My 4th of July

Me and the Red Cross Volunteer Jacques planting a tree.

The Fourth of July is probably the greatest of American Holidays. If you don’t love the Fourth, then you probably don’t love freedom as well. I absolutely love everything about it: the food, the parades, the fireworks, the people, the flags, not to mention the beer and who could forget the birth of our great nation. Oh the Fourth of July, how I missed thee this year.

It is a little difficult to celebrate the Fourth properly here in Togo. The closest thing to American fare I could possibly track down would be hotdogs, but they are expensive and are only in the cities. I think it would be quite hard to find a parade as well. I could succeed by starting my own, but unfortunately the only people who would partake would be kids and maybe a few stray goats. I have no idea where I could find fireworks. You would think it would be easy considering all the Chinese that are here doing infrastructure projects. I probably could have made my own light show; gasoline and matches anyone? And the most crucial element to a good Fourth of July, that being the beer, would sadly, not be cold.

So you see my dilemma here? At first glance it appeared that my Fourth of July was going to be a weak one. It could have left me devastated, demoralized, and most of all depressed. Everyone needs a little America in their life one day a year to refill their freedom and liberty tanks, but alas, it looked as though I was going to fall into an undemocratic state of mind.

There was hope. I had a plan. Instead of celebrating as I normally would, I celebrated the glorious birth of our country the only way that a true American knows how: hard work. What I did would have made George Washington proud and made Paul Revere feel like his role in helping the American cause was nil. What did I do you ask? I planted trees. Yes, trees; lots of them.

The exact figure of how many trees were planted I do not know. I do know we planted between 500 and 600 live baby Moringa trees (I will talk more about them later), and planted a further 500-600 Moringa seeds bringing the future grand total, hopefully, to between 1000-1200 trees. Yay!

This whole project is a smaller part of a large undertaking that was the brainchild of PCV Christian Donaldson and Cath Lauria. They worked with the Togolese Red Cross and secured financing to train Red Cross volunteers on the benefits of this wonder tree known as Moringa, how to start and maintain a plantation, as well as to purchase seeds for the villages that would be lucky enough to start their own plantation.

The way the project was setup was that seeds were to be distributed to these groups that are in every village, no matter how big or small, known as Club de Méres (Mothers Club). These clubs are setup by the Red Cross and are a way for women to learn about health. They also are very good because part of being a member means that you have to pay dues. These dues are collected and then if one of the women or her family has a medical or health issue that requires an amount of money that they don’t have, the group can then aid them financially. A Red Cross volunteer is assigned to each club and visits them about once a month, to make sure that the club is running smoothly and also to teach them things pertaining to health, for instance such as about malaria or hand washing.

This project was going to use these already existing structures of clubs to teach these groups about the benefits of Moringa trees, how to use it in their lives, and how to start and maintain their own plantation.
All clubs that were interested in the opportunity had to apply. They had to write a letter stating why they wanted it and how it would benefit the community. Also, as part of the process they had to acquire a donated piece of land to have their plantation on. Out of the hundreds of clubs in the Savanes Region, only 16 were chosen.
My role in this project is not huge. When both of the above mentioned volunteers leave country, which is fairly soon, I will be the Red Cross’ contact person and may check in from time to time on its success. Until then, my role has just been my adoption of a village close to my home that was selected to have a plantation. The village is called Dontougou and is about a 30 minute bike ride from my house. I love this village and their people! They are so nice and motivated to improve their community, which is awesome because it is sometimes difficult to find motivated people (half of the people you try to work with here expect you to do and pay for everything while they do nothing).

So, with the fine ladies of Dontougou, I have attended a few meetings, teaching them how to start their tree nursery, checking back in from time to time to see how their seedlings were going. I even taught the large group how to make improved cook stoves. The grand culmination of my work with them couldn’t have happened on a better day, Fourth of July, when we all got together to plant their trees. The whole village came out and the chief of the village even got down and dirty and planted a few trees. Since the planting, I have been quite busy and have not been able to go and check on the trees to see how they are doing, but I have full faith that it is going well and plan on checking in before the end of the month.

Now, let me tell you all about moringa oleifera and why we are going through all this effort to promote this tree. Simply put this tree is amazing. Before coming to Africa I had never heard of the tree, but since arriving here in Togo, it was one of the staple things that not only the Peace Corps promotes in communities, but so do NGOs and the government. This is a tree that is sweeping through the malnourished and impoverished areas of the tropics due to its ability to treat malnutrition.

This moringa species originated in the foothills of the Himalayas in northwestern India. Right off the bat, the great thing about this plant is its ability to grow and thrive anywhere. It is so hardy. The soil near me is quite poor, but this tree takes off and grows incredibly fast. It is also amazing because even the small trees that get damaged or eaten by animals will still somehow reappear even if nothing is visible on the surface. It can handle drought conditions and low amounts of water and still will produce the intended benefits. Pretty much the entire tree is edible or can be used to benefit humans. The leaves contain all essential amino acids and are rich in protein, vitamin A, vitamin B, Vitamin C, and minerals. Often time the leaves are eaten plain off of the branch, added to sauces like spinach, or dried and turned into powder. This powder is then added to water to make a Gatorade type drink or put in boiling water to make tea. It can basically be added to anything to increase the nutritional value. One tablespoon of leaf powder provides 14% of the protein, 40% of the calcium, 23% of the iron and most of the vitamin A needs of a child aged one to three. Six tablespoons of leaf powder will provide nearly all of a woman’s daily iron and calcium needs during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Often times the seed pods are eaten before maturity and resemble large green beans and taste a little like asparagus. The Moringa seeds yield 38-40% edible oil. The refined oil is clear and odorless and resists rancidity at least as well as any other botanical oil. The seed cake remaining after oil extraction may be used as a fertilizer or as a flocculent to purify water. A study done in 2010 found that this form of treatment reduced bacteria by 90-99.99%. The bark, sap, roots, leaves, seeds, oil, and flowers can be used for traditional medicine. The sap can even be used as a blue dye. The seeds are also believe it or not, seen as an excellent biofuel source for making biodiesel.

So as you can see, this tree is incredibly useful. Its quick growth (it can be over six feet tall in a year), its ability to grow and regrow anywhere, as well as its incredible nutritional benefits make it one of the best crops that people in malnourished countries can grow. The change is slow, but once people see, hear, and spread the benefits, everyone will have a few of these trees at their house. I will keep you posted on the success of the overall project and on the plantation in Dontougou.