Benin II

PFTE Part VIII Episode II

Oh my goodness!!!! I have soooo many stories to tell already but I can’t cause I don’t have the time or space for it yet, but there’s bunches already. One observation: Cotonou lies very close to the Nigerian border (about 30 km) and a lot of its economy is based on the black market. At any rate, this has to do with the air quality, which will all make sense once I come home and explain it to you, if you care to hear.
The air here is blue. Like, grey-blue. Like, during rush hour, if I breathe too much, my lungs start to hurt. Most of the zemijhans (or zem-zems) use illegally imported petrol from Nigeria to run. However, this means totally unrefined and nasty fuel into the vehicles, hence leading to ++++ dirty exhaust and air. It actually gets hard to see here because of it. That’s kinda gross, I must say… so for those of you envying my skin take note: it really has taken quite a beating here, and is becoming quite frightful…
However, it is rather interesting as there are ‘petrol stops’ every few blocks that are just jars of illegal petrol that you can buy for half the price of the gas station’s stuff… weird…
julia