Benin himself Mr. Yayi Boni. At the ceremony Meeusen will be sworn in along with other volunteers for that region.

Meeuwsen has already found out where she will be spending the next two years of her life, after she is done with her training she will be sent to the little village called Bouniakou in the Burgou region. Her task will be doing agribusiness work with a product called moringa. A nearby town Zhich, is constructing a library and Meeuwsen is expected to travel between towns to help with that project as well. Her village is about 40 km (24.8 mi) from the nearest big city Parakou, which she will visit frequently to check her mail, use the Internet, and check in with the Peace Corps work station.

Meeuwsen is known as a small enterprise development (SED) volunteer. Her duties are to organize and oversee projects with locals doing much of the work.

It's not all work at her training station her group took a trip to Ouidah which is like the Voodoo capital of Benin.  She got to wear a python snake around her neck and travel to the sacred forest and make a wish on the sacred tree.

On Wednesday Meeuwsen went to visit a traditional local medicine clinic where they grind up leaves, root, fruit, flowers, whatever other plant parts there are and have a traditional healer make it into medicine.While she was there paying strict attention and thinking that the healer may actually be helping people their tour guide mentioned "Oh by the way our founder Philibert Dossou-Yovo has found the cure for AIDS." Describing the proof the tour guide noted that a man had come to Dossou-Yove only 10 months prior with AIDS and now is cured. He also stated that the World Health Organization offered Dossou-Yovo 500 billion dollars for the cure but could not promise that his name would appear proudly on every label so Dossou-Yovo refused to make a deal. Apparently fame and fortune were more important to the discoverer of the cure to AIDS that he withheld the benefit of his great finding from the rest of the world.
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August 17, 2008
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MEEUWSEN TO ADDRESS PRESIDENT OF BENIN
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             hristine Meeuwsen has hardly been gone long enough for the people to sober up after attending her going away party, yet she has charmed the local established leadership of the Peace Corps in Benin Africa enough to allow her to speak at a gathering hosted by them recognizing their presence in the area for the past 40 years. Not only will Meeuwsen be speaking but
she will give her speech in the native language of Bariba which she will have to learn before September when the celebration is planned.

Attending the affair will be dignitaries from both Benin and the Peace Corps most notably the President of
Christeen Meeuwsen
By this time Meeuwsen had begun to become suspicious about the medicine clinic and her fears were confirmed when she happened on a man in the next room, table set up with sea shells and ready to tell you your future for 50c.

The excitement just keeps coming for Christine and she still looks forward to every day with a new experience. Soon she will be visiting her new village and promises to let us know how it's going on a regular basis.

If you would like to drop her a line her address is:
Christine Meeuwsen
Corps de la Paix
01 BP 971 Cotonou
Benin (West Africa)

She also has a cell phone but the information about her number is a bit vague concerning the local exchange.  We will pass that on when we have the correct information.

SOBIECK LAMENTS LOSS OF DOMESTIC HELPERS
For at least two years now Eileen Trixie Sobieck has been depending on help provided by her son Justin and his girl friend Janel Englebert.
Justin Sobieck gave up his free time willingly to help out his mother by performing cleaning chores and taking care of the landscaping around the hillside mansion located in the upscale section of the Village of Hobart. While Kevin Sobieck Eileen's husband, toiled far from home on construction projects for his job Justin and Janel performed countless cleaning repair and outdoor projects around their domicile without ever asking for 1 penny of reimbursement. The pair always thought that having a roof over their head when it was needed was enough payment for
Above: Justin Sobieck
Below: Janel Englebert
them. 

One week ago Justin and Janel decided that it had been long enough and despite pleas from Eileen for them to stay and continue helping with the mansion decided they were going to cut the cord and try living on their own.

Each went to different homes to live with Justin strangely living at Janel's dads house. It is unknown at this time where Janel is living.

With Justin, Janel, and Brittany all moved out of the Sobieck home Logan "Cougar" Sobieck is the only offspring remaining and therefore has seen a great increase in his workload. Cougar has not complained even though he has added responsibility but one wonders if it will affect his racing results.
That's all the news that is news, see ya.