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 :) .