NO PREREQS

My second post from Benin. I will put up the post on multiple choice tomorrow, so stay tuned!

 

I have not yet started my volunteer program; that will begin on Monday. In the meantime, I have been running around Cotonou and Ouidah looking for a cell phone (which I still haven’t obtained) and resting for a large portion of the day. 

 

When you are in a new country and you don’t know the language or area you are in, it is difficult to do much other than rest. The heat makes this option especially attractive. This is why I cannot wait to start my volunteering at the orphanage: I didn’t just fly all this way to rest. I met the people at the orphanage yesterday, they children all swarmed me and bowed, politely welcoming me. It really was something to have forty something kids run up to you all at the same time. 

 

Jules said he will give me the details of my tasks there tomorrow, but I will be spending less time with the kids and more time looking for funding for the orphanage right off the bat, which sounds great to me. He said I would be more useful in applying for grants because I can help them access money from English speaking donors. They plan to build a school exclusively for the orphanage children so that they can avoid paying the school fees that they do now. 

 

It is difficult adjusting to the life here – we take many things for granted back home. However, I’m trying to keep an open mind about everything and live like the locals. I think this will result in the best experience, maybe not in terms of being comfortable – but in terms of being realistic, which is what I wanted anyways

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Today I moved in with my host family. They are very nice people and they are definitely going out of their way to make feel at home. Today we visited the farm that they own just north of Ouidah, I took many pictures! This is the first time I pulled out my camera here and I have to say I am afraid to use it! But there’s no use in allowing it to collect dust, right? Unfortunately, my computer isn’t identifying the camera, so they will be up as soon as I get it working.

Back to the farm – they own around a thousand chickens! But the father says it is not much. I will take more pictures and some of my room in the coming days to share with everyone. Once again, thanks for following, and please leave comments!

EDIT: below are some pictures of my host family and their farm. Enjoy!

Yannik and Aristot, my brothers for the next couple of months.

Cool picture!

1 of 1000 chickens in 4 different pens

Mr. Guillaume and his youngest son donning the Canada caps I brought for them