Tu as fait un peu?

This is the phrase we hear every evening: have you done a little? If you've washed your clothes, gone to the bank, greeted your neighbors or made a meal, you have done a little. I always reply, "Un peu, un peu." Small, small. My family often uses this term to tell me to take it easy. When I start to wash a huge pile of clothes, my homestay father tells me, smugly, "Small, small. Save some for tomorrow." Needless to say, its not TOO difficult to get used to the Beninese way of life.

Happy Birthday Mags!

Small, small. Every day I improve my teaching during model school. Sometimes I do poorly, but I often do well, and I learn from every experience. The Beninese have a certain way (read: negative) about giving feedback, but you need to just brush it off and continue doing what you're doing. That's what model school is for. So I applaud my friend's successes, even if I didn't really engrain in my students' heads the different scenarios in which one uses "Can you" and "Could you" to request information. Because tomorrow, they'll be there to pat my back. My fellow trainees have been exceedingly good at keeping morale high. It's all we can do, because training is a rollercoaster of highs and lows. Luckily for me, the highs have far outlasted the lows.

Small, small. Do a little and be content. My French is anything but exceptional at the moment. I'm working at it and converse well, but I'm hardly fluent like the last volunteer who was at my post in Kemon. So every day I learn new phrases, I use them, I try new formations. I'm fortunate because I'll still be able to speak a lot of French at my post. There are some volunteers who will have to rely more on their local languages. My local language is a form of Yoruba called Nagot, and I'm hoping to learn it well, but it won't be a necessity right away.

Tonight I'm headed to a fashion show at the Palais de Congres for which my homestay mom is one of the designers. I'm really excited, because this is apparently a big deal. She's been working until the early hours of the morning over the past few weeks to prepare Modeles for this event. It's apparently a competition, and I got a really fancy boomba made for the occasion. Hopefully I'll post the pictures soon.

Some of you have asked about organizing book drives. Every little bit will help, especially since there's a brand new library that's yet to be outfitted! But I'm not sure what to do or how to do this at this time. After I'm at post for a bit, I'll be able to give more information. But I love the support, and I'll definitely be taking advantage of it as soon as I can. After two years, all I hope is to be able to look back on my time here and say, "Oui, j'ai fait un peu."