The Hot Season Cometh

Hello Everyone,

Things are heating up in Founougo, and that is not only because project work is getting under way. The ‘Chaleur’ or the hot season is starting, and it is a big adjustment! Here in Northern Benin there is the rainy season from May to October and the dry season the rest of the year. The first half of the dry season is cool, and I actually wanted my fleece jacket on a lot of mornings. Those days are over. The other morning I woke up and stepped outside and at 7:30 it was already 90 degrees! And it’s going to get a little worse before it gets better. Cold drinks are going to be my best friend for the next couple weeks!

Fortunately, having some good work to do does take your mind off of the heat, or give you a reason to persevere it. Last week I had a ‘consequence assessment’ meeting with a couple latrine committee members that provided an interesting communication challenge. It became evident that I spoke French, Baron-my-counterpart spoke French and Dendi, the third meeting member spoke Dendi and Bariba, and the fourth spoke Bariba. This resulted in a weird translation telephone, as a question and answer circulated through the room, switching from one language to another. God only knows what we lost in translation, but we all tried to be attentive and clear, and the meeting was helpful.

In other news, I have become acquainted with a gardening group that has a fenced in space close to the flooded road. They actually were kind enough to give me a small plot of my own, and I have planted some carrots (fingers crossed that they grow!!). The first few days of preparing the soil, planting the seeds and watering were really a joy. It was so good to be doing some hands on work, and to be working alongside my neighbors. At one point I was waiting around at the garden, and I got to pull water up from the well for women who were watering their plots. The well at the garden is much smaller than the one at my house, so it felt like an easy way to help. It was so nice to really feel like I was being of assistance in an immediate way, and it was refreshing to, for once, have the other person in the conversation be the one trying to find a new way to say thank you every time they come back for more water. Finally the plots were watered and it was time to wash off our hands and feet. People do really try to stay clean, quite an uphill battle here. I was trying to rinse off my feet and one grandmother was ‘helpfully’ pointing out spots I missed. This is very normal here. Women have each other’s back, and aren’t shy about letting you know when something needs to be adjusted. However, before I knew it, the old gardener was actually helping me wash my feet, and then washing them for me. And suddenly I was back on my familiar side of the equation, receiving so much more than I could give. All I could do was laugh and be grateful and try to joke in Bariba, ‘She is the mom and I am the little kid!’

Since the seeds have been planted I have gradually relinquished gardening duty to some little kids that were very determined to help. Despite the feet-washing anecdote above, it can sometimes be tough to know when it’s rude to refuse help, and when it’s good to assert your American independence. I have been more and more grateful to those determined little kids though, because I have spent the last couple days traveling. I am happy to say that I am in the process of applying for the grant for the latrine project. This has required some meetings with my supervisor in Banikoara and more Internet and electricity than I can usually find in Founougo. I have to say, it has been a pretty ideal time to be in the land of cold drinks!

I hope everything is well with you as you are reading this. I understand that there has been some snow in New England. I hope you are all staying safe, and finding some time to enjoy the season.

Thanks for reading!

With love,

Lauren

Funny Valentine

Hi Everyone,

Happy belated Valentine’s Day! Time just seems to be moving faster and faster. I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day, and know that I am feelin’ the love in the time that you are taking to read this blog entry! I am sending my love to all of you, as I try to keep you in the loop about all the crazy things happening over here. I think about you guys back home all the time, and I appreciate your support so much. And also, at Valentine’s Day I always enjoy remembering ‘how deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure’ and that motivates me to try to show and remind people how much they are loved a little more or a little better. It is certainly something to keep working on all the time.

As for Founougo, things have been going well here, with some worthy challenges cropping up. There are now planning committees for the latrine project in Founougo A and Founougo B. In Founougo B I required that a woman be part of the planning committee, and that has been a real educational experience for me. When I met her and learned that she was a seamstress and spoke French, I was so excited to make the connection and even hoped we might be friends. However, by the first committee meeting I was intimidated, to say the least. She came to the meeting (arriving more promptly than most of the other committee members) with a huge platter of over-the-counter medicines balanced on her head, which she was selling. She also had a three month old baby with her, who she was either bouncing on her knee, breast feeding, or securing on her back with a large piece of fabric. After waiting a significant time for other members to arrive, she turned to me and said, “I am a housewife, I can’t be here all day.” In a culture where rest-time is valued, and it is difficult to be in a hurry, this woman is busy. Fortunately, other essential committee members arrived shortly after that, and we were able to have the meeting. That whole committee has been impressively knowledgeable.

In light of a few successful meetings, I traveled to the Peace Corps workstation in Kandi to start filling out the grant applications. It takes a lot of time, and I got some good work done. However, I can’t say that I was suffering, because we all ate very well. We discovered a waffle maker in the workstation, and someone had left chocolate-raspberry coffee that they didn’t want. With the help of fancy electrical appliances, we were able to have iced coffees and waffles with strawberry jelly; two things I didn’t think I would see in this country.  I also received some packages from home, which is always very exciting. Mail might not be at all dependable here, but because of that, whenever it does arrive, it’s like a mini Christmas.

Back at post I had another meeting with committee B which featured a retired health worker who wasn’t able to make it to the previous meetings. He really pushed to make nicer latrines, even if that meant fewer of them. There are a lot of politics to deciding what kind of latrines we will make, so there is still some potential to discuss and agree about something middle ground. However, I was disappointed that people were pushing for more expensive latrines, even if it means that fewer people can get them. It is an understandable desire, but I don’t think that the more expensive latrines would be as beneficial for the community; they would be more like a one time gift. The more I thought about it the more I realized how strongly I believe that it’s important to build something that is durable, but made from simple local material so that the project can be replicated by community members without the assistance of a ‘project’. The discussion continues, and we will see how it goes.

Those are the updates for the moment. Thanks for reading, talk to you soon.

With love,

Lauren

Fete du Ganni

Hello Everyone!

Happy February! A year ago today, I had just moved to Hawaii and was starting my internship in Agroforestry. It’s funny to think back to another time of major learning and transition. There were tough times, but I am so glad that I had that experience. It is an encouraging reminder during this adventure.

The past week had some long hours of being anxious that I wasn’t doing enough,h and (therefore) missing home. However, despite the angst, there were some really cool things that did get to happen, and that’s what I would like to get to tell you all about.

I had my first meeting with one of my two latrine comities. When everyone arrived, it became clear that none of the members spoke French, only Bariba! Apparently, there was supposed to be a French-speaking teacher, but he couldn’t make it. There was one guy who spoke some French and with the help of Baron-my-counterpart, who speaks several other local languages, we were able to muddle through. The meeting took over 2 hours. We did an exercise that Baron and I had done during a training session, putting the steps of a project on order. The comity members were surprised by how many steps there were, and it seemed like they felt like they were more a part of the process after doing the activity. We talked about various latrine logistics, and tried to decide what the community’s contribution would be. I got nervous that people were not ready to contribute significant time and resources. This would suggest that they aren’t very invested in the project. At the same time, I can understand wanting to see how much you can get out of a project, and therefore towing a hard line. Next meeting we will look at the budget in more detail, and it should become clearer then.

At the end of the meeting the president of the comity, who had not said much up until that point, spoke up. After all the logistics, and negotiating, and question answering was finished, he turned to me and said (with the help of other translators), ‘Please be patient with us, we have never done a project like this before, and this is all new.’

I really appreciated that he said that. Explaining my perceptions of a project, and trying to understand theirs, and explaining latrines, and negotiating logistics that are the best for the people of the town, all takes time and energy. Sometimes it feels like I am really just tiring out the people I am trying to work with, trying to incorporate them as much as possible. I felt like the comity president’s words indicated that they really do want to do this work, and learn how to do it better. We will see what happens next!

That meeting was on Friday, and Saturday was the “Fete du Ganni” in Banikoara, my closest major town. Ganni Fete is a traditional Bariba holiday when the local kings parade through town on horses. A couple of us volunteers got together to watch the festivities together. There were a lot of people out on the streets and, as we were able, we tried to chat them up in Bariba, which people loved. Some women befriended us and showed us where some traditional dancing was going to happen, and helped us get a good view. The local kings were all sitting in flowing robes in a row in front of the dance area. When we got there one older man was dancing holding what looked like a short horse-hair pony tail. There were perhaps four guys wailing away on the drums. After a few minutes 8 men in dance costumes, each with flowy pants, a fez, their owns small horse tail, and a staff, all took the dance area. They danced in amazing unison, sometime spinning their staffs of throwing them in the air. It was one of the coolest cultural moments I have gotten to observe so far.

After the dancing was over the woman turned to us and said in Bariba, “Now we eat”. They took us to a nearby house where we greeted everyone and sat down. They presented food in front of us (rice and yam pilé with spicy sauce). We all hesitated, sort of embarrassed to be accepting food from people we just met. They saw that we were hesitant and said, “Oh, wait a minute” and sent some people off. They came back with forks and spoon! The funny thing was, we each held our eating utensil and looked at each other and said, “you know, it’s actually easier to eat this with our hands!” After washing our hands we all dug in (without silverware) and thanked our hosts profusely.

The rest of the weekend held some good time hanging out together, and swapping work experiences and cultural tips. It is always cathartic to get to commiserate and encourage each other, never mind chat in English and trade news/gossip from the states!

I hope you are all doing well. I am looking forward to getting to visit home, now in less than two months! Time does move right along.

Thanks for reading,

With love,

Lauren