Quotes from the Trip: Benin
me: "Sarah Palin is an idiot." him: "No, really?" me: "Do you have deers in Italy?" him: "Whats that?" me: "Bambi" him: "Oh. Yes." "He's so scary. He's so tall and black." "Don't give her the camera, she doesn't know…
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…
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…
A Series of Unfortunate Events: On going to Ghana
Our original plan for New Year's Eve was to head to Uganda and celebrate with friends and family but the flight from Cotonou was $1400 and from Lagos it was only $900 but everyone refused to drive us the mere…
A Black Expat in Benin
Being an expat in a country of all black people is a very interesting experience. On the one hand I love that I can move about undetected without having people run up to me or harass me in the market…
Merry Christmas?
From when we are children, we learn that Christmas is the most important holiday of the year, not necessarily because of Jesus Christ, because a lot of people I know don't even go to church on Christmas. Christmas is the…