Cotton and Cotton Men

L'Harmattan (When it's dry, dusty, and cold in Benin)

Happy holidays from Benin! I am currently at the fourth PC workstation in Benin, and I must say that this northerly post is by far the coziest and most tight-knit. I spent Thanksgiving here as well, when fifteen PCVs descended upon it to celebrate Thanksgiving Benin style, which meant without a turkey because live turkeys are simply too much of a boisterous travel companion. Well, I’ll clarify that that is the case for the uninitiated PCV. Beninese people have a wonderful knack for live animal transportation and appear unfazed by the prospect of a few goats on the roof or chickens in the lap.

Back in village, the dry season (i.e. – it hasn’t rained a single drop for two months and a half) has ironically brought with it the gardening season. Small(er) scale gardening clustered about the disparate water sources (a river and a pump) replaces large scale agriculture, less feasible during the dry, dusty season the north experiences.  Everyone in village is busy harvesting their crops, lighting fire to their fields, and, for some, getting ready to plant their gardens. Thus, village has become a ghost town during the day as people head to the fields to pick cotton, the largest contributor to GDP in Benin and a topic which is on the tip of everyone’s tongue throughout my town. If the road is not bustling with Mac sized trucks bearing tons of cotton heading across the Atlantic, it is literally littered with hundreds of cotton balls. With the harvesting of the cotton crop, people are beginning to have a little more time to shift their efforts towards clearing out their communal gardens.

Thus, this newfound activity also means I get to see a little bit of the work that the gardening cooperative of my village does and the challenges they face. Drama surrounds, in particular, the group’s pump because it was poorly placed and constructed. This means that if there is water in it, during the mornings it is only on a first come first serve basis. However, the other groups I work with face different challenges. I bike to at least one of my five villages a day, all the while praying that I might meet someone who could at least pretend to know French. Generally, I bike into village amidst swarms of children (and the occasional adult) who are screaming “BATURE!”. Luckily, I am usually able to escape these gaggles due to the speed my bike lends me, often only to have them catch up as I stop to ask someone where the president of the gardening group is. On these days, I thank God for my trusty 21-speed, silver Trek mountain bike J . When I find her and a French speaker, either an impromptu meeting with the entire group forms or we wander over to look at the status of the garden and chat about what’s going on. Now that my first three months of “integration period” at post are over, I can actually begin my primary and secondary projects, meaning I can hopefully be a little more useful to the women and hold meanings to give them technical advice. 

I have several other secondary project ideas that I hope to begin in the next few months, including:

• Accounting for illiterates in my groupements (“is growing those cabbages really getting you any money?”)

• Moringa tree plantation (reforestation and excellent for nutrition!)

• Fruit and vegetable drying (the availability of fruits and vegetables during certain parts of the year is a huge problem in northern Benin)

• Demonstration garden plot

• Middle school garden

• Panel of professional women for Women’s Day

• Mango grafting

• Mud stove construction (to save firewood and money)

• World map at the high school! (people here often have very little knowledge of geography)

• Seed bank (seeds are difficult to get in my village and expensive – we’ll see what we can conserve and trade…)

Anyways, I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season and best wishes from Benin! Keep in touch.