Thursday, November 23, 2006 http://cbs4.com/homepage/local_story_217041647.html

This set of blog entries by a Florida reporter who came to Benin is horrible. I can't be too hard on her, if you look at some of my early blog entries they are just as misinformed, incorrect, and error filled. In my defense though, I'm just a dude. She's a reporter!

Some highlights:

Day 2:

"We head about 30 minutes south of Cotonou."
OOOOPS! Thirty minutes south of Cotonou is the middle of the ocean, last time I checked. Ouidah (which is spelled with an H) is 30 minutes or so WEST of Cotonou.

"We bumped into a schoolteacher from California at the Port of No Return."
I'm a fan of franglais, "La Porte de Nonretour" means "The DOOR of No Return".

Day 4:
"They have no access to TV..."
I'm not going to say this is wrong about the TV, but the village she's talking about is in the south... I'd be willing to bet that someone in the village has a TV.

Day 6:
"In a nutshell, those who practice Voodoo believe that all life is driven by spiritual forces of natural phenomena like fire and wind, as well as of the dead. And, therefore, the deceased should be honored through rituals."
From my limited voodoo experience, this is actually an excellent description...

"There were no pincushions anywhere near the dolls by the way. And, there were no sacrifices either. At least, not on this day."
... but then she busts out with this.

Day 7:
"I have never done an interview barefoot before, but there are no shoes allowed inside the Thro Voodoo Temple in Cotonou—Benin’s capital."
Actually, Porto Novo is Benin's capital. I'll let her slide on this one though, Cotonou for all intents and purposes IS Benin's capital. As it was explained to me: "Porto Novo is the adminstrative capital and Cotonou is the economic capital"... still though...

Day 8:
"There is barely room to breathe at Cotonou’s bustling Danktopa Market."
Actually, it's Dantokpa. I'll give her this though, most PCVs say it wrong too.

"In fact, we had to hire two guards just to walk with us through the stalls to avoid getting attacked by a local."
Where do I even start... first, no one is out to attack you. Second, you'd probably be less likely to be attacked if you weren't walking through the market with several thousand dollars worth of equipment, gold jewlery, cell phones, and generally looking like an easy target!!

"I supposed it bears mentioning what I have been eating on this trip. There honestly haven’t been many choices. For the first part of my trip- while staying at the Novotel- I lived on Swiss cheese sandwiches on French bread."
You've got to be kidding me. You can find almost anything want to eat in Cotonou! Want Chinese food? No problem. Lebanese food? No problem. Pizza? No problem. Hamburgers? No problem. Thai food? No problem. Oh, and I would kill for a freakin' swiss cheese sandwich!!!!!!!!!!

"In Africa, there is a certain degree of useless pomp and circumstance you have to go through. Lengthy introductions. Lengthy thank-yous- for-coming-to-my-country. Lengthy speeches that don’t seem to go anywhere."
Maybe this is right, maybe it's not. It's certainly true in Benin, but in Africa? Africa is pretty big. If you took the land of the US, China, Japan and Europe and added them up Africa would be bigger. There are 53 countries here. My newest pet peeve is referring to the attributes of a region or country in Africa as an attribute of the entirety of Africa. In any case, I highly reccomend the book "Africa is Not a Country" by Margy Burns Knight et al.