cotonou

We spent the last week in Cotonou, the administrative capital of Benin, travelling down on Monday and back on Friday. Our main reason for going was to sign for our residency cards, but since it is a day's journey from Parakou we won't be going often, so we made the most of this visit to get some shopping done.

The journeys went smoothly – despite it being long the boys were very good, and they enjoyed the break at the “Auberge de Dassa” where we ate lunch both on Monday and Friday.

The administrative part of our trip went very quickly. One of the SIM employees in Cotonou, Roger, took us to the immigration office, where we were first in the queue and were processed efficiently! Our fingerprints were even taken electronically, which is certainly less messy than the traditional way!

We had a long shopping list of household items we weren't sure we'd find in Parakou, and the pressure was on to find everything in the three days we had in Cotonou. We were looking particularly for kitchenware, and there is no one shop that has everything at an affordable price – in fact often the selection of things available in one shop seems quite random! We also stocked up on a few luxury foodie items we can't find outside Cotonou, like golden syrup, cocoa powder, Chai tea bags, garam masala spice mix … but I don't feel I enjoyed that part of the shopping as much as I might have because of the urgency of finding the other things!

By Thursday afternoon we had at last found almost everything on the list, and felt that it had been a successful time. Cotonou is not somewhere we like spending time in really, as it is hotter and more humid than Parakou, and very very busy. Plus all four of us had to share a bedroom, which means that the boys wake each other and us up very easily. One night Simon fell out of bed twice quite apart from Benjy's waking for feeds! We are enjoyed staying in the SIM guesthouse though. Marc, who runs it, is very welcoming, and it's always a great way to meet and talk to other missionaries who are passing through.

We avoided the very centre of Cotonou as much as possible, as there is so much traffic – cars, motorbikes and pedestrians everywhere. We would have no chance of parking if it wasn't for men with sticks and whistles who wave at you as soon as they see you looking for a space and usher you into the nearest one with much blowing of aforementioned whistle! Even better, when you have to back out of your space they will step into the road waving their stick to stop oncoming traffic so that you can get out again. They expect a tip, of course, but it is very much worth it!

Twice we just bought a picnic lunch to eat at the guesthouse, but once we managed to find a Chinese restaurant (not the one we were looking for, but equally recommended by our guide book!) and had a very tasty Chinese meal! I could have believed I was in England ;o)

On the journey home we bought roasted peanuts, pineapples and gari (a local cereal) sold at the side of the road. Buying the peanuts was a bit of a stressful experience, as we had 5 or 6 girls run up to my side of the car and all stick their arms through the window with bags of peanuts, all shouting furiously. Trying to decide which peanuts to take and how to pay the right person, while my ears were being bombarded by their cries, not to mention working out how to close the window again when they didn't seem to want to take their arms back out, was exhausting. I don't think we'll be stopping there again next time! (Or else I'll have to ask friends if there is a better technique!)

I spent a lot of the day yesterday packing away the SIM kitchenware we've been borrowing, and washing and putting away our new stuff. It feels more like home now!