My Post and clothing styles in Benin

(Picture 1: Myself in 'meme tissue' or same tissue. The four different sectors purchase their own style of tissue and wear it to swear in so each person in the same sector matches, but sectors are different.
Picture 2: The view from the top of a hill at my post)

Last week I spent four days at my future post and lived, with the outgoing PCV in my future house. All I have to say is that my post is beautiful. Just look at the picture and you will see why. I will be working with an NGO that does environmental education, which is funded by eco-tourism to the NGO. If you ever find yourself in Benin, which will surly not happen, but just in case, make sure you see the hills in Central Benin.

My village is rather quaint with only about 2,000 residents. Aside from the NGO in the village, which employs 11 people, everyone else makes a living in the many farms or by crushing rocks, by hand with a hammer into large jagged pebbles. These rocks are retrieved from the hills and are accelerating their erosion. Thankfully the majority speaks French, but as time goes by I will begin to use their local language, Igaasha, especially for greetings and use in the market. Good Morning = Ekoni; How are you = O wa réré ni; and Yes = oo, or adoukpé. It is much different from anything I have ever learned before, but it has one thing up on French and English for that matter in that it is phonetic. Upon further thought, the fact that it is phonetic does me very little good, because I will probably never actually write it down or seen it written.

Since I just passed my language exam I will be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer next Friday, September 25th. After that, it is on to my village, where I will move into a large single bedroom house with electricity and convenient to access running water. I also move in with a cat, who is the killer of all things that I don’t want in my house, which is awesome. For the first three months I will spend my time getting to know my community, the residents, and learning what I can do inside of my NGO and outside of it, in the community. For those first three months no PCVs are allowed to leave their post for more than 24hrs. It is one of the rules, which forces us to step outside of our comfort zone and go integrate into a community we know very little about and have a mediocre grasp of the language. I have it easy since my community has had two volunteers before me and they speak French and local language. Other volunteers are moving places that don’t speak any French into a home without electricity, running water, cell phone reception, and easy access to the internet.

Now onto my cultural observation: The clothing styles in this country are fascinating.

Traditional Beninese clothing is hard to describe, but just look at the picture of myself, and you will get the idea. They love loud colors and repeating patterns with identical prints below and above the waist. Women’s clothing is rather conservative and ranges from form fitting to semi-loose, while many guy’s shirts resemble moo-moos (I have no idea how that is spelled, but you know the huge maternity-like shirts). The shirt I am wearing above is actually smaller than how it is traditionally made and it is very un-African to have buttons. Clothes you buy ready-to-wear, as we do in the States, is for the most part considered uncool, although that is changing as Western influences become more pronounced. For example, for the outfit above and for the two pairs of different pinstripe dress pants I just bought, you first go to the market and buy the fabric and then taken it to a tailor. All of this is done for about 7,000 – 8,000 CFA, which translates into 16-18 US $. I am planning on over my two years accumulating some very nice looking suits that are perfectly tailored. The trouble with the clothing here is even I, with my lacking sense of style, would never wear 95% of it outside of Benin or West Africa. I like the pants but am not a huge fan of the shirts. It is fun and the Beninese actually respect you more when you are wearing their style. My parents sent me some UW Red and Motion ‘W’ fabric, which I cannot wait until it arrives so that I can have the best UW-Madison pride outfit ever.

Now combine this style with what I will call the Western world’s rejected Goodwill store clothes and you have a very diverse range of styles. A lot of clothes that will never be worn in the states are dumped into West Africa and are either given away or sold for pennies. Many people in this country are extremely poor, but they will not only wear the ‘Goodwill’ style, they make it their own. It is common to see guys wearing girl’s shirts and/or pants, and yet they have no idea and frankly they don’t care. In fact I saw a dude wearing a shirt that said, “No Money, No Honey” just the other day. It was black with white lettering, and the cut of the sleeves and collar were clearly feminine to a western eye. Also very few speak any English in Benin, so what a shirts says is unimportant. That shirt was probably cheap and matched this guy’s idea of Western style so it is good enough for him. Remember when the Patriots lost the super bowl to the Giants in that massive upset a couple of years ago??? Well, I saw a Patriot Superbowl Champion t-shirt from that year. What is interesting is that they will take these clearly uncool shirts (to Western standards) and wear them or match them with other things in a way that mimics what is cool. Since they don’t speak English and can’t understand that their shirt says “New York City Public Library – Where it is Cool to Read” they choose form fitting sizes and combine it with the rest of their outfit in a very creative take on Western style. They may be adopting our styles but when they want to dress up for a special event they almost always go with traditional wear.

Thanks for reading. I hope this finds you all well and that the States are not killing each other over things like Obama’s health care plan. I sure hope that passes or has passed. Be thankful those are the debates you get to have because the election here is not until 2011 and the current President, it is rumored, has already started removing the people’s constitutional right to assemble peacefully through unchecked executive orders. He is doing this in specific locations in Benin in order to limit political rallies because potential opponents for the job of President are starting to identify themselves and organize.

Only three weeks left of Training!

(Sorry, I look super awkward in this picture but it was taken while on Technical Visit. It was actually a beautiful and quaint village where everyone we met wanted to talk and serve us a shot of their local hard alcohol called sodabe, which tastes like vodka mixed with tequila. They dont do much beer in this country. In fact I drank whiskey out of a juice box the other day. Shout out to Kenvin Krentz. If your job with Epic doesnt pan out in the long run, you could have a monopoly on the market of juice box whiskey drinkers).


About 2-weeks ago, everyone went on what they call technical visit, where you break off into small groups and go live with a current volunteer for four days. I went to a small village close to Quedma-Peda (I think the spelling is at least close), which is to the west of Cotonou. Quedma-Peda’s claim to fame is that it was once the largest slave port in all of West Africa. Estimates are rather rough, but I have read that at least 1/3rd of all slaves passed through this city on their way to the Americas or Europe. Upon entering the city there is a small statue, probably 3-4 ft high, on top of a pedestal with an African in a loincloth, looking with hands outstretched toward the heavens holding the two pieces of a broken chain in each hand. I asked if there were any museums or other such educational exhibits to educate both locals and visitors about what happened here, but that is it. I was told this was because most of history in Benin is passed on orally, but I still couldn’t help but find it strange that one would have to travel to the Western World or read book written by Western authors to learn about the Slave Trade in Africa. I want to eventually, when I build up enough trust with a Beninese person, to ask them about what they know about the slave trade, what is taught in schools, and what people think about it here. It would definitely be an interesting conversation. Peace Corps is actually taking everyone back there for a more detailed tour or field trip so I might learn more then as well.

Moving on.

Training is going well and my French is coming along nicely. I am now able to have rather complete conversations with most people, most of the time. I still talk slowly and if the French speaker I am talking to forgets that I am not fluent and speaks fast, I lose any comprehension of the conversation. But, once I kindly remind them that I have no idea what they are saying, they slow it down and I can figure out what is going on. One of the other difficulties in Benin is that although French is the official language, it is usually one’s second language. There are dozens of local languages, so especially if a person is educated (school is only taught in French), they speak French as well as another local tongue. It is not always easy to figure out when people are not speaking French or if I do just not understand them. I am getting better, but when my family bounces between local (they speak Fon) and French, I get crazy confused.

So far I have learned how to build two varieties of mud stoves, plant a garden, plant a tree nursery, identify trees/plants and care for them, market environmental products, mix and apply natural pesticides, fix anything about my bike, turn plastic bags into coin purses, compost, teach environmental education, and integrate into my community. They teach us everything so that we can choose exactly what projects to start in our communities based on their need and what we want to work on. This coming Wednesday (Sept. 9th) I am leaving for post visit. I will be there for four days, where I will meet the volunteer I am replacing, my community, and specifically the people that I will be working closely with. I am pumped to a) get a break from training and b) see where I will be living for the next two years.

That’s it for now. I am currently putting together a page on snapfish, or flicker, or something like that so pay attention for that information. It is hard to believe that I have been here for going on my 7th week and that I will be moving to my post is 3 weeks. And, thank you all for the emails! I really like reading them and learning about what you are doing.