it didn't matter where i turned 30 so long as i wasn't in the united states when it happened...my vision was to be living in a mountain village in india, dressed in a beautifully ornate and vibrant sari, working with children orphaned by HIV/AIDS...well that's not exactly where i ended up...instead i reached 30 years old living with an family in west africa, dressed in a traditionally vibrant and colorful african outfit, learning french for the first time, and working in the realm of rural community health...not exactly what i had planned but is it really that much different...the week of my 30th birthday was one of the best weeks of my life...and thankfully so since i was having a terrible time adjusting to my new life in benin...everything was completely different from ukraine which was exactly what i wanted but yet no less shocking to my body and mind...i rode to cocotier that monday morning dreading the week of french ahead...i wasn't doing well and we were having our first language interview thursday and site announcements were happening on friday, the very day i turn 30, which made my start to the week more stressful...i tried hard not to think about it but as i walked into my classroom and tiburce greeted me in french i held my breath and said to myself 'ok here we go again'...class started with the usually 20 questions and things started off pretty well...i was answering them with no problems...strange?...my french was flowing very nicely that i became more comfortable speaking it as the time passed...before i realized it, class was over...this can't be happening?...is my french finally coming together?...well see how long this lasts?...
had class again in the afternoon and again speaking wasn't as painful as it was the week before...i was shocked at how different i was speaking...my confidence improved, my frustrations started to ease but still in the back of my mind i was waiting for the bottom to fall out...i hadn't done anything particularly different like studying extra that would cause things to finally come together...but something was working with instead of against me that day...as usual, we ended up at the buvette (bar) with several other trainees toasting to the end of a good day...i announced to everyone that my birthday was on friday and that i would celebrate it at that buvette right after classes...everyone was invited to hang out...
as the week progressed, my french skills improved dramatically ...it seemed that after 3 weeks of struggling things were finally paying off...with this new confidence, my french only got better and of course i started to relax which was helped by my reverse culture shock diminishing...by thursday, i was a bit nervous about my language interview...not to make it worse i didn't open up my notebook to study...my french was flowing all week and even though i was nervous i just took it easy...when it was my turn i just walked right in there and didn't let anything get to me...i walked out straight to my friends saying nothing, showing no expression on my face...they knew i was having a rough time with french (they didn't know however how much of a hard time i was adjusting to benin and my completely new life)...they looked at me with apprehension and someone said, "so?"..."I ROCKED IT!"...i knew as soon as i walked out how i did but i wanted to save my celebrations for when i saw my friends...later that afternoon we received the results of our language interview...i went from novice (please i wouldn't even have called it that...i knew nothing) intermediate low...to celebrate we went to the buvette and drank ourselves silly ; )
two great things happened on friday: 1) i turned 30 and 2) i was about to find out where i would be living for the next two years...all of us trainees met at francophone with peace corps staff...it was an exciting day...feeling magnificent when i woke up that morning, i wasn't worried at all...about 2 weeks before i had an interview with my program director lauren, who had spoken to me about my preference regarding my post: size of community, kind of work, organization or gov't health center, electricity/running water or lack thereof, things like that...during that interview she had given me specifics about my potential post: i already knew that i was headed to a very small village, in which department i was headed, and that my village was on the border of togo with a market in togo...i knew my work could included HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health and that because my number one priority was a small village there would be no NGO to work with...i was cool with everything she had told me...all that was left was the name and location of my future home...each sector (health, environment, business and TEFL) was split up and in alphabetically order called to their respective program director for a private post announcement interview...unfortunately i was second to last so i had a long wait watching my sector mates coming back with shocked, excited, confused looks...although i wasn't nervous about my announcement i was anxious to know where i was going...and since it was my birthday i had tons of people distracting me with birthday wishes and little gifts like cookies and beer...when i was finally called i walked in ready to hear it all...what i didn't expect was lauren handing me a huge homemade chocolate cake with chocolate frosting on top for my birthday...that was totally awesome and really thoughtful...so after getting over the shock of birthday cake she tells me where i'm going...nothing had changed: i was still going to the same region, same health center that she had in mind, in a small village in the northwest region of benin on the border of togo (which i can walk to, sweet!)...here i come madjatom!...
to be continued...
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