December 20th at 1:30am Annie Swank landed in Cotonou, Benin. Fortunately her flight finally made it out of snow invested Paris 5 ½ hrs late. I had planned for 2 days in Cotonou to visit the Peace Corps Benin main office and Ouidah, the port city where the majority of the slave trade occurred. After not nearly enough sleep we got up had breakfast at our hotel near the Fidjorosee beach and headed to the Peace Corps office. There my mother met my APCD Yves, AO Iffy, and PTO Lauren (Sorry Acronyms exist everywhere in the PC!) After an amazing lunch at the hotel we took a wonderful nap then decided to walk a bit along the beach. Tuesday we went to Ouidah and visited the museum, sacred forest, door of no return, and the beach along the coast. It is such an amazing place with so much history and sadness but the museum and city don’t do it justice. We stumbled upon a beautiful resort just west of the door of no return along the beach. There were many foreigner guests staying at the resort just swimming and eating and drinking! I started to imagine that I could be in Mexico!
After our time in Cotonou and Ouidah we purchased bus tickets and headed up North to the wonderful Natitingou!! I most give my mom props for handling the 9hr bus ride without ear plugs and only taking 3 bathroom breaks! The bus always stops in Prekete, a small village on the togo border. One of my closest friend here Lauren, lives there so I always stop and chat with her. After visiting with Lauren for 10 minutes we boarded the bus and finished the voyage to Nati. I am such a loved girl that my mom carried all the way from Houston, TX to Benin, West Africa 2 giant suitcases each weighing 70lbs. (Both were completely filled with stuff for me ) Since Annie was a little apprehensive about taking a motorcycle taxi I decided that I would make 4 trips to deliver all the luggage to my house, I mean that’s the least I could do right?
During our time in Nati we ate and drank (a lot) with the other volunteers, cooked amazing wagashi lasagna for Christmas, took bucket showers, washed clothes in basins, took motorcycle taxis, met my tailor, talked with BEF students, visited Parc Pendjari, visited numerous banks to find someone to exchange “old” bills, met my Marché mama, and was greeted as “MAMA” by every Beninese person!! I don’t know what it is but Beninese society must greet mothers and fathers. So as you can imagine everyone stopped to say hello to my mother. There is an awesome place by this old cinema that sells AWESOME beans, rice, and wagashi with a really good sauce, my mom and I ate it 3 maybe 4 times. The lady selling the food remembered us “yovos” because we are so nice and friendly; so when my mother and I show up to eat again I tell my mom to go sit down and I will just order the food for her. The lady told me that my mom must go over to her so she can say hello! Of course as you can imagine Annie Swank was a hit with every ONE, BENINESE and AMERICAN. Everyone is still asking me how my mom is and if she made it back safely. I am wondering how long people will ask me how she is doing, rough estimate I would say for the next 2 years!!
I am sure there are so many things I am leaving out but needless to say it was a very full action packed two weeks with plenty of time for many naps. That is one thing the Beninese sure do know how to do…..nap from about 12-3. I am so glad that my mother was able to come and visit and see what life I like here. I am glad that she has an insight to everything I am doing… from washing my clothes all the way to talking with the guards who work at the peace corps workstation. I think one of the guards has a crush on Annie Swank (who doesn’t), every time I’ve seen him lately, about 6 times, he has asked me how my mom is!!! I told him not to worry she is probably coming back for another visit! He sure liked the sound of that!
I wish everyone could come and see what Benin is like; my mom took great pictures and even got some videos everyone must check out to get a better idea. Sometimes it took me by surprise that she was shocked at some things….I guess I really am integrating. This Sunday will be exactly 6 months in Africa. I have never lived this long away from home, family, and friends. I think for the most part the way I live isn’t that different (I mean I have wireless internet at the workstation for Pete’s sake) it’s the surroundings that are EXTREMELY different. I am used to seeing naked children with huge distended belly’s playing with a tire in the road, or a woman about the age of 60 carrying a pile of branches on her head to Marché to sell.
I will try and post a blog about the parc and all the animals that I saw and that whole experience when I get some time. Hopefully this weekend. I have started a new program with my homologue and I found a new tutor to get my French stronger, I have also scheduled office hours for the BEF students so I can spend more time with them and find ways to help them. One student somehow got my number and has been texting me in franglais to meet him and help him, at first it was funny because the words he chose to communicate were pretty interesting then it just got annoying and creepy. I am going to have to regulate that situation! Anyways, I also have training in Porto Novo the last week in January so hopefully I will be pretty busy throughout the next few weeks and even months!
Until the next,
xoxoxoxo
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