Hotel Dona Porto-Novo

23rd - Aft** crossing the bord** we headed into Grand-Popo and the majority of the group went on an estuary tour, which included a voodoo village, mangroves and a town that had some old Portugese buildings. Our guide pointed out the various types of voodoo statues that w**e around the village. We also had some 'African gin' (palm oil/wine).



Moving on from Grand-Popo we went on to Ouidah, which in the 19th century slaves w**e shipped out to the ...

... Plans. I remember reading that Conan Doyle used to like to come to Paris, I wonder if he ever stayed here. I left my bags with the baggagiste and went to get the little Citroen C5. Pulling up in front of the hotel, I loaded the car, and off I went toward the Opéra Garnier. From there it was direction place de Clichy, then the boulevard de Clichy, then the porte Saint Ouen. Those few miles took 45 minutes in Parisian traffic. But then I was on ...

... well as dental and eye care.  The Africa Mercy Ship arrived in Benin on February 9th for a 9 month stay.  Aside from just providing surgeries, the ship is committed to improving healthcare in the countries it visits and in Benin will be training local health workers on treating fistula, dental hygiene, and mental health care.  Benin is a very poor country - with the average monthly salary estimated at less than 50 USD in 2007, according to the World bank. 

... and aft** brief hesitation I ended up taking his off** and it was probably the best thing I've acceded to in the past few days, as the place was dazzling, absolutely gorgeous. The beach stretches to the horizon line, the coconut trees add up to the panorama a sup**b effect and then, th**e is this sand bank, tongue shaped, 100 m wide and a few km long, wh**e we have the ocean on the right hand side and a riv** on the left, creating a rath** unique and ...

... cotonou this morning; will write more about the journey later 4 in cotonou benin now; hoping calvin will make it soon: we arent together yet because his ticket was long purchased & non refundable by the time i decided to go: it was a lot cheaper for me to fly to ghana; but maybe it woulda been worth the money,, anyho i am fine on my own; like it actually; but le reunifique will be sweet :) more when i get to a bettter co,puter: love you all and thanks for the messages!

... Minister of International Relations was there, there was also the US Ambassador, the Peace Corps Regional Director for Africa and the Benin Country Director. As well as all the Peace Corps staff, the stagiares and current PCVs, there was also many officials from the Beninese government, some previous volunteers from Benin who had come over especcially for the ceremony, and also many of the host familys had come over from Porto Novo. Unfortunately it ...

... the learning). This week was also about the french, which accumulated in us having our final language interviews on friday morning. I was a little less happy with my performance this time than in the mid-PSL interview, although I was able to use more tenses properly. I had a particularly random question when she asked me to describe my house in Porto-Novo, and I realised I had never learned the vocabulary for buildings, I didn't ...

... to their respective posts on wednesday. Of course, with my schedule being dictated by the Oro fetische that grips Pobe at this time of year, I had a free day in Porto Novo and travelled up on thursday morning. I made the most of my free day, I used the int**net, I studied french, bought tissu for clothes (the patt**n is wond**fully garish, bright primary colours of envelopes and hearts) and went to one of the more west**n sup**markets to buy strawb ...

... dogs are a little too self-reliant here, and part of my argument for getting a cat is I really don't like mice. I hope too have lots of news for you after post-visit, which will be a good opportunity for me to give you an idea of communication logistics, how often I'll be able to email etc. For the first 3 months at post we are limited in how much we can travel, and we are generally meant to stay at our post. So I'm not sure how that will ...

... accounting for illiterates which means drawing lots of boxes, lots of different colours and shapes. To find a practice audience we're going out of Porto Novo to a small village with some illiterate women's groups. We also get french-Guun (local language) translators, which will be an interesting twist. A big part of last week was the 'technical visit' where I shipped out with K to go spend a couple of days at post shadowing another ...