A couple of prologues before I get to the meat of what I wanted to talk to you about.
Prologue 1: I totally meant to write all about the holidays I’ve been spending here, and the funny, interesting clash of Americanisms and Beninese-isms, and the cute and funny results. I had a super cute Halloween and one of the best Thankgsgivingses ever, with the kind of cultural exchanges worthy of lots of words. And I wanted to end it by describing the catharsis of our quiet Christmas, but here I am with something else on my chest.
Prologue 2: I am very hesitant to describe the kind of projects I want to start, just because I know that in 2 months I will hate all of these ideas and see all the flaws in all my plans, and I will hate it even more to know that it is immortalized in writing on this silly blog. But I also realize that you guys probably have no idea what I’m doing here, or how I spend my time, or what I’m trying to accomplish, or what a success would even look like. And I’m not sure exactly where this strong desire to shine a little light on what I actually do, but here you have it friends. Only about six months late, whoops!
I am an Environmental Action volunteer. Here in Benin, Peace Corps has four sectors, or areas of work: EA, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Rural Community Health, and Community Economic Development. While most of them are pretty straight-forward and obvious, it’s usually the case that a health volunteer will start a community garden and an english club, and an environment volunteer will teach accounting for illiterates to her women’s gardening group and help the health center talk to people about nutrition and malaria prevention, and so on. There is absolutely nothing cut and dry about any of the work here in Benin, and the priority is to help where you can, try where you might, and talk to anyone and everyone about what the heck is going on. (The real work is just trying to alleviate some of the incessant cluelessness of being in a village that wants your help but doesn’t know how or where or what -- "just make it better," they say. Okay.)
It would be much easier to describe the generic responsibilities of an Environmental Action volunteer, and over time we’ll just have to wait and see how I am able to manifest my abilities and can-do attitude into something useful. So that’s exactly what we’ll do!
Alright, so there are three pillars (pillars is kind of a douchey word, but I can’t think of a better one) for the work that an EA volunteer is expected to perform. The first is food security: making food more available (in the sense that more people can afford it, more people are able to consume it, and that it is available year-round instead of just during the rainy season or what-not) and more nutritional (in that there is a greater variety of food available and that people know how to prepare it in a nutritional way). Obviously there is a lot more to it, and it is a huge job to make sure that everyone is fed, and fed well, and able to battle the harshities of weather and environment and financial constraints and malnutrition and lack of technical skills. As for my particular post, I am working with a women’s group in my village who have an absolutely amazing garden, and hope to improve their financial earnings via the veggies they are able to grow. I definitely want to help them do so, and I am super lucky in that they are very motivated. AND they looooove to dance. It's always a party in Angaradebou. Also, because they already have all the gardening equipment and assistance they need (they even have agricultural technicians to help!) I am in a position that I can (hopefully) help them make money, increase the nutrition available to themselves and their families, and generally just improve their lot in life. It’s pretty amazing to see these women work hard and see the benefits of their labors. It’s very gratifying and I can’t wait to see what we can do together. (Especially since they have already done so much on their own.)
The second pillar (ugh, that word) concerns reforestation, and the consumption of lumber and lumber products. Oh man you guys, it is a totally different world over here: everybody (EVERYBODY!) cooks over a fire outside with logs and lumber that they cut down in the bush. Maybe in some of the larger cities and surrounding suburbs they’ll use charcoal or a gas stove, but where I live it’s burning wood all day everyday and cooking over a campfire, usually in a huge cauldron called a marmite. (You can make anything in a marmite. I use mine all the time, mostly for cooking popcorn.) So that’s where I come in -- how can we decrease the consumption of wood in these smaller villages? And can we find a way to sustainably plant trees (fruit-bearing to meet the nutritional needs of the community, and wood-producing so they will have a way to prepare all this new nutrition)? Now this doesn’t seem like it’d be a huge job (or maybe to you it does, it certainly seems like a huge job to me!) but there are all kinds of politics involved: who does the land belong to? can we use that land for planting crops? (and if so, let’s do that instead because who needs trees?) who is going to be responsible for maintaining a nursery during the dry season? why do we care about trees when our babies are dying from malaria and our children are malnourished? how can we decrease the use of wood and still cook food?
(See what I mean??)
And the third mainstay (I thesaurus’d pillar for a new word) of the EA program in Benin is environmental education. Phew, now we’re talking, I’ve been doing environmental education for the past 6 years! Can I talk to you about beluga whales? Do you know the difference between the taiga and the tundra? Did you know that the southern sea otter has up to a million hairs per square inch? I’m gonna just ask a bunch of questions because that’s how you engage your audience when educating them about environment-y things..... eek I am super unprepared for this country. Or at least that is how I feel 98% of the time.
Now translate that into french, and into relevant information for Beninese children, and do all that within the Beninese education system with completely different rules and expectations. Whew. But really, its an important thing, and where a lot of volunteers feel most successful, to work with the youth of Benin, especially if you are able to encourage leadership skills, literacy, gender equality and women’s empowerment, environmental awareness, hygiene and sanitation skills and habits, nutritional practices... I suppose the list can just go on and on. Many EA volunteers start an environmental club, or a school garden. In my village, it’s kind of difficult because I don’t have a high school, and while it is possible to work with a primary school, it’s very difficult because they don’t speak french very well yet and all Beninese kids have a million responsibilities in the home (especially the girls, but that’s another post for another day, my friends. And not a very nice one either, there is a huge gender inequality here, and it is heartbreaking). I have ideas for how I can reach the youngsters of Angaradebou. I might even work a little bit with Bethany to help her start an environmental club in Peonga, my closest high school. We’ll just have to wait and see how I can educate environmentally.
There are lots of things I can do to help Angaradebou, and I have lots of ideas. Any and all progress is very slow going here, but I remain ever the optimist. One teeny tiny village at a time, right? One zucchini, environmental lesson, french verb conjugation, fulani greeting, mile ran, women's group meeting, explanation of nutrients, mosquito net, baby held at a time.
cheers, my dears. I hope that 2014 finds you well!
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