Sunday, November 25, 2007

I am starting to feel immersed already! Although I did speak English last night with some people, I am getting to the point where I am thinking in French again. I started writing this post in French without even thinking about it.
Last night, I went to a concert on the beach with Ida, some of her friends, and some of her friends’ friends. It was a huge free concert by someone that everyone but me knew and loved. Now, people explained the concept of African Time to me before I left. I understood that things are likely to start late; no one is ever on time, etc. Well, last night Ida swore that the concert would start on time b/c she had seen the performer at the airport when she came to pick me up. We went up the street to visit with some of her friends before all leaving together. While hanging out on the roof talking, the power goes off. We finally find our way downstairs by flashlight. We all try to pile into one car only to discover that the battery has died, so we all have to take the zemis (motorcycle taxis). I was definitely more than a little nervous about this and I was scared to go by myself in case I got separated from everyone, so one of Ida’s friends rode with me. Yep, that’s 3 people on a little motorbike. I was surprised also to discover that the ride across town only cost about 50 cents.
So far here I’ve met a German woman, an Ethiopian woman, a guy from Ghana who has lived and worked all over the States as a hairdresser, a guy from the Netherlands who works at the Embassy, and of course many Béninois (people from Benin). I am kind of surprised to discover all these ppl here for so many different reasons, but it’s great.
We got to the concert late of course. We arrived at 12am and the concert was supposed to start at 11pm. This was my lesson on African Time. We hung out on the beach talking and listening to music until the concert started at 1:45am! The music was great even if I did not understand it (most of it was in Fon, the African dialect here). We all danced on the beach until it ended around 3:45am. However, we continued to talk and dance until almost 4:30am listening to the filler music which was partly African and partly American rap with a little Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez mixed in. By the time I got back and showered it was 5 in the morning! The whole time we were moving around Ida or her cousin held my hand and looked out for me.
After about 2 ½ hours of sleep, I got up and got ready for church. Ida is Catholic, but her cousin took me to a protestant church nearby. The problem is that although everyone speaks both French and Fon, they alternate between the two at will and I am lost. Ida’s family mostly speaks Fon to each other and French to me. I think I may have to learn it b/c it is everywhere. At church, the Sunday School portion was all in Fon except for one man’s testimony. For the service, the pastor said a sentence in French and someone translated into Fon. We also sang “Trust and Obey”, “Croire Obéir” in French, which reminded me of my church at home. Next week I think we are going to a church further in town where the service is more likely to all be in French.
After church, I took a brief nap, then went to lunch in Ida’s aunt’s house. Many members of the family live there just like here. I still have not really figured out who lives here and their names, but so far the count is: Ida, her mother, Ida’s 2 kids (Yannik and Nelly), Ida’s brother and his wife and their daughter. I think there might be 2 live-in domestics. There is at least one. What I mean is that they may or may not be part of the family. There is another boy the same age as Yannik, 8, and they both love to knit now. I just don’t know where this other boy belongs in the scheme of things.
The only kind of bad part so far is that I burned my leg today on the zemi on my way to church. My leg touched the hot metal. We’ll see how long it is before I wear another skirt.

That’s all for now. Ciao!