Over

When I finish my service on October 2nd, I'll have spent 1146 days in Benin.

One sentence summary: I failed to end poverty, but I'm glad I did it, even with all the bullshit from OMS.

Coming Home, Eventually

I'll be back in Dallas sometime around October 31st, give or take a week.

Best Text Message Ever

This was sent to my phone recently:

Good morning, please show up to work on time. Message from the Ministry of Administrative and Institutional Reform.

I totally did.

Unexpected

I was sitting in a restaurant in Cotonou when this Chinese woman outside was going from person to person and chatting them up. It looked like she was panhandling, but I figured there was no way there'd ever be a Chinese woman begging in the streets in West Africa.

But then when I came back a few weeks later she was wandering around the neighborhood near the Peace Corps bureau. When I got near her she walked up to me and asked, in perfect English, "Excuse me sir, do you speak English?"

"Yes."

"So, I was wondering if you could please offer me a financial assistance."

I didn't, at the time thinking that, how did she even get here in the first place, and also, why does someone who speaks fluent English not have a job here? Though it was later proposed to me that she was exiled here.