Beninese Cuisine

I had to take a picture of this artfully composed salad: lettuce, cucumbers, onions, beets, avocado, carrots, and of course, french fries. Another unusual combination: quartered avocado with a hot dog piece, encircled by an onion ring, in the center. The salad, if not entirely healthful, was definitely tasty after the addition of their homemade mustard vinaigrette :)

Getting hit by trees

Today marks the beginning of a new phase of the “environmental action” (EA) sector’s training regimen, giving us a much needed break from intensive French, 24/7. We are finally commencing our technical training (primarily) in gardening, environmental education, and forestry. Furthermore, we are getting our hands dirty in one of the premier environmental sustainability research institutes in sub-Saharan Africa - Songhai. Songhai, simply put, is on the cutting edge of almost everything sustainable. For example, one of Songhai and Peace Corps Benin’s focuses is to promote increased planting and use of the moringa tree, the leaves of which have a phenomenal amount of essential nutrients and can simply be boiled in a sauce. This hugely underutilized tree could have enormous positive impacts for the nutrition of northern Beninese people, who often cannot get fresh fruit and vegetables during certain parts of the year. Very cool. Now, if only they could somehow make it taste a little better…

This is just one of the many projects that an EA volunteer could delve into. I just returned from a weekend trip to central Benin to visit a current volunteer, and it is awe-inspiring to hear about the numerous and varying projects that she has implemented in her past two years at post. She has everything from the construction of twenty-four latrines to the start-up of a girl’s group under her belt. On Saturday, these girls and I dug our hands into the earth to try to coax some life into their picturesque garden, and I can’t wait to hear about the results (nor start one of my own!). Homemade cinnamon-raisin bagels as well as superb tacos bookended the weekend experience with a little taste of home. 

Travelling in Africa, however, never happens without some sort of wrinkle (see photos of road flooding in Tanzania!). Five other trainees and I shared a bush taxi to get to our volunteers’ posts, only to have our taxi hit almost immediately by a tree. Usually it happens the other way around in car accidents. However, traffic in Benin doesn’t stop for pedestrians, including those who are carrying entire trees across the road. Thus, one man’s tree crashed into the roof of our taxi as we drove by him, sending our taxi-driver into a rage and causing him to leap out of the vehicle with terrifying determination to give the tree-bearer a piece of his mind. Scarily, this event was actually preferable to the ride back to Porto Novo yesterday: Seven of us were packed into a 5-seater sedan for five hours, and, of course, African vehicles never have air conditioners. We are very well acquainted now.

In other news, I've discovered that I can receive packages! Thanks Ginger! USPS is the way to go, and bubble-padded envelopes are the cheapest :) . 

Bein' in Benin

Hi everyone! Sorry about the delayed post, but it not been easy getting myself to an internet café in the past couple of weeks. Peace Corps Benin has kept the new volunteers (54 of us!) quite busy with information sessions, vaccinations, a meeting with the American ambassador, and most recently, language classes. We stayed in Cotonou, the largest city, for the first six days and now I am living with a quite wonderful Beninese family in the capital city of Porto Novo. Porto Novo definitely beats the wild traffic of Cotonou, where the zemidjans (motorcycle taxis) make American city drivers look amazingly tame. Undoubtedly, Frogger’s inception came about after its makers tried to cross a Beninese street.

About a week and a half ago we were all driven to the suburbs of Porto Novo, where we are living with host families for the next three months. Every day but Sunday, we undergo fairly intensive training in French language and, in my case, gardening techniques (yay!). I haven't yet told them that I can't keep my jade plant alive. Anyway, someone was telling us that the Peace Corps used to require a physical training regimen back in the day (think military style!) so I am quite grateful to be chatting with Beninese and tending to gardens from 8 to 4:30 everyday instead.

Thus far though, my family has been quite grand. They have put up with my ridiculous French for the past week or so, seemingly unperturbed, even as I walk around the house saying random French words or as I haltingly utter sentences during which a person could easily take an entire nap through. At least they smile and nod. They also feed me really great food. A lot. Really - expect me to weigh an extra couple hundred pounds when I return in two years. This has even been the stated goal of my maman, and I bet that the French fries I was served for breakfast this morning was part of that plot. Oh dear. Besides eating a lot and butchering French, I’ve begun to train the children in my family the finer points of Frisbee, and (Seth, you will be proud!) I have also been named the reigning champion of Tekken 4 on the family’s Playstation 2. Those horrible combat games are clearly my life calling. Also, you’ve probably gained a better idea of my family’s socioeconomic status from that Playstation 2 reference. All of us have been placed in homestays which are in the upper echelons of Beninese income and I definitely will be living quite comfortably in the coming months.

One very important thing which I discovered last week: women in Benin are never allowed to whistle! Of all the countries which I could have been placed in, I am in one where whistling is prohibited among women.  I’m missing a part of my soul already…

Anyways, although it is nothing too exciting or exotic, my experience has nonetheless been wonderful thus far. Indeed, it definitely makes the transition to our final posts (where I won’t have electricity or running water) quite a bit easier. I’ll update more in the coming months about my life as a Beninese Peace Corps trainee. A bientot!