It has been a helluva long time since I last posted, but despite the fact that I am pretty sure my parents are the only people still reading it, I thought I would cover some general topics that I have completely forgotten to explain.
I recently just took a video with my camera on the back of a motorcycle taxi in Porto Novo (2nd biggest city in Benin) because this short post will do little to describe the system of transportation I use. Now if only I had an internet connection that could load a video. Ok, moving on. Getting around in Benin can be described as nuts, effin insane, and wild.
Moving from one city to another a PCV has two options: taxi or bus (bus only applies to those who are close to a bus stop). First off, the infrastructure in Benin leaves a little to be desired, therefore one finds potholes riddling the few paved road as if the gods are turning the roads into a cribbage board. This creates a driving system that can only be described as an extremely complicated yet unchoreographed dance resembling leapfrog; cars, buses, and huge semi-trucks zigzagging, weaving, and dodging (right or left side) anything in their way. This is why when I am traveling I mentally check out. I literally become the closest to brain dead a living person can become so as not to become a nervous mess (it is a defense tactic). Furthermore, should I be in an accident my body will be so relaxed I should be able to just bounce off of everything and walk away, right? On a serious note, actually the only time I have ever been afraid or worried for my safety and well-being is when I travel. I will just keep the stories about buses and taxis passing by entering oncoming traffic and then quickly throwing themselves back into the correct lane before a catastrophic accident can occur.
Buses are the only vehicles where you actually get your own seat. If you are in a taxi where one would normally seat 5 people (2 front, 3 back), there are more often then not four in the front and 4-5 in the back, and I am not counting young babies, adolescents, goats, or chickens who sit on the ground, on laps, or on top of the car. The funny thing is that these cars are called cinq place (five place) but they will often place 9 people in there, and the Marche Mamas are not known for their petite stature. They also have neuf place cars, which of course will seat eleven. Since in a bus you get your own seat and they try to prohibit animals (but chickens seem to always get in there) and they are bigger and therefore a bit safer, I try to take them as much as possible. Otherwise one can either go to a taxi station specific to your final destination or go to the side of the paved road (there is one, which splits half way up the country into two paved roads) and wave my hands at passing cars until one decides to stop. If you are not close to the paved road then you travel via the dirt roads. During the dry season, by the time you are done with the voyage on dirt roads you are so covered with orange/red dust you look like an umpalumpa.
Getting from city to city is dependant on taxis or buses but once you get to the city PCVs in Benin are allowed to take motorcycle taxis and yes we are required to wear motorcycle helmets at all times. This is also just as crazy but speeds tend to be slower than on the roads.
The thing to remember is that the rules of the roads are everything is optional. Ohh and the driver must not forget to pay the bribes to the police officers so you don’t get a ticket, since Beninese laws actually do limit the number of people in cars.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Death, Funerals, and Voodoo
As far as universal cultural norms go, ceremonies and rituals for the deceased is one of the most common, what changes from culture to culture is how they do it. During the time that I have lived in my village two elderly people have passed away and just today a 20-year-old young man was laid to rest.
The families of the elderly folks who past away claim that their mother, grandmother, great-grand mother lived in one case to be 114 and the other 94. There was not a ‘birth certificate’ system here until recently and thus it is impossible to know the exact age of either of the women who passed away. All I know is that life expectancy is much shorter here than other places, but I suppose a few can defy the odds. As they were old and families often marry other families in the same village and add to that the fact that people love to have lots of kids, nearly everyone is related to everyone else in my village of ~2000 people. For the elderly the immediate family members are almost obligated to host a party celebrating the life of the person. For one woman, I counted at least 12 different parties. They take place on the weekends and people often dance, drink, and eat for 48hrs straight. The funeral happens on Sunday, preceded by a large procession following the hearse with the casket to the Catholic Church, and afterward the party continues until the early morning of Monday.
The biggest departure from our rituals surrounding death is that while back home we mourn, cry, and tell stories to remember the person, here, they play loud music and dance until exhaustion. Ohh, they also think it is completely bizarre that we cremate the remains of our loved ones.
As Catholicism is becoming the predominate believe system in my village, despite it being fused with aspects of Voodoo, people believe in the biblical version of life after death. Where Voodoo comes in, and not, necessarily in a good way but it makes sense all the less, is the understanding of an unexplainable illness/death.
Yesterday afternoon, an young man of 20 years passed away after traditional medicine failed to cure him. I did not know him personally. Today he was laid to rest and there will not be any parties and no one will be dancing. The funeral resembled much more what we do back home, mourning the loss of the person as opposed to celebrating their life. The reason for a complete lack of celebrations is because this kid had not lived a full life, which is something to mourn rather than celebrate, in the eyes of the residents.
I was told that five days ago this young man began suffering from acute and intense stomach pains and the pain quickly spread to his back and his chest, a high fever, and a painful sensitivity to any pressure applied to his abdominal region. I immediately said that that sounds a lot like appendicitis but as I was told this after the fact, I did not have the opportunity to tell the family that he needs to immediately go to a hospital. This young man’s father is a traditional healer and thus he used plants, prays, and creams to cure his son. Unfortunately, if my gut feeling (no pun intended) is correct and it was a ruptured appendix that quickly poisoned his system nothing can be done other than to get in and remove it. When I ask people why they think he died or what killed him, they are quick to blame gri-gri, or evil Voodoo. Many residents believe that a curse was put on him; for what reason I ask, they say that as his father is a prominent observer of Voodoo practices, perhaps he angered another person and a retaliatory curse was laid on his son.
I have explained my appendicitis theory to a few friends in village and none of them had ever heard of such a disease. I also talked to a guy who was helping with the care of the young man and he said that they did eventually call a doctor, who came out, diagnosed the appendicitis, and then they immediately jumped into a car on route to the local hospital. Unfortunately, the boy died on the way.
The consequences of thinking this was gri-gri probably not only contributed to his death by depending on traditional medicine but it also explains the death away and puts it in a realm where nothing can be done. If this was a curse and they just failed to lift it then there is no accountability on a family who did not take him to a hospital or call a doctor in time even though both are trusted institutions in Benin, no accountability on a government for not educating people in schools about this disease, and because there is no accountability, then nothing will be done. The disease is explained away to a point that absolves anyone of any responsibility and when there is no responsibility there is no reason to change.
Why this all makes sense, too much sense, is that the lack of education means no one knows what appendicitis is, thus they depend on traditional medicine, but they still need a way to explain the death, which is where Voodoo and Gri-Gri come in. The unfortunate thing is that the answer to curses will be found in roots, prayers, and ritualistic bathing, as opposed to a hospital, if people were to see this as a disease.
The families of the elderly folks who past away claim that their mother, grandmother, great-grand mother lived in one case to be 114 and the other 94. There was not a ‘birth certificate’ system here until recently and thus it is impossible to know the exact age of either of the women who passed away. All I know is that life expectancy is much shorter here than other places, but I suppose a few can defy the odds. As they were old and families often marry other families in the same village and add to that the fact that people love to have lots of kids, nearly everyone is related to everyone else in my village of ~2000 people. For the elderly the immediate family members are almost obligated to host a party celebrating the life of the person. For one woman, I counted at least 12 different parties. They take place on the weekends and people often dance, drink, and eat for 48hrs straight. The funeral happens on Sunday, preceded by a large procession following the hearse with the casket to the Catholic Church, and afterward the party continues until the early morning of Monday.
The biggest departure from our rituals surrounding death is that while back home we mourn, cry, and tell stories to remember the person, here, they play loud music and dance until exhaustion. Ohh, they also think it is completely bizarre that we cremate the remains of our loved ones.
As Catholicism is becoming the predominate believe system in my village, despite it being fused with aspects of Voodoo, people believe in the biblical version of life after death. Where Voodoo comes in, and not, necessarily in a good way but it makes sense all the less, is the understanding of an unexplainable illness/death.
Yesterday afternoon, an young man of 20 years passed away after traditional medicine failed to cure him. I did not know him personally. Today he was laid to rest and there will not be any parties and no one will be dancing. The funeral resembled much more what we do back home, mourning the loss of the person as opposed to celebrating their life. The reason for a complete lack of celebrations is because this kid had not lived a full life, which is something to mourn rather than celebrate, in the eyes of the residents.
I was told that five days ago this young man began suffering from acute and intense stomach pains and the pain quickly spread to his back and his chest, a high fever, and a painful sensitivity to any pressure applied to his abdominal region. I immediately said that that sounds a lot like appendicitis but as I was told this after the fact, I did not have the opportunity to tell the family that he needs to immediately go to a hospital. This young man’s father is a traditional healer and thus he used plants, prays, and creams to cure his son. Unfortunately, if my gut feeling (no pun intended) is correct and it was a ruptured appendix that quickly poisoned his system nothing can be done other than to get in and remove it. When I ask people why they think he died or what killed him, they are quick to blame gri-gri, or evil Voodoo. Many residents believe that a curse was put on him; for what reason I ask, they say that as his father is a prominent observer of Voodoo practices, perhaps he angered another person and a retaliatory curse was laid on his son.
I have explained my appendicitis theory to a few friends in village and none of them had ever heard of such a disease. I also talked to a guy who was helping with the care of the young man and he said that they did eventually call a doctor, who came out, diagnosed the appendicitis, and then they immediately jumped into a car on route to the local hospital. Unfortunately, the boy died on the way.
The consequences of thinking this was gri-gri probably not only contributed to his death by depending on traditional medicine but it also explains the death away and puts it in a realm where nothing can be done. If this was a curse and they just failed to lift it then there is no accountability on a family who did not take him to a hospital or call a doctor in time even though both are trusted institutions in Benin, no accountability on a government for not educating people in schools about this disease, and because there is no accountability, then nothing will be done. The disease is explained away to a point that absolves anyone of any responsibility and when there is no responsibility there is no reason to change.
Why this all makes sense, too much sense, is that the lack of education means no one knows what appendicitis is, thus they depend on traditional medicine, but they still need a way to explain the death, which is where Voodoo and Gri-Gri come in. The unfortunate thing is that the answer to curses will be found in roots, prayers, and ritualistic bathing, as opposed to a hospital, if people were to see this as a disease.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Living the Ex-pat life
A large group of volunteers all came to the main office in Cotonou for the weekend for a program and since there was so many of us, PC Staff organized with Expatriates to find us all places to stay. Myself and two others stayed with the Director of the American Cultural Center in Benin, which is the branch of the U.S. Embassy in charge of public diplomancy. They commonly do programs in Benin, support Beninese initiatives, pretty much do anything that provides a positive image of Americans in Benin.
We got off the mototaxi in a neighborhood that I didnt know existed in Benin. I guess there are wealthy people in every country, no matter how poor the country is, but this neighborhood could have been pulled out of Long Island, except for guards and barbed wire. Our host has been working for the US State Department for many years and has thus traveled and lived all over this world. Her house is gorgeous and filled with artisan goods from every corner of the world. But, we only were able to get in after four different sets of keys opened up four different doors. Her place is beautiful and is not only a small fortress but is outfitted with just about anything one could need and a generator the size of some houses in my village, in case the power goes out.
Going up to the second floor there is also a industructable metal baracade, just in case a small army storms the house. In Benin it is not exactly important but in other countries it could come in handy. It would be a lonely life though. She must move every couple of years and few people would be willing to tolerate not also having a job and following their spouse everywhere. Not to mention living so far away. She has a huge house of amazing things, but no one to really share it with. One of the reasons she was so nice to us. She made us amazing food, stuff I have not had since I left. I am for sure going to visit when I am back in Cotonou.
I had an interesting weekend. We went out to a club in Benin, and yes, this was actually a real club with good music and dancing. I probably looked like a moron because the only dancing I have done in the past 7-months is Beninese traditional dancing (the Beninese in village just laugh at me when I try that also), which resembles a more intense version of the chicken dance. Anyways, we had a really good time; it got interesting when we were trying to leave.
A friend of a volunteer, who lives and works in Benin gave us a ride, so we climbed in his car to leave. On the way out we were stopped by the police, keep in mind this is at 4 in the morning, for absolutely no reason other than they just wanted to bother us. They made us all get out of the car and then they asked to see our papers. PCVs never travel with our passport, but we have a PC ID card that is supposed to be sufficient. The cops were not happy and it became clear that they were not going to let us go until we bribed them. The guy who was driving said this is pretty common after midnight. Well, we all speak enough French and probably have developed an unfair confidence since we live alone in rural villages so each volunteer took a different cop and basically 5 different small arguments commenced. We refused to pay them and they refused to let us go, so we needed something to do right. After pretending to arrest the driver, pretending to take his car and drive away (the only moved it down the street), and arguing with us they eventually just let us leave. We were never in any danger and no one ever became threatening, except the guy I was talking to. I think I just pissed him off more than the other PCVs pissed of their officer. They bank on people not being willing to wait out the cops, since if you pay you get to leave right away. They just got sick of arguing with us and they were not prepared to deal with PCVs who really have nothing else to do.
We could have paid the bribe. It would only have been about $10 (the running rate for bribes here) but it is the fact of the matter and we won! One point for stubborn volunteers, zero for jerk corrupt cops.
We got off the mototaxi in a neighborhood that I didnt know existed in Benin. I guess there are wealthy people in every country, no matter how poor the country is, but this neighborhood could have been pulled out of Long Island, except for guards and barbed wire. Our host has been working for the US State Department for many years and has thus traveled and lived all over this world. Her house is gorgeous and filled with artisan goods from every corner of the world. But, we only were able to get in after four different sets of keys opened up four different doors. Her place is beautiful and is not only a small fortress but is outfitted with just about anything one could need and a generator the size of some houses in my village, in case the power goes out.
Going up to the second floor there is also a industructable metal baracade, just in case a small army storms the house. In Benin it is not exactly important but in other countries it could come in handy. It would be a lonely life though. She must move every couple of years and few people would be willing to tolerate not also having a job and following their spouse everywhere. Not to mention living so far away. She has a huge house of amazing things, but no one to really share it with. One of the reasons she was so nice to us. She made us amazing food, stuff I have not had since I left. I am for sure going to visit when I am back in Cotonou.
I had an interesting weekend. We went out to a club in Benin, and yes, this was actually a real club with good music and dancing. I probably looked like a moron because the only dancing I have done in the past 7-months is Beninese traditional dancing (the Beninese in village just laugh at me when I try that also), which resembles a more intense version of the chicken dance. Anyways, we had a really good time; it got interesting when we were trying to leave.
A friend of a volunteer, who lives and works in Benin gave us a ride, so we climbed in his car to leave. On the way out we were stopped by the police, keep in mind this is at 4 in the morning, for absolutely no reason other than they just wanted to bother us. They made us all get out of the car and then they asked to see our papers. PCVs never travel with our passport, but we have a PC ID card that is supposed to be sufficient. The cops were not happy and it became clear that they were not going to let us go until we bribed them. The guy who was driving said this is pretty common after midnight. Well, we all speak enough French and probably have developed an unfair confidence since we live alone in rural villages so each volunteer took a different cop and basically 5 different small arguments commenced. We refused to pay them and they refused to let us go, so we needed something to do right. After pretending to arrest the driver, pretending to take his car and drive away (the only moved it down the street), and arguing with us they eventually just let us leave. We were never in any danger and no one ever became threatening, except the guy I was talking to. I think I just pissed him off more than the other PCVs pissed of their officer. They bank on people not being willing to wait out the cops, since if you pay you get to leave right away. They just got sick of arguing with us and they were not prepared to deal with PCVs who really have nothing else to do.
We could have paid the bribe. It would only have been about $10 (the running rate for bribes here) but it is the fact of the matter and we won! One point for stubborn volunteers, zero for jerk corrupt cops.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
If I was in charge of Peace Corps - Benin
So after being in Benin for seven months and at post for five I have already become an expert in developing a third world country. Just kidding. I realize that I still have a lot to learn, but this whole Peace Corps thing…well, it could be done differently and have a much larger impact. As it exists right now, Peace Corps is more about cultural exchange than anything else. I believe Peace Corps should exist primarily to give the host population the ability to help themselves and cultural exchange will occur regardless. All of my conclusions below are based on that premise. These are my ideas.
1) Get rid of TEFL
TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. These volunteers put in around 15 hours of work a week in a local high school teaching English to the Beninese. To their credit, because these volunteers have the most structured schedule with regular classes, they actually lose the least amount of volunteers due to early termination (quitting). They also can do some impressive side projects outside of the high school because they are automatically connected with a large host structure, the high school. But I ask, what the heck does a Beninese person need to speak English for? I have met people on the street selling these ice cream-like treats out of carts who speak better English than I do French. People here have this belief that if you can speak English you can either get a good job or get out of Benin. I hate to be debbie-downer but neither is likely to happen. Maybe you could get a job as a teacher in Benin, but since the Government doesn’t have any money, they regularly stop paying them, which leads to teacher strikes. A volunteer spending countless hours preparing and giving lessons is a waste and does little to give the Beninese an ability to help themselves.
2) Get rid of EA
EA stands for Environmental Action…yes I think Peace Corps needs to do away with the specific enviro volunteer despite the fact that I am an enviro volunteer. Let me explain. Lets say you struggle to put food on your family’s table, you can’t pay for all of your children to go to school, and you do not have a regular job. Do you really give two shits about the environment? You might say, well, since they are poor their lives literally depend on the environment, and you would be absolutely correct. If the crops fail due to natural causes or poor farming practices, then people die. If the rains don’t come or come to hard (that’s what she said) then people die. Basically, if people depend on their environment and they don’t take care of it then they will have huge problems. I completely agree with that, but specific EA volunteers are overkill. We try to protect the environment or educate in an atmosphere, at least in Benin, where very few people have any choice on changing behaviors to care for their environment. Therefore any behavior change you are really hoping to make needs to be profitable for the person. As you will read in a sec, I am not advocating for a total abolition of the EA volunteer in Benin, just a serious change.
3) Everyone becomes a Health or Small Enterprise Development (SED) Volunteer with an EA volunteer’s education as well.
I believe that the really only effective means of development in Benin right now are small businesses. Benin needs to somehow create small business so that the people can develop some disposable income, create a middle class, and give the government something to tax in order to provide civil services. The biggest problem in Benin is an extreme lack of available credit. Should someone have an idea and they need someone or something to invest in that idea to cover the start up costs, they are pretty much out of luck. Microloan companies can do some amazing things, but they are only appropriate for certain circumstances. I truly believe that too much aid goes to pay for immediate needs or services and while these are important, they do little to advance Beninese society as a whole. I think the most effective avenue for change within the Peace Corps are Small Business Development Volunteers. They work to create small enterprises that put power into the hands of the poorest members of society by connecting them with funding sources, education, and markets. The local population comes with the ideas and the PCV helps to develop them and the business to provide a needed service or product. If this is done well, the business or co-operative will become self-sustaining and provide necessary income to its members years after the PCV. So, I would split the volunteers into half; one group is SED/EA and the other is Health/EA. Sorry TEFL. Since the majority of people in Benin survive with what they take out of the land, I would train all the SED/EA volunteers how to create businesses that try to protect and conserve their natural resources while at the same time profiting off of those natural resources. For example, one could create a tree nursery with a motivated individual by teaching them how to plant trees (EA) and then how to market/sell them (SED). Then this tree nursery could work with local schools, donate trees, and at the same time as working with the students to reforest the area they are providing necessary environmental education (SED/EA).
Health, I believe is equally important because it does address the immediate needs of a society, while SED/EA focuses more on long term needs. Because people live so closely to the land, their health and their environment are directly connected. You can teach someone that they need to drink clean water to prevent diarrhea and potentially deadly dehydration (Health) but if you don’t show them how to filter their water using locally available supplies (EA) then you do little to address the problem. You can tell someone they need to diversify their diet to ensure greater food security and health (Health) but if you don’t teach them how to build a garden, plant vagetables, and prepare them (EA), again you are doing little to address the problem. I would then encourage all Health volunteers to focus on projects that might be able to earn revenue for a motivated individual or group.
In conclusion, every volunteer would either receive the education of a SED or Health volunteer with a few weeks during training dedicated to the environment.
Obviously people have spent years studying development, not to mention writing thousands of pages on the subject. Here, I can do little more but provide my ideas based on my experiences. Peace Corps is a great organization, but I think it could be improved to become more of an agent for change of a society than of the participating volunteer. What other org has a development agent live with the host population for two years? PC really needs to take advantage of the community integration that comes with that kind of time and focus more on small enterprise development and health by marrying it to environmental protection/education. Again, sorry TEFL volunteers.
1) Get rid of TEFL
TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. These volunteers put in around 15 hours of work a week in a local high school teaching English to the Beninese. To their credit, because these volunteers have the most structured schedule with regular classes, they actually lose the least amount of volunteers due to early termination (quitting). They also can do some impressive side projects outside of the high school because they are automatically connected with a large host structure, the high school. But I ask, what the heck does a Beninese person need to speak English for? I have met people on the street selling these ice cream-like treats out of carts who speak better English than I do French. People here have this belief that if you can speak English you can either get a good job or get out of Benin. I hate to be debbie-downer but neither is likely to happen. Maybe you could get a job as a teacher in Benin, but since the Government doesn’t have any money, they regularly stop paying them, which leads to teacher strikes. A volunteer spending countless hours preparing and giving lessons is a waste and does little to give the Beninese an ability to help themselves.
2) Get rid of EA
EA stands for Environmental Action…yes I think Peace Corps needs to do away with the specific enviro volunteer despite the fact that I am an enviro volunteer. Let me explain. Lets say you struggle to put food on your family’s table, you can’t pay for all of your children to go to school, and you do not have a regular job. Do you really give two shits about the environment? You might say, well, since they are poor their lives literally depend on the environment, and you would be absolutely correct. If the crops fail due to natural causes or poor farming practices, then people die. If the rains don’t come or come to hard (that’s what she said) then people die. Basically, if people depend on their environment and they don’t take care of it then they will have huge problems. I completely agree with that, but specific EA volunteers are overkill. We try to protect the environment or educate in an atmosphere, at least in Benin, where very few people have any choice on changing behaviors to care for their environment. Therefore any behavior change you are really hoping to make needs to be profitable for the person. As you will read in a sec, I am not advocating for a total abolition of the EA volunteer in Benin, just a serious change.
3) Everyone becomes a Health or Small Enterprise Development (SED) Volunteer with an EA volunteer’s education as well.
I believe that the really only effective means of development in Benin right now are small businesses. Benin needs to somehow create small business so that the people can develop some disposable income, create a middle class, and give the government something to tax in order to provide civil services. The biggest problem in Benin is an extreme lack of available credit. Should someone have an idea and they need someone or something to invest in that idea to cover the start up costs, they are pretty much out of luck. Microloan companies can do some amazing things, but they are only appropriate for certain circumstances. I truly believe that too much aid goes to pay for immediate needs or services and while these are important, they do little to advance Beninese society as a whole. I think the most effective avenue for change within the Peace Corps are Small Business Development Volunteers. They work to create small enterprises that put power into the hands of the poorest members of society by connecting them with funding sources, education, and markets. The local population comes with the ideas and the PCV helps to develop them and the business to provide a needed service or product. If this is done well, the business or co-operative will become self-sustaining and provide necessary income to its members years after the PCV. So, I would split the volunteers into half; one group is SED/EA and the other is Health/EA. Sorry TEFL. Since the majority of people in Benin survive with what they take out of the land, I would train all the SED/EA volunteers how to create businesses that try to protect and conserve their natural resources while at the same time profiting off of those natural resources. For example, one could create a tree nursery with a motivated individual by teaching them how to plant trees (EA) and then how to market/sell them (SED). Then this tree nursery could work with local schools, donate trees, and at the same time as working with the students to reforest the area they are providing necessary environmental education (SED/EA).
Health, I believe is equally important because it does address the immediate needs of a society, while SED/EA focuses more on long term needs. Because people live so closely to the land, their health and their environment are directly connected. You can teach someone that they need to drink clean water to prevent diarrhea and potentially deadly dehydration (Health) but if you don’t show them how to filter their water using locally available supplies (EA) then you do little to address the problem. You can tell someone they need to diversify their diet to ensure greater food security and health (Health) but if you don’t teach them how to build a garden, plant vagetables, and prepare them (EA), again you are doing little to address the problem. I would then encourage all Health volunteers to focus on projects that might be able to earn revenue for a motivated individual or group.
In conclusion, every volunteer would either receive the education of a SED or Health volunteer with a few weeks during training dedicated to the environment.
Obviously people have spent years studying development, not to mention writing thousands of pages on the subject. Here, I can do little more but provide my ideas based on my experiences. Peace Corps is a great organization, but I think it could be improved to become more of an agent for change of a society than of the participating volunteer. What other org has a development agent live with the host population for two years? PC really needs to take advantage of the community integration that comes with that kind of time and focus more on small enterprise development and health by marrying it to environmental protection/education. Again, sorry TEFL volunteers.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Fortune Teller...and some project info
Now that I am back at Post things are back to normal. Now that the first three months are over, I will be able to do more traveling around Benin, during which we are required to stay at post in order to facilitate community integration.
It wasn’t the easiest to come back here, I will admit. When I was in Kenya I had an extended ‘taste’ of all of the things I am missing back home, partially because Kenya is much more developed than Benin. If colonization is a skill, the French suck at it. But, now that I am back I am moving on many of my projects.
I have started a Women’s group in village to make bread. Well, that is actually giving me more credit than I deserve. My neighbor and two other women, who are probably around 50 years old but look 200, approached me because they want to make and sell bread in village but were denied by the microloan company in our area. It seems the microloan companies in developing Benin can spot a bad investment better than all large financial institutions in the US.
Anyways, they were denied for lack of a business plan and lack of potential ability to repay the loan on time. So, this is where I come in. PC-Benin has given us tons of info on starting small enterprises here to use in circumstances like this and I have solicited the help of another Small Enterprise Development PCV for this project. Since this is a women’s group and it is relatively cheap, PC-Benin gives out small grants for projects exactly like this. All I am doing is coming in to facilitate a feasibility study of the village, the creation of a legit business plan, and a comprehensive budget. I also asked them to bring some new blood in and so they found two young women around 20-years old, which brings the group to five. I did that because younger women here tend to have a bit more free time (might have only one kid as opposed to 5), have more of an education, can speak French, and can help increase the potential longevity of the enterprise. The deal is that they go through the steps to set up a small business as well as invest some of their own money, no matter how little that may be, and I will find the funding, which does not have to be repaid. I think this will be successful because no one here makes bread and the only way to buy it in village is on the back of some motorcycle, who comes in from a bigger town and is as dependable as the weather in Wisconsin. But everyone already eats bread and from my informal conversations with villagers, there is a desire for a dependable provider. There is already a market and the demand is higher than the supply, which is what you want to see.
What else am I doing? The community environmental club, which has a motivated group of six young adults and one village elder, the German volunteer in Camate, and I are planning a village cleanup with the goal to do it monthly. We are starting small but this initiative will hopefully grow into the development of a trash collection infrastructure since none exists right now, which means people burn or just throw their trash outside.
I have also found the funding to fix the broken pumps in my village. There are four pumps and only one works, which means at busy times, people will wait upwards of 1 ½ hours for drinkable water. With this and a later cistern project, I hope to greatly reduce the immense problem of water availability in Camate.
Enough with the boring stuff. I visited a Beninese fortuneteller the other day, who told me how to get everything that I want, kind of. I went with some tourists and the guy leading the tour of the hills to the ‘seer’s’ hut. To make a long story short, I whispered a question (it has to remain a secret or it wont be answered) into my hands holding a large seed and the money I was paying him. He then quietly chanted and played with a metal chain that had bones, seeds, and small shells interspersed between the metal links. At the end of each end of the chain were two spark plugs, yes, spark plugs, like for a car. Even though this ‘skill’ of fortunetelling has probably been passed down for hundreds of years in his family, he has discovered and released the future seeing power of…the spark plug. Basically what he told me is that I will receive what I am looking for in my question if I am patient. I don’t think one could give a more bland, ‘can apply to everything,’ answer. He even compared me to throwing gasoline on a fire. He also said that there were exams (not the metaphorical kind) in my future, meaning that I am not done with school yet. So, that’s it. Now I know my future I can try to be patient, which sucks, because I don’t like being patient. Regardless, it is good advice, despite the fact that it could be applied to any problem.
It wasn’t the easiest to come back here, I will admit. When I was in Kenya I had an extended ‘taste’ of all of the things I am missing back home, partially because Kenya is much more developed than Benin. If colonization is a skill, the French suck at it. But, now that I am back I am moving on many of my projects.
I have started a Women’s group in village to make bread. Well, that is actually giving me more credit than I deserve. My neighbor and two other women, who are probably around 50 years old but look 200, approached me because they want to make and sell bread in village but were denied by the microloan company in our area. It seems the microloan companies in developing Benin can spot a bad investment better than all large financial institutions in the US.
Anyways, they were denied for lack of a business plan and lack of potential ability to repay the loan on time. So, this is where I come in. PC-Benin has given us tons of info on starting small enterprises here to use in circumstances like this and I have solicited the help of another Small Enterprise Development PCV for this project. Since this is a women’s group and it is relatively cheap, PC-Benin gives out small grants for projects exactly like this. All I am doing is coming in to facilitate a feasibility study of the village, the creation of a legit business plan, and a comprehensive budget. I also asked them to bring some new blood in and so they found two young women around 20-years old, which brings the group to five. I did that because younger women here tend to have a bit more free time (might have only one kid as opposed to 5), have more of an education, can speak French, and can help increase the potential longevity of the enterprise. The deal is that they go through the steps to set up a small business as well as invest some of their own money, no matter how little that may be, and I will find the funding, which does not have to be repaid. I think this will be successful because no one here makes bread and the only way to buy it in village is on the back of some motorcycle, who comes in from a bigger town and is as dependable as the weather in Wisconsin. But everyone already eats bread and from my informal conversations with villagers, there is a desire for a dependable provider. There is already a market and the demand is higher than the supply, which is what you want to see.
What else am I doing? The community environmental club, which has a motivated group of six young adults and one village elder, the German volunteer in Camate, and I are planning a village cleanup with the goal to do it monthly. We are starting small but this initiative will hopefully grow into the development of a trash collection infrastructure since none exists right now, which means people burn or just throw their trash outside.
I have also found the funding to fix the broken pumps in my village. There are four pumps and only one works, which means at busy times, people will wait upwards of 1 ½ hours for drinkable water. With this and a later cistern project, I hope to greatly reduce the immense problem of water availability in Camate.
Enough with the boring stuff. I visited a Beninese fortuneteller the other day, who told me how to get everything that I want, kind of. I went with some tourists and the guy leading the tour of the hills to the ‘seer’s’ hut. To make a long story short, I whispered a question (it has to remain a secret or it wont be answered) into my hands holding a large seed and the money I was paying him. He then quietly chanted and played with a metal chain that had bones, seeds, and small shells interspersed between the metal links. At the end of each end of the chain were two spark plugs, yes, spark plugs, like for a car. Even though this ‘skill’ of fortunetelling has probably been passed down for hundreds of years in his family, he has discovered and released the future seeing power of…the spark plug. Basically what he told me is that I will receive what I am looking for in my question if I am patient. I don’t think one could give a more bland, ‘can apply to everything,’ answer. He even compared me to throwing gasoline on a fire. He also said that there were exams (not the metaphorical kind) in my future, meaning that I am not done with school yet. So, that’s it. Now I know my future I can try to be patient, which sucks, because I don’t like being patient. Regardless, it is good advice, despite the fact that it could be applied to any problem.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Christmas, New Years, a trip to Kenya, and a two-week training
(Me on the Indian Ocean...yes I have lost some weight)
(This is a picture of a little girl carrying little rocks in a basin on her head to a dump truck. This is how most people in my village make money; breaking rocks by hand and selling them by the basin. I talked about it in another post, but it probably took her and her family 2-3hrs to fill that basin and they will receive the equivalent of 25 cents.)
(This is me, Brigitte (another PCV), and two Beninese teenagers at the top of the hills behind my village)Hello everyone,
Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I went on a trip to Kenya for the holidays and then returned to Benin for a two-week training with all of the Environment and Health volunteers. This blog post will not include any interesting anecdotes but just a brief summary of the past month.
So I left post before Christmas to catch my flight to Nairobi, Kenya to visit Karissa. She was studying abroad there for the first semester and I wanted to visit her and see Kenya...we dated before I left, kept dating, and its complicated so I will just leave it at that. Anyways, I did not fly out of Cotonou, Benin since their 'international' airport resembles more of a bus station. Instead I traveled to Accra, Ghana, two countries to the west of Benin. Basically that consisted of standing on the side of the road with my hand out and a huge bag until a guy pulled over and said he was going to Lome, Togo. The only thing that was missing was the "Free Candy" sign on the side of his car. I got in the back seat of a compact car (normally sits 5 right) with 7 other Beninese folks (3 in the front and 4 in the back) and headed off toward Togo. After crossing the border without any problems, I then found another taxi to Accra, Ghana. Ohh, I forgot to mention that in the taxi I met a guy who spoke English who used to live in Accra. He became a huge help later one. So after another taxi ride, which consisted of several naps, annoying border guards and police with big guns who like to give people a hard time, and claustrophobia-inducing company I made it to Accra. The strangest thing about the trip was nearly every African person had to pay a small bribe to the guard in the sketchy way of shaking hands with money or putting it conviently in their passport. They left me alone though.
I went to Accra without any hotel rooms and my only plan was to find a taxi and tell him to take me to a cheap hotel for the night. But, that guy I met on the taxi ride hooked me up with a hotel room, invited me over to his friends house for dinner and beer, and then gave me a tour of the area. He did this for the only reason that I am an American, which you can thank Obama for. Everyone in Africa loves him and I just want to say that had McCain and that thing of a running mate won in 2008, it would be less safe for me to travel across West Africa. Think about that next time you want to vote Republican! :P
I spent the night in Accra, walked around a bit where a 4 year old tried and failed to pickpocket me. I caught her 'red handed'...with her hand in my pocket. The next day I got on a plane and headed to Nairobi, Kenya. I met Karissa at the airport, which started the most amazing vacation ever. Nairobi was a cool city, the slum is huge (but we didnt get to see much of it), and the people don't freak out for seeing an American. I ate cheeseburgers, pizzas, and all other kinds of food I havent seen since I left the US of A. Then we got on an overnight train straight out of Harry Potter for Mombasa. I loved the city of Mombasa. I didn't realize how much I missed diversity until I was there since Mombasa has an Indian influence, Middle Eastern influence, and of course African influence. Benin is pretty homogenous. We stayed in these cabin hotel rooms on the Indian Ocean. Yes, it was gorgeous. It was my first time in the Indian Ocean and now all I have to do is go swimming in the Arctic and I can say I have swam in every major ocean. I rang in the new year with a bottle of champagne, sitting on the beach on the Indian Ocean, looking at the stars, and sitting with awesome company. I was asleep by 12:30. Then after a vacation that was entirely too short I traveled back to Benin for a two-week training.
I wont bore you with those details but I am pretty sure I ate raw chicken on the street yesterday. Damn street food. Don't worry I am paying for it now. I am headed back to post tomorrow morning, which as of right now is bitter sweet. I am looking forward to going back to everyone I know there and sleeping in my bed but in Kenya and somewhat during the training I got a taste of everything that I have been missing. It will take some readjusting, but I will manage.
Ok, now you are all caught up on my life. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are freezing your butt off.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Tony 1, Ants 0
It’s official, I have finally outsmarted the ants!
Ok, there are these tiny, relatively harmless ants…everywhere. I have been keeping my house very clean, spraying insecticide on anything that looks like a nest of them in or around my house, and keeping food tightly covered at all times. I have breathed in so much insecticide that I am probably developing little holes in my brain. Ohh, might I add that they don’t exactly have the same laws here that regulate pesticides, herbicides, or any other cancer causing aerosol spray.
Well, these *%$&^%@ eat through plastic bags, they are able to climb under everything but the tightest fitting lids, and they come out of nowhere. I cannot find any nest of ants anywhere, but should I let my guard down in the slightest they appear in force as if they are storming the Beach of Normandy. Also, if there is something sweet inside a container, which they cannot gain entry to, they will just cover the outside of it to the point that if you don’t look closely it looks like the container’s shell is actually moving. But, I finally figured out how to keep them out of my stuff and I did it quite by accident.
One day I put a small can of this sugary syrup, which I add to water and powered milk to make a sweet treat, in a basin, which had a very small amount of water in it. The ants loved this container and no matter what I did they found it and covered the outside. Thankfully they never broke inside, but they did make it through the 3 zip locked plastic bags, which were hidden under a towel. So I forgot about the can for whatever reason and when I came back there was not an ant to be found on the can and instead there were a bunch of dead ants in the water surrounding the can. Guess what, the f$#@!@# can’t swim! Lame, I know, but these guys were really starting to annoy me. Now I put anything that they would like in something plastic and put it in the basin with a tiny layer of water. The first ants drown in the water and are never able to return to their colony to tell there partners in crime where the meal is.
Moving on. Life is going well. I had a meeting with a group of teenaged students who want to start an environmental club the other day and I am starting to figure out what I can do with the ecotourism activity at my NGO. But, it is going to require me to change some things and change is not exactly a popular thing to do here. I am mean, they eat the same stuff in the same way over and over and over again. Even when I have used their foods to cook something different, they don’t like it. But, I have Thanksgiving to look forward to and for Christmas I will be traveling to Kenya. I hope all is well and if you are getting sick of the colder temperatures already the plane ticket to my house is only a measly 2,000 dollars.
Ok, there are these tiny, relatively harmless ants…everywhere. I have been keeping my house very clean, spraying insecticide on anything that looks like a nest of them in or around my house, and keeping food tightly covered at all times. I have breathed in so much insecticide that I am probably developing little holes in my brain. Ohh, might I add that they don’t exactly have the same laws here that regulate pesticides, herbicides, or any other cancer causing aerosol spray.
Well, these *%$&^%@ eat through plastic bags, they are able to climb under everything but the tightest fitting lids, and they come out of nowhere. I cannot find any nest of ants anywhere, but should I let my guard down in the slightest they appear in force as if they are storming the Beach of Normandy. Also, if there is something sweet inside a container, which they cannot gain entry to, they will just cover the outside of it to the point that if you don’t look closely it looks like the container’s shell is actually moving. But, I finally figured out how to keep them out of my stuff and I did it quite by accident.
One day I put a small can of this sugary syrup, which I add to water and powered milk to make a sweet treat, in a basin, which had a very small amount of water in it. The ants loved this container and no matter what I did they found it and covered the outside. Thankfully they never broke inside, but they did make it through the 3 zip locked plastic bags, which were hidden under a towel. So I forgot about the can for whatever reason and when I came back there was not an ant to be found on the can and instead there were a bunch of dead ants in the water surrounding the can. Guess what, the f$#@!@# can’t swim! Lame, I know, but these guys were really starting to annoy me. Now I put anything that they would like in something plastic and put it in the basin with a tiny layer of water. The first ants drown in the water and are never able to return to their colony to tell there partners in crime where the meal is.
Moving on. Life is going well. I had a meeting with a group of teenaged students who want to start an environmental club the other day and I am starting to figure out what I can do with the ecotourism activity at my NGO. But, it is going to require me to change some things and change is not exactly a popular thing to do here. I am mean, they eat the same stuff in the same way over and over and over again. Even when I have used their foods to cook something different, they don’t like it. But, I have Thanksgiving to look forward to and for Christmas I will be traveling to Kenya. I hope all is well and if you are getting sick of the colder temperatures already the plane ticket to my house is only a measly 2,000 dollars.
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