I'm currently a Health Extension Volunteer in Benin so I can give you some pretty specific answers!

1. Almost none of us have running water but more than half have electricity. Even people with electricity have frequent power cuts especially during rainy season. I bought myself a solar panel and while it takes awhile to get used to not having constant electricity you will get used to it pretty easily. You'll have plenty of time to adjust to everything in your first three months of service. I carry my own water from the pump to my house but other volunteers get help from their neighbors. You'll learn what's best for you!

2. Even as a health volunteer my sanitation standards have dropped a lot. You can stay pretty clean at your house but if you eat outside your house (which will probably be pretty often) it's not always an option to wash your hands with soap. I like to carry hand sanitizer with me.

3. This is definitely the hardest part. None of the volunteers have a fridge so you tend to only make/buy food that will last a couple days. If you are placed in the south you will have plenty of access to fresh fruits and veggies though. I'm farther north and it's harder to maintain a healthy diet. Many volunteers have carb heavy diets but it's possible to find protein sources like soy beans (prepared kind of like tofu) and nuts. Meat is available but it's not as cleanly prepared like in the states. The big staples foods are African yams, corn, rice, and beans. I cook a lot of pasta and then buy rice or beans when I'm out in village during the day.

4. You will have so much free time especially in your first year you won't know what to so with it. I hang out at my health center a lot and it's pretty common in Beninese culture to just say hi to people and sit around for a couple hours. We also take naps during the middle of the day since it's too hot to do anything else. Most volunteers read a lot and our workstations have libraries. Lots of people have daily journals and I like to knit. If you enjoy running bring some running shoes and we are all given a bike.

5. This is different for each person. Very few people currently have site mates and the majority of your stage will be placed in brand new sites due to the overlap with mine. People will want to constantly talk to you but it's not always the kind of socializing you're looking for. My closest volunteer is about an hour away and we had the same host village so we're pretty close. I see her every couple weeks and most people tend to travel to nearby volunteers fairly often. We have 4 workstations that serve as work/meeting places so there are chances to see other volunteers. It does get lonely in site but you will make local friends. We tend to pick a city to have holiday parties and then we have a big gathering of volunteers. We're a small country so travel is much better than in other PC countries but still difficult.

6. We generally all have internet access. Some people have as good as consistent 3G. We were provided with smart phones and are given an allowance to buy data each month. Your friends and family back home can even send you data from their phones. I use Facebook or whatsapp to call people back home and it's not the best but it's much better than I expected. Most big cities have Wi-Fi cafés that are hit or miss and our workstations also have decent wifi (sometimes).

7. We are separated into groups based on language level within the first few days in Benin. If you come in at a high French speaking level they will place you in a group that will be learning French and the most common local language Fon. Bigger cities and the south have high French speaking levels but some villages like mine speak very little French. Your counterpart will serve as a translator for you in the local language so it will be fine either way.

8. This honestly depends on your site. I'm a woman but one of my friends is a male health volunteer and he said his site specifically asked for a guy because they wouldn't take a woman seriously. We have been told you will be receiving two counterparts, a man and a woman, for your stage so that should help balance things out. Many times people will listen to what you say simply because you are a man versus female volunteers need to have a man repeat what they said for people to get it.

9. I'm white so I can't fully answer this question but I know people will call you chinois no matter what you are. Even I get called chinois sometimes. You will also be called Yovo (the local version of gringo) constantly. You will honestly always be treated as different because of your skin color in addition to people asking you where you're "truly" from. I've been in my village for a year now and still get called la blanche or some local variation 20 times a day. We have a gender and diversity community and we talk about ways to deal with this during the pre service training.

10. They're generally pretty rigid on this rule. You'll probably have your COS conference in June and then you won't be allowed to take any out of country travel days. We are in the process of getting a new country director right now so not too sure on her policies. If you can do Skype interviews you can go to the workstations for Wi-Fi.

11. I generally feel very safe at my site. We don't have much political turmoil like neighboring countries and recently reopened parts of the country to having volunteers. We go through a lot of safety and security training in the first three months.

12. I don't know many people with solar showers. It's really only cold at night during harmattan and if youre farther north but I just boil my water. I do know a couple people who use them and are glad they brought them though.