My work here

Since I have been in country (in Benin), I have been getting asked about what I do here and when I mention the title of what I do, they then proceed to ask what that has anythign to do with the Peace Corps. Well, a lot of my fellow volunteers here like to tell me that I have the least Peace Corps post of all in Benin, if not all of West Africa. I refute this fact by saying that I have the best post for my skill-set, desires (for my service and future), and my personality.

If you were to look at what I do on paper, it would theoretically say “Manager of a Cashew Factory in Savalou, Benin”. This is true but it doesn’t really explain what I truly do. On a day to day basis, I am nowhere near what you would call a manager or foreman; I am more of a quality control/consultant/enforcer. Since I have arrived, I have set goals for myself, changed these goals, and changed them again. Originally what I was told (and this is what my original goals were based off of) was that I would be helping a woman develop her small, artisanal cashew factory become a large, modern factory. I took this at face value, as one would in the United States. My goal became just what it says above, to take this little factory that has no controls, that transforms around 100 MT (metric tonnes) of raw cashews, into a modern factory that runs on greased rails and transforms around 2,000 MT of raw cashews. You would think I was insane, but theoretically, again I repeat, THEORETICALLY, possible, if, and only if, we received a large investment. The problem was that I looked past this theoretical nonsense and thought I was the super-volunteer and anything was possible. On my first day at work, I started righting down necessary changes (e.g. health problems, quality controls, necessary documentation issues) that would be needed to make to form a sort of semblance of a true, modern factory. My second day, I went to work on this, demanding changes, instating new rules and expecting things to happen. Well, needless to say, my poor, unblemished, white toes got stepped on and every word that came out of my mouth on deaf ears (which is a funny analogy because no one in my factory except maybe 4 of the 130 speak French). So I had to take a step back and re-evaluate my situation.

For the next three months, I no longer demanding anything nor put rules into place, by myself. I used a conduit, in the form of the existing manager that was both liked, trusted, and most importantly a fellow Beninese person. With this new method, I began to make headway into the problems that persisted within the factory. These include, a new documentation system that tracks every single cashew that enters the factory, tracks every workers progress, efficiency and personal capacity, clocks in the employees, and simple rules (well in my American eyes) (i.e. no breast feeding at the work tables, no children on the worktables, and you must wear a shirt at all times in the factory, both men and women). With these simple processes and documentation methods, I was able to increase the capacity of the factory from 113 MT to 138 MT. Within three months, early October to mid December, the factories capacity was increased by 18% (from my calculations). I get this number because if the workers were to have maintained their efficiency levels as they were when I came, the stock would have lasted well into January, but with the ability to track the progress of the women better and a little coaching from me, the manager started to demand a little more work from the employees. This helped finished the stock within a month of me being there. To my much irritated owner, she was forced to buy more stock from Nigeria so that we could keep the factory open longer now, because the workers were demanding more work. She then purchased just 25 more metric tonnes which were finished in less than another month.

The reason why all of the other volunteers say that I have the least Peace Corps post is because I carry two cell phones (a necessity when travelling cause you know when you will have service from which company), I have my own office with a computer and internet (which really doesn’t work very well), I have employees, I travel for business meetings with government officials, and I have basic set hours of my work (7AM to 8 PM).

Now after explaining all of this, I get the question, do you like this work and what you are doing? Yeah, I definitly like what I am doing, its exactly what I asked for (a Post that would allow me to get experience in something I could go back to the US and use). But that is not the right questions. The right question is, is it worth it? After much deliberation, I have decided the answer to this is “Yes”. Despite the frustration, the ignorance of those around me, the lack of support for the local people save two or three, and the fact that I am living in Africa, the work is worth it. I will be able to leave here with two years experience running and consulting a factory in a developing nation and hopefully be attractive enough to employers in the US to get a good-paying job. And I must not forget that while I am gaining all of this experience, I am helping people get more money in an extremely impoverished country and helping one of the wealthiest become wealthier.

On top of this project, I am also working with an entrepreneur to help start a honey factory, from conception to the first ground-breaking, and also I am about to start creating new marketing and advertising schemes for the Commune of Savalou’s, where I live, “tourist board”. These are my “fun” projects that help me distract myself from the other things. I have also somehow become the “expert” on business plans for Benin because I helped write one. I have no written a formation (class) and a presentation on how to write a business plan.

Needless to say, my days are full while I am here, but somehow I find time to play with my dog, go for bike rides, and read a lot of books (check out the list that states all that I have read, on my blog).