Monday, August 08, 2005 Okay, so it's been a long time since I've updated. Sorry, it's been a long couple of weeks, or week, or I don't even know. In any case, I've posted back as far as July 27, so please scroll down to read chronolgically. Or if you really liked the movie "Memento", by all means read straight down!

I'm back now from our crazy trip to the north! Man what a blast it was, seriously. The food only got better and better as the weekend went on. I think we reached our high point when we went to the butcher on Saturday and bought 2 kilos of freshly killed pork; ribs and a bit of meaty-meat. Let me first preface this by saying that the meat market generally makes me sort of uneasy. There are flies everywhere and things just don't look that great. In Mexico they were the worst, but only because there was so much MORE meat. Here generally they are very small, maybe one or two animals per day. The place we bought the pork from wasn't a meat market. We actually bought it from the farmer, who seems to kill one and sell the meat every couple of days. We actually tried to buy the day previous, but he told us to come back. Let me also preface that in the States I pretty much hate eating meat off the bone. I know it's bizzare, but it's just never been for me. Well, that pork made me see the light. Holy freakin' crap it was good. Jason had procured a book with some pompous title akin to "The Barbecue Bible" or some such thing, but man they had an awesome barbecue sauce in there. Oh man, the 2 kilos of pork was for only 3 people, and I think that I alone probably at .8 K myself. Ooooh man, I still am dreaming about it.
We also made pizza, which turned out well, as well as some super-delicious garlic bread for a couple of nights in a row. All in all the cuisine was amazing.

Now, I guess you're probably thinking that all I did was cook and eat (oh, we made 2 cakes and lemon bars as well). Now, that wouldn't be a completely fair assumption at all. We actually did go to work with Jason and do official Volunteer business, and we also had enough time to do some crazy-style adventure biking and hiking. It was really cool, the original idea was to take a little bike tour of Kandi so we could see all that there was to see... but that went quickly by the wayside. We went out past the school, and then into some fields, and then to an airstrip (!) and then really just kept going for about 4 hours. Literally we were going on foot-paths through fields of corn, and then just plain footpaths to nothing. It was one of those "holy crap! I'm in Africa" times. I mean we were all alone, out in the bush. Birds were making their African noises, the sun was shining (and man what a tan I got), I climbed a tree, and just everything was sweet. We went though a couple of villages that no doubt were not on the map... no roads went to them and there were probably only 4-10 families that lived in them. We passed farmers, and people bathing in the river. It was awesome. We even found an abandoned hut! We finally decided we should get found again and go back home when we ran out of water. Sounded easy enough, but I think it took us about an hour or so to get back to the main road. When we finally did get back to the road, we were 5k outside of town, and 7k from the house. I think all in all for that day we did probably 20k of the most awesome bike riding ever.

The next day was more of the same, but with a different mode of transport. We scrambled through bramble and bush to an abandoned (and flooded) quarry which was beautiful. We climbed up and slid down two awesome hills with a spectacular view of Kandi. It was awesome, I even saw a millipede! Not your average american millipede either, but I'm talking the industrial-strength-big-as-a-hot-dog style millipedes. They actually sell (sold?) them at PetCo in San Luis Obispo, so if you want a breath of the African experience drive over there and check them out. We got back to our temporary home, and chilled out for a bit. The others (Lisa and Jen) returned with crazy stories of the road to Banikora, and we ended up getting invited to the after-party for a hairdresser who had receieved her certification.

Beninian hospitality is unmatched. We were welcomed in, seats were given up and they fed us and gave us beer within minutes. No sooner had I taken 3 sips of my beer then another was offered. They really wanted to make sure we were okay. Actually let me back up a bit. It was raining, hard. To get to the house where the party was we walked through a swamp (yeah, a literal swamp with leaches and everything). It was raining, hard. Did I mention it was raining? By the time we got to the party, any semblance of dignity had long since departed. The girls wearing lighter colored pants now wore crazy brown tie-dye versions of the same, and I had muddy rings around my the cuffs of my now hobbit-style jeans. Even so the party was great, and we only had to dance a couple of times. (They LOVE it when yovos dance here).

Finally we started heading back on Sunday in a series of long and uncomfortable bush-taxi rides. They are every bit as bad as I had thought, but in honesty when you're with friends they aren't that bad. After we finally did make it back to Azove I was butt-tired though, but no excuses... I had to eat said Mama. We got back around 6, and she gave me food around 6:30... I thought it strange that I was eating dinner so early, but happy since I had only eaten a piece of leftover pizza in the morning (some 12 hours ago, at that point). 2 hours later (at 8:30) she announced that dinner would be ready in about 15 minutes. "What? Dinner again?" I asked. Yes, dinner again it was... but she mistook my grimace over still being full for a grimace of distaste for what was to be served (pate blanche avec sauce). So, 30 minutes later (with my dozing on the couch) she brought out a gigantic pintard (Guinea Fowl) egg ommelette on a bed of greens. Oh, it was good... but I was so full I think I ate only 4 or 5 bites.

Today was awesome, as all of the stagiares came to Azove for presentations. It was neat to see everyone again, and cool to see what they have been up to. I also got wind that there quite a few parents of other trainees reading up and seeing Benin through my own slanted point of view. I'm glad to have you all, and don't worry we're taking good care of them all. Well, I guess I'm not personally... but everyone was doing well today, so take heart!