Jason's Dad and Stepmom's big adventure
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2003
1
54
62
Trip End
Dec 13, 2005
Materi,
Benin
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
How is everyone doing? We have been really busy up at post and then we just finished a great visit from Jason's Dad and Step-mom (Becca).
First a quick update on activities at post. The volunteer in Cobly (only 18 miles south of Matéri) had asked Rebecca to lead a tofu demonstration. We biked there the day before and had a great time visiting with Steven and then the following day we all taught around 30 women how to make tofu. It was a great day, the women seemed really to like the tofu, and there was lots of dancing and singing. We have also been giving lots of AIDS talks with our team in and around Matéri.
But let us tell you about our first visitors in West Africa...
After traveling for around 20-24 hours Dad and Becca (D&B) arrived in Cotonou at around 11:00pm. Which is great because Cotonou isn't as overwhelming at night and may even be mistaken for pretty with the city lights reflecting on the sound. The following day reality set in and they got to experience just what happens when you mix something as highly innovative as banks and traveler's checks with life on this side of the pond. After visiting 4 money exchanges, 3 banks, and at the last bank after waiting an hour in line we are told that US dollar traveler's checks aren't really accepted anywhere here in Benin due to problems with forgery. So after wasting the morning we were anxious to get out of Cotonou and see the real Benin. (in case you haven't guessed from this or previous emails Cotonou is great for its restaurants and grocery stores but other than that it's a big dirty hole of a city that we try to spend as little time in as possible)
After haggling with a taxi we were off about two hours north to Abomey (the historical capital of the Dahomey kingdom). The Dahomey kingdom was one of the more powerful kingdoms before Europeans started interfering in West Africa. During the height of power they ruled the lower half of what is now Benin and Togo. Unfortunately for the people in the more northern parts, this powerful kingdom fell under the influence of Portugal and then France. These two European powers used the Dahomey to gather slaves for their colonies in the Americas. Currently in Abomey the palaces of two Dahomey kings are still intact and have been turned into a museum. These palaces are not what us westerners would consider a palace (no sleeping beauty's castle) they were very large mud brick walled compounds with mud brick buildings and thatched roofs. The bricks were made from rust color dirt and in order to put fear in any dissenters they also mixed in blood and bones of their enemies. We were given a very nice tour of the palaces and told the histories of the kingdoms that still continue to this day.
After a nice evening in a tropical forested hotel we left the next morning for Matéri. And to give you an idea of travel in Benin we left around 8am and didn't get to Matéri until sunset that evening. Soon after we left we stopped at a town we like to call the Fruit Capital of the World. There your taxi pulls over and is instantly swarmed by women varying in ages between 9-60 all trying to get you to buy their fruit. This again is unlike anything you'd ever experience in the US because there will immediately be 5 arms sticking in your window all holding bags of oranges, pineapple, corn, peanuts, and lots of other things we could recognize. Jason braved getting out of the vehicle and ended up buy 10 very large and very sweet pineapples for two dollars (these are great gifts for our friends in Matéri where its too dry to grow much fruits). A great experience and eye-opener for D&B and something most people only experience in movies. We stopped some but mostly Benin is just a very long country and it doesn't help that the last hour is a rutted out washboard dirt road. But that last hour is also one of our favorites because we know we are finally approaching Matéri and are almost home. We had a great sunset to welcome us, and all of our neighbor kids helped unload the bags.
One thing we need to share is that Benin is a HOT country and even if we have become used to the 100 + days, a recent arrival isn't as fortunate. Both D&B were sweating more than they ever had before and just stayed a constant red-beat color. But they handled Matéri like real troopers, despite the 90+ temps at night inside and no electricity to turn a fan. The local grass woven fans were highly coveted but didn't offer much relief when trying to sleep. Fortunately the days and evening spent with our friends were wonderful. Granted we are a little biased but we truly think that Matéri has some of the nicest people ever! As soon as the word was on the community radar that our parents were in town we had a constant stream of visitors wanting to welcome them and just get to meet and talk with our relatives. (Family is especially important in the Matéri culture so it was a great honor for them to meet and host our parents.) We had arranged eating several local dishes at some of our friends houses several days and they were great times to get to taste the local cuisine and also just visit with them in their home environment. On Thursday we got our sunscreen lathered up and headed out for a day at the Grand-Market of Matéri.
One of the cool things about having D&B here was reflecting on how unique an experience we are currently living. Seeing them walking around the market, staring at all the chickens and goats tied to the backs of motorcycles, spices laid on the vendors mats, grains in large basins etc... allowed us to reflect just how normal it now seems to us and how lucky we are to have this as a weekly occurrence.
This is really hard to explain how the market actually feels but its kind of like in the Indiana Jones movies where he's walking through a mass of people and they are all talking, laughing, and trying to sell something except instead of being in Egypt they are all West-Africans. So several purchases of mangoes, veggies, and African fabric later we successfully emerged forever changed.
We were also able to plan an AIDS question and answer session at the high school so D&B could see some of the work we are doing on that front and see our friends and teammates in action. Although we did seem to walk all over Matéri, the majority of the time was spent visiting with our closest friends. Both D&B noted that in spite of the lack of material wealth the people truly posses a joy and happiness and sense of pride and community that was unexpected.
So Sunday morning we headed out of Matéri and went on a long two day wildlife trek through the national park close to us. Over the two days we saw elephants; hippos (both in and out of the water with one even running around); Kob, Roan, and waterbuck antelope; water buffalo; and tons of birds. All in all it was a very successful excursion even though the elephants were kind of far away and no lions were spotted. On the way back we stopped by the amazing Tanagoo waterfalls and had a dipped in the closest thing we have to Hawaii on the continent.
The following day we stayed in Natitingou and went to the museum about the "Samba people" those found in the north west corner of Benin. It talked a lot about the different castle/mud house structures found in the area. This was cool for us because we've seen the different variations in our travels throughout the region, but we didn't know the history behind them.
We then had another Long day of travel where we stopped by our host family's house in Come and ended up at one of the two beach resorts in Grand Popo. There we were able to relax and reflect on everything we've seen and done. Up to this point D&B were verging on input overload (from everything new and different they've seen and done) and but the beach with its coconut lined coast and the beautiful blue waters provided the chance for reflection. We had great seafood dinners fresh off the boat and enjoyed the treed and flowered grounds.
The final day we went back into Cotonou to visit the PC office and then go shopping for West African arts and crafts. Jason intervened as the official haggler to ensure that we were getting the Peace corps' price instead of the tourist's. (He's getting really good at this haggle thing so upon our return if anyone needs to buy a used car just let him know) Then that evening D&B headed back with just a 5-hour layover in Paris and a 4-hour one in Atlanta, while we headed back up to post early the next day.
We know this is a long one but we wanted to fill you guys in on a tourist's tour/perspective of Benin. We are getting ready to start a couple of projects up at post but will have to leave that until next time when hopefully they will be either finished or in process. We also hope there will be new pictures coming soon. Until then we hope everyone is well and we want to thank everyone for their letters and emails.
Love,
Rebecca and Jason
