Did that really just happen?

Today the Italian and I returned from Ghana to Benin. Upon crossing the Beninese border and getting our passports stamped the Italian needed to go to the bathroom. At first they pointed him to the public restroom which meant a tree across the road, but when he didn’t go they offered him their bathroom in the back of their office. After he used the restroom, he showed me where it was so that I could go; however, the border officers were not having it. They refused to let me use the bathroom. They told me to go and use it somewhere else.

I couldn’t believe it. I was in so much shock that I actually held my bladder for the three more hours it took to get to Cotonou. I can’t believe living in a country full of people that look like me I’m being treated like a field slave in the US.