Life as a Professional Dancer

As of tomorrow I’ve been in village for a month and a half. Vrai village life, no strings attached. Finally, villagers are beginning to know my name, relationships are being built, I’m finding work to do, and, thank God, my local shop owner knows that I eat about seven guinea fowl eggs a week. Although I still suffer from a lot of critters in my house – lizards, mice, cockroaches, and ginormous spiders – I have become horrifyingly used to our uneasy cohabitation. Furthermore, I have finally transitioned from “Bature” (white person) to “Anna” in village and just about everyone knows who I am and greets me on my daily village wanderings. Thus, these past few weeks in particular have been particularly successful. 

Immersing myself into the local secondary school has produced some of the most drastic effects. I greeted the director of the high school/middle school and informed him that I wanted to start an environmental club at the high school, a venture which I hope to begin next week. Rallying interest and participation will definitely be the biggest challenge due to the busy lives the students lead, with girls (my secret target audience) particularly occupied with duties at home. Last week I went around to all of the high school/middle school classes, introduced myself, and advertised my club. It is the first club to exist in the school, so I’m forging new ground and I’ll see what happens at the first meeting next week!

Besides planning out my environmental club, taking Bariba class, and doing my greeting rounds, my life has been absolutely consumed with meetings for my gardening cooperatives. In each village surrounding Kerou, a group of gardening women has taken form so that they can better address technical or marketing challenges. My job is to provide further expertise when it comes to both of these aspects. Thus, every day I visit two or three villages (24 in total!) to introduce myself to the gardening groups while my supervisor informs them of new legislation regarding “groupement” formation.  Thus, one visit looks like this:

1.    I begin the day by riding my bike from my village to Kerou, where the commune seat and my boss’s office is – 7 miles. 
2.     Arrive at the office at 8:30, like he said. But in Benin, “8:30” really means at least 9:15. Wait outside the office and chat with small children. Hey, they speak French.
3. I hop onto the back of my supervisor’s motorcycle and we are off to the first village, usually about 20 minutes away through beautiful Beninese countryside.
4. We arrive at the village to find the groupement waiting for us under a tree. We join them and take attendance, noting the presence of the officers (often including a designated singer), and have everyone sign next to their name. In 99% of the cases, the women can’t read or write, so thumbprints take the place of signatures.
5.  My supervisor speaks for about 45 minutes about the legislation, entirely in Bariba. The he turns to me. “Do you have anything you would like to add, Anna?” I give him a blank stare.
6. I settle on simply introducing myself (for now, still in French) and my supervisor translates everything into Bariba. The women clap at the end and then, as is customary, the singer does her thing and I am asked to dance for the group. You can only imagine what this must look like – twenty five women singing and clapping in a circle while I do my Beninese style white-girl dance in the center. Actually, please don’t imagine it. At least for now, I am providing these poverty stricken, malnourished women with entertainment.
7. They present me with a gift – inevitably yams. When you get three five-pound yams per village, the weight on the back of the motorcycle for the ride back gets a little unwieldy, not to mention the difficulties one person has in consuming that many yams. The evidence: 

8.       I thank them profusely, hop onto the moto with yams in hand, and head to the next village.

Thus, life in a nutshell. Hopefully by the next time I can write (Thanksgiving), things will have taken a little more shape. Until then, hope all is well and keep in touch :).