Adventure Day

I was biking around my village the other and was thinking, wow I've been living here a year and I've never even gone to the closest big market, only 40 kilometers away. There were even fellow Peace Corps Volunteers over there and I hadn't gone yet. I thought about it, and the reason why I hadn't gone was that I didn't have any reason to go. Anytime I needed something that I couldn't get at post I would go to the city in the region, which is about double the distance than this other village is. I decided that this logic was pretty lame. I'm only given so much time in West Africa, particularly in and around my region never again will I likely have a home in a third world country, endless amounts of time on my hands, and means to travel. I had made a decision, I would go.
I chose to go on the market day of that town as it was the most likely time I would find taxis willing to go there and back for cheap. I was apprehensive. Rarely do I travel alone, and I don't like to travel alone to places I don't already know. I had been debating all the way to the center of town whether or not to go at all. I hadn't called my fellow volunteers who lived there, I had no idea where they lived, I had no idea where the cool things were in the market. The things I did know also made me want to hold back and go another day. The road is terrible. This is another big reason why I haven't gone to this village. The mini buses (VW buses packed full of people) do take this road, but I've biked it before and I really can't seen how they do it without toppling over, getting stuck, or skidding out. I chose to take the alternative form of transport, motorcycle taxi (zem). Also I knew it was going to be a long ride on the back of a zem, which becomes highly uncomfortable after 20 minutes, and that depending on how long the trip was the amount I could buy would be very limited. But I bucked up the courage and went anyway.
My zem that I flagged down gave me a good price. We then were off. As I was whizzing on the back of a zem I was excited. This was the first time I was going on my own accord to somewhere I didn't really know. It was liberating to know that I didn't have a plan so therefore whatever happened was going to happen. Basically because there was no plan everything that happened or didn't was according to plan. I was ready for an adventure.
My zem then began going over the rough patch of the road. When I thought that we had gone through the worst of it, it never got better in fact the entire road was one long stretch of 'this couldn't get any worse.' It is rare now that I feel I have to hang on when taking zem rides. This entire trip I hung on. Unlike Cotonou where the other drivers make me worried, in this situation the terrain was worrying me. I had full confidence in my zem but at the same time I know that I wouldn't have wanted to drive this road. We went over rocks, a washed out river bed, sand pits, large puddles, half finished attempts to fix the road, streams running through the road, village boarder guards who seem to ask too many questions, until finally we hit paved road. I had to remind myself that I didn't have hang on at this point.
When we finally arrived the market was sprawling. I had no idea where I was going. But I had no destination or time crunch so everywhere and anywhere was just fine. I walked by stalls of people selling fabric, notebooks for school, water bags, plastic items, onions, I even found a pair of Barack Obama underwear. It was getting towards the time that all West Africans like to take a little nap so I figured that the volunteers if they were at post, would probably be at their houses. I went up to a random person and asked if they knew my friend. Now my friend has a local name that his town gave to him. So he's easily recognizable as the only white guy with a local name. I figure that I'm going to have to ask around and after I talk to this guy I should ask people who look like they would be here everyday. But this guy says 'I know your friend. He's my brother I will take you to his house.'
'He's white like me, you understand? He's a Peace Corps Volunteer.'
'Oh yea, I'll take you to him.'
This is what I love about West Africa. People are always willing to be helpful. Most of the time they don't seem to be doing anything anyway so I don't feel bad about accepting their help. I follow this person to a house and find out from the neighbors that my friend is in a village 20 kilometers south. No big deal there is another person I know within this town. I ask to go there. My second friend isn't there either. The person who has been helping gives me a worried look. 'Neither of your friends are here, what will you do?'
'It's fine, I forgot to call them it's my fault, but can you take me back to the market I would like to spend some time there before I have to go back to my village.'
I go back to the market and begin to go deeper into the spider web of walk ways. I found that it was really easy to get lost in this market. But I wasn't afraid because sometimes when you're lost you find the more interesting things like random voodoo stalls and the funniest looking fabric. I then get a tap on my shoulder as I'm buying Barack Obama underwear. It's the kid who was helping me. 'Hey we should call my friend and tell him to come back.' he says. This is a highly uncomfortable situation as this teenager is watching me buy panties.
I say to him while putting my purchase in my bag, 'I can tell him that I'm here but it's not really that important that he be here, I came here unexpectedly and it would be rude of me to ask him to come back just because I am here.'
'OK I'll give you his phone number.'
'My phone doesn't have reception here. Maybe I can call him on your phone and pay you for the credit.'
'My phone doesn't have credit.'
Figures. Nobody in Benin seems to have phone credit when you ask to use their phone. But they magically seem to have lots 5 seconds after you finish needing the phone. He then suggests that we go to a cabine. A cabine is a place where you can make a phone call from a phone hooked up to counter. The counter shows you the price of your phone call. The longer the call the more expensive it is. I called the states on one of these once and it astounded me to watch how fast the price of my call went up. We call my friend and I speak to him. The person on the other end of the line has the same name as my friend and I say something in English. The person on the other end of the time doesn't understand what I said. I then ask him if he is a Peace Corps Volunteer, knowing full well he is not at this point, and verifies what I've already figured out. I hang up after explaining this was all a misunderstanding.
I then ask the kid whose helping me, 'I'm looking for a white guy, do you know any white guys?'
He looks at me 'but I thought you were looking for my brother.'
'It seems that your brother has the same name as my friend, but the person I'm looking for is white, like me, look at my skin, he is this color. Do you know anyone like this?'
The kid shook his head. I couldn't help but laugh, this was going to make a good story for him later, I could see it in my head and it was hilarious. 'hey guys so this one day a white girl comes up to me and asks to see my brother!' I thank him, and tell him even though I wasn't looking for his brother to say hello to him for me. I then walk back out into the market.
I find a group of men who are just watching the world go by. These are the types of men who sit here everyday and watch the world go by. I figure they must at least have seen my friends. I walk up to them and I ask them 'Hey do you know anyone living in this town who is white?'
They say using more words and hand gestures 'We see two white people every now and again, we assume they live here.'
I smile, good I'm getting somewhere I think to myself. 'Do you know where, I say my friends name, lives?'
They all think hard, scratching chins. One of them tells me to take a seat, I feel like it's going to be a long time. They whisper to each other in local language I really don't expect them to know anything, I was just glad that they had at least seen my friends. They had come to an answer in response to my question. A simple yes or no would have worked but instead they say 'We sort of know where your friend lives. We will find a zem and tell him where to go then the people in this area should know where he lives.'
I have visions of ending up on the other end of town from where my friend actually lives only to be welcomed into someones home and only been able to escape after greeting them politely asking about every part of their lives I could and then being fed something. While this would be fun I really did want to see my friend if he was here before I had to leave. My zem takes me off the main road and into this neighborhood of the town. He then asks after my friend to a random woman who doesn't speak but only points to the right, gestures to go up a hill and then make a left. This is what we do. We drive up to his house and I knock on the door and open it and there's a random guy lazing about on the porch. This person is definitely African. I think to myself, my visions have come true. I wont' be able to see either of my friends today. Then the random guy, I'll call him Simon, says 'oh hi, are you looking for the Peace Corps Volunteer?'
I couldn't believe I had actually found my friends house. After the first go around had ended up not working out I was giving up hope. I explain to Simon that I am looking for him but if he isn't here it's fine. I just wanted to say hello. Simon then says to me 'He left but he'll be back I think he's in the little market down the road do you want me to help you find him?'
Yet another person who has dropped everything to help me find someone I didn't really need to find. 'Are you sure, it's not really a big deal if I don't see him.'
'I want to help you find him'
We walk down to the little market and find out that he has been there. I was beginning to feel like I was in a mystery novel or something. There were people who told us that he had just been there moments ago and that we had just missed him. We got to the end of the market and Simon looks at me and says 'We've checked everywhere, it's really strange that we can't find him.'
I thank him anyway and tell him to let our friend know that I was there visiting and just wanted to say hello. Then what happens my friend walks up from around the corner.
Overall I spent a nice afternoon in the market. But the majority of it was looking for my friend. I met a lot of helpful people along the way. I feel that this day could have been very frustrating if I had let it. But because I had made the decision that it didn't matter what happened today. Even though I spent two and half hours on the back of a zem, screaming down dirt roads, looked all over town for my friend, had no where to go during the hottest part of an already hot day, I still enjoyed myself. I couldn't control much today and just accepted that somethings were out of my hands. Sometimes in life we are just along for the ride, might as well enjoy it.