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My biggest worry is that all I will do in Athieme is talk, and not necessarily talk about relevant issues, but just drink beer and sodabi and just shoot the breeze. What if I am a person that likes to study, talk, and write, but not actually do any work?

Re-locating my Bossy Toes

Erika Kraus
2006-08-28 19:43:20

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Now I just have to find those people in the community who are motivated enough about the ideas to start doing something. More importantly, I have to trust myself in bringing ideas out of my head and talking with other people about how things could change. I have to take myself seriously, treat myself as a professional, and not just a pro-basketballer, before I can expect others to listen to me.
In-service training made me start thinking. Talking with other volunteers made me feel like I had done nothing but play, play, play, since the end of September. The in-service training is kind of like a follow-up week of stage, with sessions on topics relevant to the work we reported to be doing at post. In my case, this week of training really motivated me and encouraged me to just start doing things. Start talking, start using resources, and really start making things move. I can do it, I can!
All of the health and environment volunteers brought themselves and their work partners to Porto Novo, the capital of Benin. We stayed at Songhai, a beautiful center of ideal environmentally sound practices, agro-forestry, pissiculture (fish farming), and composting. And, omelettes for breakfast and soy milk for a snack. Porto Novo itself is a beautiful town with colonial-era buildings and a couple boutiques with bags and lamps made of marche sacks and tin cans. Lovely. We, the volunteers, also met Mr. Gaddi Vasquez for lunch one day. He is the Global Director for Peace Cops in Washington, D.C., and was visiting Benin for the week. We had a very good lunch.
After Porto Novo, I caught a ride on the Peace Corps shuttle to Cotonou with other Peace Corps people.
Ah, Cotonou, what a love/hate relationship I have with her. I hate the pollution, the traffic, the noise, the smells, and the fact that everything costs more… But, I love the supermarches with all the little things I don’t find elsewhere, like sage, and vanilla tea, and Togolese coffee, and dry cream ...