These are yams! They are the size of a cat.

This is back at my homestay in Porto Novo. This is the lady we call Teetee (like Aunty).

I decided it might be nice to have some descriptions to go along with these photos! This first one is of Ed and his workcounterpart, Vincent at Vincent's house on New Years day.

This especially large photo is of us with Vincent and his wife in their backyard.Ed's also wearing his outfit from swear-in (they chose that tissue because of the spider web-type things all over it).

The following are photos from the yearly cotton harvest in Kpakpa. Each farmer's cotton is in a pile and  gets put into a large truck to be taken and weighed. That big building in the back is the beginnings of the Catholic church--not sure how long it's been like that. This year, one of Vincents relatives accidentally set fire to his cotton harvest. Three little boys were hanging out at the cotton and one fell asleep--the other two decided that it would be funny if they lit a match and put it on his feet to wake him up--and I suppose it was funny....until the little boy woke up and in his panic, threw the burning match into the cotton pile thus setting it ablaze. We were in the house and saw what appeared to be the entire population of Kpakpa screaming and running towards the Catholic church. The next day, we learned that they were all going to put the fire out. Vincent didn't lose much of his harvest since everyone was nearby to help--but I'm pretty sure the little boys are grounded for life :)

They let us stand on the cotton! I'm on my way home from the health center, thus the blue outfit.

These are horribly out of order! This is a picture from our homestay in Porto Novo during the three months of training. MamiNo (the older lady) took us out to eat at this pork restaurant a village over. It was pretty tasty.

Pictures from pork place! That white mass is acasa--kind of like flour and water that hardened into a jello-like consistency. It's sold in leaves on the street and I am quite fond of it.

Picture of all our bikes at the training site.

This is some Beninese street food. This costs around 45 cents and is white rice, a bean that looks like a chickpea but is not (I don't think we have it in the states), a spicy tomato sauce and a sprinkling of gari (manioc flour). Pretty tasty also.

Our first baby weighing! All the health trainees accompanied a current volunteer to a village to help her with a baby weighing. Some babies were happier than others to be weighed..and some of them peed in the little weighing bag.

This is from the trainee's trip to Ouidah in the south along the coast. We visited a snake temple which had lots of...snakes. These were very docile dudes so you could wear them around the neck.

Remember how we ate the head of a bush rat when we first visited our village? Well this is a bush rat head still on the body at Songhai. They raise them there. I think he is pretty cute.

Pictures of the new house. It's concrete and huge. This is the living room area.

This is my gas stove while I am attempting to make yam fries for the first time.

Kitchen!

Ed unloading our gifts from a visit to the neighboring village of Zakmounadon. We got oranges, grapefruit, bananas, yams, and even a live chicken!

These are two fellow Collines Region volunteers at a restaurant we frequent on market days in Glazoue. The lady that owns the place just finished making this goat for a party and took it out to show us. It's actually a goat with a rabbit kneeling at its feet. 

Awesome. Those are tomatoes and onions toothpicked on for decoration...and a bow around it's neck I believe.

Here's Innocent, one of the nurse's assistants at the health center teaching me how to grate tomatoes on a stove to make sauce.

They were teaching me to cook Beninise-style. 

Ed and Sac a Dos when she was just a little kitten!

A slightly bigger Sac a Dos looking out our screen door at one of the goats that frequents our porch.

This is my work counterpart, Aaron in the pharmacy at the health center.

Health Center.

This is the hospitalization room at the health center. There are bed nets above the beds.

This is our house...it's huge and looks to be about the same size as the health center (though it is a little smaller)

Girls going towards the water pump to fill up.

Baby goats!

That's me on the back of Vincent's motorcycle waiting for Ed to take a picture of the Kpakpa-Agbagoule high school for our IST presentation....apparently I also got my photo taken. 

Ed got these fish as a gift from the Nigerien fishermen that live in the brush out by the river. I tried to fry them and they all stared up at me almost the entire time.