busy, busy, busy

i have really kicked the research into high gear now and am constantly on the move. for example, this morning i visited the ministry of health and the largest national hospital in benin. this afternoon i went to the largest maternity hospital in benin, then the american embassy and would have continued on an internet cafe if the rain hadn't stopped me (rain is not to be underestimated here). basically from this point on i will be in a different city each week visiting hospitals, looking at records (or the lack thereof), and just generally hanging out at the hospital trying to see as many surgeries as possible. i'm loving it!

ever seen chickens and goats in church? i have! last sunday there was another baby dedication. there is a big dance line as women and the fathers bring offerings and the babies to the altar. usually it's just yams that they place at the altar, but last sunday i saw live chickens and even a goat! as with all baby dedications, there was much dancing and singing and general happiness. even the funerals here are regarded as a reason to celebrate. when an elderly person dies, the family holds a big dinner, hires a dj, and everyone hangs out, dances, and has a good time. there is no time to be sad.

next week i'm off to ouidah. it was one of the main ports through which slaves were shipped off. hopefully, i'll get to see more than just the hospital :o)

a la prochaine!

funerals and babies

last weekend i went to a funeral. a while ago, ida went to a funeral and come back home at noon drunk. noon! funerals here are not occasions to be sad but cause for celebration. they have big dinners and everyone is invited with certain branches of the family dressing in the same fabric (they buy the same fabric and everyone has it made however they want). you eat and talk and just have a good time with friends and family in remembrance of the person. there can be dancing and the party can go on all night. yes, party. i think it'd be great if we could adopt the same kind of mentality. however, i think it is only a celebration when an elderly person dies b/c they have lived a full life. as far as children go, i think their deaths are mourned.
in church sunday they had baby dedication. all the women (mothers) dance around the aisles of the church. they form a kind of congo line that goes around all the pews. church dancing here is not like church dancing even in black churches in the states. some of the dancing i have seen in church here i would expect to see in a night club, but it's all to God's glory, right? :o) they actually asked me why i dance so reservedly, but i just can't bring myself to go all out dancing in church no matter how good the music is. so the women dance around the church, the parents are each given a chance to speak and thank God for their new child, and each parent usually sings a song. the songs tend to be in Ibo (there are a lot of Nigerians) and some in English. after service, the parents host a reception for whomever wants to come. the parties just go on and on....

abomey/bohicon

abomey and bohicon were wonderful. wednesday we went to a village to see a women's collective. it was a group of women that have been meeting for the past 4 months and work together to produce soy cheese and cookies, etc to sell and they then share the profits. as we arrive the women are seated in a circle chanting and singing praises and welcome to us. they sang and greeted us. in the praises that they gave they said that we were of high quality. they said that if i were a motorcycle they would buy me b/c i am of such high-quality. they took turns dancing in the middle of the circle and invited me to join in. i danced with the women in the circle- african style i.e. lots of shoulder movements. as a sign of appreciation, they press money to ppl's foreheads. they did it to me! they said that i danced really well! it was wonderful. afterwards, i interviewed some of the women. to get to the hospital, it was a 20-30 minute walk and when in labor the women would sometimes go on bicycle (not them pedaling) or by motorcycle. however, if they had complications the closest reference hospital was 45 mins away by motorcycle. there was also a small health unit established by an ngo in the village. there were 3 beds and the delivery table was literally a wooden table. the facility was staffed by a nurse's aide with 2 apprentice nurse's aides to help her. a nurse visited 2-3 times a week. they had very few meds on hand, mostly just the most common meds to combat malaria, etc. when women have complications they are sent from that health facilty to the hopital de commune, but if the complications are serious and a cesarian is needed, the woman must then be referred again to the departmental hospital. all that transfer time is not good for either the mother or the unborn child...
the second village we went to was similar. before the meeting was called to order there was much singing and dancing. after interviewing the women, they actually gave me a present! it was so incredibly sweet! they gave me a glass globe with a revolving flower inside that makes music. the women here are so sincere and hopeful. they really make you want to help them. i wish that i were able to give them just some of the things that we take for granted in the US.

awesome morning!

this week i'm working in the maternity of the big reference hospital in cotonou. this morning i saw an endoscopy. they went in through the woman's belly button and made only 2 other holes in her abdomen. they filled the abdominal cavity with gas and inserted a camera. i saw her uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, intestines, everything! in full color! it was so awesome! tuesday, i saw the birth of twins! 2 little tiny baby boys. they were premature but otherwise in good health. (sigh) life is wonderful. next week i'm going back to bohicon to work with an ngo there and visit women in the surrounding villages. in april i start really traveling and will only be in cotonou for a couple weekends after the end of april. i'll be traveling all around the north working in hospitals, clinics, and visiting villages. i am on cloud 9 right now. i love Benin!

cultural differences

today while sitting in a hospital maternity waiting area the tv was playing american music videos. tupac's 'california love' came on. it was strange to look at the video then look at the mothers in the waiting area with their babies and small children. not only can they probably not understand a word of what he is saying but neither can they relate to the lifestyle portrayed in a such a video. this week i'm working in a catholic hospital that provides low-cost services. these women in most cases can barely afford to pay the minimum to keep their families healthy.
other strange things on tv:
a commercial for bathroom furnishings set to the song "here i am to worship" (?!)
a scooter commercial w/ Usher's "Yeah!" playing in the background. (you're too busy dancing to the song to look at the scooters)

spiders

so in general i am extremely proud of myself and how i've been adjusting to the continual prescence of spiders everywhere here. i even went so far as to kind of have a pet spider for a couple weeks. by that i mean that he was in my room and i did not immediately kill him at the first opportunity. as far as the little ones go, i've gotten to the point where i can kill them (mostly) without squealing and needing to call for help. the bigger ones (the size of a silver dollar and up) i still have trouble with but i'm managing. they are really flat and really really fast! i am now armed with insecticide though so i'm a serious force to be reckoned with. last night though i met my match. in fact, he bested me by far. i couldn't even put up a fight. i went to take a shower. looked up and on one of the wooden beams was the biggest spider i have ever seen in my entire life. it spanned from the base of my palm to the middle of my fingers. oh my goodness, i about passed out when i saw it. it wasn't even a question of killing him b/c he was entirely too big. i was torn between taking my shower as fast as i possibly could and keeping an eye on him to make sure he didn't move or try to get any closer to me. i tried to do both. then...he moved. and i squealed! i couldn't help it. all those legs and they were so long and oh it was horrible! i fled to my room as fast as i could but of course i was still on edge. i checked all over my room: lifting up my sheets to check between them and all over. still i kept feeling things all throughout the night. i know that it was just me and that there was not actually anything there but still. i woke up early this morning and when i went to take a shower my new friend was still in there, but in a new spot. i'm hoping he decides to move on soon or someone decides he has been there long enough b/c i honestly don't think i can do it myself. up until this past week, we had another guest in our shower. it was a female lizard that would sleep in one of the top corners each night. it was almost comforting to see her. i really appreciate the lizards and their contribution to keeping down the fly and spider populations. however, for some reason last week she stopped coming. i hope she's ok. i took some really great pics the other day of a lizard laying her eggs in the sand. i was maybe a foot away from her. she looked directly into the camera as i took the picture probably trying to figure out what in the world i was doing. gotta love the wildlife in benin!

my research

so my research is finally really and truly underway. in the mornings, i go to different clinics (one a week) and i observe appts, talk with the midwives and doctors, and interview women about their childbirth experiences. i'm really enjoying assisting with the exams and i even get to examine the women myself and listen to the fetal heartbeat. the problem is that there simply are not a lot of women that go to the private clinics b/c they are more expensive than the public hospitals. so now i'm trying to find a way to get into the hospitals. however, in benin everything is about who you know. so i have to find a way to get a connection. i'm still working on it but in the meantime things are progressing. last week i was invited back to a clinic at 11pm to see a birth. it didn't happen though. the woman had to have a c-section. so maybe next time. i have found a church here that i really really enjoy. the service is in English, French, and another language, maybe Fon maybe not. we dance and sing and the sermons are really good too. i have also started learning Fon! yay! it is easy in some ways and harder in others. for instance, there are no conjugations which is great, but they also use the same word with different pronunciation to mean different things. for example: jivi = knife or to give birth; ta = to turn on or head; yi = to go or "take this". there are about a million others. needless to say, i am a little overwhelmed. it's a great challenge though and really funny for my host family when i try to say something. :o)

ouidah

i have a whole lot to catch up on so i'm just going to dive right in. on the 10th i went to ouidah which was one of the main ports through which slaves were taken from africa. on that day, there was a march to remember those taken and to acknowledge the link of all ppl of african descent to africa. we walked along the same route as those destined to become slaves. all along the route were statues. for example, one was a leg from the knee down: it represented the limbs that would be cut off from ppl who tried to escape. there were kings and ambassadors from all over benin who came. there were plays and dances and other performances. i took a lot of pics and video which will hopefully be on facebook soon. the former president was also there and he did a presentation about the slave trade and the treatment of slaves in the colonies. the whole event was really powerful. we're trying to plan an another trip there to see the gate of no return and other things there. hopefully i'll explain more later!

voodoo festival

hey all! sorry i have really been slacking off on my blogging. i can try to claim to have been really busy but it would only be partly true. the truth is that i'm kind of at a loss as to how to explain all i've seen. thursday, the 10th, was the voodoo festival here. voodoo actually began here and although the majority of ppl will usually tell u that they are muslim or christian the truth is that most ppl still believe in, if not practice, voodoo (or voudoun as it is called here). thursday i went to a small village north of cotonou w/ some ppl from the embassy. in the village they greeted us with a song and patiently waited while we pressed coins to their foreheads (which is a sign of appreciation). the ppl were singing and dancing to the music of the drums. this was all in anticipation of the arrival of the chief. we met the lesser chiefs who were in the chiefs of various voodoo gods. one said that he was the chief of 3 gods. there are countless voudoun gods. they showed us the voudoun which looked like a 6-8" thick bundle with horn shaped attachments at each end. they were orange and white and covered with feathers. the feathers were especially valuable as they were parakeet feathers. if one of the feathers came off, they were very careful to pick it up and save it. the voudoun chief came out. he is the chief of the whole area of allada which is where the kingdom of dahomey (benin) started. they sang and danced in front of him then in a kind of parade, we went to the voudoun square where the real festivities were to take place. there was a special section for the head chief with alongside sat the other chiefs. all day long voudons danced and ppl danced and sang praises to them. there were even voudons in costumes that looked almost like birds. they were brightly colored with red, orange, yellow, and green and were formed of many layers. they not only walked on stilts, but they danced, did spins, everything! i really am at a loss as to how to describe everything but i promise to put pics up soon. i recorded a lot of it too so check my facebook for that. on our way back to cotonou we stopped to buy pineapples. in the states it's about $4 for a cut pineapple in the grocery store, we bought 40 for 3,000 cfa or less than 17 cents a pineapple. my host family was a little surprised to see me return home with 10 pineapple but they really didn't mind. i promise to add more about the voodoo fest soon!

updates

since not much has been going on with me lately i guess i can give you all a general idea of what my day is like. i wake up around 7am to the sounds of ppl doing housework. the women are sweeping, cooking, washing dishes, and their kids. i stubbornly refuse to get up and usually manage to sleep until sometime between 8 and 9 when i unwillingly get up. i tried to sleep in but if i sleep past 9 or 9.30 ida gets worried and comes to check on me. sometimes by this time oror (my precious little girl) has already come to check on me and knocked on my door. if not, i intercept her in the hallway and we go have breakfast in the living/ dining room. although i am the only one that i have ever seen eat at the table. i share my breakfast of bread w/ cheese and hot chocolate with my little girl and nelly, ida's daughter, who usually comes to join us. after breakfast, we head back to my room where i have to watch oror as she tries to take everything out of my makeup bag and hand it to me one item at a time or place it on the floor. i then give her back to her parents and she cries and cries as i go to take my shower. in the mornings i have been going to the embassy to work on my questionnaire for my research and to use the computer for other things as well. i have also been working out there, but i don't know if i am actually allowed to do that or not. it's nice though b/c i can listen to npr through the satellite tv stations. i come back for lunch and then sometimes do other random errands in the afternoons. any free time at the house is spent with oror and the other kids (when they aren't sleeping). i've been picking up a very few fon phrases but i can't do much more than greet ppl in the mornings and ask if they slept well. one phrase that they ask a lot is "tu as fait un peu?" but it sounds really similar to "tu as faim un peu?" which means "are you a little hungry?" versus "have you accomplished something today?" now, i am not the only one to make this mistake. it was through talking to helen, the woman from eritrea, that i discovered my mistake, only b/c she had made the same one! she told ida that she must be trying to fatten her up or something. why else would she continually try to feed her? ida and ella thought this was the most hilarious thing ever.
every sunday, i go to the beach, but we never ever swim. the current is really strong here so you have to be very careful. besides, most beninese ppl don't know how to swim anyway. that doesn't stop them from going to the beach though and sundays it is packed. we go to one of the cafes along the strip, have a drink, and look at the ocean. one cafe has little performances on sundays: usually dancers or singers.
last sunday i began learning how to drive a scooter. (although it might be a bit illegal since i don't have an international driver's licence) it's harder than you'd think! it's somewhere in between driving a stick shift and riding a bike. but it's fun! i only had one little incident when i tried to break with my feet instead of the break. really that is not a good idea. but besides that i was good! hopefully my lessons will continue time permitting.
i'm still scouting out churches, but i do like the one in my neighborhood. so if nothing else attracts my attention, i'll end up going there regularly. that's it for now!

pictures

just in case anyone was wondering. no, those are not my pictures, but i am trying to figure out a way to connect my pictures to this site so ppl can see them. sorry for the confusion.

new years au benin!

i hope reading this had a good new years eve. i certainly did! i went to the us ambassador's house. i met her a week or so ago. she's actually a black woman which makes me rather proud. the house was enormous. especially by benin standards it was huge! we had dinner out on the lawn and they had a little dance floor set up. after eating the wonderful food, including black-eyed peas for luck of course!, we counted down to midnight, toasted with champagne, and then the party began! we all headed out to the dance floor, including the ambassador! we danced and danced! there was salsa music (which is incredibly popular here), west african music, and of course american music as well. i must say that i was a little surprised to see the ambassador getting down to 'crazy in love' but it was fun! i also met another fulbrighter here. she actually had her grant renewed so this is her 2nd year here in benin. she's a professor who is orginally from haiti. she's so much fun! i asked her for a ride home and she said sure but she had to stop by another party first. her research is on the catholic imagination or something like that and she wanted to visit the party some priests and nuns that she knew. i was like, why not? i'm open to anything! oh my goodness, i am so so glad that i went! i had imagined solemn nuns and priests conversing amongst themselves, drinking cokes and juice. that's not how it was. they were playing secular dance music: the west african music you hear in clubs and bars, salsa, etc. and they were dancing dancing dancing. i was in a congo line with 2 nuns before me, one behind, and priests and other random ppl interspersed! yannick, the other fulbright, filmed as i danced with one of the priests. the nuns formed little circles and one would dance in the middle. they even started getting low, dancing all low to the ground! neither were they drinking coke and sprite and i thought, they were drinking beer. my preconceived notions were entirely wrong and i had a wonderful, wonderful time hanging out on new years eve with a bunch of nuns and priests! i love the fact that we never know where life will take us! :o)