Beep beep!

While Marc can use his French driving licence to drive here, my English licence isn't valid because it doesn't have French on it. One possibility for me would be to get an international driving licence, but I would have to apply (and pay) for it every year in the UK, which is costly and complicated. So I have signed up with a driving school here in Parakou, and for 60,000CFA (about £80) I will be able to have 6 driving lessons (if I need that many), and take the written and road tests. It will be an interesting cross-cultural experience, quite apart from the advantage of ending up with a Beninese driving licence for life! I asked how to go about booking a lesson and was told that I should just turn up and ask for an instructor - “it's you who decide when's best for you” I was told. It seems to me that making the effort to get there just to find out there are no instructors free wouldn't necessarily be the easiest arrangement, but I didn't think they'd appreciate me arguing about it.

We went to find out about it yesterday, and the boss of the school said, “Since you already know how to drive you can take the test on the 27th!” Of this month?! I replied politely that although I can already drive I'd like to familiarise myself with the Beninese Highway Code before the written test. “Oh, you don't need to worry yourself about that!” he answered me, waving a hand dismissively. I insisted that I wasn't in a rush, and would prefer to wait until next month. We are away in Cotonou (sorting out our residency cards) next week, so I won't have time to think about it then, and since I've never driven in Benin before, I'd like to go out with an instructor once or twice just to see what advice they will give me!

So I now have a month and a half to study the 600 multiple choice questions which could come up in the test! (That's fewer than 20 a day to memorise...)