(Pics: the Songhai Center road up to our dorm; sunset in Porto-Novo)
Well,
I'm finally back on US soil. Granted, I'm on the wrong side of the country; I'm visiting my sister, brother, dad and step-mom for a couple of days. Today is laundry day while everyone is working. I can't even explain how joyful it is to have clean clothes to wear! It is just such a luxury really after the muggy weather of Africa and the dust. And of course, nothing felt better then my first warm shower in 2 weeks. Our rooms were great at Songhai, and had private showers, but alas, we were without a hot water heater.
So over the next few days, I thought I would blog some of my impressions post-Africa now that I'm home. To start with today though, I want to post some pictures now that I can load them without it taking an hour (I am planning on building a picture site to link up to as well). I'm hoping this will give you all a glimpse of the amazing people we got to spend time with. I hope you all enjoy.
Bert, a man who joined us to help with the Filtrons for Potters for Peace, asked me when he first arrived what surprised me about Benin. I thought that was actually a great question. There were a couple of things that caught me right away. The first thing that really surprised me was the amount of air pollution in Benin. I wasn't prepared for how many vehicles there were, especially motorcycles. It seemed everyone was driving one. After talking to one of the men at Songhai Center, we learned that people often rode motorcycles instead of drove cars because it allowed them to get around the crowded roads much more quickly. It was a bit surreal though to see women in beautiful dresses being carted around, or a bike carrying four or five people. 
Not to mention the craziest thing we saw, two guys carrying a plate glass window on a bike. The pollution has become a necessary evil in Benin because the vehicles allow people to get to work. One man I met commutes everyday to the Songhai Center in Porto-Novo from Cotonou. Trust me, after going to the airport three different times, it's not a short drive. One of the reasons the vehicles are creating so much pollution is because they are running on oil they buy off the street for cheap, which is probably the equivalent of crude oil. They buy it from stands on the and then pour it into their gas tanks using a cheese cloth to filter it. Not the best of means, but it is affordable for the Beninois. The first time we saw the gas being sold, we didn't know what it was 
because they sell it in random bottles. I wouldn't suggest taking a drink! Every time we left the center, the smell of exhaust was palpable. Interestingly, the air when we were in Songhai was incredibly clean. Crystal and my theory is that all the vegetation they are growing helps to clean the air. We found that when we were outside of the cities, the air was nice as well. Songhai was definitely an oasis for us!
Not to mention the craziest thing we saw, two guys carrying a plate glass window on a bike. The pollution has become a necessary evil in Benin because the vehicles allow people to get to work. One man I met commutes everyday to the Songhai Center in Porto-Novo from Cotonou. Trust me, after going to the airport three different times, it's not a short drive. One of the reasons the vehicles are creating so much pollution is because they are running on oil they buy off the street for cheap, which is probably the equivalent of crude oil. They buy it from stands on the and then pour it into their gas tanks using a cheese cloth to filter it. Not the best of means, but it is affordable for the Beninois. The first time we saw the gas being sold, we didn't know what it was 
because they sell it in random bottles. I wouldn't suggest taking a drink! Every time we left the center, the smell of exhaust was palpable. Interestingly, the air when we were in Songhai was incredibly clean. Crystal and my theory is that all the vegetation they are growing helps to clean the air. We found that when we were outside of the cities, the air was nice as well. Songhai was definitely an oasis for us! The second thing that surprised me about Benin was how friendly people were. Taking the time to say hello or enter a shop you might have passed by because it wasn't what we were used to was always worth the time. One thing we noticed when walking about in Benin was that the people would rarely say hi to us Yovos, but once we said hi, they were quick to reply with a bonjour and a smile. Crystal and I went down one street almost every day we were in Porto Novo to a tailors to have clothes made for ourselves and for Crystal's family. We passed by quite a few street vendors everyday who were pretty weary of us at first, although they always said hello when we did. By the end of the second week though, 
they had started saying hi to us first, and talked to us a little bit. I think they got used to seeing us, and realized we weren't just passing through. It was especially fun to watch the little boys (probably around 3 or 4) go from being weary of us, to singing the Yovo song, to finally coming up and giving us 5. During the second week, when the kids had gotten brave, we asked their moms if we could take a picture of them. They said yes, as you can see, so the next day we brought copies of the picture for them to have too. It was such a treat for us to be able to do that. Our l
ast trip over was a little bitter sweet in saying goodbyes to everyone. The ladies at the tailor shop wished us bon voyage, and gave us treats of gum for the flight and a couple of pictures. The women at the shop were amazing. I can't wait to show off my outfit they made me. Oh, and this is a random observation, but my favorite part of the shop was that Elsibeth,our tailor (far right) had all of these posters showing the different styles that you could have made being worn by African models. All of the ladies pictured were good sized women. No size one models in Africa! It was great to see healthy, regular sized women being held out as models of health on those posters.
they had started saying hi to us first, and talked to us a little bit. I think they got used to seeing us, and realized we weren't just passing through. It was especially fun to watch the little boys (probably around 3 or 4) go from being weary of us, to singing the Yovo song, to finally coming up and giving us 5. During the second week, when the kids had gotten brave, we asked their moms if we could take a picture of them. They said yes, as you can see, so the next day we brought copies of the picture for them to have too. It was such a treat for us to be able to do that. Our l
ast trip over was a little bitter sweet in saying goodbyes to everyone. The ladies at the tailor shop wished us bon voyage, and gave us treats of gum for the flight and a couple of pictures. The women at the shop were amazing. I can't wait to show off my outfit they made me. Oh, and this is a random observation, but my favorite part of the shop was that Elsibeth,our tailor (far right) had all of these posters showing the different styles that you could have made being worn by African models. All of the ladies pictured were good sized women. No size one models in Africa! It was great to see healthy, regular sized women being held out as models of health on those posters. OK, that's all for now, but keep checking back, I'm sure I'll get another post in before the family returns!
1 comment:
they do admire the traditionally built ladies! Guess we are in the wrong country huh.
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