Taking the good with the bad

I've got a little free access time so I might as well take advantage of it. More on why I have free access later. Training is going OK. Fairly intense without much time for anything else. There have been a few distractions and deviations from the norm though.
The first distraction was a trip to Grand-Popo, the resort area of Benin. It was fairly deserted because this is the off-season for travel to West Africa. We are in one of two annual wet seasons for this area. It doesn't actually rain very often but it is usually overcast and, thankfully, a bit cooler than the rest of the year. The trip made for the first time in a bush taxi for most of us. This in itself was a deviation from the norm. There were fourteen of us trainees, or stagieres, plus a volunteer in two taxis. With, of course, the two drivers as well. The two cars that were used should have seated 12 people total. If you studied your math in high school you know that the two cars held 17 total. This obviously did not make for a comfortable ride. It is fortunate that we all get along with each other here. About halfway throught the two hour trip the taxi I was in pulls over with no explanation from the driver. The driver gets out, inspects the front right wheel then asks myself and Ly to get out of the car. We were seated in the front and he had to get to the tool box under the seat. When we got out I noticed the problem. The wheel had nuts on only three of four lugs and they were all loose. As the driver retightened the nuts I walked around the car and found the same condition on all the wheels. After fixing the problem we continued on without incident for the rest of the journey and had no such problems on the return journey the next day. The time in Grtand-Popo did make for a great distraction from the routine of Azove. Sitting on the beach, playing frisbee and softball with local children and going out that night was very relaxing. You will notice that I did not say that we went swimming. That's because it is not possible. The waves are tremendously large all day regardless of the tide and there is a very strong ripcurrent that is almost impossible to stand against in water only thigh high. Before we left we were told to be extrememly careful and informed of a volunteer who got a dislocated shoulder merely by getting hit by a wave. After getting hit by a few of them myself I can believe the story.
Another distraction was being told our posts early. We were originally told that we wouldn't know our posts until week five. We were informed of them earlier this week, week four. After training, I will be posted to Ketou (K2). It is in the southeast portion of Benin near the border with Nigeria. I will be working with a group of local artisans to help them better run their businesses. This will involve teaching basic bookkeeping and accounting skills initially and then going onto cost control methods as time allows. The other aspect of the post is working with the local CLCAM (agricultural credit union cooperations) to build a database to allow them to better track clients payments, or lack thereof, and become more efficient. I am very happy to have gotten both of these projects. They appear to fit extremely well with what I had in mind with being able to help out here. We were also informed of where we would be going for tech live-in. Tech live-in involves living witha apresent volunteer for several days to get some exposure to the life of a volunteer. I was told I would be going to Tangieta, a small city in the far north of Benin. I read my Rough Guide about the area and was looking forward to going. There are mountains, as opposed to the very flat terrain in the south, and, although it gets hotter in the north than the south, it is the cool season there so it is very comfortable there now.
Now the bad part of the early post notice and why I have free access time. I am writing from the medical unit of the Peace Corps office in Cotonou. We have had several people in our group get sick, as was expected, from unclean water or food or excessive heat or some other adaptation that didn't go well initially. However, it should come to no ones surprise that yours truly has received the first serious injury of the group. After being told of our posts we decided to celebrate with a game of Ultimate. We were able to involve some of the local children and our Beninese teachers who had never seen the game. It was a lot of fun and went a long way toward helping us to get established in the community. During the game I banged heads with a volunteer who has been here for about a year. She is one of our teachers for a week or two as well. She is fine and back to work now never having suffered any adverse effects. I, however, have not been so lucky, of course. I received a small cut over my right eye; very small, no stitches and the bleeding stopped on its own in just a few minutes. I got a headache shortly thereafter and woke up in the middle of the night with extreme dizziness, nausea and an even bigger headache. I somehow got myself to Ecobank (where we have classes) and informed Jason (a volunteer teacher) that I could not depart for tech live-in in my present condition. A ride was arranged for me to get to the doctors here in Cotonou and everybody else went off for their live-in. Upon arriving at the medical unit, after a ride that did nopt help my condition at well, I was examined by the PC doctor who immediatly called a neurologist to come and examin me as well. I was diagnosed with edema. It seems that when I hit my head my brain bounced off my cranium and swelled up, imagine that. I got a CAT scan the next day to confirm the diagnosis. The prescription was to take it easy for a few days while by brain returned to normal size and stay in the medical unit in case any complications arose. My brain is normal again, no complications arose and I am leaving tomorrow. I spoke with Jacques, the APCD for my section, and I will be probably go to a different city for the rest of the week to get at least some portion of a tech live-in. It would take the whole day to drive to Tanguieta, my original destination, leaving only enough time to stay the night before I would have to return to Azove on Saturday.
That's it for now. I'll get back whenever I can. C'est Afrique.