Benin

I just had a great vacation in Benin. I went to Cotonou (i.e. the mouth of the river of death – what?) to visit Lauren and also managed to see Jose, now a PCV, (actually, the Martha Stewart of Benin – especially his luxuriously-appointed bathroom) (that would be sarcasm) whom I met at my last job, and Marielle, who owned a boutique near my house in Gabon.

Spent the first few days hanging out in Cotonou, being fed whisky at 11 a.m. by Lauren’s host father, and getting used to motorbikes as taxis. Then Stephanie, Lauren’s friend, came to Cotonou and we took a bus up to Natitingou, Jose’s post, in the north-west of the country. The ride up, I kept staring at all the greenery – so different from Mali!

Natitingou was great – the first evening Jose’s counterpart took us to a circumcision ceremony and then fed us; the first day, we went on a game drive at the Parc de la Pendjari – didn’t see much but it was nice. The second day we just hung out, saw a couple of Jose’s projects, and I was overwhelmed with a desire to stay there. It made me miss Peace Corps!

Unfortunately, on the ride back, Stephanie got sick (I hope she’s better now) and I was a little stressed out b/c I’d left my passport at the Immigration and only had a day to recover it before I was leaving. In fact I wound up leaving the country without a visa – just a super sketchy-looking stamp on my visa application receipt – and was wondering what Beninese jails look like but when I handed my passport over to the customs dude, he didn’t even blink! The magic of stamps!

Will post in detail later – also have some notes on food!