Kalale

So, I just moved to Kalale. I love it. Im at the workstation in Parakou right now, taking a couple "mental health days" - I don't feel as though my mental health is in the balance, but it was my post mate's (there's another volunteer in my village) birthday and she was coming here to celebrate. On top of that, Terebessy (pretty much my PC BFF) was coming to town, and he lives so far I had to come when he was.
Kalale is so far so good. I don't have any mice and few cockroaches, a couple lizards and a ton of spiders. I'm worried when the season changes I'm going to get mice. I bought a cat yesterday (in the "Meat" section of the market), it's a kitten right now. We have these things call PCVLs (PC Vol Leaders) and the new one for the Parakou work station is named Dave and he's a red head with short hair, and since my cat is orange and white, we decided almost immediately that it looked like Dave. So, that's my cat's name David Patrick Cowell II (aka Dave).
There's a phenomena in Kalale that we like to call "Street Meat" - it's not road kill, much more delicious. Guys set up big bbq pits and roast whole chickens and sheep and you can find a couple of these in every village. Unfortunately, some villages don't have safe street meat - but Kalale is not one of those villages. You can buy a whole chicken for $3 US and it tastes like publix rotisserie. DELICIOUS! So on Market day (thursday), I get together with my post mate Loren and we search for the most delectable street meat (meaning deciding between the beninese guy or the nigerian guy across the street... I prefer beninese, she likes nigerian) and chow down on chicken and large cold cokes. I pretty much love Thursdays. It's my favorite day of the week. Last thursday, we had omlette sandwiches for breakfast ($0.75), then chicken for lunch. That's what you call here a "Mama and baby day"... you get pretty jaded to the fact that they were once living just because it's the most delicious and nutritional food you could hope to find in country.
Today I'm on vacation though, so I'm deciding now if I'm having a burger or pizza for dinner... It's a little pricey, but when you live in the bush, money doesn't get spent any other way. And I'm certainly not going to live without any luxury here just to save up the $100 that we get paid per month. So, I'm treating myself - to a cheeseburger or a pizza... hmm...
I'm setting up people to hang out with on my birthday so I wont be all alone in village. :) Not that it's that big of a deal, but any reason is a reason to celebrate in PC Benin.
Well, I've got a cat sleeping on my stomach and date with Angee (a good friend who lives not far from Parakou) for an omlette sandwich and a coke.
:)