My Most Productive Day in Bohicon

Today was a very exciting and inspiring day.  Most days I go in to work, I discuss my progress on projects that I’m working on for Bohicon (i.e. girls camp, nutritional recuperation workshops, etc) but today I actually made something concrete happen at work.  I went into work today, expecting it to be like any other day, which it started out as.  We discussed when we could go together to the school where we want to do the girls’ camp this summer and discussed menu items for the girls’ camp and then with one remark, the tides changed. 

My supervisor mentioned that Matthieu, (a politician, NGO owner, volunteer host-er, and Moringa farmer) didn’t show up for his appointment with my CPS to do his Moringa sensibilisation so that we could start selling his Moringa (he wont’ start selling it to us until he knows that everyone is properly trained on how to teach people about it) to people in need after telling his Peace Corps volunteer and our postmate, Katie, that he did.  This was the billionth time that we have tried to make this happen and that was the last go-around that we were willing to try.

Side note: For those of you who have not received my Moringa explanation, it is a small tree that grows everywhere here that has more vitamins, protein, and all-around nutrients (when it is dried and processed) than any other thing known on Earth and it just so happens to grow in almost all the places where malnutrition is an issue.  The problem is, not many people know about these great benefits so it’s quite possible for someone to have a Moringa tree in their backyard their whole life and never take advantage of it.  Since malnutrition is my primary project with my CPS, Moringa naturally is a huge part of my efforts. 

So I got on the phone to Patrick, another volunteer in Parakou whose central project is Moringa, and asked him if we could set up some sort of partnership so we can get Moringa sent down every two weeks or so.  He informed me that there was a huge Moringa farmer, Isador, right here in Bohicon and sent me his contact information.  This was very uplifting because before that phone call, we thought Matthieu was the only Moringa farmer in the Bohicon area. 

I called Isador and did the proper introduction and explanation of why I was calling and an hour later, a woman who works with him arrived at my CPS with all the sizes of bottled Moringa powder that he sells.  Luckily, I asked the prices on the phone before the woman got there and had time to call Patrick and ask him why this guy’s prices were so much higher than the Moringa Association’s, of which he is a part.  There was no clear reason why he was charging more down in Bohicon other than to just make more money.  So when the lady came with her over-priced bottles of Moringa powder, I spent about 20 minutes negotiating with her, then on the phone with Isador, and got our current and future purchases down to the normal price. 

After all the negotiations were said and done, we had 2 liters of Moringa powder for $6 to test the market with and a promise from Isador to come by and formally introduce himself when he is back in town.  I left with the wonderful satisfaction to have gotten a project that I had been working on for months off the ground all on my own without the help or local language translation of my supervisor or anyone else.  It may not seem like a very challenging task, but here, to get anything off of the ground is a huge feat and to do it by oneself is all the more gratifying.  This was a very productive day in moving forward. 

P.S.  Thank you Dad and Vashti and the Wiricks for all the care packages!  Love you guys! 

New Stuff

I tried to take advantage of the free internet here in Parakou and add a few things to our blog here. There are links at the top (under the banner) for two new pages that I created. One is a Google Map to track where we have been and where we will be going during our travels. The second is an entire page dedicated to a mélange of photos that we have taken. The bulk of our photos are still on Facebook for those to see who have accounts there. The first set of pictures are from the Fête de la Gani in Nikki. There were a lot of Peul (or Fulani) people at the celebrations and they let us take lots of pictures of them. Children love to get pictures taken and I posted some of my favorites. We will try to continue to post pictures there that are representative of our activities here.

Until next time...

Cheers.

Fête de la Gaani

This weekend we traveled northeast to Parakou, then east to Nikki to attend the Fête de la Gaani, a traditional Bariba celebration that lasts for about a week in the dusty town of Nikki, the capital of the Bariba kingdom, which traditionally spans the north of Benin and into Nigeria and Niger. They are renowned as expert horsemen, and during the celebration, the Bariba kings parade through town on their horses amidst drummers and “race” each other in front of the palace in Nikki (the videos are on Facebook).

This year’s celebration was noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First, Peace Corps had a few booths up during the festival to showcase the PC-started Beninese Moringa Association (ABM), a Shea Butter group that three PC volunteers work with, a Peace Corps 50th Anniversary booth to showcase what we as volunteers do in our communities as well as to search for new work partners, and a Tourism booth to showcase the great tourism sites in the country: Abomey, Grand Popo, Parc Pendjari, Boukoumbe, Parc W, and my archeological park in Bohicon, the Parc Archeologique d’Agongointo. Our mayors were supposed to pay for flyers to be printed but my mayor didn’t, so I had only 3 flyers for people to look at (but was able to get the word out, anyway). Second, our American ambassador was a special guest during the celebrations and got to walk hand-in-hand with the king of Nikki during the main celebration. Third, we were able to show off our booths to not only our ambassador and his staff, but also to our PC staff, including our country director; even though Benin is a small country and we have a small PC and embassy staff, we are a tight little community and it is awesome to show such camaraderie for each other.

After the fete, we returned to the Parakou workstation and we had a town hall meeting with the ambassador and embassy staff for us and other Americans who live in Benin. It was great to meet up with them again and to be able to hear our ambassador speak on issues affecting us here, such as what the embassy does for us, funding issues, safety and security issues, and upcoming elections news.

Tomorrow we head back down south to Bohicon, where we will be for a long while without any traveling, which is great because we miss being at home! Heather will go to Cotonou soon for a medical check-up but other than that, we will be staying put until at least April when I come back to Parakou for another training (and Heather heads to Cotonou for a training in May). We are sad that this big block of traveling is over because we love seeing other parts of the country but we will be happy to get home to our wonderful neighborhood and out of the dust. It’s time to focus on our projects and really get some work done.

A bientôt.

Cheers.

Cultural Exchange: Cutting My Own Hair

I used to cut my own hair at home, and so when I came to Benin I brought my own clippers with me, which worked pretty well until the voltage difference finally killed them back in September—two months into my service. There is a barber at the end of our street who I have been to a few times, but I always return home unsatisfied because my 16-year old friend has no prior experience with Yovo hair. Today I wanted to try something different.

I was thinking about going native and just growing out my hair and beard but we’re in the hot season—the chaleur—and there’s no way that I can survive the heat with long (for me) hair and a beard. I walked down to the barber in the afternoon when I had a feeling it would be slow and the electricity would be on, and asked him if I paid him for a haircut, could I just do it myself? He was surprised, but said ok, and prepared the clippers for me. I told him that he could sit down and watch, and he did. About halfway through, the power went out and a few awkward minutes later, I was able to finish up.

When I was almost done, a few guys came in to get haircuts and I offered to give them haircuts, too, and we jokingly negotiated a price (I could have made 500 cfa!). Pretty soon I had a vrai audience: my young barber, his friend sleeping on the bench inside the shop, and two other guys who came by to get their haircuts. I saw the barber study how I was cutting my hair, so as I cleaned off the clippers after I finished, I told him that next time, he can give it a try.

Haircut: 300 cfa (about 60 cents). Cultural exchange: priceless.

Cheers.

Birthday Weekend

First, to back up a little bit, I had my IST (in-service training) two weeks ago. It went well. I learned a bit about how to request funding for projects, was able to get together with my work partner and formally make a work plan, got to see my fellow volunteers again who live nowhere near us, and I ate a lot of free food. We are hoping to be able to get our girl’s soccer team up and running over the next month at the local private school, and I have a lot of people to meet and monies to ask for to promote my worksite. I’m ever-so-slowly gaining weight back, and as soon as we are back in our normal routine at post (in two weeks), we will be able to work out regularly again so maybe that weight that I gain back will be muscle.

Now on to this weekend. My birthday was on Friday, so we came down to Cotonou on Thursday to celebrate and also to take the State Department Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT). My birthday was basically perfect. We spared ourselves the hot West African sun and humidity by staying inside in the cool air conditioning all day, I was able to get some work done thanks to the lightning-fast internet connection in the workstation, and I ate a lot: buille, pizza, a cheeseburger, german chocolate cake, and ice cream.

On Saturday, we got up early to take the FSOT at the American Cultural Center here in Cotonou. We both took the test last year so we thought we knew what to study and what to expect but the test covers so much general information that it is difficult to study for. Despite the State Department adding an extra essay question on the end, we both are optimistic about our results (we will find out in “3-5 weeks” how we did). After the FSOT, we had a celebratory beer, then went swimming at the Ambassador’s house, played softball with the embassy staff (PC vs Embassy, the Embassy won, 1-0…we want a rematch!), then hung out with the embassy staff afterwards at a local restaurant. I was also fortunate enough to chat with my mom and friends over Facebook and received a birthday phone call from my best bud. Thanks again for all the birthday wishes. I understand that Brian partied enough for both of us this weekend!

Tonight we are going to a Super Bowl party (the game starts at 12:30am), and tomorrow we will try to get a spot in a PC vehicle that is heading north. If not, we will just take an early taxi up.

At the end of next week we will be traveling again, this time up north to Nikki, to work a PC booth at the Gaani Fete to promote PC’s 50th Anniversary and tourism in Benin. After that, we will be home for a while and unable to travel due to upcoming elections, but fortunately we have multiple cyber café’s in our town so we will be able to post updates.

Until then,

Cheers.