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!