A Photo Update

In The Middle

A general update:

Mid-Service, in reality, is not for another month or two.. but here in Benin we are already feeling it full force.

The old volunteers are buying their plane tickets home and we are questioning whether we really have the knowledge to guide in a new generation of Benin PCVs. Of course we will find that we do, but that doesn't mean that we know it yet.

Some of us are feeling overwhelmed that there is a whole year left.. overwhelmed that a whole year has already passed.. and overwhelmed by the amount of work we feel like we have yet to do.

A really great time travel to the middle of the country for some really productive conversation.

--- 

This week I am up in Parakou for a gardening workshop. This workshop was organized by another volunteer -- in order to assist with network and communication between actors at all levels of the market gardening process. Seed production/distribution to garden production to markets and restaurants.

As most of you know I work with market gardeners in Akpro-Misserete (the Porto Novo region of Benin). Since I live close to the cities there is access to a good diversity of seeds in my area, as well as access to information, but this does not mean that the farmers know this, or have the means to access it. On the other hand.. there is often a problem with accessing markets willing to pay a good price for produce, especially when experimenting with something not previously grown at said farm in the past.

Benin has lots of resources but there is a lack when it comes to communicating and network, which is what I believe was the purpose of this workshop.

--- 

Right now, in Misserete, I am working on a project to diversify the crops grown by my farming groups. For the past few months we have been working with seed samples of different varieties to grow crops such as tomatoes, hot peppers, cucumbers, okra, carrots and radishes – and this week I received a whole new batch of samples seeds from East-West Seeds . I am excited to try watermelon, onions, lettuce and beets with the farm ladies!!

All of these crops can easily be grown in my region of Benin, once the farmer knows the process, and most of them can be grown year round. Some of these crops (such as tomatoes and hot peppers) the farmers have tried in the past, but perhaps couldn't find an opening in the market, or just didn't succeed due to insects, or water access. All of these crops are sold in Benin, and the majority of them are imported from neighboring countries to be sold in our local markets. In the mean time the local farmers (all) grow fields and fields of the same African legumes, corn, and manioc. By teaching the farmers to grow these new crops we are increasing the local access, and potentially lowering their prices, making it so that vegetables that aren't bought by your average family because of the cost might be able to be more widely eaten enriching diets of families. Also, if farmers grow the crops that are currently imported, they should be able to make more money per area of land then they currently do.

The problem with this.. is that people are creatures of habit. People like to eat the foods that they are familiar with.. and they like to buy from sources that they know and are comfortable with. Its just little steps. So for now, we will continue working with these seed samples, raising the farmers confidence in the new crops and trying to build vending connections.

Earlier this week,  before I came up to Parakou, we had “a rose and a thorn” (as Erik's mom likes to put it) in this project...

One of the crops, that is definitely gaining popularity at least in my region of Benin, that we were hoping to have success with is cucumbers. Unfortunately, in the first farm where we planted our trial plots, all the cucumbers (3 different varieties!) have died. – Luckily (and completely unexpectedly) I received a second batch of cucumber samples today.. so we will try again. I just worry about people becoming discouraged or thinking a crop is too hard to grow. For this specific “harvest” of cucumbers I had been traveling a lot, so I will monitor our new batch more closely, hopefully they take this time... and I really hope we have better luck with cucumbers at the other farms where I work.

Radishes, on the other hand turned out to be a more positive, and very interesting experience. One of the seed samples was for large white daikon style radishes. Not a crop you normally see here in Benin, but we had the seeds so it couldn't hurt to try and see what happened. These radishes grew amazingly well.. and we had beautiful large radishes in just 3 weeks. The women were visibly very happy with them, they enjoyed growing them, they especially loved the large green leaves that they immediately removed and used as a sort of mulch for the tomatoes (not sure why but hey whatever). The problem, we thought, was not even the “exotic” vegetable vendors in Cotonou wanted to take them off their hand. - - That being said I made a show about calling a volunteer I know who works with some restaurants, and acted very confident that we could sell them. This apparently motivated the women, because they called the next morning to say that they found a vendor and sold the radishes. – And WE LEARNED that the reason we couldn't sell the radishes, is because they are considered a fete food, and are generally sold during the months of December and January. Its interesting to think that while in this country most things can be grown and potentially sold year round, people have preset ideas about when they will buy them.. and therefore the market is still “seasonal” in a sense.

It is really exciting to me that this project seems to be moving forward. I was also really happy that the radishes worked out, and hopefully counteracted the disappointment over the cucumbers.

This is what I've been up to recently.

I'd love to get some updates from home!

Love
Z

A Successful Week

I normally find just “summarizing” my week.. really boring. Maybe that's just me... that being said THIS week was just one of those weeks where I kept thinking “Why isn't every week this awesome?!”

Then again, if every week was this successful then I really wouldn't appreciate it nearly as much. :)

This week: I ate, I danced, I greeted, I rested, I worked.

A few weeks back I received sample seeds from Songhai for my gardening groups to try out and give feedback on. We decided to use these seeds to make an educational plot in each groups field were we can grow new vegetables and test out natural insecticides and what not. That way the women can see how things work before they do them in their own garden plots. (aka if anything fails on the first try it won't really affect their livelihood)

This week I worked with the two farming groups in Blewan and we started planting three different varieties of tomatoes, some radishes, a couple types of carrots, cucumbers and okra. In two weeks I am going to do the same with the groups who work at the next farm over (and by end of April we will be transplanting seedlings and building trellises). There is even discussion of field tripping some of the women farmers over to the other fields so they can see what is and isn't working for each other. After months of doing what felt like nothing – I am really excited to see that some of the preliminary work is starting to pay off. There was even an intern with us who took some pictures!! I am going to have to try and get them.

Of course in Africa its a give or take.. because while all of these great things were happening with the farming groups in Blewan.. things were dieing in my school garden. The tomato and peppers seem to be sprouting well, but we had to re-start a whole seed bed of African greens (it is possible they weren't watered over the weekend – sigh) and we are also having some fungus problems.. (ew.)

The BEST part of my week however fell into the cultural aspect of the work that I do here (and did not contribute quite as much to my constant sunburn).. I went fete-ing with Mama!!

This month is Women Awareness Month. Mama is an important political woman in the Porto Novo area, and she was hosting the “Fete de Femmes” for the women who are in her region of Porto. There were lots of really important people there. She had an awesome dress made for me (in the same fancy tissue that all of the women in the group and all of the special guests were wearing). It started with important people getting up and giving speeches (and me just sitting there looking lost) everything was in local language so I just smiled an clapped when other people clapped. My Mama gave a speech too. They had a doctor come and give a talk on how to self examine for breast cancer, which I thought was interesting because that is something that, in the US, would always be part of a “Jour de Femme”.. but it is not something I have seen talked about a lot here. Some skits were also preformed (that is really popular here).

Once everyone was finished talking it was time to eat and dance! My Mama had prepared a vegetarian dish for me and one of her friends brought out the dish to me shortly before everyone else was given the go ahead to get up and get their food from the buffet tables (they were serving fish). I (of course) felt super awkward that I was the only one eating and that I was being served special food... but I really appreciated it, and when I tried to wait, I was told to start eating while it was still hot. I really am lucky to have such a caring and understanding family here in Porto Novo, I feel like some families in America wouldn't go out of their way like that. We finished with some dancing and then pictures.. at that point I was exhausted but it was great to spend the day with my host family, eat some good food and have a great cultural experience.

Some of the important people in the area overlap with my commune as well and I know I have seen them at multiple events. I really need to start learning who they are.

Lots of Love

Z

Gardening With Children

One of the suggested projects for environment volunteers is working on a garden with local school children. What better way to help with the food security of a country then to teach the children how to grow nutritious fruits and vegetables?

Ready... Set.. Hoe!

This month I was finally able to start working with a school. I am not sure if I really got into it here on the blog (I don't know that I mentioned it much) but I was having A LOT of trouble finding a school that was interested in working with me. Some volunteers are partnered with schools as their host structures.. but that isn't the case for me.

As we know, things happen for a reason.. and while all my truly local school have been putting me off and brushing me aside.. I found a primary school that is very motivated and very excited about me working with them. This school is not in my village it is another village over, but I am very happy to be working with them. I don't mind traveling to them if it means I get to work with people who actually want me there.

I originally went to visit their school thinking (and only thinking) that it was an opportunity to do a forestry project. I was told that this school had a small man-made forest stand, and that they had contacted my office about wanting to protect this small forest. Unfortunately, by the time this message reached me.. and we made our way over to check it out.. a good portion of the trees had already been taken down. :-/ Seeing as the school had reached out, my supervisor and I took advantage of the opportunity and asked them if they would be interested in my help with creating a school garden.

Interestingly enough, the school had real interest, but not really in the garden. In a much bigger project. They want a garden, WITH ANIMALS (rabbits and maybe some chickens and goats as well). I am not going to say that I don't have any reservations over a primary school running a small farm, and to that point I told them that we are going to just start with the Garden and move forward from there. I figure if they are able to be motivated and work hard, and the garden is a success and the children show real interest... then we can talk about adding animals into the equation after their summer break. Luckily the school's Directors thought this was fair and agreed to my idea to start small and work towards the bigger project.

Building A Fence 

Things are just getting started, so there are no pretty greens growing yet. The location to for the garden is great, there is a close by water pump and plenty of space to expand if things go well this school year. For now are going to grow legumes, tomatoes, lettuce and hot peppers.. I am going to try to sneak in a little more variation if the Directors are ok with it. This week we cleared the field where we are placing the garden (there was a lot of trash and some big tree stumps).. and we built a fence to keep the goats out! FYI this group of 5 elementary school students cleared a big tree stump in less time than it would take most adult Americans.. using machetes and small hoes. Just saying.

Tree Stump Removal

I am looking forward to talking to the Directors about some other small projects I can do with them. I would love to do a tree planting for National Tree Day and maybe an environmentally conscious mural. (Since their original interest was of course protecting their trees.)

Z