Share-Out

The past month can be best characterized as one of sharing. From finances and composting to personal experiences, my service as of late has been all about collaboration and expression.

Earlier this month the village savings and loan association (VSLA) my counterpart and I trained last year finished its year long cycle. Its nineteen members spent the last twelve months buying into the saving scheme, taking out loans, and investing in their entrepreneurial activities. Despite a few delays and hiccups with loan repayment, every borrower found ways to reimburse their credit. After the last savings and reimbursement meeting, we all got together to finish the savings and training cycle with the group’s last lesson on how to responsibly conduct a “share-out” of savings dividends. 

VSLA savings schemes aren’t exactly the same as a savings account. Instead of depositing and withdrawing money at will like in banking, members buy “shares” of certain savings increments ranging from 50 cents to a dollar. These go into the savings chest where borrowers get access to it. Their reimbursements return the money to the chest while their five percent interest helps it grow. Savings growth also comes from penalties levied on tardiness, absenteeism, and unruly behavior. 

We taught group leaders how to count up, divide, and share savings to cap off a year long cycle. The chest total was divided by the number of shares saved by the whole group. That way, everyone received returns equal to the shares they saved plus their cut of interest and penalties paid. In the end, the members saved 309,500 francs (about 550 USD) across 982 shares. That meant shares originally valued at 250 francs grew to 315 francs, a return of 26 percent! The women are already gearing up for their second cycle where they will add at least two more members and increase the price of a share to increase savings volume and potential returns. 

After the share-out, my counterpart and I went to a neighboring village to check in on another group we hoped to help out. They’ve been learning about and developing compost using manure from the goat raising promotion project led by my host organization. This was our fourth meeting with these women, and instead of waiting for us that morning, they went ahead and did every step in turning existing piles and assembling a new one. My counterpart and I were thrilled to see their hard work and initiative. It turns out what we shared with them was worthwhile and, thankfully, effective. 

I also recently had an opportunity to share my experience with visiting financial partners from Europe. The visitors represented an organization that finances many of my host organization’s projects. They visited to monitor their projects and hear firsthand from community members about their needs and aspirations for the community’s future. I discussed how our best, most sustainable projects work by leveraging community buy-in and local resources. I felt uniquely positioned to understand the culture and needs of both the local hosts and the visiting party, which has me especially gracious for the opportunity to share my experiences and reflect on how they have brought me to where I am today.

Such reflection makes me consider this blog. It’s been one of my favorite parts of the journey to share my service with readers. Whether posts covered mere work updates or discussed more emotionally and intellectually significant topics, writing about my service has forced me to honestly and thoroughly assess my emotions, work objectives and style, and my (once) foreign surroundings. Despite the personal nature of my blog, writing it made service less about me and more about Benin and big picture items like sustainable development. It boils back down to Peace Corps's Third Goal of sharing host country culture, history, and society with Americans and making more of the global connections that promote peace and understanding. In that way, I pray my blog has been educational to its readers.

That being said, my blog writing has been far from a complete share-out. My readers have read nothing about the long, tiresome days and even longer stretches between bouts of meaningful work. Likewise, I have sometimes omitted emotional elements, the anxiety and alienation that characterize swaths of my service. There also remain many aspects of Beninese society I have found too hard to put to words. Not sharing them shouldn’t diminish their importance in my 26 months in Benin. When they have come out, it’s been for the better, but overall this blogging experience has been about the bigger picture, the bigger questions. So let this be a reminder that service has never been as rosy as it reads in my blog. Nothing we share so publicly can perfectly capture the real thing. That means you'll just have to follow up on anything I’ve missed. In that case, I’d be happy to share.