{"id":504,"date":"2017-05-13T23:21:46","date_gmt":"2017-05-13T23:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/?p=504"},"modified":"2017-05-13T23:33:16","modified_gmt":"2017-05-13T23:33:16","slug":"leaving-benin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/?p=504","title":{"rendered":"Leaving Benin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Approaching 6 years in Benin, I decided to leave.\u00a0I spent the last few hours before my flight day drinking <em>la\u00a0Beninoise<\/em> at a Rasta bar with Willy.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-505\" src=\"http:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/IMG_20170506_113050.jpg\" alt=\"sdr\" width=\"3968\" height=\"2976\" srcset=\"https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/IMG_20170506_113050.jpg 3968w, https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/IMG_20170506_113050-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/IMG_20170506_113050-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/IMG_20170506_113050-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3968px) 100vw, 3968px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The slogan for <em>la Beninoise<\/em> is &#8220;Plus qu&#8217;une bi\u00e8re, notre bi\u00e8re&#8221; (more than a beer, our beer). Slightly modified, it captures how I was feeling during my first sip. &#8220;More than a country, my country&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>But that feeling is at best\u00a0mawkish and at worst presumptuous. Integration is the <em>raison d&#8217;\u00eatre<\/em> of a Peace Corps volunteer, \u00a0but there is a limit to what is permitted or appropriate. That limit is\u00a0found somewhere in the answer to the\u00a0question:\u00a0How is my\u00a0cultural fluidity &#8211; feeling at home in Benin &#8211; anything more than a function of my\u00a0privilege as a white American?<\/p>\n<p>On my last sip, I was ready to leave, maybe not my country, but a country with many incredible\u00a0people and one incredible\u00a0beer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Approaching 6 years in Benin, I decided to leave.\u00a0I spent the last few hours before my flight day drinking la\u00a0Beninoise at a Rasta bar with Willy. The slogan for la Beninoise is &#8220;Plus qu&#8217;une bi\u00e8re, notre bi\u00e8re&#8221; (more than a beer, our beer). Slightly modified, it captures how I was feeling during my first sip. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":539,"href":"https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions\/539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markhuelsenbeck.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}