The Great Mousecapade Continues
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Matéri,
Benin
Thursday, January 8, 2004
Hey everyone
We're back in Nati for a meeting for Rebecca's work. It was a pleasant surprise when my supervisor said, "would you like to come to Nati this Friday" So here we are. So we get to the work station and there are a pile of packages for us from a bunch of you, thanks again (we emailed those we got packages from). So we had a little Christmas party/gift opening session in the lounge and it was lots of fun.
So heres the update from Matéri:
The evening we returned from Nati, we visitedd the missionaries who live in our village and they offeredd us one of their kittens. Their kittens are used to being arounnd people and even around a dog that they have, so we thought it was a good idea to trry again. We took her home and immeddiately she was allowing us to pet her and purring like crazy. She was even playing with anything and everything she could find, including a plastic bag that was on the floor (hours of entertainment, much better than any store bought cat toy). Now we know why people buy cats. They are very cute and very playful when they're kittens. We'll keep you informed of how it is when she's actually a CAT. So she adjusted very nicely, and she loves being around us and actually cries at the top of her lungs when we leave (to the amusement of the little boys in our compound). She follows us around the house and we're slowly getting her used to going outside as well and to the dog in our compound. We've even devised a cat door for her to use when we think she's ready. So today we decidedd that the mouse is just hiding under our kitchen shelf and Kitty sits beside it alot but really can't do much but swing her paw under there. So Jason comes up with the ideda to raise the cabinet up on blocks so she can get undeer there better. So while we're in the process of doing so, we were getting the second side raised up, Kitty crawls under it and we figure she's just checking things out or playing, and then we hear sudden shuffling and out pops Kitty with the mouse in her mouth!!!!! We didn't realize it was a mouse, but then it tried to take off, but Kitty was on it. There was no getting away from her!!! She would drop it and let it crawl a little before pouncing on it again. She had so much fun with it, and she was so proud, she just pranced around with her prize. Once she had played enough and the mouse was no longer kicking, she plopped down and had her first protein feast (we feed her rice and milk, more than most pet cats get here). It only took a few minutes before she got up and came in the other room and smacked her lips a little, licked her paws a little, and then was off for a well-deserved afternoon nap. We're so proud of our Kitty (and happy that there's one less mouse in the house). We think we'll name her CrookShanks (aka, Harry Potter), since she has a crooked tail, or the Biali equivilant.
Besides that exciting event, not too much has happened this week. We planted our garden, and fabricated a watering can out of a tin can, and now are in the routine of 2x/day watering since its the dry season. The neightbors and everyone around is very interested in it and help us whenever we're out there. We put labels of each thing we planted in French so they can see what we're growing. So far we've planted soy, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, papaya, eggplant, basil, okra and of course, Moringa. We're going to plant green beans, sweet potatoes, and carrots. The fence is finished and we've even begun a compost pile using our kitchen waste. So we're excited about it and hope it turns out nice and brings us lots of fresh vegetables.
One morning Jason got to help a friend of ours plant yams in his fields. Yams are a little different than the "yams" you find in the US. Yams here are VERY LARGE potato like tubers that are about the size of a log. Yams are pretty much the staple food here in Materi and when they are pounded and mixed with a tomato and peanut sauce they're very tasty. His fields are located about 3.5 miles from his house and the only way to get there is by foot. After the morning stroll, we dug up a bunch of the young tubers to plant. I asked Dassibou how long it took him to prepare the fields for planting and he said it took around 4 days to clear it from brush, then 7 days of back breaking digging to build 4 foot mounds for each yam to be planted. The morning I was there we planted around 80 yams in 4 hours. He had already planted around 400 on his own and he still had 200 to go. After all this he'll have to cut brush to cover every yam mound and then wait till August before harvesting. He told me he'd probably make 50,000 CFA from his field and that's equal to around $100 US dollars. Pretty amazing when Rebecca and I are making twice that a month each as PCVs. So this was a real eye-opener for what people are living off of here in Benin.
Jason and Rebecca also helped Dassibou a little with the construction of a new 1 room mud house. We really only served as a conveyor belt while one group of guys mixed the mud with their feet, a couple formed it into balls (cantalope size), we'd take the balls and toss them to Dassibou and his brother who were throwing the mud into place to form the walls. This way they are able to build a house fairly cheap and easily but they can only build around 3 feet of it at a time in height. So two days from now they will do the whole process over again and add another 3 feet in height and again after that until the building is done. This way the mud has time to harden and dry before another layer is placed on it. If it were all built at the same time it'd probably collapse.
That's really all for this week. We aren't really sure when we'll be back this way but as we found out on wednesday you never know when you'll be heading to the big city.
If anyone is not on our email notification list, but wants to be, please email us their address and we'll gladly add them. Send any addresses to rddixonmcv@aol.com
Thanks again for all your letters, packages, and great emails. It's so great hearing about all that everyone is doing.
Take care and we'll talk to you soon,
Love,
Rebecca and Jason
PS. A special thanks goes out to the entire class of Rebecca's cousin Beth!!!! They hand made a ton of thanksgiving cards for us and they are all really great. We'll be writing them shortly and hope to answer all their great questions.
