Benin V

PFTE Part VIII Episode V
I’ll have to mention it again: the pineapples melt in your mouth here! I think I was still partially delirious with the last email I sent out, and I realize it probably didn’t make a heck of a lot of sense, so I thought I’d clarify; I was, I think, talking about the Chinese restaurant that I had just eaten at, mainly cause it was also the first food that I had eaten in three days! I was actually rather ill for a while there, so I think with the first taste of food and stuff, I think my poor brain got a bit over-stimulated.
Also, a couple of other notes of apparently being “Chinese” over here (cause clearly, I either really am, or else a very ignorant one, or else make a pretty good imitation ;) )
1. People find it very hard to believe that I can be Canadian. I guess it also doesn’t help that the rest of my team is white. I’m kind of like the pet monkey, that they bring around to show off. People here have actually been astonished that I speak French. Actually, English, even…
2. One guy was so surprised that I was actually from Canada, and not from China, he pulled aside one of the other team members and asked whether China was within walking distance of Canada… because clearly, I must’ve walked over and joined them for the flight…
3. Another guy we’ve met here is actually a ping-pong champion in Benin, like, on the national team. We had lunch with him, and, turning to me, wondered if I would like to “sponsor” him to come to Canada since I’d obviously be very good at ping-pong (right, Swong?)… right… I think he thought that that would be appropriate, hooking up with a “Chinese” ping-pong girl who happens to live in Canada… What a sweet deal for a ping-pong player in the developing world… ;) (biiiiiig rolling of the eyes…)
Otherwise, some notes on food (obviously I have a lot of time banked today…): They eat a lot of fish here. Well, it is on the coast… we’ve been eating a lot of it, though sometimes, I look into the waters and wonder what the heck I think I’m doing… maybe that can also explain a bit of the brain fog… They also eat a surprisingly large amount of rice here… the black market has connections to Thailand or something, and that’s how they get their rice supply….
Voodoo is huge here… it’s the inherent religion here, though a good proportion of the population are Muslim or Christian, though apparently most folks practice a bit of voodoo somewhere along the line… yeah, slavery and voodoo… those are the two big thematics of Benin culture… I think to try and describe it in a witty manner isn’t really doing it justice, particularly as slavery isn’t a funny subject at all, and well, neither is voodoo….
Anyways, that’s about it for now…
julia