Baseball

There are moments here that make you question why you ever came to Peace Corps in the first place, and then there are days like the day when we launched the great Beninese baseball experiment. By the time this gets posted it will have been 5 days since the first practice and we’re not sure has Steve has stopped smiling.

Flashback to our arrival in July and our gloves strapped to the outside of our carry-on luggage. Of course the leather monstrosities were going to get a bit of attention from every kid who saw them. We even tried playing catch a few times with varying results, but struggled to explain how the back and forth fit into the larger game.

However , the history of baseball in Benin took a major leap forward in the past few weeks with two very important discoveries:

1) Jaren’s find of “Le Baseball,” an illustrated instructional book for kids about the American Pastime (with forward by then Cincinnati Reds outfielder Eduardo Perez!)

2) Collin’s location of the much-fabled Parakou baseball bag containing a complete games worth of gear. Mitts, balls, bats and a full set of catcher’s pads. We had heard some things were donated but for months could not locate them. With Collin’s realization that the giant green bag on top of the workstation bookcase and a timely official sign out, we were in business.

The book was incredibly helpful in explaining the game and helped Steve immensely in that he now had to make up half as many French words as in previous attempts. Lord knows he’s got no problem making up words, but at least now we know if any of these kids ever tried to talk baseball with anyone else, they wouldn’t be arguing balls and strikes over the “dish from the house” (asiette du maison was the best he could do for home plate).

First practice was a partly cloudy Thursday morning and the assembled group (both boys and girls with interest solicited by Eric at school and elsewhere) met in the concession to go over the basics before we got started.

Steve prepping for the briefing

No QUESTEC here

Funny Side Story: That wall doubles as the backside of our latrine. Over the last week both of us have been using the facilities and heard kids on the other side of the wall giving lessons to their friends. It’s pretty hilarious to be doing your business and all of a sudden hear a bunch of Nagot with baseball terms in French sprinkled in.


After the tutorial we went up to an elementary school nearby to use the terrain. The older kids had the day off for exams but the petites were still in session. We of course heard some ruckus from the kids as we walked by the class buildings but for the most part things were under control. After asking permission from the director, we were drawing out bases in the dirt and had the players line up for some catch when the little kids were let out for a 10 minute break. Well, to say the place was swarming with khaki-clad school kids is actually an understatement . It was more like locusts descending. With few options left, one of the older kids grabbed a bat and just started chasing/ threatening anyone under 4 feet. A bit crude an approach, but effective as we had our field back.

Trying to put what we had learned into action we simulated play a bit. Everyone got a turn to bat and field as Jaren and I barked out only vaguely understood advice on seemingly asinine rules. Some understood batting but not throwing, others the reverse. The pitcher’s side arm motion was sort of a cross between Dan Quisenberry and penguin flapping its wings. Many would leave first base on a hit to stop at the second baseman, not second base. At one point we had to chase a baby goat off the field. All in all a good but very poorly played game.

Finishing the first day, we knew the first big test was going to be how many came back for the next, and were pleasantly surprised when just about all who could (some had tutoring and far be it from us to pull a kid out of school for practice) showed.

Second practice was more formal. Steve went through fielding again and then hit balls around the diamond as the kids threw out ficticional runners. After that we split into two groups and Jaren taught half a dozen a basic pitching motion as others continued to run through more complicated fielding drills (“my boys executed a perfect 3-4-1 double play and my heart nearly exploded with pride”). Fielders were charging balls, pitchers were developing some command and consistency of motion – lord they looked like honest to god baseball players (you know, minus the fact that all were in flip-flops and half the boys were wearing women’s pants).

Third day was even better. After realizing that the same motion that moved the ball 20 feet could move it 50, our games of catch became long toss very quickly. And the in game simulations got better to the point where 2 teams of 6 we able to play an inning against one another. We are beside ourselves with excitement.


So what’s next? Well, given the steady increase in interest, we think we’re going to set up a formal club that should double as a league. We figure if we can get six teams we can play a schedule for about a month before changing things up. More importantly, we’re going to use the club as a force for good –not distraction -- in the community. Because we have the luxury of using the Peace Corps equipment for now and can use the field for free, there is no need pay to play. Instead, we’re going to work with the Center for Social Promotion (Jaren’s office) and each kid is going to have to give up a designated amount of community service hours to join the league. Nothing too taxing, but enough to keep the baseball club in the good graces of the community and give us the extra hands to get some projects done around here.

And what happens when someone else requests the equipment? Well, odds are at some point in the near future we’ll post some sort of appeal to collect old equipment for donation, or even try to hook up with one of our respective hometown minor league teams for something more organized.

But for now, we’re just reveling in having introduced the game. The kids have been pouring over the pictures in our old Sports Illustrateds, and as soon as we find a DVD player were going to show the recording of Game 2 of the World Series Jaren’s parents sent over (everything here is on VCD, not compatible unfortunately). Oh yeah, no uniforms or team names yet but you can bet the house on the fact that every team will be sporting socks rouge and there won’t be a pinstripe in sight.

The Perpetually Moving Target of “Development”

It was not too long ago that Peace Corps volunteers had no way to communicate with loved ones other than a cassette recorder and some stationary. Now there are cell phones in most volunteers' pockets (although some have to hike to the top of a hill to get service) and most can send email with some regularity (not to mention the act of blogging, but we’ll leave that polemic for another time).

We are happy to report that here in Tchaourou the target has shifted again. Announced a few weeks back, the commune of Tchaourou will be getting its first cyber cafés as well as internet connections to the city hall and the main offices of each of the 7 arrondisments in the country’s first experiment with e-governance. The connections – if we heard right – will be the equivalent of standard DSL service and connected to the fiber optic cable in Parakou.

Also, some of the regional high schools will be getting labs some of the high schools to spread the internet savoir-faire (allegedly private residences can pay for a connection, although we’ve heard only one guy in town is getting one).

So what does all of this mean? Well, since the announcement we’ve been asked near every day by someone to teach them to how to surfer (yes, the actual French verb) and do the email. There is surely plenty on the internet that could help people out with business (thinking technical information for metal workers, mechanics or electricians) , social development (health and well being info) and education (everything in the world), and so how could we say no?

So the meaning of our “work” in Peace Corps has changed again, looking less and less like the old notion of what Peace Corps work is. And you know what, we’re fine with that because we know the community is better off for it.

World AIDS Day Event

The last few weeks were spent preparing for a big AIDS event here in Tchaourou for World AIDS Day. I spent some time making calls to local organizations to see what could be donated because the CPS did not have a budget to do or buy anything. We would take any donation…condoms, AIDS tests, phalluses, etc. Lucky for me, I got in touch with the right people. I not only had 432 condoms donated from one organization that included 10 phalluses to practice application, 200 more from another NGO, plus 200 female condoms but also received 100 free AIDS tests. With all these materials we needed to mobilize the community. We were able to recruit 25 community peer educators, student leaders, and involved artisans to divide and conquer to “sensibilise” the commune of Tchaourou on HIV/AIDS.

SIDE NOTE: “sensibilise” or “sensibilisation” is the act of educating the community at a grassroots level on specific issues.

The 25 leaders were separated into 4 groups to sensibilise the main zones in Tchaourou to discuss what is HIV/AIDS, how is it transmitted, what are the ways of prevention , and what is the importance of getting tested. Over the course of 2 days of sensibilisations, we reached out to 1, 042 people and all 100 of our free tested were administered. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there were not enough tests for the demand. But, one organization agreed to return in 2 weeks to administer more tests FOR FREE! To share with you the results of the test of the 100, 4 came back positive. All 4 can receive care and support from the government including ARVs, specific dietary supplements and emotional outreach.

After the event, the group leaders reconvened to discuss the difficulties and successes of the event. Successes include the high interest and seriousness of the community on the issue, the desire to be tested, and the involvement of the community in mobilizing. Difficulties include demonstrating the application of a female condom, practicing male condom applications with maturity among participants (ie men in the crowd) and lacking identification of group leaders giving the sensibilisation (i.e. no t-shirts, armbands, etc). With all these comments in mind, we are going to do the exact same event again in two weeks, but better!

Stay tuned for the details of AIDS event No. 2…

The Neighbors Here

We’ve now been in Tchaourou for close to two months -- as long as we were in our stage towns – but we have yet to introduce you dear readers to our new neighbors. Pictures included where available.

To the right:

Eric - Even at 14, still one of the most worldly Beninese we've met. Wants to be an ambassador. Likes eating foreign food. Speaks English and Spanish as well as French and a handful of local languages. And has an impressive capacity for creative thinking, something not many are known for here.



Steeve (aka Steeve Noir, Tipu, Jumeaux) - 9 and fast friends with us. Steve and Steeve play up the whole name twins thing a lot, and he's always up for a walk through town.


Valerie - A relative from the Attacora region, in Tchaourou for the school year. Very much like a 15 year old American girl, which is to say there is far more self confidence than your average 15 year old Beninese. Gonna make something of her life if it kills her mentality.

Claude - 18. Older brother of Eric and Steeve. We had been told he was at seminary school for the first year, but showed up at the beginning of the school year needing to retake his HS exit exams (not a shocker, less that 20% pass nationally).



Deborah - 14, had been rescued on the border where she was intended to be someones arranged bride. Sweet, quiet, and just learning French (she's a 14 year old in what is essentially the first grade), having her around is a good insight into the mindset of traditional living here.



Isabelle - 6 year old under Nicole's care, also from the Attacora. Can nearly always be found in front of our door coloring with sidewalk chalk or asking how to say something in English. She was so quiet when we first arrived but now we really struggle to get her to shut up. Not to say we don't enjoy it as she keeps us laughing when asking where she can buy Jaren's hair (unable to conceive that someone can naturally have strait hair, she's convinced its a weave) or trying to say "water balloon" in English.

Nicole - Jaren's boss and head of the Center for Social Promotion. Also our next door neighbor and mother of some of the above mentioned. Here she is presenting backpacks and school supplies to orphans a few weeks back, one of the many programs she administers throughout the commune. Very fun, very modern in her world view and a force of nature when it comes to getting things done here. We're very happy to be in her orbit.

Grandmere – an absolute force of nature. At 67, Nicole's mother lives with the family here in Tchaourou but originally hails from the Nattitangou/Atacora region (same as Valerie and Isabelle). She speaks mostly French, and speaks it well as she learned from the French themselves.

Grandmere spends most of her time tending to a multi-acre garden across the road from our concession where she grows the usual local crops (tomatoes, onions, beans, okra, hot peppers) as well as some pretty unusual ones (lettuce, mushrooms, cucumbers). It is truly amazing to watch her work, spending most of the day bent in half working the soil with a crude hoe and a tin can of water. And while she claims to be a simple woman of the land seems to have a real awareness about the connection between food and nutrition.

Best of all though has to be her incredible animated nature and sense of humor. Every morning we go through the same verbal two-step, she greeting us for the day by calling us “my child”, asking how we slept, asking how her other “child” slept and then being genuinely relieved when she hears everything is ok. We get into all sorts of chats about subjects mundane (seching vegetables for the season seche) and complicated (inter-religious conflict in Benin), for which she’s always got a memorable answer.

She’ll sass you inside-out for asking a question she doesn’t want to answer (the “I’m just a simple farmer” defense when she doesn’t want to deal with someone) or for asking a question you should already know an answer to (“Of course you should get me a second bottle of Tchuck Eric, why do you even ask such a ridiculous question”). We could not have imagined her if we wanted to, and feel lucky to know her.

To the left:
Chef
Head of the Arrondismant (kind of like being the mayor). Very much a classic back room politician, horse trading in the local watering hole on a Saturday afternoon. Definitely a powerbroker in town, but with the shadow of the President looming, I'm getting the feeling he's being asked to deal with a whole pile of problems and requests he's never had to before. The town is becoming a development petrie dish for the country and he is at the center of it.

Mama
Wife of Chef, she sells sleeping mats and used bottles in the market to pass the time. Very nice, very traditional (still pummels her own I'ngames, no domestic workers in sight). Has been a great market ambassador for us as well.

Najem
12 year old son of the above pair and budding shortstop. Video forthcoming.

Others in the area:


Kasim, Pierre, Innousa and Abel - President (Mechanic), VP (Welder), Treasurer (Tailor) and Secretary (Electrician) of the local artisan bureau and with whom Steve works directly. Very nice guys and clearly intent on seeing things improve, we're working together now to create programs to teach basic management to the local small business owners.

Often naked little girl A and Often naked little girl B – These two live in the concession next door and about two weeks ago started showing up in our concession sans clothes. Neither speaks French, so most of our interactions involve making faces and noises. Also, Steve can’t get over the feeling A looks like 76ers point guard Andre Miller even though he only vaguely remembers what Andre Miller looks like and knows for certain that Andre Miller is not a 4 year old girl.


Salu, the head of the local butchering operation – very sweet guy, happy to answer any of my asinine questions. Making things better his wife LOVES us because we gave her some oranges when we first arrived and despite a lack of French, falls all over herself to greet us when we walk by. They also have a kid about 12, Wahab, who Steve has played a little baseball with, might make a good outfielder.


Rachatou - Local high school student in the last year of a Peace Corps scholarship program, we were able to help cover her school fees, books and supplies to finish high school. She's on the math and science track at school and is hoping to go to University in Parakou to study agronomy.

Sooned – Nigerian man who greets us in Nigerian English every time we walk by his store selling clothes. “How it is?” can be heard from 50 yards away whenever we’re in town (yeah, Nigerian English is English only in name. While much of the base vocabulary is the same, the sentence construction is so screwed up it is barely intelligible.)

He just opened a second shop selling motorcycle parts – turns out you can bank on the fact that any shop selling any sort of manufactured good from abroad is owned by the Ibo (Nigerian tribe). The third largest market in Africa is in a Nigerian town not too far from here, so they buy up some inventory and (in a manner of unknown legality) bring it to Benin for resale. Most importantly, he explained all of this to us in English (again, relatively speaking)

Valentin – local welder, let Steve play with a welding torch…