Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Back in Porto-Novo again...

I am back in Porto Novo to do some research on Talapia production as well as find some information on how to produce a specific type of plam tree so I can start up a tree farm here. My schedule is really filling up and in the 1st three months PC says you are not supposed to be doing anything. I am certainly keeping far busier than the other vols I have talked to. I am also avoiding certain punctuation marks because I am tying on an americain keyboard with a francophone computer...it is not so much fun. School has STILL not started yet! They were supposed to start the 6th but education here is not that high of a priority. I have a meeting with the director of one of the schools next monday so I can begin a envirometal club there. I am also planning a cross-sector formation with Andrew from small-enterprise-development. Basicly I want him to help me teach the local fishery villagers that bookkeeping and knowing EXACTLY your costs and revenues, in addition to your fish inputs and outputs are important! But that is next week. Thank you to grandma for sending soup mixes. They provide a welcome relief from the fried eggs/bread/instant hot coco combination that I eat every day. In Benin food prices are lower in the north because the people are mostly subsistance farmers...unfortunatly there is not a lot of diversity in the diet up there. Down in the south, prices are higher because there is at least a small amount of economy down here...but you get a good variety of goods. MY village has the worse of both worlds: higher southern prices coupled with a bare minimum of product diversity! Also, a happy early birthday to Grandma since I will be in-village for the actual day. I have to get to work now researching my stuff. Will be back online the first week in Nov. and I should be loading more pics at that time.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Hard at work 2...

Even thought it looks like a huge undertaking to begin a aquaculture program here in Benin (I'm looking to get a center running to produce Talapia fry as well as run experiments to determine optimum harvetsing cycles as well as fertilization and feeding rates and frequencies) I'm very excited and motivated to start. In the past, aquaculture in Benin has been seen as a hobby for rich people, since in order to have a functional fish farm you needed equipt., ponds or pools, in addition to stocked fingerlings (baby fish). PC, FAO (the agricultural development arm of the UN), USAID, UNICEF, and numberous other organizations have been trying for decades to build sustainable small-time fishery programs in Africa with variing degrees of success...most tries are a distinct shade of failure. Reading about past fishery development and extension programs developed by PC confuses me on my role here. Past fishery vols, in addition to being far more numberous than 1, had access to motos or trucks for travel between sites and transportnig fish, scales, tools, nets, scientific instrements to measure things like water Oxygen levels, fertilizer levels, and soil/water acidity levels. In addition, fishery vols recieved training state-side on fishery science before they even arrived in country. I have a bike and a Mech Eng. degree. Despite the problems I have really studied all I can and now I'm at least semi-competent in warm-water fish culture. At least competent enough to recognize that my work partner has a faulty and inefficient harvest sched. for his Talapia pools. While I know progress will be mild at best, I am very excited to start my real work here. In addition to all of this, I have already visited 2 schools in my area and I plan to hold english/enviromental group meetings there with interested students!

Hard at work...

Im in Porto-Novo for the day attending a PCV meeting with all the Vols from the south-east region. I have spent the last 2 weeks really searching around my village to find groups of people to hold composting formations with. Also, a main focus of mine has been trying to gain enough technical and generql knowledge about small scale fish farming in tropical Africa. I've been reading a lot of books and I've discovered this is going to take a much larger commitment from PC as well as the government of Benin. To develope a fish culture in a country PC has tradtionally placed anywhere from 7-17 fishery Vols in-country. These PCVS revieved fishery science qnd pond constructon training before they even reached thier country of service! Well, Im the lone fishery vol here in Benin and I think I'm the 1st one to arrive in-country for a long time. I have to speak to my APCD to determine if my posting is a viability assessment as compared to a jump-start for a future fisheries program. The small rainy season stops in a couple weeks. Its is starting to rain now so I will post this in case I lose power here at the cybercafe!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Pix...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28258658@N05/
i think this will get you to my pictures but Im on flickr.com as peacecorpschadsey. there is a limit to how much i can load per month so i will add more next month.

Update...

Im in Cotonou again to hit up the internet and charge my electronics. On my way here I had my 1st real monkey sighting (for some reason I really wanted to see a monkey in Africa). I had already seen someones pet monkey in Porto-Novo but today, beside the highway in a tree, was a large black and white monkey!! So, post is going well. I have already started holding composting sessions. I hope the people I reach with these classes continue because in my second year I hope to start a tree nursery for mangoes. There is very little privacy because I live in a concession with about 7 other families right smack dab in the middle of a cluster of buildings in my village. Its not too bad, although from time to time you would like a break from the 20 African children running around. Right now the small rainy season is about to end and in southern Benin the long dry season will start. The weather actually gets hotter in November-January because the rains stop! At the beginning of the small rainy season (aug/sept) the people in my village plant manioc and corn. When dry season starts up they will start their gardens. They garden in the dry season because the rain here can be pretty harsh. School starts today for Beninese children, so Im sure they are all excited. Right now I am busy posting pix on flickr.com. I will post the link to those pics here when Im done. I'd like to ask everyone to send me pictures the next time they send me packages/letters. I mean pix of ANYTHING...houses, cars, aircraft carriers, supermarkets, factories/offices, just about everything in everyday life. Things are soo different here and when I explain things to the people here about America I think sometimes they can't quite grasp the concepts...but if I had a picture everything would be easier!! Thanks. And thanks to my mother I was able to order some furniture...by weds. I hope to no longer be cooking/sleeping/stacking my cloths on the floor...so thats exciting! I'll be in Cotonou for another 6 hours (its 5 am EST right now) and I'll check up on my blog before I leave so maybe you guys back home can catch me on your way to school/work. Miss everyone, and can you believe the Gators lost to Ole Miss?!? Incredible!