Woman is on mission in Africa

The tools used by the people of Benin resemble those from the Stone Age.
By SARAH POULTON
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
NORTH LIMA -- Felicie Reid has spent the past year living in a house that has running water a few hours a day and electric service only some of the time.
Her floors are cement, and her kitchen consists of a propane-fueled stove. The gas station near where she lives seldom has gas. She rarely has phone service. She has to walk to another town to access the Internet.
Reid is not alone. For the past year, the 23-year-old graduate of Westminster College has been living in the Republic of Benin, a small country between Nigeria and Togo in West Africa. She is an environmental action worker with the Peace Corps and will remain in Benin until October 2007.
Reid's parents, Keith and Catherine Reid, of Woodworth Road in North Lima, recently spent three weeks in Benin, visiting their daughter, a 2001 graduate of South Range High School. They said that she joined the Peace Corps to satisfy her personal need for travel. Her brother, Clemente, 26, spent time with the Peace Corps in Senegal and a visit to him there persuaded her to join, too.
In Benin, a country of 6.7 million, Felicie is living in the village of Camate-Shakaloke, which is so small that it doesn't appear on most maps.
The people there are hard workers and rely on agriculture to survive, Keith Reid said. For food, they grind corn, raise chickens and hunt wild boar. For money, they make gravel by finding large boulders and breaking them apart. They get $2 for every 50-gallon drum, he added.
"It's really overwhelming," he said. "You can't imagine that this could be their everyday life. They're busy people and very industrious; they just don't have anything."
Their tools are handmade and resemble those from the Stone Age, he said. To make hammers, they tie rocks to sticks: "It's one of the poorest countries in Africa. They have no resources."
During her stay in Benin, Felicie's goals are to improve the water system, her mother said. She also wants to educate the people on protecting their environment and to promote ecotourism.
Catherine Reid described ecotourism as grass-roots tourism where tourists stay in buildings similar to those of the natives. It is not like a resort and has more to do with meeting the people and experiencing their way of life.
"The village of Camate-Shakaloke is a beautiful and quaint little agglomeration nestled in the hills with wonderfully welcoming inhabitants," Felicie said. "Whenever I leave for a couple of weeks, I find myself aching to go back to my little house in the village and be with my local friends."
Her initiative
Felicie's project, the Environmental Cleanup and Awareness Campaign, aims to promote environmental consciousness in the village through a community-wide cleanup contest, she said. The project is set to begin in October.
The environmental awareness program in the village starts with teaching people basic environmental rules to follow, such as throwing garbage into a bin or re-using resources if possible. After the people grasp those concepts, there will be a contest. They will have each neighborhood try to improve its cleanliness, and they will rank the neighborhoods based on their effort.
The winning neighborhood will get prizes, including a set of outhouses and a corn mill.
The big problem is getting the money to buy a corn mill and building materials, Keith Reid said. Felicie's project must rely on contributions from outside the country.
To make a contribution to Felicie's project, visit www.peacecorps.gov.
spoulton@vindy.com