I'm in the Newspapers!

I have made my first couple newspaper clippings!!!!  I am mentioned by name (Toold Odes) in La Diaspora on Oct 27, Le Progres on Oct 28 and this website, I am the Corps de la Paix volunteer that is mentioned in the last paragraph.  In La Diaspora, there is actually a picture of me.  The NGO is called AMSHART.  They do sensibilizations for artisans on basic safety protocol from wearing eye protection for carpenters to AIDS awareness for women's groups.  I am working with the HQ helping plan their events and their activities, not doing the formations myself.

A little update for all

These past couple weeks have been really hectic. This was supposed to be my first full week at post in Savalou, but an emergency (notregarding directly my person but I was involved) drove me from home again. Every week so far I have either had a meeting, had to go to headquarters or some random emergency has come up that has taken me from post and to another city, mostly to the capital, Cotonou. Before I get to this week I will just recap the past two weeks. They basically went like this: Woke up in the morning, went to the factory till lunch, came home for lunch took care of the house and the dog and slept a little, then wandered the city talking to people. I did have my first formations with women's groups in two villages. One village is along the highway so it looks just like Savalou but poorer but has electricity and running water and concrete buildings. At this village, Covedgi, I started leading the women in finding out what market research is and how to perform it. The problem with this group is that they thought I was going to be doing the market research for them on gari (corn flower or topioca flower) in all of Benin, but that is not my job. So the first day I led them through finding out their exact product, who they have sold to, who they sell to now, and who they actually want to sell to in the future. This took nearly 2 hours to do because they never thought like this, and also I got in an argument with my counterpart who was translating in the middle of the formation because he does not find it necessary to have the women answer the questions and he likes to answer directly for them. But that defeats the purpose of the exercise. So after 15 minutes of actually getting into a yelling match, that he started after I asked
him to repeat the question to the women, and he refused. By enough of that, the women are now HOPEFULLY working hard on the homework that I gave them and we will see if it actually worked.
The second village was the coolest village in the world. It is called Dammedoho. It is 11km west of Savalou on the other side of the mountain, 20km from the Togo border. To get there you have to take a dirt road that is only passable by a motorcycle because the road get extremely small at times. So the journey takes about a half an hour, through some of the most beautiful, natural farming land. Between the backdrop of the mountains we left behind and the cashew, corn, and tapioca plantations it is an incredible sight to behold. The village itself is at least 15 minutes by motorcycle in either way from the nearest other village. It has no electricity, running water, nor concrete/permanent structure. The village survives on tapioca production and farming. I am also doing market research for them primarily, but I will also be doing a 12 week business class that covers accounting, marketing, business planning, and vision. the amazing thing about this, not only the village that I am teaching in, but also the fact that only one man "speaks"/"reads" French out of everyone there, so I have to teach all of these modern/complicated ideas to a group of illiterate individuals that have the drive of any
other person I have met that has a will to make money.

This week was going to be the most relaxing week I have had a post which is saying a lot since there is no stress like that found in America, and I can work at my own pace, but I had two other volunteers come into town for the week and they were going to stay with me. One came down and the week was great, but then on Wednesday she fell extremely ill, so I had to rush off with her, first to a hospital where she spent one night and then to Cotonou to the med unit so she could be seen by the doctors. She is perfectly fine now, they say it was just some food poisoning, which is funny cause we ate the exact same food for the previous 4 days and I have yet to be sick. (Knocking on wood!!!!) And because they were here and she got sick I never went into my primary work the entire week, but my counterpart understands, who in fact sent his driver to pick us up and take us where we needed to go when she was sick. I have thanked him countless times for that. It is also amazing how quickly we were seen and well we were treated for two reasons: one, we are white and African hospitals do not want anything to happen to a white person in the hospital, and two, I work for the most powerful man in Savalou and basically if I need something to be done or taken care of, I just have to mention who my counterpart is and things get done.

But on to the coolest thing that I have seen in Benin since I have gotten here. While reading this or directly after, you should check out my new pictures I just posted on Facebook or click on this link... The event was called Lutte Traditionel de Miniki (Traditional Fight of Miniki). It is a traditional wrestling match to prove the strongest and est men of the village. I'm sure it held more importance in the past but recently it has just become an extravaganza and provides entertainment for the locals and me of course! First let me describe the village and the journey up there. It is a village 16 km north along the highway from Savalou and 1 km west into the bush up in the mountains. The village is nestled between two mountain peaks. The path up the mountain is always interesting on really small engined motos, especially when you are lugging me up this hill haha. Lets just say the motorcycle stalled twice as we started to go up the mountain so I had to get off and walk up 3/4 of it. but once there, the scene was incredible. Everyone was fighting, screaming and pushing their way up to the gate. The second one guy from the village who was somehow apart of the crew puttign the fight on, saw a group of
6 white people walking up he immediatly ran up, grabbed my arm and started to drag me through the crowd with my friends following. After dodging belts being whipped at people trying to follow us, being swung by cops, and squeezing my way into the center ring, the guy then led us into the King's tent and tried to find us a place next to him. But it was the sun and we know how us, foreigners hate the sun! he wouldnt allow us to sit there cause we weren't in the shade. So they moved us. As we were walign across the center ring we saw an open area
right next to the ring inside the center fence separating all the Beninese people from the wrestlers and the center ring and we just sat down there. He saw that we prefered this and then brought us a bench and set us up for the best seats in the house. Of course, whenever you see foreigners in Benin somehow a video camera shows up and starts filming us. Imagine 8 white foreigners in the middle of 500 Beninese people and you will understand the sight. The fight was soooo cool to watch. The tradition built into this match and the understanding of what was going on was more impressive then the event itself. At one point, the invited Northern wrestling group stood up and challenged the local wrestlers. It was amazing the excitement around this fight. Of course, the Northern stronger fighters won the match and the screaming, pushing and arguing that followed was a sight. Events like this make me glad that I was brought to a foreign land like this.

Other than the fight, today I spent all day cleaning my house cause it was a mess and bugs started to show up more than usual. I have locked myself in my house tonight bcause I cannot leave because it is a festival tonight called "Le Lavage de Ville" (The Cleaning of the City). Basically it is voodoo priests walk around the entire city saying prayers to scare away/cleanse the evil spirits from the land. Because I am a Yovo, I am not allow to see this and evil spirits will join my body and I will be haunted. Or at least that is what they say. But life is still good here, things are finally settling down, I'm making friends with the locals and finding other work that is more interesting then giving constant formations to women's groups, even though I enjoy some of the groups, and work that will do more for the development of Benin than any number of formations that I can give to the women's groups.

Content....

I sit here now, at one of the most content moments of my life.  Picture yourself sitting at your dining room table having just finished a meal of fries and grilled steak, that you just enjoyed with one of your best friends within an hours drive of you, eaten by candle light while listening to Andrea Bocelli softly in the background, almost at a whisper with your dog curled up at your feet.  Possibly one of the greatest moments of any man's life, potentially romantic for some.  Now picture yourself doing the same thing, except you are sitting in a room surrounded by bare concrete walls, bare concrete floor, exchange the candle for a kerosene lamp and the fries for fried white yams, while sitting in one of the poorest countries of the world, and imagine how much more content and satisfied your life is. Life couldn't be better for this soul at that particular moment in time.  

Now all of this having been said, this come from a man that enjoys his steaks, enjoys his company, enjoys his music, and enjoys his creature comforts that remind him of home.  This also comes from a man that enjoys the pleasures of life, like no other man in the world.  It was only a week ago, that I raved about the toilet that I just installed in my latrine, another glorious moment of my short stay so far in Benin.  I would not have changed this evening for anything else, well maybe to be eating a better quality steak and actually eating real fries with Ketchup, but one can't demand so much in my position.  The fact that I was able to eat a steak in Benin, that was grilled over a real charcoal grill is an amazing feat in of itself, that took nearly 1.5 hours to complete, but it is the experience isn't it.

On that note, who ever knew there was a beef season.  Isn't beef a meat and aren't cows living all year round?  Well, yes! but not in every part of the country.  When the cattle is driven from the north of the country to the south, by solitary men walking along with the cattle every step of the way, selling a cow at each village they pass, one is able to realize that beef is a cherished commodity (and expensive) that must be appreciated the few times a year that it is available to eat.  I explain this, just to further enlighten those (like me, no less than 3 months ago) that do not know any different, since we are used to having beef, for example, readily available at any time of the year.  This is just one more lesson that I will be able to take back to America with me, when I return, enabling me to understand how lucky I am to have been born and brought up in a country with all commodities, including food, readily available at little expense to me.  Life is too easy and that is why we have become corrupted in ways that we do not even understand, including myself.  The adventure has only begun and will continue throughout the rest of my stay here in Benin.