Things to EAt

This is a list of things that I will be eating in London....things that I miss on random days like today when I am doing everythign I can to ignore the work that I actually have to do.

1. McDonald's McChicken Sandwich

2. Full English Breakfast (Fried Eggs, Bacon, Roasted Tomato, Mushrooms, Baked Beans, and Brown Toast with a real cup of coffee)

3. Steak and Ale Pie

4. Bangers and Mash

5. Steak

6. Steak

7. Steak

8. Matzah Ball Soup

9. Tanqueray and Tonic (I know you don't eat it, but it just tastes so good I couldn't do without having at least one)

10. Jack and Coke (Samething as above even though I can buy it here, its just too damn expensive)

11. Nothing that has to do with spaghetti or rice or fried yams.

12. Pepperoni Pizza

I think that is a good list for right now but if you think of anything else that I am missing that is just too good to miss, let me know.

Boredom

It is amazing what time on your hands, boredom and being alone in Africa does to a person.  In the past 48 hours, I have gone to the market, spent too much money on food that I normally would not eat but I was feeling experimental, gone to a buvette (Beninese bar) by myself to see if I could start a conversation with anyone that was willing to lend their ear, finished a book, started a second, watched 2 films, finished a puzzle, cleaned my house (which shows just how boredom has gotten to me, since I pay someone to do this), researched different options for internet in my house, looked into adding a shower to my house, made a gourmet meal for me and my dog (raviolis stuffed with local cheese called "wagasid", beans, chilis, tomatoes and onions, with a fresh tomato sauce called "jus" which is just sauteed tomatoes, onions and chilis with a little concentrated tomato paste), made french toast (which is harder then it sounds when dealing with African bread and things), contemplated making my own bread but don't have yeast, and slept a little.  All of this has still not completely satiated my thirst for entertainment, so I have been messing with my blog and reading others blogs on Benin.  Hopefully within a week or so I will have internet fast enough in my house that I will be able to download pictures and upload pictures here.  I will leave you with the thought that I am actually thinking about how fast my internet is in my house in Africa....contemplate it for a little.

 

A Sense of Belonging in a Strange World

This email is probably something a mother wants to hear when her son is sent off to work in another town in the western world or Europe and North America, not Africa, but it probably makes her happy to an extent, either way. The past twelve days, I have spent in Parakou, the unwritten capital of the North, at a Peace Corps Workstation. The workstations are like hostels for traveling volunteers from any country, but mainly for the country in which they are found, to be used as a safe haven and a place to do some work that cannot be done at post. Their third reason is to be used as places to hold domain-wide conference/meetings. This is why I was there, but the meetign was only one day long. I was there the weekend before for a VAC meeting which can be summarized as a high school student council type meeting, where people complain and the representatives take them to headquarters and get told nothign is going to change!!! But anyway, the week was awesome, because I got to see everyone from my training group and my work group and spend a lot of time partying, drinking and eatign good food, as you read in the last email.
The ESC (Early Service Conference) is a check-up on the new volunteers, to share experiences, give each other advice and to generally here that you are not alone in your problems. After this week, the main thing I found out was that I am too busy as a volunteer in comparison to most other volunteers, but that is how I like it. I didn’t come here to sit on my ass but to work and come out of here with as much experience and lessons as possible. But more importantly, I suddenly realized that I missed home. Not America-home, but my two bedroom house in Savalou. I missed being able to walk down the street and be called all the random nicknames that everyone has created for me by mispronouncing my name (my favorite being “god); I missed my own bed, my own kitchen, my bars and most importantly, my dog. When I first saw him, after he spent the week at my managers house, he was soo nervous cause he thought I was angry at him, but the second i sat down he came running, cause his Papa was home. He hasn’t been more than 5 feet from me since I have been home. (The people on my street keep asking home my baby is doing cause he is always with me.)
The strangest thing to me is that I have found this home. It is a relief at the same time as an omen. Work is finally picking up, my neighbors are friendly, I have made true friendships with the French volunteers in town and people generally know me as me, and not as that Yovo that came here to offer more gifts (which I have given none of). I am home, not something I ever thought I would say when in Africa, but here I am. Now the next thing to do is make this place even more livable with a soon to be added shower in “plein aire” and a couch, so I don’t always have to be in my bed. Anyway, I am off, need my good rest for tomorrow, whcih I will spend all day in the factory catching up on everything that I missed.

Preparing food in Benin

Let me just start saying that my meal last night was the best meal that I have eaten since I have been in Benin and I was apart of creating it. The meal consisted of grilled eggplant, a sheep, couscous and a tabouleh. The girls made the couscous and made the tabouleh, while me and a few of the other guys went to work on making the sheep/mutton. We went to the market and bought a dog-size sheep for 12,000 F CFA (about $25). One of the guys brought it back to the workstation strapped across his lap on a motorcycle, while the rest of us walked about 20 minutes back. This is where the fun began...It was time to kill, clean, and cook the mutton. One problem with this....we are a bunch of city dwelling, whities that have idea what it takes or how to kill or clean an animal, let alone a decent sized sheep. Solution...talk to the Beninese guard who has grown up without K-Mart, Walmart, grocery stores with prepared foods, i.e. he grew up in Africa. So he took the sheep outside, dug a whole with a knife, and saw at the neck, cutting everything in the throat up until the spine and let it bleed itself out, but of course, before we did this, we needed to make it kosher, so me and the only other Jewish guy here decided to bless the sheep and properly slaughter the animal, just for kicks.
To de-skin a sheep, the guard, named Pedro, tied off the open neck with a bit of rubber. Then he cut a little whole under the skin, but did not puncture the meat underneath. He then proceeded to literally blow into this whole, creating (as we dubbed) a sheep-aloon. Possibly one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen, just imagine a sheep blown up, legs sprawled cause it was full of too much air, its impossible until you see it yourself (by the way). Pedro then went about cleaning the sheep, peeling the skin, gutting the animal and preparing it to be cooked. (By the way, a headless sheep, without any fur, if propped up in a lying position but with its head up (without a head) looks exactly like a full grown dog, kinda creepy, but helps you imagine the sight.
We grilled the sheep’s meat, liver, kidneys and the best part of the animal for all, its testicles. Because none of us had ever eaten animal testis before, of course it all had to be at once, all 14 of us. On three we all ate the white mass, half squinting, just expecting the taste/sensation/texture/idea of it to make all of us to gag us, but the moment was answered by nothing but silence. Finally broken by one of us turning to another and mumbling, “Dude, I just ate balls.” The weird thing about sheep testis is the fact that they tasted like a bland hard-boiled egg; the exact same texture, consistency, and flavor. After 4 hours of smoking the meat, I bit into the greatest, juiciest, smoked piece of meat I have eaten in about a year. This entire episode will be repeated in a week, but most likely with either a pig, chicken, goat or yet another sheep, we shall see. It is planned that at our next conference for all/most volunteers we are going to buy a cow. I can’t wait!