First if all, congratulation to Paul and Kate on their new baby, Ella Dawn Nelson who was born on July 12!! Congrats to Jared and Mel who just moved into their first home of their own! I wish I could be there for both these occassions, but just send pictures, and we'll do what we can. Love y'all. July 9, 2004 Here's an email just to quench the question, "Well, what's it really like everyday? I mean, I just don't think I'll ever understand." It's really not as bizarre as most may think. The main differences soon become the background and life goes on as it does for us all. So here goes my try at a response. The ninth of July in its entirety. A scratchy noise begins outside, working it’s way around my concession and coming closer and closer to my window. Light peering through the two 4’x 4’ windows shines past my forest green mosquito net and onto my bed. I grunt and roll over, covering my face with the sheet until I realize my adventure was really just a dream and that its now morning. The guardian of my concession is leaning over, sweeping the cement with a short broom made out of thin sticks producing the annoying scratchy noise that continues for an hour every morning. My concession is four houses placed in a square, a cement ground outside in the space between, closed in by cement walls and a metal door. One house is for the owner who lives in the capital and is rarely there. Another for his children when they want to visit but who are never there. He lets a preacher, his family and village children who live in town in order to go to school live in the third house for free. And the forth house is three small apartments. Two are empty and I fill in the third. I stretch and sleepily walk outside into a small outdoor hallway and continue into my closet-sized kitchen. I have a gas bottle connected to two gas burners, a sink and no counterspace. It's much too sophisticated for most, as the standard Beninoise woman would have woken up long ago in order to heat up the charcoal and begin preparing for the day. Then her cooking takes place outside, sitting on a shin-high stool. I heat up some water and mix my morning oatmeal. Thank goodness for Quaker and it's existence in Benin. Then I changed into my two-tone purple boomba (African wear), brushed my teeth with boiled and filtered water and swallowed down all my drugs: Doxy for malaria, a multivitamin since I rarely eat vegetables and claratin-D since my allergies have never been worse in my life. So now it's on to work. I leave my house and make sure to say bye to Mama and whichever children are wondering around. After a five minute walk, I wondered in the office at 9:00 am, entering the side door and making sure to greet every passing person: Ekaaro. O ji daada? Ilefe? Omonfe? O. Odabo. (Good morning. How did you sleep last night? And the family? And the kids? Ok, see you later.) And the same response for most salutations: Adukpe, which means: God, thank you. So I have a spacious office with one large window and a desk. It's at the CLCAM: Caisse Locale de Credit Agricole Mutuelle, which is a small savings and credit union that focuses on agriculturists, craftsmen and women's cooperatives. I don't actually do any work directly for them. But since I am there working with people on business management, I encourage savings, inform of credit opportunities when appropriate, better management means improved credit reimbursing and therefore, they give me an office and pay my rent. So, I'm at work, organized my day and left again to return a phone call from my director. I found out that I'm going to be working during training for the new trainees coming in August. This girl living just thirty minutes away from me was supposed to do it, but she just left last week. Yup, she's already knee deep in great food and too many choices; AKA: the USA. We've had three business volunteers leave (one was for medical reasons) and five total who all came together with me last September. Two more are in Cotonou finishing up formalities and trying to get on flights home. Anyway, then I'm off on a taxi-motorcycle to visit this lady that started the girls club that I work with during the school year. We are also working to get financing from Peace Corps from their small project funding to start a sheep encampment in Save because there is a lack of sheep in the market. The project will also involve families who would like to send their daughters to school but don't have enough money. They will be given two sheep and training in order to raise the sheep, breed them and eventually sell them to help fund the girl's school tuition and books. Anyway, I was there informing her of another delay in the decision process on the side of Peace Corps for the funding. Typical. And passing on information for her son who's a farmer about another project that a health volunteer, Ginger, and I started. So instead of just being the intermediary for funding, this one, we thought up and will be implementing ourselves. It will be a two-day training about this miracle tree called moringa, which is extremely rich in vitamins and minerals helping with malnutrition where the problem is mainly with pregnant and nursing women and small children. Not to preach, but listen to this; it's crazy: gram for gram, this tree's leaves have seven times the vitamin C in oranges, four times the calcium in cow's milk, four times the vitamin A in carrots, two times the protein in cow's milk, and three times the potassium in bananas. And it grows really fast and easily in tropical climates. Anyway, the formation will combine agriculturists, businessmen and health center workers in order to set up moringa production, inform people about it and sell it around the commune. Ginger is working with the health people, the farmers don't need much help just a little direction and I'll be working with the businessmen. It's fun for two reasons: first, people mildly know what it is but don't know its benefits. So when I tell them about it or give them the information sheet I created, they get all excited about it and ask for seeds. I've got several people already growing it and eating it, including the guardian in my concession. So it makes it feel like it's already growing, even before our formation takes hold. And second, it'll be mainly a marketing challenge. Save is throwing up agriculturists. Everyone knows how to farm and everyone does it. They'll all grow it. But Africans really love their food and eating the same food that's been eaten for ages. So to ask them to change, even when moringa leaf powder won't change the taste of their food; well, it's going to need convincing to get it in their homes and for good. So I'm excited to work with during and after the two-day training the businessmen who want to sell the moringa. The initial training will only be talking about the important issues and several ideas on how to deal with them. But I'll give them all the chance to take my accounting and marketing class (I just finished the first round of each of these classes; it was kind-of experimental, but went well.) Then with those that stick around and show real initiative and desire to sell moringa, we'll work on spiels on how they're going to sell it, create their marketing materials such as their packaging and brochures or information packets and finally, create their business plans. Enough of that! And it's only 9:45! So back at my office, I have a meeting at 10:00, but he doesn't show up until 10:40. Typical. It was one of my accounting/marketing students who is retired but took the course because he wants to teach the same course to others. This is my goal anyway because, after I leave, he can continue teaching the class. Charging for the class makes people think it's worthwhile and he'll make a small profit as well. Well, he's helping me revise the certificate I created for the ceremony at the end of the accounting and marketing class that just finished. People love certificates; it's pretty funny actually. But in certain cases, it helps people find jobs or get credit, so it can come in handy for them later on down the road. So we get that settled. I stayed at the office working on a clear, concise, in-French version of the marketing class I did. The information Peace Corps gave us for marketing was crap and being a marketing major, I just couldn't have the rest of Peace Corps Benin teaching crap. So I created the class and am now trying to make a basic curriculum for other volunteers. I made my way home around 12:30 for a tuna sandwich, a mango and a nap. Unfortunately, the nap overrode my intentions of coming home and writing letters to all you deserving recipients. Yes, I sleep a lot. At around 4:00 I manage to get out of the house again and head to the photocopier's place. There are several small shops that do word processing and photocopies. He was one of my accounting students and since the month just finished, I'm going around to each student's place to work on their end of the month statements. He traveled, so I went to visit my old neighbors who live close by instead. I walk across the market grounds full of trash and grazing sheep, goats and turkeys, past the stick shacks where women sell their food and clothing on market day and head on in to my old concession. My favorite woman is five months pregnant and starting to show. We all talked for a bit and it was back to my office to start writing all of you!! I head to a girlfriend's new place to get her and go to the cyber cafe together, but I almost get lost! Not because Save is difficult or all that big, but 'cause all the roads are exactly the same thing with the same red dirt and tall grass and deteriorating mud or cement houses. We head to the cyber since it opens at 7:00 (it's really expensive for the business to open during the day, but it's practically free at night) and after helping her with her new yahoo account, I settle in to send out old emails. Electricity cuts out. Typical. Tuesday it was the connection, today, the electricity. We decide to stick around a while to wait for it to switch back on, but it never comes, so we find a taxi-motorcycle and both get on since they're hard to find at night. At home, the lights came back on and I try once again to write just as the lights go out again, leaving me alone in complete darkness with nothing but the crickets and my own thoughts. There's not even a sliver of moon tonight. It's the kind of pitch black where if you stare the nothingness turns purple. I'm sure it's horrible for your eyes searching to make out something out of nothing. So I just close them and walk over to where I keep my kerosene lamp, feel around for the matches and am back in business. I decided just to go to bed since it was late anyway. Dosing off into sleep -zzzzzz-.I was even almost in my first dream when…DUR! I forgot to turn all the lights off since the electricity was out and they all switch back on. Full power and bright. The mini fridge and fan bust on with all their racket. It's nice to have the moments with nothing. No noise, no lights, no distractions. But I'm definitely not jealous of the volunteers that live without electricity in their towns. The slowness of Save is already more than I asked for. So the shock got me back up to finish and it's off to dream a little dream. So goodnight everyone. Sleep tight! Miss you all way too much. Always, Sara PS: I've also had several people asking if there's anything I need. I've really got access to the essentials, except for the fresh veggies and not a soul can do anything about that one! Maybe one day I'll grow a green thumb. Maybe. For the meantime, if you want to send anything my way, here are some ideas:
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This page is at: http://www.walden3d.com/benin/letters/040721b.html Updated: 19 October 2004