Bonne fête! Bon appétit, bonne assise, bonne arrivée…

Yesterday was the 50^th anniversary of Benin’s independence (August 1^st, 1960).  There is a fête d’independance each year, but this year it was extra special because it’s the 50^th anniversary AND it was held in Porto Novo.  There was a big parade, dancers, ‘pom pom girls’ (what Beninese call cheerleaders), and speeches by the president and other important people.  The fête went down pretty close to my house actually, but it was crazy packed so we just watched it on TV.  My family’s first volunteer who stayed with them two years ago, Melissa, was in town this weekend and she stayed with us Saturday night.  We made American food on Sunday (tomato soup and grilled cheese – tomatoes and onions are absolute staples here) and I think it went over pretty well.  Oh we also had a cooking session with the PCVTs on Saturday after class and we made a ridiculous amount of rice, beans, guac, salsa, wagasi (cheese), handmade tortillas, cornbread, and CAKE.  Food!!! Good times.  There was even sangria.   

Today starts week 3 of stage (pronounced stahj, it’s French), and days are pretty much like this: bike 20 mins to school, language class, technical training, lunch, more language or bike or cross cultural classes, bike home, eat, crash.  A note on biking.  It’s pretty much like a BMX course every day, plus goats and chickens and cars and zems and motos and sand traps.  This afternoon we got to meet the King of Porto Novo.  Benin has a president, each city has a mayor, and each départment has a head, but there are also kings of several different regions.  He talked to us for a while about the history of Porto Novo and why it has three names (Porto Novo is actually a Portuguese name).  Rules for entry to the King’s house: shoes off, always be seated or kneeling in his presence, and saluate him by kneeling and bowing until your head touches the floor upon entering or exiting.  As we were leaving he passed us a book to write something in as proof we were there I guess, and for some reason the book got passed to me.  So the King of Porto Novo now has some trying-to-sound-formal nonsense thanking him for talking to us in his book.  At least I wrote in English and he said he didn’t understand English…

About the title – saluating (greeting) is big here.  There’s a protocol of what you say when, i.e., every morning the dialogue is:

Bonjour!

Bonjour!   

Tu as bien dormi?

Oui, j’ai bien dormi. Et toi?

Oui, ca va.

Autrement dit: Good morning, did you sleep well? Yeah I slept well, you? Yeah, ok.

But then there are the other greetings that sprout up everywhere.  When I come home after school it’s ‘bonne arrivée’ (literally good/happy arrival) from my family and the women in the little store thing on my corner (everyone knows if there’s a yovo staying nearby).  You can bonne anything though.  People say bon travail (good work) to me when I’m biking (if they’re not screaming yovo yovo!).  It’s also completely appropriate to walk up to someone who is sitting and say bonne assise, which means something like happy sitting or… have a good sit!  way to sit there! Bon appétit gets thrown in throughout the meal.  Bonjour vs. bonsoir is interesting too – usually bonsoir time starts sometime in the evening, but here people will say bonsoir at all hours of the day, mostly starting around noon though.

Some of the crazy things are starting to seem more normal which is weird.  I saw two guys and four (live) goats on a zemi the other day, and it is ridiculous how many people can fit into a station wagon and how much stuff can be put on top of one.  Someone was selling spaghetti sandwiches outside of our school yesterday - spaghetti...on bread.

We get our post assignments on Friday!  Thanks for all the comments guys :) 

Some street in Porto Novo, taken from the bus on our way in from Cotonou.  Pretty typical.

Me, my host family, and their first volunteer wearing the 'happy 50 years of independence, don't get AIDS!' shirts my maman gave us.