Bisous du Benin!

So I'm already running short on internet time, so I'll try to keep this brief-ish. This last week was the launching of my Amour & Vie team in Penelan. I've talked about Amour & Vie in past posts- it's a national program all about health peer education in village. So the launching (or lancement) is basically a big party for the village to let them know what we're all about and get them ready to have their worlds rocked. It's also an opportunity for the important men in village (like the traditional chief and delegate) to publicly give their support, so the project is more likely to succeed. Representatives from Cotonou Amour & Vie came to see the lancement, check in on us, and make sure things are going smoothly for us so far. This meant fellow volunteer Brigitte (yay!) and Hugues, who is the Beninese guy in charge of Amour & Vie Cotonou. It was really great that they came out and supported us, and it's always really helpful to get somebody else to talk to your team in French, and cover anything that you (I) said, which your team (my team) totally ignored.
So I was trying to get my team to put this thing together for like the two weeks leading up the the event, but most things like this in Benin happen LAST minute. So my efforts to get a jump on it where...not entirely successful. So the lancement was on a Sunday. Which meant that all Saturday and Sunday was last minute running around to get the entire event worked out. Penelan doesn't have electricity so all our cold drinks (a definite requirement) had to be brought in from Penessoulou- which involved me zemming out at 7 in the morning and dragging around coolers with 50 lbs of soda in them. We rented a sound system, which required both a generator and gas to run the generator. But in addition to the sound system there was a traditional band that we hired to get the party started with some dance music. There were speeches to write, a lesson plan for my team to plan. (They gave a sample presentation on family planning just as an introduction to the program.)
Because there are no really restaurant type places in my town,we had to order all the food in advance. And apparently it's rude and exclusive to just hire one woman to do everything. So I had to get Reine to be an intermediary while I bargained with the village's women's association, who were going to do all the cooking the day off! We had yam pilee (mashed yams) and chicken. It was actually really good.
I also wanted my nice neighbor to do the official launching ceremony at the very end. Which is apparently offensive to my supervisor (a non-entity that I've talked to twice at the maximum). Although my supervisor has no idea what this project is even about, he is technically my liason in village. And it would be disrespectful to him (and the village who chose him) if I went over his head. So.... I had to go talk to him and get him to make a speech.
I also had to walk around Saturday morning with my team and make house visits to all the important men in village and personally invite them to the event. This was the fun part- they were all super sweet to me, and talked about how important health was, and how I was such an asset to the village (flattery will get you everywhere). “The first thing you pray for in the morning is health. You are trying to bring health to our village- how could we not support you?” The delegate (basically a kind of political representative) actually had a longish conversation with me about how it's important that traditional voodoo health rituals work together with the health center. It was really interesting, and I learned a lot about how my village views health. And how to plan an event.
I'm gonna cut this off, even though there is so much more I could say. The event went really well- there were about 100 people there (there are pictures on facebook). It was definitely one of my most rewarding experiences in country. Because it was something that everyone in the village could see that I was doing, and I got so much positive feedback. For most of your service, most villagers will not understand at all what you are doing, why you are there, or what your role is. And I feel like I got the opportunity to show them that I'm here, I'm working, and I'm a part of their community. It was a pain in the ass to put together, and I think that's why it was so much fun when it went off without a hitch. I was very proud of my village for being so helpful, and so receptive, and so totally gung-ho. And I was proud of myself! It's this kind of real village experience that volunteers ALL live for. It's few and far between, but it makes it worth it.

Hey I just wanted to send you all a quick update because it's been so long. I just got back from a conference with Amour & Vie, which is a program run by PSI (a groovy international NGO). PSI (Population Services International) is a great NGO, and they do a lot of health work in Benin with malaria, HIV/AIDS, water sanitation and family planning. So the Amour & Vie program was a training for representatives from our villages (there were like 10 volunteers who participated). The program trains them on health issues, and trains them how to give presentations, so they can go back to village and sort of “peer educate” the villagers in local language. So it's pretty cool! It's a lot of work for us right now, me and my reps are trying to set up the program in Penelan and there have been some hiccups and misunderstandings, but in another month we should be up and running, and Penelan will get at minimum two health lectures a month. By villagers, and not me! Yay sustainability! So that's sort of my main project right now.

I've also been setting up post visits for the new kids. I'm going to be visiting six different posts in November of volunteers from the new stage, just to check in on them and make sure everything's going okay. So I've been helping to set up the logistics for that.

What else has happened? I got malaria about two weeks ago, which majorly cramped my style for a little while. Malaria is the worst kids, you should avoid that for reals. I for sure wanted to die.

Last month I also got a Beninese style tattoo in my friend's village. They just make little lines with a razor blade (a new one, no AIDs!), and generally fill it with some kind of ash so the lines stay. A LOT of volunteers get these tattoos, I'd say maybe 75%, because it's pretty iconic, I'd say the same percentage of Beninese people have the scars. The guy doing mine used the ash of bird feathers, which is pretty cool! I had to eat part of the ash before he did it as pat of the ceremony. I got three little lines on my back, it's sort of a general symbol of protection.

I realize this update is horrifically short, but I feel like there is at once so much to say and so little. Now that I've updated you all on what's sort of been going on, I'm hoping next month I can get into some fun stuff! I won't have internet again til Halloween, so I hope you all have a great October!! Lots of love.

P.S. I forgot! My camera broke, so there haven't been pictures in a while, but my mom is sending a new one in the mail, so pictures should be back soon!

(written 24March2011)

This is kind of a project heavy couple of posts- but I wanted to let you guys know about the other projects I'm lining up for the next couple months. So you have an idea what I'm doing!

PAPAS CLUB IN PENELAN
I talk about Boys and Girl's club all the time with my nice neighbor in Penelan, and he suggested- independently- that we start a Papa's Club. Which made me ecstatic, because that is an actual thing within Peace Corps health, and I've been thinking about approaching him with it for a while. It's basically a vehicle to encourage birth control use and fair treatment of women and children. Cool, huh?

BOYS CAMP
The boy's camp for our region is happening in July, and I'll be a counselor for it. Like most boy stuff- a lot of it is about learning to appreciate women, and how to be “a good husband”. But you also get to hang out with a bunch of kids, which is fun. I'm most likely taking over the planning of this camp next year.

COMPUTER LESSONS IN BASSILA
Shannon's girl's club is have internet and computer lessons and the cyber cafe in Bassila in April. I'm gonna be there for the week to hang out and help, and we've invited my nice neighbor to come too, because he's super interested. And lives in a village without electricity, so getting him near a computer would be adorable.

BIRTH CONTROL FORMATION
(fall 2011)
Shannon and I really want to do some birth control formations in Bassila, Pennesoulou and Penelan. There would be three formations in total. The first would just be a general information session about different kinds of birth control, the importance of birth control, etc. Ideally we would have married couples come to the event, and split them into two groups: male and female. Shannon works with a man in Bassila who does talks on birth control, and he could talk to the men, while we talk to the women with my homologue. The second formation is about training health workers to talk about birth control with others. And the third formation would be a training session for male community leaders. We are sort of unsure about how successful this is gonna be.... but we'll see. Peace Corps Washington has official taken family planning out of the health goals, because it's too hard. But that's dumb. It's important, screw them.

HEALTH BABY CONTEST
(fall 2011)
Starting next fall, I'm doing a six month “health baby contest” in Penelan. If you read “Nine Hills to Nammbmkdsookijaaa...” it's the same thing she did in her village. The contest would last six months, with a sensibilization on a different subject each month. For example, birth control, malaria, first aid, and the basics and importance of baby weighing. I would be available at the health center during marche days to help women with baby weighing. In order to win the contest, women must meet certain criteria, go to all the meetings, and weigh their baby X times per month. At the end of the six months there will be a fete and presents for the women who are the winners. Fun!

ART CLUB
This is a pipe dream. I don't know if it will happen.

MURALS
(summer 2011)
If I get an art club going, they can help with this, but if not than I will get the girl's club to help. I want to make murals of the world, africa, benin, donga, and penelan inside the classrooms at the elementary school in Penelan. I'm gonna do it over the summer, when there are fewer children running around making a mess.
I would also like to do some murals on the walls in the health center. But I'm gonna let Reine pick what that's all about, cause I'm sure she's got an opinion on the subject.

Still ongoing and admin:
GIRL'S CLUB IN PENESSOULOU
Same old, same old.

TRAININGS IN COTONOU
In May, I have three different trainings happening in Cotonou, so I'm pretty much spending the entire month down south. The first is for trainers of the new stage coming in July, the second is just a health in-service, and the last is a food security workshop that I requested to go to. Although...I'm not entirely sure what that is... so... I'll keep you posted.

NEW STAGE
Is coming in July! I don't know when I'm going to be down south helping out, but I'm already getting really excited to meet the new kids!

Unrelated:
GARDEN
I'm trying to get a little garden built outside my house. Mel sent me some seeds, and I'm getting pumped. I found some old flowerpots at the penessoulou dump, and I'm cleaning them out so I can have some flowers in my house. Joy!
Nice neighbor already took some carrot and bean seeds of mine and planted them in his garden a couple months ago. He does all the work, and I get vegetables. Doesn't that seem a little off to you? The carrots are ready, and we've been eating some here and there. Today I'm gonna make him some carrot cake! His hot son sold some of the carrots when I was out of town, and I think he got in trouble. When I was talking to him yesterday, he tried to give me mille franc ($2) for the carrots he sold. It was absolutely ridiculous!! I obviously refused. I try to tell them that they did the work, they can do whatever they want with the veggies. But it's a hard sell.

RABBITS
I'm also trying to get a rabbit huch built (everything's so complicated) so I can raise some yummy rabbits! If they're too cute I might need to get nice neighbor to kill them for me.

(written 24March2011)

Hello all! I have been absolutely awful about writing blog posts because I've been traveling a lot and have been suuuuuper busy the last monthish, so I figured I should just fill you all in on what I've been doing!

For the last month or so I've been planning (with Shannon) for a Journee des Filles (a girl's day) which is going to happen April 2nd in Bassila. It's basically a mini-conference for the girl's clubs in our region. Ten girls from each of the five nearest clubs will be coming- and we'll have eight volunteers acting as counselors. The purpose of the day is to make a mini-girl's camp. We have a weeklong girl's camp every year during the summer, but only two girls from each school can come. So this is to benefit the girls who won't have the opportunity to make it.

At the day, we're gonna have two different midwives come and speak about health, periods, pregnancy, and birth control. There will be a career panal made up of important women in the community. There will be skits from each club- currently the Bassila girl's are learning Bad Romance. I'm trying to upload the video to my facebook- it's super cute! We'll have a environmental conservation lecture, tree planting at the high school in Bassila, and a screening of Planet Earth (in French). We're serving lunch, we've made T-shirts. Am I forgetting anything? So... it's been a lot of work to put it together. I've been spending my time applying for grants, creating the schedule, putting together the manual each girl is going to get on the day and talking to the volunteers who are coming. But that doesn't include the travel. I've been to Parakou three times to resolve issues with our t-shirt order, and to meet with one of the NGOs there. I'm going again this weekend to pick up our shirts which are finally ready! I was in Nati to borrow the Planet Earth DVDs from another volunteer. And for the last week, I've been in Bassila with Shannon, handing out invitations to the midwives and the career panal, requesting sound systems and projectors from the mayor, arranging the taxis to pick up the girls in the different towns, reserving the high school and basketball court, and bargaining with the restaurant who is providing the food. Next week I'll be back again confirming everything before the big day. Busy right!!?

I'm really excited for the day to finally come! It could be really awesome, but it could also be a disaster, which is kind of half the fun. Everyone I've been inviting and requesting things from have all said yes. But often in Beninese culture, a yes doesn't actually mean that you'll show up. So I have no real way of gauging what's gonna happen. Exciting! It has been feeling REALLY good to be actively doing something, and to be keeping myself busy. I've been having a lot of fun putting it together, and I'll let you all know how it goes!

P.S. If you like this project- most of our day is being funded by GAD grants from Peace Corps Benin! It's not to late to donate to our GAD fundraiser in April if you so desire! (Check out the blog post before this one for more info.)

Also- new pictures are up on Facebook! Enjoy!

(written 28sept2010)

My day to day generally consists of doing a lot of chores, which is pretty much what African people do all day, so I'm feeling pretty bien integre. I've really liked the cooking I've done, but that requires a lot of dish doing. I finally figured out how to set up my cot in my little backyard and I've been drying my dishes in the sun on that- which is working really well (P.S. Totally Shannon's idea). I've set up a clothesline back there too for my underwear. It's culturally unacceptable to let other people see any of your underjunk, so you have to find a secret place to dry it. The regular laundry can go in the line in front, and there's always laundry I should be doing. Sometimes...I do...some of it. I sweep my house about three times a day, because now that I actually have control over my surrounding I'm absolutely obsessed with keeping things clean (and more importantly bug and animal free). There's water to boil for drinking. There's water to get from the pump (which in reality Reine's domestic does for me, but I have to go find her and ask her to do it.) There are sometimes bugs to kill, but it hasn't been that extreme. My favorite is sweeping and finding tiny bugs that are alive and then just sweeping them up in the pile. Because there's nothing they can do about it. And then I just throw them outside! Sorry little men, there's a war on here. Either rally your troops or prepare for annihilation.

Each day brings somethings new. I've been meeting friends in village, going on bike rides to Heather's house, saluating old people in Ani (sometimes). What's interesting is that I never really know what expect- what a shock- TIA (this is Africa). Today I had a little bit of a lazy day in the morning, and then Alassane came by (surprise!) and dropped off some curtains he bought for me in Togo (surprise again!). He and Reine are always just giving me things, I love how they see me and Heather as family already. And family is just how it feels. Anyway, I ended up having a longish conversation with Reine about what we want my role to be in the village, and what projects I'd like to do, which was the first time I'd really talked with her about it. When we were chatting some teenage girls came by (surprise!), and I got to talk to them a little bit about how I want to start a girl's club. They were really into it, which made me all the more excited. The girls brought me to this wedding party that was happening down the street- more dancing! I can't ever predict how the day will go, and that usually means it will go somewhere awesome.

I've been working really hard the last couple days on getting started with my actual work- trying to identify the resources in my community, trying to figure out community priorities, and what it is that they really need most. I've been reading a lot of Peace Corps books about how to get started on your projects and how to ensure sustainability. It's fascinatingly complicated, and the more I spend time here and educate myself on aid systems in Africa, and what actually works and does not work, I better understand the mess this whole continent is in the begin with. Aid is one of the most complicated and intricate issues of our time (in my humble opinion). What's more important than what you do, is how you do it. It may seem simple to come in and build a latrine for a poor African school- but what does that latrine mean to the community? Will they use it? Will they maintain it? You have to a arrange the resources and provide the opportunities for the community to do things for itself. If they want a latrine that is sustainable, they have to build it themselves. And your job is to make that possible, all the while, handing over leadership, encouraging them to work within their own resources, and basically making yourself as invisible as possible. So interesting. And hard!

My main goal in my village is going to be working on decreasing teen pregnancy and school drop-out rates for my girls. What an impossible problem! I'm excited to get started!
I feel like the main thing holding me back right now is my French...it's hard to be patient with myself because I have so many ideas about what I want to do, and I feel like my village must think I'm an absolute idiot because I can't express opinions or ideas. Arg!

(written 23Sept2010)

So I'm officially in village! I've been doin the real deal since Monday (the 20th) and so much has already happened!! My homologue is keeping me super busy, and I feel like it'll be a while before I get the Peace Corps boredom. Let me apologize in advance, cause this was kind of hastily written, and might be a bit of a chore to read.

Sunday was my moving day. I somehow managed to be magically assigned a taxi all to myself, which was good because I had a lot of stuff to move around. After driving like 6 hours up from Porto-Novo, I had to stop in Basilla, which is Shannon's town) because a volunteer whose post has closed left a lot of stuff for me: two tables, two chairs, a cot, a giant water basin, general tupperware type things for food storage. We brought all that stuff to Penelan, and unloaded, and then backtracked 2 mi. to Pennessoulou (which is where my friend and closest volunteer Heather lives) to pick up the bedframe and giant food chest the carpenter made for me. The food chest is like an armoire with mosquito netting on the doors so that mice and bugs can't get to your food. It's super rad. My best purchase. A bunch of old ladies showed up at my house out of nowhere to help me move, and wouldn't let me do anything- they kept taking bags out of my hands and carrying them in. Heather's neighbor Alassane (he's a dude fyi) zemmed over with Heather to check out the house and for a brief visit. After they left there was a mini “welcome-Michelle” dance party in front of the health center! And they sure do love a dance party. The dancing isn't that hard core, there's mostly just like 4 or 5 women swaying, but they really really like it when I come dance with them. And I really really like to do it! We went to the buvette (bar) after and had some dinner, and that was pretty much it. See! Totally busy!

Monday I tried to unpack most of the day. I don't think anything really happened in the morning. In the afternoon Alassane and his wife brought Heather to town again because Penelan was apparently having some sort of fete in celebration of women? Which was just another dance party in our marche area. But this one was bigger! And you give candy and Nigerian 5 dollar bills to people who are dancing well, which really means everybody. So the candy keeps getting passed from person to person. And why were we using Nigerian money? We all went to buvette again and had Malta, which is Guiness' version of near-beer. It kinda tastes like molasses. They made us drink two bottles each.

On Tuesday I saw my very first, real life, not kidding, human baby, BIRTH! My homolouge had told me that I had to give a speech on vaccinations around 8:30, and when she wasn't at my house by 9ish I decided to mosey on over to the health center. A baby had just finished being born, and they were cleaning it off! I thought that was exciting. And all the villagers kept telling me “Good job!” and “Thank you!”. And all I did was show up late and hold the baby. As soon as the first mom got settled, one of the women who actually works with us at the health center, and has been ready to pop for a while, started going into labor, and I got to see that sucker beginning to end! I gotta say, for being in the middle of the bush in Africa, my midwives really did a great job. There are a couple weird things they do here though- mostly they will not let the woman cry out, and some mommas get whacked by a midwife if they get too loud. But that's pretty much how Beninese people react to everything. Once the baby came out it got a little on the whiny side, and the midwife that was cleaning her gave her a few good whacks. That's right old African lady, get 'em started early. They pierce the ears of all the girls, and they do it right after birth. The ears are so soft, they just push the earring right in. That was cool. The moms also have like zero rest time. I saw both of the mothers from that morning walking around at the vaccination event later that afternoon. Mothers generally go back to the fields like pronto. Hmm, what else? The weirdest thing about the birth to me was the placenta, because I guess I had never really seen one before. It looked kind of like a heart because there was just so much blood in it and it was all veiny. Cindy! I thought of you carrying your placentas at the hospital!

Anyway after all that, the vaccinations were supposed to happen and I was supposed to give my speech. But my homologue disappeared probably to do something important, so I hung out at the event for a couple hours, and some women showed me how to more efficiently shell peanuts. It was fun! I never did give a speech. Which is probably really for the best.

Wednesday we had a mini Peace Corps reunion! There are five of us that live fairly close together (fairly, not super). Jared (english teacher), Shannon (environment), Eric (health like me), and Heather (english teacher too). Shan and Jared came to my house in the morning and we made kick ass mac and cheese from the Peace Corps cookbook. We didn't have any onions, so I went to ask my homologue (I'm just gonna call her by her name now, because homologue is a lot to type out- her name is Reine). Instead she just gave me a bowl of onions and tomatoes and and eggs from her chickens. Fresh eggs, yum! That woman is such a gem, I'm telling you. Anyway, the mac was made with vache qui rit, which they have in the states (laughing cow)- it's like those little triangles of “cheese spread” in the refrigerated section. It was sooooo f-ing good. My first taste of almost American food since I've been here. Oh man. Let me relive the moment for a second. So good.
After that all three of us decided to walk to Heather's house 'cause that's where we were meeting her and Eric. It's about a 2.5 mile walk, and it was pretty awesome, because we were really walking through the African jungle. We saw a hornbill (like Zazou from the Lion King) and I just about lost it. Near the end of the walk we got caught in a giant thunderstorm, which was very wet, but beautiful. I'm glad we all got to share it together.
When we got to Heather's she made us hot chocolate and I charged my stuff! We didn't stay long. But it was lovely to see everyone and touch base after out first couple days!

Apparently every Thursday my health center holds prenatal consultations. So I went to a batch of them yesterday and Reine showed me how to fill out the Beninese maternity health cards. So I gave a little speech to the ladies about the importance of attending all their prenatal exams, and matched up their health cards with our maternity cards. Then I sat in on six of the exams, and Reine dictated the measurements, and I filled them out on the cards. I was really proud of myself, 'cause it was pretty complicated, and totally in French, and I learned a lot about the Beninese health system, pregnancy warning signs, and the different tests my center is capable of doing. It was fascinating. We sold mosquito nets to the women who needed them, and I learned how to fill out the mosquito net sales notebook. I really enjoyed it a lot, and I think it was really helpful to Reine cause she could go three times as fast with me there.
After all this, I made BREAD! Which was soo sooo sooo good. So good. It was yeast based,. I let it rise twice, which was super fast because it's always 90 degrees out. In the P.C. we use dutch ovens. You put your loaf pan or whatever into a large soup pot. You have to have like a can or something on the bottom of the soup pot so that your loaf pan doesn't touch any of the sides of the pot. And you put the lid on and just set it on your stove on low. It produces dry heat and will just bake anything you want! A thunderstorm hit just as the bread was coming out of the oven and I sat on my mat and ate warm bread with butter and honey and jam and nutella, and listened to it rain like crazy outside. It felt so nice. And I did it all myself!
I think I might get in the habit of making bread every week or so, because they just have Togolese bread in my village, which is kind of like Wonder bread and is bordering on super lame. It gets kinda stale quickly, and just has no ummph.