Thursday, August 04, 2005
Whew, it's been a little bit since I've had a chance to get my computer. Things were really hectic after our big weekend in Grand Popo. I'm currently about as far as you can get away from there now, in the Alibori region of the north. We're in the main trade center of the region in a city known as Kandi. Let me start though by talking about how freakin' sweet Grand Popo was.
Grand Popo is THE toursity destination for Benin. It's only a little more than an hour or so outside of Cotonou, and is sort of the protoypical tropical beach town... with one marked exception: people. I mean, it was all there, the tables low to the ground so you can put your Corona in reach of your towel, the big thatch-roofed beach bar, everything... except for people. Well, that's not entirely true, we were there and there were a few fishermen mending their nets on the shore, but you could have easily walked 2-3 minutes in either direction and been completely alone. It was awesome. The beach was nice, although the sand was a bit rough. The pull is amazingly strong, so there wasn't much (any) swimming. Although I did bring along my official Wildflower frisbee which was great fun to play with. Unfortunately though playing next to an ocean of certain death makes for interesting times when the waves try to carry the frisbee away.
One particularly funny attempt, regarding frisbee retrieval, happened when a wave was washing out and carry the frisbee down into the ocean. I ran after it, and fumbled over it a few times. Finally I jumped, scraped my knee a bit but had my hands on the frisbee. It was at that moment that I realized there was a giant wave about to land on my head. Let me tell you, I've never gotten up so quickly in my life. I escaped unharmed, and got to hear the retelling of the story from someone watching up on the sand.
After playing on the beach with all of the TEFL volunteers (who had to depart early) we went on to get some dinner. Let's first however go into a brief discussion of the somewhat confusing term (in this country anyway) "restaurant". From the States one would posit that food would be available on relatively short order, and if something is on the printed menu it can be ordered. Such is not the case here. When you get to a restaurant here, first you must ask if they are serving food at all today. Hopefully the answer is yes, and you can procede from there. Chances are there isn't a menu, or maybe there is, but it won't be correct... so you simply ask what they have. Chances are you'll get a somewhat non-commital answer, so you probably describe something that you'd like to eat and they'll tell you if you can make it. They'll "rush" (and by that I mean start thinking about going) to the market to pick up your supplies and cook like mad (and by that I mean start thinking about lighting the stove). Around 2-3 hours later you'll have some semblance of what you ordered, but you'll be so starving you'll eat it anyway.
Whew, that sounded pretty bitchy, huh? It's actually not always that bad, but it's quite a bit different. It doesn't help of course that while we're in stage it's always the Yovo parade... so they have to cook for 14 unexpectedly, and we all order different things, so they have to prepare them one at a time. It's really just a different pace of life, and actually kind of cool. I mean for one, you know for a fact that you're getting the best ingredients that are available. If you order chicken, they will likely be killing a chicken to serve you. That's pretty neat, but very different. On the flip side though there is also tons of what is essentially people sitting in their front yard selling food that is available on demand. Interestingly enough that food is about 1/5 the cost of ordering. It's also true that in the larger cities there are restaurants that operate a bit more like the Western restaurant... but that's besides the point. In any case, since I like to brag about how cheap things are, a restaurant cooked dinner will run between $4 and $6 USD. Now there are more expensive, but that's for the equivalent of oh, Olive Garden (maybe something a little bit nicer, but around there). For that you'll get some sort of meat, some sort of starch, and probably some small appetizer. You might even be able to squeeze a beer or two in. Eating on the street (eating about the equivalent of IHOP) will afford you a full plate of the same, but for the price of about $.50 to $1 (depending on how much you want to eat). Not too shabby, but definetly a variable experience. I'm looking forward to trying more food on the street. So far it's been relatively okay, but nothing to write home about.
In any case, back to Grand Popo. I wanted pizza, let me say for the record, but we went to a place called Coco Beach which was a pretty sweet little place. It was owned and operated by some hard-core Rasta guys, so you can only imagine what it was like. There was lots of thatched roofed little seating areas, and then a open space for tons more tables. The bar stools were chopped off palm trees, and the foot-bar was a rolled thatched-mat. It was awesome. Except... there was no beer left (some Quebecois drank it all!!!) and we waited for more than 3 hours to be served. When our food finally did come it was an unsatisfyingly small amount! No one was too thrilled with that aspect, but the atmosphere was so cool it was forgivable. The barmen played music for us, we were right on the beach and the company was good. After that we retreated back to the hotel, and spent the night in relative peace.
The next day we did absolutely nothing. The previous day we found a great place that served omlette sandwiches in a relatively short amount of time. A few people left early, but most of us just hung out. It was amazing, we did nothing and it never felt better. We finally decided to head back around 2p, but had forgotten that the next day was Independence Day (that's the Beninese Independence Day) so there weren't very many taxis to be found. We had to jump a couple of cities, but finally made it back for a reasonable price. All in all it was awesome, and really came at the exact right time. Azove is nice, but I was really needing to get out for a little bit.
August 1st was Independence day, and for that reason we had relatively abreviated class. We took a short trip down to Aplahoue for a parade. Now, we weren't told this, but we ended up being guests of honor at the parade, and were thus afforded special seats amongst local dignitaries, religious leaders and the mayor of the town. Let's also say that parades are quite a bit different here. In the states parades are long, and people crowd along a route. There might be important people in a box, but they are passed the same as everyone else. Not here. Here it wasn't so much a parade as it was a vaudville performance. I mean people entered from the right, and exited to the left, but it was just a series of groups performing some dance, song, trick, or even a divination about the future of Benin. It was awesome, since it was all directed towards us. All of the other attendees had to watch things from the side, or from the rear. It was surreal, but really quite neat.
The next day was also a day of somewhat abbreviated class where we began to prepare for "Tech Week". We cooked a little bit, and learned a little, and mostly did nothing of note. Actually, I take that back. We all learned our posts! For PCTs that's proably the most exciting thing in the universe. As I suspected I'll be posted in Parakou which holds the title of being the 2nd or 3rd largest city in Benin (depending on who you talk to), but also the advantage of having the best of the North and the South.
Anyway, for Tech week I was assigned to go to Kandi with Theresa (fellow trainee and blogger) and Jason. It was a fairly long journey, but not too uncomfortable. We had a minor scuffle in Parakou over the cab fare, but I was so happy to see the city I'll be spending the next 2 years in it was hardly worth noting. The city seems very cool. Actually, it was fairly hot... one thing about being in the north is that it gets quite a bit warmer here. Temperature here in Kandi has been hovering above 90F. Strangely enough it doesn't seem that bad, we're all pretty much climatized now. In fact, I think when we were in Grand Popo it hit about 70 and we were all freezing to death (myself included!). The entire trip north was really interesting. Right now things are so green on account of the rainy season, and really quite pretty. Everything up here is more interesting to look at, from the round houses with thatched roofs, to the gigantic super-cows. We had a moment in Parakou traveling by zemi to the bank where there was a giant herd of the bizzare african super cows was milling about in the road (in the city mind you). It was very surreal, and very much reminded me that I'm not at home.
Kandi is much smaller than I expected, but very low key. The Yovo song is different up here, but somehow seems less jeering. It's also less frequent. You don't have to argue with the zemi drivers, and only every 3rd person tries to triple the amount things cost in the market place. It's pretty neat. We've been cooking in since we've got here, which is awesome. Theresa has been taking command of the kitchen, and I've been very content to lie back and enjoy the results. Last night we made beans with sauce, and garlic bread with real butter. Delicous. This morning we had eggs, but there was a snaffu early on (Theresa accidently bought hard-boiled eggs) so I got sent off alone to go into town to find eggs. It was absolutely awesome. I started walking, and quickly found a zemi driver who took me into the market. I had a ton of trouble finding eggs, and even had to ask people (who were no help at all, and just told me that i could find them "down there) but I finally found some and conducted a transaction, by myself, in French. I mean, it sounds stupid I know, but for me it was sort of proof that I can in fact do this. I bought eggs, I didn't get ripped off, and I was able to get to the market and back.
Today was more of nothing, we sat around for awhile, and then went in to watch Jason work. He hasn't been here for about 6 weeks, so it mostly meeting people and saluating. We finished off today with some Beninian style Sloppy Joes made with local cheese (called Wagasi). Very delicous again. All in all very content, but also not looking forward to going back down.
