Spelling, Running, Glowing

Today, the new training group arrives, Peace Corps Benin 2014-2016, exactly two years after I did…

And exactly two months from today, I will move out of my village...

Yikes.

Oddly enough, I haven’t been doing much day-counting lately, which seems a good way to spend these last precious moments. I fluctuate between impatient and sentimental, and I thrive on the busy days that make this whirlwind of an experience feel like it has been worth the while.

June seemed to fly by. To start, I traveled with two of my English students, Hubert and Fleurette, to a national spelling bee. Little Flower had a rough time with the ten hour bus ride – her first cross country travel experience was an exhausting, sickening one, and it was a relief that she was at least able to take home third place!

Last week, Peace Corps Benin’s gender equality fundraiser, Tour du Benin, made it to my neck of the woods, and I ran a 15 mile leg to help raise money and awareness. Thanks to all those who contributed to support the runners – the committee raised over $3,000 toward future gender equality projects and activities!

The rest of the month has been consumed with my final large project, the co-coordinating of Camp GLOW, Peace Corps’ annual camp for girls, replicated nation and world-wide! Camp GLOW Porto Novo will begin next Sunday, welcoming 50 young girls from all over the south of Benin.

Camp GLOW strives to empower young women, so that they may become confident, motivated leaders in their communities. We recognize that the achievement of gender equality can serve as a solution to Benin's needs as a developing country, and through camp GLOW (as is the Peace Corps MO) we are supporting personal growth among the individuals who will make these solutions realities. This means encouraging girls to seize opportunities for leadership and independence, education of course being an important means for doing so. Throughout our week together, my fellow volunteers and I, as well as Beninese counselors, will be exposing participants to civic engagement, providing health education, promoting confidence-building activities, and offering mentorship from role-models such as professional women guest-speakers, Beninese counselors, and Peace Corps Volunteers. Additionally, we encourage girls to become well-rounded individuals through many other activities, including art and sports.

For the sake of more exciting and tangible ideas about what we’ll be up to at Camp GLOW, I’ll do my best to post pictures and stories in the next couple of weeks!

At that point, I’m sure my focus will have shifted as well: from final projects in village, to my Close of Service trip! John and I will be backpacking for three weeks in Italy, Greece, and France – a bona fide “food tour” for a couple of hungry RPCVs! More on that to come…

Until then, thanks for keeping the good vibes coming as my time here is quickly going!

One Hundred (100)

And so, the months, weeks and days, they must have passed quickly after all…

As of my Close of Service conference earlier this month, at which I was assigned my departure date (August 28), today marks the start of my final 100 days in Benin!

Day counting has become somewhat of a ritual here. Bold diagonal lines ceremoniously end another day come and gone in all its glory and ennui, filling up two years of calendar space, and it’s clear that I have somehow taken to living this life in mile markers – typically three-month periods leading to a big event to look forward to, or sometimes simply the idea of “gotta get through this one and onto the next…” And I think this is the first time in two years that I have such little fear of the next stint. For the first time – just in time for the end – I feel bigger than the vastness of time I obsess over here. Maybe it’s because this is the end. Home is around the corner. I’ve almost made it. And it surely doesn’t hurt that I will be plenty busy with school events, long distance runs, rainy season gardens, summer camps, and a good amount of Peace Corps paperwork!

At this point in my service, the anxiety builds in a new way. Is three months enough to finish strong with my projects, leave my work partners and my community on good terms, and feel ready for my return home?  Stay tuned to find out, I suppose...

Happy summertime, friends. See you next season :)

Thank You

A GRAND MERCI to everyone who has helped Camp GLOW meet its fundraising goal!

In only two weeks, we obtained enough money to cover all camp expenses – and $700 extra! – This extra money will be used toward other Peace Corps Partnership projects that need a boost.

Thank you so much for all of your generosity. This amazing opportunity wouldn't be possible without you!

If you didn't get the chance to donate but you’d still like to help out a 2014 project in Benin, check out the following activities:

Tour du Benin (Indiegogo) – A country-wide run from north to south, volunteers will run alongside host country nationals to promote and raise funds for gender equality efforts. I've got a 40 km leg in June!

Camp Bro (PCPP) – “Boys Respecting Others” is another week-long camp encouraging responsible, gender-equal behavior among adolescent boys.

National Spelling Bee (PCPP) – A country-wide English competition for middle schoolers qui aiment l’anglais!

Merci beaucoup!

As Jesus Rises, so too shall the Roof

No Peeps, no chocolate bunnies, no egg hunts or ages-2+ plastic grass… Another holiday in village, another reminder of how bizarre my life is.

Easter, according to my neighbors, is the biggest party in Houeda. Saturday at midnight, there was a procession of children drumming and singing. Sunday afternoon, everyone choked down spaghetti, rather than their preferred nightly dish of sauce with pâte (a hardened mixture of corn flour and water. Think hard cream of wheat, but corn-flavored… I should really do a food blog one of these days). And Sunday evening, the blaring music came. Adults drank, children danced, babies cried, and the yovo took a peek and then stayed inside with a batch of burned cookies and a kitten she high-jacked from her concession family when they weren’t looking (I have mice now, I needed him to make my house smell all cat-y!). The music continued until 6 AM Monday, provided a short break for more singing and screaming of “ALLELUIA!” and then started back up until mid morning...

Meanwhile, down on the farm, my supervisor Moïse (French for “Moses.” This is ironic. You’ll see why.) invited 40 people from his congregation, plus me, to “receive the light.” Moïse is part of a New Age Japanese religion, “Mahikari.” Wiki it.

After two years, I sometimes find it difficult to be shocked by things here… But to see a group of Beninese men, women, and children face north and chant incantations in Japanese, I was humbled by how little I’ve seen or have come to understand about this world.

The ceremony began with ten minutes of chanting in Japanese, bowing, and clapping. I was then introduced to a kind older woman named Jeanne, who asked politely if she could now give me the light of God. I was instructed to close my eyes as she raised her hands over me for another ten minutes. Through later observation, I found that most people passing on the light (those in Jeanne’s position) used this time to check their phones with their free hands. I thought that was funny… Step three, I was instructed to turn around for another ten minutes while Jeanne periodically touched pressure points on my head, neck, and back, politely saying “excuse me, dear Michelle, you will now receive light at point number ___” with each gentle touch. At the end, we bowed and clapped together, thanking god for sharing his light with me… A truly bizarre experience, but it meant a great deal to Moïse for me to finally receive the light of his faith.

Folks back home, you may be confused. You may be wondering what the hell is up with my small African village, full of party-hardy Christians and practitioners of New Age Eastern religions? Valid question.

Benin is historically and culturally noted as the birthplace of voodoo, the traditional animist religion that has spread across West Africa to Haiti and Louisiana, famous for goddesses and infamous for dolls and jinxing. And while it is still the most prominent religion in the rural regions of southern Benin, most people today identify with several religions at once. In fact, it’s an amazing harmony that people have established here, allowing to each their own, hardly scoffing at one who is an animist at heart, but a Catholic on Sundays.

Though the mixing of such starkly different religions can seem incongruous, it’s a testament to all of the changes to which this place and this culture have been subjected – through colonization, through globalization, through the status of a developing country. I remember a conversation I had with my maman when I first moved to village, about the perils of poverty and the prominence of religion here (Have I mentioned this? Faith in god is mentioned quite frequently in conversation, it’s used to market various products, it’s the basis of the local music and film industries, it’s advertised on bumper stickers, license plates, and delivery trucks…). Anyway, she said that “to live here, it’s necessary that you believe in god. Because there is little we can do and it’s god who will take care.”And as most people here live so close to nature and have so few means to control it, it’s impossible to abandon traditional beliefs about the powers of wind and water, for example… But frankly, the benefits that come with joining a church of the missionaries are also understandable. Churches are typically the largest, nicest buildings here. Funds for development so often have spiritual strings attached, and the ceremonies themselves have been strategically tailored to the African ceremonial traditions, incorporating a great deal of song and dance.

And so, no one seems to blame anyone else for their religious choice(s), and they are especially willing to try anything once. It’s an admirable part of this culture, the peaceable religious component, though somewhat of an anomaly here, as it’s still in my opinion a culture very much concerned with homogeneity and definition. I guess the general rule is that as long as you believe in something, you’re good…

Well, that’s all for my monthly story / cultural commentary… Just a few holidays to go until I can properly celebrate them in my own American way! It will be once again sad to miss family birthdays and the 4^th of July, but I’ll be happy to make it home in time for the big four – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year! In the mean time, 2014 is already 33% over, and that’s wild.

Glow, Baby, GLOW!

Friends, Family, and Gender Equality Enthusiasts:

 

Each year, Peace Corps Benin hosts Camp GLOW ("Girls Leading Our World") in the country's capital of Porto Novo.

 

For one week in July, 50 Beninese girls (ages 12-16) will join influential women from their communities, along with Peace Corps Volunteers, to learn a variety of life skills, build confidence, and become better leaders and students. The camp's primary objective is to encourage girls to stay in school, but we have a lot of fun too!

 

To make this camp possible in 2014, we need your help! 

 

Donations can be made here to help us raise our goal of $5368.53.

 

GLOW is among my favorite activities of Peace Corps service. The confidence these girls gain in one week is astonishing and can have an incredible impact on their performance in school and decisions during adolescence. I can't wait to host this year's camp! 

Any and all contributions are much appreciated. 

Shine on, and go GLOW!

Strike Tour

My big event in March was a 5-day bike tour around the south-west corner of the country. I joined five other volunteers from all sectors (Education, Health, Business Development, and Environmental Action) to present to over 600 high school students.

Our goal was to raise awareness and encourage high school students to make smart choices about staying in school and planning for their futures by delaying sex or practicing safe sex and family planning. The theme, “Je planifie parce-que j’espère” (I plan because I hope), addressed the four main reasons to practice family planning. F.P. can allow them to complete their educations, maintain their personal and family health, assure prosperity for the future, and contribute to environmental sustainability.

The greatest challenges were not the arduous kilometers covered by bike, nor the heat rashes spawned from hours spent sweating through the upper-90s of hot season. Rather, we fell into the hands of fate as we conducted our tour of multiple high schools in the midst of a nation-wide teacher (and student!) strike.

While the strike had officially started in February due to several teachers being owed salaries from the year before, school in most communities continued as usual. In my community, most teachers kept attending school lest their names be placed on a black list. But only a week before the tour, I had arrived at the high school for my weekly Girls / English club (everything has become a “slash English” club these days) and discovered a ghost town. That very morning, a group of activists had raided the school, insisting all of the teachers and students go home so that the government may take their strike seriously.

“The rebels!” my school director drunkenly lamented to me from his sad, empty school. I couldn't help but think back to the largest teacher strike I can remember, state-side in Wisconsin, and that between administration members like this school director and the unresponsive President of Benin, there seem to be some regular Scott Walkers here too, labeling the act of standing up for your rights and your paycheck as “rebellious.” To be fair, there are a multitude of differences between Benin and Wisconsin, Yayi Boni and Walker... And in the cultural context, the preferred method here would be to keep on working, though maybe not as hard, and to complain until something changed. I guess that didn’t work well enough, because action was taken and the strike went on.

In retaliation, the government cut pay for all teachers, even those still working, and the strike extended from secondary schools to primary and university, and now, to the students themselves.

If a strike continues for a certain period of time (3 months?), the year is declared null, and students must repeat a year. That’s the worst part. School here is not free, and those school fees will have gone to waste, never to be seen again. A year of school fees can make a huge difference, especially for girls, who often have to forgo school if there is only enough money in Papa’s pocket for one child’s fees and she has a brother. Thus, the students are the biggest losers here.

And so, they didn’t want to take it anymore either. They took to the streets, to the public squares, to the mayors’ offices, with songs and chants and youthful protests. But I’m not certain if they were organized or empowered enough to be recognized, and the strike goes on…

Several schools we visited then required a rallying of straggling students and teachers, waiting around hopefully for some work to do. An overall audience of 600 plus wasn't too shabby though, given the circumstances, and it was an exciting experience for the volunteers involved to see new parts of the country, improve our presentation skills, and witness the varying attitudes across communities.

This week, I rest my legs and continue trying to master the art of not sweating so much. It’s been a steady 99^ο for the past 5 hours, and I’ll have to wait until June to get my April showers... Despite a hold on school activities, I find little projects here and there in the mean time. Coming up: a Beninese style bachelorette party for a fellow volunteer, and various “celebrations” of World Malaria Day – April 25! Be glad USA is Anopheles free!

With that, I'll wish you a happy spring time, and a happy belated Beninese St. Patty's Day:

Queen of the Hippos

I’ve officially completed my tour of the “Peace Corps approved” countries surrounding Benin! While Niger and Nigeria are off-limits according to Peace Corps’ safety and security standards, Burkina Faso was my third and final neighbor to visit, following Togo / Ghana last November.

Two weeks ago, a ten hour bus ride took my travel buddy and me to the north of Benin where we stopped over for a day to enjoy the tasty cuisine, rolling landscape, and dry air that make that half of the country feel like an entirely different one from my home in the sticky south. The next morning at 3 am, we were off in a “tro tro” (think big white van large enough for 12 people – or in West Africa’s case, 24 –  that children all over America are told to avoid, regardless of how much candy is inside). The early morning trip to the border was a bizarre tour to pick up passengers and load sacs of grains and barrels of smuggled oil onto the top of the tro. As the sun rose and the heat settled, the adventure had only just begun.

We spent 2 nights in Burkina’s fun-to-say capital city, Ouagadougou, marveling at the similarities and differences from Benin: people are calmer, the city was cleaner and the roads more developed, everyone rode bikes everywhere (!), donkeys pulled carts, the expat community was more expansive, food was cheaper, and beer was better…  We were in a vacation mindset indeed. But having learned from the frustrations of previous West Africa travel, we were prepared to see that brokenness doesn’t know borders: men were still inconsiderately persistent, prices were still inflated for skin color, begging was more prevalent, and taxi drivers didn’t seem to know their way around as well as Benin’s motos.

Realizing we’d grudgingly have to forfeit some of our Benin Peace Corps Volunteer know-it-all status for that of a tourist, we agreed to call it an “exploration” from there on out. We moved on to discover the southwest corner of the country, via an 8 hour train to Bobo-Dioulasso!  The second largest city, Bobo was far more calm, clean, and scenic than Ouaga. Only 1 day and night to spend, but it was an enjoyable walk around a sleepy city, to see an old mosque of traditional architecture, enjoy local music, and taste the delicious yogurt that the country has been known for.

According to other travelers, “the only thing worth seeing” in Burkina Faso is Banfora. While this small town is the center of many attractions, I thought it paled in comparison to Bobo’s character and had little else to offer than a lovely hotel and proximity to tourist destinations. Each day we spent our mornings shuttling to the outskirts to see the sights.

An early morning wake up was necessary to catch the hippos while it was still cool enough for them to remain above water where they can be seen. Having read some horror stories about the danger of an angry hippo, I had my reservations as I stepped into a rickety pirogue (traditional canoe), paddled with a stick. The sight of the hippos was majestic however, as we closed in on a family of 12 waking up slowly near shore. We asked the guide to keep his distance, and at the snort and shake of one beastly potamus, I jumped a little! Recognizing my fear and uneasiness, the guide pulled up some weeds from the lake, and proceeded to braid me a beautiful crown and necklace. I smelled like a lake, but I was Queen of the Hippos for a day.

From there, we visited natural domes left by the receding of water and erosion of wind, as well as beautiful waterfalls, running strong in the dry season. The falls were surrounded in every direction by fields of sugar cane, irrigated by the run off. We noticed unexpectedly advanced irrigation equipment running all day long and were told the fields belong to a Saudi Arabian investor who exports the sugar cane and pays his Burkinabe workers well…  The evening before, we had met with a Burkina PCV from the region, who informed us that water was often shut off in many of the surrounding villages due to shortages. A sad truth, seen also in Benin and everywhere in the world I’m sure, that priority is given to those with money and power, even if a majority of people’s basic needs aren’t being met.

Day two of Banfora began with a long dusty ride through ever familiar red roads, past the sugar cane fields and hippo turn off. Mid morning, we found ourselves in the village of Sindou, boasting natural peaks of magma and eroded domes. The formations continue into Mali and are eerie enough for many a movie (Lonely Planet compares the place to the setting of “Planet of the Apes”!). I tested my fear of heights with a bit of climbing, and didn’t get very high.

The final destination was to a sacred Baobab tree, guarded by an ancient Rafiki man, who was ever enthusiastic to invite us INSIDE his tree. Yes, the trunk of this quintessential African tree can host 15 people if they are all small enough to crawl through the hole... 18 meters circumference, this tree is host not only to Rafiki man and tree-hugging tourists, but to bees and bats and termites, who aren’t afraid to coexist!

After a year and a half experiencing travel in West Africa, I think we did well to keep an appropriate perspective. It was a trip for further discovery of lands like the one we have come to call our own, and the times when we were able to feel relaxed and comfortable were always welcome. Most nights, we were able to enjoy a wonderful meal and tuck into air conditioned hotel rooms. We even got to watch some of the Olympics (spoicy)!

Now, back to “business as usual,” February is almost over and I’m in the 6 to 7 months-to-go mark. So very sadly, I move forward without my dear pet Geo, whose company and presence helped me through the last year and a half of life alone in my village. I hope I have the strength to go it alone, as work slows, weather warms, and cultural frustrations wear on me.

At this time, the journey continues, but the focus shifts. There are more adventures and experiences ahead, none of which will be anything like the one I have grown accustomed to in this part of the world. As always, thanks to everyone out there for the positive thoughts and support.  Stay warm!