Food and Drink - Benin Edition

"So how was the food?" is one of the first questions people ask me about my trip to Benin. I really enjoyed the meals, but I was definitely craving a nice cheeseburger by the time we landed in Nebraska.  It is often hard to describe in words, so luckily I have pictures of a couple of the more notable meals we enjoyed.
I would also like to point out that our guide, Boris, did a fantastic job of researching the restaurants to ensure that they were 'safe' and would not lead to any nasty side affects. We were able to enjoy locally prepared foods as well as fresh fruits and vegetables and not one of us got sick!
Without further ado, let's enjoy the food and drink!

Meal at Africa Rice

During our tour of Africa Rice we took our lunch at the facility cafeteria, a tent outdoors where we could enjoy the beautiful weather.  For the first half our trip this was the typical food choice of the group. The meal consisted of a chicken leg, rice, tomato sauce, a nice green salad, and a bottle of water. The green relish in the bottom right of the photo is very spicy and I was really glad I decided to try a little for taking a big bite! The meal ended with a quarter section of pineapple and let me say - you have never had good pineapple until you have had pineapple in Benin. It is so sweet and delicious that no matter how full you may be, you never turn down pineapple.
Speaking of pineapple - Songhai, a research farm we visited, bottles their own pineapple juice and we took every opportunity to drink some during our stay. They had many other flavors too, but pineapple is the far ans away winner.

Pineapple juice at Songhai

In between meals we often found local snacks including fried banana slices, cookies from Songhai, and cashews. Benin has many banana and cashew trees throughout the country and we were able to enjoy them on many occasions.  

Fried Banana Slices - As we passed through a village market, Boris
 purchased this snack explaining that it is a local favorite.

Biscuit Cookies - made at Songhai

Cashews - nearly every container is recycled in Benin including
this alcohol bottle containing roasted cashews

A couple times we ventured away form the more European style restaurants in favor of the the local fare.  Pictured below is fufu or pounded yam with local cheese and a spinach sauce. The yams in Benin are not like the yams we are used to in the US. They are very large, tough root vegetables not the sweet potatoes we call yams. To make fufu, the yams are first pealed and boiled to soften them. They are then mashed used a mortar and pestle to pound the yams. The result is the large white ball of yam shown below. I describe the consistency as a combination of mashed potatoes and Play Dough due to its sticky nature.  

Fufu, cheese, and spinach sauce

Also visible is a small plate of chicken already pulled from the bone - courtesy of Boris' request. We noticed early in the trip that the meat options were not what we have come to expect in the US were we raise our livestock to have a lot of meat per animal. Most livestock in Benin is raised via free range and so there is often little meat available. Many of us opted to go partially vegetarian for the rest of the trip - not because the meat was not delicious, but because we did not want to fight to get what little meat there was.

Enjoying our food at a roadside restaurant

So tasty!

Some other meals:

Wonderfully delicious avocado salad 

Pasta with prawns - came out with heads, shells and all!

Beverage options: 
Although I don't have a picture of the bottle, this is where most of our bottled water originated - a natural mineral water spring where the water comes out warm. The water does not have to be treated before bottling and we even sampled some fresh from the spigot.

Natural Mineral Water Spring at Possotome

Of course we didn't stick to just water, but enjoyed the local beer as well.

Le Beninoise - Brewed in Benin

Obama Beer - Yes, brewed and named in honor of Barack Obama

Au revoir,
Liz

Rice, Rice and More Rice

Rice is an important part of the diet in Benin and we consumed our fair share during our stay. It is then no surprise then that there should be a research agency dedicated to improving yields and addressing local concerns for production in Africa.

Our first day in Benin was spent at Africa Rice and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

Variety Selection Research

Nutrient Research

They have many ongoing field and lab experiments like the ones shown above that look at different ways to manage fertilizer application and leaching, as well as cross breeding varieties to gain the best of both. We also toured the facility that catalogs and stores a sample of each of the rice varieties grown in Africa - over 20,000. Kiersten was overwhelmed by the vastness of the storage cooler holding all the varieties.

There's how many varieties in here?!

Au revoir,

Liz

Rules of the Road

 I recently read an article, well I read the majority of an article, online that is claiming that my generation is no longer as excited about driving as our parent's generation. Still driving is a luxury most Americans take for granted. We expect to walk out, get into our car, drive out on maintained roads and that other's are obeying the rules set down by the government. 

Driving in Benin could not be more different! As I mentioned in an earlier post, driving can cause your life to flash before your eyes. The majority of motor transportation is done on motor bikes, large vans, and large trucks. Our trusty steed was the white van pictured below. We nicknamed it the the YoVan because of the color and the common greeting we received was Yovo, Yovo Bonsoir which translates to white person good day. 

The YoVan - fully equipped with no seat belts!

 The most common road side stand throughout the country is pictured below. Those glass containers contain fuel for the many motorbikes and cars. Everything, and I mean everything, is reused in Benin including the alcohol bottles storing the fuel.  There are what we would consider traditional gas stations, however many people opt to use the roadside stands.

Roadside gas stations

 So here is a photo of a van the same size as ours. It should seat 11 given the number of 'actual' seats. However, this van is packed to capacity. We estimated there were close to 20 people packed in there. There was even one van we passed where one of the passengers was attempting to hold the door closed.

Public Transportation?

The Rules for Driving in Benin:

1. There are no rules!

2. Seriously, the main objectives are to not hit anyone and don't get hit

3. Use turn signal and honk to make a move

At times there are up to five people riding on a motorbike and  passing dangerously between  vehicles.

We arrived at the end of the rainy season, but there was still enough rain to flood this portion of the road.

So many people!

What a cutie, strapped to mom's back on a motorbike and sleeping through the whole thing.

Maneuvering one of the many roundabouts.

One final note about driving - we Americans have absolutely no right to complain about pot holes and road construction.  Many of the pot holes were three to four feet across and at times nearly eight inches deep. It is a major problem when considering further development in Benin. Without good roads to transport the various agricultural goods from the country sides to the populated cities many of the goods are more expensive in the cities and at times rot. 

Au revoir,

Liz

Goodbye USA, Hello Benin!

I apologize for the delay between my trip and this blog. My goal was to post during the trip, but soon found that Internet access was pretty much nil. So instead I will create a photo blog instead of a long narrative (I have one if you're really interested in reading it...)

Days One and Two were spent traveling from Omaha to Cotonou, Benin. We left Nebraska around 1pm local time on July 18th and arrived in Benin around 7pm Benin time (6 hours ahead) on the 19th.

Our departure terminal in Paris was brand new and absolutely beautiful. We spent our layover in the business lounge, thanks to Dr. Peterson's generosity, and took advantage of the food, drinks, and Internet available. The terminal itself is decorated with living artwork of plants similar to that shown in the photo above. It was hard to say goodbye to Paris, but I was super excited to get to Benin!

We made it!

After nearly 27 hours from security to baggage claim, we had successfully arrived in Benin. While claiming our luggage (which took over an hour) the lights and air conditioning went out. It was our first taste of life in a developing country. We met Boris, our guide, outside the airport and loaded our things to head to the guest house where we would be staying. The drive from the airport was an eye opening experience - I take that back - any drive in Benin is an experience. More on that in a later blog!

Au revoir,

Liz

Here We Go...

My brother suggested that I start a blog to update on how my graduate research is going so I can have a record of what I've done down the road (hopefully after the diploma is in hand!) However, this blog will not totally revolve around my research, but shall serve as a place to jot down my thoughts, ideas, etc just like many other blogs. This will also be where I record my experiences as I participated in a study abroad opportunity to Benin in West Africa.

It's hard to believe that today is already July 1st! The summer is flying by as I continue to work on my graduate research. Ultimately I am studying the trades and pools of groundwater that have occurred in the region of interest to determine if they are consistent with the published literature on water trading. I am working with a very unique data set of irrigation groundwater use from the Upper Republican Natural Resource District (NRD) in western Nebraska. And as you may know, Nebraska relies heavily on irrigation to produce all that corn (they are the Cornhuskers after all!).

This NRD is of specific interest due to its participation in the Republican River Compact between Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. The Compact was signed in 1942 as an agreement on water usage in the Republican River Basin. The Compact outlines how much water each state is allowed to divert or use for irrigation purposes. In 1998, Kansas filed a complaint against Nebraska claiming that Nebraska was using more than its allocation due to the amount of groundwater pumped for irrigation. The three states (Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska) worked together to create a Final Settlement Stipulation in 2003 which stated that groundwater use should be included in the measurement of usage from each state as the water is hydrologically connected, Nebraska would put a moratorium on the installation of new wells to match that of Kansas and Colorado, and many other technical details regarding the Republican River Basin.

Nebraska went a step further to require that all wells in the basin be metered and monitored to ensure compliance with the Compact and Settlement. The Upper Republican NRD provides a unique data set because the wells have been metered and monitored since the 1980s and fields with wells have had their irrigation acres certified and recorded at the NRD. The proactive nature of the Upper Republican NRD has provided a data set of over 30 years of usage, trades and pooling information. Once again, I will be using this data and a program developed at the University of Illinois to examine if the behavior of producers in the region participating in trades and pools is consistent with the literature on water trading.

Ever wonder why there were green circles covering the ground as you flew over Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, etc? They are the result of center pivot irrigation systems similar to the one pictured below. The crops are irrigated as the arm of the system rotates around using water either from a groundwater well or river diversion.

Center Pivot Irrigation System

Now if that doesn't peak you interest, check back soon for exciting updates on the district's descriptive statistics such as the average number of wells per owner :)