I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise

This last weekend there was a "blackout." It was a day where the power was shut off so that maintenance could be done on electrical systems before the sail. We were all encouraged to get off the ship as toilets would not be flushing and the air conditioner would not be working. Thus, my roommates Dinante, Priska, Kelsey, and I decided to go to Grand Popo, which is a beach town a couple hours' drive from Cotonou.




Waiting at the big market. Kelsey, Dinante, and me

We went to the big market in order to catch a cab. The method to doing this is simple: some guy is very helpful and takes you where you need to go and flags down a cab, and then he gets a little tip from the drivers. Also, the cab is not yours specifically, as they will pick up and drop off people along the way. The poor three girls were crammed into the back seat. I was in the middle seat with two African men. It was a long drive. When we got there, they brought us to some random hotel instead of the one we requested. Then they tried to charge us more money to take us to the one we had requested and shown them a map to get to, but we refused. Unfortunately, when we got to the hotel, we found out that it no longer existed. We were tired of dealing with our driver and his friend so we told them to leave and started trekking down the street to find somewhere else to stay.




Dinante and Kelsey walking and walking.

On the way, we hear the high pitched sound of a cell phone playing "Jingle Bells." We followed that sound into a little restaurant/ bar and all got Coca Colas. The cell phone belonged to a patron, and the bar itself was playing honky tonk country music. It was weird to hear both songs in the middle of western Africa, but it was so great.




Inside Kelsey and my room.

After our refreshing beverage, we continued down the street and found acceptable accommodations at a place called Dune Pilage. It was a restaurant that also had bungalows for roughly $6 per person per night. It also had some of the prettiest beaches we had ever seen. After changing, we all went to the beach, laid out, and played in the water. We got thirsty so we went back and ordered juice. It took over an hour as the guy had to go to the market to buy mangoes and bananas in order to blend them and make us fresh, warm, delicious juice. The warm we could maybe have done without, but it was like drinking a mango in a cup, so that was nice.




Kelsey and Dinante chasing children.



Beautiful!

After the juice, the other girls went to nap on the beach, but I went and napped in our bungalow because I burn to a crisp when I just think about the sun. They returned eventually, we all got clean, and then ate some of the best pizza I've had so far in Africa at the restaurant of our hotel.

The plan for the evening was to go to the hotel Awale Pilage to a huge beach party we kept seeing signs for. We set out and soon discovered that hailing a zimmy is much harder in a small town. We walked for a long time until we found several zimmy drivers just hanging out. We got a couple and made it to the hotel.

It turns out that the party was for a Grand Prix race that began in Brussels a month ago and ended in Grand Popo this weekend. There were many Europeans there, so it was nice to sort of fit in. There were African dancers, and I can do a pretty decent African dance, so my lovely roommates encouraged me to join. I said no, until one of the dancers pulled me out, fortunately during the one kind of dance I can remotely do. I think the little dancer lady was impressed, but I'm not sure, as she and I don't share a common language.






Dancing!

We didn't stay for too long, as we were all tired out. It was much quicker to catch a ride on the way back. Kelsey and I shared a room, and we discovered to our chagrin that the fan in our room didn't work. It was maybe the worst night of sleep I'd ever had. Kelsey got bit by a lot of bugs at some point, and her legs were itching so bad. It was hot. We could hear everything outside. I did actually sleep for a while, but none of us were well rested.

We ate bread and drank really nasty coffee at our hotel and then headed out. We did not have a plan on how to get home, but the hotel guy sent us to the place to catch taxis. It was roughly the same process here, except it felt more like hitchhiking this time around. Finally a girl stopped to pick us up. She had a really nice car, air conditioning, ABBA playing, and she did not charge us for the ride. This is significant because that NEVER happens in Africa. Everyone wants to be compensated for what they do. EVERYONE. This girl was even a little offended that we offered to pay her when she dropped us off. It was the most comfortable ride we'd had in Africa, and it was free! Talk about a blessing!

This whole weekend was a wonderful time with incredible women!





Me, Kelsey, Dinante, and Priska