The Colline region of Benin is the very middle of the country where there are rolling green hills. Some say it is one of the prettiest parts of Benin. I would have to agree. When we were first told that we’d be living in Bohicon and we found out how close it was to the Collines, we knew that we wanted to go hiking a lot. This last weekend was the first chance that we have gotten to take advantage of the nearby scenery and dust off our hiking boots. We left on Friday from the bus gare. It was definitely the worst ride anywhere of our lives. We had to wait around for almost 4 hours in the heat for the bus to leave, while everyone kept telling us that the bus was coming any second. We ended up trying to get on a different bus whenever a bus would come into the gare, but they were all full. In the midst of trying to talk to one of the guys with whom we’ve had success with before in finding a bus, a huge guy came up to me with his hand out for a handshake calling me “yovo”. I don’t have the patience for adults calling me yovo, so I simply told him that my name wasn’t yovo and that he could call me “Madame”. He said, “but you are a yovo”, and then put his hand on my arm. I moved my arm and told him sternly not to touch me and then walked away. (It’s a big taboo for a guy to touch a girl here that he doesn’t know). He followed me and kept bothering me. I left and went back to Craig where he was guarding our luggage, and asked him to take over in our transport search. Long story short, we got in a minivan that was supposed to leave at 10:30 and it didn’t end up leaving until after noon and made frequent and long stops along the way. What should have taken us 2 hour, took us almost 4.
Once we got to Savalou, the small town where our friends, Carlos and Andrea live who celebrated Thanksgiving with us, we got out of the van and went to get our bag and the van started to drive away. I yelled at the van to stop, which it did. Then it started intentionally driving just fast enough for us to have to chase it, meanwhile, the entire van that was crammed full of people (19 to be exact) was laughing at the white people chasing the van. It was one of the most frustrating days in my Peace Corps life to date.
After we got to Andrea’s house, we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of our weekend. Andrea was telling us how she was having bat problems since moving into this new house because the people left the windows open the whole time it was empty. We looked everywhere, high and low, and couldn’t find any bats. As soon as night hit, there were two bats flying around. We got one of them to go out the window and the other one disappeared again. As soon as we started to go to sleep, I opened my eyes and saw it flying around above us, so I shouted for Cara to open the window again. The bat would not go out the window so Andrea thought she would try to hit it with a broom to get it out the window. Well she hit the bat directly at Craig and I, so I started freaking out even more (I don’t do rodents) and it eventually went out the window. We thought that was all, but the next night, the 3rd one appeared and we got that one out too. Now, Andrea’s house should be bat-free!
On Saturday, we got up very early (to beat the sun/heat) and took a 20-minute zem ride to a little village higher up in the collines where we started our hike. Before starting, we ate some bouille for breakfast, which is the Beninese equivalent of cream of wheat but not as good. It was cool, misty, cloudy, and nice until about 11am when the sun started to come out. Needless to say, it was a very nice hike. There was a palm tree with 7 trunks (they said it is the only one in the world, but who knows) along with a lot of other pretty things. It was just nice to get away from post for the weekend and do some outdoor activity. The company that took us out said that it was the hardest hike that they did, but we didn’t find it too hard. We were very dirty afterwards though and when we got back to Andrea’s house, the water was out so we had to walk to Carlos’ house with our shower stuff to take a shower. We left to come home on Sunday, and the ride home was much nicer than the ride there! Enjoy the pictures!
P.S. A huge thanks to Noelle and Mama/Papa Wirick for the care packages! You guys are awesome!
Carlos, Cara, Satin, and Andrea
Craig and I with the kids in the start village
All of us in front of the palm tree with 7 trunks
the start of the trail
at the top of the first peak
This bat pretended to be dead and when Craig threw him off the roof with the dust pan, he flew away!
autobus del muerte?
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