Happy New Year folks!

We had a lovely New Year’s Eve with some missionary friends, with sparklers on the roof and even fireworks! New Year’s Day - like Christmas Day - we had friends round for snacks and games, which was fun.

Clive Rahn had a lovely time here, and left on 29th December. Here he is by the ‘Maggi’ water tower:

One of the highlights of his visit was Dantokpa Market, the largest market in West Africa. Here it is:

(NB These photos are on the gallery, along with some more new Cotonou ones.
Click on either to access the gallery.)

Now, onto the Blutak thing…

We already mentioned the Harmattan , which came briefly in early December. Well, to herald the arrival of 2007, the Cotonou has one of the strongest Harmattans for a long while. This dusty, dry wind is so thick you can see it and even taste it! If you look down our street, you can barely see the end of it (it’s like London in the fog!)

One good thing about the Harmattan is that it makes the weather cooler - it was a mere 24 degrees C this morning, and 50% humidity or less. Nice. But, one downside (I’m getting there now!) is that everything dries out (including ones lips, feet, eyes…). This includes your doors and doorframes (which no longer fit properly) and anything blutacked on the wall is likely to fall off. Half the postcards in our hall (kindly sent by YOU good people) are curling up and falling off the wall! Eeek! Still, it should be over in a week or so.

Hope you all had a great Christmas. Here are our three visiting Santa:

Bye for now, thanks for visiting!