The World Changes Every Day

These are photos from a trip I took with other volunteers to Park Pendjari, one of Benin's two national parks.  We saw lots of great animals! Hippos! And a reminder of the love surrounding us If you look closely there's a lion in this picture

The month the heat began.   Here in Benin, they don’t say “the hot season” – they say “the heat,” as if the heat is an entity unto itself.   It really is.   It defines your schedule – work is done in the morning, until around noon, and again in the afternoon, after four or five.   But nothing in the middle of the day.   Since this is meant to be a work post, here’s what I’ve been doing in my mornings and evenings: Gardening The garden has continued to grow well.   I’m really spoiled, gardening in Africa – plants grow at breakneck speed.   I’m sure to be disappointed and impatient when I garden back at home.   During the month I continued to tend to my bed in the women’s garden, eating my first lettuce, summer squash, and amaranth in early March.   I prepared natural insecticides several times out of leaves from the neem tree, hot pepper, and tobacco leaves, and these seemed to work well for keeping bugs at bay. On an organization...

I’ve been wanting to do a “day in my life” post for a while, where I record pretty much everything I do during a random day.   So here’s what my February 14 was like.   Perhaps a bit more busy that some days, but otherwise it’s pretty typical. Around 6:15, I was woken up by the sounds of the women in my concession sweeping the courtyard and starting their day.   I slept in until around 7, and then made my morning trip to the latrine – greeting the members of my concession family that I saw along the way.   “How are you this morning?   How’s your body?   How’s your fatigue?”   Then I moved my little wooden stool into my house’s open doorway, looking out into the concession, and read my weekly Bible Lesson.   Nafisa, my 10-year-old “sister,” was eating rice with sauce and offered me some.   I told her I was going to go buy bouillie- millet gruel- at the market for breakfast, and she told me they’d made bouillie next door.   My neigh...

Whenever I sit down to write one of these monthly work update posts, it seems like the month has been impossibly long.   Was this all really in one month?   Here’s what I’ve been up to since January 15: Gardening   The team from ICRISAT, the NGO in Niger, visited our area again to give a second set of trainings.   The topics this time around included how to use the drip irrigation system, how to create and use natural pesticides, how to transplant and direct-seed garden vegetables, and organizational tips for gardening groups.   A fellow volunteer from Gomori, in far northern Benin, got a “technical exchange grant” from Peace Corps to attend some of the training and learn about the drip irrigation system.   He may be interested in installing a similar system in his area.   It was really cool to have someone else here, to show off my village!   In all I spent about two weeks attending garden training sessions, both in Peonga and in several...

1.13.13 “People say that you got a shot to make you strong and that’s why you can run.”   I have an 11-year old friend, Alia, who tells me the rumors about me in town.   This is by far my favorite one.   Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I’d be good enough at a sport to be accused of using performance-enhancing drugs.   My brother Nathan tells me that I’m just going through the rumors that all elite athletes face, and could get in touch with Lance Armstrong to tell him I know how he feels. As I’ve mentioned in a few of my work posts, I’m training for the Parakou marathon.   I really didn’t expect to run while in the Peace Corps, although I did buy a pair of trail runners from REI before leaving (my only closed toed shoes) and packed 6 pairs of socks just in case.   I’m a very off-and-on runner in the states.   I got inspired to do a half marathon with a friend after watching the Boston Marathon for the first time, but after the ha...

Mom mentioned that some more photos on the blog would be nice, so here is my February gift to all of you - the time and patience to upload these lovely photos.  A little picture of my life here in Benin.  Sorry they're a little small, but it was either that or hours, hours of upload time.  A favorite photo from a church function during training in Porto Novo.  In case you were wondering whether I stick out here in Benin... Walking to the fields in Peonga with women from my concession. The first mud stove I built, with the family I built it with/for   Helping unload a basin of water during a compost-making training in Peonga's garden Trampling corn stalks for the compost Chatting with Fulani women at Gaani, a festival in Nikki, a nearby large town My fulani outfit for Gaani fete A wild elephant I saw in a village near mine  

Holidays in Benin Happy 2013!   It’s the end of the Holiday season.   Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s in Benin were certainly memorable.   Since I haven’t written about any of the holidays yet, here’s a summary of what I did for each: Halloween was spent at the Parakou workstation with other volunteers.   Perhaps not surprisingly, I was not thinking about Halloween costumes when I packed my suitcase for Benin back in June.   But no challenge is insurmountable to the creative Peace Corps volunteer with hours to spare.   I spent several nights trying out costume ideas in my little house in village, using my camera’s self-timer function to see how each looked since I don’t have a mirror.   I settled on a fairy costume that I’m rather proud of – it was made entirely out of one tie-dyed, flowey skirt, two coat hangers, duct tape, and lots of safety pins. I gathered leaves near the workstation to pin on as a final touch.   He...