Gaani and Gardens

Hello Everyone!

What’s new in the last two weeks? Time marches on relentlessly, doesn’t it? I hope all is well with you and yours.

As far as life in Founougo is concerned, I am happy to finally be comfortably busy with good work. The latrine project marches on. Camille and I are recording weekly radio shows. And I am continuing to work with secondary school students trying to get a garden started.

Within that context, I have come up with a couple anecdotes to share with you all.

Last week I got to help a student use the computer. Djafarou, one of the most enthusiastic Environment Club members, came over to my house one evening last week. He explained that an NGO “Education for All” is holding a trivia contest and the 100 students in the county with the best responses will receive laptops. Djafarou said that he expected that many students would have teachers answer the questions for them. I am not sure if that is true, but /I/ wasn’t about to give him the answers! I told him to meet me at the radio station and we would use my computer and internet key to find the answers on Google. When we finally sat down, I pulled up French Google, and told Djafarou to write in his question. Then he really asked me, “How do I write it?” “… with the letters,” I replied. Needless to say, it was a very slow session. I don’t think that he had really every used a computer before, never mind Google. Fortunately, I had helped teach a computer basics ESOL class in Dorchester, and I thought back to the patience I had used for that. Djafarou was actually pretty good at discerning which response from Google he wanted to use. Also, he didn’t write his answers right on the contest sheet. Oh, no. He wrote them on a scrap piece of notebook paper so that he could write the answers in neatly later. I hope he succeeds, I thought that he did well.

A big part of the last two weeks has been trying to agree about some sort of student garden here in Founougo. Forgive me if I repeat from last post, but last year we just sort of jumped into gardening at the school without much of a plan. Some things worked out, some things didn’t. This year I was determined to start with a better plan of attack, before people put a lot of work into an ill-fated endeavor. It looks like the students of the Environment Club and I will be doing a vegetable garden close to the seasonally flooded road. Baron, my great work partner found a space. The land is relatively very fertile, and there is water available. My biggest concern is seeing that kids stick to a schedule and water the garden regularly, even without a school administrator ordering them to do so. We have broken ground, and we will see how it goes!

The past weekend was Gaani Fête in Banikoara, our nearest big town. Gaani Fête is the traditional holiday for the Bariba, the most predominant ethnic group in this area. The Bariba kings of different areas get together and ride through town on horses. I remember last year, getting to watch people do synchronized traditional dance, and getting to be randomly invited into people’s homes to eat. It was perhaps my favorite cultural moment up until that point. This year I wasn’t able to stay as long because I had plans to work on the student garden, which I did not want to put off. Still, Camille and I were able to visit with one of our friends from the school administration (all of us dressed up in our best Beninese party clothes!) And we were able to greet the Banikoara King in his courtyard, complete with drums and horns. It was fun to get to participate in celebrating the traditions here. I wish Gaani Fete happened twice a year!

The last update for this entry is about exercise. I have signed up to run a 10 kilometer race next Saturday, and I have been trying to train into better shape for that. Camille and I have done several distance bike rides (nice, since you get a good leg/cardio workout without the stress on knees). I’ve also done some power walking, jogging, and even some leg workouts at home. Saturday (Feb 8) will be my first road race and I suppose I am most anxious about pacing myself. Anyway, it’s good to have a hobby, especially one related to my personal well-being.

Ok, that’s all for this post folks. Thanks so much for reading.

With love,

Lauren

January's here!

Hi Everyone!

Happy New Year! I hope the new years finds you happy and in good help, with ambitions for the year to come. It’s still weird to me that this is my second January in Benin. It’s great to get a take 2, and great to be on the second, and final lap!

As many of you may know, I got to visit home for two weeks for Christmas and New Years. It was truly wonderful. I can’t thank enough the people who made the trip as great as it was. To those of you who I didn’t get in touch with and probably should have, I am very sorry. It’s amazing how difficult it can be to pick up the phone when you feel like you only have a short time at home. I hope to catch up with many more of you (with more than a 5 or 10 minute call!) after I close service.

Now to life in Benin, since that’s what this blog is really about. The process of re-adjusting to Benin went absolutely as smoothly as it could have. Of course I miss my family and friends, and it can be hard to accept another couple of months of life without temperature regulated showers, but thankfully, I had good work to come back to.

There was cement waiting to be transported to my post in Founougo upon my arrival. On literally my first full day back in village, I was able to go with a truck driver to bring the cement to Founougo, to store in my house. We have recived a little more than 2/3rds of the cement needed at this point. Ever since the cement arrived at my house, committee members and project beneficiaries have been showing up to get the cement packets to their final homes. Giving the materials away has been my favorite part of the project so far (and don’t worry, I make everyone sign for them!)

Besides the latrine project I have also been trying to get a school garden started at the secondary school, building off of work last semester with the environment club. That has actually been a big headache. When I got back to Founougo, the school administration had already required every student to bring wood and stalks for the fence, and there was a plot of land the size of a professional soccer field for the garden! After we argued about the size of the garden, we also argued about whether working the garden could be a punishment for late or rowdy students; then we argued about the water source (something I had been very concerned about in the beginning, and they said wasn’t a problem). All in all, I know it’s important to have a good plan up front, and not just charge in hoping it will all work out. I am looking into finding another (small) patch of land, close to the seasonal river, where I can work with environment club members. Hopefully that will come through. I don’t like to give a strong ‘no’, especially to ideas coming from the community, but this doesn’t seem like the kind of project where we can just ‘see if we can make it work’.

The neighbor-kids are doing really well, and seem to have had a good Christmas/New Years break. One of the older kids really helped me sweep the dust out of my house right when I got in. I really appreciated that. First, because the house was incredibly dusty (it is the dry season, and I left the windows open for my cat, Jack); second because I couldn’t mope and feel homesick and lonely with someone physically there helping me get re-situated. What a blessing.

Little Baké has had a cold, and I have been trying to teach her to cough into her elbow. She mostly gets it. She had a much harder time grasping the concept of not sharing food when you are sick. It’s tough when we really don’t have a language in common. Still, we both try.

Sharing food reminds me I am bravely trying a new one month regime of no-or-minimal carbs and no beer. I know everyone is made up a little differently, eats a little differently, exercises a little differently, but for as health conscious as I try to be, I have continued to gain weight throughout my peace corps service, and that has been really frustrating to me. No carbs is very challenging in village, and I have had to get a small portion of couscous or yams a few times. I don’t worry about that too much, it’s probably good to have at least a few carbs still in the diet, and it’s very good to re-set my system. I notice that I do get full much faster. My three staples have been beans, eggs, and sometimes meat, with carrots, onions, and tomatoes playing a major role to. So far I’ve been able to make a lot of meals without a carb base, and I feel full and energetic.

Anyway, back to the kids for a final story to close out this post. For Christmas my Mom very generously bought them all tamagachis, and this week I was finally able to give them out. I thought the fits sized digital pets would be great for them since they don’t run out of batteries quickly, and require minimal language skills. Plus the kids LOVE digital games (just like in America!). The kids really like them, and each of them remembered to say thank you without being asked. They foung the mini games in no time, and think it’s so funny when the tamagachi sleeps or goes to the bathroom. I made a point to tell the to share and be good with each other, and they were very receptive. Unfortunately, it seems like it’s a little above Baké’s comprehension. She just doesn’t seem to understand what to do. I think the other kids are helping her get it slowly. Each time I see one of the tamagachis, the experience points have gone up exponentially!

That’s about it for today. Thanks always for reading, and I hope to be in touch again soon!

Love,

Lauren

December 7

**Written December 7th**

Hello Everyone,

So, a lot has happened hasn’t it? I think I have to start right out by saying how grateful I am that my Dad is on the road to recovery after a surprise surgery on Thanksgiving Day. Of course it was very hard to be away from home during that time. I am so thankful to my Mom, Meg, and Kev for being so present, keeping me informed, and really supporting Dad. It’s been a hard time, but coming out of it there is a lot to be grateful for. And soon I will be visiting home for Christmas! I don’t think that I could be any more excited.

To catch you up on things here in Benin: volunteers got together a week before Thanksgiving in Kandi, for a feast. There were a lot of us, and it seemed like everyone got to contribute for a dish or two. I helped out with the two pumpkin pies, a chocolate cake and a little with the apple pie. Josh fried a turkey and grilled another one. Bij made a stuffing from scratch that was so good, I think I will miss it even when back in America. Amber brought green beans from her garden. All in all, it was an excellent meal and excellent company. We were determined to all eat together, so we had to connect up about 5 tables and when we all sat down there was barely enough silverware for everyone. I actually grabbed chopsticks and only later realized I was eating American Thanksgiving dinner in Benin West Africa with Asian utensils. The triple threat. It was an excellent time.

After Thanksgiving feast, Heidi was able to travel back to post with me and see my house! She and I shared a language class back in Training. It was so good to get the extra time with her, and to have a guest visit Founougo. We are not exactly on the way to anywhere, so it really meant a lot.

After that my Program Manager, Salomon visited. It was great to see him and to talk about projects. Talking with him is always encouraging.

The radio show charges on. The radio station is getting a little busier, which is good for them, but we had a few snafus in a row where the show wasn’t played, or wasn’t played at the right time. Camille and I started putting our foot down a little bit, saying that wasn’t ok. They were apologetic, and now I think we are back on course. Camille and I have really enjoyed recording some Christmas episodes. We taught the song and told the story of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and talked about Christmas traditions in America. It’s been fun.

The Environment Club is also doing well. After re-scheduling an absurd number of times, we did successfully make some model mudstoves, and I am really trying to help at least one student learn how to teach others to build them. We also learned about Moringa, a tree with a lot of nutritional and soil enriching properties. Last week we learned about natural insecticides that you can make here. Next week will be the last session of the semester, so we are hoping to do a Jeopardy review game.

Latrines are being built 10 out of 40 have their bases completely cemented, which is the biggest part of the work. Unfortunately, it’s surprisingly difficult to get cement, so further work is more or less paused for the moment.

That’s all the news from here. I hope you are all having a very merry December. As always, thanks for reading.

Love,

Lauren

Es Novembre

Hello Everyone!

Time is marching on here in Benin as we head towards thanksgiving. I hope everything is going well for all of you back home.

I’ve been getting to enjoy some time at post after a good amount of traveling around the country for training sessions, mid service medical, and camps. It’s good to be feeling settled in post, and to be getting down to work on my projects! Latrine construction is moving along very nicely. I am happy to report that there is not much to report there.

I have also been investing some time in an Environment Club at the secondary school. I feel like I learned from the trials of last year, and this year is going really well! One week we did tree identification and learned the scientific names and origins of common trees. Another week we learned about fuel efficient mud stoves (hopefully we will be building two tomorrow)! This week we studied soil types. I brought bags of sand, silt, and clay to class and we practiced different methods of testing the soil. After getting the basics down we were able to scout around the court yard for a good place for our garden next semester. That was educational for me too!

I got the clay sample from the ditches by the flooded road that I cross to get into town. This lead to a moment where I realized people were staring at me, and I almost wanted to say, “What? Haven’t you ever seen a white person digging up clay for an environment club before??” I guess they probably hadn’t…

The kids in my housing compound are back at school, but they still want to cook and cake when they can. I’m a little burnt out on it, but every once in a while I have to indulge them. The last two times we made a chocolate cake that was really great and required no eggs! We were all happy campers.

Besides the latrine construction project and the environment club, the third thing that is taking up my time is the English Radio Show that I do with Camille. It’s been a lot of fun, but power fluctuations at the radio station have been giving me grief. I haven’t been able to charge my laptop (and therefore record the show) a few times now. Fortunately I am currently charging the laptop in Banikoara, the closest town. I am looking at different plans for the future, but for now it is a little stressful. Still, tomorrow or the next day, Camille and I should be able to finish I Thanksgiving episode!

That’s the news from Benin for this week. Again, I hope you are all doing well, and as always, thanks for sharing in this adventure with me!

With love,

Lauren

Halloween and work

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well state side and enjoying the colder weather. It's getting a little cooler here, especially in the mornings, now that we are inthe dry season. I'm sure it's not that cold compared to the US, but it's noticable for us here!

I hope you all had a nice Halloween. I traveled to Parakou and gotto celebrate with a bunch of other volunteers. As always, it was nice to see lots of people that i don't see very often, and I even got to meet some more of the new volunteers who were sworn in this past September. I thought the party itself was a little bit more relaxed then last year, which was fine by me. When I honestly think back to last year and how I was still adjusting to life in village, at Halloween I was so excited to be around other Americans and internet and running water and electricity and familiar music, that I just wanted to stay up all night! This year I guess those things don't seem so exceptional. It's funny to realize both how normal life here has become for me, but also how many tricks I have discovered to keep a charged laptop and internet connection. I've got my priorities. 

A lot of people did dress up for the party, and it's always cool to see what people come up with 'where there is no iParty'! One guy got a local school uniform. A group dressed up together as the flinstones family. One Environment volunteer even got hit tailor to sew him a complete Captain Planet costume (he even had green hair spray). I thought my friend Sarah was going to dress up as Han Solo, so in collaboration I made a Luke Skywalker costume. Sadly, Sarah did not make it, so I was just that girl that dressed up as a Jedi, but I guess I'm ok with that. 

In more work related news, I am very happy to say that construction for the latrine project is underway! It feels like for so long it had to be all talk and no action, so it's great to finally breaking ground. It seems like I'm not the only one that feels that way either, the stone mason who is overseeing the project has been staying busy. Together we marked out the digging sites for all 40 latrines, spread across some 15 kilometers of town, in 3 days! Now a bunch of people have finished digging their pits, and 1/4 of the packets of cement have reached their final destination. Thank goodness! Haha. 

In my last post I mentioned Starting the environment club. I am happy to say that that is continuing nicely. We have had two sessions after the initial meeting. We did a tree identification tour, and explained the enefits of mud stoves. The group has been about 15 students these last two weeks, which suits me just fine. The kids do seem to be interested. I am so glad that I helped with Environment Camp in August, it gave me a lot of ideas!

The radio show that Camille and I are working on is also going really well. We are just finishing our 5th episode in which, after some grammar exercizes, we tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood. We read it line by line in English and French. I love getting to share a little American culture in with the grammar and vocabulary. With a story like this one, we hope that we also get to hit lot of different levels of English comprehension. 

That's the biggest part of what's been keeping me busy these days. This week, after a long break, the kids and I made a chocolate cake, which came out great. Last night Camille and I had a sleep over at my place where we tried again to make pizza (moderate success). 

I am getting more and more excited for Christmas and my brief visit to the States, and for my family visiting here afterwards! There are lots of things to looks forward to and I can't wait to tell you about them!

Thanks for reading,

With love,

Lauren

Grand Popo and a day

Hello everyone!

Things are certainly picking up here. I think the rain has stopped until next spring, kids are back in school, and work is getting rolling!

Before talking about more work related stuff, I have a cultural anecdote to share with you all! A few weeks ago, Camille informed me that the new 'youth center' had opened. It's sort of a large cement event hall, sort of like an american legion, where meetings and social events are held. Camille told me that every market day for the past two weeks there had been a dance competiton at the youth center after the market closed up. We decided to go to the last one. 

It was very exciting to see how many people turned up. 3 or 4 teams of two guys competed, doing choreohraphy they each wrote together with some break dancing thrown in. The judges were professors that Camille and I knew, which was cool and funny. The dancing was very good. In between sets, and while the judges were deliberating they would play music and anyone could go up there. One of my teenage neighbors jumped up there and he was really good! A fun time was had by all. 

A lot of my time not spent at dance competitons has been taken up with the radio show Camille and I are writing. I write out some basic english lessons and we record them in advance together at the radio station. We recently got to listen to the first episode played on the air! We joked around about how we can now say we have sung (the abc's) on the radio. All in all we felt like it went really well, and we were surprised by how many people told us they listened to it. It's been good fun work. 

Last week I, and most other volunteers who started the same time I did, went to a training in Grand Popo. If the studious reader thinks the name Grand Popo sounds oddly familiar, it's because that's where I vacationed for Christmas last year. Needless to say, I and many others were excited to get to go back, and for work related reasons no less. As it happened, the training was really great. People were focused and motivated and the material was well organized. The venue was beautiful and all the tasty, healthy food was a big shot in the arm for me. It was wonderful to catch up with other volunteers and hear about their work. And the ocean was absolutely marvelous. You can't beat sitting in the sand looking at the waves and the stars after a long day of sessions. It was heavenly. 

So I got to tell you all about a whole week of activity in a broad sweeping paragraph, now I'd like to take the opportunity to tell you specifics of my day today, because i think it's noteworthy in it's goodness and typicalness:

I woke up early and set right out so that I would get to the radio station on time. I got to stop and eat beans for breakfast. This was exciting because i like the bean lady and her food, but it's usually gone by lunch time when I'm looking for beans. 

When I got to the radio station I realized we were going to have some major technical difficulties. My laptop charger doesn't seem to be working (I am working on replacing it now). Realizing that put me in a bad mood. Besides all the creature comforts, we needed my laptop to record the radio show. Camille and i decided to do as much as we could. We actually got the whole show recorded and saved but not exported before it shut down. 

We decided to get drinks and lunch at the buvette that has cold drinks and we actually got to eat with two professors while we were there. Then we went over to the secondary school and I did some lesson planning for Environment Club,  and announced it in all the classes. That made for some weird deja vu with last year, but my French is at least a little better now. 

Even though I knew I wouldn't have much time, I went home for a bit. When it was time to leave for Environment club I was so tired and didn't want to go. Still, I did, and on my way I bumped into the woman from my latrine commitee. (She's the one I wanted to be friends with, and she told my couterpart Baron that she couldn't understand anything I said. He said give it a week.) Well, we are friends now, and when she saw me she said 'You just don't get tired, do you?' That put a smile on my face for the whole rest of the walk to the secondary school!

When I got to the secondary school I still felt nervous and thought I would be just as happy to bump the first environment club meeting back a week. However, we did have the meeting, and it went really well. I am co-leading with a different teacher this year and he was not only charasmatic and engaging with the kids but also much more collaborative with me (though my improved confidence and french level probably encourages collaboration too). We picked a club president (a girl!) and two 'responsables' or secretaries. People were attentive and interested. This year we are diving in with a 6 week curriculum, so I hope that will stear us well. 

After that I came home and made some stir fry. I even shared some with the kids, though too many vegetables are always weird for them, at least if they are not made into a sauce. When they all said good night I was ready to crash!

Tomorrow will probably be a day in the house with laundry and planning. I can't even say how glad i am to be getting busier. 

I also can't even say how glad I am to be able to share all of this with you. Thanks for reading, thanks for sharig this journey with me. 

Much love,

Lauren

Grand Popo and a day

Hello everyone!

Things are certainly picking up here. I think the rain has stopped until next spring, kids are back in school, and work is getting rolling!

Before talking about more work related stuff, I have a cultural anecdote to share with you all! A few weeks ago, Camille informed me that the new 'youth center' had opened. It's sort of a large cement event hall, sort of like an american legion, where meetings and social events are held. Camille told me that every market day for the past two weeks there had been a dance competiton at the youth center after the market closed up. We decided to go to the last one. 

It was very exciting to see how many people turned up. 3 or 4 teams of two guys competed, doing choreohraphy they each wrote together with some break dancing thrown in. The judges were professors that Camille and I knew, which was cool and funny. The dancing was very good. In between sets, and while the judges were deliberating they would play music and anyone could go up there. One of my teenage neighbors jumped up there and he was really good! A fun time was had by all. 

A lot of my time not spent at dance competitons has been taken up with the radio show Camille and I are writing. I write out some basic english lessons and we record them in advance together at the radio station. We recently got to listen to the first episode played on the air! We joked around about how we can now say we have sung (the abc's) on the radio. All in all we felt like it went really well, and we were surprised by how many people told us they listened to it. It's been good fun work. 

Last week I, and most other volunteers who started the same time I did, went to a training in Grand Popo. If the studious reader thinks the name Grand Popo sounds oddly familiar, it's because that's where I vacationed for Christmas last year. Needless to say, I and many others were excited to get to go back, and for work related reasons no less. As it happened, the training was really great. People were focused and motivated and the material was well organized. The venue was beautiful and all the tasty, healthy food was a big shot in the arm for me. It was wonderful to catch up with other volunteers and hear about their work. And the ocean was absolutely marvelous. You can't beat sitting in the sand looking at the waves and the stars after a long day of sessions. It was heavenly. 

So I got to tell you all about a whole week of activity in a broad sweeping paragraph, now I'd like to take the opportunity to tell you specifics of my day today, because i think it's noteworthy in it's goodness and typicalness:

I woke up early and set right out so that I would get to the radio station on time. I got to stop and eat beans for breakfast. This was exciting because i like the bean lady and her food, but it's usually gone by lunch time when I'm looking for beans. 

When I got to the radio station I realized we were going to have some major technical difficulties. My laptop charger doesn't seem to be working (I am working on replacing it now). Realizing that put me in a bad mood. Besides all the creature comforts, we needed my laptop to record the radio show. Camille and i decided to do as much as we could. We actually got the whole show recorded and saved but not exported before it shut down. 

We decided to get drinks and lunch at the buvette that has cold drinks and we actually got to eat with two professors while we were there. Then we went over to the secondary school and I did some lesson planning for Environment Club,  and announced it in all the classes. That made for some weird deja vu with last year, but my French is at least a little better now. 

Even though I knew I wouldn't have much time, I went home for a bit. When it was time to leave for Environment club I was so tired and didn't want to go. Still, I did, and on my way I bumped into the woman from my latrine commitee. (She's the one I wanted to be friends with, and she told my couterpart Baron that she couldn't understand anything I said. He said give it a week.) Well, we are friends now, and when she saw me she said 'You just don't get tired, do you?' That put a smile on my face for the whole rest of the walk to the secondary school!

When I got to the secondary school I still felt nervous and thought I would be just as happy to bump the first environment club meeting back a week. However, we did have the meeting, and it went really well. I am co-leading with a different teacher this year and he was not only charasmatic and engaging with the kids but also much more collaborative with me (though my improved confidence and french level probably encourages collaboration too). We picked a club president (a girl!) and two 'responsables' or secretaries. People were attentive and interested. This year we are diving in with a 6 week curriculum, so I hope that will stear us well. 

After that I came home and made some stir fry. I even shared some with the kids, though too many vegetables are always weird for them, at least if they are not made into a sauce. When they all said good night I was ready to crash!

Tomorrow will probably be a day in the house with laundry and planning. I can't even say how glad i am to be getting busier. 

I also can't even say how glad I am to be able to share all of this with you. Thanks for reading, thanks for sharig this journey with me. 

Much love,

Lauren