One of the women from our shea butter group said this to Ryan and me before we left for our marathon October travel exploits.
I like to think of the fetishes as gnomes that follow me around and morph into everyday items to keep guard on me, but not let me know. They've done a good job so far. Our travels in October went off without a hitch. I traveled for a training with two youth from my village. We spent a week together learning about HIV/AIDS, malaria, and diarrhea. When they returned to village, I took an hour long moto ride out to visit my friend Meredith. She was a really good sport about the fact that I felt pretty ill the whole time I was staying at her house. When we walked in to her place, I put my bag down and said, "I think I'm going to throw up now." And being a woman of my word, I did just that. I did have a good time just sitting on her couch, playing with her new puppies and chatting.
When I left her village, I went down to Cotonou for my mid service medical check-up. On the way, I was packed into this little 5-seater car with 9 people. After almost everyone got out, we got to a point where there was some construction on the road and a huge line of traffic. Our driver decided to cut the line, but unfortunately there was a police officer near the front and he whistled for us to pull over, then came over, took the keys and yelled at our driver. Even though we were another 5 minutes from our drop off site, I could see I would be arriving there with this guy. He hissed and a zem (guy driving a motorcycle) came over. I told them where I wanted to go and my driver bargained the price for me. I hadn't realized how far from the PC office we were, but it was about a 15 minute ride.
Mid-service went well, and I got an opportunity to do some luxury item shopping (canned hummus, spices, amaretto). I also got to eat some great foods, including Indian food at a place we call "Secret Indian Lady". We call her this because she doesn't have a restaurant. If you want to try her delicious food, you have to go to her house. We sat in her living room while she prepared our dinner. You don't order, you just tell her how many of you there are and she makes enough food for all. There was a lentil dahl, a sauce with tofu(ish stuff), wheat naan, samosas, and fried milk for dessert. All for 3000cfa (or about $6).
The week after that Ryan and I headed to Grand Popo for a conference on food security with 8 other volunteers. It was a great change of pace from what we were used to! Our room had air conditioning, there was a pool, the beach was right off our front porch, and the food was so good! On afternoon we walked down to see the fishermen pulling in the nets. They caught so many fish! There was also shrimp and crabs and lots of jellyfish in the mix.
After 4 days, we headed back to Cotonou, then back up to Parakou before heading to post. The rains this year demolished the road between our post and Parakou. There are so many pot holes that it feels like you're driving on the surface of the moon. The road had been bad before, but now! And now that the rains are finished, the dust is awful. If we take a taxi up to post, which already is pretty exhausting (4 hours stuffed into an old Peugeot), by the time we get there now we're covered in fine red dust.
Well after being at post for only a week, I was feeling sick, but just went about my business. Then after 10 days of diarrhea, I started vomiting a lot, for 4 days. This past Monday I felt awful. I called the doctor and told him my symptoms and he said I should come down to the office.
So now, I'm fine. Just waiting to see the doctors and I'll probably be back at post this weekend.
That's it for now! Thanks for reading.
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