Last year, I spent Christmas in the far north of Benin on the border on Niger and then went into Niger with some friends to do some sightseeing and see the last wild herd of giraffes in West Africa. This year I spent Christmas in a town on the other side of the north called Natitingou and then went on safari with 3 friends. I should probably write a whole blog about the safari but it would actually be kind of a boring recount of animals we saw (baboons, crocodiles, other monkeys, various deer/antelope/water buffalo looking things,ELEPHANTS!,giant velocoraptor bird creatures,warthogs (surprisingly sleek and majestic creatures for their hideous face),lots of exotic birds,hippos, and the barren Burkina Faso border lands). I did get to see an elephant really close up and that was amazing. We also spent one afternoon riding around on the top of the SUV drinking wine from boxes. Probably the classiest safari you’ve ever heard of. Since we are poor volunteers and all, we couldn’t afford to eat at the restaurant at the hotel so we brought in baguettes and a cheese substitute and peanuts and ate that for all meals except the last evening when we splurged on a meal and one beer each. After the safari we stopped at some beautiful waterfalls, which was also amazing. It was a really good experience and I’m glad I got to do it with some really good friends as well.
What I really want to talk about is my New Years Adventure in village. Since I spent several months’ salary on safari, I went back to village to eat rice and beans with my villagers for New Years instead of traveling more to be with volunteers. It was actually a great time and I’m glad I did it. My new closemate, Wes, came to my village for New Years Eve and we hung out in my market at the two story bar (one of the few actual two story buildings in village) and drank and danced with some villagers. Wes went back to his village the next day and I went to the next village over to spend the day with my work partner, Hyppolite, or as I like to affectionately shout at him, “HYPPO!!!”. I took a moto on to get there and on the way, we ran into a group of drunk adolescents. These are not exceedingly common here but it was a holiday even in Benin. A drunk kid stepped in front of my moto and the driver told him to get out of the way. Instead of moving, the kid rapid fire punched the light on the front of the moto for no apparent reason and broke it. This led to an instant drunk fighting mob and me jumping off the moto and running with my helmet still on to a safe distance to call my work partner to come get me and help me pay my driver who was in the process of wrestling the kid to the ground. Hyppo came and got me and all was settled but it was kind of scary for a few minutes. Hyppo’s wife made some delicious food and we spent some time at his house with his two daughters, Modukpe (not sure about spelling) and…wait for it….Ursula! They are adorable little girls and are slowly becoming less terrified by my spooky skin and more enamored with my ipod. After dinner, Hyppo and I went to a local bar and got a beer. I explained to him the concept of a New Year’s Resolution and asked him what his would be. He said that he was going to stop teasing his daughter so much. Then, without even allowing me to answer, he says, “Wait, what is yours? To sleep less?”.Somehow even my work partner who lives in another village knows of my excessive love of sleep. The problem is that, yes, sometimes I do sleep kind of late when I have nothing to do, but even if I get up at 8 or 9 o’clock everyone here thinks there is something wrong with me. The only reason you get up that late is if you are sick. Most people here are up by sunrise doing morning tasks like sweeping. Also, many of them have real lives with children and such, so it is much more difficult for them to sleep in. Whereas I have nothing to do in the morning if I am not working that can’t be done in the afternoon or put off to another day, and since I love sleep, I do that thing.
Anyways, after being teased by my work partner, I went home. The next day I spent with another English teacher. He took me to the village he was born in that is outside of Lobogo and super tiny. The soil there is dark black, which is in contrast to most of Benin where the soil is reddish brown. There are no mud huts because that type of soil doesn’t lend itself to mud hut making and the village isn’t accessible during rainy season because it is prone to floods. It is made up of 2 large families and their extended families. It is a very poor village but people looked healthy for the most part. I found the fattest Beninese baby I have yet to see there! I met the chief of the village in his little hut. In the center of all the huts there is a thatched hut with no walls that is encircled by giant logs on their side and one really big log in the center. This is where everyone meets and discusses and the chief sits in the middle. I also was able to see where they make the villages sodabe, or moonshine. It is made out of wine made from palm trees. They take the palm wine and boil it in a big metal container. There is a tube that siphons the real good liquor off the top and then takes it through two puddles that cool it down while it is still in the tubes. Then the liquor comes out of the tube and flows into a giant glass container and it is magically sodabe! Palm wine itself is actually very good, but for some reason it has always been served to me with various species of flies and ants floating in it. I think it is because they flock to the sugariness of the wine and it is just too difficult to constantly get them out, so they embrace the extra protein. I saw a dead man as well. The story in the village was that he had died of a broken heart after losing his wife and daughters in a tragic accident. He was laid out on a mat in one of the straw huts with a group of men sitting outside mourning and periodically taking shots of sodabe. My friend told me that they do a few things to preserve the body and sometimes it stays in the hut for viewing for several weeks or months. They have to put gauze over the eyes and mouth and stay vigilant because mice have a penchant for corpse eyes and tongue. And since the dead are laid out in a straw hut full of hidey holes and entrances for mice, someone (maybe the group of sodabe men?) is always on guard to shew away pests. I also met the village voodoo man, who was pretty cool, and saw a small childrens fete where they were all dancing like crazy. The joyful abandon with which people dance here is incredible and is one of my Benin happy thoughts. I have two good videos of people dancing that I need to post to fb when I get good service. So that was my holiday season that wasn’t quite one since the weather is either hot or real hot year round. I hope everyone else had a good one and I can’t wait to be in ‘Merica for the next one .
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