It's been a loooong time...

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  Parakou, Benin
Monday, November 10, 2008

This is a much better opportunity to write an email, I came down early this morning on a 7hr bus ride from Parakou to Cotonou, with a few hours to spare before catching a bush-taxi back to Pobe.  The rest of the southern volunteers will be able to catch a PC vehicule shuttle back down on Tuesday, but I had to come down a day earlier to meet with Jacques (SED APCD) who is visiting my post on Tuesday and prepare for my second formation on Wednesday.  Then a busy week of to-and-fro-ing I do a day trip again down to Cotonou on Friday for meetings (including one on the girl empowerment camps inherent to all PC countries - Camp Glo).
 
So I will take a few steps back to last Tuesday when I launched into the first meeting of a general business formation with my group of seamstresses.  I had arranged with Pobe mairie to use the Maison de Jeunes (literal translation - house of youth, essentially a hal used for local functions), prepared about 5 large sheets of paper (which we cal 'khaki's because of their light brown colour) with French on the objectifs of the formation, definitions, plans for future reunions, etc.  I advertised the meeting as starting at 10am, thinking with Beninese timing if we started by 10.15/10.30 we'd be doing well.  I arrived at 9.30 to prepare a few things and just in case anyone turned up early.  To my absolute delight (and I take it as encouraging) a large group of 35 turned up, were seated and ready by 9.45, babies in tow.  The meeting went well, and was based on talking about what it means to be an 'entrepreneur', introductions and what they want to learn in future meetings, the next meeting is going to be on ''L'etudie de faisabilite'.  We'll see how it goes.  At the end of my last meeting they were literally singing my praises, with a nagot-version of 'if you're happy and you know it (clap your hands)'.  A nice high to finish any meeting on.  A big shock, and something I need to rethink is that half the group don't understand French and are illiterate, there are systems for getting around this, and the president of this group has been great at acting as a translator - but it does throw up some challenges.
 
Parakou was a lot of fun.  I both enjoy the company of the fellow SED volunteers, and I enjoy traveling to different parts of the country, but I also do like my personal home in pobe.  After getting up at 5am to catch an early bush taxi to PCHQ in Cotonou, the four volunteers (and N, who's technically in the north but was down south at a conference) caught the PC landcruiser, with Jacques, up to Parakou, stopping on the way for Igname pile and at the village of a pc staff member, who is Beninese, who's father had died the day before and they were in the midst of the death ceremonies (and there are multiple) preparations.  On arriving at the work station at parakou it was a nice reunion with fellow volunteers, the delivery of packages to northern volunteers (and you are in luck when you're in the vicinity of someone who's friend/family just sent them candy).  We promptly went out for dinner, sitting open air and eating really good FAT chickens (well butchered and cooked meat is hard to find here).  All the volunteers stayed at the Parakou workstation, which is kind of like a stop-off point, hostel, mini-office for volunteers in that area who are far from the Cotonou main office.  It is run by a PCVL (B in the case of Parakou, who has extended for a third year in country, a fellow SED vol)  They are responsible for maintaining the workstation, being a liason between volunteers and staff.  The workstation does look like a very informal hostel, a compound with a house, tv and dvds for vegging, library of books (both fiction and work resources) computer and office, kitchen, lots of sleeping area, and outside space too.  A very relaxed atmosphere.
 
The following day was actually our time for the conference, we sat down with Jacques and as a group, discussing our posts, our work, issues we've had, achievements, etc.  It was fairly informal, but some useful ideas got thrown around.  That took up all of 5 hours and then we had the rest of the time to play.  That evening we barbecued hamburgers (and when it 29 degrees centigrade, it's very much still bbq weather), mincing the meat ourselves.  We were also joined by three volunteers from Burkina Faso who have just finished their service and are cycling from Niger, down through Benin and heading west across to Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire).  They couldn't have turned up on a better night for fete-ing.  Volunteers from other countries are allowed to stay at PC offices in other countries, for a small fee. It was a fun night of sitting out, with good food and good company.  At one point the power went off (regular occurrence) and we all looked to the sky, catching the odd shooting star.
 
The next day was also a good opportunity, squeezing 15 adults into a 9-seater station wagon for an hour long trip south to the post of a young married couple (s and j - who are big boston sports fans), to see s's village savings and loans group, who have weekly meetings and is a system of giving access to credit for the very poorest in society, without need for literacy or French.  We were also hosted with steak sandwiches and brownies from S&J.  I exchanged flight of the conchords with them for Celtics nba championships dvd - nice.  The group was interesting, and reinvigorated my interest in starting a similar group in pobe, or probably more useful, a remoter village in the area of pobe.  So many projects to start and so little time, but it would be bad form to start a savings programme before the season of fetes and so soon after parents have had to pay school fees, so I will have to wait until the new year.
 
So a quieter night on Sunday and at present I'm down here in Cotonou, preparing to return to post with the customary gift to the family in my concession (who have hopefully been keeping an eye on my house) of the northern 'cheese' (not anything like what you and I would call cheese) called Wagasi.

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