Dry Season Bible School

For the first four weeks of March, we were busy attending Monkolé Bible School. It is held every year during dry season, since that is the time when there is no work to be done in the fields, and therefore people have more time. It's open to anyone, and this time there were on average 15 men and 5 women who turned up each morning. The teachers were our Canadian colleague Grace and Monkolé Pastor Samuel (see photos below). Another one of the elders of the church gave a few lessons too. The sessions took place in an open-sided hut with a blackboard, and people sat both inside and outside (in the shade of a mango tree).

The subjects covered this year were baptism, eternal salvation and a study of several chapters of the Gospel of Mark.

It was good for Marc and me to hear so much Monkolé, and although we didn't understand most of it, some days we were encouraged by the improvement in our listening skills. The other useful thing about Bible school was that we were able to meet and start to get to know people from the church. It will make it easier for us to go out into the village and visit!

At the end of the month, after the last class, there was a party with Kool-Aid, popcorn and prawn crackers (not traditional fare in the village!) and you might notice a small gate-crasher in one photo!

the humble "pagne"

Wax block printed material is sold here as a “pièce” of 12 yards length or a “demi-pièce” of 6 yards. I have been thinking about all the different uses for a “pagne”, which is 2 yards of this, and I've come up with the following (non-exhaustive) list, some of which are traditional uses, some of which were invented by us! The photos demonstrate a few of these uses:

- wear tied around the waist as a skirt
- make up into clothes
- tie around head
- carry baby (small baby with arms and legs inside, bigger baby with arms and legs out)
- use as nappies or folded into underwear for a woman's monthly needs
- if tied as a skirt, part of it can be twisted at the waist to hold money, as a built-in purse
- make up into curtains
- sleep under when it's hot instead of a big sheet
- tie up against car window to shade children
- hung up from mosquito net poles on bed so that children can't see each other during naptime!
- to make dressing-up clothes for kids
- to make a playhouse for kids
- as a safety belt for a baby on a sofa

I really don't know how we managed without "pagnes" in Europe!

mystery fruits

So here are my mystery fruits ... any guesses?

And I also forgot to mention that oranges and lemons also grow here ... and that my strange boys love eating raw lemons ... here is the photographic evidence! I really don't think they are that deprived of Vitamin C!

munch munch lovely lunch

A few people have asked about traditional foods here. Various cereals are grown in Benin, including corn, millet, rice, sorghum and soja. Rice is eaten in grain form, but the others are generally ground into flour and then made into “bouillie” (a sort of thick drink) or “pâte” (similar in texture to smooth but stodgy mashed potato). Bean flour is used to make savoury “cakes” - a great favourite of Benjy's, usually eaten with an oily, spicy sauce. There are other foods made from carbohydrates, such as gari and tapioca, made from manioc. Potatoes, yams and sweet potatoes are also grown in Benin, and pounded yams are another common dish.

Beef, chicken and guineafowl meat are widely available, although how often an average Beninese person can afford to eat meat is another question. In some towns pork can also be found. Fish can be found, particularly in the south, but it can be bought in dried or frozen form further north.

Most sauces served with “pâte” are based around onion and tomato, and a bouillon cube gives extra flavour! There is also the famous green “sauce gluante” (gluey sauce?!) made with okra. Spinach is popular too. Homemade peanut butter is often added to tomato sauce too.

Other vegetables available (depending on the season) are marrows, squash, carrots, cabbage, green peppers, red and green chilli peppers (hot!), aubergines, cucumbers and beans (both green and several types of dry).

Fruits include bananas, plantains, pineapples, mangos, papaya, guava and coconuts (or are they nuts really?!). Also some fruits I'd never seen before, but I'm leaving them for another post with photos! Peanuts and cashew nuts are also harvested in Benin, and can be bought all over the country.

Snacks range from “couli-couli” (kind of like baked peanut butter mixed with chilli peppers!) to sweet doughnuts.

Of course, I am far from being an expert in Beninese cuisine, and may be able to give a far more detailed and complete version of this in a few years time! I like cooking, and have enjoyed the challenge of learning to cook new meals. But I sometimes have to stop myself from thinking about the meals I used to love cooking and eating back in Europe! (I have already started a list in my head of foods I want to eat when I'm briefly back in the UK for my sister's wedding at the end of May!)

Benjy eating bean cake, with Maman Sera, who used to look after him during our language lessons in Parakou: