June is Plant a Tree Month
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2003
1
26
62
Trip End
Dec 13, 2005
Materi,
Benin
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Well We were only a post for a few weeks before leaving again but were surprisingly able to get some work done.
June 1st was tree day and the mayor had a big ceremony at a primary school in town and they planted 50 trees that had been donated around the school grounds. So we showed up and gave a little speech about Moringa and all the great things about it. All the important people in the county were there, as well as the presidents of womens groups, the community counsel members, etc. So everyone was very impressed with the things we said and some have since then bought the small trees we have been growing in a little tree nursery, as well as requested seeds. They are excited to grow the trees in their yards and use the leaves with their meals. So Jason spent several days riding around on his bike with the trees in his saddlebags and when people flagged him down, he'd stop and talk about Moringa and they would buy them or get seeds. We hope that these trees flourish and Moringa will some day be plentiful in Materi. Also, he helped a government worker plant trees along the road and at another primary school. Everyone was happy to see him out doing this, and hopefully people will better understand his work interests now.
This past week we attended an AIDS conference in Parakou. It was very helpful, and we hope to begin some projects at post to increase the awareness of AIDS. There are lots of cultural issues that are involved when working with AIDS. There is polygamy, and many times it is common for women and men to have casual relations with people outside of marriage. There are ceremonies were it is expected, and looked down upon if you don't. Also, there are myths that if a person doesn't have relations with someone, they will get sick. So things like this make it hard to promote abstinance, fidelity to a marriage, and use of condoms. Also, we watched a video at the conference that showed a couple who knew they had HIV and they continued to get pregnant and have a child. The woman ended up using drugs to decrease the chance of her child contracting the disease during the preganacy and birth, but my question is: this child is going to be an orphan... doesn't that matter??? But the value of having children here is so high; it's their reason for marriage and people consider themselves wealthy if they have lots of children. So things like this make behavior change hard. (This cultural fact also makes malnutrition hard to combat since often women get pregnant before they are finished breatfeeding the previous child).
Now we're just hanging out in Cotonou until our flight to Paris on Monday. We are so excited about this trip!!! Well, we'll let you know how it goes....
Love,
Rebecca and Jason
