Bikes
I spent the last four days in perhaps the most peace-corpsy way imaginable: biking around from small village to small village, talking about HIV/AIDs. It was as fulfilling, fun, and interesting as it was stereotypical.
Each year a group of volunteers usually organizes a bike tour like this. The goal is to spread awareness of HIV/AIDs, especially to those people and places that usually go untouched. This year, our group was made up of 14 American volunteers, and four Beninese "formateurs". We visited 12 villages in four days, covering over 170 kilometers. The villages had been told that we were coming, and once we arrived the village crier usually went around to announce that we would be talking to people of all ages. Once a crowd had gathered (which didn't take that long, since a group of foreigners on bikes was normally enough to attract people), we broke them into groups: men, women, young men, young women, and children.
I worked with two other volunteers to talk to the women in each village. We were the only group to not have a Beninese talking with us. After giving our AIDs talk 13 times (in one village we did it twice), I was still glad that I chose to talk to grown women. Despite them being the group with the shortest attention span (women here never really have to just sit and listen to anything), they proved themselves to be the most animated group. It was rare to talk to a group without them breaking into singing and dancing at the end. Women here also don't just sit quietly and listen, but love to interact and yell their questions in the middle of a talk. I loved it. And hopefully, some of them women have a better understanding of HIV and of how to protect themselves.
Getting from place to place was incredible. The rainy season has begun, so everything is green and lush. Part of the ride was on main dirt roads, but a large part was on footpaths, some sandy, some bumpy, but all beautiful. We got caught in a rainstorm one morning, but it only made the ride more exciting. Each place we went, we were greeted with Bariba hospitality: drummers played, we visited the king (one village's king gave us five chickens and thirty eggs), and we were fed.
As my dad pointed out to me, this will probably be one of the highlights of my two years here. I agree.
Each year a group of volunteers usually organizes a bike tour like this. The goal is to spread awareness of HIV/AIDs, especially to those people and places that usually go untouched. This year, our group was made up of 14 American volunteers, and four Beninese "formateurs". We visited 12 villages in four days, covering over 170 kilometers. The villages had been told that we were coming, and once we arrived the village crier usually went around to announce that we would be talking to people of all ages. Once a crowd had gathered (which didn't take that long, since a group of foreigners on bikes was normally enough to attract people), we broke them into groups: men, women, young men, young women, and children.
I worked with two other volunteers to talk to the women in each village. We were the only group to not have a Beninese talking with us. After giving our AIDs talk 13 times (in one village we did it twice), I was still glad that I chose to talk to grown women. Despite them being the group with the shortest attention span (women here never really have to just sit and listen to anything), they proved themselves to be the most animated group. It was rare to talk to a group without them breaking into singing and dancing at the end. Women here also don't just sit quietly and listen, but love to interact and yell their questions in the middle of a talk. I loved it. And hopefully, some of them women have a better understanding of HIV and of how to protect themselves.
Getting from place to place was incredible. The rainy season has begun, so everything is green and lush. Part of the ride was on main dirt roads, but a large part was on footpaths, some sandy, some bumpy, but all beautiful. We got caught in a rainstorm one morning, but it only made the ride more exciting. Each place we went, we were greeted with Bariba hospitality: drummers played, we visited the king (one village's king gave us five chickens and thirty eggs), and we were fed.
As my dad pointed out to me, this will probably be one of the highlights of my two years here. I agree.
posted by betsie at 8:30 AM
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