My Peace Corps Experience in Benin, Africa

Transportation in Benin

2010-09-19T01:39:00.000-07:00

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.

Death, Funerals, and Voodoo

2010-04-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

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.

Living the Ex-pat life

2010-03-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

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.

If I was in charge of Peace Corps - Benin

2010-03-04T06:03:00.000-08:00

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.

The Fortune Teller...and some project info

2010-01-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

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.

Christmas, New Years, a trip to Kenya, and a two-week training

2010-01-16T13:56:00.000-08:00

(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.

Tony 1, Ants 0

2009-11-13T06:16:00.000-08:00

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.

Manual Labor and hey, Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T20:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone! For one of the first times I am really missing not being back in Madison right now but I am celebrating Halloween with a bunch of other volunteers in a city called Parakou. I do have a costume that isn’t a costume…I don’t really know how to explain it. It is a Beninese thing.

So I have been at post for over a month now and things are going well. My counterpart at the NGO I am partnered with is backing off and giving me the freedom to do the projects that I want. He is still a little jealous when I talk about working outside of the NGO, but he is learning that I am kind of going to do what I want to do and he might as well work with me on that. I was actually approached by a student who wants to start an environmental club in a surrounding community, which is super exciting. The first meeting is Sunday, Nov 7th.

This past two weeks has been fairly busy and I have been doing all kinds of physical activity, despite the fact that it is getting hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter. We are hitting 90-100 degrees everyday but on the bright side I have a killer tan. I helped a neighbor finish the walls of his house. Let me see if I can describe how this is built. First off they use red clay to build their houses. We mixed, with our feet, clay and water until it reached the proper consistency. We then balled the clay up into large but throw-able balls then we created an assembly line where we passed the clays balls eventually ending with the person standing on the partially constructed wall who used the clay to continue the wall upward.

Also, the past couple weeks 6 French, 6 Nigerians (from Niger not Nigeria), and 5 Beninese students ranging from 17-22 years old have been visiting my NGO. They are participating in two-weeks of cultural exchange and manual labor in Camate. We are building a fence so that my NGO can have a free-range chicken farm and in the traditional Beninese way we are doing so without any labor saving tools/devices. While you would use a posthole digger or an auger (what ice fishermen use to dig holes in the ice) to dig post holes, we use machetes and our hands. While you would have bought precut wood from Home Depot, a group of people goes into the woods and cuts down trees, removes the branches, and brings them to the work site. If you needed to cut the wood that you bought from Home Depot into a smaller size you would use a power saw or at least a handsaw; we use machetes (but I brought a camping saw with me, see the pic). While you would have cleared the ground using a power mover of some kind, we use machetes and hoes, which both require you to bend over. I think you get the picture. But, as I have been working wishing for modern tools and Home Depot I realized that they would never work here. All of those things save Americans time because, well time is money right, so Americans invest in labor/time saving devices. If the Beninese had more time they just wouldn’t have anything to do. The greatest commodity in Benin is time and the one thing they don’t have is money so using a machete to did a 3ft posthole is perfectly fine with them.

In the end I don’t mind so much. I think I have actually gained some weight in the form of muscle mass from this physical labor so the joke is that maybe by the end of two years I might look like the Beninese. The Beninese are ripped. The guys don’t have 6-packs because they have 8-packs. Every American woman would be jealous of the arms of the Beninese women.

Ok, the Halloween party is starting. I hope you are all doing well and hit me up with an email about what is going on in your world if you have a chance.

Not a whole lot is new...but it is becoming very, very hot

2009-10-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

So I am well into my third week at village. Sorry that these have taken me so long to get up on the blog. My internet situation is a little difficult.

Everything here has been going well. My new furniture has arrived and now my house feels like a home or at least something that I could comfortably spend two years living in. Despite having little to no structure or real responsibilities I have managed to keep myself busy, for the most part. I have prepared a small garden and in the next couple of days I will plant it, but first I need to move my compost pile. I built one close to my house but my landlord doesn’t like it, so I will be moving it inside the fence next to my garden. My neighbor has a large plot of land all fenced in behind his house and he generously gave me whatever I wanted to plant a garden and put my compostable waste.

Since I am the third volunteer in this village everyone is accustomed to seeing a white person walking around. I try to get around the village once a day to say hi to people, practice my French and local language, and describe what it means to be a Peace Corps Volunteer. That is a fairly big question and difficult to describe especially since my French still needs improving, but what I say is that I am here to eventually start some projects within the community and work with the local NGO. I have also spent quite a bit of time climbing the hills that provide the scenic backdrop to my Beninese home. During the day especially it is often the only place where I can feel the wind when it is pushing 90-100 degrees everyday. I also nap, a lot. I figure it is apart of the cultural integration and since everyone takes a break between 1pm and 2pm, I might as well participate.

I am involved with a fairly active NGO, who often has tourists and projects ongoing. This is both a blessing and a curse because that means there is always something to do but the NGO will want me to be active in all of their projects thus limiting my impact in the greater community. When coming up with ideas I am trying to focus on ways to build the community up so that they can improve themselves and the environment at the same time. The NGO doesn’t always have projects that fit what the Peace Corps Volunteer is supposed to do. If there is one thing that I could do for the environment in Camate it would be to fight the erosion problem but I could not do that until I somehow found different work for many of the residents. One of the primary income generating activities here is to break rocks into small rocks, by hand, which is then sold to construction companies who use it for gravel. The rocks are removed from the hills thus augmenting the erosion problem here. For a medium-sized basin full of small rocks one receives 150 CFA, which is the equivalent of 35 cents and it probably takes one day to fill it. There is no amount of education regarding erosion, and the effects are apparent here, that would have any impact unless I somehow provided another way for the ‘rock-breakers’ to make money. I’m still working on that one.

Before I go I have to recommend a novel that has subsequently turned my life upside down. If you have not read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn than you have not lived. I’m not sure yet how to apply what I learned, but I am going to think about it, and try to incorporate it into my service here.

A week in

2009-10-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

(Voodoo Elder paying respect to the chicken he is about to kill. The thing to his left is an example of a voodoo festish)

(All of the PCV after swearing in and that is Johnny and I with the mustaches we grew to commemorate the event)

After a week of living in Camate, I am starting to settle in. I have arranged my house to make it as ‘homey’ as possible and I have started to assimilate into the community of about 2,000 people. To do this I usually just walk around with someone asking questions, meeting people, and practicing speaking Igaasha, the local language. I am trying to meet as many people as I can and so far everyone have been nice and welcoming. My only complaint is that communication with the outside world has become more difficult. I do not get any cell phone reception within my house and there is not a cybercafé with wireless that I know of yet. My NGO has internet, but I have to use their computers with French keyboards and work around their schedule. Taken all together I much prefer Camate to Porto Novo. The air is clean, the view is beautiful, and the people are nice.

But now that I am here I am constantly thinking about what I want to do. The first three months of my service is supposed to be spent integrating into the community in order to learn what their strengths are so that I can use those to address areas of potential improvements. Unfortunately it is much easier to find the latter, but there is a women’s microfinance group here as well as a group of young men who play soccer regularly. I might be able to direct some of their energies into some other areas. Once I get started I will have to balance my time between improving the eco-tourism business at my NGO and starting projects within the community.

So, I have been holding off writing about Voodoo until I have experienced enough to have something to tell. In training Peace Corps tells us to avoid Voodoo in most circumstances, but never tell someone that you don’t believe in it. They might take that as an invitation to perform the darker side of voodoo, which as their believe system goes will have no impact on nonbelievers, but since everyone else believes in it, the rest of the community wont want to work with you at all therefore making it difficult to be a volunteer. I have seen a voodoo dance ceremony, plenty of fetishes (fetish in the context of voodoo simply means a physical voodoo representation), I have visited a sacred forest for non-voodoo believers, and witnessed a sacrifice ceremony. Voodoo is just about everywhere in Benin, especially in the south because the north has a bigger Muslim population. I was invited to the sacrifice ceremony, which happened ten steps away from my house, and I was even encouraged to take pictures and everything was explained to me in French. My neighbors have constructed a physical representation for a specific spirit who was a member of their family but was killed in some sort of accident. For special occasions, in this instance the start of school, they have a party that is not very different to a family celebration in the states. They say some prayers, have lots of conversation and laughter, and eat a lot of food. The only difference is that they kill the animals (in this case, several chickens and one small goat) and use a little bit of the blood to pay respect to the spirit. They believe that the spirit inhabits the fetish during the ceremony. Voodoo has gotten a very bad name as the small majority of its darker sides have been grossly exaggerated. While we go buy processed meat at the grocery store, they pay respect to the animals and thank them for giving their life for their sustenance. The only thing that happened that was bizarre for me is that they drip a small amount of the blood from the dying animal onto the fetish in a ritualistic manner. Everything was quite interesting and everyone was very welcoming to my presence. All was going well until we hit a small snag. The women who were making a traditional food called pate (similar to mashed potatoes) accidently used all of this red cooking oil stuff. They were supposed to save some for later in the ceremony for the guy in charge to use. He became very angry and stuff became a little crazy until they went house to house finding enough red cooking oil to finish the ceremony; I even contributed some since the previous volunteer left a small amount here. According to the ritual, if it is not done correctly (aka if this guy did not find enough red cooking oil) he will die, but alas, everyone can sleep well.

Overall life is pretty slow for me right now. I don’t exactly have a lot to do, but I keep myself busy with the other community members, even if I don’t know what they are saying. It is a bit lonely to live in a place where you marginally speak their second language (that being French), where you live far away from technology, and where you don’t exactly have a lot in common with everyone, but I could not have asked for a more welcoming community. I’m really getting sick of the bugs here though. One lesson I learned so far, which I will leave you with, is do not spray insecticide into dark areas unless you want to see what will come running out of there.

My Post and clothing styles in Benin

2009-09-20T05:46:00.000-07:00

(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!

2009-09-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

(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.

All kinds of wastes

2009-08-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

(This is an example of coordinated trash removal in Southern Benin. This provides the food for many animals, sadly they cannot eat plastic...c'mon evolution)

As you can assume I have had to get used to many different things and change many behaviors now that I am living in Benin. It has been a fairly easy transition thus far, without any major problems, but there are two things that are a little more challenging for myself to adapt to.

There is hardly any coordinated solid waste trash removal service in this country, especially in the south where I live now. That means that trash lines the street, flows in the waterways, and grows in the piles behind houses. Ohh wait, sorry, there is one form of trash clean up, which I almost forgot: larger piles of trash do exist where groups of people throw their stuff and every now and again a concerned citizen will light that trash pile on fire. I love riding my bike past those! Furthermore, in the states, I was (and am now even more) a huge fan of trashcans, trash pick up, garbage dumps that are environmental cared for, and recycling. Guess who has to become accustomed to throwing all trash behind the house or on the street as I walk? That would be me, just in case you didn’t know. The one that continually put ‘please recycle’ signs on the front desk’s recycle bin at the Memorial Union now has to throw his plastic bags, food waste, and anything else outside where it becomes a part of this picturesque landscape. In Benin’s defense, the Beninese people don’t consume even close to what American’s do, so what they, and now I throw away is minimal. One fact for you that I read in my book: “The average ecological footprint per person for those in developed nations is 54 acres, while in Africa each person only consumes about 2.5 acres. The earth can support only an average footprint of 39 acres/person.” Regardless, I lose a little bit of my sole every time I have to throw something out, by throwing it outside. The Peace Corps is teaching us nifty things to do with the waste, such as turning these tiny black plastic bags, which everything in this country is carried in, into wallets, coin purses, etc. My friend Johnny and I are going to try and develop a cowboy hat out of them. Also, I will be building a compost pile at my future post and encouraging everyone around me to do the same. So, if you ever feel like not recycling or you want to throw your trash on the ground, please think of me and say, “I am going properly dispose of my trash/recycling for Tony, because he can’t.” Thank you in advance.

Moving onto the other thing that will take some getting used to. Not only are bathrooms with running water (ie flushing toilets) uncommon, public bathrooms or even latrines are next to impossible to find. Next time you are at a bar and have to pee because you have been drinking, imagine that there are no bathrooms. Now what do you do? Guys have it much easier then women. If we can find a discreet place to relieve ourselves we are fine. Then again, discreet is not in the Beninese vocabulary and thus, often you will see people just taking a leak on the side of the road, thankfully facing away from traffic. Despite the fact that guys have it much easier (I am going to describe what women do in a sec), I cannot help but find it unnerving to aim in front of a cement wall, with the equivalent traffic of the southbound exit toward Chicago as you head east into Milwaukee, flying by 40 feet behind you. Women on the other hand... If, and there is a strong emphasis on the if, a woman can find a bathroom as she is out and about, it will most likely amount to nothing more than a hole in the ground, about the size of a small pancake. So, role up your pants ladies, because there is no way you are not going to splash urine all over your feet and legs as you try to balance, assisted by nothing, over said hole. This is all I am going to say about our other form of bodily excrement: Thankfully the diet here is heavy in starch and low in fiber so as long as you can avoid diarrhea-causing parasites, bacteria, and/or viruses this is not as much of an issue. If you don’t know how starch or fiber regulates your BM’s (not building managers, for those Memorial Union folk), go ask a health professional. Ohh, and never forget to carry toilet paper or soap/hand sanitizer, because they have not begun to appreciate either as of yet.

The general rule for all things bathroom related is, if you are far away from your house, where you will have a latrine per Peace Corps housing standards, you just might be shit out of luck.

A Series of Cultural Observations

2009-08-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

(Picture: Washing my clothes by hand in the water that I pulled from a well. This quickly became my least favorite chore in Benin)

1. Guys can act rather gay (according to US standards)

For example, guys love to hold hands here. According to Beninese cultural two guys holding hands means nothing more than they are good friends and they are demonstrating that friendship. It is also common for two men who are having a one-on-one conversation to hold hands, which shows to the other person that they have their complete attention, similar to eye contact in the US. Furthermore, it is very common to see two guys dancing together, almost like people dance at the club/bar back in the States. They dance together simply because women are not allowed to go to bars by whatever dominant male figure they have (i.e. father, brother, boyfriend, husband). The only women who you will find at the bars are prostitutes. Overall, guys are much physically closer here. It is not unusual to see guys acting more affectionate toward each other than homosexual couples act in the states, where most places they are hardly allowed to hold hands.

2. Two guys might be allowed to hold hands, but opposite sex couples are not

While two guys are allowed to hold hands in public, if a man and woman couple were to do that in public, it would be the equivalent of two people making out in the states. That is to say, they way we look at those that make out in public is the same way the Beninese look at those opposite sex couples who hold hands.

3. Being gay in Benin is illegal

Even if you were to ask a Beninese man if gay people exist they will deny it. They might have a law against it, but they take it one step further and deny the existence of homosexuality. Despite the fact they see it on American TV and movies, being gay just doesn’t make any sense to them. That being said, there are gay people in Benin, they just must live a very secret lifestyle.

4. If the women in Benin went on strike the country would collapse

I think this is similar to most places in the world that haven’t made huge strides toward gender equality; the men get all the respect, but the women absolutely run the show. It blows me away how much they are responsible for. Their responsibilities consist of everything you would think of, but they may also be a large percentage of the ‘bread-winning’ population since 99.99% of the vendors at the markets are women. I have no empirical evidence to back this up; it is just an observation.

5. Just about everything in this country is ‘la bas’

It is pronounced ‘la bah’ and basically means over there. The majority of times when a question of something’s location arises, if posed to a Beninese person, he/she will say ‘la bas.’ In fact the other day, a motor scooter taxi ended up taking me ‘la bas’ when I didn’t want to go ‘la bas. In fact there was a very specific destination I requested, but since the taxi didn’t know where it was, even though he told me that he did, he ended up telling me my destination was ‘la bas’ when he dropped me off. After a phone call and talking to locals I found someone who was willing to walk me to the place, which was about a 15min walk away from where the taxi took me. So I definitely got lost in a 3rd world country where I am just learning to speak the language, but the locals are nice. If fact this guy was so nice, he wanted my phone number and he tried to hold my hand. Sadly, I said ‘no’ but I wished him luck in his hopeful career as a professional soccer player in the EU.

6. You know those peculiar African American names you see in the States with their bizarre spellings?

Well, as far as I can tell, those names are not African but purely African American. In fact my host brother’s name is Manu (very normal African name), another’s is Bill, I met someone named Pavlov (remember his dogs?), and I met a kid named Elvis. Granted I just got here and I know Benin does not represent all of the names Africa has to offer, but it seems to me that the unique names found in the US, is just a US phenomenon.

Other than the gender relations between men and women, which I wrote about previously, those are the newest cultural differences between the US and Benin that I have experienced.

My Post

2009-08-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

I received the details about my final post and position description. I probably received one of the best posts, at least for myself! I am not allowed to provide extremely site specific information, but if you look at a map of Benin find the city of Dassa, which is at the top of the bottom ¼ of Benin in the center of the country (if that makes sense), cause I will be living about 7km outside of it.

Ok. I am super excited! I will be working for an NGO to develop and expand the area’s ecotourism. The reason they want me to do this is because this area is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in Benin. I will be developing an ecotourism business to attract rich Europeans and I will be living in the exact same area. You have no idea how many people are jealous of my post. The place is supposed to be gorgeous with woods, green savanna, large rolling hills, and endless walking/biking trails.

My two other responsibilities are environmental education and community development. Environmental ed is pretty self explanatory but for the community development I am going to try to increase the communities political activity. I am reading a book right now, written by someone born and raised in Kenya but educated in the United States, who talks quite a bit about the fatalistic attitude in Africa that contributes to their passivity and tolerance for bad political leaders. Therefore, thanks to WISPIRG, I might try to increase the awareness of the people’s political power. Wish me luck. That is not a small task in a country without any history of political activism where people are forced to spend most of their energy struggling to survive. It has to start somewhere, right? I know that with the Peace Corps, I am not allowed to engage in political activity, so I have yet to figure out my way around that one. Hopefully they will be ok if I simply facilitate others getting involved as opposed to involving myself.

Ok, back to my future post. I am the third volunteer that will be at this post, but the first one who will primarily be working on developing their ecotourism business. One of the things I asked for the ability to do was to combine environment and business, so this post is perfect. Since I am the third volunteer I will hopefully have an awesome house because it will have 4 years of collected stuff that the previous volunteers left there. I will have good cell phone reception, electricity, running water in my concession, a very short bike ride to the nearest market, and only 7km away from the nearest volunteer and post office. I will be able to buy a post office box so you all can send me stuff all the time! Ohh fyi, a concession consists of usually about three houses behind a small fence/wall. Peace Corps does that so that I get very close to my neighbors to help my integration and for safety reasons, aka they will look out for me and make sure I know any important info.

Feel free to send me updates about what is going on in your lives; I like reading emails from family and friends.

Yovo, Yovo. Bonsoir. Ca va bien. Merci

2009-08-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hello from Porto Novo!

The title of this post is a song that all the kids like to start singing when they see me, or any white person for that matter. It loosely translates into White Foreigner, Good Evening, How are you, Thank you. Wherever I go there is a small troop of children either yelling Yovo or singing that song. I dont know if I will ever get used to being starred at everywhere I go, or being called Yovo for that matter. One of the reasons I liked Madison over UW-LAX is the ability to disappear in a crowd of people. Haha, not so much the case here.

Training is fairly intense, but light hearted. We train 6 days a week until the end of September, which is when I will move to my post somewhere in Benin. We are learning anything from how and what to plant in Benin, how to start a tree nursury, how to build a mud stove, how to teach env education, learning about the fauna here and how to use it, weaving plastic bags into fun things, as well as organizing the community, and trying to build up their resources. I will not know exactly where I will be in Benin until next week sometime.

So, I have lived with my host family for almost a week now. I have more space that I could have asked for and an amazing family. My host mom is super patient and helps me with my french whenever i try to say something. She has actually spent time in the United States since her husband, whom I have yet to meet, works for the Beninese Embassy and he was working in DC for a period of time. She also speaks some english, so communication can be frustrating, but accomplished. My french is coming along much faster than I thought it would be and yes, my university education in french has not been exactly helpful. We spend at least 2-hours/day in language class, but since it is strictly conversational, I am learning more here than at UW.

One of the most interesting things about where I live and Benin overall is that, as far as I can tell, the wealthy do not separate themselves from the poor as they do in the United States. I clearly live with a wealthy family and yet across the street lives the poorest of the poor. I was completely surprised by this since the very rich in the US live behind gated communities in McMansions where they even create their own religions (achem...Scientology). Benin's society is not like that and I think it actually creates a much more inclusive society. Instead of having someone go to a grocery story, my host mama walks across the dirt road to the family who bakes bread. By spending her money there, 100% is going diretly to the family (not being spread out in a corporation), which directly supports that family's livelihood. Their children grow up together and are still friends; they go to school together. Their appears to be much less 'us vs them' in Benin and it may be related to that. Just some food for thought.

Ok, i have to go since it is getting dark out and I need to be home before dark. Their roads are absolutly nuts and i would rather not compete on the road with hundreds of scooters in the dark. Know that I found a good cybercafe, more updates will follow more regularily.

My introduction to Peace Corps Benin in Country

2009-07-27T05:14:00.000-07:00

(Picture: My roommate and I in our room at the catholic compound. The blue thing is the mosquito net that we sleep inside)

Right now I am sitting in the Peace Corps Compound in downtown Cotonou, Benin. They like to call it a bureau, but when you are behind 20ft walls with spikes on top, I cant think of anything else other than a compound. Today we completed our Zemidjan training, which are scooter taxis. They will be our primary means of transport when our destination is too far away for our new Trek bikes, but dont worry we have to wear a helmet and we are not allowed to ever operate one. As I was riding along on the back of this scooter, locals were yelling, "Yovo, Yovo!" in a friendly manner. It is Fon for foreigner or white person.

The streets here are nuts! Traffic laws are nearly nonexistant and I just watch in amazement as we weave through vehicles and scooters w/o hitting anything. Yet, I would be willing to bet that the accident rate is lower here than in the states. Since everything is out of control on the streets, one's attention must be focused on driving; otherwise would be suicide.

Although Peace Corps has been in Benin since 1968, the local Beninese find us as quite a spectacle. We are starred at by nearly every person we pass, which is understandable giving the demographics down here. Just about every local person knows of Peace Corps so if someone asks (mainly kids) we just say "Je suis Peace Corps" and they understand. My french is quickly improving, since the training is purely conversational and I have to use it. When i move in with my host family, I will be only able to speak french...so I will learn very fast then :).

The day after we flew in to Cotonou, we started training. Right now they are focusing on language, safety, and Peace Corps Policy. This Wednesday, we move in with our host family in Porto Novo, which is fairly close to Cotonou. Currently I am living in a dormitory-like building in a different compound. The living arrangements are quite comfortable currently. I have a single bed w/ mosquito net, running water (but no hot water, only frigidly cold water; makes for quick showers), flushing toilets (but for some reason they dont have toilet seats), and meals are cooked for us.

One of the conversations we had yesterday was called gender discussion, where we split by sex and talked about what is was like to be a man or woman in Benin, Africa. The guys conversation actually focused primarily on the social conditions the women in Benin must deal with. Learning about what Beninese women must live through and also what the women in Peace Corps have to adapt to, really makes one appreciate the conditions in the USA. Despite its faults, the US is light years ahead of Benin. For example, when you talk about the gender gap in the US you might talk about wage gaps or CEOs being mostly men. Here, the gender gap can be described as Beninese women hardly have the right to say 'no' and sexual harassment is equivalent to rape; sexual assault doesnt exist. In fact, 'no' equals 'yes.' This does not mean that men take advantage of women often; men are just very persistent and hope the woman gives in. Furthermore, only about 10% of women who start school will finish high school and many will actually sleep with their teachers in return for grades, protection, and money.

The female volunteers have to become accustomed to constant unwanted attention in the form of men hitting on them. Male volunteers are there for support when necessary, but the good thing is when American women talk back to Beninese men they will back off. They are in more danger of getting robbed than anything else. It will definitely be much more stressful for them. Beyond that, the guys talked about the prevalence of prostitutes in Benin, their tactics, and that you can receive just about anything for less than 2 US dollars. Every volunteer is required to start projects that will build up the value of women within themselves. That is pretty much all we can do, but we are only ~80 volunteers in Benin trying to fight millions of years of oppression.

Sorry to end this blog post on such a low note. Maybe it will help put things in perspective for you living in the states; I know it has for me, and I have only been here 3-days.

Departure and Staging

2009-07-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

Right now I am in Philadelphia, PA.

I spent my last night at my mom's where we had a delicious family dinner of steak and a bunch of other things that I will not eat for a while. Afterward, I tried to pack everything, which actually turned into a large pile of stuff I need my parents to mail. Luckily I live with a host family for the first 3-months because they provide enough amenities that I do not need all of my camping gear. It was hard to say goodbye to Karissa, and then my mom and joe at the airport, especially since they were all such champs dealing with me being stressed out preparing to leave.

I flew out of the Milwaukee Airport and into Philadelphia, PA where "staging" occurs. Basically they brought everyone together from across the US, who are going to Benin, allowed us to meet each other and provided some very basic trainings. They covered things such as risk, safety, Peace Corps policies, and other important but equally drab subjects.

The large majority of people (and there are probably about 55-60 total) are in their 20s, with a bit more women than men. It is a sobering fact that only about 1/3rd will stay for the full 2-years. Peace Corps actually gave everyone $140 for tonight and tomorrow and a nice hotel room. Here is some food for thought: They gave me $140 dollars for two days in the US, while in Benin I will be making around $180 for the whole month! I think they are giving us a bit of a 'gift' (from the taxpayers, of course) so that we can have a good meal and treat ourselves a bit before forgoing the benefits that the United States provides.

Tomorrow I leave for Benin via a five hour layover in Paris, after getting multiple shots. If everything goes well (cross your fingers for Air France) I will be in Benin by Friday at sometime. I am ready.

Departure Date: July 22nd, 2009

2009-07-16T15:35:00.000-07:00

I am leaving for the Peace Corps in less than 1-week and I could not be more excited, but that excitment is tempered by the people I will miss. I am also a bit nervous. This will be my first time overseas, not to mention my french speaking skills leave something to be desired.

Despite that I am thrilled to put my education and organizing skills (which I learned at UW-Madison, in AmeriCorps, and in WISPIRG) to the test. I will be teaching environmental education/science, starting some eco-tourism projects, working with community members to work toward more sustainable forestry practices, as well as just working to foster a culture of environmental stewardship.

Check out these websites for more info:
http://www.peacecorps.gov/
http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.wherepc.africa.benin (this is info specific to Benin)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benin
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/images/maps/africa_abroad.jpg (Map of Africa, look in West Africa on the coast for Benin)