Survivor X-mas

So I just hosted over 20 PSL 22ers in a work station that has a capacity of maybe 15. It was fun and loud and exciting and we survived! We celebrated a backyard cookout christmas...we cooked cheese burgers, deviled eggs, potato salad, and a slaw. Cookies were backed (ginger bread and ginger snaps) as well as 3 apple crisps. It was a fun, if hectic, time. I am glad a lot of the new stage made it up to see the Alibori. They were treated to nights that dropped into the 60's! This is very different from the mid 80's, high humidity of the south. A lot of people are hitting up the christmas safari and many have buddies/family over. Now I am trying to reset and get some more work for myself...frustrating. I think I mentioned the new generator last post.....if not: Our old generator was a 4.5 kW you might find at Home Depot, the new one is a mammoth 12.8 kW turbocharged industrial grade generator. I think if I run it at lower than 80% load then it will never reach operational temps and break seals/rings/ect. This seems as good a time as any to get the workstation an A/C unit!! For my next fantasy we will be installing a pool with decorative fountain.

Happy Holidays

Sorry I haven't been posting for a while, I've been running here and there. Just got back from Cotonou and withdrew my WS operating $. They gave me all 10 mille bills (10.000 CFA) which are really hard to pass up here. I might have to go to the nearest bank (which is far) to change some out. Thanx was good. We killed a turkey and had a lot of good food to eat (thanks to many families back home sending tasty treats)). X-mas is coming up fast and I am going to have a lot of the new stage up here. I think we are doing a cheese burger and fries and deviled eggs cook out. Also a small gifts swap (under 3 mille). I am currently trying to save up for a b-day trip to Mali (dogun country). A lot of people are coming / leaving for the holidays. 2 Alibori PCVs are home for the holidays alone. Others have also headed out. Many parents / siblings / friends have come to visit with their PCVs over this x-mas break. This is not an underhanded invitation to any of my family...Benin is not a great tourist spot. For the same money you can have an awesome time in the Lesser Antilles, I would reccomend that. I lost in the semifinals for Fantasy Football...but I still did pretty well (unfortunately I had an off week and had to play Aaron Rodgers, QB GB). Hope everyone is enjoying nice weather and have nice trees this year.

Cat update

The cat has been working out well. I have seen a marked decrease of the larger lizards, and I know he has been eating the 6-8 in variety ( I saw him catch 2 today). Sardinia also recruited a helper...one of our guards, Charles. I knew Charles has been giving the cat fired fish heads from his lunch but two days ago I witnessed something very funny. Charles passed by the open door of the work station with a stick up in the air, along the wall. Soon after he passed, the cat was seen stalking after him. Apparently, Charles knocks lizards down or scares them enough that they drop off the wall and the cat eats them. Talked a bit with some USAID guys. Discovered a couple days ago that Vanuatu is not going to be headed my way, so I'm looking for other things to do with myself when my final year of service is up.

Thanx is coming...

I just got the last of the thanksgiving packages (french fried onions from Ryan). The Alibori have another turkey this year. A couple PCVs have his at their house fattening him up. It was touch an go there for a little while because the turkey hated the neighbor's roosters and would continually try to kill it...the stress was making him not eat. But now he is eating and looking good. He dies on friday. Tabaski (islamic holiday where everyone kills a ram) is coming but people here don't know exactly when. It could be thrus-sat. Locals say it is because the people in Mecca have to do something first, i don't know. I have been eating well recently....my new post has cooked chicken and fries at a nearby cafeteria and it is GOOD. Unfortunately chicken and fries cost 1,500 CFA and we get paid 3,000 CFA a day, making this a pricey luxury...but I'm glad to make some other sacrifices to be eating meat again. Favre is leading my fantasy team to another victory (along with sticky-icky-Ricky) but I hope he loses sooner or later...I have a bet against the Viks getting to the Super Bowl this year. I have stayed busy at the workstation and have made some visits to local classrooms to help the terminale (12th grade) students with their english. Still looking for environmental work.

Harmattan!

It dropped below 80 degrees last night! The last few days have been classic harmattan weather. The winds have picked up and the dust limits visibility to maybe 1/2 mile. It looks a lot like a foggy day, but you can taste the grit as you breathe and your eyes dry out quickly. Power and water at the workstation have been intermittent these last weeks. We had no town power for 5 days and had to run on a generator at night for the security lights. Trying to get a Wii to the Alibori. Down to 5-5 in fantasy...if only I could stop running into opponents who average 20pnts from their WRs.

Another sign of changng seasons

I almost forgot to mention the TRUCKS! Cotton season is coming to a close in the next month or so. People will be out picking all the buds and piling them in huge mounds. Many, many trucks come from down south to transport the cotton from the fields and weighing stations to the factories in Kandi, Banikora, N'Dali, and Kahlale. They are all over the place and the drivers are not very careful / considerate. Since there are no sidewalks here, one must be very careful when you walk to town or go down the road to get something to eat. The winds have picked up and you can really start to see the dust in the air. I have imported Amy Van Goey's cat to help rid the Work Station of it's large lizard problem. He seems well adjusted to his temporary home and he has already had an impact on the lizards...I only wish his name was not Sardeenia (Amy thought is was a girl when she bought him)

Changing of seasons in the Alibori

The rainy season is coming to a close and the harmattan is starting. The air is getting drier (your sweat actually starts to evaporate off you) and dustier. And the nights cool down to the mid-70's...so that is cool. I was not in the Alibori for this last year so it is cool to see it firsthand. I emailed the CD in Vanuatu to see if PC was still involved with the Reef Check program over there and he said it was. But, he also said that the current PCV there who is in charge of the program might extend :( I'll keep everyone updated. Just spent some time with a Ivory Coast transplant and we talked about being foreigners in Benin.

Sorry for the tardiness..

I have been really busy for the past week going on post visits all over the Alibori...it is a big department. I can't even stay here long because I have to bug out to a nearby department to go banking (there is no bank in the Alibori which has benn causing problems since we switched to monthly pay periods in June). Happy Birthday to my Grandmother! What is everyone doing for Halloween? I have to run back here to meet up with an official form the Embassy (that busy). Hopefully many of you have already migrated to my facebook page to see all the neat photos of W.African life I saved off the Cotonou WS HDs. I will be putting an album up of some christoph herby's shots, he is a fellow Alibori PCV that has an awesome camera as wel as some photography classes (I think). I am above .500 in fantasy, so that is good. I have to go; I hope everyone is enjoying the weather change (even in the Alibori it is cool right now due to rains last night!)

Package goodies...

I want to thank my family for the cranberries, cards, and other goodies necessary for the upcoming holiday preparations. I am still on the lookout for Kelli's package. I have been in the south for a while processing receipts and hope to make it back up to post at the beginning of next week. The operational money for Peace Corps was slow to get here (probably due to Columbus day).

Gardening ideas...

Thanks for the ideas. There are very hot peppers in the Alibori (called piment) and I might just start cutting some up in a bowl of water and then sprinkling it on the plants. I know while cutting or washing the peppers your hands can burn and you don't want to touch sensitive areas. I was avoiding natural pesticides/animal deterrents due to the fact you have to re-apply fairly often. But I think the next try will include these measures. Also I will start making a Neem pesticide. I guess I'm going green.
I just did my first exchange of receipts, so I'll find out in three days if the government wants me for fraud. Also, 3-2 in FF...tied amongst others for 2nd place.

Garden Disaster/Update

So I'm located in the Alibori...there is not much in terms of vegetation here, and the small amount that is here is seasonal. There are also large lizards...they routinely get over a foot long (nose to tail). This is apparently a horrible combination for fledgling gardens. Many of my plants sprouted, but within days I notice leaves missing and many times entire plants! I caught a couple lizards munching away and now the only survivors are 2 green bean plants. Anyone have any suggestions? I am currently hunting lizards with a blowgun but they just run away with the darts in their hides. I am also entertaining the idea of buying a cat or placing a screen tent over the developing plants until they are big enough to survive the lizard onslaught. I will try to get a picture of the lizards so you have an idea what I am dealing with. (NOTICE: I just went outside to get a picture of a lizard...I nearly caught one with my hands...when I noticed the 2 plants have dwindled to 1)

Getting Regular

So I think I've survived the bumpy transitional period...we'll see after I write my first monthly review. I planted a victory garden with the seeds people have been sending me and a few rows have already started sprouting (I hope it is the jalapeno but I forget what veggies are planted where :(. A new PCV TEFL will be moving to my town so I'm going to drop by her house to make sure everything is set for move-in tomorrow. It is starting to get hot again now that the rains have tapered off. Eagerly awaiting the harmattan so the temps will drop...not looking forward to another chaleur.

Welcome back to the Alibori!

So, I have a couple updates:

1: I found my IDs and bank card...sweet
2: I'm back on facebook, it should be easy to search me (a million bucks says I'm the only Michael Chadsey in Cotonou Benin
3: My first few days at work have been hectic and scary.

It isn't that I didn't get that much training...I'm sure Kelly did tell me everything I need to know. It was just that it was already a month ago when I did the 2 days of shadowing...watching and doing are different things entirely! Already I have been setting up post visits, arranging for gas bottles to be shuttled, getting the plumber and electrician to call me back, picking up packages at the post, buying supplies for the guards, paying the guards...did I mention I do this all in French? I really need to brush up on my phone French...when I can't see a person's lips it makes it harder for me to understand. It will all work out in the end, and I'm glad I was chosen for this job because at least I'm DOING SOMETHING! The new PCVs are now all in their posts. I told them to chill/readjust this week (their first time being without Americans in-country) and we will arrange post visits next week...I'm bringing candy.

Super Busy...

I have had a very busy past couple weeks. First: not last Friday or the Friday before that, but the Friday before that I lived through my first earthquake. I was sleeping in Cotonou (the quake hit around 4 AM) when I heard a rumbling. I first thought a bomb was going off at the gate to the Bureau but then as the sound continued I thought it was a low airplane or dump truck outside. Afterwards for a few seconds it felt like the room was wobbling. Only the next morning were we informed that we had experienced an earthquake. After that I headed to Porto Novo to help train the new stagieres. I spent two weeks helping with and instructing the technical sessions. Yesterday we swore-in 50 new PCVs. 11 of whom are new Environment volunteers... unfortunately none of them will be coming up to the Alibori. My region will be getting 4 volunteers after one ETed last week. I am now fully fledged as a PCVL and am going to spend the next week just reviewing manuals and old monthly reports before I go on my first post visits so that I don't screw up an expense reimbursement or fail to pay the guards correctly.
Recent News:
I might have lost my PC ID and copies of my no-fee passport as well as my African bank ATM...maybe.
I am 1-1 in fantasy football due to the fact that the Steelers can't seem to run the Bears into the ground.
I inherited 5 'scholarship girls' in my new post. The scholarship girls program encourages girls to succeed in school by providing tutoring and paying for school fees and basic supplies for selected girls. My 5 girls are in terminale...equivalent to our 12th grade.
I tore two large holes in my feet playig touch football with the new PCVs ( it was RCH/EA Vs. SED/TEFL... aka REACH vs. DEF SLECT)
Hope everyone had a great September

Transition

I am stuck in Cotonou for a couple weeks between now (as I do some banking stuff for PCVL) and when I have my mid-service medical exam (next week) and as I work weeks 8 and 9 of stage (starts the 13th ends the 26th). This means I am away from my post for a month and effectively eating through my living allowance. Every PCV eats their allowance, since we don't pay for houseing but only pay travel and food....but when you are down south the opportunity to buy things that are not rice and beans is just too much to bear. For instance, last night I went to a Thai restaurant...it was awesome. This afternoon I ate a ham, chicken, and cheese sandwich (I had to eat two since they were very thin)...also awesome. Of course this greater diversity of better foods in the big city comes at a cost. Back in my post I would spend 1500 CFA a day on food (rice, beans, pasta, or local cheese called wagashi), today I spent 1800 CFA on my lunch. This is why volunteers posted in the one big city in this country are paid 75% more than all the other volunteers. If you'll excuse me I am now going to spend the next two weeks eating spaghetti and omelet from the local cafeteria in order to save enough money to pay for my Thai food last night.

Some animal pixs

I know you guys like the animal pictures, so here are a couple more. One is of a huge dung beetle that flew into my forehead while I was walking outside a buddies house. They are big, heavy, and fly very fast...it drew blood. The other picture is of a type of burrowing turtle here, much like those gopher turtles in FL. I also am uploading a video of the beetle...and to celebrate my moving out of my old post: every day I was at post I marked the bedroom door with a chalk mark...this was my door when I moved out.

Auto update...

I know I probably wrote earlier how amazing the Sahel changes face. It feels like false advertising when the new stagiers come visit within the next month...it is soo green! This is not the reality. October is the end of rains here, until june/july. Everything gets brown and orange. It is really amazing that anything survives till the next rainy season...all the grasses spread their seed and grow dormant, mango and neem trees stop growing (but the mangos develop during dry season and are not ready to eat until the rains start...its called the mango rains). Right now the corn and cotton are growing quickly and the grasses are growing high on the side of the roads...all this fades away just as quickly as it appeared, about 1-2 months.

Here is an old picture of me (taken by Big E's far too attractive GF) since everyone is clamoring for one. Things are going slowly here and I am just writing up my aid proposal and finishing up budgets. Last night was rowdy at my post. Apparently the neighbor behind me had his house broken into and a couple bags of fertilizer went missing. This morning it all boiled over when the perpetrator was caught and another man, who was previously fingered for the crime, decided to go after someone with a machete. My porch served as one of the cool-down areas and I tried to look too busy to care. Stopped by the missionary's place last night for some mexican food...very , very good. On the subject of food: If anyone is sending a package between now and the end of October could you please send dried cranberries and french fried onions...we are assembling things for thanksgiving dinner, and with the mail status here we have to plan way ahead :)...(also, if anyone sends mint oreos they will be eaten) Still excited to head down and help out the new training class, but that isn't for a couple weeks still. Hope my sister has a great time starting law school (next week?) and has a good b-day...my brain is atrophying here in W. Africa.

Foulani girl photos..

These were the only two photos I could find of some Fulani with coins in their hair. These are both little girls so they have small coins, and not very many. These photos were taken during the planning and implementation of the bike tour north of my village....in my region the women arrange the coins in their hair like two pig tails that thrust from above the ear, slightly different from the forehead positioning like in these photos. I also want to update everyone about my current work. I am looking into getting a grant together to build a poultry house in my town. There is no such facility within many, many kilometers so I think it would be a good thing. Also, the farmer I would be helping with this project has continually shown himself to be a good worker and more than willing to put the things he learns into action...good indicators for someone looking to receive US aid moneys.

Souvenir shopping, among other things

Everything is progressing up here in the Alibori. Everyone is complaining that the rains are not coming like they normally do..la pluie, c'a fait mal. Cotton and corn growers have planted their fields. I have been collecting some colonial period coins as souvenirs (instead of what most PCVs collect like fabric or a bongo drum). The Belgium coins are dated mid-1800's and the Austrian Taler is dated 1780 (but that can be misleading since the same dies were used for an extended period but I like to think of it as that old). Traveling herdsmen, and ethnic group called the Pheule or Foulani use these coins and other trinkets for ornamentation. I will try to put up a picture of a Foulani woman wearing the coins, but this is hard since the Pheule women are really very, very shy of cameras. I think I have a little girl wearing some in some of my old photos. The nomads put these expensive silver coins in their hair as a way of showing off wealth and to keep tabs of it. An ancient nomad, without reading/writing skills or a permanent address, can't really have use of a bank account...so they keep their wealth close to them: Women have jewelry and the men have cattle or goats. Other news: the incoming stage got in a couple days ago...so everyone is excited and busy with that. I go down in a little over a month to train the environment kids during their final two weeks. We also got a new Country Director here in Benin, she was the CD from Togo and she has worked in Benin before so everything should be ok.

Goings on

Good news and bad news: I ended up not going to Ghana, but a really cool supermarket / Big K-mart type store opened in Cotonou! It has trampolines, power tools, and granny smith apples!! Very exciting. I was busy the last couple days helping another Alibori PCV work up a budget for lining a boulevard with trees. He plans to use a PCPP to fund it. The HCN initially proposing the project was asking for over 3 million CFA (almost $7,000)...we dropped that dramatically. I am heading back to post tomorrow to help transplant the 1000 Moringa trees I seeded a little bit ago. Also I am including a scan of my new business card...yeah that's right , I'm official (some places on the card had to be edited to be placed on this website and still adhere to the security restrictions).

Happy (belated) fouth of July...

I hope everyone blew up a small part of America for me on the fourth! I celebrated by being a judge at a PC 'Beer n' Beans' competition. I have been involved in a summer english camp for the past week. The kids really enjoyed a probability session I did with them that involved picking poker chips from a bag. There are a number of other PCVs at this camp and the HCN support we have received has been really good so far. I hope everyone is doing well back home. I might be going to Ghana in the upcoming weeks.
P.S. the fourth was our 1 year anniversary in-country

Rain Storms

Here is a short clip of what the rains are like as they whip thru the Alibori. And another clip of the girls across my courtyard playing in the rain and collecting rainwater off the roof with basins to be used in the cooking/cleaning.

Some updates...

Fathers day and the longest day of the year coincide tomorrow. I am posting a couple pictures of Giraffes that a couple TEFL PCVs visited in Niger. Hopefully I will be able to see them in the future. Also, there has been some shake-ups in our home office. The training manager and Country Director have left the Bureau. These new developments come a couple months after our SED associate country director was let go. We'll see how everything settles out with some time.

After PCVL Training...

Just came back up from the south for my PCVL/PSN training. It seems like it should be an interesting, if somewhat stressful job. I also heard it might mean I'll be reclassified at my GS level...Kyle says GS-11, but I doubt that. On the way back up I encountered a large group of termites flying around for their nocturnal breeding period after the recent rains. There were thousands of LARGE termites flying around on four wings...attracted to the lights of the workstation. On the ground many big-headed sentry termites were herding the male termites (after beating off their wings) into the nest entry near the workstation door. I tried to grab one of the sentry bug's heads but he caught me with his mandibles and my finger bled fairly freely. But the flight of termites was short lived. An hour later most of the fliers had beaten off their wings and entered the subterranean nest and by morning wings littered the ground like dry, fall leaves. I have pictures that I will put up (along with the mosque photos) when i have the time. I also have to wish my father a happy fathers day coming up here. I am anxious to get back to post and see how my growers association got along without me being there.

Changing seasons

The rains are coming to the Alibori! And with the rains a return to slightly more tolerable temperatures. The rains come very quickly up here, and so far only at night. The wind can guest up to 30 mph ( a couple villagers lost their roofs) and the rain comes down hard. The standard roofing in Benin is either tin or thatched. My tin roof sounds like a snare drum and it is impossible to sleep. Because the rains are starting to come people are starting to ready their fields. Corn and peanuts are being planted. Whole families gathered around 50 kilo sack of peanuts, shelling them so that they can be planted. Rainy season is for large crops only, no gardens...tomatoes have not been seen in my village for a couple weeks, neither has lettuce or fresh hot peppers. I started a Morigna growers association to try and stay busy...the Beninese Red Cross thing so far has not materialized. We have 46 gardeners and lots of seeds to start a tree nursery. Be they end of rainy season the Moringa trees should be good for transplant. I went to the top of a very tall mosque tower with my buddy Elliot. We measured it out to 27 meters but the guys building it said it was 31. I will put a photo up by the end of the day.

Tasty Treats

Myself and some fellow PCVs were treated to a wonderful dinner last nite. The menu was as follows:

Amuse Bouche
-An array Proscuitto-wrapped tropical fruits topped with a lemon mint creme freche
-Mint Julip

Soupe
-Cauliflower Veloute, garnished with fresh rock crab and parsley ghee

Poisson
-Salt-baked Giant Red Carp dressed in Beurre Blanc served over Mediterranean Salad
- 2007 Jean Balmont Loire Valley Chardonnay

Pause
-Lemon Sorbet

Viande
-Roquefort-topped Filet Mignon in a Bordeaux Demi-glace served over Julianed Dichon and Carrots
-2006 Marquis de Valbois Bordeaux

Salade
-Seared Giant Prawn served over Green Salad dressed in a Champagne Vinaigrette
-Comte Paulin Demi-Sec

Dessert
-Decadent Chocolate Baked Alaska
-Vermouth Digestif

Cheese Board and Cappuccino to follow


The PCVs who put on this wonderful night for us are well regarded in the PC Benin community as being serious foodies...and they did a wonderful job. I still miss hot wings tho. I have a meeting monday with some Beninese Red Cross people to try and flesh out my plans for school formations.

OK, the power is back on...

So the PCVLs maintain these workstations and help other PCVs with any problems they might be having with their post or assignment. Management of the workstation involves general day to day operations (bills, schedule guards, ect).
PCVLs also act as a liaison between Volunteers and the office staff in Cotonou. This helps streamline the process of addressing volunteer concerns. Instead of 100 PCVs the office staff only need to be in contact with 4 PCVLs. This contact includes monthly reports on workstation and regional PCV activities.
The PCVL also plays a big role in new site development. They solicit appropriate sites and assess the viability of newly proposed sites.
Every year they have to choose new PCVLs. It is normally a position for an extending 3rd year volunteer, but this year no one from PSL 20 applied for the position. This year 7 of my stage, PSL 21, applied. I know everyone wanted to have the opportunity to help their fellow volunteers at this level and I have to give a big congrats to the other PCVL selectees: Kyle Harrer, Chris Tsamoydakis, and Kaili Mumme. Luckily Chris (Environmental Action), Kaili (Rural Community Health), and myself (EA) were in the same training school during stage (EA and RCH trained together last year)...so we know each other very well. I have also spent more than my far share of time with Kyle (Small Enterprise Development) due to the fact that all training happened in Porto-Novo last year. Normally, training happens throughout the country and different sectors rarely see each other.
I will probably be moving into my new post in early September. But I won't be settled until late September because I will be training the in-coming stage for the two middle weeks in Sept. The current PCVL in Kandi COSes (Close Of Service) in early October, I think. So we will have to get some training in before all this goes down.

Update 2

Many people have emailed to ask me what the PCVL actually does, so here it is. There are 4 regional PCVL positions in Benin. They are posted in logistical hot spots at 'workstations.' These workstations act as transit houses for volunteers, provide materials and technology for project support (like computers for TEFLers to do lesson plans), and they are centrally located places for PCVs to assemble at for meetings or emergencies. This is going to be the first year with 4 PCVLs...wait...I have to continue this later because the power just went out!!

Update

I was selected as one of the new PCVLs for PC Benin. I am pretty excited to take over the reigns at my new post. In the meantime, I am also going to try and see if the Beninese Red Cross is up in the Alibori. The idea is to try and get skilled health officials to teach teachers basic first aid in case of an emergency. My new phone number can be found over there on the right hand info bar. Hope everyone had a good mothers day. I spent some time in the south helping fellow volunteers with some canvassing duties (collecting money for city trash collection) and an English club. For Ryan: I think the missionaries are baptist. Also, you should send your manuscript to multiple publishers to see if anyone will send you a hand written (or at least personalized) rejection...then work on them with the re-write.

Some answers to my sister's questions

Those lizards are probably some type of monitor lizard. They look like a mating pair so I think my neighbor just axed his chances of finding another lizard like these in the near future. Every year, starting in March, the men in my village start to go out into the bush to find animals to eat because my post is close to a national park and because the animals are starting to get really thirsty (it last rained up here in October...10/15/2008). This year they have not had all that much luck. A couple antelopes and a porcupine or two is all they have killed so far. I have not eaten any lizard yet but my buddy in RCH (Elliot) has. I think many of us have eaten dog, despite our best efforts, and I know many have eaten rats, antelope, pigeons, snakes, and even cats. I saw some kids leaving the woods carrying a dead hedgehog when I first arrived at my post. Basic rule: if it moves out there, it is fair game to eat. That is why the national parks are soo important. If the European Union stopped funding the park service here and they shut it down all those antelopes and buffalo and elephants and hippos and baboons and monkeys and warthogs would be done. There is not a lot of resource management over here. As far as the missionary family goes, they started to collect animals that people caught to save them. But know people are just catching things so that they will get paid for them. Apparently people come over all the time with porcupines and hedgehogs.

Some animal visitors and other pix...

Here are some pictures of animals recently found in/near my house. I found the little geko and bat escaping my roof and the two large monitor lizards were caught by my neighbors when they were in the bush. The group of bats caught in a fishing net were pictured outside a mosque a little north of my village and the little antelope is a pet of an american missionary familiy in my village....you can also see these little guys in the park. The final picture is one of me on the bike ride back in Jan. The pics of the trapped bats and the little antelope and me are all from Chris Herby's nice camera. It has been VERY hot in my house. I have taken to sleeping on the floor of my shower area. It was over 110 inside my house on Friday. I know this because the oral thermometer that I use maxes out at 110. I turned it on and it started counting up past 109 then it stopped and read 'H'. I guess H means hot, so my house was H degrees. I am also including a shot of a cotton mound that can be found throughout the north during cotton season.

Current work...

I am trying to organize some CPR and basic first aid training session for teachers at middle/high schools. Over here there are no nurses or anything of that nature at the schools so if there is a medical problem (like someone choking or a cut or something) they have to send a kid to the local health center and wait. I know a lot of health volunteers would enjoy being certified in this stuff and sharing it with the teachers in their communities. Luckily there is a group called Mercy Ship in Cotonou right now. They are a group of american volunteers who sail around the world in a big ship performing free medical procedures. I talked with a few crew members and they seemed very enthusiastic abut being able to help us out.

Alibori agriculture...

The majority of people in my area cultivate cotton. It is pretty simple and is subsidized by the government. Soja and small amounts of corn are also planted near the river. Further north, near the border with Niger, there are large rice growing lowland which are also currently being used for corn and veggies (onion, tomates, and hot peppersw are the most common). There is a small stream that runs north of my village and a dam has created a medium sized pond. Next to the steam and pond a couple people have started gardening. They grow banana trees, a small number of citrus or guava or papaya, onions, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, green beans, peanuts, carrots, potatoes, manioc, or carrots. Most of the gardeners only have a few of the above listed items and none of their plots are very big. West of Malanville is an area clost to the Niger river where a lot of this type of gardening takes place. As long as you give the plants a steady supply of water, they really produce well in all this sun. Millet is another popular crop up here but I have not seen it yet. Mango trees can also be found throughout Benin. I am adding some photos of the World Map and of a couple Warthogs from my friends post near park W.

It can also rain...

During our training in Parakou it RAINED! A large wind kicked up yesturday afternoon and a band of dark clouds passed over the workstation. It was soo cool. It had been months since seeing the last rain...it still won't rain up in my region for another month or two. The break from the 110 + degree heat has been a plus. Heading back up today ( living in Africa you get used to long taxi rides: 2-14 hours) and will be helping another volunteer make park W more tourist friendly.

Paint World Map: Check

Finished the world map painting, or almost. The countries still need to be outlined in black paint and their names need to be painted on...also the black sea was lost to an over anxious student-painter, so that will have to be fixed. I will try to get pictures up soon of our work. Tried to start a co-op for the gardeners in my village last week but it fell through. It is hot season over here...102 degrees at 10 PM, indoors. You basicly sweat all day and night and drink alot of water. Mango season will start in all its fury once the first rains come. I hope they come soon. There is a dammed stream on the north end of my village and when I arrived the resulting pond was pretty big...now it is maybe 30 feet at it's widest and you can walk across. We are all getting ready to welcome in the new stage...they will be getting here in late July.

Paint the world...

I did lose my phone but I will get another one when I head down to Parakou early next week. I will have a new number so I will write it down here. I am about to head to a nearby village to help a TEFL volunteer with the painting of a world map on one of the walls of her school. The english teachers use these maps to help teach the kids lessons in geo., and large maps like these make it easier for kids to understand the vastness of the world better than a small one on the papges of their textbook. Many kids have asked me how much it would cost to take a taxi to America! I also want to wish a belated happy birthday to mom, with the service and everything happening last week I'm afraid it slipped thru.

Incommunicato

I think I lost my phone on the taxi ride from Parakou to Kandi (the road is very bad between those two cities and the taxi ride becomes a baja race). I will keep you updated on what is happening...if I get my phone back or get another with a new number. April is becoming very busy...I think I have a training next week and perhapse another at the end of the month.

Good Eats...

Another update on the work front: I helped with a malnutrition formation with high school students in a local village a few weeks ago. Then last week I held the same formation in my village. Another volunteer and I recruited the help of the local health center to effectively pass the information to the kids. It went much better the second time because the first outing was competing with national vaccinations from unicef and it rested on a Friday. We offered formation tee-shirts to the first kid to bring me an enriched porridge (they eat this stuff for breakfast and it is call bouille) which we showed them how to make...and a second tee-shirt will go to the winner of an essay contest. The subject of the essay was: 'What are the benefits to eating well/good nutrition?' Of course, at the end of the formation, the science teacher (who's help I recruited and did nothing at all throughout the entire formation) decided it was his time to talk and wanted the PCVs to give all the kids at the formation tee-shirts. This is a very typical response to formations because locals here don't value the information you give them (or in our case we gave them FREE FOOD), they want you to hand out money or gifts. It was an unfortunate way to end the formation having to convince the teacher that we were not being paid by the government to provide tee-shirts to ALL students and we were no pocketing anything and a large portion of the previous presentation's materials, including tee-shirts and food, came out of our volunteer pockets. I won't be working with this teacher again. But the health center speaker was great when she showed up...now all subsequent formations will try to include a staff member from the local health centers.

March Madness

We had a small service for Kate yesterday. It was nice. Right now we don't have any more info than we did on Friday. The last time I saw Kate we were celebrating the x-mas season as I was heading with a group to park penjari and she was heading with a group to Dogun country in Mali. I am going to stick around the south for a couple days to do some work before heading back up.

I apparently reached the limit for photos on flickr...200 is not a good limit! So I think I will be posting random photos on my blog. Here a some examples of Beninese 'tissue' and a little kid that kinda reminds me of a smurf...

Update #2...

I also wanted to let everyone know about my health-related issues from the last time I was online. The Zyrtec worked! I don't know exactly what caused the rash but there is a suspect. I do not know how many people are familiar with the source of thier cashews. They are harvested off the bottom of a soft, sweet, red/yellow fruit (called a cashew apple). The cashew is apparently in the same family as poison ivy and the nuts need to be roasted to neutralize the caustic chemical jelly (the jelly can give you chemical burns) that surrounds the nut...even the roasting process is dangerous and the smoke can cause blindness! I mention this because you can find many cashew trees in northern Benin and four days before developing my rash I sampled a raw cashew ( I mistakenly thought the FRUIT was an allergen, not the NUT)....big mistake. I was reminded of Ralf from the Simpsons and his wonderful quote: "It tastes like burning". I had burned my lips and tounge...but it was not too bad. I think i may have been cleaning my knife used in open the cashew nut a few days later, when the rash broke out. I might have touched a some leftover residue and then touched my side...the rest is history. Cashews are apparently one of the most labor intensive nuts to harvest.

Update:

Here are some pictures of the mural painting with the environmental group at another PCV's post. These pictures were taken before the mural was finished but you can get an idea.

I will be near the internet for the next few days. I am going down to Cotonou. A fellow PCV was found dead yesterday outside of her home. Her parents have been notified so I don't think I will get in trouble for posting this info. You can find more information on news sites such as abc.com or washingtonpost.com.

Finished some Formations...

Last week I helped a nearby volunteer with a malnutrition formation at her CEG (middle/high school). It went OK but not overwhelmingly so...it was the friday before a vacation week and no teachers were there and vaccinations were being given out by UNICEF. After that I helped another volunteer at the National Park W do a mural painting of park animals with elementary kids from his enviromental club. The kids did a great job and I'm going to get a picture up of their work as soon as I track Weihow down. Now I'm in the prcess of bringing the malnution formation to my town and fighting of a mystery jungle rash. It started monday evening with what seemed like a couple bug bites on my right side...by the next morning they were large splotches! All day yesturday the rash spread down my side and up onto my inner bicep and itched despite me putting anti-itch cream and taking benydril and this morning it was even worse. So I called the doctors and was sent to a local hospital for an eval. They decided it is not an infection because I have not fever or pain or fluid with the splotches...a plus. I got a script for Zyrtec and am currently on that. More splotches have appeared on my right shoulder and left chest since the eval...if things keep up at this rate I'll be covered by early friday :) I sent the docs a couple pictures showing the progression of the rash so they know what I am talking about. If i start to develope a fever or anything I'll call the docs again but until then I'll just have to wait it out and see if the meds do their job. Jan and Feb seemed (and continue) to drag on forever! The heat is coming now...the harmattan is over.

Enviro-mental Education

Currently I am helping another northern EA volunteer with a mural project for the National Park W, as well as some enviro education with his local school environmental club. Later in the week I will also be helping a health volunteer hold some malnutrition formations. These formations would take secondary school students (high/middle school) and show them the importance of balanced nutrition and how they can easily eat better with the food available au village. I hope to have the same type of malnutrition formations in my village in March. The importance of getting the right amount or balance of vitamins and minerals is not really well known up here (I don't think) and if it is no one is following it! I hope everyone had a good Feb 14th and a spectacular day after. I did my laundry and went to bed early on my birthday...I think these are the first signs of being too old. Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes! One Beninese birthday down, one to go...

Recent Work

I had spent the last two nights at Parakou University participating in discussions with students about American and Beninese culture. It was great to be able to hear the different opinions of young Beninese people who had somehow gotten out of the village way of life. Being 'au village' for almost all of my service, it was easy to forget that there is a small number of people in Benin who encourage their children to go to school or who want some life better for themselves and their country. The first night we talked a bit about the Millennium Challenge 8th goal (build a global partnership for development) and what type of activities the Beninese government was doing to attain this goal. The second night we talked about Valentines Day and the different ways Americans celebrate it compared to the Beninese.

Feb is for birthdays...

There are alot of birthdays coming up here people. Starting with Kelli, then yours truly, then Sterling/Jimmay on the same day, then i think it is my father's...lets just say Feb is a very popular month in my experience. But now I'll be celebrating my 25th (that is a quarter of a century) over here in Benin. One of my TEFL friends baked me a couple cakes and I am still tying to get that bottle of liquor owed to me from a RCH volunteer...it's been an uphill battle. I am now in an lull period between work. There is a mural painting plans in a nearby village with another EA PCV. The murals will be of wild animals and we will be talking with (and painting with) school children about the different animals. Later, during the first week of March, I will be assissting a RCH PCV in my own village as she holds a formation on the subject of nutrition at my CEG (Middle/High School). My bike tour was published in the PC Benin Newsletter (email me if you want a copy) so that was good. Too bad for my fellow organizers they only credited me with the story because it was me who emailed the editor...not my fault guys, I swear. I also put up some new photos, so enjoy

So if there is a Super Bowl....

and I'm not on the continent, can the AZ Cards go? Apparently yes. It is offical...I have missed an entire Pro and college season of football. The bike tour went well. We talked to about 3000 people in 14 villages and planted over 300 Moringa trees. Over 200 women were shown how to incorperate Moringa powder into their cooking and taste the results. Everyone was very excited and worked hard to make everything run smoothly. We even ran under budget! The weather is turning here and the coton trucks are returning from the fields with their hauls. Soon the temp will rise upwards to 130 degrees...so I have that to look forward to. I was going to try and head to Mali and hike Dogun country in the coming months, but now that doesn't look like it will work out. After hecticly planning the bike tour I am now left with finding some other work to occupy my time. I have a few ideas but I have to flesh them out. I have been trying to search out someone in my village who speaks Arabic...i figure if i study arabic the state dept would hire me after the 2 yrs are over. As far as the knife question goes: I use my Kershaw 1/2 serrated. I have 2 mulititules and a swiss army knife but the Kershaw is just great. And it has taken a lot of abuse. Bad news on the watch front....my very neato citizen ecodrive was ripped from my wrist as i plunged 45 ft from the waterfall back in Dec. I really did not know how usefull the watch was to me until i lost it. (I never had a very good track record with watches). everyone is settling into their routines over here and loooking forward to welcoming the new PCVs in a few months. A PC Washington type was over here in Benin doing a sector reveiw of EA. His name was David Miller and we talked about an hour about the EA program. I think there is a meeting down south right now with mr. miller and a number of the EA PCVs. I will post pix from the bike tour and other places soon....i know i have been slacking recently due to the elusivness of the internet. Hope everyone is doing well. I recently recieved G-ma and Aunt Jills packages...but not my sisters package from Nov. Idk where it went....maybe it will still make it. Instructions for mailing me are just to the right of these blog entries! Talk to eveyone later (i think i'll make it on tomarrow before heading back to post)

A little help for potential PCVs....

I realized this was about the time I was seriously getting into my PC application process last year, and while I don't remember if I had stumbled across the blog pages yet I figure I can give any potential PC applicant some advice before they sign up officially.
TIPS:
1. If you are in any way adverse to using a hole in a hut as a bathroom or your hands as silverware...do not come to West Africa. (or do what I do and carry a spoon with you at all times)
2. If the idea of a 30 y.o. man, with an equivalent to a third grade education, telling you how stupid your idea is (even if said idea is backed up by millions practicing it's principles worldwide)...don't come to West Africa.
3. Don't bring socks or closed toed shoes...you will never you them.
4. Pack less clothes and stuff and bring more money. (despite the falling dollar)
5. BRING WIND-UP FLASHLIGHTS/RADIOS/CELLPHONE CHARGERS. (we all can't be SEDers, with their electricity and running water)
6. About 2 weeks before you go to pre-staging, send yourself a package to the 971 Cotonou address...i suggest somethings chocolaty or Cliff bars.
7. Know your daypack...it has to be big enough to carry a couple pairs of cloths but be small enough to sit on your lap in crowded conditions.
8. If being the only white (or any other color other than black) person within a 50 km radius, and being constantly reminded of that fact everyday by people with less than a third grade education...don't come to West Africa.
9. If your family is dead set against you contracting some sort of tropical disease...don't come to West Africa.
10. Finally, if you really want to do development work...look elsewhere. PC is not a development agency and most of those wanting out do so because they thought they were getting into something altogether different.

That said, if you finally do decide that PC West Africa is for you (I fail to see how, you could get a Pacific Island post for Christs sake) then PC Benin is a pretty good place to end up. More food available when compared to Niger or Mauritania, and less violence than say Ghana. The downtime can get fairly tedious, but if you want the work you can find it. At the end of the day, every volunteer is over here to make a difference and help a people and nation less developed than our own. That thought alone makes those days when groups of children and adults are laughing at you because the white guy just got off a bike wearing a helmet just bearable...just barely.

Top 5 things I brought to Benin:
1. Inflatable sleeping mat and pillow
2. Blue disaster tarp
3. pocketknife
4. Sharpies
5. wind-up falshlight/radio
notables include: hammock with mosquito netting, camel bak, kitchen knife, micro waterfilter

Safari X-mas

So I'm back from the safari and now knee deep in bike tour plans. The animals were awesome! I went with a number of TEFL volunteers and we saw hippos, elephants, crocs, lions, buffalos, antelopes of various types, monkeys and baboons, a porqupine, and carious birds (eagles/parrots/storks). It was a very successful safari. Afterwards we visited a post of a RCH (health) volunteer and we played in a large waterfall. It was huge, probably around 45 feet high, and I climbed up and jumped off. Pictures will have to wait until I get back to Cotonou. I hope everyone had a happy new year, and I'm sure everyone is enjoying bowl season on their TVs.