Last days of a great adventure

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Ecoutché, Adado, Thank you and goodbye!!!! Thank you for the memories, the adventures, teaching me how to eat Yam pulli with my hands and pumping the water for me. Thank you for being patience while I stumbled along with my French, and for the laughter while I tried to speak Tcha. But it is time to say goodbye. How do I say goodbye to a village, a culture, a school and people, who I know have changed my life forever? How can I explain to a child why I have to leave, why I can't stay with them longer.

My last days in Koko rolled along very fast, many emotions, many feeling and thoughts all in a crazy hot climate. I wrote down what happened in the few days to give a bit of an idea how this adventure came to an end.

Wed 4th June
We drove back to Koko from Cotonou, a five hour drive along a sometimes crazy road. Beatrice was with us and we stopped at her familes place to visit her grandmother, a wonderfully wrinkled wise old women, surrounded by her family and enjoying her days as central core in the village. Two min after I had arrived home, a child knocked on my door (they don't actually knock they say 'ko ko ko', because many don't have doors, so it is the polite way of asking to enter), and said that they were going to collect honey and did I want to join in? One of the main parts of Karins foundation is her bee keeping project. And to keep it sustainable she also has a bee keeping club within the school, so that the older bee keepers can teach the younger ones that are keen to learn and not afraid of being stung. Well I got stung, studpidly I did not tie my hair up and got a couple stuck in my hair....
Dinner was fried cheese, but their cheese is more the texture of tofu, like it keeps its form and is real yummy fried.

Thurs 5th June
I spent most of the day painting medals for the sportsday on friday. I had made three sets of devil sticks and they were used at every possible break that the children had, they just loved them!! In the afternoon I had the environment club and my english club. In the english club we played hangman for the 50th time, but they love it and we played "Silvia says....." to practice the verbs. Dinner was boiled taro and fresh Mango, a present from Beatrice's garden.

Fri 6th June
The night was surprisingly cold, had to have two sheets as a blanket, prob about 22C. Was sports day at school. All the children chose one activitiy - throw ball in the hoop, throw the ball long distance, endurance running, sprint running and high jump and each teacher looks after one activitiy. Apparently it was organised, but kids just seemed to be everywhere, but the teachers had it mostly under control, though the occational stick still had to be used. I gave the medals as prizes and they also received pens, t shirts ot practice books from Karin.
At 5 I went to the college for my final envi club. They planted their trees for the first of june and then we sat around and talked about NZ and Benin. They asked me questions such as "What do you wear, do you grow rice or yams, do you have zebras, do you have cement?" We shared each other national anthems and I treid to explain what snow was.

Sat 7th June
Breakfast = fresh bread, coffee and mangoes
Spent most of the day finishing up the different craft projects I had started while at Ayeke. Fixed the totally broken old dolls from the kindergarten and also made them new clothes. Hand washed my clothes, tided up and played with some of the children. A normal saturday Koko day.

Sun 8th June
In the morning we went to the one of the sacred forests to meet the traditional healers.
At midday we joined in with a meeting of the youth group from Koko. A great group that have finished school (though some have not actually been, some only to primary and a few have been to college) and the majority are not yet married (though many of the women had babies on their backs already). They joined together to ask many of the question that our youth grouos at home ask. They have organised themselves to have a building to meet in but are now trying to sort out a way to make some more moey to make it more of a youth friendly building. They are a group which I hope I keep in contact with and support when I am back in NZ. Perhaps they could become a sibling group to Gecko or Intersect???
At 1pm Karin meet with the 7 fathers of the girls that she pays to go to bording school in Abomy. She does not pay all the money as she says the fathers have to take some responsibility for their children. Any girl who went to Ayeke and is within the top 5 of the region after CM2 Karin offers to send them to boarding school.
At 3pm I meet with a couple of teachers to help finish their dolls
I also went and watched the family next door make gari - first they grow the manioc, then its dug out, pealed and grated. This is then pressed so the liquid seperates from the solid. They tranform the liquid into tapioca and the solid is seived and then tossed over the fire to remove any moisture and then its gari. They eat gari all the time as it last for ages and you only have to add water to it and it becomes a kinda mush which they add a bit of sugar to.

Mon 9th June
I stayed my final overnight at Tobe, and I got up to see the sunrise but it was raining. At school I spent most of the day with the children painting my tree. I had already copied all the childrens hands onto paper and cut them out. We had then sent the paper to Cotonou and were it was turned into iron hand leaves and the trunk and branches were made. We brought this all back up to Koko and I painted the whole thing. The first coat with the kids, bit of a mission as paint just ended up everywhere...

Tues 10th June
In the morning I set up on the back field benches to do class photos with each class. They had never had class photos before, so it was all quite exciting for them. I am now going to try and find a place to get as many photos as I can printed to send to Karin for the school, as the kids just LOVE photos and never stop looking at them. In the evening I visted a women who had just given birth to the most adorable twins, they are born almost white and only their finger nails and ears are slightly dark. The women has previously given birth four times to dead children, so these twins were a real blessing.

Wed 11th June
For my last Art and craft club we went into the village and painted Koko. The rest of the day I spent painting the tree.

Thurs 12th June
Karin woke me at 5am and as a surprise for my birthday drove me to the hill behind Bante which we climbed in the darlk and wached the village come alive as the sun came up. Gorgeous!!! We then had breakfast in the village with the school director. At 12 I had a goodbye lunch with the teachers, I showed and explained all the projects I had done with the chilrden and then gave them all a friendship braclet I had made. That arvo I had my last envi and english club.

Fri 13th june
We assembled the tree and it looked magnificicent!!! The children loved it, especially cause they were all so much a part of the creation, they would all try and spot which one was their hand and figure out which branch was which class. Around the base I wrote: Sois fort, Are kole, Be strong, Kia kaha. I had organised with my old bread lady to bake me 400 bread buns to give to each child. Bread is specal for them and not an every day meal, so they were all excited to get a bun. I also told them I would be leaving the devil sticks, juggling balls, my book on NZ and my english-french dictionary in the library.

Sat 14th june
Florance, a teacher picked me up and drove me to Bante on her morotbike to catch the bus to Cotonou. A crazy ride, where every stop is just madness. In Cotonou I had to find a motor taxi driver to drive me to Karins place, not as easy as that might sound beleive me!!

The last week I spent in Cotonou with Karin, exploring Cotonou a bit more, wandering the market and seeing some of the sights. We went and visted Ouidah again and went to the old Portugese fort, where the slaves were held before being loaded onto the ships. I could write another page about Ouidah, was quite full on being a white person there, its the place where I noticed the colour of my skin the most.

I sit and write this now from Omis computer in Switzerland, already I feel seperated from the life in Benin. Here in Switzerland everything I do I do differently to how life was in Benin. I hope I can now find ways to support Karin from afar, I am already in contact with Herrliberg school, Karin and mums old school to see how they can support Ayeke. But now is time to relax enjoy the European summer and see what direction next calls me. Oh and by the way I received my final marriage proposal from the immiration officer in Benin as he stamped my passport to leave...

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Photos

Beatrice and her family
Karin is like Beatices mother and sister, Beatrice came up north with us and has helped me on many occasions. Her mother died when she was very young so she was brought up by her grandmother (on the right).

Boys from the bee club
they gave me all that raw honey as a present!!! Delicious!!!

resturant on Tobe!!
For my final Tobe sunset we brought up some cool drinks to have on the top while we watched the sun go down, MAGIC!!!

school photos
kindy 2

school photo - CM1class 5

school photo - CM2 class 6
final class of primary, they all have to sit an exam at the end of the year for entry into college. If they fail some do school again the next year and for others that is the end of their schooling. Those that pass go onto college, there is a new one now in koko, started 2 years go, or they go to bante, or if the parents can afford it to Cotonou. After 4 years at college they sit and exam, and after that they are legally allowed to teach primary!!!! So after class 10ish with no teaching training you can teach at a primay level. There is then another 3 years possible at college and then they sit the big exam for uni entry. Only one of Karins teachers have that final exam.

Comments

[Stubrucam]

Great read!
This has been a great blog. A fantastic account of a time spent in a country most from the west have never heard of. Best of luck for your future adventures.