A home-made wooden stand, four breeze blocks and a couple of planks of wood – just the job! We watched them for quite a while and you’ll be glad to know that nobody fell off! Thanks to Jackie for taking this excellent photo.

Aaarrrgghh! We’ve had SOOOOOO many power cuts this week – it’s been almost unbearable!!!

Our friends the Vickers said that the power outages were one of the worst things to deal with here. However, since they left on Sunday it got worse and worse, with a total of around 59 hours without electricity in five days!

Here’s a brief low-down:

• Monday – The electricity went off at 6:00am and did not come back until 9:00pm. We ended up going round a few shops in town, which have generators and good aircon.
• Tuesday – First day back at school. Power on and off a bit during morning, then cut from 1:00-3:00pm. Another twist: our freezer door has broken – the lower hinge has almost completely rusted off, so it no longer shuts properly.
• Wednesday – Luxury: NO POWER CUTS all day, until 11:00pm!
• Thursday – Bad night’s sleep due to no power all night. I have work to do, so take the laptop round to the local cyber cafe, which has power and internet! The air-conditioning is also nice, with midday temps well over 30 degrees C. It finally returns at 2:45pm after almost 16 hours, but the lights are very dim, the fans hardly moving and various appliances keep going off and on (spooky!) Off totally from 3:30-5:45pm, then back again…until 10:10pm. The water is also cut by bedtime. Can’t get to sleep until early hours. No cool water left to drink, only mango juice! Our kitchen reeks of rotting flesh as the meat in the freezer gradually goes off.
• Friday – Get up and remove ALL meat from freezer and mop kitchen floor. Still no power. I spend an extra long time at the gym as it has good aircon, then hit the cyber cafe. NO CONNECTION! Aaaarrgggh! Finally, at 9:50pm, the power returns and hasn’t gone off again since (and it’s now Saturday evening).

Phew! Let’s hope this is the end of such a long spate of power cuts!

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Other News:

1. Micah lost his first tooth the other week:

2. We have the school summer fair on Saturday, right at the start of rainy season. Let’s hope it stays dry (and there’s power!!!)
3. Rob’s next workshop is from 3-5 May in Togo (why are there never any in Benin?!?)
4. We have a new CREEPY CRAWLIES album on the photo galley, which includes this fab photo of a grasshopper, taken by Madelaine:

(click to enlarge)

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Over the months several hundred photos have accumulated on the gallery (any idea how many, Reg?) In case you’re new to this malarky, here are the albums. Click on any one that interests you to see its photos:

Cotonou Photos

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Benin Photos (general)

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Wild animals at the Pendjari National Park

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Togo Photos – a very pretty country

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Rob’s Ethnomusicology experiences

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Creepie Crawlies – cockroach, mosquito, millipede, and THE moth!!

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African people – some great shots of a variety of people.

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Birds of Togo and Benin – this one’s for you, Steve P!

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Rob’s shirts – it had to be done. They have become a tad legendary of late!

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The ‘Touareg Trail’ – some crazy guys in Citroën 2CV’s drove across the Sahara and finished up in Cotonou!!!

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Friends and Stuff – Jon Assheton, the Vickers, Clive Rahn…etc.

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Birthdays etc. Blowing out candles, parties, food, balloons etc.

That’s all for now. Thanks for visiting – please leave a comment if you have time.

Rob et al

It’s been great having our friends, the Vickers family with us for the Easter break. It’s been fun showing them round Cotonou and beyond. They’ve had fun too – but not all the time! Read on…

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After a couple of lovely days by the beach last week, we headed back to Cotonou. On the journey back, the hydraulics failed on the Land Rover and we were stranded about 10 miles from home. Lois, Jackie and all the kids caught a taxi, whilst the blokes stayed to try and get the car mended. When this proved almost impossible by the roadside, we made the decision to start the car in first gear and chug on back to Cotonou like that! Bit slow (and sorry, Andy M from Flitton, if this was the wrong thing to do!) The car is sorted within a couple of days and we’re mobile again.

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On Easter Sunday, we were all up with the lark for a Sunrise Service, but with a difference! It was not on a hill (as there are no hills in Cotonou) but by the beach! Here we are during the service (see who you can recognize):

After the service, the children played on the beach. Here are Ruthie and Beth in their matching African outfits on the beach:

After the service, our friends’ daughter, Harriet, began to feel ill, with stomach pains and dire-rear. It became clear she wasn’t just going to get better, so on Monday she was admitted into a local private clinic (Clinique Mahouna, the same place where Rob went for his malaria test in October). She’s kept in for 2 nights, put on a drip and not allowed to eat for 24 hours. It turns out she has a amoeba infection. The drugs work fast and she’s feeling better by Tuesday and comes out Wednesday morning. Here are the family in the clinic on Tuesday afternoon:

Thanks for all your prayers. She’s doing fine now. We had to cancel our trip up north to the Pendjari Park – not to worry, we’ve still done plenty of stuff more locally. Yesterday, we visited a tropical forest managed by a Swiss man and today we went to Songhai, a fascinating organic farm in Porto Novo, which we enjoyed. Here are both families back together (taken by Lois) after Harriet came out of hospital:

Tomorrow, we’re having breakfast with some good friends of ours, the Mittons, then we’re chilling out by the pool! On Sunday evening, our friends fly back to England. It’s been so great to have them here, in spite of the difficulties, and we’ll really miss them when they leave.
That’s all for now – thanks for visiting.