haven't been busy. Visiting friends, getting accounts and affairs in order all takes time. So actually when I say I haven't accomplished anything, it's not really true. It's a strange process simultaneously adjusting to life back in the US while preparing to leave it again.

People have been asking me if I'm ready to go, and my canned response has been "I still can't believe it's happening, it's weird to think that the next plane I get on isn't going to take me back to Benin". That still rings true, although the signs of my imminent depart are all about me. I bought a suitcase today, tomorrow I'm going to buy suits. I had to go through all my shoes and find the ones to take with me. I bought socks.

I bought socks.

It's funny how out of every preparation I've made thus far to head off, it's the act of buying socks that is the most relevant and jarring. Throughout college I had an off again, on again relationship with shoes. Most of the time I wore sandals, and there was a period of several months where I didn't wear shoes at all (that poor, poor dorm room carpet). In Benin I don't think I ever wore shoes. I might have one time to one of our GAD fund raisers, and possibly on the plane home at Christmas. I honestly cannot remember the last time I bought, or had need to buy socks.

Do I miss Benin? There are certainly things that I miss about Benin. The Beninese would probably be high on the list. The last few weeks I spent in Parakou were amazing. I thought the culture was warm and hospitable before. Saying goodbye really drove the point home. I miss chicken from my chicken man, eating said chicken with my post mates, and $1 beers. I really miss zemidjans.

But, in any case it's time to say that I'm no longer lost in Benin. It's time to be JET-7*.

* JET-7 is actually a pun... in French. 7, while pronounced 'seven' in English is 'sept' in French. JET Sept... jet set. So the proper way to read the URL would be 'jet sept dot net'. Don't worry, I won't get mad if you say 'jet dash seven dot net'.

2007-07-16T06:15:00.000+01:00

I finally have some information about my posting in Japan!

I'm going to be in a small town near Takasaki, called Kurabuchi. Technically it's a part of Takasaki, but it's about a 45 minutes to city center. It looks like it's up in the mountains, population of 4,500. Yeah... small.

Still, it seems nice. I'll probably have a car which will be cool.

That is all.

2007-07-06T12:43:00.000+01:00

... and just like that I'm no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was sort of anti-climactic really. My final appointment was at 10am today, by 10:15 I was done. Now all that is left is to wait until this evening when I fly out. Crazy.

2007-07-03T18:18:00.000+01:00

"What's going to happen to lostinbenin when you're done?"

Well, since I'll no longer be lost in benin, I'll be moving. That's right! When I get back to the States (plus or minus a day or so) I'll be jet-7.net For those that don't speak French, the website name is actually a pun... in French. Yeah, I know... I'm going to Japan and have a French pun URL. Live with it. Or, as has been noted it is the year 2007. So take the significance of the 7 in that.

In any case, watch here for the official launch announcement!

2007-07-03T10:55:00.000+01:00

Out of Parakou. Crazy that after 2 years it's all coming to an end.

The countdown timer should now correctly reflect my exact time of departure (plus or minus a few minutes). Scary how close it's coming...

So I'm in Cotonou now, essentially playing the waiting game. There are lots of meetings to be had, blood to be drawn, stool samples to give. All that fun stuff that we all love doing. Beyond that it's lots of free time.

Itinerary:

6 July 2007
Air France AF813 COO->CDG
Departs: 2310 Arrives: 0615
Duration: 6:05

7 July 2007
American Airlines AA49 CDG->DFW
Departs: 1140 Arrives: 1520
Duration: 10:40

American Airlines AA3493 DFW->SBA
Departs: 1840 Arrives: 1950
Duration: 3:10

2007-06-16T12:44:00.000+01:00

So much awesomeness is going on I can't even describe.

Our bike trip rocked so hard it was amazing. Cheers to the organizers. It was seriously the best organized PC event ever. We biked just under 200k over 4 days and taught anti-AIDS classes to 5 groups (young/old women, young/old men, children) to 11 villages. In totaly we passed on information to more than 2,200 individiuals. It was tons of fun, and gave me a new perspective on the Borgou. Before I thought my region was pretty ugly... no hills, no mountains... not really much of anything to look at. Turns out though that if you go a little en brousse there actually are quite pretty hilly-mountain type things.

Then, to top of the awesomness of the bike ride... we finally got to tour the local brewery! There are 3 offices to SOBEBRA (the main distributer of beverages in Benin). One in Cotonou, one in Parakou, and one in Possotome (which specializes in mineral water and sodas in plastic bottles). The Parakou brewery was awesome. We got to see the entire process, from raw material to finished beer. The bottle washer, filler and labeler was by far the most exciting.

2 weeks left in Parakou.

2007-06-06T13:36:00.000+01:00

Whew, things are really starting to wrap up now.

-Finished our COS conference at the glorious Casa del Papa. Delicious. Fun.
-Finished my final interview with the Country Director and APCD

I've been whining in one medium or another for around 3 months that I can't believe it's all almost over. Now I really can't. With those last two interviews completed, the rest is just turning stuff in, a language test and other sundry tasks. Nothing to write home about at all.

In any case, if any of you have been wondering what I've been doing for the past two years, here is the text of my Description of Service (DOS)

Description of Volunteer Service
Lyle Kozloff
Republic of Benin, West Africa

After a competitive application process stressing applicant skills, adaptability and cross-cultural sensitivity, Lyle Kozloff was invited to serve in the United States Peace Corps as an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) volunteer in the West African nation of Benin.

Pre-service Training
Lyle Kozloff began three months of intensive Peace Corps training on July 8, 2005. Training was conducted in the town of Azové, located in Southern Benin, with trainees living in Beninese host families to maximize their cultural integration.

Linguistics (97.5 hours)
Lyle Kozloff entered his pre-service training in Benin with a Novice-Low level of French. During the 11 weeks of training Lyle received a total of 97.5 hours of language training. At the end of training, a certified Foreign Service Institute examiner tested his fluency in spoken French and he received an Advanced Low level of French proficiency.

Technical Training (63.5 hours)
Lyle Kozloff received 63.5 hours of formal study and fieldwork for motivating and host country populations. Major topics included national ICT strategy, needs assessment, identification of ICT resources, and the teaching of basic computer classes.

Cross-Cultural Training (44.5 hours)
Lyle Kozloff received 44.5 hours of training focused on cross-cultural communication skills and appropriate behavior in both social and work-related contexts. The sessions also described the history, politics, traditions, ethnic groups, religions, and gender and class issues of Benin.

Personal Health Training (18.5 hours)
Lyle Kozloff received 18.5 hours of health training on tropical diseases, disease prevention measures, basic first aid techniques, nutrition and hygiene.

SUMMARY OF PEACE CORPS SERVICE

Following the successful completion of his training, Lyle Kozloff was sworn-in as an Information and Communication technology (ICT) volunteer on September 23, 2005. He was assigned to Parakou, the regional capital of the Department of the Borgou and trade hub of Northern Benin. He was assigned to work with City Hall on developing a tourism website for the city of Parakou as his primary project.

Primary Assignment: Website Development for Parakou
During his first year as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Parakou, Lyle Kozloff was assigned to work in conjunction with Mayor’s Office to develop a website designed to attract tourists, foreign investment and to serve as portal of information on City Hall, its employees and the city of Parakou. As the liaison between the wealth of information provided by the Mayor’s Office and the Internet, Lyle conducted the following activities:

• Conducted a needs assessment to determine website content
• Apprised City Hall staff of steps (and costs) of getting a site online
• Counseled host-country counterparts on the importance of internationally acceptable site design, content presentation and appropriate materials.
• Trained host-country counterparts in basic website design, including HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) with an emphasis on content/presentation separation.
• Taught an introductory course in server side scripting for the presentation of dynamic content in PHP
• Wrote an extensive HTML/CSS training course document for future Peace Corps Volunteer training
• Developed materials for future Peace Corps trainees in database driven active web content, with particular emphasis on PHP/MySQL interaction
• Prototyped design templates and content

Secondary Activities
In addition to his primary activities with the Mayor’s Office of Parakou Mr. Kozloff also organized, led, and participated in secondary projects in and out of his principal sector.

ICT Activities
Website Development/Training
Throughout his service as a Peace Corps Volunteer non-governmental organizations (NGO) met with Lyle Kozloff to request the technical knowledge to get faltering, or non-existent website projects off the ground. Following the culturally appropriate design model developed by working with the Mayor’s Office, Mr. Kozloff helped design, gather content and get the sites online. In the interest of sustainability Lyle Kozloff conducted 7-10 week customized training courses in HTML and CSS using each NGO’s particular website template.

Basic Website Development Conference for NGO Consortium
After being approached by a consortium of NGOs headed by a beneficiary of Mr. Kozloff’s efforts in website development, Lyle Kozloff held a three day conference on the subject of website design. Seven separate NGOs sent their own technical contacts to start the process of the realizing a presence on the web. The conference culminated in the presentation by each ONG of a project containing all the elements discussed during the sessions.

Basic Website Development Conference for Volunteer Community
Following the success of the first conference, and continual requests by the volunteer community for the same information, Lyle Kozloff and Theresa Carpenter held a similar conference with volunteer specific needs in mind. Website design remained the principal topic, with definable hard skills as the desired end result. Unlike the NGO conference, however, sessions were aimed at providing the answers volunteers need when playing the role of consultant rather than the raw ability to do the grunt work websites require.

WiFi Antenna Design
A NGO whose primary income generating activity is redistributing high-speed Internet throughout Parakou via 802.11b (Wi-Fi) sought Mr. Kozloff’s help in the design of antennas. These antennas, fabricated from locally available materials, would help bring down the buy-in cost for new subscribers, as well as reduce reliance on expensive and difficult to obtain foreign goods. Three prototype antennas were constructed and tested, but ultimately discarded as not suitable for commercial use.

Cross-sector Activities
HIV/AIDS Awareness Bike Ride
In the continuing fight against HIV/AIDS, Mr. Kozloff participated in a pilot project in the Atacora region of Northeast Benin. While excellent work is done by the various aid organizations in combating this pandemic disease, Peace Corps Volunteers noticed that the smaller villages were passed by when HIV/AIDS was discussed. Whether due to the difficulties in finding local language translators, inaccessibility of the villages, or simple oversight these villages were missing out on vital information. To reach these small, but important, areas of Benin more than 20 volunteers, plus several host country peer educators, participated in a bicycle tour of 17 villages spread out over nearly 200 kilometers of road. The end result of the week long tour was more than 1600 people, many who had never heard of HIV/AIDS, received instruction, pamphlets, condoms and the vital education that had long been denied them.

English Club
Mr. Kozloff served as an assistant and native speaker in two English clubs. Activities depended greatly on the level of student involved, but games, vocabulary building, essay contests and skits were staples at all levels.

Camp GLOW
As an ICT Volunteer, Lyle Kozloff, served as the technical coordinator for the second annual Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). In this role he gave daily classes on the advantages and disadvantages of digital technology and filled in when needed in the basic mouse and keyboarding class. In addition he ran other activities as needed, including a nutrition judged cooking competition.

Peace Corps Activities
Volunteer Advisory Council (VAC)
Lyle Kozloff served as the Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC) representative for his region. This involved holding meetings with other volunteers in the region to gather information for the national volunteer advisory committee meetings that met once a quarter, as well as attending the national VAC meeting and relaying this information to senior staff.

Trainer of Peace Corps Trainees
Mr. Kozloff was selected to serve as a volunteer trainer in September 2006 for the new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) trainees who were participating in Pre Service Learning (PSL). He led sessions in collaboration with staff trainers on basic hardware maintenance, teaching basic computer classes, and database driven active content website development. He also acted as a confidant for the new trainees and helped organize outside activities to encourage social bonding in the new training group.

That's it. Pretty weird to see it all laid out like that.

2007-05-19T22:57:00.000+01:00

So, I've been doing some research on Takasaki:

- There are at least 2 Starbucks
- There are several McDonalds

That is all.

2007-05-17T19:16:00.000+01:00

Found out where I'm being posted in Japan!

I'll be in Takasaki, in Gunma prefecture. I don't really know too much more about it. It looks like it's a city of around 300,000 people, roughly 100km from Tokyo.

Am I happy. Without having ever have been there, I can't really say. It looks pretty sweet though!

The end!

2007-05-11T18:35:00.000+01:00

Ah, finally back in Parakou. Home sweet home.

Sadly I found a palpable lack of motivation to do anything this morning. Usually that means watching TV, but I didn't even want to do that! I finally motivated enough to come up to the workstation and do some computer repair for other volunteers... of course after arriving here I found that I had forgotten half of my tools. Oh well, there is always tomorrow. I did at least get 2/3rds of what I wanted to get done today done.

In my continuing freaking out about my friends states of development... More than one person I went to college with is looking at buying houses. I always said I would probably kill myself if someone had kids when I got back... A house though almost seems worse! What am I doing with my life?! Okay, freak-out finished. In all seriousness it does scare me how adult many of my friends are becoming. At the same time, I'm really only jealous of the money they're making... and that jealousy is light at best. I've no regrets about where I am. It does scare me how grown-up everyone is turning though.

2007-05-09T16:35:00.000+01:00

So, when I was complaining. I didn't realize how awesome the med-unit is.

The air-conditioning in my room is so cold I actually had to turn it off last night. That is so sweet I can't even begin to describe. What's more, there is one of those rolling bedside hospital tables. That means I can sit in bed and play video games.

Not sweating, video games, laziness: three things I love!

So sad that I'll have to leave to a busy weekend of fixing computers.

2007-05-07T17:32:00.000+01:00

AH! NO MORE COTONOU!

I'm still here. After a fun VAC-Attack (which means nice hotel, air conditioning and internet) I'd have liked to leave. Sadly it's that magical time: COS Medical. I thought I'd be clever and schedule it right now, so I could avoid another trip to Cotonou. Sadly, I calculated days incorrectly. This appointment should occur 30-60 days before COS. I tried to schedule it for 61 days. Oops.

So, this means rather than being stuck down here simply one day, because of Doctor absence I'll be here another 3.

Damn.

2007-04-26T16:37:00.000+01:00

It is raining too much.

Other than that nothing really to report. Recently I've been studying Japanese like a mad man, finishing up projects, and hanging out with (Beninese) friends. It's odd to see that countdown timer (unless you're using Safari) and think it corresponds with some sort of reality. It's even weirder for me. I look at the next couple of months and don't even feel like I'm going to have time to catch my breath.

It is craziness.

2007-04-20T14:14:00.000+01:00

Weather is strange. I remember complaining about this last year around this time, but this year it actually is strange. The hot season is annually marked by what are referred to as the mango rains. It's a two to three week period right smack dab in the heat where, surprise, there are rains. It gives the mango trees their one last squirt of the juice to make those mangoes huge, plump and delcious (and unfortunately for me allergy inducing). This year it seems to be much more intense and long lasting than usual. We got our first rains well more than a month ago, and now we're getting rain almost every other day. Has the rainy season started early?

(I hope so... I hate it when it's so hot your eyeballs melt out of your head)

2007-04-19T14:37:00.000+01:00

The Description of Service (DOS) is the only official record of your Peace Corps experience. It's basically the summary of what you've done in the last two years, and seems to be the bane of every COSing volunteers existence. I've been working on my for the last couple of days in preparation for our upcoming COS conference. It's been interesting though, while it can be tedious and boring, it's at the same time kind of neat to see on paper descriptions of my major activities. Most of the time it seems like I'm being ineffective or useless. Writing the DOS actually, sort of, shows how not useless you've been.

I'll post mine at some point, since for now it's just a rough draft I'll leave the universe out of the revision.

Still, it's hard to believe how low that countdown is getting.

2007-04-15T14:13:00.000+01:00

Yeah! Internet is back in Parakou! Woo!!

Peace Corps also just replaced all of their computers... This is good and bad. It's great for the IT folks, in that they are totally locked down. You can't run anything without specific permission to do so, which means no more portable apps like Firefox and others. If the computer conks out though, reformatting and reinstalling is a cinch. They use HP's system recovery with their own custom image. I like that, it means if the computer breaks no more long trip to Cotonou. It does suck about not being able to run whatever apps I want though...

In that vein I'm currently playing around with various AJAXy type web OSes. YouOS appears to be the one with the most functionality so far, but it's not quite there yet. Anyone out there with alternatives?

2007-04-13T11:05:00.000+01:00

I am done! After a week of running around like a crazy person I successfully completed my cumpolsory medical review and a million and one things for JET, and submitted my petition for leaving the date I want to. This may have been the most productive week I've had for awhile.

By the way: I'm so glad that DHL exists, orchestrating all of this stuff for going to Japan would be impossible without it. Of course DHL knows how important it can be... and charges a LOT for it >_<

2007-04-10T15:36:00.000+01:00

Dear Internet,

What does it mean when asked how many times you were sick in the last year your first response is to google 'Lyle Kozloff sick'? What does it mean when you actually find out the answer because of this query?

-Lyle

2007-04-07T10:53:00.000+01:00

Okay, as you all know from time to time I solicit help from my loyal readers for causes here in Benin. As you also probably know this doesn't happen very often... so when I ask, it's for something important.

Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) is an annual girls camp held in the town that I live in. Girls are selected from surrounding villages where volunteers reside and are brought to the big city for a week of awesome activities. The range is vast, last year a few of the things we had were:
- AIDS Prevention/Reproductive health
- Study Skills
- Crafts
- Basic Computer skills
- Guest speakers (inspiring women)
- "Take your GLOW girl to work"
- much, much more

All in all it's an awesome program and an excellent opportunity for these girls to get out of their villages, meet others, learn some important skills and have fun. Check out pictures gallery.

If you'd like to contribute to this project (and we desperately need your help), you can do so easily! Simply go to the CAMP Glow Donation Page at the Peace Corps Website. You'll also be able to read the official description of the project. Since this is through an official Peace Corps channel, it's tax deductible.

Even if you don't donate, please check out the photos from last year and read the project description on the Peace Corps page... at the very least get an idea of what gets done over here. Thanks!

2007-04-04T14:33:00.000+01:00

Dear Mr. Kozloff,

It is our great pleasure to inform you that you have successfully passed the second stage of the screening process for the 2007 JET Program, and are now on the final short-list for ALT candidates. You are now scheduled for placement in a Contracting Organization.

Oh. Freakin. Yeah.

I'm going to Japan.

2007-03-18T15:56:00.000+01:00

Okay, bizzareness has transpired. I typed a long entry last week. It is gone.

Here's the summary:

- I'm alive
- Internet is hard to get to

Here's what's new:

- Internet has become easier to get to
- I'm still alive

Sorry for the lack of updates, but hopefuly things will get better. In all honesty I'm not really up to all that much. Work has all but dried up, and the way things are scheduled for the moment it's hard to go and search for more.

Still no news on JET, but with any luck I'll know by this time next week.

2007-02-11T21:42:00.000+01:00

I updated the gallery. Rejoice.

I know, it's out of date. I actually don't even have pictures from January. Sad. In my defense though it's because I thought that I had left my camera charger in the US. I found it in my house in Benin though. I just suck.

In other news, back in the US and my side of the couch enjoying the fast internet, delicious food and DVRed episodes of Heroes. (Don't worry, I'm going to bring back digital copies Benin).

Life good, JET Friday. Exciting.

2007-02-08T20:02:00.000+01:00

In Paris now at a friend of a friend's place. It's pretty awesome. Most notably because of the TV, Internet and phone package they've got going here. It costs him 30 Euro a month. Free calls to anywhere in the world, fast internet and a billion channels. What's more the box that controls it all responds to special software on your computer so that you can look at your pictures and movies on the TV. Awesome. France rocks.

2007-02-01T15:58:00.000+01:00

AH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, I'm freaking out because there is now no internet in Parakou. Or at least as good as. Recent legislation has created a situation where the major high-speed service provider has been declared illegal and shut down.

Sadly, because it's political I can't really go into details about it other than facts. All I can say is it sucks and I hope that it will soon be undone.

Sadness.

On a happier note, I'm going home soon! Wee!

2007-01-25T12:20:00.000+01:00

Woohoo! I got the JET interview! Now I just need to not screw that up.