My Peace Corps
My name is Erika Kraus, a 23-year-old Kansan on her first long-term stint overseas. I joined the Peace Corps in July, 2005, and have been pleased with the decision ever since. My two years are scheduled to end in September, 2007. In general, I read and write a lot, and love to play sports of any kind. Serving as an Environmental Action Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin, West Africa suits me very well. If I consider being a Peace Corps Volunteer's job as learning to live in a new culture, I can say that I work all the time.
More about this RegionWhere am I?
- Country
- Benin
- What you do
- Environmental Action Peace Corps Volunteer: Well, I talk a lot, and hang out on my porch. As far as true work goes, I go to the garden and help plant and weed and harvest lettuce and carrots and peppers. I also help in the tree nursery. I go to the schools once a week to give a lesson in environmental education. I help when people ask me to, such as on the computers or at the small local library. I visit my friends and play with kids and try to do as much as possible.
- What inspired you to join Peace Corps
- When my older sister entered high school, she told me about studying abroad and I became fascinated. In college I studied Biology and French, and because there aren't too many professions combining the two, I joined the Peace Corps to use both degrees at once while gaining work experience. Most importantly, I joined so that I could live and learn in another culture like what my sister had described to me.
- People you've met there
- Other Americans as Peace Corps Volunteers and as ex-patriots, Japanese, French, Canadian, and German Volunteers, and just about everyone in my town in Benin, mostly all of them wonderful.
- One thing learned so far
- One thing? I have learned a lot about myself, what I like to do and don't like to do, what I am better at doing compared to things that I am not as good at doing. But I have also learned, and am continually learning, that saying hello and paying attention to a person are the surest ways to be happy and make other people happy, as cliché as that might sound.
What am I doing?
- Favorite New Meal
- Anytime "la pate," or boiled corn flour, is made by a friend and we eat together, it's my favorite. My favorite sauces to accompany "la pate" are tomato, palm oil, and/or spinach sauces.
- Food you miss the most
- Kansas beef burgers, with lots of cheese. And a glass of cold milk. Really this question encourages too large of an answer like the "one thing I have learned" question listed above. I have learned a lot and I miss a lot of food.
- Strangest thing you have eaten
- Cow's foot, and maybe fish heads too, though I don't consider those too strange anymore.
- Favorite new thing
- I really like riding on motos, crossing rivers in dugout canoes, and napping on my porch every afternoon after lunch.
- What you miss the most
- Libraries and reliable internet and my own means of transportation other than a bike.
- Biggest surprise
- Every member of my immediate family has come to visit me.
- Pets
- Two dogs, two toads (one named Poison Arrow Dart), a frog, and a Senegalese Kingfisher named George. There are many bats and squirrels and rats, but the dogs, toads, and birds are the only ones I really like to keep.
- Transportation
- A really sweet bike.
- Travel plans
- Well, if I am talking about this month, that includes Cotonou only, the capital of Benin. If I speak of hopes and dreams, I could just start listing the world. I would really like to see Greece, and the Amazon, definitely Madagascar, and a few islands in the Caribbean.
- Clothes
- The most comfortable outfit in Benin is two meters of material wrapped around my body like a towel. It's perfect, and as long as I don't have to leave the house, it's also entirely decent. To leave the house, I just add a t-shirt so that my shoulders are covered.
- Most essential thing you brought from home
- Running shoes, my computer even though it's old, and a copy of Pride and Prejudice.
- Best thing you've received in a care package
- When I used to get care packages, everything was the best thing. One time I was sent an excellent book, and 'Cheese-its'' were eaten within the day. Peanut butter.
- Worst...
- I accept anything without complaining. My truest joy comes when the post office guardian tells me something has arrived with my name on it.
My Interests
- General
- Everything - playing sports, reading books, writing, lately playing UNO has become a constant.
- Music
- Everything - I really like dancing to Shakira.
- Movies
- I haven't been able to watch too many lately, but I don't handle the genre of "scary" very well.
- Books
- Just about everything. I can be kind of snotty about which books I like after having read them, but I will read almost anything that gives a decent first impression. I really like classics, and have read "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen about ten times. I just read Edgar Allen Poe's "The Masque of Red Death" and only now really appreciate him.
Before Peace Corps
- About me in high school
- My high school, located amidst a pasture, enrolled students from three towns, but my graduating class had only 92 students. I was always with some sports team - cross country, basketball, track, and softball in the summers. I liked high school well enough, but was kind of shy.
- About me in college
- I went to college at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, and studied Biology and French. I really liked college, and met many people I enjoyed. I didn't memorize and learn everything I should have, but I did learn how to ask questions and find answers. Through work-study, I was a water-girl/ball carrier for the college's football team, and I have t-shirts to prove it. I can't say that I was shy in college.
