Font de Canaletes

Drinking from this fountain means I will be back in Barcelona some day.

In the mean time I am back in Benin and ready to take on these final few months!

Z

Vegan Barcelona

Preparing for my vacation in Barcelona, I did a lot of research about where to eat. I was left with an impression (based on the internet) that we might have some trouble finding places to eat. Regionally – Catalonia isn't the best for vegan fare. This was definitely true when we made a day trip to Figueres, where my lunch consisted of a glass of wine and some bread. Barcelona however, was a really great city for vegan and vegetarian dining! 

My dad and I put together a list – of our favorite vegan/vegetarian dining experiences in BCN.

We meant to stop at 5 – but settled for 6.

Cat Bar Vegano

Cat Bar was easily our favorite dining experience in Barcalona, not only was it close to where we were staying, but it was also incredibly delicious. If Cat Bar were in Philly, we would eat there all the time. I might even say that they have better burgers that our current go to veggie burger dive (dare I?) -- Car Bar is only open in the evenings (after 16h) and is closed on Sundays. They have a very basic menu, of 5 different vegan veggie burgers (bean, mushroom, eggplant, etc) as well as a daily burger special. You can get your burger served with patates bravas (a local specialty), english chips (aka fries) or a salad. Appetizers include soups salads and a hummus plate. We ate here 3 times, not out of necessity. The beer list, made up of all european vegan brews, was also incredible. My dad liked the Brew Dog beers from UK – I was partial to a local BCN beer - "Edge Porter"

El Cafe Blue Project

Blue Project, a small lunchonette is located next to The Blue Project Foundation (an art gallery) right around the corner from the Museau Xocolate. They have weird hours, opening at 10h and closing at 20h – they have an al a carte menu all day, but only serve lunch from 13h until 16h. We ate here twice, once we stopped in for a snack not knowing what to expect, after which we decided we had to go back for lunch. They serve vegan and raw food (not entirely raw) – and their food was AMAZING and reasonably priced. Raw carrot cake, vegan Banana ice cream, grilled tofu sandwhiches --- and my dad said that sunflower bread on his raw sandwhich was the best raw bread he has ever had. If you are visiting the Chocolate Museum (which you should) go here for lunch after. Also fairly close to Picasso, and the Mammoth Museum (also incredible).

La Báscula

Mostly vegetarian, with a few vegan options. La Bascula does serve some seafood and egg dishes – they have copies of the menu in multiple languages so you should be fine. Really great warm vegan sandwich (and I am sure the rest of the menu is great too) and nice beer and wine options. The place has a super nice homey atmosphere.  Open from 13h until 23h, this is a late afternoon, order at the counter, and find a seat at a giant table type establishment. CASH ONLY. Incredibly friendly staff. 

Teresa Carles

Where we ate the first night, Teresa Carles is a fancier vegetarian restaurant with many vegan and a few raw options. Coming from Benin, my body just felt happier after eating a hearty and nutritious meal here. We shared a fruit and veggie salad (it had strawberries!!) – I ate the vegan lasagna for dinner (absolutely amazing) and my dad had the cashew cheese vegetable rolls. Aside from the typical wine and beer list they also offer juices and smoothies. Not the type of place you would eat at every night (like I said it is a bit fancier) but they are definitely worth checking out.

La Llavor dels Orígens

This is not a vegetarian restaurant BUT they offer a vegetarian fixed menu. Orgiens specializes in local Catalonia fare, which is what made this place really neat. We did not get to eat a lot of local specialties during our stay since the majority of them are meat and seafood heavy (although I did love the pan au tomate). – The vegetarian menu at Orgiens requires two people (and is rather expensive at 20 euro a person) – but this comes with 3 tapas style dishes, two appetizers, two entrees, and two deserts. A glass of wine for each person and a Catalan shot is brought to you with dessert. The menu is not flexible, meaning you will get one of everything (even if you both wanted the same entree) so we just split each dish in half and tried everything!! – Just as a heads up this menu is vegetarian (and seafood free – looking at you Air France) but it is not entirely vegan. For example one of the salads had goat cheese on it. Despite the price and the lack of flexibility we REALLY enjoyed our dining experience here and we were thankful to fine a Catalan restaurant that actually had a vegetarian dinner menu.

Wok to Walk

I was going to stop at 5 but this lunch chain was just too good to leave out. We went to the location on Princessa in the Bari Gotic/ El Born ish area. Wok to Walk is to go stir fry.. limited seating also available. The staff was amazing and friendly and they easily accommodate your dietary needs. You basically build your own dish, and can ask for any base to be made for you without eggs. Everything is fried up for you on the spot. And they clean the pans between each order. (They work in the open and I watched them do it). This was a quick easy inexpensive and filling meal with lots and lots of vegetarian options.

Z

Barcelona

I am so incredibly excited to be on vacation right now - Here are some pictures so far!!

Z

Village Envy

I sometimes joke with other volunteers that I have “village envy.” Of course by the standards of anyone reading this in the USA - I live in a village.. but compared to where the majority of the other volunteers live, I don't live in a “real” village at all. I have running water, transient neighbors, electricity, other yovos. and most importantly I live on a paved road.

Misserete can be a great place, and I have learned to make it my home. That doesn't change the fact that whenever I visit a friend who lives in a village – I get that twinge of jealously. The small tight nit community, the village fetes (that the volunteer is actually invited to), a concession full of people who are also part of the community and can therefore help you integrate... women and children who speak the local language with you and help you learn!! When I see the small villages that other volunteers have I can't help thinking to my self “Zoe, this is the experience you expected to have!” Then of course I have to remind myself that every volunteer experience is different, and I am having the one that I was meant to have, whether it was the one I really wanted or not – well that's not really important anymore. At the end of the day (or most days at least) I am happy with the experience I am having and the lessons that I am learning from it.

What brings this up? Well this week I have been traveling the Oueme-Plateau doing “PSN site visits” which means... visiting villages!!! I am not going to go into the whole who and were, because I don't want to interfere with anyone’s security. I share my village on here but that is my choice. I will say, that the places the new volunteers live are beautiful AND PEACEFUL! So peaceful. I wish I could have taken pictures to show you on the blog (have no fear I will be getting a new camera soon!)

My favorite part of going to visit other peoples villages is seeing the personality that the village has. Some villages are big like mine (yet still further away from the big cities and major roads) – some are small – some literally feel like they are just one road! Not everyone has a daily market like I do (or even regular access to fresh veggies – unless of course they work on a farm or grow them themselves).I don't always love eating the village food (I am spoiled city folk) but I love seeing what is available. It is really an eye opener to me. . Some people don't even have bubbly water!!

I love seeing the vodun and statues that are visible in the different villages. Here in Misserete there are small statues, and there are “spirit scarecrows” that go up during the corn season. One of the villages I went to the other day actually had a small shed like “house” for the zangbetos!!! A lot of villages have guardian houses (where spirit protect the entrance to the village) and most villages have statues like the ones found near me. Sometimes small business will have statues, or there will be memorials to something from the past (in Ketou a larger town, up near some of the volunteers that I visited this week, there is actually a sacred trash pile!!) My favorite statue in Misserete is a statue of of Africa with lions located in front of the Maison de Jeunes. Why is it my favorite? Well.. because the artist felt the need to give the statue real whiskers, obviously.

When you live north of well.. almost everything is north of me.. so just when you live north. You always have reasons to come south and many people have passed through my village and slept at my house. I am on the way to Cotonou – where we have to go to see administration, have medical exams, and to get on an airplane. In the reverse direction, from Cotonou, I am on the way back to village. There is also a lot of training done in Porto Novo (which is the city that I live in a “suburb” of), so people come through here a lot. Which is awesome in many ways but it also means I rarely have a reason to go North, and because of where I live, I think I get a very skewed view of the rest of the country. I mean, I know the rest of the country isn't like the cities, and there is less money, and less available.. but it is hard to really understand that without seeing it.

Loving Life.
Z

PS – I found a (small) pumpkin at a veggie stand in Cotonou, got excited and brought it home.. and have no idea what to do with it!! I can't really roast it on my stove, it would take too much gas. Any suggestions? I know all you brilliant people can come up with something.

Boy In Benin Part 3

Erik left to go back to the States on Friday.. I have been insanely lonely since then. It will be good to get back to work tomorrow and back to normal. 

Anyway he agreed to write a post wrapping up his thoughts on his visit here in Benin.

***

For 24 hours I have been back in the United States. I am clean, comfortable and well-fed. Now that I've gotten those first steps out of the way, I have had a chance to look back and review the past few weeks spent in Benin. I greatly enjoyed my visit, spending time with Zoe, and seeing another part of the world.

I could tell you about all the cool things we did, but I decided that instead of recapping the events of my journey, it would be more meaningful to share a few of my personal reflections. In all my travels, Benin has proven to be one of the most thought-provoking places I have ever been. Their way of life - their culture, their world-view - is in many ways drastically different than our own. Ultimately, as human beings, we all have the same basic wants and needs: food, shelter, and a good life for our family. However, there is great variety in the means by which we achieve these basic goals. I am grateful to have been able to visit Benin and for the opportunity to reflect on their way of life.

In general, I found the people of Benin to be very warm and friendly, welcoming us to their home, excited to share their beautiful country with us. During my time in Zoe's village, I found the community quite charming. Everyone says, "hello, how are you? Welcome." People spend most of the day sitting outside enjoying each others company. Even in the market, women will sit side by side selling the same thing as friends, not competitors. Although they have very little relative to Americans, what these people lack in possessions and technology they make up for with a connectedness that does not exist in most "American villages." It's like a giant family - everyone is looking out for each other. I would often walk alone through the village just to feel like a part of it.

I enjoyed the village life a lot, and it was cool walking amongst goats, sheep, cows and chickens everywhere we went, but the main thing I disliked about the village was EVERYONE'S incessant need to point out that I am white. Almost everyone we passed would call out to us "Yovo Yovo!" At first I kind of liked it. It was like being a celebrity; but by the end of the trip I became frustrated and really just wanted to pull some people out of their ignorance and explain that we are the same and what they're doing is rude. I tried to remind myself that I am to them what a purple person would be to me. I chalked their heckling up to curiosity more than anything else.

The food was also very different, but I liked most of what I tried. The religions were very different as well, Voodoo in particular, and it was sometimes difficult to take certain beliefs seriously (specifically those regarding sorcery), but I suppose fervently believing in something completely irrational is part of all religions, ours included. Benin would be a great place to conduct an ethnography, particularly one linguistic in nature. There are so many interesting languages spoken, and it would be neat to look further into how the local dialects reflect the peoples' perspective and outlook. Even though I could understand next-to-nothing, I enjoyed listening nonetheless.

One interesting thing that struck me is that the Beninese are insanely comfortable being uncomfortable. They seem to love prolonged stares and awkward silences. In the "Tro" taxis (cargo vans gutted and fitted with benches to fit 30 people), you are tightly sandwiched between 5 other people, your feet almost instantly lose circulation, everyone is sweating on each other, 10 people are screaming on their phones or to each other, and I was the only person on the bus that seemed to mind at all. As a side note, I must say, those taxis have to be the world's most uncomfortable mode of transportation, but I doubt that anyone in the country is aware. 

[Note from Zoe: I made a point to ensure Erik had only the most comfortable taxi rides possible – It can get way worse than that]

In a nut-shell, Benin is a country rich with natural beauty, pleasant people, and interesting culture. I am definitely not going to take as much for granted now that I'm back, and I am truly grateful for all that I have - hot showers, food variety, air conditioning, education, healthcare, etc. Still, I find myself wondering just how good some of our amenities are for the soul. Although the more impoverished citizens of Benin will pester tourists for money and food, they still seem happy with their lot. Without the common stresses of first-world life (9-5's, car payments, schedule juggling), people can focus more on those basic wants and needs mentioned earlier. They can wake up with the sun, cook a fresh, plastic-free non-processed meal, and work on the farm or at the loom, using their hands to create their livelihood. They're not connected to the ramblings of their peers on social media, or the depressing stories in the news. They work a little, the eat a little, they relax a little, and they are content. This lifestyle may seem almost lazy to a college-educated American worker, but lazy would not be the right word for it; I think 'easy' would be a better word for it. And while (when applied to work) that word carries negative connotations in our culture, there, taking it easy on the job is viewed in a positive light - and they be the right ones after all.

We desperately seek to impose our western sentiment that "development" ought to be the chief goal of any given society, and that societies should strive for progress through hard work and innovation, but the more I see of the rest of the world, the less convinced I find myself of the merits of this philosophy. The people in Benin are happy, they're healthy, and they appreciate the time they get to spend with one another. Likewise, I appreciate the time I spent with them. Being in Benin has reinforced within me some deep realizations that can only be achieved by traveling around the world, and I would enjoy spending more time there some day if the opportunity arises. A la prochiane! - Erik

***

Oh.. I also wanted to mention. Erik seems to have made more friends here in two weeks than I have made in the past 10 months (no surprise there we all know he is the social half of this whole). All day today – while I just felt like sitting around in my pajamas.. eating chocolate.. watching Remember the Titans.. and being left alone. People kept showing up at my house asking to see Erik. Not to mention the number of people who called to make sure he made it home safe. He is pretty awesome like that.. <3

Lots of Love and Happy Mothers Day!

Z

Boy In Benin Part 2

Erik and I devoted this week to seeing my village and the surrounding areas – this included experiencing the frustrating life of a peace corps volunteer (where work plans are currently being postponed, shuffled around, or just plain canceled).. He experienced the disappointment of watching a school garden die because the water pump is broken, the strange excitement of children (and adults) as they constantly shout at the foreigner walking by, and he got to meet lots of my friends both Host Country Nationals and Peace Corps.

Early in the week we went to Ouando where he got to experience the sites and sounds of a large West African market. We went tissu shopping (and he even bought some fabric from my regular tissu lady).. I showed him lots of different foods.. we walked through the animal section (which is super depressing but necessary to see)... I know from experience that the market can be really overwhelming the first time you see it, so I am hoping that if we go again next week he will be able to take more in..

On Monday we made a point to see Porto Novo's Botanical Gardens.. I had not been here before, but now that I have seen it I highly recommend going. Just as a note! ** The gardens are in fact not open on Monday. Some random guy who may or may not have been associated with the gardens in anyway let us in... and it was really great.. but I can't promise this would happen for everyone. The gardens house what is left of Porto Novo's Sacred Forest and is also the home to a very curious and friendly family of small monkeys (we think they are Mona Monkeys)

Between rain (and failed attempts to bring him with me to do actual work) we went over to Songhai so that Erik could take a tour of Songhai while I had my local language lesson... due to this being West Africa.. the tour didn't start until well after my class was over so I joined him (the tour was only 500cfa a person – not bad) the tour guide was really great. Although I am obviously a little over-dosed on Songhai.. I think that Erik really enjoyed the tour.

We have visited a lot of my neighborhood friends – and even made some new ones. Erik really enjoyed hanging out with my Supervisor, where we ate Igname Frites and helped feed his rabbits. We had a really great time at my landlords house one afternoon talking with their family, taking pictures and he even got some free reflexology from one of their friends (no that isn't normal).. And of course he has gotten to know my tailor, local bread lady, and bar and cafeteria owners.

As far as food is concerned we have done a lot of eating in because.. that is what I am used to doing.. but I have made a point for him to get to taste as much local fair as possible. We went to two restaurants in Porto Novo that are popular with Peace Corps Volunteers. Java Promo is a nice restaurant located near The National Assembly (and the gardens) and Erik tried Igname Pile (with Peanut Sauce) a Benin specialty found more frequently in the North. We enjoyed vegetarian chwarma at a restaurant near Ouando called Esperence Maquis (1500cfa for a chwarma plus soda). Erik enjoyed his meal here so much we even went back a second time. At Songhai we stopped for drinks and sampled locally made soy milk and my personal favorite baobab juice and snacked on (another personal favorite) Voandzu from the Bean lady across the street. We have had all sorts of beignets and fried foods.. Erik now understands my ridiculous addiction to bissap (a popular hibiscus drink). He has sampled sodabe... enjoyed a Peace Corps style taco feast.. tried most of the local beers.. and has eaten spaghetti omelets at my neighboring cafe.

I can't believe how fast his visit here is passing by.

Next week we are going to try to make a few day trips to see more of Benin.

Lots of Love

Z 

Answers for April "C'est quoi ça?" post are now available HERE (at the bottom of the post).. and Erik will be bringing home a tub of All Natural Shea Butter for fcrum!!!  - - Thank You Everyone for participating <3

Boy In Benin

These past two months have been crazy for me... and after a whole week back at post (working very hard I might add).. I went to Cotonou to pick Erik up in the airport!!

At this point I don't know how much time he has had to process Benin – He has seen the craziness of Cotonou and met a few of my neighbors. I still thought it might be fun to give you some of his first impressions :)

***

This is a country of energy. My introduction to Benin was my first night in Cotonou. As my plane was descending into Cotonou, I saw a city spread out as far as I could see. There were no tall buildings, just a massive horizontal expanse blanketing the earth along the shores. The heat and humidity were stifling. Cotonou airport was abuzz. We were shuttled from the tarmac to the baggage claim and madness ensued. Everyone was fighting for their bags and eagerly offering to help with mine (for a price of course).The security guards were yelling at me to open my bags, but I could not understand their language. They finally got so frustrated they just told me to go through. I was relieved to see Zoe in the crowd, and this was closely followed by my first Zem (moto-taxi) interaction.

Negotiating a taxi ride is an exercise in haggling, with the drivers and Zoe yelling out conflicting franc amounts and calling each other crazy. I've come to learn that this is entirely normal, and she is very good at it! The drivers themselves are impressive, as well. I've seen them carrying 100lbs of luggage and a passenger; they carry livestock, building materials, basically anything you want, and they are EVERYWHERE. I've never seen so many motorcycles in my life. After a quick stop at the hotel, we took a short walk to meet her friend Amber for some felafel at a local restaurant, then returned to our room for some long awaited rest.

The next day, we got up early and I saw much more of the city. The tropical trees and interesting architecture make for a beautiful locale. People line the streets offering various goods multiple times, regardless of your reply. It is a very loud place, and drivers of all kinds LOVE to use their horns. We went food shopping at a Lebanese grocery store, had lunch at a veggie shwarma place (Karim 24), I took a nice long nap on the beach near Erevan (a giant Target like expat store), and toured the artisans market. There we found several huts in a park selling hand made souvenirs: masks, drums, sculptures, etc. In the evening we had a lovely dinner at Tandoori Nights, a local Indian restaurant (a treat from my Aunt Cindy), and wine with a fruit salad for dessert at a restaurant called New Livingstones just a block away. We both went to bed exhausted. The heat definitely takes its toll on my sensitive western body. Zoe has gotten used to it and is less affected.

The next morning I awoke very sick. I'll spare you the gory details, but my digestive system is having a lot of trouble adjusting. I've spent the entire second day in mild agony, finding it difficult to eat, drink, move, and think. This made for a less than bearable taxi ride to her village, about an hour outside of Cotonou, near the city of Porto Novo. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but I am happy now that I'm here and can see how my other half lives. The village is a maze of dirt roads lined by vegetation, goats, and curious children. The people here are clearly not accustomed to seeing white people. We march through a chorus of chants, “Yovo, Yovo, Yovo!” (It basically means whitey). At first I found this amusing, but it does make me a bit uneasy knowing just how much we stand out, that everyone sees us, that everyone is watching us.

Zoe's home is quite nice, relative to most. She lives in a concrete house behind the walls of a small compound, home to about 4 other families. Everyone is happy to see me and eager to speak. I wish we could understand each other. My conversations with the locals have consisted of “Hello. I don't speak French. Thank you, goodbye.” I'm getting frustrated because I'm used to being social and friendly and I can't do that here. We traversed her local market and Zoe introduced me to several of her friends, and I met the older women from whom she buys her food. They all seemed very nice and happy to meet me. Even though our cultures are drastically different, I get the sense that there are indeed people here who really care about Zoe and would like to make her fe

el comfortable and welcome. This is very encouraging.

Anyway, I'm still feeling a little sick but I'm starting to recover. I just hope this clears up by tomorrow so we can get out and explore! To everyone at home, I love and miss you all and I look forward to sharing my stories and pictures with you in a few weeks! Au revoir!

***

Hope you enjoyed that – I sure enjoyed a break from writing this week and I'm enjoying having Erik here to spend time with me :-D 

Love

Z

Ghana By Taxi

A few days ago I got back to Benin after enjoying my “first real vacation” since joining the Peace Corps. It was really exciting to get out of here after over 9 months... but by the end (believe it or not) I was very happy to be back.

Along with my fellow travelers I left Benin early in the morning with plans to reach Kpalime, Togo by sunset. - - Unfortunately this is West Africa and nothing goes as planned.. so after uncountable marriage offers and one surprisingly painless border crossing we found ourselves checking in at the Peace Corps Headquarters in Lome instead. It was Easter Monday and we were told that if we stopped at the Immigration office the next morning we would be able to get our visa extended and not have to pay again on the way back. This did not happen but we got to see Lome so I guess it was ok in the end. (If you are traveling in Togo.. the visa thing is true.. but it takes about 3 days not the 10 minutes the border police tell you.. so if you are on a schedule don't waste your time with bureaucratic nonsense in Lome – just my opinion)

Togo in general is just like Benin.. only maybe a little greener. Kpalime is a small town in the South-ish close to the Ghanaian border. The reason we went to Kpalime specifically is that this town has a little treasure known as The Belgian Restaurant – with Belgian food... and Belgian beer.. and a really really friendly Belgian family. The only photo I took during my 2 days in Togo was of the meal I ate in Kpalime. They made me a vegetarian lentil burger (not on the menu) and I had the first palatable beer to come my way in over 9 months. I love you Belgium.

The bulk of our trip was spent in Ghana – where they speak English – and serve fried rice out of street carts – and soy milk is everywhere. To the deprived PCV its also important to note that they have smoothies.. shopping malls.. wrap sandwiches.. and a movie theater.

If you ever get a chance to go to Ghana.. Go.

My stay in Ghana can be divided into 3 parts:

Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary & Wli Waterfalls

Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary located in the Hohoe area of Ghana. According to our guide the sanctuary was actually started with the assistance of Peace Corps Volunteers back in the day. The tour includes some up close time with their monkeys and a 10 minute walk through their nature preserve.

Wli Waterfalls are the largest in West Africa. There are two cascades the top cascade is 85m (the tallest in West Africa) and the bottom cascade is about 60m. You can hike to the bottom and there is a great picnic area and opportunities to go swimming if you so choose. The hike to the top supposedly takes close to 4 hours and is a pretty steep hike. We chose to do the hike to the bottom and a 20 minute hike up to a view point... it was really rough.

The Coast

I am not sure what was more beautiful the Coast or the Waterfalls.. Ghana is a very beautiful country. The town “Cape Coast” has a really great vegetarian restaurant near Cape Coast Castle called Baobab House. (Like I said we spent most of our vacation eating). There are 3 castles along the coast of Ghana that were built during Portuguese colonization to be used for slave trade. The other two are in Accra and El Mina. We got a chance to see all three during our trip – the one in El Mina is the oldest building standing in West Africa.

While at the coast we stayed at a place called Stumble Inn. Like everything else in Ghana this place was BEAUTIFUL. We had dorm style sleeping right on the beach and there was a restaurant that served breakfast lunch and dinner at a reasonable price with multiple vegetarian options. You sit at a cabana overlooking the ocean where you can be served your food or really just hang out. Unfortunately :( I spent the whole time here being very sick. Quite frankly, I don't know if there is a better place I could have chosen.. They had toast. They had tea. The managers (two American volunteers) went to find me a fan. They gave me bananas with my toast that I ordered for breakfast to help me get healthy again. It was an awesome place. I would have preferred to be healthy and sitting in the sand.. but if I had to be sick at least I could hear the ocean and eat toast. There is not toast in Benin.

Accra

Osu Castle - Accra

As far as I am concerned Accra could be an American City. Maybe it has been awhile.. but I think it was wonderful. I probably spent a bit too much of my time while in Accra just eating great food and staring in awe at the aisles of their grocery stores. There are some really beautiful national monuments in Accra and some market places that are worth checking out. Really though, we went for the food.

We made a straight shot taxi trip back to Benin from Accra on the last day of our adventure and aside from a small thunderstorm the ride back was uneventful (that's a good thing). Other than the dust in my house and some new satellite dishes in my concession little changed while I was gone.

I want to say back to normal life for me..

I'm not sure if that applies.

<3 Z

Parc Pendjari: A Safari

Last weekend I traveled up to the north of Benin to a town called Tanguieta to go on a mini-safari in Parc Pendjari and to see the Tanangou waterfall with a small group of my friends!

We saw MANY animals most notably Lions, Hyenas, Hippos and an insane number of Elephants... but I won't bore you since I know you really just want pictures - - 

Love Z

Transportation In The City

When I talk to the volunteers throughout Benin I always hear lots of crazy travel stories. Waiting hours for a taxi to leave. A Bull (very much alive) riding on the back of a moto. Locals riding on the top of the taxi. 11 People in a small car... it goes on and on.

Down here in the city taxi's are much more tame? Instead of live animals on the back of a motorcycle I am more likely to see a refrigerator or a couch. I never have to wait more than 10 minutes for my taxi to leave for Cotonou (the perk of traveling between the country's capital and it's biggest city). AND I rarely if ever see live animals or people on top of any sort of vehicle. In the city I seem to get more reliable and maybe even safer transportation than those who live out in the bush. (Safer – but not by any sort of American standard). That being said travel is still an experience no matter the style.

Types of Transportation In Benin

Zemidjan

The most common form of public transportation. The name of this motorcycle taxi translates in Fon to “take me there fast!” Ze mi translates to “take me” in all of the local Fon based languages. You can tell a Zem by the uniform.. but be aware that this uniform differs based on the city you are in. In Porto Novo the Zem driver wheres blue... in Cotonou yellow.. in other cities you will find another color (or color combination). The uniforms are always identified by their number on the back, signifying they are in fact a part of the Zem union and are authorized to get you there fast. Make sure you discuss the price with the Zem before you go.. there are no fixed prices. Just the normal agreed upon price that people pay based on the gas price and some form of general consensus. Porto → Cotonou 2000cfa

Opportunistic Taxi

This person is not really a taxi.. they might be just a person with a car going to Cotonou for a day, or they might be a household Chauffeur. Either way this person is driving to Cotonou, and they find it worth their while to pay the small fee to park their car in the taxi station and fill up with passengers for the trip. You can tell these cars because they are relatively new and clean, they don't squish you in like sardines, and they don't get stopped at the pre-appointed gendarme bribe locations. Hey if you are driving there anyway.. why not make some money out of it? Porto → Cotonou 800cfa

Vrai 6 Place

In the US this would be a 5 passenger car... and we include the driver. In Benin this is a 6 passenger car... and the driver doesn't count. Four in the back and two at the driver side passenger. These Taxi's are the most expensive type of taxi because of their small size. I don't really understand the logic here since they are also the most uncomfortable. This car is usually falling apart.. has produce and other goods magically strapped to the roof.. is somehow not weighed down to the point of scraping the street AND will get stopped at every gendarme checkpoint.. also the car might break down once or twice. *Children are not part of this head count.. they do not pay fare and you can have any number of children sitting in laps in this car. Porto → Cotonou 800cfa

9 Person Peugeot

In my opinion this is the most common type of taxi. It is kind of like a station wagon but kind of not. This vehicle has an extra seat (a real seat not made up by the driver) in the back. In Benin this seat can fit 3. Tuning your 6 Place taxi into a 9 Place experience. As with the 6 place.. this car is falling apart.. usually looks as though it is about to tip over based on the top load... and gets stopped at every bribe point. Same also goes for the likely hood of car troubles and the number of children who might also be sharing the ride with you. The 9 place taxi is slightly cheaper than the 6 place. Porto → Cotonou 600cfa

TroTro

My favorite form of city to city transportation the trotro is a van with bench style seating installed. Allowing it to hold around 20 people give or take. This is the cheapest form of transportation. It is also the most comfortable because you can slide your helmet or bag under the seat, and because the bench is flat and lacks squishy cushions you don't feel nearly as crammed in. The passengers are “generally” friendlier AND I can usually pick up a trotro in the market in my village which means I don't have to pay the 200cfa to get to the taxi “station.” Unlike with a taxi however, you do have to pay a little extra if you wish to strap bags to the top of the van. The tro for some reason.. does not get stopped at all of the gendarme check points. Porto → Cotonou 500cfa

THE BUS

There are different bus lines and there are different prices. The bus is not for travel to and from Cotonou. The bus is for traveling further distances (in my case anywhere north). Generally it is worth it to pay slightly more for the air conditioned buses that have assigned seats. The cheaper non-air conditioned buses can (and very well might) over book the seats... and have traveling salesmen trying to sell their cure all soaps walking up and down the bus for the entire ride. These buses are your typical tour buses like you see in the States.

I am sure there are other forms of travel in the north or in small villages that I have yet to be made aware of due to the fact that I live so close to a city and have reliable transportation available to me. I did one day see a city bus go by (only once) it was empty and I never saw it again.

No matter how you travel.. there is never a lack in interesting sights or sounds.. and occasionally the conversation isn't all that bad. Sometimes there are fights.. sometimes it is peaceful... mostly it is crowded. I have even started to keep a notebook of interesting things that I see when traveling in Benin – but I will save that for another day.

Z

On A Great Big Coconut Tree

This Christmas I spent the holiday in Grand Popo with some of my fellow volunteers.. For those of you who don't know Grand Popo is the Beach Resort town of Benin.. it is “touristy” (even in Grand Popo it is a stretch to call anything in the country touristy).. and it is beautiful. Grand Popo is in the south western corner of Benin near the border of Togo.

The whole week was a lot of fun. Sunday before going to Popo a group of volunteers in my region got together at my house and had an early holiday taco night (yum!). Monday morning we left with the best taxi driver ever (a friend of my work partners).. he took us straight to Grand Popo... avoided all of the holiday traffic (we made amazing time) AND came back to drive us home to Porto Novo on Thursday morning.

Once in Grand Popo we stayed at Lion Bar. Lion Bar is a very small Rasta Bar/Inn located right on the beach. There are only a few rooms but you can also pay for a tent and they have a beach area where they set them up for you right on the property. Because there were so many of us we rented out a room to use for our bags and then slept in tents. We had originally planned to stay at a fancy beach resort hotel, Awale Plage, but we had a lot of issues with them during the reservation process... so we decided to stay at Lion Bar instead. It was really really the right decision. The owner, Lion, was really cool... it was very safe, they watched out for our possessions just as much as we did, we were all able to stay together in one place, and he also ran an awesome little cocktail bar where you could get rum drinks in coconuts. Who wouldn't want to spend their holiday sleeping on the beach and sipping rum out of coconuts with a huge group of friends at a reggae bar?

Christmas Eve was spent catching up.. sitting in the sand.. drinking.. dancing.. talking about our posts... it was a really great time.

Christmas morning a few of us decided to go on a really touristy excursion where we got to see the Mono River, a zangbeto, Mangroves, a local village, and Sea Turtles (at a sea turtle conservation NGO). This was the first time in the six months that we have been living in country that any of us got to do anything touristy.. and even though we do live here and some of the activities were a little silly (like seeing a village) we had a really great time and we were glad that we went. - - HOWEVER if you do go on this tour.. and the tour guide tells you afterward that he also runs a restaurant that makes pizza (for a really really good price) do not believe him.. it is too good to be true. My personal opinion is that he had never made.. or even seen a pizza before.. but knew Americans like pizza. It was interesting however that none of them had cheese.. since a friend and I specifically asked that he not put cheese on mine.. and put the extra on hers.. and he said yes he would put lots and lots of cheese on hers. C'est la vie.

To celebrate Christmas I had made little “Christmas stocking” handkerchiefs filled with candy to give to the Environment volunteers that I had trained with (I would have loved to have made them for everyone but that would have cost me a lot of cfa). Our Environment group also did a white elephant in the Afternoon.. which was a lot of fun (we might do another one at our April training just because) so that everyone (not everyone came to Popo) can be involved in it. Later in the evening some German volunteers who were also spending Christmas in Grand Popo went out and bought fire wood and brought the wood over to Lion Bar.. we built a big bonfire on the beach and some Christmas carols were even sung.

Mostly, I spent my holiday laying in the sand.. staring at the Atlantic.. and thinking about everyone on the other side. It is weird that knowing we are connected by the same giant body of water makes me feel a little closer to home.

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas as well!!

Lots of Love

Z

PS – I wanted to add a really big THANK YOU for everyone at home who sent me Christmas cards and Christmas packages. I really enjoyed opening them. AND I used the pretty cards and and other decorations I was sent to decorate my house. My neighbors thought the cards were really great – but did not understand that they were letters from home.. Greeting Cards aren't a thing here. Candy Canes took a lot of explaining too.

Welcome to the North

This week I was in Parakou for a week of training. Parakou is located in the Northern half of the country... not the far north.. but it was a nice 6 hour bus ride from Porto Novo for me to get here.

My first impression of Parakou was that it was insanely quite (since it is a city I was expecting it to be similar to the cities I am used to in the South).. Secondly I noticed that the heat was much dryer.. Third I noticed that the landscape isn't nearly as green. This made me glad to be posted in the south I like the more humid heat.. I like the greenery.. and I love being so close to the Ocean. I have already grown accustomed to the faster (more crowded?) life of my area. That being said there is A LOT of north – the north is much larger than the south.. and Parakou is only one tiny city. [Note: If you had told me months ago that I would have called life in the south faster than anything I would have laughed at you]

There is a workstation here in Parakou. It is much different than my workstation at the Bureau in Cotonou. Obviously the biggest difference is that it is not attached to the main office – but it also has a bigger library and kitchen. It is more homey (really just a big house as opposed to an extension to the office with bunks in it). This also has its negatives however – there is only one computer and it doesn't get kept quite as tidy. I like that I can go to the workstation and actually take care of work with administration in Cotonou – but I definitely see the draw of having an escape that is completely separate from all of that.

In Service Training (IST) was interesting. Our pre-service training was filled with language and cultural sessions and many many hours of technical training for working at our sites.. the IST was focused more on the Administrative sides of things. The hotel that the environment sector stayed at “Le Princess” fed us really well for breakfast and lunch and really well done snack bars twice during the day.

During the first two days we had talked about our problems and successes.. had a security session.. and a medical session (information about what to do if you fall sick while out of the country) – half of the first two days was taken up by our individual reports on our communities – this gave each of us a chance to share our stories and some pictures with each other (and probably allowed us to stay more focused throughout the rest of the week).

We had an informative and important session on how to report our activities to Peace Corps. There is a whole system in which we have to enter project descriptions.. participants.. outcomes.. etc. In theory this allows Peace Corps to monitor the actual effect our programs are having and how many people we are reaching (this is actually a fairly new concept/system in Peace Corps). There is also a section where we write about our success stories (and frustrations). After we submit these quarterly reports to our administration they forward them to Peace Corps Washington. These reports are the source of all of the feel good stories that Peace Corps uses in advertising – these reports are also used by Congress for filibustering.

On Wednesday our work counterparts joined us for the rest of training. The sessions with our counterparts included planning projects and we had a session on the stages of habit changing (getting people to change their gardening practices reads similar to addiction counseling) and the ever entertaining topic of cultural differences. Mostly we had discussion and brainstorming on projects and ways to implement our new projects.

It was really really awesome to get to visit another part of the country.. but now that the week is over I will be very glad to be back in the south. I would say “time to get to work” but the whole country goes on break for the fete season (Christmas and New Years)... so I guess that will have to wait until the New Year!

Volunteers and Host Country Work Partners -- Parakou

Feeling more positive about things than I was a week ago.

Z

Somewhere Over the River

I just got back home from spending my “Workstation Days” in Cotonou!! Which is like being in America... only it would be nothing like America to anyone who is currently in America. To us however, it is just like being in America. I took my first hot shower since I left the states in June!

There are 4 workstations throughout Benin: Cotonou, Natitingou, Kandi and Parakou. Your workstation is based on your location in the country and it is where you pick up your mail, relax, use fast internet, watch TV and spend some time with other volunteers, and sleep in an air conditioned room (at least in Cotonou). My workstation is the Cotonou workstation, because that is the one closest to me. Which is really nice because the Cotonou workstation is also the Benin Peace Corps Headquarters. This means that when I go to relax.. I can also visit the doctor, stop in and talk with my program manager (or any other administrator that I like), and all paperwork and important things are processed in Cotonou. Every month each volunteer gets 3 free nights to spend at the workstation (2 right now because I am still in the adjustment period).. and the best part is that they are not counted towards our vacation days :)

Cotonou is the big economic city.. it is also the home to most of the Embassies and has a lot of expats. So while I can get almost anything I could possibly need in the Capital City of Porto Novo, where I live, Cotonou has everything else. If you can't find it in Cotonou... you won't find it in Benin. In line with my weird habit of getting really excited and buying strange things whenever I walk into a “western style” grocery store in this country.. I came back to post today with rose water, canned baba ghanoush, cappuccino flavored cookies, hot sauce, and guava jam. I also bought some more practical things that I actually needed... but that isn't interesting.

Volunteers also get the opportunity to eat non-Beninese food when in Cotonou!! I even had falafel one night!! It was so good!!! There is a french bakery that has chocolate soy-milk... and they also have kiwi juice?? and I had my favorite avocado sandwiches. Not this weekend.. but in the past I have eaten vegetarian bean burritos in Cotonou! Next time I go I am excited to try the Indian Restaurant that volunteers seem to like.

I discovered that Customer Service does exist in Benin (but probably only when the business is not owned by a Beninese person). Another volunteer and I stepped into a Pizza place in Cotonou “1 2 3 Pizza”.. we sat down ordered a bottle of ice cold water... and waited for about 10 minutes when the owner came out and told us that they couldn't cook us anything because the oven was broken. He gave us each a free salad... (with croutons!).. and he didn't charge us for the water! Now, I have no idea how the food there normally is.. but I would definitely go back and try! I would also recommend this place to anyone else visiting Cotonou, because they were just so nice and friendly!! Nice and friendly is not normal business etiquette in Benin.

Normally customer service in Benin is “I don't really have any interest in serving you... you are interrupting my nap.. and if you don't have exact change I won't sell you anything (Even if I have the change!).” Small money is very important here, having a 5000 cfa note is not worth as much as having 5000 cfa in change. The bank loves to give us the worthless 10,000 cfa note. The smaller your change is broken down the more it is worth in the market.

Aside from the wonderful grocery stores and restaurants that Cotonou has to offer.. Cotonou also has the beach! BEACH!!! and a private pool where volunteers are allowed to go swimming on Saturday afternoons!! So basically.. after weeks at post.. without any other Americans to hang out with.. eating rice, beans, and bananas every day. Cotonou is paradise.

I had a glorious weekend.

Z