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.