To Benin and Back: Short Stories, Essays, and Reflections About Life in Benin as a Peace Corps Volunteer and the Subsequent Readjustment Process.

By Chris Starace

Just out of college seeking the adventure of his life and an opportunity to do good, Chris Starace joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Benin, West Africa for two years from 1995 to 1997. The challenge was great, and he was pushed to the limit in adapting to a starkly different culture while living on a meager $6 a day. He made many discoveries about himself, as well as an exotic land. Delving into the culture and creating strong relationships with the people led him to appreciate numerous aspects of Benin, while many outsiders are unable to see past its shortcomings. To Benin and Back recounts a variety of unique experiences from an insiders perspective such as living in a remote village, exploring the regional market, harrowing bush taxi rides, odd encounters with Voodoo, having a strange illness diagnosed by a very imaginative traditional healer, being stuck in a sandstorm in the Sahara desert, and humorous anecdotes about adapting to the Beninese culture, insects, snakes, domestic animals and children. When he returned to the United States, he was forced to reevaluate his own culture while dealing with severe reverse culture shock. Traveling back to Benin seven years later allowed him relive, reexamine and assess his long-term contribution.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462046232

Chris Starace

Chris Starace followed his interest in travel, language and culture and joined the Peace Corps just out of college in 1995. He spent two years in Benin as a Small Business Volunteer. He resides near New York City, and he continues to practice his language skills as a high school French and Spanish teacher in Westchester County.

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Copyright © 2011 by Chris Starace.

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ISBN: 978-1-4620-4621-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-4622-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-4623-2 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 10/26/2011

Contents

Preface:

Glossary

Ten Days in Dagleta

Working in Benin

Market Day in Allada

The Bush Taxi Ride from Hell

A Visit to Melissa

A Visit to the not so Traditional, Traditional Healer

On the Road to Agadez

Stories from Benin:

Interesting Cultural Differences

Rich and Famous on $6.00 a Day

A Stranger in My Old Life

Seven Years Later

Appendix:

Bibliography

Preface:

I served in Benin, West Africa, located between Togo and Nigeria, as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1995-1997. As many volunteers do, I began my adventure a few months after graduating from college at the age of 22. While in Benin I lived in a town named Allada as a small business development trainer and consultant. Allada is a small town of about 10,000 people, located on the main north-south paved road about 35 miles north of Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin. It was an incredible adventure living there for over two years at the same economic level as the people I was there to serve. I made many Beninese friends and I saw other Americans at least every few weeks. Nonetheless, I felt very isolated due to the vast cultural differences between the Beninese and myself.

I was in Benin from 1995-1997, and this collection of stories and essays is based on my experiences during those years, aside from the last chapter, Seven Years Later, which was set in 2004 when I returned with my wife for a two week visit. I organized the chapters more or less by chronological order. It has taken me fourteen years to write and publish this book, as I’ve only had time to work on it in fits and starts. I had many distractions, such as readjusting to life in the U.S., getting a master’s degree, establishing a career as a high school French and Spanish teacher, getting married, buying an old house, fixing it up, and having two children. In those fourteen years, many things have changed in Benin. Today there are more paved roads, technology and media available. There are more TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers. Cell phone usage has exploded, and even the poorest Beninese people use them since they use prepaid phones. Today, internet cafés are in every city, as well as most large towns in Benin. Due to these many changes the Benin I describe based on my experiences from 1995-1997 and 2004 is not exactly the same Benin as today.

My Source of Inspiration:

While I was in Benin, my best friend was my journal. I wrote over 2,000 pages during my two plus years there, during my readjustment period after returning to the United States, and finally during my trip back to Benin after having been back in the U.S. for seven years. This book is a collection of my most interesting stories, anecdotes, reflections, essays, excerpts from my journal and cultural observations. When it comes to West Africa, I believe truth is unequivocally more entertaining than fiction.

I felt compelled to write this memoir because I had such a unique experience that relatively few others have ever had. Many people have little understanding of what it is like to live in a very poor West African country on $6 a day, in a village, for two years. I try to paint a picture of what it is like, and I show how it is possible to adapt to a culture that is very different than one’s own. I hope it will make you see your own culture from a different perspective, and I hope it leads you to question certain cultural practices and beliefs you take for granted, just as I did when I returned home from Benin.

Most people have a very negative image of Africa, as they know little about it aside from the overwhelmingly depressing stories they hear about in the news. When covering Africa, the media usually reports on things such as poverty, epidemics, war, natural disasters, and famine, so we are naturally biased and think that Africa is inferior, undesirable, backwards, and violent. On the other side of the spectrum, for many reasons, we as Americans often hear that our country is the best place in the world. As an American, I agree that we have much to be proud of, but obviously not every aspect of life in the United States is the best. It may seem ironic, but we have a lot to learn from this small, little known, impoverished country, and I hope you will find examples of this.

Despite my many frustrations, ordeals, and suffering while there, overall my experience in Benin was very positive, and I maintain a very favorable opinion of the country as a whole. I included many details about how it was difficult living in Benin, as Peace Corps Volunteers endure many hardships and frustrations. I also included positive aspects of living there, but it wasn’t until after I returned to the U.S. that I became fully aware of the many positive aspects I had overlooked previously. I explore many of the positive aspects of life in Benin in the last two chapters: A Stranger in my Old Life and Seven Years Later. After reading this book, I hope you will have a greater appreciation and respect for Benin and the Beninese people despite its many shortcomings.

Lastly, I hope To Benin and Back will inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and explore other cultures that are very different from your own. You cannot do this by staying in all-inclusive resorts, going on cruises or beach vacations, or by taking bus tours to popular tourist destinations. Your experience doesn’t have to be as extreme as spending two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a developing country living on a shoestring budget, but it should include a lot of interaction with local people who do not make a living off of tourism. Making at least some effort to speak to the people in their language and experiencing an authentic cultural event are also crucial. Of course, you must travel with an open mind and be able to suspend judgment. It is amazing how much you can learn and grow when you challenge yourself to truly understand another culture.

Keep in mind, that I spent most of my time in a small town and in remote villages so my generalizations are based mostly on those environments. There is a very small Beninese middle class and most of them are government employees as the private sector is still very underdeveloped. There is also an even smaller, educated, westernized upper class in Benin that lives for the most part in Benin’s larger cities. Most generalizations I make do not refer to the upper and middle classes as they are much more westernized than the rest of the Beninese.

How Technology Has Changed the Peace Corps Experience Today:

An important aspect of my experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer was being relatively isolated from the United States, which forced me to immerse myself in the Beninese culture. I saw my postmate, the other Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) posted in my town, usually once a week, and occasionally I would travel to see other PCV’s who were posted in other parts of Benin. I received one prearranged phone call from my parents on a monthly basis at a Beninese friend’s house who had a phone. Every few months when I was in Cotonou, I would see other volunteers. Sometimes while there, I went to the American Recreation Center that was tied to the American Embassy. There, I hung out with other American expats, usually embassy employees, ate hamburgers, and watched American TV via satellite on a big screen TV in an air conditioned room. Other than that, my only other connections to the U.S. were letters which I cherished, an occasional care package, and my short-wave radio. All PCV’s also had a subscription to Newsweek magazine provided by Peace Corps. The magazine wasn’t mailed to Allada, so I received multiple back issues only every 4-6 weeks when I went to Cotonou. The isolation from the U.S. was difficult, but ultimately I was grateful for it because it forced me to delve into the local culture instead of escaping from it.

Today’s Peace Corps Volunteers have a different experience than I did from 1995-1997 due to the availability of the internet and cell phones in Benin. Current Peace Corps Volunteers have informed me that almost every volunteer today has a cell phone that they use at their posts on a regular basis. They use them to text other PCV’s and they even text and receive texts from the Peace Corps administration. Many PCV’s receive calls from and make calls to the U.S. several times a month. Some volunteers even have internet enabled cell phones!

Because volunteers only receive a $6 a day living allowance, they have to make very short calls or they have to use money from the U.S. help afford the expense. PVC’s also use cell phones to communicate with people they work with and their Beninese friends. Today, in 2011, many villagers use cell phones if they have family members who have moved to a town or city. They can charge their phones as the volunteers do: they can find someone who has a generator nearby, they can charge them when they go to a town that has electricity, or use a solar cell charger.

Almost all of Benin now has cell phone coverage so only the volunteers who are posted in the most remote areas do not have coverage. It is amazing considering that most Beninese people who don’t live along a main road or in a big town or city, don’t even have electricity!

The internet is usually not available in rural areas, but most large towns and cities with electricity have cyber cafés so most volunteers can get to them relatively easily. The internet is very slow so they often write letters on laptops they brought from home and then upload them from a flash drive at the cyber café. Now volunteers can communicate with loved ones back in the U.S. much more quickly and as a result, many do not write letters very often. Most PCV’s update blogs and Facebook to keep friends and family up to date with their activities and receive news from home. They also get news from the internet and do not have to rely solely on short wave radio and Newsweek magazine. As a result, they do not feel the same level of isolation PCV’s did when I served.

In one way, I envy Benin volunteers today, as I am sure having cell phones makes their lives much easier. They can call people they are working with to prearrange meetings, and can also call each other if they need to cancel. I lost countless mornings and afternoons due to the lack of communication when I was not able to get a message to someone I was working with, or the people I was working with were not able to get a message to me. I would have killed for a phone had they existed when I was a volunteer because it would have allowed me to be much more efficient, and as a result, I would have been more effective as a volunteer. I am also sure that an easier connection to home would have made the lowest of lows that every volunteer experiences much more bearable.

On the other hand, PCV’s today are able to use these means of communication to escape from Benin and not feel that same sense of isolation that forced me to integrate more into the culture. I’m sure the more frequent communication makes friends and family back in the U.S. worried since they hear so many details of problems and hardships. As a result, Peace Corps administration has had to make some changes to deal with more frequent communication with concerned loved ones of PCV’s.

I’m sure Benin PCV’s today don’t go to the post office with the same sense of anticipation as I did. In fact, mail, besides my one monthly phone call from my parents, was my only connection to friends and family in the U.S. You can only imagine how elated I was when I received a letter, and how disappointed I was when I went more than a week without one. When I was a PCV, the internet was only available at a few internet cafés in Cotonou, the de facto capital city in Benin, and I never used it while I was there since none of my friends and family were using it then.

Beninese culture has been greatly influenced by a lack of communication for thousands of years until recently. The result is Benin, a country the size of Pennsylvania, speaks 50 indigenous languages! Now that rapid communication is possible due to cell phones and there is more access to TV and radio, it is precipitating rapid westernization and change in Benin.

The Trilogy:

To Benin and Back is part three of a trilogy: part one is the website I created, Fon is Fun, (www.Fon-is-Fun.org) that teaches people Fon, the language of Southern Benin. Part two is the documentary video, Discovering Benin (available on www.Fon-is-Fun.org). Please also go to the Fon is Fun site to see more photos of Benin that I did not have space to include here.

One final note: A majority the chapters of this book are direct excerpts from my journal or stories that I wrote while I was in Benin. Those chapters are written in the present tense. The other chapters: Working in Benin, Stories from Benin, Interesting Cultural Differences, A Stranger in My Old Life, and Seven Years Later, I wrote after I returned and are written in the past tense.

Dedication:

I’d like to dedicate To Benin and Back to the Adjacomenule. Adjacome is the name of the small neighborhood, an extended family of about 40-50 people, who were my neighbors. Adjacomenule means the people of Adjacome in Fon. They were my friends for the two years I was in Benin and they still are. I have been back to visit them twice since I left in 1997: once in 2004 and again in 2009, and I still keep in touch with them. To this day I correspond with my friend Nestor via e-mail, and I send money for gifts and school supplies for the children in his family every year. While living there they supported me emotionally, and they were always there for me when I had questions or problems, or when I simply needed company. They were always very patient, kind and forgiving of my odd American ways. They were a very important part of my experience in Benin. I also dedicate To Benin and Back to Nestor Djossou, my best friend in Benin.

Acknowledgements:

I’d like to thank my reliable editors Mike Perry and Ronnie Viggiano for all their hard work. A special thanks goes to my contributing editors: Stephen Arbogast, Cara Viggiano Starace, and Michel Dognon. My appreciation goes to recently returned and current Benin PCV’s for updates on technology in Benin: Catherine North Hounfodji, Jessica Bruce, Veronica Swank, and Natasha Thompson. I’m grateful to my wife Cara for being so adventurous and accompanying me on my first return trip to Benin. Finally, I would like to thank Peace Corps for giving me the opportunity to serve in Benin.

Africa%20Map.jpg

Map of Africa

From CIA.gov’s World Factbook

benin%20map.JPG

Map of Benin

From CIA.gov’s World Factbook

Niger%20map.jpg

Map of Niger

From CIA.gov’s World Factbook

Glossary

These are mostly French and Fon terms commonly used in southern Benin as well as a few English words that have different meanings in West Africa.

Ten Days in Dagleta

November, 4th 1995 (Saturday) Mathieu, our Peace Corps chauffeur, turns off the paved road and onto a narrow dirt path that twists and turns past many groups of small mud huts and people are staring at us with intense curiosity as we pass by. We follow the path for about a kilometer, and then turn onto an even narrower sandy path. It is so narrow in fact that the brush on both sides is almost rubbing the sides of the Toyota SUV we are in. We continue down the dusty and bumpy trail through dense brush for another kilometer. As we near the center of the village, a group of small children runs behind our car in excitement. Moments later we pull up in front of a group of mud huts, and I step out into another world. I am immediately surrounded by dozens of children and adults, all of whom are curious to see me, the Yovo (Whitey). The children are very excited and burst out signing repetitively, "Yovo Yovo bon soir, ça va bien? Merci? (Whitey, Whitey, Good Afternoon, How are you? Thanks" in French). The song is a combination of derision and innocent fun, but we Yovos feel it’s more derision than anything else. The Beninese children serenade us Yovos with this song constantly wherever we go. I have been in Benin only one month and I have heard it countless times. It’s not very often that a Yovo comes to Dagleta, and the children make the most of it, as I am the first Yovo to have lived in their village since many years ago.

My host Felix shows me to my room, which is in a mud hut that is located in his family compound. The roof is tin and the walls and floors are mud with a crumbling layer of cement over them. There is no electricity or running water and there is only one window, so it is very hot inside. I knew that it wouldn’t be comfortable, but it doesn’t matter to me. I am intrigued by the adventure of living in an African village, the likes of which I have only seen on National Geographic documentaries. Already I feel like I am living that exotic experience in a far away land.

My room is not ready, so Felix has some of his children quickly sweep it out. Mathieu leaves me with a mattress, a mosquito net, a case of bottled water, and sheets to sleep on to assure that I have a bare minimum of comfort. Before I know it, the vehicle is gone, and I am left alone, surrounded by dozens of men, women, and children all staring at me intently, trying to get a look at the Yovo. Up to this point I have only experienced cities and small towns in Benin such as Cotonou (the de facto Capital city, population approximately 700,000, and the major port city in Benin), Porto-Novo (the political capital), and Lokossa. I have a feeling that living in a Beninese village will be as much of a new experience as arriving in Benin for the first time. I am quite a spectacle in the cities I have been to in Benin, but I can see that effect is magnified ten times here in the village. I draw so much attention that I feel my white skin is glowing compared to the almost black skin of the Beninese.

Shortly after I arrive, the adults disperse, but the children follow me everywhere I go and mark my every move. About 30 of them squeeze into my small room, and many peer into the door just to watch me unpack. I cannot close the door because it would be too dark and hot if I did. Hours later they are still here, and they watch me as I am trying to read. I cannot concentrate, so I play the harmonica for them and give them some balloons. They play with them gleefully, hooting and hollering, and fight over them as if I had given them something precious and novel. Perhaps they have never had their own balloons to play with before, or at least not ones from Yovotome (the land of the white people).

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The hut where I lived for my ten days in Dagleta. My Peace Corps

issued mountain bike is out front.

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This was a typical scene in any village that I visited: gleeful children having fun and following me everywhere I went. Having their picture taken was always very exciting for them.

My group of eight Peace Corps small business development trainees has been in Benin for our initial pre-service training for only a month now. The goal of our training is to acclimate us to the Beninese culture over a three-month period, before we swear in and are sent to our posts in the villages, towns or cities where we will be stationed for our two years of service. At that time we will be expected to fend for ourselves and we will be completely on our own. We will have a medical kit to self treat any minor ailments because healthcare is either non-existent in Benin or scary at best. They actually give us hypodermic needles and syringes in the medical kit in case we have an emergency and can’t get to Cotonou in time. This is because hospitals in Benin have been known for reusing needles and syringes. If a major ailment arises, we have to high tail it to the American Embassy medical center in Cotonou by bush taxi, a usually a very dilapidated car that operates as a bus with no schedule and the driver packs so many people and goods in that people are practically hugging one another for hours on end. In case of emergency we can pay considerably more and rent the entire vehicle, which would assure we arrive faster. Luckily, I’m in the south and only one and a half hours from Cotonou. The volunteers who live 12+ hours away up north will have to rely on the American Embassy to get a plane to pick them up and bring them back to Cotonou for any major illnesses or accidents. That actually happened when a volunteer had appendicitis not long ago.

Before we arrived in Benin, we had three days of orientation in Philadelphia. Today I came from the École Normale training center in Lokossa (a small city in southern Benin) where we are spending three months for our pre-service training. Pre-service training is designed to gradually introduce us to the Beninese way of life, so they coddle and shelter us most of the time (except for this week). If they just dropped us off at our posts without proper training and time to acclimate, most of us probably would not survive and if we did, we would certainly be less effective as volunteers. At the École Normale we are living in a dormitory and have a very structured schedule of classes with Beninese instructors six days a week. We have cooks to prepare our meals, and drivers to transport us to training activities. They even organize weekend cultural getaways. However, the next ten days here in Dagleta will be a completely different story.

The eight Peace Corps newbies or stagiaires (trainees, as they call us in French) are living at our posts, which are located in far-flung areas around Benin, for the next ten days. Our posts, where we will serve our two years after training, are varied. Some of us will be sent to small villages, some will go to medium sized towns, and some will be placed in cities. In the past month of in-country-training, we already learned a lot about health issues in Benin, Beninese culture, speaking French, bicycle repair, how to get around in Benin, how to buy things in the market, and about our jobs as small business advisors. When we first arrived, we lived with a current Peace Corps Volunteer for a week, which was very interesting as we saw what our lives will really be like once training is over. In Lokossa (where we are doing our training) we spend a few nights a week away from our training site to live with local Beninese families. It is more or less a sleep over, as we ride our bikes from the training center in Lokossa to our host families in the evening. We eat dinner with them, and the next morning we ride back to the training center for our classes.

Up to this point we have had some exposure to Benin outside of what the Peace Corps has structured for us, but living on our own at our future posts for ten days is a test to make sure we can survive without their help. Everyone in my training group is relieved to finally find out where we are going to be posted. We are all very excited to get to know the place where we will live for the next two years when our training is over two months from now. The eight of us will be spread all over Benin from north to south, so each of us will surely have a very different experience.

Today we were escorted to our sites by either current Peace Corps Volunteers, or by Peace Corps trainers. I had the luxury of going in an air-conditioned Peace Corps vehicle. My future post, Allada, is a small town of about 10,000 people located approximately 30 miles north of Cotonou. Although I will be posted there for my two years of service, I am staying in a small village called Dagleta, which is about 2KM south of Allada. Dagleta means in the field in Fon. Although it is only about a kilometer from the paved highway, like most villages, it is indeed in the woods.

Getting out of the car, the first thing I notice is how poor the village is compared to the city of Lokossa. There is no pavement, no cement, no grass, or landscaping to be seen, but instead there is dirt everywhere. The roads are dirt. The huts are made of dirt, the floors in the huts are dirt, the areas surrounding the huts are dirt, and of course everything is covered in dirt. The people are very poor and have few possessions, but they greet me very warmly with smiles, handshakes, laughter and much curiosity. It is very hot and humid and some people are scantily dressed. Most of the children are wearing only shorts or underwear, and many older women and teenage girls are bare breasted, a vivid reminder of how different this culture is compared to the United States. Most of the men are wearing pants and a T-shirt, or the traditional African bomba (a loose shirt and pants that resemble pajamas made of thin and brightly colored cloth), while most of the women are wearing simple pieces of brightly colored cloth wrapped around their waists and torsos.

Felix is the head of the union of farming cooperatives in the area, and his union agreed to pay my rent over the two years while I live and work in Allada. In return, I offer the member cooperatives my services of teaching them small business management skills. Although the Peace Corps can easily pay my rent of less than $20 a month, this arrangement is conceived to give people in the community a vested interest in working with me.

Felix comes to my door while I’m unpacking and introduces me to his two wives who live in adjacent huts and to some of his many children. Although he is Christian, he has two wives. Go figure! He tells me that he belongs to a Beninese Christian sect called Crétianisme Céleste that actually permits polygamy! I have heard about the mixing of Christian and traditional African beliefs, but I doubt the Vatican would approve of this. Felix speaks French well so I have no problem communicating with him. Some of the children who go to school also speak French, so they are the only people that I can communicate with easily. I feel somewhat lost, as most everyone else only speaks Fon. I find a few children who speak pretty good French, so I have them interpret for me when I need to communicate with someone.

When I ask Felix where I should go to the bathroom, he informs me that there are no latrines in Dagleta. The Peace Corps said that we should all have latrines where we are staying for these ten days, but they dropped the ball on me. Felix shows me a pile of bricks behind the hut and explains that he doesn’t have enough money to finish it yet. He said I should pee in the shower, and he shows me where to defecate. He leads me out of the housing compound and down a bush path to a secluded patch of teak trees where he says I should go. I