Archive for May, 2007As it’s half term, we had a couple of nights in Grand Popo (a name most Germans find very amusing), which is the main seaside resort for Benin. There are a few places to stay along the coast, but our favourite is Awale Plage, which has comfortable rooms, a nice pool and (usually) good food. I say usually as the meals were substandard the first night, and the bread and butter arrived after the main course! Rooms have either air-conditioning or just fans. As it’s now rainy season, our room just had fans – a simple room with loo & shower room to the rear, a wooden upper floor with another double bed (where the kids sleep) and a nice terrace out the front. We don’t have a photo of the rooms, but I just found one here, along with some more interesting information. The beach is fun, but currents can be very strong, so we don’t tend to go in too deep: One interesting sight is the local villagers pulling up their fishing net from the sea. The net is huge and this can take hours: Other news:
Thanks for visiting! Last week, Rob attended a conference for Missions in Francophone Africa, which took place in Lomé, the capital city of Togo. They used to say: “Lomé la Belle, Cotonou Poubelle”. However, Cotonou is thankfully becoming less and less dustbin-like with newly-surfaced roads, smart buildings and nice restaurants. Lomé has retained much of it’s former beauty, with the roads – originally designed by the Germans – in a coherent layout around a semi-circular ‘ring-road’. Many of the roads are tree-lined and somewhat narrower than in Cotonou, and then there’s the added dimension of hills (where Cotonou is completely flat, even below sea-level in places). The main thing you notice when driving in Lomé is the absence of the yellow-shirted zemidjans, the bane of any Cotonou driver, but also a handy means of transport! The whole place generally feels less cluttered and a tad more serene. . Other news…
Thanks for reading. Bye for now. Yep, rainy season is here and it certainly makes for cooler weather! The other day, I measured the midday temperature as 26 degrees C, which is very pleasant, believe me. Of course there are several downsides to the change in weather, namely:
(that’s our wall on the left!) The main difficulty in such a situation is not to splash anyone else, as they – understandibly – get quite irate! This is, however, sometimes tricky to avoid when (a) there’s water everywhere, (b) your 4×4 weighs a couple of tonnes and (c) the person is standing right next to said puddle! Other news…
It’s a yellow-fronted canary (though I’m sure you didn’t need telling that, Steve P!)
Finally, I love this view of Cotonou, taken from the top of the new Maersk building and looking down towards the Etoile Rouge roundabout: (click to enlarge). It’s almost pitch black in here now (at 11:00am!!) and the wind is making all the doors slam! Better post this fast before the lightening comes! Thanks for reading! (That’s a Scottish phrase, for the uninitiated!) For the second time since we’ve lived in this flat, we had a MOUSE in our lounge… It came whizzing out into the hall, where both Lois and I happened to be, then turned tail and skidded back into the lounge, Lois screaming in the process! So, Rob to the rescue! Step 1: Close all doors out of lounge Step 2: Get a suitable container to catch the rodent Step 3: Pull out furniture and shine torch behind. Step 4: Once located, scare the mouse into an easy corner. Step 5: Once cornered, get the tub on him fast! . Having completed the above, it was time to admire my catch: Foolishly, I lift off the cover to have a peek and, whoosh, like a flash he’s out again. “Crikey, mate! This little critter’s really got some energy!” as our dear departed Aussie would have said. So, back to step 3 or 4 and he’s caught again soon. Here’s Ruthie admiring said rodent: So, we take him out into the street, where I take the cover off and throw him out (as far away from me and the house as possible!) and he scurries off, looking a bit like Peter Pettigrew!!  Phew – let’s hope that’s the last time! Other regular visitors to our house include:
It’s something I taught them to do once and they’ve been hooked ever since! Furthermore, they now video themselves singing ‘silly songs’ with the camera!! Still, there’s not much else to do in Benin on a rainy day! |