Hotel Bimyns Porto-Novo

... scoot**. Just being on the back of a bike enhanced the exp**ience of this tour. We w**e doing part of 'The Route of Kings' - the Dahomey trail. First of all we headed to the local chief's home, on which the group split in 2 to obs**ve a little voodoo c**mony. My group was second in and upon ent**ing it we all had no idea what idea what was going to happen. I volunte**ed to take part in one, this involved me stepping into a mini-circle surrounded by voodoo ...

... it hard for them to study the Bible, since they rely on what others can pass along to them. But they're off to a good start. The taxi driver was back on time and we left about 3:00 pm. I feel we really "redeemed the time" today. I reserved a "hotel taxi" to take me to Lomé in Togo tomorrow. Monday, the leadership seminars are scheduled to begin - it's going to get very busy now for the next couple of weeks.

... was happening. He told me, "You have been promoted to business class." This happens rarely, but it's always welcome. As we settled in, the stewardess offered us all glass of champagne (true champagne from the region that bears that name). Then we waited for our departure. And waited, and waited. After a while, the pilot informed us that seven passengers were being detained by immigration authorities while certain discrepancies were being ...

... my should**s and my tooth ache still in full swing for the fourth day in a row, made me stop und**neath a tree shadow. Along came a bingyman and we had a nice little chat about life philosophies as I rested. Aft** farewell I walked for quite some time before Simon, already a passeng** in the motorbike, instructed the driv** to pull ov** and picked me up for a 15 km stretch. He insisted I spend the night at the bar he's putting up on the beach side at Grand ...

... pour récupérer ses bagages. Son habillement, ne le trahit pas (costume soigné). Seule la chaîne dorée autour de son cou, bien mise en évidence porte à équivoque. Lorsque finalement je récupère mes bagages, une heure s'est écoulée devant le tapis. Belle soirée, riche en rires et autres blagues sur les chariots ou sur l'aéroport. Dans une humeur bon enfant, je souhaite une bonne soirée au monsieur près de moi. Bonsoir Cotonou, la solidaire.

... Novo - officially a multipurpose centre where they do agricultural training/have a hostel/internet and multimedia training and various other things - but more about that another time). The Swear-In Ceremony/40th Anniversary Celebrations took place in the Palais de Congres in Cotonou, and was quite an event. We had the main event in the largest hall there, and the event was attended by a number of people. President Boni Yayi was unable to make it, but ...

... I was working with N, and the accounting was a bit more of a struggle, but we quickly learned (in-time for the Marketing formation) that the best way to teach these are to split the class into groups and do activities, which created a much more productive class atmosphere of them figuring it out for themselves and sharing ideas (and if they're giving ideas to each other, that works out so we need to speak a lot less french and just ...

... how to squeeze 10 of us into one of the unmistakable US-built Peace Corps SUVs) to a local hotel wh**e we met with our homologues, discussed projects, did classic team-building/ communication ex**cises and PC rules and regulations w**e reit**ated. Aft** 2 days of this, all the oth** volunte**s (except for TEFL, who are stressed and in the midst of 'model school' aft** they did their post-visit in week 4) headed off bright and early with their count ...

... we can set up home in our respective posts. Apart from the necessities the big thing I want to get for myself right-away is a kitten (and I would need to get it rabies vaccinated right away). A lot of volunteers either have a dog or a cat, and it's a nice company thing to have (but don't tell Nicky). Part of me would like a dog, just for the novelty of being able to have one and never having had one before - but I'm ultimately a cat ...

... mix of male and female) to teach, and I realise that for my previous experience of teaching kids I have to suppress my instinct to control the classroom, and be more a facilitator of discussion between the adults as opposed to lecturing at them. Beninese adult education is a world away from the quiet teenagers of ZhenZe WuJiang Middle School. We teach our next TDA class tomorrow in fact, and everyone is looking forward to it. We're ...