Benin Turns 50!

Yes, that's right, Benin celebrated it's 50th year yesterday. I came down to Cotonou a couple days before the fete and decided that I should go and say goodbye to my host family who opened up their home to me during the 9 weeks of training. I was on the phone with my host mama and I exlpained my plan before I went down. Originally I was going to go from Cotonou to Porto-Novo in the morning, hang out that Saturday, and then go backthat afternoon. There was another volunteer staying at their house and I didn't want to overstay my welcome. After I explained this to mama her immidate reaction was 'NO! You MUST stay here the night!' So my plans changed to spending the night.

I met up with the person who is staying with my host family this year before going over to the house and apparently mama had told them that I was staying 5 days, the time between then and when my plane flew out of Cotonou. I explained that this was not the case. I got home and I told mama that I was only spending the night and then I was going back to Cotonou. She really tried to convince me to stay there in Porto-Novo but I wouldn't budge. Then she was like 'You have to make us an American meal.' This wasn't something that I was planning on doing.

During my stay with my host family I made them Mac and Cheese. From there my host family has really gotten interested in American food. I made Mac and Cheese for my host family last year and this year it seemed like they wanted me to do it again. But when I explained the things I needed to make it, they told me they wanted a different meal. Basically the only time we had to make this meal was lunch the next day. We had to buy ingredients at the super market which was on the other side of town, and we were in the capital city on independence day. I asked mama if she thought that the super market would be open and she was positive that it was. So we got on a zem and went. Unfortunately the main road was closed because it was the parade route. So we took all the back roads which everyone else was trying to take. A bumpy long ride later we arrived at a closed super market.

So we changed our plan, tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Something that is super easy to make with all the ingredients foudn in a market. So we go back to the market and buy the stuff we needed. We then saw a helicopter, which might have been the only helicopter in Benin. We then continued and got hopelessly lost trying ti find our way home on back roads. We ended up taking a zem home which was what we should have done to begin with. Oops.

So we made tomato soup and grilled cheese after watching the parade. The parade was pretty much a bunch of kids walking down the street marching with pom pom like things. Nothing real special. So I ended up eating with my host family for lunch. Mama never made it back from work to enjoy tomato soup and grill cheese with us. Overall, a good farwell to my host family.