One more week...
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2003
1
13
62
Trip End
Dec 13, 2005
Comé,
Benin
Sunday, December 7, 2003
Lots happened this week. Rebecca got to build another mud stove. Her group split up and they all asked their families who wants one, so we built 3 around the town of Comé for families. They were very excited about having this stove, since its wood efficient and cooks much faster than the traditional stove, made of three rocks, pot on top, and wood between the rocks. Ours was very pretty and we took lots of pictures of us playing in the mud. The little 4 year old brother helped us and stomped in the mud too. Our technical facilitator came by to check on us and was happy to see the enthustic and involved family member. :) I also went by the family where we built the mud stoves in the beginning of training, and I was happy to see them all being used and in good condition. We also spent a day in Cotonou visiting the Minister of Social Wellfare, who spoke to us breifly, and then we were off to lunch. This was what we were really excited about and is always the highlight when going to Cotonou. Some people went to a Chinese restaurant, but I went with people to a ice cream parlor that also sells pizza and hamburgers. I had a pizza, but for some reason it didn't have pizza sauce on it, just cheese and toppings. But it was a nice change from the Beninoise food at our host family's. Of course, the meal was completed nicely with two scopps of ice cream.
Jason also made a trip to Cotonou on a different day and visited with the Minister of the Environment. They are really supportive of us and they do a lot of good things with the money they are given by the government. I think they recently recieved an award from the UN for their environmental activities. Unfortunately they only have enough funding to have people in the major cities, so they consider us as part of their local work force and are really appreciative of all the work we do. So that's really nice to hear that someone high up is supporting your efforts. We also made a seperate trip to Porto Novo (political capital of Benin) where we visitied another sustainable farm system. The farm we visited a couple of weeks ago was established by a person who graduated from the program in Porto Novo. Again it was very impressive to see the well thoughtout system that produces no wastes and is completely self-sustaining (meaning no outside funds or any expensive pesticides or fertilizers are used). This was a very very large operation and was a lot different than the small scale farm experience. Here they had lots and lots of fish, chickens, ducks, a type of beaver species (that's supposed to be good eating) as well as their own juicing and cashew facilities.
Last night and today we had our final local cooking class. Last night we prepared the chickens for today as well as harvested the garden the health volenteers planted in Comé. For those of you who were wondering how the chickens were prepared lets just say it wasn't going to the market and getting a bunch of chicken breasts from the freezer section. Jason actually killed one and then got the plucked and sliced it up into all its different pieces. Rebecca helped pluck a few chickens as well as prepared the harvest from the garden (lettuce, moringa, cucumbers, basil). So after that little experience we are pretty sure that we will now be vegitarians for the duration of our time here and maybe even after that. So its a good thing we learned a lot about how to prepare soy foods. Today we made lots of sauces for rice, several bean dishes, and a really good stew with the local yams. Both of us stayed clear of the chickens.
Our new address will be:
Rebecca and Jason Seyler, PCV
Corps de la Paix
BP 168
Natitingou, Benin
L'Afrique de l'Ouest
(West Africa)
But don't worry; if you already sent something to the previous address it will still get to us. Our PCV swear in ceremony is this Friday, and we leave for Materi on Sunday. We should be able to email next weekend before we leave.
Hope you are all well and we'll write you when we can.
Love,
Jason and Rebecca
