Help From a Prostitute

No nothing dirty happened. Heres the story. I wa coming out of a hotel in Cotonou at 5;30am to look for a zem. and i walk by a bunch of prostitutes who say hello i say hello back and continue on my way. I then find a zem just sitting doing nothing, strange behavoir for a zem but maybe he felt that he couldnt find anyone at this hour anyway zem around. so i walk up to him with my big pack, and im white so i must be a rich tourisst. i ask how much from here to the bus pick up he says 800 CFA ha ha cute, 800 CFA could get me to the outskirts of town buddy no give me the right price, ok fine he says 500 CFA, i tell him that im not a tourist and that i live here and i know the price and that during the day it should only be 100 CFA so lower the price for me. ok fine 400 CFA i tell him that ill take his zem for 300 CFA and he says no. then i call over another zem about 5 minutes later and i only get him down to 400. one of the prostitutes sees me having some trouble with the zem and she yells at him saying that he shouldnt treat me like that and just because im white doesnt mean that im rich and that for 300 CFA should be way more than enough to get to the bus pickup. then about 5 other prostitutes go over and yell at the zem driver too and tell him its not fair that im a smart person and its wrong to treat people differently because of skin color. the zem drives off because he just got yelled at by a gang of prostitutes. i talk with the prostitutes and tell them my bus is going to leave in 15 minutes and i need to find a zem talk with about the shitty price of zems about how everyone deserves respect and how its not right the way i was treated. so one of the prostitutes who is wearing scandlas clothing even for europe or the states says, go stand in the shadows over there. so i do. she flags down a zem gives him this great big smile flirts with him a lot tells him how she needs to meet someone at the bus pickup but she doesnt have a whole lot of money, zem driver flirts back and says something to the effect of only for you beautiful, 200 CFA. she says ok cool and calls me over from the shadows and says i found you a zem. the zem driver was pissed, because he got played by a prostitute, but he couldnt go back on his word. so thank you prostitutes for helping me find a zem for a good price at 5;30 in the morning. Thought youd all enjoy that story. but im not going to rely on this method of lowering zem prices.
back in bassila now really happy to be home i had a long bus ride back here from cotonou and after being in porto novo for two weeks i was ready. training was good i got to learn about how to grow mushrooms and gardening, among other things. Fun Fun Fun. got to hang out with all the environment and health volunteers and chit chatted with my host family for awhile. got to pay WAY too much for street food, and have crappy yam pilea, the yam pilea here is some of the best in Benin so ive been told and im starting to agree.
oh Alayna and Carlys Dad im sorry but i accidently deleted your comments instead of hitting publish i hit reject and didnt know how to make them come back. So thats the reason why theyre not up, my bad.
hope everyone has a good holiday season, im doing stockings with some of the other volunteers in the region.