Happy Days

Over the last 100 days I have been doing the "100 days" happiness projects with one of my friends back in the USA -- it has been a really great experience. That being said, with my current health issues, there were quite a few days during the 100 that were very much a struggle (and thus resulted in a picture of a water heater.. or better yet a piece of fruit as my happy moment for the day). While my experience was personal between me and my dearest. I wanted to share the project itself and as an idea with my readers because I found it very eye opening, and it was an absolutely amazing experience.

Check out the idea at 100 Happy Days, and in the mean time here are some of the happy moments from my personal 100 day project <3 :

I think that once I am home it might be fun to do a similar personal project - highlighting the things I find shocking or surprising about the US!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!! 

Z

PCV Project Donations

Peace Corps Volunteers all around the world would love your donations to help with community projects. Everything from camps, to new school buildings, to wells and latrines, there is a PCV somewhere trying to make it happen.

Peace Corps Volunteers do funded projects that rely on outside grant money (ie USAID), fund-raised money (Gender and Equality), special country specific donations (Kate Puzey Memorial Fund), and the ever so popular PCPP (where we post online and beg you for money – read on). We are not allowed to fund our own projects with personal money.

If you are wondering why this is the first time you are hearing of this on my blog, it is because I personally have  not chosen to do a large funded project in my community (there are arguments both for and against doing funded projects). I am however, hoping to help out with and bring girls to our local Camp GLOW, which is currently looking for funding. Camp GLOW (girls leading our world) is a annual PCV organized girls camp that is held for a week during the summer break.

"Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) is a weeklong girls' empowerment camp that has been organized annually nationwide since 2003. The camp brings together Beninese girls (ages 12-16), influential women within the community, and Peace Corps Volunteers. Throughout the week, the girls learn a variety of life skills to help them become better leaders and students in their communities. Topics covered include: personal financial planning, sexual health and hygiene, computer literacy, goal-setting, HIV/AIDS awareness, study and leadership skills, malaria prevention, and games to encourage cooperation among the girls. Girls also take excursions to national government institutions, in addition to meeting successful Beninese women in various professional roles. The camp's primary objective is to encourage girls to stay in school. Beninese women and men lead the camp sessions and facilitate discussions. Volunteers invite prominent women from their communities to serve as camp counselors. These women serve as role models for the girls. 

During the week, girls design strategies for sharing information learned at the camp with their communities and become leaders in their villages, schools, and families. At the end of the camp, the girls complete action plans and are given a "toolkit" for planning and executing a mini version of Camp GLOW in their communities. The communities are contributing by providing transportation of the girls to and from camp. While Camp GLOW provides these girls useful skills with which to become leaders, it also provides the opportunity to forge relationships with like-minded young women and female role models."

I know that if you are my facebook friend, you have already heard it. For the rest of you, I just want to say that hosting Camps is one of the best things (in my opinion) that PCVs are able to do for their host country. No matter the subject (we also have boys camps, business camps and environmental camps - to name a few) it is an opportunity to bring children together from different parts of the country, allow them to meet HCN role models, and talk to the children about the importance of staying in school, various health issues, and help them become role models in their community among their peers.

Even if you are not interested in donating to help out a camp, there are many other PCVs world wide currently looking for project donations in all sectors of Peace Corps work that can be found here. All of these projects are being run by amazing, hard working people (especially the Benin volunteers) who are working to better the lives of others, and as cultural ambassadors for you! :)

Click HERE if you would like to donate to camp glow. Project Funded!!! Thank YOU!!!
Click HERE to see all current PCV projects looking for donations.

FYI donations are tax deductible. 

Natitingou & Amour et Vie

After about 10 hours of travel.. I got off the bus and my first thought of Natitingou was that it is dry, dusty, and... cold? It is currently the season of harmatan (which doesn't really exist in the south where I live – at least not in a true sense) and for those of us who live in the north – it is cold!

I am up in Nati for round two of Amour et Vie training.

Mostly training two is for feedback on the work that we have been doing for since August, as well as for talking about the plan for the next few months, a plan that will get our teams to be sustainable once we leave. We set up a game plan to continue doing demonstrations/sensitization in the village (and to find new groups to work with).. and we also discussed plans for starting a health club in the local CEG (high school) to talk about the subjects that we discuss in Amour & Vie: malaria, hygiene, sexual health and HIV prevention. Our current calendar gets us to the end of April, at which point they will be working mostly on their own for 4 months before I leave.

The workshop wasn't all work. We also brought the teams on a field trip to see the local Koda waterfalls, and I got a chance to see the workstation up here in Nati, eat some local food, see some local markets, and spent a lot of time catching up with friends.

Trying Something New

Here is what we've been up to in  Gome Sota:

Crop Diversification Garden Beds

Carrots

Green Beans

Lettuce

Building A Cucumber Trellis

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.

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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.

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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

Just A Little Market Stand?

So what am I actually doing with my host organization?

The Maraichers and also my Bureau at CeCPA requested me here for two main reasons. They had irrigation problems, and they have a desire to diversify the crops that they are growing.

The volunteer who I replaced here in Misserete did a great job getting Irrigation Systems installed in two of the farms where I work. I might eventually work on getting Irrigation to one or two other groups.. but in the mean time we are focusing in on crop diversification.

The BIGGEST problem with crop diversification has not proven to be getting the seeds or teaching the farmers how to grow these new crops.. the biggest problem has been what to do with these crops once they are grown. People are creatures of habit, and the women who work in the farms are more interested in selling these new crops to the posh city people then actually eating them themselves. AND right now the vendors in the markets in Porto Novo get their carrots, cucumbers, eggplants, cabbages.... etc. imported in from Cotonou (and where ever they come from before that). Or you can go to Songhai to buy the more “exotic” vegetables. So how do we get people to know that the farmers in the area are now growing these things too?

Currently the women are known for growing almost entirely legumes (assorted African leafy greens) and the vendors in the market will send a zemi or another person out to the farm to pick up a plonch worth for them to sell that day.. that is the extent of communication between the farmers and the vendors. So last year.. when they tried some new crops.. they weren't able to sell them.

After throwing some various ideas around what it seems that the maricheres group really wants is a place to advertise and a place not too far from the farms (as in not in Porto Novo or in an actual market) where they can sell some of the new vegetables themselves. So we are talking about building a small market stand on the CeCPA office property.. right next to the ONASA (where people already come to buy (and store) their grains in bulk through out certain parts of the year).. where the women can advertise and vend some of their new produce. The agreement is that if we do this project for them than the office (because it is on CeCPA property) will be in charge of the security and upkeep of the “barrack” and the woman’s farming groupement organization will be in charge of keeping it manned.

I really hope that I am able to get the logistics of this project sorted out soon.. I am very hesitant to have the women start growing these crops again.. when they still don't have a plan for selling them. I don't want them to become overly discouraged and am worried about their capacity to want to try again if it fails.. when they could be using that same land to grow their legumes.

Aside from allowing the farmers to be able to diversity their goods.. in turn making them more marketable to the outside vendors.. and eventually more financially secure. This food stand will also help by providing more a more varied diet to the local communities. Right now the families who know how to cook these “newer” vegetables go to Porto Novo to buy them. It is my hope that with these vegetables available locally a greater variety of local Beninese people will start to eat them as well.

Like I said, the planning for this is still in the preliminary stages so it will be interesting to see how it progresses.. things move very slow in this country and the project keeps getting larger in ways that I don't completely understand (I just wish I actually felt like I was helping the women that I came here to work with).

I will be going to a training in March on Nutrition Education, and I have hope that [aside from Moringa] getting locals to eat a more varied diet will be something that we cover.

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

Muddy Muddy Mud Stove

There is something about making mud stoves (in my mind at least) that is just feels so very much a “Peace Corps Thing”

I seems like Peace Corps volunteers have been building stoves with mud.. well since the beginning of time. Peace Corps volunteers all around the world make mud stoves. It is one of those projects that kind of tie us all together... that and teaching kids.

Which is why I think it is very interesting that in Benin in the year 2012 only the environmental volunteers are trained in doing so --- YES I know the teachers don't really have the time... and maybe the health volunteers shouldn't be getting so dirty.. and we all know the business volunteers don't like to get dirty.. so in that sense maybe it is a good activity for the environment volunteers since no matter what we will be playing in the dirt. I am not complaining ... I enjoy being in the sector of the mud stove. 

This week I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the “near by” community of Djigbe to teach them how to build mud stoves. This is not my post it is a group that another volunteer works with. They process manioc. I have been having a rough time at post getting some of the people to seem even the slightest bit interested in the fact that I am here... and the people in Djigbe were a much needed dose of the exact opposite. They were excited to meet me... interested and attentive.. and they were friendly too!! [They also loved that I was using my limited Goun abilities with them]

We made 3 mud stoves... I made the first one with their help – they made the second with my help – and the third they made completely on their own. 

Confession: These stoves aren't "exactly" like the ones that we made during training :-/ so I am interested to see going into the future how well they hold up. They wanted them built into the wall.. and I had never worked with their style of marmite either (so the actual structure was a bit different).. most concerning to me however was that they kept widening the opening every time I tried to make it smaller (having a wider opening in the front will cut back on the fuel efficiency of the stove.. and I wasn't able to fully encase the marmite in mud :(... the mud SHOULD go all the way around the marmite leaving only an opening for the wood to enter... BUT I WON'T BORE YOU WITH ALL OF THAT) – here are some pictures!! 

If properly made the mud would
 wrap all the way around at the top.

Curious Kid

Working On Their OWN

These stoves could last up to three years if they keep them and good condition and keep them protected from the rain. Luckily if they need to build a new one.. I taught them how!

The reason that the Peace Corps builds these stoves is that they are considered more energy efficient... and MUCH safer than the traditional “3 stone method.” Since it is enclosed it is much harder to fall into the fire.. or have a child fall into the fire. Each stove is made specifically to fit the marmite that you made it with.. As long as you use the properly fitted marmite.. heat will be kept in the stove.. and the owner of the stove will begin use (up to 70%) less wood. Which is good both for the wallet and for the forest.

With Mud,

Z