Thursday, May 29, 2008

Child Trafficking Spectacle--May 17

Jaren and another PCV, Chanti Johnson, organized a talent extravaganza as an awareness campaign about child trafficking in Parakou. Local artists from around the area registered to perform original songs, poems, comedies, plays and dances interpreting child trafficking and the theme, “Nul part n’est mieux que chez nous”. Three members from the community judged the competition to choose the best of all talent categories. The winners will, at a later date, record their talents onto a CD that will be disseminated throughout the country.

The event was a huge success. With a week’s worth of radio publicity and interviews, we were able to draw a crowd of a couple hundred including mostly of students and young professionals.

Here are pictures of various acts:

Our neighbor Eric tapping his inner-thespian

Theater troupe showing the inevitable problems that come from sending a kid to a relative for domestic work (silly hat optional)

These boys dancing tried to hard - but looked so unbelievably ridiculous doing so. Imagine four people having simultaneous seizures wearing Stan Smith-era tennis whites and Saturday morning clown show ties.

Our neighbor Claude singing a really touching and well performed ballad

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Holy Crap, Its Already Been a YEAR?!

Our first anniversary as man and wife, Mr. And Mrs., Monsieur et Madam, Yovo and Baturi.


Remember those days? We were so CLEAN!

Congratulations us.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Upgrades at the CPS

Food poisoning became a problem in Tchaourou the end of last year because the foodstuff was not being properly stored and handled. (Don’t worry, we never got sick). As a result, Jaren’s amazing supervisor asked the Minister of Family, Women and Children for money and received enough to build storage rooms/store fronts as well as transformation rooms for the CPS to monitor processing. This foodstuff includes in’games (the big tuber starch), manioc (another big tuber starch), and corn that the local womens groups process into products to sell (dried in’games for pile, manioc for gari, dried corn for pate, etc). Each group will receive a room to store the organic foods and sell their processed goods. Additionally, 3 large rooms will be constructed for the women to transform their products, all under the supervision of the CPS to prevent contamination. These rooms will also be used as a seminar space where the women's groups will be taught accounting. Steve plans to use this project as a platform to start women's groups savings and credit unions.

Here are pictures within the first week of work.

To unveil the project, the Minister of Family, Women and Children came to Tchaourou.

On the far left we have the Mayor of Tchaourou and next to him (in the pink & purple modele) is the Minister who praised the project and its objectives.

Stay tuned for the final product.

The Hippos in Lokossa


I (Jaren) had an in-service training in Lokossa for a few days and while down south took the opportunity to visit the hippos that reside in a neighboring lake. Along with 5 PCVs from Togo I boarded a long, narrow wooden boat carved out of a tree trunk and set off on the water.







The guide used a long pole -- similar to what is used in Venice -- to push and direct the boat. Though unlike the Italians, the bottom of the pole was capped with a Gino (the local brand of tomato paste) can for more stability. Oh, the Beninese.

While out on the water, the two hippos that are the lake’s residents were spotted: the mama and the baby. Unable to get too close to the hippos (unless we were to be dinner) we saw their heads bobbing up and down.


We also saw local fisherman out on the lake. Fishing here in Benin is done the old fashioned way- casting a net and waiting for the fish to swim into it before picking up the net. We accidentally paddled over one fisherman’s net and ripped it. There went his catch for the day.


At the end of the excursion our guide welcomed us into his home for a “thank you for participating” mandatory sodabe shot. As the shot burned down my throat, I was glad I saw the not so hungry, hungry hippos.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

At the Business End of the Global Food Crisis

Maybe you’ve heard, maybe you haven’t -- although if you’re a BBC World listener, there’s no possible way you’ve avoided it -– there is a global market correction in the price of agriculture products going on and if you’re living in the developing world, that means rising food prices. Its not so much that food is missing from shelves, just that staples are more expensive for families already eeking out a living. So what’s it like at this end?

Well, it has certainly been interesting both at the Beninese level and in contrast to our West African neighbors. Here in Benin, it hasn’t been too drastic – flour is up 200 francs a kilo (about 50 cents) amongst other things. Rice, the big one globally, is up depending on type and source but because of a government subsidy on sacks sold in bulk things haven’t gotten too out of control yet. We’re still eating dried corn as the crop is still a few months from harvest, so not sure where those prices are going. And as for beef, the cows are pasture fed so feed prices don’t factor (as for the goats, they just eat the bountiful, bountiful garbage in the streets here.) For the most part people in town aren’t complaining too much, and barring some sort of catastrophe with the price of corn (price spikes that make it more valuable on the international market than being made into one culturally cherished goop or another here), I’m not sure it will hit too terribly hard in Benin.

As for West Africa, we have gotten some news about riots and strikes in normally peaceful Burkina Faso and unrest in the generally restless countries to our north (who knew the countries covering the Sahara desert would have a hard time producing food?!). Less is heard about the other coastal neighbors who seem to be in the same boat as Benin. And in the case of Nigeria, who knows what their problem is today.

What’s more interesting is following the rhetoric from the UN, the World Food program and African leaders in general calling for “a revolution in African farming” that would make the continent self-sufficient. After all, the bulk receives good rainfalls and has fertile soil. Callers to radio programs wax poetic about better governments having better farming policies for the people, rage against the unforgivable sin of rich country agricultural subsidies and elocute in flowery language about what is possible with the grace of the divine.

Basically, everyone thinks this is everyone else’s fault and are waiting for the rules of the game to be changed before they play.

Well after a year here there is one undeniable fact that is overlooked in all these arguments, a habit whose ubiquity is limiting total output of staple foods.

THEY'RE STILL USING THIRD CENTURY FARMING TECHNIQUES!!!


Seriously people. There is just so much one can sow and reap while doubled over using a hoe with an 18” handle and nothing else. Burning instead of tilling the soil. Planting crops like In’gams because they’re easier to manage without any technology invented after the Bronze Age. Not an ox drawn plow in sight, much less a tractor. Talk all you want about the evils of monocultures, but this is one of those cases where – to quote Steve Meyers - doing something the second least efficient way would be an improvement.

So yeah, life at the other end of rising food prices. However, we do take comfort in the undeniable fact that moments of crisis often end up being the catalyst for the change which has been resisted up to that point. Maybe five years from now there will be large commercial farming operations to go along with the family plots. Not sure we’re holding our breath.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

An Unusually Hilarious Measure of Time Passed



One of my (Steve) greatest joys here in Africa has been traveling around Benin and seeing all of the awkward American sports memorabilia. While I haven’t yet seen any victory t-shirts for losing teams (although I’ve already designated 10,000CFA - $20 – to buy a Yankees 2004 American League Champions shirt if I see it on someone), there have been a handful of jerseys that make me chuckle and cringe.

Then there was this. Back in late January we were walking through town on a particularly bleak and dusty day. Out from under one of the makeshift used clothing stalls I saw the unmistakable red glow of infamy and shame:



A Michael Vick Atlanta Falcons jersey, child sized and surely donated buy a parent who refused to have their child seen in it while Vick serves his sentence for running an illegal dog fighting operation. It was in very good condition, and the design is the one the Falcons unveiled not too long ago as part of the team’s re-branding.

Now Vick was arrested the day before we left, so I can tell you to the day how long it took that jersey to go from suburban Atlanta to rural Benin – 6 1/2 months.

So has a new scale of athlete-oriented infamy been born? The severity of the scandal not just marked in number of Google searches but also in the amount of time it takes for disgraced fans to discard their once cherished memorabilia?

How does Vick’s 29 weeks compare to other athletes? Hard to tell right now. The only other possible representation I’ve seen was the guy in Parakou a couple of weeks back selling a Tim Hardaway Miami Heat jersey while WEARING a Tim Hardaway Golden State Warriors jersey. Doing a little research, that would be approximately 15 months.

I have to imagine the 6 month turnaround on Vick will be the gold standard. I can’t imagine Goodwill could turn something like that around much faster. We’ll do our best to keep an eye out for others to test the theory, maybe a Marbury Knicks jersey or maybe some late vintage Roger Clemens. Should be fun.

Random Pics from Benin

Sunset during Harmatan Parakou Marche

Parakou Marche Two

Steve in Hammock

Isso (aka Often Naked Little Girl B) with some party hair

Military Training...

... yes, they are carrying their bags on their heads



Slingshots


She’s a ruthless assassin of lizards and mice, but damn you if you don’t think she’s a lady.