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.