BAAAAAck in the saddle again!

Back in Parakou! After falling asleep on the NYC subway and practically falling into a coma on the way to Morocco, I can’t describe the relief I felt stepping off the plane at 4 in the morning on Sunday. After the initial wave of humidity slapped me in the face like a wet blanket, I slid right back in to the groove and all was well. Waited around to go to my office until 6 and just chatted with some taxi drivers. Carrying back cameras and computers, I didn’t really feel like braving the streets of Cotonou in the wee hours, though there’s really not much difference between 4 and 6 except in my head. Rolled into my office and took the biggest cat nap in history. Got the chance to catch up with some friends and ate the food I’d actually been craving. I felt like the kids in “Hook” when they play the Neverland foods game. They eat by playing pretend b/c there is actually nothing on the table, but the kids are so excited! Given the nutritional content of most of the food here, I might as well eat “neverfood” but it’s so damn tasty! Spent Monday in Cotonou banking but the good news…the library money is in my possession! We’re a go! Spent some time hunting down a legal cement distributor and pretty sure I’ve got one so full steam ahead. My work partner, David is in Burkina at a Moringa conference so, come Thursday, we’re moving mountains (of sand) and building buildings, yahoo! I am going to village today for about 12 hours then coming right back (biking to try and work off the freshman 15 I put on at home!) as Camp GLOW starts Sunday and we just received the fund money today so there’s much to do! Other than that, all is well and we’re moving along full steam ahead. Onward and Upward!

slightly delayed post...

There and back already. Seems like just a few days ago I was to the point of vomiting I was so nervous about touching down in the mother country after 22 solid months in West Africa. Dressed in my uber-hippie style Benin fabric skirt and an already dirty shirt, I left our Close of Service conference that was winding down to catch a 3am flight to Morocco then JFK. Not only does it take forever to get anywhere IN Benin, but it takes forever to get anywhere OUT of Benin. I had to show up around 7pm because I snagged a free ride there and it’s not smart to moto-taxi around at 2am with a couple hundred dollars and your computer…just for future reference. Don’t worry about me being bored though! I brought 3 types of reading material and had an arsenal of friends to text message….so of course I just took a nap. Right there on my pack, on the floor of the Cotonou airport, mosquitoes eating me alive but refusing to go sit in the air conditioned lounge as a 90 year old priest was doing calisthenics…preventing the clot?...and I would have frozen to death, they really crank it up for the ex-pats. Good thing it started pouring AFTER I got there. The only bad part was that it cut the power at least 3 times so the fans stopped working and then we just sweat all over the floor. About this time, after the lights came back for a bit, a nice enough guy walked over and after he proposed and I refused by saying men are expensive and liars (calm down folks, was just trying to head him off at the pass). After a few more blatant refusals, he left with his friends and I continued my nap, mosquitoes and all. I passed out almost as soon as I sat down on the plane. Royal Air Maroc is a great airline to fly. Even if you need some bells and whistles, from what I glimpsed, first class was doing all right. They even give you these little socks as they understand we’re coming off the equator, are freezing, and most likely not wearing appropriate foot attire. Good thing I didn’t realize I was in possession of socks until after I got off the flight  They keep those planes cold! We touched down in Accra to pick up a load of people, just like a bush taxi! I woke up terrified because it’s only a half hour flight and I had no idea why we were landing so early. It was dark so I scrunched my face up in preparation of a crash landing; thinking “ I better get at least one more piece of cheesecake before I die!” All was well and we got to Morocco by 8am or so. We had to change planes but were directed better than a herd of cattle so it worked out. There was a couple (who turned out to be really nice) who were driving me nuts. They had to figure out why their friends got bumped out of first class as the girl was the only one who spoke spotty French and once I heard her say “honey, get the dictionary!” I asked if they needed some help and we got it regulated. Was actually a good thing that happened b/c it got me comfortable talking to people, up until then I just hadn’t had a desire to be chatty. Once it came out that I was in Peace Corps, one of the other girls on the flight said she’d just signed her closing papers in Togo – we’re NEIGHBORS! The switch flipped on and it was full franglais and government acronyms for the rest of the conversation. She even gave me the book she finished on the plane, in true volunteer form, pcvs are always starving for more reading material. We got to JFK but they wouldn’t let us de-board (that’s a word right?) due to a few problems which the captain just rattled off to the zillions of standing, cranky people in his craft. After we sat down and stood up a few more times and taxi-ed around the tarmac, just for fun I think, they freed us and I blew through the customs. I grabbed my singular, overstuffed backpack and took off. My debit card still worked in the ATM so I got some cash and rather than take the expensive direct shuttle to Penn Station, I said nah, I’ll suck it up and figure the subway out from JFK to the Amtrak place. Liking NYC more and more. It worked perfectly! The problem was that Toot (who picked me up in Philly) and I didn’t factor in wait time so she ended up hanging around the Philadelphia train stop for 4 hours. That’s ok, don’t feel bad at all because I seem to remember a time, not too long ago when she didn’t arrive in Benin for DAYS, so it worked out. We got right in the car and drove straight home to Painesville. She even let me take the reigns for awhile and it was awesome, forgot how great driving yourself is! Rolled into my actual driveway at 4am, exhausted, kooky, and ready for a big sleep. No such luck as Mr. Miller was up and ready. Big hugs were had by all and the whole family decided to wake up. I think that means it’s time to eat cheesecake! We all had a fat piece and tucked ourselves back into bed. Poor toot, I was back up at 8am b/c the time change just screwed me up. No one else was up yet so we went downstairs to make coffee and toast. The damn coffee pot ran everywhere as I forgot to put about half the pieces and parts in it before the brew so Toot about died laughing while I raced around my totally new kitchen that is totally unfamiliar and tried not to ruin it before my mom got up. All went well and so began the vacation of gluttony. We must have consumed a whole pig worth of bacon that morning alone. I’m pretty sure that during my entire time home, my mouth was only empty when I was talking about getting more. The weight gain feels good though, comfortable, back in freshman year at Kent all over again. A few months ago, I sent my mom a list of things I NEEDEED to eat. We covered all those bases, a few times. I don’t need a beer for at least, well, a week or so. I made the library thank you rounds and updated people on what’s going on now. The check is waiting in Cotonou to cash and we should be standing in an actual room some time soon. This post would be too large to post if I went into detail about the madness that was my visit. All I need to say is that I saw my rugby ladies, saw my high school homies, and watched my sister walk across the stage at Harvey High with the biggest smile on her face that she’s ever made. That was really the whole reason I came home so glad it was a success! Also had the opportunity to talk to a friend who is just starting her Peace Corps journey this month, what a great feeling that is! I’m glad I’m winding down though, it’s time. I have no idea what filled up all our time but mom and I didn’t get one free second to touch the yard but we did manage to spend an entire weekend at dad’s new boat club. We accidentally spent 4 and a half hours out until right after sunset so I think I’ve racked up enough credit to be gone for a little bit longer. I’d list all the fabulous foods I ate but most of you readers live in the States all the time and butter on toast just doesn’t turn you all on like it does me. All in all, mom was a rockstar and had running water in the kitchen in time for me, cooked and cleaned the whole time too. Dad, well, we all know Mr. Butch is well, Mr. Butch, ‘nuff said. And my sister is going to Kent in the fall, life’s pretty posh right now. I’m in NYC sitting at a starbucks, sipping a vat of coffee after a full day at the Natural History museum. Air Maroc bumped my flight up a day so I fly out tonight and they are paying for me to have a night in Casablanca…..I keep saying life is so hard right?
So, thanks to everyone who dug into this library, NORVA (northern ohio returned volunteer assoc.), Painesville City Police Department, Ashley Kaufman and her crew at Seton Hill, Friends of Morely Library, Sandy the News Herald writer who did the article, countless more friends and family, Sandy Miller became a full fledged volunteer for a few months, and all the other people who made things a little smoother or just listened when I needed to scream. It’s been worth it! I’ll keep updating. In case anyone doesn’t know, I am done with my service in early September, so we’ve got a few months to wrap up. Hope all is well, oh and a new email- rmiller100@google.com but if it doesn’t work, just use the old one. Cheers all!

Another AIDS tour over

The second annual Borgou AIDS education bike tour 2008 rolled to a finish last Monday. This year went extremely well and left next years group with a lot of good ideas to pursue to make it even better! Everyone arrived on Thursday so we could have a short meeting on what exactly this trip would entail and practice with our groups. After a small logistics intro about the route and most importantly – what we’d be eating. We were a group of 20 volunteers and 6 Beninese educators. This year worked a little differently as last year we were obliged to find Bariba translators in each village which slowed the process down considerably and between French and local language there are some things that just don’t translate. Working with an educator who is already familiar with the cultural group makes a HUGE difference and we could see the women’s comprehension and involvement shoot up. In an earlier post, I mentioned that Parakou now has the first Beninese volunteer club, NGO certified. The president, Ibrahim, worked closely with us this year to try and smooth out some kinks. I asked if there were volunteers who spoke Bariba and had done AIDS education; and he said there wouldn’t be a problem. As this is the blanket answer, I was slightly concerned but things worked out great. Ibrahim has a habit of keeping his word so things actually get done! A team of 4 Beninese volunteers in their last few years of school came, along with my homologue David as well as Saka, a guy from my village who helped with a leg of the trip last year. He came to my house and asked if he could come along this time. I wasn’t sure if he was in it for the free tshirts or actually got what we wanted to accomplish. After prying a little deeper, he said that AIDS education is something that is important to communicate effectively to people in villages as they don’t always have the chance to get the public service announcements in the cities. One of the student volunteers didn’t speak Bariba so we brought Saka along to translate for the kids’ group. He was so animated! After a few villages, people settled into a routine and we were on our way, eventually touching 13 communities.
Every village we arrived in, we broke the group down into 5 sections, old men, old women, young men, young women, and kids. I chose to be with the old women again this year. I loved them last year and really feel there is a lot to be communicated and exchanged with them. David was with the old men again. He loves talking with them on the topics of community responsibility and the honor that comes along with having a healthy village. Even though about a week before we did this, another volunteer James and I rode the route and tried to get the villages prepared, along with ordering food, things didn’t always start right away. What usually happened was, we’d roll in, people would see a huge sea of foreigners and start gathering. Then we’d have the public crier go out and beat his drum along with the message that everyone should go to the public meeting place. This worked great everywhere as it’s the accepted method of communication. Once we’d gotten enough people together we’d split up and talk for 40 minutes or so on the paths of transmission, how to prevent contraction, and what to do if someone does have AIDS. There was also time for questions and by far the largest piece of misinformation was that people could get AIDS from mosquito bites. Hopefully at least a few people believed us that that was just malaria and you should still in fact use a mosquito net!
PSI, (population services international) in Cotonou donated a huge packing container of condoms so we distributed those as well. Not sure how effective that is as at my school the professors took all the boxes and said they would give them out in a more orderly manner…though the general consensus was that the professors would just keep them for themselves. There is only so much control we can have and at least someone is being protected. A local water filter-er donated 4 huge bags of individual water sachets so we didn’t have to worry about boiling and filtering for 20 volunteers. This helped immensely as we didn’t have anything more than a chase moto this year because the fire fighters’ ambulance was in repair. The moto was driven by Saka and carried our spare parts and all the condoms.
Speculation for next year is that we’ll change the topic to malaria or awareness or nutrition…something along those lines.
Incidents were kept to a minimum. Last year, due to the terrain of the backroads, there were at least 13 flat tires. This time around, we stuck to the standard red dirt road and only had 2 or 3 flats but two major wipe-out pile-ups but they were only surface wounds and people picked themselves up nicely. In all we talked with around 2,500 men, women, and children. Two of the towns, Guinagourou and Péréré, we only talked to the CEGs (secondary schools). Once we’d wrangled the kids into quasi-groups, they calmed down enough to listen and participate. This was one of the cooler aspects of the ride. These kids are at the age of discovery and have the chance to be pro-active about their lives. We are also seeing the emergence of the women’s equality movement here and it was really encouraging to see teenage girls explain how to use a condom and say she would refuse a relationship with someone who refused to use one. Who can say the reality of those situations but at least the seed is planted. A really awesome project has stemmed out of the Peace Corps bike tour. The Corps des Volontaires Beninoise has decided to tackle a tour of their own. This August, they are planning on biking from Parakou to Cotonou, a 7 hour drive in a taxi (on a good day) over a span of two weeks. The best part about this is they will roll in to Cotonou (hopefully) the same day the new trainees swear-in AND Peace Corps Benin is celebrating its 40th anniversary in country. This is a great representation of the impact we’ve made on the communities here and the passing of the torch to the people who will actually make a difference in Benin - the Beninese!