Cotonou, Benin: Its life and mine

So, as you all know, I’m in Cotonou right now. Cotonou’s an interesting city. First of all, it’s a real city. In fact, you could imagine it as a kind of Los Angeles: It’s big, with many suburbs stretching for miles, everything for the country comes in through Cotonou, there is a grand mélange of ex-patriots from all over the world here, there are good restaurants, good supermarkets, and even a mall-type supermarket exists here now.

The aesthetics only differ in a few major ways; Cotonou is like any big city, but take away all the nice cars, or better yet take almost all the cars and age them by 50 to 20 years, and add about 200 motorcycles to every 1 vehicle and you might get an idea of the road conditions. Also, the roads are lined with trash. Public waste systems are a 1st world novelty, so trash here is either thrown where it was last used, or it is burned in personal piles at peoples’ houses. Lucky for Africa, there isn’t AS MUCH over-wrapping and plastic linings on products as there are in the States, but there is a lot of trash none-the-less.

As for the buildings: Nothing towers much higher than 4 stories, and it seems like a quarter of the buildings in Cotonou are under construction. This is because people build till the money runs out, and then they wait for more money to come in again. It is not unusual or embarrassing to live or work in a building that looks like a haven for the American-style homeless person. Buildings that are finished are usually storefronts on bottom and residents or offices on top, as you would expect. In walking back through alleyways and residence areas, you might find huge gated mansions surrounded by mud huts and the like. Thieves are not a problem for those people, because if they can afford the house then they can probably afford the guards.

There is a nice neighborhood in Cotonou though, called Hivive. I’m probably spelling ‘Hivive’ wrong, but I like my spelling because 1) That’s exactly how you pronounce it, and 2) for me Hivive is franglais (English-french mixture) for ‘High Life’, because ‘vivre’ is ‘to live’ in French. It’s the neighborhood that surrounds all the governmental buildings, and the presidential palace. It’s so modern and ritzy that you almost feel like your in another world. There are all the big buildings of the government, the airport, incredible restaurants ranging from Thai to Indian to ice cream parlors. And then, of course there is the residential area of it all, which not only sports nothing but small and large mansions, it also has such things as landscaping and grass. The rich all have cars as well, so the streets are usually strangely deserted of people, minus the one or two odd pedestrians.

Also, every mansion, no matter the size, has a wall around it. Every single one of them. They all are also fully staffed as well. Since this is a collectivist society, the rich here are expected to give the poor jobs and/or handouts. They usually give them jobs, so most houses include a cook, a house cleaner, a 24 hour guard (who is guaranteed to sleep on the job, even though they have shifts), sometimes a nanny and sometimes a driver. You have to understand though; if these rich people decided to do something on their own instead of hiring someone, even if you just really enjoy washing clothes or whatever, then their community and work partners would see them as being greedy and selfish.

Quite a few of these people are Beninese, but I would guess that a majority of the foreign population of Benin lives in this little area. Honestly, it’s not a bad life. You get all the credit for living in Africa, but you never really have to leave the States. As long as you don’t leave Hivive you will see many white people who share your culture, have plenty of restaurants to choose from, and air conditioning and satellite tv are practically mandatory (along with sinks and toilets and all that good stuff).

Personally, I don’t think I could be an ex-pat (ex-patriot) like that. There are many of them who never leave Cotonou, and I can’t say I blame them, because the life without toilets, running water, air-conditioning and maybe even without beds is not an easy one. But I like to think that there are many things that outweigh those sacrifices. There are amazing people all around you, doing amazing things. There are women who the world would truly miss if they didn’t exist… they are the many tiny pieces that make up the foundation, and it just makes you wonder how many of those pieces carry the majority of the structural weight.

Honestly, I can’t even say that I enjoy visiting Cotonou, ex-pat lifestyle or not. I want to say that it’s because it’s too stressful, but then I find myself trying to pinpoint the source of my stresses.

The more I think of it, I think it’s about money. Cotonou is stressful if you don’t have money. Back in village I could go a week spending no more than $2-3USD. In Cotonou though you have options. You could easily drop $3 on a can of Pringles. You could go eat a good meal, get ice cream afterwards, go see a production or a speaker at one of the embassies, buy the latest movies bootleg, buy good things that you never see anywhere else, like apples and grapes… And what’s worse is that you start to revert to thinking in dollars. That’s the biggest mistake. You start thinking, “OH MY GOODNESS that’s 1.500f CFA, but hey, it’s only really $3…” And then you end up spending a weeks salary on a couple cans of pringles, a box of cerial, a couple of candy bars and a can of Dr. Pepper.

And then it occurs to me that I am poor. I never have liked saying that I’m rich, but I’ve definitely never been poor before. But now I realize that this is what it is like. It is the possibility of things, the possibility of feeling comfortable as if you were home, and the lack of those possibilities once your money is counted. Even the poor in the States have credit cards though. Granted, they probably don’t use them properly, but that at least gives you cushioning for the occasional luxury. No such thing exists for the poor here… and there are A LOT of poor people.

The most interesting thing about my life as ‘a poor person’, is that I’m not poor. Actually, I might be in the top 15 list of the salaries in Boukoumbe. I’m definitely in the top 20… and in 1 day I get paid what someone could make in 1 hour back in the States.

New Address for Boukoumbe

I also forgot to post my Boukoumbe address. I've had it for forever, but people keep asking for it, so I guess I should post it. Here it is:

PCV Sarah Haskin

B.P. 46

Boukoumbe, Benin

Afrique de l'Ouest (West Africa)

Letters and packages can be sent to this address, but I here packages work better and are cheaper if you send them in the big envelopes and keep them under 4 pounds. Most people say it's cheaper to send multiple 4lbs envelopes than big boxes, but I have heard others (including my parents) say the opposite, and that a big box is cheaper. Your guess is as good as mine.

Letters do usually seem to get to this address though. Good luck!

Sarah

Tickets!!

Soooo. Guess what I'm doing for the Holidays??? I'M GOING HOME!!!!!!!!

Anyway, the reason this just now hit me is because I just started looking at plane ticket prices, and I found one! I'll probably leave on December 16th and leave to come back here on January 6th. That's 19 days at home! 21 days of vacation! 2 1/2 in a plane or aeroport!!! ...Ya know, most people dread that. I'm usually one of them too, but I just keep thinking of what I'll eat. One delicious Air France meal with a window seat view of the Sahara below, accompanied by the free mini bottles of wine and chocolate! Upon arrival in Charles de Gaulle I'll probably eat a crepe with ham and cheese, only to be followed by a lovely delta meal (is it true they only do cold food anymore?), to be followed by a Cinnabon at the Houston airport, and hopefully a bagel and apples and grapes. Ohhh, my head swoons in the thoughts of such sinful luxuries!!! Now, the flight to Oklahoma City probably won't have food at all, but I know I can depend on one thing being there: 1 nice, cold, personal can of Dr. Pepper. Ahhhh, I can taste it now! And, last but definitely nowhere near least - and all of you people coming to the airport should take notes here - I would like 1 Arby's Marketfresh Corned Beef Reuben, WITH the curly fries... AND the apple turnover. NO! NO! CHERRY WILL NOT DO! APPLEEEEE!!! hehehe.

But no, no... I'm not that excited. I'm just plan-your-meals-5-months-in-advance excited, or you could say I'm just count-4-months-instead-of-5-and-a-half excited, or that I'm already-changing-francs-into-dollars excited. Obviously, I'm only a mild case here.

Well, to pass on through the excitement, I'll tell you about the rest of what's going on here. Actually, nothing is going on here. I'm currently stuck in Cotonou with a bad case of 'the runs'. I wish I could give 'the runs' a nickname... I just feel like we are such good friends that we should be on a first name basis. If only I knew the name of a famous runner. ....... Okay, after looking it up, it turns out that a guy named Michael Johnson could have "easily been considered the 'world's fastest man' at the hight of his career". Now, this name is terribly convenient for such a nickname, because 'johnson' happens to also invoke images of my body's type of running. So, I guess I should say I've got a case of 'the Johnsons', or that I'm visiting a lot with Mr. Johnson lately. Haha!! Mr. Johnson and I see so much of each other that some might call it destiny. Destiny seems to explain more than what the doctors can. So far my tests come up clean and the medicine isn't helping. It's not actually serious enough to be kept in the med unit as I have been, but, to top is all off, my platelet levels decided to jump off the charts this week, so between the two excuses to keep me here, all the excuses to leave become irrelevant. C'est la vie.

Well, that's really all that's new for me here. Since I'm stuck in the Med Unit with need of a toilet, I have had the opportunity to watch many crazy movies. In fact, I don't think I would recommend most of them. Usually it is me and one other girl who watch movies together, and we have an unspoken rule that we have to watch something neither of us have seen. The only problem with our rule is that, between the 2 of us, very few movies are left to watch. Actually, most of them shouldn't ever be watched. Well, it makes for a good bonding experience at least. We've had a pretty good time seeing how bad movies can really get. Oh, and if you get the opportunity, watch the music videos of Jan Terri on YouTube. Get Down Goblin is my personal favorite!

Although the med unit is nice in a lot of ways, I just really want to go home. I want to just be in Boukoumbe. It's like 'home' is finally Home for me there in Boukoumbe. I'm not discrediting Home #1 though, but's it's nice to have a place that finally feels like my own here, in Benin. Does that make sense?

So, I'm just waiting to be set free by the doctors here in Cotonou. It looks like I won't be able to leave until the 4th. Happy 4th of July everyone! Once I'm set free, I'm headed home as quickly as possible!

Okay, if I sit here any longer I'll end up rambling about nothing and nothingness, so I'm cutting myself off here. Good night everyone. I guess I'll see you at Christmas?!!!

Sarah