Hotel Le Carbet Cotonou

... Also, I was told if you accidentally take a picture of the police they can punish you, and if you take a picture of the locals, they may become very angry. They believe a photo steals their sole. It&#8217;s a Voodoo religious thing I think. Benin is the country where the voodoo religious originated.<br><br>Maybe one of these days if I&#8217;m discrete, I can quickly snap a picture....

... de casque.<br>La nuit tout le monde est dehors au bord des routes. Les gens discutent, écoutent de la musique ou vendent des choses.<br>La<br>maison de Bonaventure et de Pulchérie sa femme est très belle et<br>grande. Ils ont l&#8217;habitude d&#8217;offrir un verre d&#8217;eau à leurs invités pour<br>leur souhaiter la bienvenue. Nous avons été reçues comme deux vraies<br>reines. On a commencé les dégustations de nourriture béninoise :<br>manioc, pommes de terre, viande rouge ...

... the video and be reminded of all the activities. Then we held a brief blessing-of-the-little-children ceremony for five youngsters. They were very cooperative as I picked them up and prayed for each of them. Their eyes got very large when the "white guy" picked the up. One little girl tried to take my glasses, then pulled on my moustache, then tried to put her fingers in my mouth as I prayed. It was ...

... sketchers. It's fun to have breakfast here and watch the artists setting up, though the early views are often obstructed by trucks making deliveries. I found a place that offered a breakfast including a couple of fried eggs (purely for tourists - that's not a French breakfast), and sat on the sidewalk watching the early morning activity and shivering a little over my café au lait. I took some photos and then headed back to the hotel. I ...

... when a screener became available for the next patient.  It was very neat because I got to see and say hello to every single person in line.  Many of the conditions I had never seen firsthand, including: cleft lips and palates, very large tumors, club feet, and bowed legs.  For those of you who are unaware, Mercy Ships offers free healthcare services to the poor.  Services include surgeries to treat fistula, flesh-eating diseases and orthopedic deformities ...

Next morning I woke up and walked out of Lome. Aft** two hours a nice moto-taxi driv** pulled ov** and told me he wanted to assist me for a couple of miles. What he ended up doing instead, was driving me the whole 64 km to the bord** line, in spite of my insistence that he just dropped me anywh**e that wouldn't drive him into financial loss. This is the way he makes his living, thus driving me represented not only a waste of time, but also fuel and, consequently ...

... du tapis roulant de la salle des bagages...jouons à "Qui attrapera le premier". C'est tout de même une belle leçon de solidarité à laquelle j'ai l'honneur d'assister; les passagers s'aidaient à récupérer leurs bagages dans la petite salle de l'aéroport. Parfois on pouvait entendre quelqu'un crier, ''S'il vous plaît! Attrapez le sac rouge qui s'en va là!'' Et tout le monde s'essayait à défier le tapis roulant. Et c'est carrément des ...

... squatting down. Hilarious. Boat tours were being offered of the stilt village but as it was very hot and we'd seen many before, Oliver and I decided not to go. As did Josh, Rachel, Jim &amp; Teresa. They were also charging 2,500CFA plus more for a guide which we thought was pretty steep considering our trip notes stated 500CFA. The locals used to have bidding wars and you could pick who you went with for how long. Now the "tourism office ...

... were laid. Locals got in on the action, directing Jay left, right and centre... possibly the reason for us getting bogged in the first place. Heart is in the right place but really just pains in the butt. A few cars were in the way so they had them moved... except for one which they couldn't find the driver for. After a while they decided to move it themselves... 6 or 7 of them each grabbing a side of the car and with a 1, 2 and ...

... evident with our journey today. After getting really bad vibes last night from the taxi guy who promised that we'd be leaving early early this morning, we decided to stiff him this morning since he hadn't shown up by 8:30am (when one usually leaves at 6AM) and go visit our host family in the south for Christmas. It was such a relief to finally be on the road. Traveling in the south is so much easier than going up north where we used to live. We just jumped off our ...