Nigerians Are Human, Too Monday, Apr 28 2008

So, one day, not too long ago, I found myself in a new Audi with Togolese plates and leather seats riding along on a Beninese highway with a Nigerian businessman named Henry.  It’s certainly not every day that I hitchhike, but the pickin’s were slim when it came to bush taxis that day, and I didn’t really want to haggle, anyway.  Besides, the fact that he stopped for a guy like me – who in the States would’ve looked a prime candidate for hippie, drunk, or hobo – and he had a nice, air conditioned new car, gave me faith.

As we started up again, Enya was playing on the CD player.  After a time of quiet, he put on Mel McDaniel’s greatest hits (or something like that, which I heard recently again in the grocery store in Bohicon).  He told me he had a friend in Oklahoma.

We talked about Nigeria, why Peace Corps volunteers aren’t allowed to go there, and how even Henry gets hassled for bribes on the highway from Cotonou to Lagos.  We discussed Nigerian con men, why I should avoid them, and yes, I promise, I will avoid the e-mail scams.  “Perhaps 10 percent of them are true,” says Henry.  Perhaps.  “But, my advice, don’t pay attention to them.”

We talked about Henry’s current course of study (economics, I think) and his desire to get a postgraduate degree.  We talked about my own post-graduate ambitions, compared notes.

In the end, meeting Henry changed my thoughts on Nigerians.  I’d never met one before, but I had the impression that they were, universally, fraudsters.  Now, I know at least one who I’m pretty sure – I like to hope, anyway – is on the up-and-up.

In the end, he dropped me off at a big roundabout where I could catch my “connecting” bush taxi.  Because hitchhiking’s not only illegal but almost considered immoral in the US – you wouldn’t tell your mom about it, would you? – I’d only done it once before that I can recall, and that was because I was on a two-lane Arizona desert highway in summer with a bunch of friends and a broken-down van.  This time, I simply didn’t know what to do.  I probably should’ve offered him a mille – enough to buy a beer or two – but, then, he’d just spent about 20 mille (about 20 percent of my monthly allowance)  on gas.  I thanked him, awkwardly closed the door, and walked away with a slightly improved idea of Nigerians and a momentarily softened attitude towards humanity.

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Il faut manger Monday, Apr 28 2008

(One must eat!)

A lot of people have asked what our food and beverage situation is like here – no doubt at least in part due to the fact that we’re always asking to be sent things, like beef jerky, that we’d rarely if ever in in the States.  And, it’s not like there’s a plethora of “African cuisine” restaurants in the US.  So, here goes.

Food: Ours

What do we eat?  A lot of rice and spaghetti!  The main ingredients here are tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers.  A complete list of for you can get in the marché also includes dried shimp and fish (which aren’t terribly appealing, sitting in the sun and covered with flies), okra (which Phoebe doesn’t like), garlic, ginger, sugar, eggs, flour (manioc and wheat), grade 2 corn, and a few different rocks – salt, magnesium, and potassium or something-or-other.  Depending on the season, there’s a variety of tropical fruits, such as pineapples, mangoes, bananas, oranges (which are green, for some reason), and papayas.  We get potatoes if we’re lucky.

Houègbo is severely lacking in meat.  We can sometimes get pork from a guy who sells pork soup.  Beef is non-existent.  Mutton/goat can be found in restaurants, but not elsewhere, from what we’ve found.  Chicken’s generally available – frozen and plucked or alive & kickin’, though given the threat of bird flu, we’ll stick to the frozen.  Frozen turkey parts exist, too.  Both are kind of pricey, though, so we don’t often get them.

When we go into Cotonou, we can get just about anything we want – for a price.  We most often get cheese.  For meat, we can get poultry hot dogs or ground beef.  Canned lentils make for a nice change, and we like to splurge on mozzarella (for pizza).  There are a number of restaurants in Cotonou, serving everything from Chinese to Indian, but Lebanese is most common in the area around the PC bureau.

Food: Theirs

Beninese people like to eat “pâte” (said like the English word “pot”).  To make pate, you grind up corn, manioc, or yam and boil it to make a thick paste that’s kind of like thick mashed potatoes.  You use the paste to scoop up a sauce.  The main sauces are rouge (red – tomato) and legume (vegetable – basically boiled leaves).  Protein sources include mutton or goat, dried or smoked fish rehydrated by the sauce, ricotta-like cheese called wagashi, soy cheese, and escargot.  When I say “escargot,” we’re not talking tasty little chewy morsels coated in garlic and cheese; we’re talking slugs the size of a child’s fist.  I’ve had ‘em: the first one or two, you say, “Okay, not terrible.”  After three or four, though, you gag, realizing, “Man, I’m eating really big snails!”

Other Beninese dishes include:

• igname pilé: basically mashed-potato like yams and often served with a delicious peanut sauce and chicken, bush rat, or rabbit;
• piron: manioc pâte mixed with pork fat and served with bits of pork (skin-on);
• pâte rouge: a yovo favorite, this is a pâte that is made with powdered tomatoes (hence the rouge) and served with chicken;

Spaghetti, rice, and beans are also all very popular.  Snacks include manioc flour mixed with peanuts and/or dried coconut, boiled peanuts and corn, roasted peanuts plain or sugared, and various petits cailloux, which I think means “little rocks” and is kind of like bits of biscuits or cookies.  There’s also a bunch of different fried and baked amuses bouches (“mouth pleasers”) that are pretty tasty.  Actually, Beninese snack food’s pretty good.  They even make baignets (French doughnuts); though, they eat ‘em with hot pepper paste instead of sugar.

Drink

There are three Beninese beers.  In order of strength: La Bêninoise, Flag, and Castel.  They come in 300 and 630 mL bottles.  There’re also Nigerian Guinness (which is rumored to be artificially caramel-colored), and West African imports like Star and Awooyo, the latter of which is pretty good (on par with, say, Michelob).

You can get most American sodas, but the most common are Coke & Sprite.  There are also some local sodas, including grapefruit-flavored and tonic.

Our drinking water comes from the pump down the road.  We suppose that it’s clean, as we’ve yet to experience any ill effects.

As for home-brews:

• sodabi:  distilled palm wine.  Smells like a cross between gasoline and tequila.  Sometimes infused with things that make it medicinal or tasty.  Powerful!
• tchoukoutchou, or tchouk:  millet beer.  Kind of sour.  Still has the yeast in it.  Can be delicious.  Can also cause some wicked gas.
• palm wine:  made from palm tree sap, yes, like maple trees are tapped for syrup.  Have yet to try this, but hear it’s delicious.

Hungry/thirsty yet?

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For the Newbies Friday, Apr 4 2008

So, we hear the “new stage” is already finding out and agreeing to come to this lovely republic. Since we found a previous PCV’s packing list to be very helpful, we thought we’d throw in our own two francs. Remember: Air France doesn’t like it when your bags are too heavy; the more you can leave at home, the better. Too, our own trip to Africa started with a Bataan Death March with all our gear in the blistering, muggy, Philadelphia-summer heat across the entire Philadelphia airport when we got dropped off at the wrong terminal. That said, look to the left or click this sentence to be redirected to our Packing List page.

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Ahh… That City Planning Smell Friday, Apr 4 2008

FINALLY, I have gotten to do what I originally signed up for the Peace Corps to do: community development & planning. (Actually, if you think about it, 6 months post-training isn’t too bad.)  The good people of Agon spoke, and I stepped into my role as “facilitator” and listened.  What I heard were a few desires I’d expected, I few I’d hoped for but not expected, a few off-the-wall ideas, and a few things that I actively hadn’t wanted that I’m surprised I like.First, I expected that people would want formations, training, to help them with accounting, marketing, credit, and income-generation.  That’s my primary project; so, I’m happy to continue doing what I’ve been doing with people who want to participate.

I didn’t expect that both men and women would actually express a desire to learn French or that learning to read – in French or Fon or both – was a priority for these adults.  Knowing that, I am starting very basic oral French lessons, and I’m hoping to find some resources (preferably free) to help people learn to read and write.  I’m also pretty sure I’m going to hit a wall when we come to more advanced French.  Suggestions welcome!

Unexpected wishes included “cuisine” classes for the women (we’re working on getting that going, somehow) – guess they’re tired of pâte! – as well as driving lessons for them (not happening, for a variety of reasons).

Finally, suggestions were made that the town needed an accessible credit union, as well as a center for artisans, the community, and cultural groups to get together, give performances, celebrate fêtes, etc.  And, the artisans want to form a boutique where they can cooperatively buy and sell their wares.  Capital ideas!  Well, literally – this’ll require a bit of capital, I’m sure.  Regardless, right now, they’re using the primary school and a battered, open-air building for such gatherings, and they all travel two hours to purchase supplies for their businesses.

Normally, I’m opposed to being the Great White Bringer of Funds.  I still am, actually.  What we’re doing in the village, however, is combining market and feasibility studies with a real-live project, and it’s a project that will be a boon to the community if it succeeds.  My hope (and, as I see it, my job) is that the residents will be able to identify resources they didn’t think they had.  I’m already working on them to take ownership of the project: none of this “you’re building this for us,” only “we’re building this for us.”

I’m just the facilitator.

And, I love it.

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