Bike Tour Video

Hey all. Here is a video depicting our experience on the bike tour. Enjoy!

Bike Tour Mania! Plus Extension News

This year I was able to organize the ONLY bike tour taking place in Benin. We biked hundreds of kms to spread knowledge (and tee-shirts) to ten rural villages in the Borgou/Atakora. Overall, over 2,000 individuals were taught about the benefits of family planning. What's family planning, you ask? It's as easy as it sounds. 

Step 1: Have a plan! How many kids would you like to have? Plan to make sure there are at least two years in between pregnancies so you have enough money (and energy) to ensure that they are provided for. 
Step 2: Make sure you don't get pregnant when you don't want to be. Most of each information session was taken up by sharing information about various methods to prevent unwanted pregnancies. 

Simple enough! Anyway, this went off really well this year. Check my facebook account for more photos since this is taking way too long. 

Extension : I'll be staying on a 3rd year to serve as the Food Security Coordinator for Peace Corps Benin. I'll be moving to the capital city and working in the actual Peace Corps Bureau. See you all during the holiday season when I finally head back stateside! 

 

International Museum Day, 2011!

Mme. SEKO, curator for the music museum, works on her exhibit.

In preparation for the upcoming Int'l Museum Day, May 18th, we've been working on setting up an exhibit at the local university. The theme for this year is "Museums and Memory." We'll be offering some plaques about the history of slavery in Benin, the history of music, and the history of tribal communication. Interesting stuff. We're working on preparing an "itinerant exhibit" that we can easily transport to schools and social gatherings to showcase what the museum has to offer.

Mme. SEKO and I hard at work...

Photos of Recent Happenings: Camp Succes de Tre!

  The girls of Camp Succes de Tre engage in a competition to set up mosquito nets. Mosquito nets are the most cost-effective way of preventing malaria, the number one cause of death in Benin.

 

Girls learn about a balanced diet.

Brigitte donated brand new jerseys to the school, and gave the girls the opportunity to be the first to sport them.

Of course, no camp is complete without a victory parade at the end.

A Boutique with Potential

Hey everyone. Last week Brig and I had the opportunity to visit our homestay family's in Benin's capitol, Porto-Novo. As expected, our families gave us mountains of delicious food in which we could hardly even make a dent, but they were happy to see that you could literally see the effects in our considerably expanded midriffs. It was great to see that my homestay mama was continuing her dress designs (see post: Turn and Face the Strange), and she had some really intricate new examples to show us. Brigitte's mama owns a boutique, which she uses to finance her five daughters' educations. These girls have managed to be extremely diligent in their studies, especially given the plight of young women in this country.



The boutique contains (mostly used) handbags, dresses, shoes, and perfumes into which she injects some new life. But the shelves of this boutique seem sparsely populated.




Here's how you can help. Gather up some unused (in relatively nice condition) clothes that we could put in her boutique to help her gain money to finance the education of her girls. If you're sending a package, you can just add one or two items to the envelope so we can donate them to her cause. She's really appreciative and a great example of what a single woman can accomplish if she sets her mind to it. Thanks in advance, everyone. And even if you can't donate, thank you for reading about this amazing woman.


Happy spring!

Benny's New Glasses

So Benoit, one of the smartest students I had at CEG Ikemon last year, lives in Parakou now. We see each other often, usually to cook and for me to give he and another student their living allowances. But Benoit has always been a noticeably squinty student. He would always ask to be moved closer to the blackboard, and it never seemed like he could open his eyes very widely. I feared the worst. So we took off to an amazing clinic today that's run by a Scottish ophthalmologist, at which he is able to see around 150 patients every day. Yeah... Here's our morning through the most honest of methods of reporting:

We started our journey by taking a moto-taxi out into the bush. The clinic is located a few km north of Parakou.
The complex is sprawling, and Benoit didn't know what to expect from an eye doctor, but he seemed composed as we approached the clinic.



We had to wait in a sizable line, but we had nothing but time this morning.

Although it appeared that others had a bit longer to wait as they camped out in the shade.


We finally got in to see the doctor.


And they gave him an old-fashioned check up.



End result? Styling! This was all relatively fast and really cheap. Overall, a very impressive organization.

Postpone for Democracy

It's an arduous task, holding fair elections when the population being asked to choose is poorly educated and access to information consists of pictures on billboards and word-of-mouth. The presidential elections, held every five years, have so far been pushed back 2 weeks due to insufficient distribution of voting cards. But they've been peacefully delayed, so there's no cause for alarm. From what I can tell, there are two main candidates in the north, although I've seen smatterings of support for other less-funded aspiring presidents. Up until about a month ago, there were very few billboards or pamphlets being distributed for any candidate. Now, billboards like this for the incumbent, YAYI Boni, are common in larger cities.



While there are plenty of little pieces of paper being tossed around by little kids supporting this candidate, ABT, some people still choose to campaign the old-fashioned way: by painting blandly on as-yet-unfinished buildings.




And then some people are so devoted to their local candidates that they can't bare to physically separate themselves from him (or her).


Music's in the air, people are registering at the last minute, and you can feel the buzz of an impassioned crowd. Some pundits are (correctly) labeling this an extension of the fete season. Others are calling it a triumph for West Africa's Latin Quarter. No matter what, this should be an interesting weekend. That is, of course, if election day isn't again prolonged...

Online Presence

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that this isn't the only blog I'm maintaining. Take a look at my other page, though you'll see that it's presently in French. Use google to translate the entire page if you want to see what we've been up to over at the music museum.

Museum of Music, Parakou

We've just started to set up our exhibit concerning ancient and modern communication methods among the various tribes in Benin. Pretty cool stuff! Anywho, enjoy. We're putting another blog for the Beninese Volunteer Corps active sometime this week, also.

Spreading the Seed

Let's just say that the idea of volunteerism hasn't exactly spread like wildfire, at least not in the way we think of it. Which is why it's such a pleasure to work alongside the Beninese Volunteer Corps here in Parakou. Founded in 2006,the CVB (in French) has worked on various projects throughout Parakou, including microfinance groups, bike tours, health/environmental workshops, and volunteer promotional activities. To be sure, it's going to take a lot of work to institutionalize this venture, and I'm almost positive the entire operation would cease to exist if Ibrahim were to lose interest, but they've grown by leaps and bounds since their conception four years ago.
Ibrahim's done a lot of work to recruit motivated young individuals outside of this city, but I'm quite sure that nobody in any small village will say that they're familiar with the volunteer corps here. First, they lack funding of any kind. While they've become quite adept at writing grants, they still struggle to finance simple things like electric bills (for an extremely tiny office). That's why it helps to start up creative fund-raising techniques like selling tee-shirts at local festivals and offering local language training to volunteers. In this manner, they're able to finance small purchases like this printer, purchased with funds from selling tees we designed last week.
Below, the president of a Groupement des Femmes who work with Moringa sits beside a basin of freshly harvested Moringa leaves.


Here, some local poultry eat feed combined with fresh moringa leaves to make them healthier and more valuable.

Trudging Along

This is a doll used in some ceremony or another that you can find in the Music Museum in Parakou, where I've been working recently. I know it's a bit creepy, but so are most voodoo entities in this bastion of voodoo culture.


This is Hillary Clifford, dressed to kill during the filming of our Peace Corps documentary. Hillary is stationed in the northernmost post in Benin, in a city that straddles the Nigerian border. We can no longer go to Niger due to the recent closing of the Nigerian Peace Corps program. In this photo, she is surveying a hot pepper field.

This is Christoph and Patrick working with a local moringa farmer named David on a new documentary we're doing about the miracle tree. Moringa can offer a stunning amount of nutrients to a people whose dinner usually consists of carbs, carbs, more carbs, and some animal skin. We just started filming today, and I hope to put it on youtube sometime during the month of March.

Other than that, things are moving relatively smoothly. I'm off to work with the Beninese Volunteer Corps and the Institute of Fine Arts as a representative at the Fete de Ganni, a five day extravaganza during which all of the Bariba princes show off their dashing horses and dress to the nines. It's a big tourist draw, so hopefully this should offer some good exposure. I guess we'll see.

Happy Valentine's Day, all!

Big Time

Time is absolutely flying. I've been jet-setting for a couple months now, heading N and S for various work reasons. Every so often I need to a take a breath and remind myself of a couple irrefutable truths:

1.) This is not going to last forever. In fact, my time here is nearly at an end. While 7 months may seem like a lifetime to some, I'm realizing more and more that it feels like I'm writing monthly reports every 5 days. Toss into the mix the complexities of a West African presidential election (coming to Benin this month), and we could be dealing with a dramatically shortened timeline. I thus made it my resolution to be happy in every minute of 2011. Those of you who know me will laugh at the prospect, and I must admit that the success rate has been spotty, but even in my most stressed times I can't help but appreciate the opportunity I've been given.

2.) I have learned more than I can ever realize. Maneuvering in West Africa is anything but straight-forward, but obstacles that once seemed insurmountable have become non-issues during the last year and a half. During a recent filming for a documentary, my fellow volunteers and I were surprised to find that we felt less eloquent when responding to questions in English than in French. Of course, it's difficult to speak well when you're staring into the eyes of someone who doesn't speak English, but still, it was a little jolting.

I recently had the pleasure of working with a local film crew to coordinate the filming of a 50th anniversary documentary for the Peace Corps. I was pleasantly surprised at the caliber of their work. Below is a picture of Brigitte and I in front of a presentation made in honor of the Peace Corps by the Beninese Volunteer Corps.





Here is my friend Ibrahim and I, sporting matching outfits, talking to a group of local women to start a microfinance club. We collect a set amount every three weeks in order to create an account large enough to give cheap loans to women with investment plans.


This is me being interviewed at the newly-built Institute of Fine Arts here in Parakou. My hand is on a massive drum used in ceremonies in the Atakore (NW) region of Benin. It was here that it first became clear that I no longer can speak English.

Ibrahim and I.

Work covers a wide array of activities these days. From microfinance groups to catching mice, from volunteer support to English clubs, how could any other job ever be as interesting as this?

Niamerry Christmas

So it's been quite the busy month since Mark and I got back from the mock bike tour. I, along with a few of my friends, was able to get up to Niamey, the lazy capital of Niger, whence we partook of the excursion to see the last herd of wild giraffes in West Africa, an ENORMOUS crocodile skeleton (see Supercroc wiki entry ), and had the best pizza (cooked by a volunteer) I've had since Upper Crust in Boston. Here's a horrendously (but purposefully) corny picture taken at the PC office in Niamey. These are my friends Brad, Sarah, and Brigitte.

Here we are again with the giraffes. That's a Tuareg wrap, in case you were wondering.

So we returned on New Year's Eve and were able to ring in the New Year in Parakou. Unfortunately, we just found out that a couple of Frenchmen were kidnapped in a Niamey nightclub by people claiming to be affiliated with Al Qaeda three nights ago. Dodged that one, but they were eventually killed during a rescue attempt on the Malian border. This one goes out to them. Happy New Year, all, and let's have a safe and prosperous 2011.

On the Road Again

So Mark and I took to the streets this week on our bikes to work out our itinerary for the upcoming Borgou Bike Tour. This is what we knew about where we were going: nothing. Didn't know where we'd eat, where we'd sleep, or whether or not the roads we were relying on even existed (the best map we have was drawn in 2000). After an exhausting taxi ride that placed us in Tobre, where a volunteer presently resides, we took off at 3:00 to try to make it 40 km before finding a place to sleep in a town called Sinende. Here's what we found:

And our room for the first night...

Apparently there's a fete every year at the start of the dry season where people take to the streets to swing burning tires around, effectively lighting all of the dry brush on fire. A very eerie experience and quite a surprise given that it was going on outside of our window.

Dichotomy

This is my father. He begrudgingly still lives in upstate New York. Here's a little song he created to express his feelings on this matter:

The the tune of "Oh where oh where has my little dog gone?"

Oh why, oh why do I still live up North?

Oh how, oh how can it be?

We were sposed to move when MJ retired,

But our house wouldn't sell if twas free

Oh why, oh why do I still live up North?

Winter's hell, I'm sure you'll agree,

But we're stuck up here, no place to go,

Because of the e-co-no-my!!

Here's a picture of me, taken the same day, out front of my house. This is the cold season. I don't have a song, but my face says enough. (Don't worry, I'm eating well...)

So the December weather is indeed the coolest that Benin has to offer. It's called the Harmattan, a word invoking images of twirling dust clouds and Beninese dressed in hats, gloves, parkas, and yes, even scarves. The West African trade winds blow south from the Sahara to the Gulf of Guinea, where I am. Yes, visibility is severely impaired. Yes, even your toothbrush will be covered with a thin layer of dust between uses. Yes, it does actually get cold enough that some mornings you don't want to shower. Wait, scratch that, you don't feel an overwhelming urge to take a shower to remove the sweat. You do want to shower... and you do shower. It's just not compulsory.

Here is our guard, Pedro, in the later hours of the morning. Meaning some key elements of the Harmattan getup have been discarded.

In short, I want to wish everyone a happy December. Us, we're listening to Merle Haggard and rigging up the lights just like the rest of y'all on the other side of the sea. So, on behalf of the men of Parakou, I'd like to wish the happiest of holiday seasons to you and yours.

...December?

Not sure what happened to November. Between amped up work, traveling, and visitors, the month seems to have slipped through my fingers in what is unfortunately going to be the probable trend for the next year.

Been souping up the workstation over the last month with fans, lights, compost piles, new security measures and, hear this, wireless internet. High speed, no less. Unfortunately I'm presently without a computer charger, so the wireless aspect is lost to me. Thus it's "same same but different" encore.

Been working a lot with the new "Institute of Fine Arts," not yet opened, which is located next to the workstation and aspires to be the largest museum of ethnomusicology this side of the Nile. It's there that we are going to celebrate at the end of our three-day Family Planning Borgou Bike Tour in February. There is toooons of work up here in Parakou, entirely different from my life last year. In short, life is ideal. As events approach, I'll provide more specific details regarding particular endeavors.

I may be asking for some financial assistance soon for a series of youth camps I want to help organize in the Spring. I'll keep all y'all updated as I find out more. Yeah, this is vague. This is vague. Sorry.

Julie Ann Clark, one my best friends from college, had the opportunity to visit Benin for two weeks last month. It was really awesome, and I took the opportunity to visit 2 places I'd been meaning to visit for a year. For the most part, we stayed in Parakou and saw some of the sites around the city, but our village sorties were memorable. She's a trooper, that one, and she's off to visit our other friends in Senegal before (hopefully) continuing on to see her old village in Mauritania. Godspeed, girl.

Will upload photos as soon as my comp's back up. Somehow, all of my electronics were recently reborn, like an early Christmas. Thus, I have a camera again for the first time in 2 months.

Happy Holidays!
-Dave

Après moi, le déluge

As some of you may have heard, there has recently been some terrible flooding in the southern regions of Benin. We're actually getting international press, which is not exactly a common occurrence, as you may have noticed. While this has only manifested itself, for me, in some traveling delays, other volunteers have been caught in the thick of it.

Take Ivy Walker. She's a volunteer in a village called Zangnanado, about 4 hours south of me. She's been working relentlessly, organizing information sessions and emergency distribution of necessary sanitary items in the villages surrounding her. 6,000 villagers in her village ALONE have been displaced by the flooding, creating the kinds of scenes shown in this picture below (taken by Ivy).

Here are the specifics of the effects:

• 51 out of 77 communes in Benin have been affected. Verdict: Worst flooding since the country's independence in 1960.
• 100,000 Beninese are without homes, 60,000 houses have been destroyed, and 300 schools have been rendered useless
• Malaria and cholera, conditions both exacerbated by stagnant water, are of grave concern

So Ivy and others have been distributing water treatment packets, mosquito nets and rehydration salts to effected villages. They've also been constructing emergency latrines so no more harmful waste is introduced into the already polluted waters. Ivy also helped organize a youth soccer tournament for students who are unable to attend school to boost morale. There's lots going on, and I'm appreciative of every volunteer who's been around to help alleviate some of the hardships.

Another volunteer, Sarah Binder, is working with CRS, an organization working day and night to ensure villagers in the south have enough clean drinking water and simple grains. If you feel a desire to help out, CRS is accepting donations:

Catholic Relief Services

228 West Lexington Street

Baltimore, MD 21201-3413

(410)625-2220

Please indicate that the funds are to be allocated to the Benin Flooding Response. You can also donate online at crs.org. This is only for those of you feel compelled, I'm not directly involved in this part of the country. For more information, visit this BBC article.

Thanks everyone, and have a safe and happy Halloween!

'Til I Reach the Highest Ground

The disparities between my life this year and last year are too numerous and too comprehensive to adequately impart in a blog entry. Suffice it to say, my amenities and responsibilities have undergone an exponential increase, but my community contacts have kind of taken a precipitous tumble. That being said, life is good because I can take showers without sacrificing drinking water and I can listen to music without worrying about my MP3 player dying. Doesn't seem like much, does it?

So with what do I fill my days? I have a phone that all volunteers can call if they have any inquiries. I can typically call them back free of charge, but I seem to always run out of credit well before the end of the month and end up fielding calls with my personal phone. The duty phone has been described as the "One Ring" from Lord of the Rings - it brings a lot of freedom and power, but it's also a bit of a daunting responsibility. But what isn't? I field questions, send out security updates (i.e. Travel to Niger is restricted between such and such a date), coordinate the regional shuttle, communicate with local officials, etc. etc. all with this little mobile.

It's kind of fun to work with Beninese carpenters, tailors, masons, and electricians to fix things/make improvements around the workstation. There's a new basketball hoop, a new satellite, new light fixtures, curtains, and broken glass for the perimeter "on the way." All of this is supposed to be completed within the next week or so, but I'll call it a success if two of these objectives are completed. As always, one must exercise patience in order to maintain sanity.

While the workstation takes most of my time, there's also a wealth of opportunity outside these walls. My family is supporting a couple of my best students from Kemon going to school up here in Parakou, and I've been working a lot with Ibrahim, an enterprising university student who's the head of the Beninese Volunteer Corps. We're working on expanding the program, planning this year's Borgou Bike Tour (biggest ever?), working on the big Gender and Development fundraising weekend that's coming in February, among other ventures. He's been showing me around the local branches of UN entities, as well as getting me in to see local government reps. He really is a diamond here, and I'm thankful to have him. He also has considerable ping-pong skills.

So I'm off to do some post visits of regional volunteers, but I'm also slipping in a visit to an annual Whipping Fete going on a few hours from here. As far as I know, this is the only fete of this kind, and I'll give you my appreciations in a few days. Gearing up for Halloween, too. I can't disclose what Mark and I are going as, but here's a little snippit of the conversation with the taylor.

Me: So, we want to do something a little strange. Give a brief description of what we want to do.

Taylor: You want... what? I don't understand.

Me: Here, look at this. I draw a picture of what we're trying to do.

Taylor: I need to reflect a bit. At this point he deals with two other clients while we wait patiently for his reaction.

Taylor: Ok, I'll need some time for this. I'll do one step and we'll see how you feel after that. Ok?

Seriously, Mark and I couldn't stop from laughing throughout this entire experience. Can't wait to fill all of you in next week!

-D

Money or Learning the Art of Patience

I know I've alluded to certain facets of the role money plays in Beninese society, but I want to shed some more comprehensive light on how African values manifest themselves in everyday transactions.

The currency used here is called the CFA, used in 14 french speaking African nations. It comes in many denominations, but the ones most commonly used are 25, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, and sometimes 2000. The CFA also comes in 5000 and 10000 bills, but these are relatively useless, especially in small villages, since no one claims to be able to give you change for them. A loaf of standard baguette-like bread costs 125 francs; a typical lunch of rice, beans, and cheese or meat costs you around 250; and a large soda will cost you 400-450 francs. It's pegged to the Euro, and has been appreciating recently, giving us a much worse exchange rate (presently about 467 CFA to the dollar).

A typical villager here spends their days dispensing and collecting small denominations of CFA, probably hundreds of times a day. 25, 50, and 100 CFA pieces are subjected to countless transactions between vendors on the sides of the road. Take, for example, a typical trip to my little market last year in Kemon.

Me (after salutations): I'd like to purchase that garlic.

Lady: Small or large bag?

Me: Small please. How much is it?

Lady: 25 francs.

In village, this wouldn't require bartering. Normally a small tit-for-tat would ensue, especially on larger items.

Me: 25 francs. I only have a two thousand CFA bill. Do you have change?

Lady: No change.

Me: So what are we going to do?

At this point, after putting on a show of disapproval, the women will either reach into her pocket to pull out small change or hand the bill to a kid, who will run to another stall to get the change. Very rarely will there actually be no change.

Lady: Here you go.

Me: Can I have this in a plastic bag?

At this point, either she would produce a black plastic bag or send a child to another stall to buy plastic bags.

You can also go to stalls, ask for an item and then wait while they go to another stall to buy the item and resell it to you. If you're friends with the lady, usually called a tanti or maman, they'll sell it to you for little or no profit. Honestly, they treat you well here, but it sometimes gets frustrating having to barter, act annoyed, make demands, etc. when all you're trying to do is give them money. Rarely does an attempted transaction end in failure, but it sometimes seems like they don't actually want to make money if it's going to be a minor inconvenience. This is especially puzzling to a born-and-bred capitalist.

Money that is ripped or worn is usually refused. The only way to get rid of this kind of money is to give it to beggars or unsuspecting volunteers. Worn money can usually be transfered at a bank, but you have to wait in such a long line that it is rarely worth it.

Try to go to a zemidjan (one of the seemingly endless supply of motorcycle taxis used in Benin) and demand a price that would be reasonable for a Beninese to pay. Most of the time, the bartering will start at an outrageous price, at which point you balk, feign incredulity and give him an equally outrageous price. This will go on until you see a slight tilt of the head indicating that you've agreed on a price. Down here in Cotonou, many of the zems will just drive off after you give them the original price. They'd rather leave and maintain their pride than accept a reasonable price from someone who has so much money. Yeah, it does make one reflect a bit, but it's a difficult concept to understand for a Westerner here.

Money amongst friends is an entirely different story, and I'm not going to touch on that here. Next time, maybe. Next time.

Been Lookin' so Long at These Pictures of You

Christoff Herby is a fellow PCV based here in Parakou. He's working to help put a national Moringa Association on the map, but he's also a very talented and ambitious photographer. For those of you who aren't familiar with this obscure but important West African staple, Moringa is a nutritious tree that has much to offer in terms of nutrients to help stave off some of that ubiquitous infant malnutrition. But anyway, the point of this blog is to draw attention to his upcoming project. He'll soon be embarking on a motorcycle journey with a friend from his old village who happens to be Fulani (see previous blog entry). Here is an example of some of his work.

Take a look at his photo blog if you're interested. www.quietgriot.com He has up some pretty cool videos with ambient noise from markets and certain volunteer events, some of which have involved the participation of yours truly. So pictures are free to look at, but he's also searching for a little financing for his upcoming trip, which will include 18 countries in West Africa. If you choose to buy a print, you'll be able to choose from any of his uploaded photos taken during his overland voyage, and this will be delivered to you upon its completion. Easy-peasy.

Happy surfing!

-D

The City of Everyone

Welcome to Parakou, the 2nd largest city in Benin. Home to 200,000 Beninese, this city has one of the largest universities in the country, a HUGE market with tons of fresh vegetables, miles of fabric and a meat section with every type of viande found in this country (including cats).

Parakou means "La ville de tout le monde" or "The city of everyone" in Dendi, the most-heard of the dozens of languages spoken in this city. In fact, just walking through the market I get pumelled with the nasal Nagot I spoke in my last year, the puncuated Fon spoken mostly in the South, and the much smoother Dita Mari, Bariba, and Dendi spoken in the northern regions. This can be overwhelming, even for someone who's now lived here for over a year, but it's tough not to appreciate exactly how special Parakou as a whole really is.

Take, for instance, the food that's now available. There are enormous yams throughout all of the northern regions of Benin, but only since moving here have I had a steady supply of ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, cabbage, sweet potatoes, peanut butter, green beans, carrots, and squash. The only available food last year, and this was hardly consistent, were onions, tomatoes and okra. I can thus throw together a delicious meal in a matter of minutes. Mark Sawran, a fellow Central New Yorker, and I have been taking advantage of this a few times a week.



Parakou also hosts a number of markets selling "chouk," a type of beer made from millet and drank from a callabash. We apparently have the largest chouk market in West Africa, which I guess could be extrapolated to the largest in the world. It's a great opportunity to sit with some locals who may be a little more open than in less innebriated environments. You can actually see the fermenting happening in your cup as you drink it - the center appears to be boiling. But it's actually quite decent.

Here's some volunteers in a chouk stand in Parakou on our way to watch the first U.S. game of this year's World Cup.

This is a photo of some Fulani girls selling tissue (fabric), as recorded by Christoph Herby, a fellow volunteer stationed here in Parakou.

The Fulani, or Peuhl, or Pulaar, are a nomadic tribe found all over West Africa who have a monopoly on the cow supply. They thus are the go-to people to get your hands on some milk, beef, or yogurt. There is also a meat market by Mark in a section called Guema, where you can get your hands on some select beef or goat for about 2 USD.

Honestly, this city is my favorite place in Benin. It's not the prettiest, or the biggest, nor does it supply the most amenities, but it's a great place to be able to live and work.