No Other Way

1. My finger is healing nicely.
2. I know where I will be spending the next two years of my life!
3. My left-hand is going to get me in trouble.
4. I moved up in my French proficiency!

1. I went most of today without wearing a band-aid! How exciting. You learn very quickly here that you have to celebrate everything--especially the small things, because most of the time it’s really hard, so when something good happens, you celebrate. So, Hurray for no Band-Aid! My fingertip is still quite numb, but in time, I expect that all of the feeling will return. pssh….no big deal

2. Yesterday was the official day that all the post-assignments were announced. So (drum roll) my post is in Manigri! I mostly know nothing about it at all, but here is what I do know. It is located in the Donga region of Benin which is pretty much smack dab in the middle. I am about 7km away from a pretty decent size town, but I think that overall, I will pretty isolated. Realistically, I am pretty close to Togo, too, so I hope to make fairly frequent trips across the boarder just to check things out over on the other side. I know that I will be replacing a male TEFL volunteer who apparently was pretty amazing and is leaving quite the legacy for me to follow. I will have to figure out how I can make my own mark; it will be good for me to have something to strive for. I also know that the volunteer I am replacing was really, really sad to leave and that he even wanted to do a third year, but that it didn’t work out for him because he decided to go to law school instead. But, I also think that that speaks volumes for the town itself--it must be a good place to live. Also, supposedly, this volunteer is leaving me with a really sweet kitchen that he hired a carpenter to build, and that he is also leaving behind a bunch of clothing (for a short male). I will have to figure out how to best use the clothing. I can’t really pass it on to any of the guys in our group because we have a really tall group, so maybe I can utilize it in some other way. Anyway, we visit our posts on Tuesday-Thursday next week, so I will be able to check things out first hand and get a better feel of my place. Right now, I’m just excited to know something even though I mostly know nothing, but something is better than nothing…celebrate everything!

3. So using the left-hand here is a sign of complete disrespect. I knew it was going to be a problem! I try to be good whenever I can, but I totally catch myself slipping up all the time. Try it for a day (I mean try not using or right hand to eat or do anything). I guess that I can use my left-hand as long as I am using a fork, but bread and apples and oranges, plus lots of other stuff liking exchanging money and so forth. It’s just a very hard brain switch to do. Coach Hoff would be happy. Stupid main droite.

4. I am officially a Intermediate Low. WooHoo! (I started at a Novice Intermediate--so I’ve moved up two levels). I’m pretty sure to swear-in that I need to reach a level of Intermediate High. I think, not sure. But it’s exciting to learn that I’m not going down or staying the same, that I’m actually going somewhere, although I feel like I’m reaching my language plateau.

What else…Sunday, a lot of us TEFLers are going to take a bike trip to visit other trainees in Dogbo. It should be a good time and a good excuse to get out of Lokossa. Plus, we can all sit around and discuss where everyone got posted. Yesterday, we went to the house of the volunteers (two current volunteers are always around to help answer and clarify our bazillion questions) and we learned how to make cornbread--it was so delicious. Speaking of food, my cravings for horrible American food are intensifying (the volunteers tell me that they come in waves). I really want a barbeque bacon cheeseburger, or some just horribly delicious Taco Bell, or a big, juicy steak. There is only so many meals of rice with a tomato and onion sauce that I can eat. Tonight, I don’t really know what I ate, but I’m pretty sure that I had boiled potatoes covered in mayonnaise and honey dijion salad dressing--delicious. They love, love mayonnaise and starches here by the way. So good for the body.

Oh! And one more funny story is that yesterday during my language interview, I was supposed to convince rebellious town people that my new idea for a garbage and recycling program was a good one (I had no idea what to say first of all), but I said that garbage is bad for people’s health and that we should gather it all up and put it together than we should all burn it, BUT because I didn’t know that word for burn at the time, I definitely said that we should all smoke it! HAHA. Such a good idea. Why wasn’t I chosen to be in EA?
Oh! And we get our moto helmets tomorrow…finally! So I think that I am going to take a zemi tomorrow at some point just because I can!

Missing Everybody---Love Love Love