Photo Shoot

Wow! Just broke out the digital camera today and my host brothers and sisters went absolutely bananas. I mean CRAZY. They loved so much to have their pictures taken. Jumping and squirming to see the photo. Disatisfied with the picture, they would arrange themselves for another with a flurry of yelling, gesturing and jostling for position followed immediately by the dawning of stoic expressions betraying nothing but the dignity they wish to project to the outside world. Most Beninese looks serious in their pictures but the children couldn't keep a straight face for long and the picture taking session turned in to total chaos. The children in this country really keep me going with their unbriddled joy with everything.

I spent the beginning of the day today in language class, but for the first time we had the afternoon off. I had been putting off taking my Peace Corps issued bicycle and helmet home from school because already I am a SPECTACLE walking down the street. The roads are all dirt with varying levels of passability, made worse by the rainy season. It is difficult to walk down the street without sending goats, birds and other animals scurrying from the commotion I create amongst the ubiquitous children on the street. Yovo, yovo (white person, white person)! Adults may say and all children will scream. "Bon sois, Yovo! Ca va?" I am evidently not the first because the local kids have a song to accompany my passing. They all will drop everything and sing as I walk by. "Yovo, yovo, bon sois! Yovo, yovo parlez-moi" (white person, white person, good evening. White person, white person talk to me). At the top of their lungs they will sing, dropping whatever their doing to come to the side of the road and sing. As I continue to walk down the street, soon enough the kids about 50 meters down hear the commotion and begin their own singing. And thus it continues as a progression of children screaming/singing at me the entire kilometer on the way home. This isn't an exageration or hyperbole. This afternoon I walked around the market with some other volunteers to similar acclaim.

Back to host brothers and sisters, there are 5, 2 boys and 3 girls aging 14 to 2. Until I broke out the camera tonigth the 2 year old was terrified of me. The others do not share such reservations and after a night of timidity, I have turned in to a walking jungle gym to the point that when I walk up to the house in the street, the middle three come running at me and literally jump through air in to the my arms, whether I'm ready or not. My siblings followed for for at least a kilometer this afternoon, running and pushing a old cart wheel as they went, their famiiarity creating a small gaggle of children around us. Wish I could attach pictures but internet is so slow it will not complete the upload of a file so big. I'll write more later on where I'm living.

John