Jim in Africa

Over

2009-09-18T10:52:00.002-05:00

When I finish my service on October 2nd, I'll have spent 1146 days in Benin.

One sentence summary: I failed to end poverty, but I'm glad I did it, even with all the bullshit from OMS.

Coming Home, Eventually

2009-08-18T19:05:00.002-05:00

I'll be back in Dallas sometime around October 31st, give or take a week.

Best Text Message Ever

2009-08-10T03:23:00.002-05:00

This was sent to my phone recently:

Good morning, please show up to work on time. Message from the Ministry of Administrative and Institutional Reform.

I totally did.

Unexpected

2009-08-06T09:57:00.002-05:00

I was sitting in a restaurant in Cotonou when this Chinese woman outside was going from person to person and chatting them up. It looked like she was panhandling, but I figured there was no way there'd ever be a Chinese woman begging in the streets in West Africa.

But then when I came back a few weeks later she was wandering around the neighborhood near the Peace Corps bureau. When I got near her she walked up to me and asked, in perfect English, "Excuse me sir, do you speak English?"

"Yes."

"So, I was wondering if you could please offer me a financial assistance."

I didn't, at the time thinking that, how did she even get here in the first place, and also, why does someone who speaks fluent English not have a job here? Though it was later proposed to me that she was exiled here.

Someone Cut Down This Tree With a Machete

2009-05-30T18:22:00.004-05:00

This Exists, Apparently

2009-05-30T04:44:00.004-05:00

I am totally stoked.

Hitler, Part II

2009-05-28T12:53:00.000-05:00

So my Beninese friend met this German woman, and immediately seized the opportunity to tell her all about why he admired Hitler. She was less than sympathetic to his views.

The biggest downside to this conversation is that I'll probably never witness anything more ridiculous for the rest of my life.

Is Finish!

2009-05-13T04:38:00.002-05:00

I just recently scheduled my official COS date (the day I finish my service) for October 2nd, 2009.

Immediately after that, I plan on doing a tour of Ghana to document all six of their unvisited confluences. Then I'll cruise around Europe with Grandpa and fly home. So I'm planning on returning to the US sometime in late October or early November.

I have no idea what I'm going to do after that. Though I do know I'll be getting a latex mattress. Not space foam! Apparently they're just as comfortable, they don't sleep hot, they're not temperature-sensitive, and they're significantly cheaper. Also, they don't degrade into substances that are linked to cancer. An all-around winner.

So yeah, if anyone has a job for me starting in November, that would be totally cool.

FAIL

2009-04-29T04:13:00.004-05:00

I went to the final confluence in Benin at 10°N 2°E. Everything went well.

But then when I got back to Nati I looked at my pictures and realized that the GPS unit was set to a screen that displayed the coordinates but not the estimated position error, which is required to get it on the Confluence Project. So my entire trip was invalidated and I'll have to go back to the confluence to retake the picture.

10°N, 3°E

2009-04-21T11:11:00.005-05:00

After a failed attempt to find this confluence I went back and looked on Google Earth to find out why I had thought it was going to be so easy. It turns out that there is indeed a path that goes pretty much directly to the confluence, we had just tried to get to it from the wrong side.

The second time I programmed in a bunch of waypoints into the GPS unit to make sure I wouldn't get lost. It was a pretty easy ride. From Biro (a small town) it was about 7km on a dirt road to some village whose name I've forgotten, and then another 5km further on a footpath. The closest point from the path to the confluence was about 60 meters, so I just got off the moto and walked. There was even a tiny path going off into the field where the confluence was located.

All zeroes.

The confluence (+/- 5m) is in the exact center of this photograph.

The view from the opposite side.

Me on top of the confluence.

These flowers grow straight out of the ground. Like, without any stem or leaves. Not really sure how that works. But it apparently does, as they were all over the place.

12°N, 3°E

2009-04-17T14:52:00.008-05:00

The first of the three confluences that I visited is just a few kilometers from the Benin-Niger border, near Karimama. Technically it's inside Parc du W, a wildlife refuge that's not even remotely as developed as Park Pendjari.

Cow cart crosses the Niger River.

Tom, Kelly, and me.

The Niger River. The strip of land in the distance is Niger.

We paid a park ranger and a taximoto driver to take us into the park on their motorcycles. The park ranger was invited mostly for his gun in case of a lion attack, which turned out to be unnecessary as the only animal we saw the entire time was a single warthog. We did see a bunch of elephant tracks in the dried mud, though, and there were a lot of paths that had been created by them trampling everything in their way. The closest we could get to the confluence on the road was about 8km so we had to ride our motorcycles into the bush, which did not please the drivers. The vegetation alternated between extremely thick forest and empty, burned out patches. I'm still somewhat amazed that we got anywhere given how crappy the terrain got at some points. After about an hour we got to within 800 meters of the confluence when the park ranger's motorcycle got a flat.

We drove through this for an hour.

Me riding with the park ranger.

We walked the rest of the way and found the confluence under a tree, surrounded by the remains of what the park ranger claimed to be a prehistoric village. There were thousands of shards of old clay pots half-buried everywhere. We also found an old grinding stone which he told us was what they used before people invented the yam-smashing devices they use today to make pounded yams. The odds of this are pretty unbelievable - for the entirety of the rest of the trip we saw absolutely no signs of human civilization whatsoever.

Some pottery shards.

Half-buried pot.

The confluence (within the margin of error anyway)

12°N, 3°E is located exactly over in those dead bushes.

Me standing on the confluence. The park ranger insisted I wear a yellow shirt and not a white one so that lions wouldn't target me.

The grinding stone.

Park ranger, with shotgun

We took our pictures and returned to where the other guy was with the motorcycles. The park ranger claimed he knew a shortcut to a road, where we could then take the one good motorcycle back to Karimama. "It's only 3km away!" he said. After walking for three kilometers in the unbearable heat (it was well over 100 degrees), I asked him to show me on the map exactly where we were going. I put the coordinates in my GPS unit and it calculated that it was 14 kilometers away - six kilometers further than the park entrance we had come in through.

Just after we decided it would be better to cut our losses and hike back to the entrance, the other motorcycle got a flat. Up to that point we had been taking turns riding slowly on it as the others walked. So not only did we no longer have that option, but it slowed us down even more as the taximoto driver wasn't exactly in great shape and he couldn't push his motorcycle nearly as fast as the rest of us could walk.

About two hours later we made it back to the entrance. Our water had run out and we were exhausted. The taximoto guy pumped up his flat tire enough for him to take me and the other volunteer back to Karimama. We left the park ranger at the entrance and the taximoto driver promised to come back to bring him a tire (which he did). I downed about five liters of water when we got back but was still dehydrated. So dehydrated that it hurt to pee. The next day things were considerably better.

A little cliff

My favorite picture of the trip

www.confluence.org

FOOLISH

2009-04-16T03:01:00.000-05:00

So I was walking around the hospital on April 1st trying to find a radio when this girl starting walking with me.

Her: "Hey, can I see your helmet?"
Me: "Sure, here you go. Would you like to try it on?"
Her: "Nope! April fools!"

Then she gave me back my helmet and walked away.

Hitler

2009-03-23T17:01:00.003-05:00

My friend (who is an African) explained to me why he liked Hitler today:

"Well you see, when he killed people, that was bad, but he had an ideology. At least he believed in something. He just shouldn't have been a dictator. Like, he could've done like how they're doing now with the European Union."

Some Words for the New Volunteers Assigned to Come to Benin in July 2009

2009-03-16T14:32:00.004-05:00

Alright, you've heard about (or are about to google) the tragedy that we experienced recently and you're hesitant to come to Benin.

That's natural. But consider: there are about 100 volunteers here as I write this, and there will be about 100 next week, next month, and next year. We wouldn't be here if we didn't feel safe.

I am probably the most cowardly person alive. In fact, you might say I have a "chronic anxiety problem coupled with severe paranoia". Yet, I feel perfectly safe here. I do not ever worry about my safety. Ever. Please, if you get blessed with the country assignment, you should absolutely come to Benin.

Props

2009-03-16T14:16:00.006-05:00

I would like to thank everyone for not being douchebags and telling me to come home. Seriously. When all the volunteers gathered in a room, we were asked how many of us had been pressured to quit from people back home. About 50% of the volunteers raised their hands. Fortunately, pretty much everyone is ignoring this advice.

Kate

2009-03-13T17:03:00.002-05:00

Sometime late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning a friend and colleague of mine was murdered.

It would be an understatement to say that everyone here is pretty distressed.

Press release.

On the Record

2009-03-10T22:39:00.003-05:00

I'm writing this post just because I want there to be a permanent record on the Internet so that when I tell people "I totally called it" they will be able to verify it having totally been called.

The calling: there will be a cure for all types of human cancer on or before December 31st, 2018.

In other news, it's five in the morning and I haven't gone to sleep yet. I'm hoping that this way when I take the bus in a few hours I'll spend the entire trip to Cotonou completely asleep. I've been passing the time watching TED conference videos.

This video in particular is impressive. Almost as impressive as my ability to predict when cancer will be cured.

Next week the construction of my swamp cooler should be complete. If it works it will probably be one of the proudest moment of my service. But more on that next week.

Rainy Season, Dry Season

2009-02-12T12:26:00.003-06:00

The first picture was taken August 3rd, the second picture was taken February 12th.

Solar Water Heater

2009-02-12T11:53:00.004-06:00

I recently built a solar water heater for my house since another volunteer got one and I envied it a great deal.

Water goes into this 15-gallon black plastic barrel from a hose in my bathroom. The metal frame was custom-built by a welder and cemented in by a mason. A plumber installed a floater from a toilet on the top tube so the intake valve shuts off automatically when it's full. The clear plastic on top holds in heat and is draped so that when the barrel is full it touches the surface of the water. This prevents condensation from building up on the plastic and reflecting sunlight.

The tubes enter and exit via a small hole in the wall.

They then continue through the former exterior window.

The hot water connects to a copper pipe that is cemented into the wall and then goes into the faucet. The cold water comes from a separate faucet down below.

A close-up of the faucet.

Orange Flower

2009-02-12T11:34:00.003-06:00

This is in my yard.

Recent Goings-On

2009-01-20T15:16:00.003-06:00

The government lowered the price of gas at its stations by about 50% the other day, which is nice to see since for a while there I was convinced that Benin couldn't be influenced by the economic realities of the rest of the world. Other nearby countries have apparently not yet lowered their official prices so all the smuggled gas that was previously sold on the side of the road has been taken elsewhere and all the gas stations have incredibly long lines, when only a week ago they almost never had any customers.

A Proposal for a Relative in Denial

2009-01-01T07:08:00.004-06:00

Jimmy,

This is like a haiku.

Your life is becoming a Japanese poem.

How is my effort to wean you off dog progressing?

You clearly want to do what I have done. There is nothing wrong with this. Just come to Benin and I will take you to see the wonderful village of Tapoga, where minds are opened every Friday in the far back corner of the market. I'll even arrange for there to be no paws on display.

Ubuntu

2009-01-01T05:23:00.003-06:00

My laptop was having a lot of problems so I reinstalled Windows, only to discover that for some reason it could no longer detect my network card no matter what I tried. I eventually gave up and installed Ubuntu.

This is the third time I've tried Linux. The first time I had no idea what I was doing and it was too complicated for someone who knew nothing about how it worked. The second time it was much improved, but there were still a few annoying bugs and it couldn't download pictures off my camera. But the latest version of Ubuntu seems to have gotten rid of all the problems that bothered me, and now that I know a few basic things I'm able to do pretty much everything I want to do. I wouldn't exactly recommend it to my mom (no offense, Mom), but it works well enough that I'm not ever going to get Windows for my personal computer ever again.

Cotonou at Night

2008-12-28T14:37:00.004-06:00

Back in Benin

2008-12-28T13:47:00.004-06:00

So the day I got back to Nati, the shuttle ran into a tree a little while after it dropped me off at my house. No one was injured.

An opportunist dries his pants.

Then later that night a truck knocked down the power line to the house, ripping the electrical counter off the wall.

Then at 3am the generator broke. Eight days later, everything was fixed.

MURIKA

2008-11-13T17:54:00.001-06:00

I have arrived in America.

Election

2008-11-04T13:15:00.002-06:00

Thanks to the awesomeness of the Internet me and my postmates will be watching the election results come in live. The very first polls close at midnight my time but it should be worth staying up for.

Beninese people are split. About half want Obama to win because he's African, and the other half want him to win because he's young. Pretty much everyone is interested in the outcome. A bunch of old guys are going to stay up all night at the youth center down the street, drinking and listening to the results on the radio.

Thanks to the Dallas County Elections Board I got my absentee ballot in what must've been record time, which makes this the first election I've ever voted in.

Predictions from 2006 Revisited

2008-10-09T16:04:00.002-05:00

Before I left for Benin I made four predictions about what things would be like in October 2008. Good thing I didn't predict I'd be in America:

1) Oil will be above $90/bbl.

I probably should've defined "October" but contracts for October delivery closed at $120 and were at no point below $90. I'll count this as a win despite the fact that prices are now below $90.

2) The Democratic nominee for President won't be Hillary Clinton.

I should've bet on this.

3) The Republican nominee for President will be John McCain.

I really should've bet on this.

4) It will turn out that Lost actually did have a coherent, well-defined plot since the beginning.

I thought the show would've been over by now, but I guess I was wrong about that. In any event, we'll have to wait another year to settle this one, though I'm pretty sure this won't turn out in my favor.

Beninese Salad

2008-09-26T09:16:00.002-05:00

Mix the following in a bowl:

1 handful Salad
1 cup Spaghetti noodles
3 tablespoons Mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Vinegar
1/2 can Tuna
1 Small sauteed onion
1/2 Chopped tomato
1/2 Sliced potato

I'm guessing at the quantities since they make this in the dark with just a single ordinary spoon. In any event, the majority of the meal should consist of noodles and salad. This costs 500 CFA (about $1.10).

Confluences

2008-09-14T09:28:00.002-05:00

So apparently someone decided to start a project to photograph every location on Earth where a line of longitude and a line of latitude converge. There are nine such confluences in Benin, 6 of which have been documented and 3 of which have not.

http://www.confluence.org/country.php?id=59

So in March I'm going to go photograph them in order to complete Benin. All three are fortunately in the north and two are close to villages and dirt roads, at least from what I can tell from Google Earth. The one in the far north is only about 15-20 km from a volunteer's post but it's also in a wildlife park, so that may be difficult to get to.

I'm No Doctor, But I'm Pretty Sure That's Not the Cure

2008-08-05T05:15:00.004-05:00

A guy I know has had insomnia for a couple weeks, and he recently showed me the two medicines that were prescribed to him when he went to the clinic: Alka-Seltzer, and Ciprofloxacin (a powerful antibiotic).

Answer to Mike's Question

2008-07-24T01:15:00.003-05:00

Most electricity is diesel, but are there any renewable energy projects in your area? I saw an awesome post somewhere about building a solar and wind powered communication network somewhere in Africa.

Nope. In the South a lot of the power comes from the hydroelectric dam in Ghana but the North isn't connected to that grid and it's 100% diesel. There is such high demand for electricity in the South though that they had to implement rolling blackouts pretty much everywhere. To help relieve the pressure they've decided to connect the generator in the North to the grid in the South since it's not being used to full capacity yet (it was originally designed to power the entire country of Ghana before they built the dam - it's huge).

The government made a pledge to bring electricity to every regional capital and though I'm not sure I think they've got it done already. In any event, electricity is relatively widespread and it's just not cost-effective to use renewable energy since prices are subsidized. I don't know if it will make sense when they drop the subsidy (which they're about to do due to the diesel shortage).

I've been to a couple of health centers in villages that did have government-bought solar panels but they were only powerful enough to run the radio. The refrigerators they have to keep vaccines cool are run on kerosene. Anyone who can afford solar panels already lives where there's electricity so it doesn't really make much sense to buy them.

As for the communication network, it's not really that necessary. There are tons of cell phone towers in places without electricity which are run on diesel generators. Cell phone companies are just that profitable apparently.

Robot Wars

2008-07-20T14:48:00.003-05:00

Most everyone from the group I trained with is leaving over the next two months, which blows as I'll probably never see most of them ever again. On the plus side, it gave me an excuse to commission going-away paintings for my friends. I gave a painter who calls himself Picasso some really vague description of robots attacking a city with people fleeing, and this is what he came up with:

MTN welcomes you to

2008-07-20T05:12:00.003-05:00

The sign above this tollbooth said "MTN welcomes you to Cotonou", until they realized that it's actually in another city and decided to paint over the Cotonou part.

Diesel and Inflation

2008-07-17T03:05:00.002-05:00

There's still no diesel fuel to be had, but the government raised the price about 50% for whenever it starts getting sold again. No one actually knows what's happening, but the assumption is that since the government sells diesel at a subsidized price, they just couldn't afford to keep selling it with oil prices where they are.

This basically means we'll have wicked bad inflation soon since most goods are shipped by trucks and electricity is mostly produced by diesel generators. This is on top of already-rising prices for pretty much everything else.

Welding and Diesel Shortage

2008-07-04T11:12:00.004-05:00

I learned to weld, which was fun. I read online what all the safety issues were the day before, and then when the guy showed me how it worked he violated pretty much all of them. I kept asking him if it was a problem inhaling the fumes or holding onto the thing with the electrical current running through it, but he didn't seem to mind even though he was aware of the danger.

In other news there's literally no diesel fuel in Benin, which is bad as all the Peace Corps vehicles have diesel engines and our generators run on diesel. This is especially bad timing for a shortage since the new volunteers fly in tonight and they have to be shuttled around for the next three months. On the plus side, there's plenty of gasoline so taxis and buses are still available.

Critical Thinking Camp

2008-07-04T11:08:00.002-05:00

We taught some kids to play sudoku.

We started off with 4 by 4 grids.

Working in a group.

All together at the board. The hardest part is that they all kept making the assumption that if a number wasn't specifically forbidden, then it was correct, which is the worst possible assumption to make. Some of the kids started to get it towards the end though.

Note in Latrine

2008-07-04T10:58:00.003-05:00

This picture was taken in a latrine at a high school:

"Don't allow our masters to fuck you. Whoever allow them will miss her life."

Essentially it's imploring girls not to sleep with teachers for grades so that they don't accidentally get pregnant.

Weird Ass Plant

2008-06-15T19:36:00.002-05:00

I found this thing in Cotonou and planted it at the Workstation. I was later told that to make it reproduce you have to cut it and plant it upsidedown. This is actually true. I'm not sure how these things make it in the wild.

Kota Waterfalls

2008-06-15T18:28:00.008-05:00

These waterfalls are about 20 minutes from my house.

Home Leave

2008-06-15T18:21:00.002-05:00

I'm flying to Dallas around November 1st and going back to Benin around the 30th. The dates may be slightly off since there are only three flights a week from Benin but that's as precise as I can get for now.

Welding

2008-06-15T18:06:00.002-05:00

I start my welding apprenticeship tomorrow. Ever since I thought of the idea it's occurred to me that I could solve a lot of problems for cheap if only I had the ability to weld. My fear now is that once I get good at this I'm going to try to solve all my problems through welding regardless of its practicality. Also, I would just like to reiterate to my mother that, no, I will not blow myself up doing this.

Mom Poses Questions

2008-05-27T18:24:00.006-05:00

Jim,

Now that you have broached the topic of eating dog, I think you owe your loyal blog readers more information. We want to understand more about this custom. Do people regularly eat dog, or only some people? Are these dogs similar to the critters we saw sharing the garbage with the pigs? I sit excitedly waiting for your reply.

Mom

For the most part, it's taboo in Benin, but anyone who's protein-starved will ignore that. I googled "typical West African dog" and this was the second image. It's those dogs.

Third Year

2008-05-25T13:09:00.002-05:00

I re-interviewed for my job and got it, so I will definitely be staying in Benin until September 2009. I get one month of required home leave and I plan on taking that this November if possible.

Dog is Tasty

2008-04-26T16:20:00.003-05:00

Apparently there's a village not too far from my town that serves dog every Friday (the market day). It tastes like a cross between goat and pork. Delicious.

25 cents of dog. The pink coloration was from the sauce. This initially disturbed us but it was brown on the inside so we figured it wouldn't kill us (update from three days later: I'm still not sick, must've been fine).

Me losing the ability to run for elected office.

There were paws in this pot a few minutes before I took the photo but someone ate them all before I could get my camera out.

Elections and Kanakoo

2008-04-17T16:42:00.003-05:00

There will be municipal elections held this weekend. I'm probably not supposed to talk about that much. All it really means for volunteers though is that we can't travel anywhere.

In other news, the government telecom company turned on the internet-via-cell-tower thing in the two biggest cities in the region. Already a new cyber cafe opened up which is 25% cheaper than the satellite ones (a satellite connection costs over $400/month, the new thing is slower but costs around $50/month). This is pretty cool because a lot of NGOs and government offices have computers but until now there's been no economical way for them to get on the Internet.

Riots and Inflation

2008-04-06T05:15:00.000-05:00

There have been some riots to due rising food prices in a lot of West African countries recently. A few volunteers in other countries got rocks thrown at them, but that was supposedly because they went out to go watch the riots. Benin has so far avoided anything like that, though prices are going up and there have been some mild shortages - notably of wheat flour. The government has started to sell subsidized rice but otherwise not much has changed other than rice ladies refusing to give me the normal four scoops for 100 francs.

Questions

2008-03-22T15:17:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to start a call-in radio show where students can ask science questions, so I went over to the neighbor's house to get a few sample ones for the pilot. They were as follows:

Why are there mountains?
When it rains, there are all these clouds. Are they in the sky?
Why are there wild animals in the bush?
Why do people exist?

It Got Even Worse

2008-03-16T16:05:00.002-05:00

So after emptying most of the septic tank with buckets, the plumbers got drunk on sodabi and hopped on inside the tank to finish the job. I was going to yell at them for drinking while they worked but it occurred to me that I would probably have to do the same in order to do what they just did.

This Actually Works

2008-03-16T11:32:00.002-05:00

Pointing the antenna towards the NGO to test signal strength

I'm starting to trip in this photo, not checking anything

We stayed up til 2 AM trying to get this to work. It finally succeeds here.

The next morning. A mason should come by tomorrow morning to install a post to keep it truly vertical and stable. Still, we're getting 74% connectivity which is outstanding.

That's About the Grossest Thing I've Ever Seen

2008-03-15T15:55:00.003-05:00

A team of plumbers is emptying the Workstation septic tank with buckets. The computer room is right next to the tank so the smell is quite pungent here. On the other hand, the connection is blazing fast right now and I don't want to leave. It's quite a conundrum.

Nati WS is Online

2008-03-13T14:54:00.002-05:00

The Natitingou Workstation (that is, my house) now has a high-speed Internet connection. Pictures of our ridiculous solution coming soon.

I Am Extending for a Third Year

2008-03-13T14:38:00.002-05:00

For some reason no one seems to know this, so I figured I'd make it explicit:

I am going to stay in Peace Corps until the end of 2009. I will get one month of home leave at some point between July and December, the exact date of which to be determined in late May.

Jim Jim

2008-03-08T14:56:00.002-06:00

Inevitably anyone who figures out that my name is Jim and not James starts to call me "Jim Jim". I asked someone why. Apparently it's the word in Fon that means "boo". Like, the sound you make to scare someone. So they're all calling me "boo boo".

Internet, Only For Real This Time

2008-03-02T17:56:00.003-06:00

We recently discovered that an NGO near the Workstation got a satellite internet connection. They've been pretty awesome in being willing to let us share it. Unfortunately, it's too far away to get a good Wifi signal, but hopefully over the next few days we'll be able to see if there's a way to put up an antenna of some sort to extend the range. It will be pretty righteous if it works as it's a very fast connection.

Trip to Kerou

2008-03-02T17:18:00.010-06:00

I went to Kerou recently to work on a project. This is another way of saying I spent five hours in a van getting coated with dust. Here are a bunch of pictures.

Having a lot of girlfriends is dangerous! My success comes first. Sex can wait

Cucumber?

This photo would've been great if I had known how to adjust my aperture at the time. This is a garden situated next to a recently-dammed stream.

The dam. Made out of sandbags.

A mysterious pit.

A thing for scraping off dead skin. These were all over the ground but we couldn't tell where they all came from.

Straw protects the plants from direct sunlight.

Seedlings in bags.

What pretty much every forest in Benin looks like.

The ground is burnt in these pictures because people went around burning the grass in order to drive out animals, which they then killed.

Malnutrition Recuperation Center

Not breastfeeding results in dead children.

An 8th grade classroom in Kerou Secondary School. None of the kids showed up to the formation we had planned. Fortunately, the students next door had an absentee teacher so we just asked them if they wanted to play some games. It worked out well.

Goats hate sunlight.

Eto'o is popular.

Dear Parents, you are responsible for getting your children a birth certificate. Throughout their life they will need it. Don't forget, the county offices are there to help you! Don't leave the birth certificate with the county chief or the mayor, take it and guard it safely for the good of your child.

The same message, only in Bariba.

A primary school.

Glass bottles cemented to wall prevent thieves from entering.

A donkey relaxes.

Every girl in school. A national campaign. These signs are in pretty much every town.

This kid really wanted a picture. His sister does laundry in the background.

Kerou has an abnormally
high number of satellites.

My Precious!

2008-02-24T12:29:00.003-06:00

Construction on the fiber optic cable has pretty much finished within the limits of Natitingou. It will probably still be a long time before it gets turned on though.

The cable is buried here or something.

Some sort of box. The dude building it said he had no idea when service would begin.

Compost

2008-02-24T11:54:00.009-06:00

One of the guards at the Workstation also works at an agricultural NGO, so he asked me to go with him to a formation to take pictures. This particular trip was to teach tomato farmers how to make compost.

Digging a hole

Chopping hay

The villagers collected buckets of ash and manure

Mixing manure, ash, and soil

Sita begins teaching

The compost is basically formed by adding alternating layers of hay, manure, ash, and water

Sticks to make lifting of leaves easy

The leaves are put on top to hold moisture

Burying it all

Response to Op-Ed

2008-02-02T01:46:00.002-06:00

Robert Strauss (a former Volunteer and Country Director) recently argued in this op-ed that Volunteers who are straight out of college can't really serve as development workers, as they lack the skills and maturity to do so. This is mostly true. However, I mostly disagree with what he wrote and am honestly quite amazed at how limited his perspective is.

He writes,

[f]or the Peace Corps, the number of volunteers has always trumped the quality of their work, perhaps because the agency fears that an objective assessment of its impact would reveal that while volunteers generate good will for the United States, they do little or nothing to actually aid development in poor countries.

The problem with this is that there cannot be an objective assessment of our impact. One could measure, for example, the change in the number of cases of diarrhea reported to a health clinic in a village after latrines were built. But there are lots of impacts that are essentially invisible and unprovable. It's not uncommon for teachers to exchange grades for sex with their female students here, yet I doubt on any evaluation that anyone would thank me for not doing so, even if they did appreciate it. And one of the biggest changes that I think we make - transmitting the idea that the future can and will be different from the past - is just too vague to be measured.

The agency has no comprehensive system for self-evaluation, but rather relies heavily on personal anecdote to demonstrate its worth.

This is true. Unfortunately, there's literally nothing that can be done about it. Basically on our reports we write the things we've done and how many men, women, boys, and girls we affected.
So for example, if I do a presentation on AIDS I'm supposed to count how many of each type of person was there, then have some way of following up and seeing how the presentation affected each of those people. But this is almost impossible since it's really hard to tell if you've convinced someone to avoid risky behaviors, and since you can't always find everyone who was at the presentation. One could look at the results of AIDS tests done at the local clinic, and see if the number goes down after the presentation. But since that number could've been influenced by an almost unlimited number of variables it's not too easy to tell what's been done by the volunteer in such a situation.

Every few years, the agency polls its volunteers, but in my experience it does not systematically ask the people it is supposedly helping what they think the volunteers have achieved.

This isn't actually true. Every five years, Peace Corps reviews each program and does extensive surveying, then reviews the data with the host country to see if the program should be changed or even continued. Years ago, Peace Corps taught science and math in Benin, but the program was canceled after the government decided it no longer wanted Peace Corps' assistance. It did ask that English instruction continue, however.

[A]s long as the volunteers are enjoying themselves, it doesn’t matter whether they improve the quality of life in the host countries. Any well-run organization must know what its customers want and then deliver the goods, but this is something the Peace Corps has never learned.

I'm somewhat shocked that the author was a Country Director as one of the things that is repeated over and over again throughout training is that volunteers are supposed to find out what the community wants, and to help them fulfill that need, and not just do whatever the volunteer thinks they should do. There are also things that the 'customers' wouldn't see as an achievement despite it being one. It could be something as simple as kids coming over to the volunteer's house to study. Yet if they were given an evaluation sheet, the students probably wouldn't write "I am no longer willing to drop out and be a farmer because someone actually encouraged me to work hard in school" even if that were precisely why they didn't drop out.

This lack of organizational introspection allows the agency to continue sending, for example, unqualified volunteers to teach English when nearly every developing country could easily find high-caliber English teachers among its own population.

I can't believe that Mr. Strauss thinks this is even plausible. Perhaps Benin is an exception (though I doubt it), but most English teachers aren't fluent in English, and of those who are, most have had almost no training whatsoever. There's even a shortage of teachers with college degrees, so schools are forced to hire people who only graduated from high school. If developing countries had excellent educational systems, they wouldn't be developing countries.

The critique's biggest flaw is that it doesn't consider the impact on the volunteers as being significant. More than half of my friends and colleagues intend to go to grad school so that they can do development work professionally. And they are able to do so because of the training and the experiences they gained through the Peace Corps. The impacts that these people will make over the coming decades will not be found on any assessment of the Peace Corps.

He also ignores the fact that development is only one goal of the agency. Volunteers are also supposed to facilitate a cultural exchange. Most Americans have a very negative image of African countries, which is why I really enjoy blogging, for example, about the fact that they're building a fiber optic cable next to my house.

Your Tax Dollars at Work, Part 1

2008-01-26T09:39:00.001-06:00

Natitingou gets a lot of tourists who are on their way to see the national parks a few hours to the north, and most Western NGOs that work in this region have their headquarters here, so local restaurant owners can make a lot of money by offering Western dishes.

Some Volunteers found a really cool guy who owns a bar but wants to start catering to tourists. So we taught him to make pizza:

Kneading dough

Making sauce

Making crust

Sauce complete

Adding sauce to crust

We cooked it in a Dutch oven since Justin doesn't have a standard one. This method works just as well for one pizza. Also the lights broke a while ago so we had to cook with a flashlight

We didn't have a grater so there's sliced cheese on top. It was excellent.

Sarah and Justin

We also taught him to make ice cream in a bucket last night (I forgot to take pictures), using some random Betty Crocker recipe. It was awesome. Unfortunately, it’ll have to be kinda expensive if he chooses to sell it so I’m not sure any Beninese people would buy it. Volunteers would though.

Charity is Generally Bad

2008-01-26T09:36:00.000-06:00

A few people have asked me if they can send money to help. My answer up to now has been no, not at all. There are several reasons for this:

1) Free money can build a dependency and/or inferiority complex (and in many people I’ve met, it has).
2) When you can get more money just by asking for it than you can by working, there’s no incentive to work.
3) Free money rarely goes to where it would actually be most useful.
4) Money isn’t always what’s needed to aid development.
5) Some donations are worthless when there’s no follow-up. For example, someone might donate equipment to a farmer but not teach them how to fix it, so once it breaks down they stop using it and the equipment rusts in a field somewhere.
6) People are more likely to squander free money than money they had to work hard to get.
7) Free money doesn’t always get used in the way the donor wants.

Eventually I’ll try and get a project started that could benefit from donations, most likely involving tomato producers. But this is still a few months away at best.

J'accuse

2008-01-26T09:32:00.000-06:00

A Volunteer got robbed of her purse while visiting a restaurant in Natitingou this last weekend, so I got to spend the entire week sitting in the police station to make sure everything happened as it was supposed to. A Beninese guy who was with me asked if I had gotten the week off from work.

Fortunately, the purse was returned with everything in it. It turns out the restaurant owner was deeply implicated, though he wasn’t the one who originally took it. The sad part is that we really liked his restaurant and he had always shown us a good time, but since he stole the purse and then spent the entire week pretending to help us while constantly lying (which eventually helped us figure out that he was responsible), we just can’t go there anymore.

Moral of this story: The Natitingou police rock, and apparently no one expects criminals in Benin to act at all like those in America. At one point during the investigation the police told the restaurant owner that he was acting very suspiciously and that his story was contradicting the evidence, but then they asked him to leave and try to find the kid who they thought first stole the purse(!). So he left, and then came back. I even told the police that I was worried he was going to flee, to which they replied, “But he owns a restaurant and has a lot of stuff. Why would he flee?”

Fiber Optic Cable, Part 2

2008-01-23T10:33:00.000-06:00

So apparently the fiber optic cable is getting activated much sooner than I had been told, so we should be able to get ADSL in my house sometime in March. Though I'm assuming when people say March they mean April or May. The coolest thing about this is that this is the better of two options for Internet access that citizens of Natitingou will have this year. Five years ago they didn't even have cell phone coverage.

Map

2008-01-14T05:55:00.000-06:00

For reasons beyond me there’s relatively high-resolution satellite imagery of Natitingou on Google Earth. The pictures were taken at least a few years ago as there are no cell phone towers anywhere and the workstation still hasn’t been expanded. Still, I was able to mark pretty much everything worth going to. Google Earth is rejecting my tags because they’re either not detailed enough or they don’t have a picture, so as soon as I fix that I’ll get them all online.

Mom and Dad Visit

2007-12-30T01:38:00.000-06:00

A good trip overall. The most interesting comment made was when Dad said he could tell the difference between volunteers who had been here for 15 months and those who had been here for 3 because all the new people were either stressed or faking happiness.

Bread Purchase

2007-12-30T01:25:00.001-06:00

Me: Gimme five loaves.
Girl: 100 francs each.
Me: How about 75 each?
Girl: No.
Me: How about 90 francs?
Girl: No, seriously, if I lower the price my mom will beat me.

Inflation

2007-12-30T01:19:00.000-06:00

Over the past month the price of everything has gone up 25-40%, which was surprising in that prices hadn’t changed at all for anything since I’d gotten here. The one exception is gasoline, whose cost is almost always the same since most of it is taken from Nigeria and smuggled into Benin. For some reason the price of crude oil has no bearing whatsoever on gas here - when oil was trading at $98/bbl the price of gas here actually went down about 10 cents. The only time the price changes is when the government cracks down on smugglers (at which point gas can double in price).

Bird Flu!

2007-12-24T05:19:00.000-06:00

Two birds have tested positive for avian influenza in Benin (both in the south), though when I read the report it seemed they didn't know if it was H5N1 or not. This doesn't really change much, since the doctors' advice was to stop handling live birds (not a problem) and to bleach our eggs (which I already did, as the shells usually have a light coating of feces).

Good News

2007-12-01T11:33:00.000-06:00

All along the main road in Natitingou construction crews are digging a meter-deep pit to install a new fiber optic cable. It may or may not get turned on while I'm here. In any event, it's good news for Benin.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-26T06:36:00.000-06:00

Test run of new grill successful

The male turkey (price: $38)

Male and female turkey, plus rooster

Roasting pit

All the birds (2 turkeys, 2 guinea fowl, 4 chickens)

Chop chop

Down the street the neighbors start a controlled fire to clear brush. This happens regularly this time of year.

Peanut butter bars

Pumpkin pie

Apple pie

Plucking feathers

Plucking complete

Gutting birds

Guts

The power got cut all of a sudden. Fortunately we have to run a generator to keep the anti-venom and rabies vaccines cold. Props to the American taxpayer.

Roasting pit roasting

There is a mandatory helmet rule

Turkey

stuffed with chicken and guinea fowl, wrapped in banana leaves and put inside two cement bags

Better late than never

Peeling potatoes

Making punch

AIDS Sensibilization

2007-11-26T06:31:00.000-06:00

The volunteer who was doing all the cooking for Thanksgiving had planned to do an AIDS sensibilization on the same day, but since the holiday was overwhelming I did it for her while she cooked.

There were 15 boys and one teacher who came, with me and a Beninese woman doing the presentation. A short while in, a debate broke out about why the national brand of condoms were so cheap (4 for 22 cents). The big worry is that they have to be of poor quality, and that the condoms sold at the pharmacy (which are 40 times more expensive) are better. I explained that the government subsidizes them, but then the teacher started going on a rant about how they were uncomfortable and that women generally refuse the cheap brand.

Otherwise things went well, except for the part when the woman who was helping me just randomly started talking about how it wouldn’t be prudent to hire someone with AIDS to be your cook since they might cut themselves and get blood in the food, and then you could get AIDS. But since everything else she was saying was true I didn’t want to contradict her in front of the boys and ruin her credibility, so I just went along with it (it also was irrelevant since no one in the audience could even remotely afford to hire a cook).

Victory

2007-10-14T15:02:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, Benin's national soccer team, the Squirrels, defeated Sierra Leone 2 to 0, qualifying them to enter the African Cup of Nations. This is the first time Benin has ever gotten into the tournament. I asked a taxi driver why the team was called the Squirrels. He said they chose the name because they're small but nimble, like Benin. This was believable enough that I decided to assume it was true.

World Map

2007-10-14T09:30:00.000-05:00

Here's the finished map I painted at my school over the summer. A lot of kids would pass by and just watch as I painted, and occasionally ask questions, such as:

"Can you show me where Asia is?"
(pointing to Antarctica) "So is this like a giant white ocean?"
"So you're from the United States? Like which part, Brazil or American or Mexico?"

So hopefully the map will get put to use.

This is the Best Possible Name For a High-End Clothing Store

2007-10-12T16:44:00.000-05:00

You Go Smash Now!

2007-10-03T17:03:00.000-05:00

The other day I noticed what seemed like a large burn on the back of my neck, which was peculiar, given that I hadn't burned myself at any point in the past year. It turns out some stupid jerk beetle sprayed me with some stupid acid and melted my skin. Or something. I wasn't actually paying that close attention to what the doctor was saying, since all I was interested in knowing was whether or not it was the kind of skin infection where you get limbs amputated (which the doctors had recently warned us about). Fortunately the cream they give to burn victims also works on the thing I have, so it'll go away soon.

Mail

2007-10-03T16:43:00.000-05:00

Just to clarify, my address is not changing. All mail going to the BP 971 address will get delivered to my house at least once a month.

Animaniacs, More Like Half Hour Deception Spectacular

2007-10-03T16:12:00.000-05:00

For no particular reason I was reading the lyrics to Yakko's World when I noticed that Dahomey was included as a country.

I found this a bit strange given that Dahomey stopped being a country in 1975 and was renamed Benin, which is also mentioned in the song. I guess I shouldn't complain though, even after being pointed to twice by Yakko no one knows where the hell it is.

Beliefs

2007-09-25T01:57:00.000-05:00

In Benin, Jesus is depicted as being white, though this is apparently not the case in other West African countries such as Senegal, where there is a large black power movement. I don't actually know anything regarding the debate over Jesus' skin color, but while sitting with my friend I decided to use the argument I heard on an episode of the Boondocks just to see what would happen.

Me: How come all the statues of Jesus in Benin have him being white?
Friend: Because he is white.
Me: But in Senegal all the statues of Jesus have him with black skin.
Friend: That's ridiculous.
Me: I thought that the people who lived in Israel at the time were from Africa or the Middle East, and so their skin was darker.
Friend: No no, people who settled in Israel all came from Europe, so Jesus had to be white.

At about this time an electrician strolled up to the shop and the conversation turned to AIDS.

Electrician: AIDS doesn't exist.
Me: Yes it does, you're just scared.
Electrician: Well, maybe it does, but it's been around since the origin of human beings, so there's no need to do anything about it.

At this point the people sitting in the shop started arguing with the electrician over the origin of human beings, and when things got heated they all switched to Fon so I couldn't understand anything.

Picture Link

2007-09-15T04:55:00.001-05:00

I realized there was no link to where I keep my photos. It's now been added to the column on the right (or at the very bottom), under My Pictures.

Moving

2007-09-15T03:53:00.000-05:00

I moved out of my house yesterday. For unimportant reasons I won't move into the new one until next week.

More pictures have been uploaded. While taking the ones of the stations of the cross, I had to walk through a lot of thick shrubbery and tall grass, which was really crunchy for some reason. I eventually realized this was because I had been crushing snails to death the whole time.

A French teacher at my school won the US Visa Lottery, which means he and his immediate family get visas to immigrate and work in America. He already found the money for one plane ticket to Chicago (where he has a brother-in-law) but is trying to raise enough for three more tickets. I promised him I would ask around to see if anyone I knew wanted to help him out, though I told him not to hold his breath.

One of the two major cell phone companies is back on, the other one (that I used before the shutdown) should be coming on soon. Only, for real this time.

Hello Miriam's Mother

2007-08-12T06:55:00.000-05:00

I looked in my wallet to discover that I have $26 to last me the next 21 days. Sweet.

Fortunately, you can live comfortably on $1 a day as long as you don't have to travel or go to the doctor. Though I suppose the term comfortable is relative. Another volunteer introduced me to the glories of porridge the other day, which costs about 10 cents for a large bowl. I'm also planning on showing up to hang out at friends' and neighbors' places around mealtimes, since they usually feel compelled to invite you to eat with them if you're at their house when food is about to be served.

I've Gone Macro Crazy

2007-08-04T05:58:00.000-05:00

Back when school was still in session I saw a kid draw a map of Benin for a test, but when labelling Togo and Nigeria he switched them, which is like an American not knowing the difference between Mexico and Canada. So I decided to paint a world map on the side of a classroom, which went well. Pictures of that and many other things have been uploaded.

In phone news, the President of Benin announced that the two GSM licenses that are currently suspended would be sold off in 72 hours if their respective companies didn't pay the $60 million fines they owe. The next day the companies announced that they would pay the fines. Phone service should resume on Monday.

Holy Crap

2007-07-24T08:56:00.000-05:00

I just discovered that my camera can take detailed photos of very small things. A few new pictures are uploaded, but Yahoo Photos is shutting down so I had to move everything to Flickr.

The address is http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimbenin/

I also uploaded some pictures from Camp GLOW.

roffle

2007-07-22T03:21:00.000-05:00

The comments under this article about Internet connectivity in Africa were so astoundingly ignorant that I actually got angry, which is not something I normally do. But then I realized, given that so few talented Americans realize what a great opportunity there is here, I'll probably be able to make ludicrous amounts of money in some sweet job someday just by showing up.

In other news, the cell phone companies are still down, 58 new volunteers all flew into Benin on Friday, and I got my camera fixed. I plan on taking several hundred pictures of Zinvie in the near future. I also probably have giardia, which doesn't excite me as much as it used to.

Last night was our one-year anniversary in Benin! I'll be home in 14 months or so.

More Like Awesome-Fi

2007-07-15T15:18:00.000-05:00

New rumors about a national Wifi service have actually turned out to be true! The Chinese government (supposedly) bought the Beninese government’s telecommunications company a while ago and has been busily putting up towers. They just started selling desk phone units that can act as a telephone, or when plugged into a computer, a Wifi modem. It’s expensive as all get out, but it can achieve reasonably high speeds.

Cyber cafes are much cheaper as it currently stands, but it’s one of the only ways for people to get access to the Internet in their own homes. There’s a tower in Natitingou which hasn’t been turned on yet (only Cotonou has access at the moment), but if it gets activated while I’m here, Peace Corps will almost definitely get an account for the Workstation. Sweet.

No Phones

2007-07-15T15:09:00.000-05:00

The two biggest cell phone companies in Benin got shut down a few days ago for not paying their taxes (I’d very roughly estimate that 90% of people here use one of the two companies). I can’t make any calls to anyone at the moment, though I asked some people in a taxi what they thought and they were all sure that the company I use would be back in service by Monday.

WCG

2007-07-15T14:54:00.000-05:00

I have no idea if the World Community Grid’s efforts will lead to a cure for AIDS (or anything else), but they’re currently doing a project on it and I figure it was worth mentioning. You can read exactly what they’re doing for HIV here.

Basically, you install a program that uses your computer's idle processing time to work on chunks of very large problems. It would normally take thousands of years for one computer to do the work, but since there are thousands of users it gets cut down to a matter of months. Right now, the collective effort amounts to around 180 years of processing per day.

If you have a computer with Internet access (or an office full of them) I would urge you to consider installing the software. You shouldn’t even notice it once it’s running.

Fais Comme Moi

2007-06-29T12:13:00.002-05:00

The following is the recipe for pâte blanche, the staple Beninese meal. I eat this on a daily basis when I’m at home, though I don’t cook it myself. You can buy enough for a very filling meal for 30 cents. Enjoy!

The Sauce

4 tbs vegetable oil
2 big onions
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 cups water
12 tomatoes, ground
2-3 spicy peppers
1 shrimp bullion cube

Heat oil and add tomatoes, onions, peppers, and garlic. Sauté for about 5 minutes, then add 3 cups of water and the bullion cube. Cover and let boil for about 20 minutes, until all the ingredients have had a chance to mix well.

Pâte

1 ½ cups corn meal mixed with 1 ½ cups water
1 ½ cups corn meal additional
2 cups water

Bring the 2 cups of water to a boil. Add cornmeal-water mixture and let cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add remaining cornmeal, stirring vigorously, until really thick (at least another 5 minutes). You’re going for a consistency such that it will form a mold and stand by its own when you put it on a plate, at least once it cools a bit.

Eating Pâte

Wash your hands. Put the sauce onto one plate and the pâte on another. Then, tear out a bite-sized chunk of pâte, dip it in the sauce, and eat.

Camp GLOW

2007-06-29T12:13:00.001-05:00

Camp GLOW was excellent. Thanks to everyone who donated.

The girls really enjoyed everything, even the sessions that I would’ve considered boring (like the basic HIV class). Two women living with AIDS came and talked to them about what it was like to have the disease, which blew the girls’ minds since they were normal, well-dressed, middle-aged women.

One day we told them that a midwife would be coming the next day to talk about puberty, and that they should write any embarrassing questions on a piece of paper so they could be answered anonymously. About two-thirds of the questions were something along the lines of “why do girls get periods?” (it’s not taught in biology class until 9th grade, by which time most girls have dropped out, and those who do stay have already gone through puberty years before).

We took them to a nearby internet café every day. Most of the girls had never used computers before, so we just put them on Google and told them to type what they were interested in. With few exceptions, they looked up pictures of the Spanish soap opera that is broadcast on one of the main TV stations. My girls looked up the word animals, which sent them to wikipedia, at which point they started copying the entry into their notebooks. They then clicked on the sea anenomy link and took notes on that as well.

“Showers!” they said.

“What?” I asked.

“We want to look up showers.”

“What?”

“Showers!”

So we googled showers. Satisfied with the resulting pictures, we then looked up kitchens.

On the last night, the girls put together some sketches. The best one of all was about a dimwitted, obnoxious father who marries off his daughter to a rich man in Cotonou for a large sum of money. Throughout the sketch he kept acting like a buffoon and making all sorts of dumb, egotistical comments which were extremely funny. In the end, the mother goes to the police and gets her husband sent to prison and the daughter returned. The cast then concluded that child trafficking and forced marriages are bad (there was a session on the legal rights of children and women, given by the first wife of former president Kerekou).

There were a lot of other cool sessions, and it seems like the girls got a lot out of it. I’m not sure if we did a good job encouraging them to teach what they learned to other girls back in their villages, but the teacher that I brought along from my school really liked what we did and will be joining my girl’s club.

Journées Culturelles

2007-06-29T12:08:00.000-05:00

Towards the end of the school year, Beninese schools hold a multi-day cultural festival. Most of the time kids just sit around, listen to music, and bring food from home to eat. On the first day they did two skits, both of which (for some unknown reason) were about unwanted pregnancies.

In the first, a girl becomes pregnant and a teacher is accused of being the father. The teacher denies it, but later admits it when the principal pretends like he thinks it’s acceptable. They send him off to the police, and the crowd went wild.

In the second skit, a rich man pursues a young poor girl, woos her with the gift of a car, and then tries to convince her parents that she should go away with him. They eventually consent after he gives them four dollars as a present. The next day the girl discovers that she’s pregnant, and the man tells her he doesn’t want to raise a baby and that he’s going to leave her. She faints, and the skit ends.

In both skits the same student played the part of the impregnated girl, who agreed to start a girl’s club with me over the summer. I’m really going to miss not being able to work with the club over the next year, since the kids that have voiced interest all seem highly motivated. But my successor will have a pretty easy way to get projects started right when they get here, which is always a nice thing to inherit.

I uploaded pictures of the fest, among others. My camera broke the last day when I accidentally dropped it so I haven’t taken any pictures since. Hopefully it should be fixed soon.

Movin' On Up

2007-05-27T02:53:00.000-05:00

I've taken a new position which begins in September. I won't be able to teach (formally) anymore and I'll have to move to a new city which is much farther north. Awesome.

a w00t gandji a?

2007-05-17T08:46:00.000-05:00

The One Laptop Per Child project is probably the coolest thing ever. For those not in the know, a non-profit group designed a small, $175 laptop for use by children in the developing world, which governments will buy at cost to distribute for free to all kids attending school. Supposedly.
The laptop is powered by a hand-crank, though AC power is optional. It can access wireless networks, but since they’re usually in short supply in the middle of any given developing country, they’re also able to connect to any other OLPC laptop to create a sort of intranet (e.g., in a village that’s not close to anything, all the kids could connect to each other’s computers and collaborate on something or exchange files).

There are no moving parts. Flash memory is used instead of a standard hard drive. This is crucial, since laptops and dusty, non-air-conditioned environments usually lead to hard drive failures. The screen can be switched from color to black-and-white to make it more readable in sunlight, and uses little energy compared to normal laptop screens.

I doubt I’ll be in Benin when the laptops get here, if they ever do. Even in Nigeria (which borders Benin to the east) they’re only now doing a test run of 3,500 laptops. Still, I thought it would be worthwhile to look at what impact they would have in my village on a day-to-day basis, especially since most of the debate over the laptop seems to be taking place between people who’ve never been to a developing nation.

Textbooks aren’t used in my school due to their relatively high cost (tuition is $40 a year, which many families struggle to afford, so requiring books on top of that would make it impossible). Instead, students buy small notebooks and copy information down from the blackboard in a textbook-like fashion. They’re really methodical about it, using different-colored pens and underlining with rulers, since accurately recording what’s written on the board is the only way to know that what they’re studying at home is what the teacher actually wrote. One of the main selling points to governments is that the laptop will be able to provide a platform for free textbooks. It’s easy to imagine the difference in the quality of education that having a book would provide, but almost as beneficial would be all time that could be spent on instruction rather than on copying. In my classes, I spend around 10-25% of the time just letting kids copy. Still, they complain that they’re being rushed.

A few teachers require their students to buy booklets (around $2-4). This is pretty much unavoidable in biology classes, since drawing a detailed picture in chalk of, say, the cardiovascular system, is both difficult and time-intensive. A computer would make it possible to use diagrams and charts more easily, and for free. It would also give teachers the ability to use photographs.

Though being a way of delivering information might make the investment worth it by itself, the main goal of the project is to teach kids to ‘learn how to learn’. I think that this receives a lot of criticism since the way it would be realized isn’t obvious, and its necessity is deeply underestimated.

Learning is done mostly by rote here. My entire adolescence was spent in interactive classes where collaborative work was required every day, so it’s natural for me to try to teach that way. But it’s physically difficult to run things like that when the class has 60 kids, because you can only ask so many questions to so many kids, and if a student doesn’t want to participate, it’s easy to blend into the crowd (NB: 60 kids in a class is actually pretty small. Most volunteers have around 75, which is again smaller than in some other countries).

Having a laptop could partially solve the class-size issue, if the software were written correctly. A teacher who was networked with the students’ laptops could check to see if someone wasn’t doing their work, and the work itself could provide a much higher level of interactivity than is currently possible. Even outside of school, the programs that the laptop comes with standard (music composition and drawing programs) would encourage creative thinking.

Motivating students to develop a culture of reading would be a tremendous step forward. Reading for leisure is a luxury when a newspaper costs what some people spend on food each day, and books a fourth of a tuition. The laptop doesn’t have the storage capacity to contain a library, but each school could theoretically be distributed with a bunch of USB keys that contained a few thousand books each, and kids could go and ‘borrow’ a copy. This would be even better than a physical library, since books are subject to wear and tear, as well as theft, and there are a limited number of copies. Also, libraries that lend books out usually charge a small fee, which is, of course, not small to poor students.

I could go on forever about the advantages of this thing. There are downsides, to be sure, but they really are insignificant in comparison to the problems the laptops would ameliorate. Even if it served as nothing but a platform for books, it would be worth the investment a thousand times over.

Now we just need $500,000,000.

PSL 20 Awesome Detailed Explanatory Packing List

2007-05-17T08:40:00.000-05:00

If you’re coming to Benin in July 2007 for the Peace Corps, you’re in PSL 20. You’ll get a packing list from the Peace Corps, but it doesn’t explain a lot of things (like what the point is of bringing a digital camera if you live in a place without electricity, where you go to the bathroom in Benin, whether shorts are acceptable, etc.).

I wrote up this post to explain all the things I wish had been explained to me when I was getting ready to leave, and at the end I’ve written a packing list, and even more awesomely, a list of what you don’t need to pack. In retrospect, this may be a bit long, but I don’t really remember exactly what I was worrying about before I left, so I just wrote about everything I could think of.

If you have any questions, send me an email at j5g2bvk8hzp@gmail.com.

The two days you spend in Philadelphia will be pretty much like the first week of your freshman year of college. Have fun with the money that the Peace Corps gives you, but save $20 or so for the trip to Benin (it will take about 24 hours, and you’ll probably have a very long layover in Paris, so it’s nice to have money for water and snacks and such). If you have any cash left when you get here, someone can help you get it changed into francs during your first week in Cotonou.

During Stage and at your post, you will have a latrine or (if you’re lucky) a toilet. Toilet paper is sold everywhere.

You can get a cell phone here. Most volunteers have reception at their posts, but those who don’t just let their family know in advance when they’ll be in a city with coverage, and the family calls them on that day. If you want to bring your phone from home, make sure to call your service provider and tell them to unlock your phone for use with other companies, and anything else that’s required for you to be able to use it in Africa.

There are lots of cyber cafes in Benin, though most of them are on dialup and the connection isn’t always reliable. Still, at the very least, you will be able to check your email once every month or two. Some of the southern cyber cafes have high speed connections. The Peace Corps office and the Workstations all have Internet access.

You’ll be given an address to give to your friends and family back home, but you may find that there are 19 different version of this address. All that matters is that you have:

(your name)
B.P. 971
Cotonou, Benin

Anything else is superfluous, but won’t hurt. Don’t worry about people writing PCV instead of PCT. If your name is on it, it’ll get to you. Don’t send heavy boxes or expensive things or you’ll have to pay a tax on it that could be as high as a month’s pay. Bubble-wrap envelopes are the way to go. Letters sent in standard envelopes are not very reliable.

Bring a digital camera (I’d recommend a 1GB memory card, since it’s not certain how often you’ll get to send pictures back home or back them up). You don’t need a laptop unless you’re an ICT volunteer, though it’s nice to have if you write a lot, want to watch movies, or want to update an mp3 player. You could probably find a way to do work with it if you wanted. If you do bring a laptop, buy an external hard drive, since the dust and heat are hard on computers and it would suck to lose your data and your laptop at the same time. If you want music, bring an MP3 player.

It can't hurt to get a solar-powered charger. Even if you end up getting a house with electricity, someone would buy it.

Electricity here is at 220V (somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the volunteers have electricity at their post). You can get batteries here (AA and AAA, and sometimes C, D, and 9V) that work just fine, and they’re cheap, even on your living allowance.

The place where you’re going to live hasn’t been assigned to you yet, so there’s no way to know if you’ll have electricity or cell coverage. You’ll find out after your fourth or fifth week.

You’ll get a language CD in the mail. This is just to refresh your memory or warm you up. If you speak absolutely no French when you get here, don’t worry. You’ll be fine. You might also receive a CD with the ICE Catalog. You don’t need to look at this at all, and I’m not sure why they send it to you. But do pack it.

You will be provided a French-English dictionary, French grammar and vocabulary books, a 128 MB USB key, a cookbook (with recipes that can be made using stuff you can buy here), a detailed map of Benin, a first-aid kit, and a bunch of other materials depending on your sector. If you’re in TEFL, I would highly recommend getting the book Practical English Usage by Michael Swan (2005). The Peace Corps will give you some books on English grammar, but that one is outstanding.

You really don’t need that much to get by during Stage. In fact, if you came with nothing but clothes, a towel and a toothbrush everything would work out okay, so don’t worry if you think you’re not packing right. The main issue with clothing is that you won’t have much time or money during Stage to get stuff made, so you need to have all the appropriate clothes for everything you’ll be doing already with you.

For TEFL volunteers: If you’re male, you’ll be wearing slacks and a button-up t-shirt during class (long sleeves are okay, but it really is too hot for them). You can get shirts and slacks here, but if you have nice, good-quality clothes from America it will make you look very professional and your colleagues will be impressed. Female volunteers need blouses and long skirts, I think. You probably shouldn't look to me for anything related to what women need to bring.

What You DON’T Need to Pack

-insect repellant (unless you want DEET-free), sunscreen, floss, antacid tablets, minor first aid stuff (band aids, Tylenol, common OTC medicines, etc.), chapstick, condoms (all provided by Peace Corps)

-playing cards (can be bought here)

-waterproof matches (this was a joke item on another list that you might find)

-map of the world or west Africa (you could bring these if you want to decorate your house with them, but you don’t actually have any specific need for them. Kids do love looking at them though)

-basic office supplies (Peace Corps provides you a bunch of stuff during Stage, after that you can buy it)

What You DO Need to Pack

-a business casual outfit or two (you may not ever need these except for pre-stage in Philadelphia. It can't hurt to be able to look nice, but really you could get along without it. But they actually will get mad if you don't have it at Philly)

-three or four comfortable shirts (the Peace Corps list says that we prefer darker colors, but I don’t know why that would be)

-jeans (they’re culturally acceptable, but hard to wash by hand. You’ll be fine with or without them)

-cotton pants

-shorts (you’ll only be able to wear them when you’re hanging out at the house or going on a bike ride or exercising, but they’re good to have)

-underwear and socks

-towel

-swimsuit (you don’t need two)

-wallet

-sandals (you’ll wear these the most, so get durable ones. I’d recommend Tevas)

-tennis shoes (for running, playing soccer, visiting people’s farms, etc)

-toothpaste (more can be bought when you run out. You can get Colgate here)

-toothbrush

-nail clippers

-stick deodorant (you can’t find good stick deodorant here)

-shampoo (this can be bought here but you’ll want it during Stage)

-shaving razor (you can buy replacement Mach 3 blades here)

-shaving cream

-small mirror (also can be bought here. Bring this if you don't want to do shopping at first)

-watch

-books (bring a few, but don’t go crazy. There are small libraries in Cotonou and at the three Workstations, and everyone has books at their houses. We all just share whatever books get sent to us in the mail. You might want to consider making an Amazon wishlist before you go, since for some reason everyone back in the US wants to send you stuff, and this way you can make sure it's what you want)

-DVDs (bring a few if you want. Even if you don’t have anything to play it with you’ll be able to watch them at the Workstations or in Cotonou)

-MP3 player

-solar-powered charger (if you want to make sure the mp3 player will work)

-digital camera

-sunglasses

-two Nalgene bottles (they are hard to break and can be boiled if they start to smell bad)

-headlamp (you can’t cook while holding a flashlight. Get one that takes AA or AAA batteries. Even if you have electricity you’ll be using it often, so get a nice one)

-leatherman (you might as well get the badass one with 900 tools)

-roll of duct tape (you can get normal packing tape here, but it's nice to have this handy)

-ziploc bags

-tasty snacks (you can get Snickers bars and Pringles here, but not much else that’s American. Occasionally there are Skittles in Cotonou but it seems to be irregularly)

-spices (the more common spices are easy to get in cities, but it can’t hurt to bring some)

-measuring cups and spoons (these cannot be bought here)

-nice can opener (get one that will last)

-teflon pan (you can buy these in Cotonou, but your move-in allowance might not cover it)

-hand sanitizer

-journal

-pictures of home/loved ones

-thermarest or yoga mat (this is highly recommended. Sleeping on concrete when you’re visiting a friend is lame)

-large, comfortable pillow (really, this will be one of the things you later say to yourself that you're really glad you brought)

-a backpack for short trips (i.e. 3-4 days)

-wall calendar and/or day planner

-shortwave radio (it will be your only source of news unless you use the Internet or get a subscription to a magazine. We get Newsweek every now and then, but that doesn’t really count. You can buy radios here, but if you want a high-quality one, buy it before you leave)

-empty waterbed mattress (this isn’t a joke. A carpenter can build you a frame when you get to your post. The Peace Corps will give you a twin-size mattress, and you can buy larger regular ones here, but waterbeds haven’t been introduced yet. I should also mention that this is highly optional, but it would still be impressive)

-anything else that you want

That's about it. See you in July.

Bob Marley Fest

2007-05-12T02:55:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure this blog presents a highly skewed picture of my life, so I'll preface this post by saying that most of my days are repetitive and not that interesting (I teach the exact same lesson 4 times twice each week), and at the end of the day I'm usually exhausted.

That said, I went with a teacher from my school to the Bob Marley Fest last night at the University that's 25 minutes from my house. A student band was playing covers (they were excellent) and a good time was had by all. Apparently they have these all over Benin every year on the anniversary of Bob Marley's death. I don't know why Africa gets such a bad rap.

Please End Generosity

2007-05-02T07:51:00.000-05:00

The NGO that backed out of funding Camp GLOW decided to fund it at the last minute, so donations are no longer needed. If you already gave money, it can't be refunded, but it will be used for next year's camp. Thanks to everyone who contributed, and sorry if this was confusing.

I Didn't Know That Was Possible

2007-04-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

It's not uncommon to see five people riding on a motorcycle or to see a guy hauling around a coffin on the back of one, so the days are rare when I'm surprised by what can be done on two wheels. Today was an exception though, when a man drove by on his moped with two full-sized refrigerators stacked on the back seat.

Camp GLOW!

2007-04-20T03:56:00.000-05:00

For several years now, the volunteers here have held a weeklong summer camp for fifty girls in 6th and 7th grade called Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). It takes place in Porto Novo, the second-largest city in Benin, which is cool in itself, since some of the girls have never left their villages or used a flushing toilet before. They do activities on things like nutrition, AIDS prevention, the importance of school, gender issues, small businesses accounting, deforestation, and so on (the complete list is on the website below). A group of professional Beninese women come in to talk to them about how women can have careers, which isn’t a message that’s heard often in villages, since salaried women tend to live in larger cities.

The trip to Porto Novo and the camp are entirely free to the girls, which means that someone else has to foot the bill. An NGO in Benin had always funded it before, but this year it seems unlikely that they’ll be able to. Since the camp is in June we’re also unable to do any of the typical Peace Corps funding methods, since the application and approval process can take months. We’ve therefore asked another NGO that a volunteer has worked with to organize the collection of donations specifically to be used to fund Camp GLOW. Their website, along with a Paypal donation link, can be found at http://www.projectbokonon.org/donate/. We need to raise around $9000 for the camp to be held this year.

All donations received by Project Bokonon in the next three weeks will go towards Camp GLOW. After that, we can't receive any more funding, so if you feel you want to give, please do so as soon as possible.

A Tip on Sending Mail

2007-03-25T09:56:00.000-05:00

If you want to send me a letter, don't use a regular envelope. I've received exactly zero letters like that since I've been here despite having many sent to me. Just put it in a big 8.5"x11" envelope and it should get through. I don't think any of those have been lost yet.

Also, a big thanks to everyone who's sent me things. I really appreciate it.

Eight Months

2007-03-21T07:49:00.003-05:00

The school year is coming to a close, and pretty soon we’re going to start planning out the training period for the new volunteers who arrive in July. I don’t know how to say how bizarre that feels without being boring, so I won’t.

My fridge got turned on for the first time Tuesday, after a weeklong blackout. I’m pretty stoked to be able to have leftovers. And vegetables! I’m restricted to running it during the day since the voltage cuts are too deep during the night, but it’s a lot more than I ever expected to have, so I don’t really care.

The fact that you can join the Peace Corps, own a fridge, and still not be considered to be above the level of your community speaks to how much Africa has developed in recent times. A statistic I only partially remember was something along the lines of the infant mortality rate being the same here as it was in America in 1920. Rock.

Il Faut Apprend Francais Quoi

2007-03-21T07:49:00.001-05:00

During a weeklong workshop, me and a bunch of volunteers went to a pool at a nearby hotel. There were a lot of Europeans there, though I couldn’t understand a thing they said.

“What language do you think they’re speaking?” I asked.

“Um, that’s French, Jim.”

And so it was. I really hope I get the chance to go to France while I still have my sweet Beninese French accent. Apparently no one sees it coming from a white guy.