http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Benin/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Benin en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:16:22 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:16:22 UTC Benin Benin a stable democracy and what seems to be a good president investing in healthcare and education. lots of NGOs working all over the placeroads are crumbling and it doesn't seem any much better than it's dictator ridden neighbour that get no funding whatsoever ok not looking at numbers just the visible signs. Granted Lome in neighbouring Togo is really not tidy if you see what I m http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Ouidah/blog-347856.html No I'm not going to add anything.But here are 3 more photos taken since my last update. They have the internet over here in Alberta so I mind as well put it to use.The truck Fricking huge. Kind of crazy to walk underneith it. Or stand in front of it. The valley So this last Thursday myself and my teammates had a day off in Fernie. We rode a little over 100km the day before so we t http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/East/Parakou/blog-312815.html Hi everybodyLong time no seeI have been around a bit.As some of you asked me why no travelblogs I decided some new ones online. Honestly...no time for it.In January and Februray we have been to Burkina Faso Niger and Benin with Ales.Hope you are all doing fineBig hugUrsula http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/North/Natitingou/blog-310834.html Safe Sound... will update the blog at some point in the very near future Finally found a wifi connection here today.TnT http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/blog-300068.html Framleis er alt vel. Eg kjem ikkje inn paa yahoo mailen og for derfor ikkje skrive mail. Dette beklagar eg. I ettermiddag vert det eit moete med CHRISC styret her i Mbulu og der haapar vi aa faa mykje nyttig informasjon som vi kan vidareformidle til StudentKRIK i Bergen. Naar dette er gjort vert det truleg volleyball med dei lokale heltaneJaja det var no berre ein liten beskjed. Ha det bra http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/North/blog-296427.html We arrived in Cotonou and got dropped off at the main market during rush hour. Then followed the most terrifying moto taxi ride of my life. The driver weaved between cars that I thought were going to hit each other at one point I actually put my hand on the hood of a car I thought was going to hit us. I could see though that if he hadnrsquot driven like a maniac we would never have gotten http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-293963.html Our first stop in Benin was Grand Popo a small beach town not far from the Togo border. Grand Popo has lots of hotels but seems to lack tourists this time of year. I think we were the only ones staying at the beautiful Auberge de Grand Popo they were so desperate for our business that they invented a 25 Peace Corps discount.The Auberge has a beautiful beach with thatch shade huts and a swimmi http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Ouidah/blog-293958.html How How can this one place this one small village this one spot on the face of such a vast planet change me so profoundly warm my heart all the way through teach me so many lessons inspire within me such a complex combination of happiness and sorrow Doum. No not the village not the market not the dirt roads and the isolation and the poverty and the local language. Rather all of it. All http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/blog-289223.html Ecoutch 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 chan http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/blog-288027.html The sun shines on Koko at 6.30 each morning though the roosters seem to think it should be 5 as that is when they start to crow their morning chorus. I tend to wake about 7 to the crows or the crying child Angelo from next door or to the children already arriving at 7.30 to start sweeping the school yard. School is meant to start at 8am but this can be a flexible as sometimes the teachers just http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/blog-282850.html In the last week of my Peace Corps Volunteer experience in Benin I realize I have not yet posted these photos. I might even have some more later...I went exploring in the ruins of Athieme. I went the first time randomly and without the camera. The second time I went someone warned me that snakes like to hang out in ruins so the dogs accompanied. I was assuming a snake would find the dogs befor http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Athieme/blog-281076.html How to describe another world of new feelings sights and smells while sitting in an air conditioned room with a cold beerMy world here is very different to home in New Zealand but different in a wonderful way. It has now been just over a month and I have two months still to go. Every day is a learning experience the way of living here is just so different on every single level but when I s http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/West/blog-272869.html Woke up thinking it was 1000 when it was actually 1100 because of the time change. Weird to think there's a time change when Benin is only 90 miles from the Ghanian border. We headed off to the Python Temple which is the voodoo place of worship.When we arrived there was a morning service taking place which was completely unexpected as we were informed the temple was more of a museum than anyth http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Ouidah/blog-271947.html Woke up and took a bucket shower which is really gross to do inside a bathroom. We waited aroudn our hotel for quite some time before we actually started our day to visit the stilt village in Ganvie.After our talk about visiting Nigeria subsided we got a ride to a village near the lake entrance to Ganvie. The ride on the water was crazy. We took a canoe for the four of us which was rowed by a s http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-271943.html I attended my third AllVolunteer conference with Peace Corps in Benin. We were in the big city for two and a half days of meetings. Peace Corps houses us for these wonderful three nights in a nice hotel on the ocean. We slept and met in airconditioning bathed in hot water swam in the full length swimming pool and dived from its platforms stayed up all night talking and dancing and drank a lo http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Athieme/blog-264416.html With elections approaching I find myself much more often with Beninese friends who have satellite television. Via satellite I can follow the American presidential campaign. Fortunately I donrsquot have to bribe them with cake to be allowed to watch even they are interested in the campaign process. Benin is also preparing for elections so my friends and I profit from the news by discussing poli http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Athieme/blog-264406.html Athim celebrated International Womenrsquos Day on the 8th of March at the secondary schoolrsquos playing fields. The basketball and handball teams the two sports with girlsrsquo included had prepared the courts for the games which meant that the courts had actually been drawn in the lines scratched out with a hoe. We set up a tent at each court for the spectators and hauled the benches http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Athieme/blog-264399.html It is hard to know the words to choose to begin describing this new adventure of my life but I guess its just easiest to start at the beginning...So my last week in Montpellier flew past every day at school with an awesome class of people who became great friends. We had an awesome night on out final thursday all meeting up for goodbye drinks lots of laughs and languages around the table sor http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-260056.html Irsquom in my ninth month here in Benin and I have to say that there are days when I wonder what Irsquom doing here still. I love Benin but itrsquos not easy being who I am and living here. I mean sometimes the injustice I witness on a daily basis is too much to handle and other times I feel Irsquom getting used to it. The way women are treated the problem of child trafficking the la http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/blog-259763.html LET'S MEET BENIN The country of the amazones of the historical slave trade of the children new slaves today of the voodoo. A journey to meet understand and share a culture. Also a bit of adventure The Africans say ldquoThe world knows very well how people die in Africa but knows nothing of how people live thererdquo. With this journey we would like to repair a historical and cultural http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Ouidah/blog-249989.html JOSHIANE Each time we go to Africa there is some novelty. Sometimes pleasant sometimes sad or even dramatic. This time Maison de la Joie looks quiet. Children are growing up their number is growing as well from ten to twenty and others are waited. My wife and my daughter are there since one month. My arrival is welcome with a breakfast based on rice and chicken at 5 am. After a few hours sleep http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Ouidah/blog-249974.html The House of Joy We could not miss a visit to Justine during our journey in Benin. We knew that she was giving a shelter to some women who had been kicked out of their home by their own husbands together with their children. In general a wife is kicked out because she did not accept that her husband brought home a second one. Also the income often too scarce to maintain several wives and all of http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Ouidah/blog-249961.html FORTUNErsquo a new angelNotes from the last journey to BeninSometimes during our journeys of responsible tourism one may encounter human dramas that lacerate our hearts and imprint images in our minds that will stay for a long time.All facts and people are real.Our holiday in Benin was over. Pierre and Elodie the two young French that we left in the north of the country would be back in Ou http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/North/Natitingou/blog-249959.html I was asked this question How's Africa I wasn't sure how to respond so I just rambled a bit...Africa is a thousand books that have never been written a thousand voices which have never been heard a moving dancing singing writhing bustling continent with a history so rich we can only scratch its surface. I cannot say how africa is for I can only speak of the slice of it that I current http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/blog-242094.html I hadnrsquot slept well and still woke up early. I decided to go to morning mass at 7h as a means to get out of the house and in search of motivation. Arrived at the church I discovered there was no mass for some reason so I turned to walk home. I decided to take the short path that passes through light brush from the river to the church. As I passed a smaller path that lead away from town in http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Athieme/blog-239283.html I never expected to eat a chicken head but as I studied the bone structure of my meal in the twilight of the 2nd of January 2008 I discovered that chickenhead meat is pleasant. I refrained from gnawing on the eye sockets but everything else went down well. Since December 25th 2007 I have more often than not only needed to eat every other day finished with a cup of coffee for digestion whil http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Athieme/blog-239281.html The border is just over an hour away from Chez Alice.We were given 48 hour visas at the border lots of food vendors on both sides of the frontier.We drove to Ouidah stopped at the Immaculate Conception church and had a few hours to walk around town we decided to go to the Snake temple nearby and Chrissy Ingrid Mark and Jo had their photos taken with a phyton round their necks I opted out. Th http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Ouidah/blog-238007.html The night sky is something spectacular here in Benin. I don't know exactly why. There are many logical explanations of course. Fewer lights less electricity the silence that settles peacefully over a village late at night... The other night I found myself awake and standing underneath a blanket of stars planets and swirling dust as the wind blew soft and cool a gentle reminder of the great s http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/East/Parakou/blog-235294.html