If hell has a name…..
So yesterday the Italian and I headed to Cotonou because he needed to renew his visa and do some other things. The bus trip was probably the worst one that I will ever take in my life, if I can…
Since I’ve been in Benin…
I have mastered the art of broken French sprinkled with a few English words said with a crappy French accent. I have developed an insane fear of being crushed by a truck falling over on its side. I have somehow…
It’s the little things…
Standing outside in 90 degree weather bent over washing laundry is not my idea of a good time at the end of every week. So after a few months of hand washing all of our own laundry, we finally asked…
La santé publique au Bénin
As many of us learned in courses that focus on global public health or by reading the Africa section of the NY Times, public health in developing countries, Africa specifically is poor at best and for many, nonexistent. Being here…
This weather…
Ok, so I really try not to complain about the weather here, especially since my poor friends on the east coast and in the midwest have had a particularly harsh winter this year, which my mother reminds me of every…
Quick Math
Today I met a women in a small....village...well not sure if you could call it a village, we rode the moto along a small path through the bushes to arrive at her place, but anyway this lady who didn't look…
What’d you do today?
Whenever I talk to my mother she of course asks, "What'd you do today?" So I decided to show in detail what a typical weekend day is like in Dassa-Zoumé. 10:00ish am I wake up to the Italian staring at…
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…
Quotes from the Trip: Accra
"I think you have malaria." "So how is Benin?" "Poor" (the Italian) "You want me to pay double to have air conditioning?" (Francis to a taxi driver) "You think because we don't speak Thwee we have money growing on trees?"…