A Benin-Style Beach Clean-Up

The gray, morning clouds weren't ominous enough to deter us from participating in a beach clean-up, sponsored by the US Embassy and the Ocean Conservancy. It took us about 30 minutes to walk from our house with two other teachers to help pick up trash behind the Benin Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

When we arrived, the volunteers were done collecting garbage and were sorting it into two categories: organic or not organic. So we donned big red vinyl gloves and starting sorting.

Here's Debbie, one of my colleagues, finishing up the sorting.

Compared to Oregon's Beach Clean-Up, sponsored by SOLVE, this was a drop in the bucket. The size of the area scoured by the volunteers was roughly 300 meters in length, from the surf-line to the end of the sand inland. Plastic, by far, was the most common item collected, from bags to bottles to unrecognizable items. Shoes of all types were also a common find.

Bags of garbage, baskets of organic stuff.

Then the bags were hauled to a truck and taken away, not sure where, though.

 

 

Here's a group shot of the volunteers. It was interesting to see that many volunteers wore masks as well as gloves.

The event was advertised in the school's weekly newsletter. Three school families helped out while we were there.

This clean-up was quite different than what we are used to. One obvious difference is the low number of volunteers. Another one is the amount of coastline cleaned up. Benin has about 75 miles of coast, compared to Oregon's 350 (?) miles. I know there was one other site in Cotonou that was designated for clean-up. However, I think the two sites were it.

The need for clean-up is TREMENDOUS here along Benin's coast. The beaches are littered extensively, either with items that people just leave or with items that are washed up. I was uplifted to know that a clean-up was possible, but disappointed with the turnout as well as the small amount of area cleaned. But it's a start.

We saw some unusual things on our way back to our house . . .

Some sort of dead animal was floating close to shore. It was badly decomposed and difficult to identify, but very smelly!

 

 

 

 

Tires were being burned, east of where we cleaned up the beach. What an unexpected thing to see considering why we were on the beach.

Some bones were close to where the animal carcass was floating. Donn took a close-up of this one, which he now thinks is a human femur. Other bones close by also looked like human bones. A creepy and disturbing find.

A church group, known as Celestial Christians, was setting up for a church service. 

Here's a link for you if you want to find out more about their beliefs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Church_of_Christ

On-going construction of buildings is a common sight. These buildings look like they've been a work in progress for some time.

On the street outside the construction area you will always find materials to make the concrete blocks used for the buildings.

Cement and sand?

 

Mixers and blocks set out to dry.

We stopped at the local fruit and vegetable vender to buy a few items, when we heard these guys comment on Donn's University of Oregon shirt. We think they were starting the tailgate party a bit early; it was 15 hours until kickoff when the picture was taken. :)

Duck fans all the way from Salem, Oregon!

And finally, here's a picture of what we encounter when we get to the street in front of our house. We had quite a bit of rain the day and night before, so the puddles were very large. The entrance to our house is just this side of the foremost tree on the left. Mind you, this is a major connection between two busy roads.

 Thanks for checking in with us. We'd like to hear from you if you've got the time.
 

Getting Out and About With Some Germans

Donn's affinity for running has apparently spread throughout the school community. One of the parents (Norbert) contacted him about a week ago, and invited him to check out a local running club called CASH, Cotonou Anglophones Saturday Hash. This small group is part of a larger, world-wide running group called Hash House Harriers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers. I wanted to tag along to see what it was all about, but ended up participating in the run!

Basically, a couple people from the group (hares) set up a course ahead of time for the rest of the group (hounds) to follow. Along the course there might be misleading directions that will lead to dead-ends. Runners need to pay attention to "signs" the hares leave to follow the correct course.

Norbert's wife, Connie picked us up and drove us about 45 minutes east of Cotonou toward Porto Novo, Benin's capital city. 

Donn took this photo while we were on the road toward the starting point. Plantains!

Wow, there's hardly enough room for the passenger!

We stopped at a toll both along the way. The man looks like he's pulling his car through. It's a bush taxi, one of the modes of transportation to get out into rural areas. Bush taxis leave for the destination only after all of the seats have been filled up. So there's usually 6-7 people in the car, with all of their gear on top.

Surprisingly, most of the participants are German. They are co-workers with Norbert from a German company that is providing technical expertise and support to Cotonou regarding water supply system management and restructuring of office management practices in various departments for Benin. 

Once we arrived the ground rules were explained to all and we got started. Donn and I were the newbies, never having done a Hash run before. Three others had participated in Hash runs in other countries, but this was their first time doing CASH. The rest of the group had been on at least one CASH run. We were also accompanied by Luna, a golden retriever.

Norbert, in white hat, explaining the rules. The white, shredded paper in the bottom left corner was what we had to look for along the trail.

We meandered through farmland for about half of the trail.

It was quite sunny, hot, and humid, especially in the exposed areas of the trail. We saw many different kinds of crops being grown, planted and watered by hand by the people who lived on the land. Plots were maybe one acre in size, with a shack house to one side of the parcel. There has been no sign of industrial farming in Cotonou. It's done the old way, with a lot of sweat and hard work. We greeted any of the farmers and families as we traipsed through their plots. All were friendly in return.

These goats wouldn't turn around and smile for me!

When the leaders found signs of the trail continuing on, they would shout "on-on" and the rest of us would know which way to turn on the trail.

Donn, Doris, and Luna looking for trial signs. Part of the route took us to the beach.

We passed by a fishing village. All the boats were in some form of disrepair.

Cactus on the beach!

We followed the shredded paper signs through a tree plantation and had to stop because this herd of cattle blocked our way.

The herder let me take his picture.

Once we got back to the start, we were treated to some cold beverages. There was an initiation rite for the newbies, first Donn and me, then the other three people. First of all, you had to introduce yourself, where you were from, and what you were doing in Cotonou, without mentioning the word "work". If you did, you were "punished". Also, if you were wearing new shoes, you had to drink from your shoes! Luckily we all had on well-worn shoes. Lastly, we had to drink our beer while the rest of the group sang a song about "down, down . . ." something. The song encouraged us to drink our cups down and then we had to put our cup upside down on our head when the song ended. We were all fast drinkers!

Matt, Philippe, and Nora during "down, down".

 
We were driven home by Vallance, one of Norbert's co-workers and fellow "hare" for today's trail. Vallance is from Rwanda, but received a university degree in Germany back in the 1990s. His English was passable, but he spoke German and French quite well. Once I started talking with him on the ride back, my German learned long ago came back to me and I was able to hold a conversation with him. 

This wasn't much of a run, but rather a 7.5 km walk through some interesting countryside. It was a chance for like-minded people to get together and see what rural Benin outside of Cotonou has to offer. We met friendly locals in a quiet, agricultural setting, away from the noise and pollution of a big city. We had a great time and plan to do it again the next time CASH meets.

Noah’s ark

When I mention animals in West Africa, I’m sure your mind goes to hippos, lions, giraffes, pythons, and other majestic things. Hold your horses. I’m going to start with animals I can find in the middle of a city of 1.2 million people. Hippos are pretty rare around here.

 Lizards are everywhere. At one point, we thought it would be fun to count them on our walk to and from school. We kept losing count. I’ve seen cute ones about two inches long scurrying up the side of our school building, to bigger ones like you see in the photo. They are all colorful in one way or another. And we like them all because they eat bugs.

 

Bugs it is. Well, technically spiders are arachnids. After one of our regular power outages I was resetting the water distiller nicely provided by the US embassy. [Side note – don’t drink the water unless it is boiled, filtered, or distilled. Cotonou gets its water from wells from a shallow water table. There is no water shortage. If there is a shortage of water, it is due to electricity shortages and the inability to pump the water where it needs to go. Waste management is almost nonexistent. Another good reason to not drink the water or swim in the ocean.] I reached back to flip a switch and saw a few furry legs sticking out from behind it. I’m not sure where it ended up, but it might have met my shoe the next day outside our living room. Then there was its cousin who we found on our screen door.  The take home message: even though they aren’t poisonous, check your shoes before you put them on. By the way, you will notice the rust on the distiller. We live less than 1/2 mile from the beach. Everything metal in Cotonou is in a state of rust. Wait until you see the airliner in a later post. I imagine this is the reason people wash their motorcycles and cars constantly

Here is a photo of a real cool praying mantis that has camped out on the K/1^st classroom window. It is tucked away too well for me to get a photo, but I got this from the teacher. It has become a nice science lesson for the kids. We are hoping it lays an egg sac. I also saw a nice little stick bug outside the same room. Everyone loves those cute little kids, don’t they?

 

Chickens aren’t wild animals, but they are pretty much everywhere. The photos are of the chickens in our neighbor’s yard. Yep, that’s their whole yard – dirt. They draw their water from that well – remember the shallow water table? Their house is made of tin and wood scraps. Sunday is clothes washing day. Sorry about the blurry photo, but the brand new chicks are cute.

We assume the bird is related to a rock dove (pigeon) because of its song. It’s the song that led us to find it hanging out on the ledge of our bathroom window. I started by pulling the corner of the curtain back and it stared me down. Last week I realized it had built a nest and laid eggs. We could actually open our window and touch her if we wanted. Bad idea. I’ll be sure to post a photo of the chicks when they hatch. I guess we will have to name her now. Any ideas?

No snakes yet. That doesn’t bother us too much. Today my run took me outside of town on a busy dirt road – I think they are all that way outside of town. When I had to run on the margin of the road I kept my eyes open for snakes. And I thought it was dangerous to run in downtown Portland.

This post is just a warm-up. We will be getting a vehicle in 2-3 weeks. When that happens, we will venture out of town. Benin actually does have all of those big animals I mentioned earlier. It has a couple of the best parks in the north of the country where those animals are found. I’m not sure if we will make it there this year, but it’s on our list. We will go from lizards to crocodiles, bugs to hippos, mantis to giraffe, and pigeon to python. We will be sure to get some photos and stories of that as well.

Thank you for sharing our journey with us.

Donn & Karin