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| The team all set to start the tour |
A fun
project many volunteers put together each year is bike tours. The main idea is to get a small group of
volunteers together who go from town to town in their region and choose a theme
to give presentations on. A few host
country nationals (HCNs) come along as well to translate and help with logistics. Everyone sleeps somewhere in the town and
then moves on to the next village the next day. The trips usually last about 5
days.
Bike tours are a great way to spread
a message to multiple villages in a short amount of time. Topics include
moringa (an amazing tree that’s leaves are very nutritious), clean water,
gardening, and malaria. They are usually done during the dry season
(November-February) when rain isn't a problem for biking and villagers have
more free time because they don’t have to tend to their fields.
This February, Benin volunteers put
together 3 bike tours in different regions of the country. I participated in
the tour in the Mono-Couffo region, where I live. The theme was malaria (cause,
treatment, and prevention). We all met
up in a town about 30 minutes from me. The next day we gave 4 presentations in
4 different villages. We did 2 presentations as a large group and split up into
two teams to do 2 more.
If I haven’t already explained this
before, volunteers are quite the celebrities in Benin. And I mean that in all
of the good and bad ways. We stand out
very easily, and attract attention wherever we go. The kids and even the
parents call out “yovo yovo” (whitey) and might even sing the yovo song, which
trust me, is only cute the first time.
Now picture 8 volunteers on mountain bikes, carrying backpacks, and
wearing the same t-shirts (to promote our bike tour) through villages. It must
have been quite the site, and maybe even the highlight of people’s week.
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| A village with their neem cream finished product |
When we arrived in each village, we
would meet with the village chief or another person that was contacted during
the preparations for the tour. Then all of the villagers were called to come to
a central location where the presentation would be held. We usually had to wait
at least thirty minutes before everyone made their way over. Then we gave our
presentation in French, which was translated into the local language (Adja, Sahoue,
Fon, or Kotafon). The main messages we gave was that malaria is spread by
mosquitoes, to sleep under treated mosquito nets, and to go to the health center
if they have symptoms of malaria. After the presentation, we demonstrated how
to make a cream that can be used to repel mosquitoes It uses neem leaves, water, soap,
and oil. It is easy to make and all of the ingredients are locally available.
Everyone enjoyed participating and learning how to make it. At the end of each
presentation, the audience would clap, sing, or dance. They made the volunteers get up and dance
with them, which made them very happy. They must have been thinking, “Wow, they
really can’t dance, can they?” As you can imagine, it’s an exhausting, but very
rewarding way to spread a message!
