this post was written a while ago...

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

I love being here. I love the fact that everything is so new and different. I don’t think I can fully describe the utter craziness of the traffic and the multitudes of zems in the road. For every one car, there are about 10-15 motorbikes. Everyone rides them and you see whole families on them with the father driving, a little kid in front of him and the mom with a baby strapped to her back behind him. The other day I saw someone eating while driving one! I don’t understand how! People shake hands across motorbikes in the middle of traffic. There are no lines in the road. No one polices the traffic. In most cases it is a free for all. A lot of the time, you could reach out and touch the next motorbike or car that is how close they are.
We went all around town yesterday and I think that I have now seen most of Cotonou, but by no means do I have any idea how to get around. Ella, Ida’s cousin, acts as my personal guide and escort and takes me everywhere that I need to go and explains everything to me. I don’t know what I would do without her and Ida.
Today we went to PSI to discuss my plans for working with them. Everything sounds good. I am going to write them a letter explaining exactly what interests me and how I would like to visit the clinics. There are 30 clinics in their network and even some in Porto Novo, the capital. The problem is that starting in 2 weeks everyone is about to go on vacation. From the middle of December until January, the country just celebrates. There is a big Muslim holiday around Dec. 19th or 20th, then it’s Christmas, and then the New Year. They asked me if I would like to start in January. At first I was taken aback, b/c I don’t know what to do with all of my time in between, but after speaking with Ida and Ella it really does seem pointless to try to start my research now when the doctors and everyone else will be on vacation. Maybe I will visit the country a bit and travel around before settling into a work routine.