Blogs from Benin, Africa - page 10

My first trip to Africa and I was really excited. It turned out that Benin was not really the Africa that I had pictured. The wildlife wasn't what I had naively exspected and the city was no way near what i had pictured in my head. Cotonou was a big, big city! I don't really know what had thought it would be like, but it was a big surprise to see how it was. Theres not really much to see in the city, the main attraction must have been the port of no return. But it was indeed a bit weird to stand where millions of slaves had left the continent to go to a life without freedom in the so-called land of freedom. But the city was so full of life, the whole country was. ... read more

No, that’s not a type-o; the first of May in Athieme was almost cause to send out that message. It actually started the day before. May 1st is the Beninese Labor Day, so to correctly celebrate the holiday, I drank beer the night before. While I was at the buvette with friends, I learned that Elisabeth’s father had died, barely a week after I had seen him to ask permission for Elisabeth to travel with me to Porto Novo. This news unsettled me, to say the least. My first typical-Erika reaction was to think the worst, and that I would never see Elisabeth again; but coming back to my senses, I realized she would at least be around for the funeral. I thought I might not ever see her again, though, with reason; she has now ... read more

I am sitting on my porch at the moment, enjoying the breeze and a book, and watching Senegal Fire Finches and Green-Throated Sunbirds. The sunbirds are so glossy, iridescent, and like to fly between the neem trees and the trees I think are called Luceana. The finches’ movements remind me of watching myself dance in a strobe light, how in that fraction of darkness, I miss a part of my dance move. Watching the finches is similar to that; blip, blip, blip, like they are too fast for my eye to catch all of the movement. Doves are trash birds, even in Africa. And Common Garden Bulbuls are as un-interesting as their name. Except for the “Bulbul” part, which, along with the fact that one is most likely in Africa to see the bird, saves its ... read more

My grandma wrote me a letter asking two important questions: one, do I actually do any work? Or just show good will of Americans? And two, what the heck are couscous, telibo, akassa, ablo, pate noire, and pate rouge? Obviously, the more important question to answer is food. Basics first: la pate. The direct translation is “dough.” Yum. Pate is made from corn. The corn is dried, and then ground into flour. This corn flour is what makes pate, with hot water and a lot of stirring. Pate rouge is made with corn flour too, but he water is the seasoned broth from the chicken or rabbit that goes with the meal. Pate noir, or telibo, and even once I heard it as pate chocolate, is made in the same way, but with the flour of ... read more

My biggest worry is that all I will do in Athieme is talk, and not necessarily talk about relevant issues, but just drink beer and sodabi and just shoot the breeze. What if I am a person that likes to study, talk, and write, but not actually do any work? I guess if that is the truth, I will satisfy two of the Peace Corps goals, those of culture-exchange. I will learn all about Beninese beer and the palm-wine distillation process, and the Beninese will learn that even Americans get a beer belly when they drink too much. I will learn how to play true football, and the students will learn how to play basketball better. I will teach them UNO and I will learn the West African version, called Eight Americans. Somewhere in there I ... read more