Things we've been up to
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2003
1
18
62
Trip End
Dec 13, 2005
Matéri,
Benin
Friday, February 6, 2004
We're in town on the way yo Parakou for a meeting. I hope everyones doing well. We just spent the last hour reading emails, its great to hear from so many of you!
People have asked in emails about our work, so we'll try to catch you up on what we're doing.
Rebecca: I go to the health center once a day, and there's usually not much going on there. There's a group of tailor apprentices who work there, and they have taught me how to crochet. So I sit and crochet with them. Its good for integration in the community, but they don't speak much French, so conversation in limited. Some days I go with Charlotte, my work partner, to small villages for baby weighings. We have a scale that hangs from a tree branch with a little seat for the baby thats like an enfant swing. So the mothers gather round and we weigh their enfants (up to 4 years old) and record them and counsel the mothers if their child is underweight. Most of them are about 75 percent of what they should be, and it's very sad for me when there are ones that are 60 percent or less. Soon we'll be doing nutirtional sessions at the health center to teach the mothers how to augment their meals with soy and moringa. Most of the sessions are also in Biali, but the mothers are happy I'm there and surprised when I greet in their language. What else? Next week I'm beginning a girls club at the high school. When we met with the principle of the school, we learned that out of 1500 students, only 100 are girls. So I hope to encourage these girls to continue their education and pursue a career. I'll also incorporate nutrition and hygiene and other things, considering that some of these girls will soon be mothers, and also that they play a big part in caring for younger siblings. I also plan to get some women from the community to come as guest speakers for some sessions. So we'll see how that goes. Thats it as far as what Ive already starteed, but I plan to also start promoting soy more, but I'm still thinking of good ways to that. Oh yeah, Jason and I had a mud stove session at the health center (some students board there) and that went really well. We built the first one, then the students built two more. We checked on them a few days later and they said that they're great because they cook food quicker and use less wood than the traditional three stones on the grouund, a pot on top, and the fire underneath. So we're happy about that. We all had fun.
Jason's turn:
Well as far as my work goes its been going pretty good considering the guy who's supposed to be working with me has been a "no-show". But I don't let such a small matter like thatstop me and have been keeping myself pretty busy. My first big project was starting a garden with the help of rebecca and several of the neighborhood kids and friends. It is doing really well and so far we have 10 healthy eggplants and 15 tomatoes plants, several okra, soy, basil and we just picked up some seeds for green peppers and carrots. Last night we harvested our first basil leaves and had that in a olive oil pasta dish and it was SOOOO GOOD!!!! now all we need is a morter and pestel and we'll be making acres of pesto. Mmmmmmm... Pesto.... My first success story is that one of the neighborhood kids came by the other day and said he had started a garden as a result of ours. Very Cool!!! I gave him some soybean seeds and some of the eggplants we thinned and hopefully he'll have good luck with them and continue with it. Who knows 10-20 years from now he could possibly start his own completely organic self sustaining farm and maybe influence other people too.
Besides gardening I have had several meetings with groups of men all over Materi county. During these encounters we talk about trees, crops, water (or lack thereof), animal husbandry, bee-keeping, rabbits, and anything else that perks their interest. These have all been kinda getting to know eachother meetings and so hopefully soon I'll start working with them in starting to plant trees and the like. I also will start a club at the highschool and it will be more focused on environmental issues. I hope to get the club making the mud stoves around the community for people as a "fund raiser" (since there are no krispy kreme dounut stands near by) and then use the proceeds from these to maybe buy bee hives or other cool stuff like that. I also will be doing a tree nursery with them and hope to have a big tree day celebration on tree day( june 1st). I know rebecca's supervisor hopes to plant cashew trees all around the health center property and so I'm hopeing that other social centers will follow his lead and it could be really great for the community. At Rebecca's work they have started raising rabbits and are about to start with chicken raising for egg production. So I will be helping on those projects as well.
Well as an update on the cat saga... we talked to several people in the community and we decided to give her away to someone who could benifit from the protien. Crazy as this whole story has been the first lady we gave it to didn't speak any french and probably thought that she was getting a prefectly healthy cat. So after saying goodbye we thought we were done with that delima until later that evening we hear a familar meowing from outside our door. We go outside and just sitting there waiting for us is "Peoseka" (biali for one who cries all the time) and a kid returning the defective merchandise. The nerve of these people.... So the next day we give it to this really nice old man who we know and he says he's going to keep her for catching mice. He knows that she's paralized but who knows under his care she just might be the best mouser yet. Also we'll probably be seeing a lot of her still because he lives right next to Rebecca's work so who knows when this drama will ever end. On top of this we've put in an order from the american missionaries in a town close by for one of thier kittens that will be ready soon. So we promise to keep you all posted! In the meantime the mice continue to elude Jason's attempts to outsmart them.
That's really all for now hope everyone is well and staying warm. The really hot season is just about to start because we're starting to see ripe mangos in the market. Mmmmm Mangoes....
Lots of Love,
Jason and Rebecca
