Hello All!

I'm going to attempt a new way to post this, via email, lets see if it works.

So first update, when sending mail, make sure you write par avon and air mail on the package. Also there was a slight change to the address. It should look like this

Emily L. Faber, Peace corps volunteer
corps de la paix
B.P. 971
Cotonou, Benin
Afrique de l'Ouest

also, even if you are sending a normal letter it must by in a small padded envlope otherwise it wont make it here.

Enough of the borning stuff. Where should I start. getting to Philly to leave was quite an adventure. the morning of we found out that my backpack had a factory default rip in it that we didn't see before and i had to get a new one. so we made a quick/stressful trip to REI to get a new pack. they didnt have the same one I did so I ended up with a compleatly new pack. It actulaly worked out for the better. My new one is much nicer and bigger! I ended up gettign to staging about 5 min. before registration was closed. Few!

The next few days we spent in Philly doing paper work, getting shots, and meeting each other. there are 59 people in my staging class.

The flight here was long, but an uneventful flight. I had a slight scare at the Philly airport b/c they said that I didnt check in, even though i had and i had the tickets in my hand. It turned out that they had registered an Emily Farber and an Emily Faber.

Our accomidations in Benin are very nice. We have had lots of housekeeping things to do here. The most exiciting was Zemi training. Zemis are a cross between motorcylces and mopheads and taxies. That all equals crazy driving!!! Here you take Zemis almost everwhere you need to go. Often you see whole families riding on one. This means a toodler, man, and women with a baby tied to her back. The roads are all two lanes but there are no such things as visible lanes. It's a true deffinition of orgainized chaos. At least we get issued a helmit!
Today was my first day walking through one of the markets. There is lots of brightly colored tissue (fabric) and veggies. As you walk past each stand you are greated "Bonjour" which is sometimes hard to hear over top of the cluching chickens that are kept in large baskets on the side. If you are not intersted in veggies you can follow your nose to the nearby stand where there is rosted chicken and mutton for sale. Through out the city you smell roasting meet, sewage, and gas emmisions.

Tonight I get a picture of my host family. I'm exicited to "meet" them. Tomorrow we all get droped off at our staging sites. For the next few weeks i will be craming my head with lots of french! Wish me luck!

Today was my first day walking through one of the markets. There is lots of brightly colored tissue (fabric) and veggies. As you walk past each stand you are greated "Bonjour" which is sometimes hard to hear over top of the cluching chickens that are kept in large baskets on the side. If you are not intersted in veggies you can follow your nose to the nearby stand where there is rosted chicken and mutton for sale. Through out the city you smell roasting meet, sewage, and gas emmisions.

Tonight I get a picture of my host family. I'm exicited to "meet" them. Tomorrow we all get droped off at our staging sites. For the next few weeks i will be craming my head with lots of french! Wish me luck!

The misquetos arent too bad. I only have a few bites, knock on wood. Hopefully it stays that way!

Thats all i have for now, im sure ill have more to write soon. As soon as i can get to a computer again.

Much love,
Emily