French lessons

Hi again,

Only a few minutes until we are leaving for a concert, we hope/think, at the Catholic church tonight. Pre-Assumption Day celebration, which is tomorrow. We had heard that it is a number of choirs, from here, and Benin, and includes both Catholic and Protestant church choirs. The message has changed with everyone we have talked with, however, so we’re not sure what to expect. We also cannot find out, for sure, in which church (Eglise) it is at. We think it’s at the Catholic church, since we don’t really think the Protestants celebrate Assumption Day, when Mary became divine, or something.

Another great day. This morning we watched Akpene (the domestique) deal with her chickens that she brought. In the picture with this email, notice how she is stooped over. She stayed that way for sooooo long, it was amazing. And then she stands, and doesn’t even get dizzy. She is getting a kick out of how much fun we are having watching her do her work. Today Cate once again explained how the salad spinner works, and she was fascinated (but most probably also thinking about how stupid this is) with how it worked, and spun off all the water.

Then we had our French lesson. Good pictures to send from that also. Innocent (the teacher’s name) is a great teacher, very patient, and lots of fun, while being very serious about us learning enough to get by while we are here. He would teach us a little something about greetings, etc, and then he’d walk down the hall and clap. That was the signal that he was at our front door. Then we would welcome him—“entrée”—and then we would each (Julianna, Dustin and I) practice the phrases that we just learned. Welcome to our home. Nice to meet you. My name is________, what is yours. I am from America, where do you live. What do you call ________ in French. I am _____ old, how old are you. Etc. He is Cate and Wayne’s best friend here, and is wonderful.

Then we went to lunch at the best hotel around,which is in another village about 7-8 kilometers from here. The man that took us had planned this for a long time, and it was really nice. Don’t think of the Westlake Hyatt or anything, but, for Togo, it was great. We had salad, eating some of the items, a great main course of Dorado (a fish), with the entire fish served on the plate), with cous-cous and french fries. Fruit cup for dessert. We are eating really quite well, and we just talked at dinner tonight about how wonderful it is to be eating here, with C & W, not having to worry about eating. This man invited his daughter (19) along with the obvious intention of us helping to find a way for her to go to the US to study in a college. Cate and Wayne have also been working with him on some projects, so I “brought along some money to give him to use for helping young women start in new businesses. Possibly $5-10 each, as loans. Actually, it is their money, but they are not supposed to fund as PC volunteers, so we arranged to have it this way.

We are leaving for the concert. Gotta go.