A Hazy Shade of Winter

My English club is finally underway! If you find yourself sitting at a restaurant or bar, perhaps reading this blog on your Wifi-enabled cellular phone, be sure to toast the fine students of CEG Kemon who were generous enough to make my first session a rousing (if somewhat tardy) success. Here is a recap of what was and will be done (hopefully).

My partner in this endeavor told me that he would pick me up to bring me to the club on his moto. I hesitantly agreed, but I believe that he is far more punctual than my other colleagues, and decided to leave my timely arrival in his hands.

He didn't come. Well, he did eventually come, but he arrived at my house to pick me up approximately 15 minutes after our club was scheduled to begin AT SCHOOL, a mile away. Needless to say, I had since given up on this mode of transportation and biked the way, no doubt uttering not-quite-inaudible choice phrases under my breath en route. And when I arrived, 4 minutes late, I found that I was alone. No, not even the crickets were chirping.

But they came. Little by little, 15 out of the 17 invitees arrived, the last one arriving slightly past the 1 hour mark (thus giving him less than a half hour to actually BE there). But I was happy to get anything after my initial shock of the empty classroom. Coincedentally, my late partner, who is also a teacher at my school, arrived 30 minutes late and then proceeded to chastise those who arrived even five minutes later than him. "Why are you late? We started at 13h30." I bit my tongue.

So here's the gist of it. My club is entitled "The English World." I wanted to have an English club, to which I could invite my most promising students, but I didn't want it to focus solely on the production of English words and the study of the language. I decided to bring this into a more personally-intriguing realm by incorporating an element of geography. I was thus able to teach English structures and idioms while also expanding the students' knowledge of how English fits into this big, confusing world. Here's the gimmick: each week, I will work with three or four students to prepare a presentation, probably in French, about a certain English speaking nation. We can incorporate a bit of history, a bit of economics, talk about commerce and opportunities available in each nation, and also prepare dances or food to create a world that can be more literally "experienced." We will start with the mother of all English nations, if I do say so myself: the U.S. That will take place next Wednesday. After that, we will continue with Nigeria, then England, then Ghana, etc. I'm really looking forward to the research and the preparations. Plus its a rare chance to give students the opportunity to showcase their creativity in front of a group of peers. I'm really hoping that this first group will go off without a hitch. One of my best students, Benoit, was chosen for this group, so I think it may be a successful trial run.

I'm trying to import books right now for the school library. If ever you send a package and have a spare French-English dictionary handy, I would be forever grateful if you would be so kind as to slip it in the package. It doesn't need to have considerably difficult vocabulary... Also, if anyone has any ideas about organizations to partner up with in order to import French novels, I would love to chat with you. Things are starting to move now that lockdown has been lifted, and I'm really looking forward to the new opportunities afforded by internet access, no matter how dodgy it is.

Congrats to BU for defeating the BC Eagles in the hockey match held IN Fenway Park. Amazing show, I heard. Also, a group of education students from SUNY Oswego are here tonight, so I'm going to meet up with them. The coincedences were too numerous to pass up this chance to meet them in Porto-Novo. A group of Oswegonians... in Benin... here to study the education system. What are the freakin' chances. It's a beaufitul life.

Une Fête Surprise

Thank you to everyone who came out to my family's camp (cottage) on Cross Lake this weekend. I was, needless to say, surprised by the turnout. My parents apparently decided over a month ago to throw a surprise party to celebrate my approaching departure. Educators, neighbors, and friends who've inspired me throughout all periods of my life showed up to say "Bon chance," eat some good barbeque, and finally see the place to which my parents disappear every summer. This year my parents actually put our Time Warner media package on hold at our place in Oswego, and the automated message answers incoming calls with this message: The person you are trying to reach does not wish to receive any calls. Thus, we are further off the grid at my childhood home than I will be when I get to Benin next week.

A special thanks to Laura, Rob, Stefan, and Adam for making it up to my place on Friday night. I never envisioned any of you in Cato, NY, but I think the result was exactly as anyone could have imagined. We kayaked to a small island, failed the Jiffy Pop test on a big bonfire, and played Croquet like our lives depended on it. Rob is also the first person I've ever seen tumble out of a Kayak in the middle of the lake (twice!). All in all, it was exactly how I hoped to spend my last stateside weekend.

Right now I am wondering how I will physically fit all of my supplies for the next two years into a suitcase and a backpack. My bewilderment at seeing all of said supplies laid out on my bed is what compelled me to procrastinate by writing this blog entry. I think I've compiled a sufficient amount of the necessary items, but I'm starting to realize how much I take for granted. Case in point: am I really going to surrender my ability to choose between several different Sox hats on any given day? Such seemingly trivial dilemmas will probably seem, well, trivial, by next week, but I can only imagine that they will have some effect in the aggregate.

Once again, a sincere thanks to everyone. Its great to know I have all of your support. One added bonus: the party was a great opportunity to get word out of my blog. I'll sure miss this place!

Bienvenue a moi!

Creating a blog has become somewhat of a rite of passage for peace corps volunteers these days. Many future volunteers ruminate on their expectations, their trepidation, whether socks are a waste of space, etc. While I by now know that it's difficult to pick one blog out from the plethora available for every single country (I found 94 written about Benin alone on http://www.peacecorpsjournals.com/), I'm still going to throw my hat into the ring. So, without further ado, here is a bit about myself.

I was born and raised on the Great Lake of Ontario, where I spent the majority of my life in the sleepy harbor town of Oswego, NY (the New York Times affectionately called my city "one of a string of rustic villages" in upstate NY). While I love my hometown and its 17,000 residents, I knew that I was going to need a little more to quench my thirst for adventure. When I was younger, I shared George Bailey's view - "I'm shakin' the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and..." - but my idea of adventure evolved and I eventually found the Peace Corps in my sights. I've never quite been able to shake the idea.

I attended Boston University as an undergrad, where I majored in International Relations and Psychology. Since then, I've taken graduate classes in Environmental Science and Int'l Econ in both Boston and Buffalo. I've worked with various nonprofits and for-profits, and I've liked and disliked certain things about each of them. I decided last summer that it was time to take the Peace Corps plunge, not knowing that it would be a full year before I'd actually be embarking.

A lot's changed since then. I was nominated to volunteer in the area of water sanitation, but that fell by the wayside due to funding issues. I also, along with a good chunk of my fellow Beninese TEFLers, was originally invited to serve in Madagascar. Due to a seemingly pointless coup devised and (poorly) executed by a young mayor, my plane will be landing in Cotonou, Benin instead of Antananarivo, Madagascar. That, at first, was tough to swallow, but everything happens for a reason, I suppose.

And thus, I am sitting at my family's camp today. I have my dog Jake at my side and I'm looking out over the placid Cross Lake in Upstate New York. Tonight I'm headed to see John Smoltz pitch for the Pawtucket Red Sox in Syracuse, and I really can't complain. It's his last rehab start before hitting the majors, so I'm pretty excited to see what he can do in a small venue against some lackluster talent. But still, I was supposed to already be on my way to the Red Island by today. So let's just put it this way: I love my life now...

But I can't wait to get started.