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)