my arrival

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Here I am! After all the build-up I finally made it! The plane ride was ridiculously long, but not unbearable. I had an empty seat next to me going to Paris. I almost had to cause a scene in Paris, because security tried to take my knitting needles after they’d been ok’d in the States. I almost panicked. No knitting needles?! Aagh!!
The best part of all those flights was definitely flying over the Sahara Desert. It was absolutely gorgeous. I cannot begin to describe how vast and, what surprised me the most, varied it was. There were huge mounds that were full of ripples. I would say they looked like waves, but there was another part that looked even more like waves. It looked like the big long ones that you see coming into the beach. The others looked like the short choppy ones you normally see further out in the middle of the ocean. I saw big crater-like indentations, then next to them huge mound formations. In some spots, it looked like chunks of earth were taken out and set down right beside the hole.
I have a lot to get used to here. It seems like everything is different. First of all, although I have said this of just about every country I’ve visited I mean it for Benin, there is no way that I would want to drive here. France seemed busy and Ecuador, especially Cumbaya which had one stoplight, Benin takes the cake by faaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr in scariest drivers. It’s mostly the motorcyclists. They have their own rules and there are a million of them. I’m not looking forward to getting on that thing. I haven’t really visited the city much yet. I’ll really get to see it on Monday when we go looking for the Embassy, etc.
Ida and her family are really wonderful. The boys are great and they love the toy cars I brought them. Today Ida took me to work with her. I got dressed and started to leave the compound when her son pointed another building in the compound I hadn’t been in yet, but had seen ppl in last night. She works right at home. She’s a seamstress! She has a hand-operated sewing machine. I hope to learn to use it to finish off various knitting projects. As soon as I realized what she was doing, I went and got my knitting and proceeded to knit up a storm. I cannot praise the wonders of knitting enough. It really does bring so many different people together. I just left Indiana where I was teaching knitting to little kids at church and now I’m here and I just spent all morning teaching the two boys and Ida’s cousin how to knit. Ida and her mother know other knitters here and they said that they would introduce me. Why do I get so excited about things like this?
But like I said I do have a lot to get used to. Ida brought me a dinner last night of fish (which I loved), fries (who doesn’t like fries), and onions. I have no need to explain my reaction to the onions. I asked my friend to let Ida know about them, but oh well. I am struggling through. I even ate a couple. (shudder) Disgusting. I also ate cabbage today and liked it! Finally after years of ppl promising that I will like their cabbage even if I don’t like cabbage, I am a believer. This doesn’t mean that I will eat it in the States, but maybe while I am here.
The bed is really different, too. It’s like a hard Memory Foam mattress or something and the pillow is a Memory Foam Rock. It’s growing on me though. It was weird sleeping without a top sheet though. So finally a 5 am I got up and used a wrap that Ida is letting me use. It serves as a housecoat, but is really just a big piece of colorful fabric. It does give more covering than just a towel though.
They do have running water, but it is only in the shower. They use buckets filled with water in the other rooms; which brings me to my biggest challenge yet: the outhouse. When I asked last night where the bathroom was they said that they do not use it at night and to use the little bucket under the bed. Yep, I have a chamberpot! I was trying to adjust to this new method, but I was really glad when morning came and I could just go to the regular bathroom. Ida’s mom showed me this morning. There are 2 stalls. Each has a little concrete seat with a big hole in the middle and when finished you just cover it back over with the little wooden cover. My first experience went okay, but as I returned the second time I took off the cover and there were 2 cockroaches crawling up the side as well as a million little bugs that I just had not noticed the last time. Needless to say, this is going to be my greatest challenge. I dread having to go.
Besides that everything is great! There are both a Catholic and a Protestant church nearby and they are taking me tomorrow. Now, I’m going to take a nap and relax on my increasingly comfortable bed.
Ciao!
Charita