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!