A little citronella, please.

Traditional medicine and traditional healers are in about equal abundance in Benin to modern medical treatment and modern doctors. Naturally, the two conflict on occasion. This is one of the matters that I will have to work with as a health volunteer in Benin. I am an educator and will provide people with the information necessary to ensure that they remain in good health, but also need to respect the traditional methods of treatment that exist within Beninese culture.

For a cross-cultural field trip, we were taken to a private clinic that practiced both traditional and modern medicine. It was a run by a father and son duo. The father is a traditional healer and learned the trade during his youth because his own father was sick quite often, so he learned from the men who would come to treat him. The son is a doctor of modern medicine and also a molecular biologist. They provide clients with information regarding their health situation and the choices they have within traditional and modern medicine. There was also a traditional medicine museum (pictured above) near the health center that displayed various ingredients used to concoct traditional treatments. There were roots, barks, stumps, corn cobs, herbs, objects I could not identify, and animal pelts. It was fascinating to see all that people had collected for the treatment of various maladies. But, what I found most interesting of all, was the coexistence of two approaches to health. While they may differ in opinion, it is possible to reconcile those differences and work in a way that best serves the patient. This is an important idea to keep in mind once I begin my work at post.

Following the visit to the clinic, we were taken to a large, bustling, marketplace called Ouando. Here, we had to find the ingredients for traditional medicine treatments. With our patient language teachers leading the way, we wove our way through the marketplace that was pulsing with African drums, the bells of bicycles that were mistakenly brought into the market, and the always-shocking amount of stuff that women carried on their heads. After distractedly wandering through the market, we arrived at the traditional medicine vendor. A person would tell the vendor, “My stomach aches.” “I cannot sleep at night.” “I get awful headaches.” And she would then give them some herb or shrubbery and tell them how to prepare it to help with their issue. Some of us have been having problems with mosquitoes and their tendency to chomp on us, so the women gave us bouquets of citronella grass and told us to place them in the corner of our room. While I might have been burning a citronella tiki torch 2 months ago, I now have citronella grass tied to a bedpost with a plastic bag in my room. Cool. After we all obtained our “treatments,” we piled back into the van and returned to school.

I look forward to learning more about traditional medicine and working with traditional healers towards our common goal of better health for the people of Benin.