Blasts from the past /Instantanés du passé

Among the very exciting post that arrived on Tuesday were two photographs...

This is when I was just three years old with my cousin Phil, courtesy of Auntie Fi :-)



"and now you are both all growed up!"

And, much more embarrassingly, this is from my dressing-up days (which probably started when I was 4 and probably haven't yet finished...) - thanks Arnetta!! ;-)



Hahaha! I just noticed that the tie I'm wearing looks exactly the same as Etienne's famous Scottish tie, which he loves very much! We were obviously meant to be!!

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Parmi les courriers enthousiasmants qui sont arrivés jeudi, il y avait deux photos
Celle-ci lorsque j’avais juste 3 ans avec mon cousin Phil, offerte par ma tante Fi.

(Photo)

Et maintenant nous sommes tous deux des adultes
Bien plus embarrassante, celle-là lorsque j’avais probablement 4 ans et que j’étais dans ma période de déguisement (qui n’est pas encore totalement terminée).  Merci Arnetta !

(photo)

Haha ! Je viens juste de remarquer que la cravate que j’arborais ressemble à s’y méprendre à la fameuse cravate écossaise d’Etienne, qu’il aime tant. Il est évident  que nous devions nous rencontrer.

My 30th birthday project / Le projet de mes 30 ans !

Since the patchwork stockings of last Christmas, I haven't had any 'big projects' to work on so for my 30th birthday, I thought it might be a really brilliant idea to make 30 little fabric dolls to give out to the local kids here. Yeah...

It was a really brilliant idea until reality hit and I was forced to accept that in practice it will take FAR longer than the 1.5 days I had allocated. (When will I learn that Etienne is MUCH more realistic with time-scales than I am?!)

Anyway, I'm not one to give up and since we started on Monday, we will continue until we finish (hopefully by Christmas, lol...).

Here's the story so far...

After a trip to the market on Sunday to buy supplies...



... I ripped a little template out of paper (I didn't have any scissors - Mum is sending some!) and proceeded to use my school chalk to draw around it on the brown fabric (culturally-appropriate dolls of course!).



On Monday afternoon, I headed down the road to the lovely Marina's sewing shop (she's a relative of the Badé family and has been living with them since they moved to Bénin) and I began cutting out the little people (Marina had scissors!) while Marina worked her magic with the sewing machine.





That took all of Monday afternoon and some of Tuesday afternoon. The next task was to cut carefully around the stitching so the dolls could be turned right-side out. Etienne did quite a lot of the cutting while I began using a stick from the Bénin-style broom (lots of long sticks bound together with a cable tie) to invert the little things...



Marina then began to stuff them, with a thin foam mattress that Elie and Eliora had ripped up for us (we couldn't find any proper stuffing at the market!)...



Et voilà...! The first stuffed doll!



By the end of Tuesday, we'd stuffed about half of them...



As they say in Bénin: Bon Travail !! (Good work!)
Am praying firstly that God will help us finish these small gifts (once they've been stuffed and sewn up, they need buttons sewn on for eyes, a mouth to be hand-sewn and little clothes to be made!) and secondly that He will use them for His missionary purposes somehow!!

PS I asked the church to pray about this on Tuesday and Professor A (a fully-grown man who just got baptised) turned round and said, "You know I'm a child, a child of God too - can I have one?!" People here are funny! :-)

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Depuis les chaussettes en patchwork de Noel dernier, je n’ai pas eu de « grands projets » à réaliser, alors pour mes 30 ans, j’ai pensé que ce serait une idée géniale de fabriquer 30 petites poupées à offrir aux enfants du quartier. Ouais !...
Ce fut une idée géniale jusqu’à ce que la réalité me rattrape et m’oblige à admettre que la réalisation prendra beaucoup plus que la journée et demie que je voulais y consacrer. (Quand vais-je apprendre qu’Etienne est beaucoup plus réaliste que moi dans l’évaluation du temps ?!)
Qu’importe, je ne suis pas de celles qui renoncent et puisque nous avons commencé lundi, nous irons jusqu’au bout (avec un peu de chance, jusqu’à Noël, Lol…)
Voici l’histoire pourtant…..
Après avoir fait un tour au marché dimanche pour acheter les fournitures …..

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…j’ai détaché un petit modèle d’un bout de papier (je n’avais pas de ciseaux – Maman va m’en envoyer !) et commencé à utiliser ma craie de l’école pour le reproduire sur le tissu marron ! (bien sûr des poupées adaptées à la culture !)

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Lundi après-midi, j’ai descendu la rue jusqu’à l’atelier de couture de la charmante Marina (elle est de la famille Badé et vit chez eux depuis qu’ils  vivent au Bénin) et j’ai commencé à découper les petits personnages ( Marina avait des ciseaux !) pendant qu’elle pratiquait son art avec sa machine à coudre.

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Cela a pris toute l’après-midi et une partie du mardi après-midi. La prochaine étape était de découper soigneusement autour des coutures afin de pouvoir retourner les poupées. Etienne a fait une grande partie du découpage pendant que je commençais  à les retourner à l’aide du bâton d’un balai béninois (une bonne quantité de roseaux attachés ensemble par un câble électrique) …

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Marina ensuite a commencé à les garnir avec de la mousse fine de matelas qu’Elie et Eliora avaient déchiquetée pour nous (nous n’avions pas trouvé de meilleure garniture au marché !)…

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Et voilà… ! La première poupée bourrée !

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Mardi soir nous en avions rempli la moitié…

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Comme ils disent au Bénin : Bon Travail !!
Tout d’abord, je prie pour, qu’avec l’aide de Dieu, nous finissions ces petits cadeaux (après le bourrage et la couture, il faut coudre des boutons pour les yeux, coudre la bouche à la main, et faire des petits vêtements !)  et ensuite, je prie qu’elles puissent contribuer d’une manière ou d’une autre au projet missionnaire !

PS : J’ai demandé à l’église de penser à nous dans ce projet mardi et le Professeur A  (un parfait adulte qui vient de se faire baptiser) s’est retourné pour dire, «  Vous savez, je suis un enfant, un enfant de Dieu – puis-je en avoir une ?! » Les gens sont marrants ici ! 

The day of 3s!

Yesterday was a day of 3s as we celebrated 3 months in Bénin, 3 decades of my life and... news of triplets!





Only joking!! ;-)

But in all seriousness, I did receive that birthday card yesterday from three missionaries we trained with in America who were highly aware of my broody status, lol... :-D

And I did receive that very exciting baby scan for my birthday, from a very good friend who is due next year :-D

It really was a wonderful day and very different from any birthday I've had before. For starters, it was warm and bright...





Then Etienne drip-fed bundles of greetings cards, a few every couple of hours...







Until nearly midnight...!





We spent a bit of time at Marina's sewing shop in the afternoon... (more about that another day)





I didn't go and teach because I had a sore throat... (typical)

I received some chocolate biscuits from my fellow missionaries...



And some fabric from my church family and a teacher friend to have more beautiful African outfits made... :-D



We went to the poshest restaurant in town (as in they sort of understand hygiene and provide water and soap so you can wash your hands before you eat) for a 4-course meal... (well, there were four elements to the meal: rice, tomato sauce, wagashi cheese and Fanta orange!!)





And just before the day was over, Etienne handed me the laptop, with an utterly delightful video that Mummy had sent of my cousin's 2nd birthday party, followed by family and friends all singing Happy Birthday to me! It was SO nice to see and hear you all!!!



Oh, and then there was the end of the video that sent us both into hysterical laughter, so much so that when Mum phoned (in the middle of us watching the video), it was impossible for her to understand what I was attempting to say because I was laughing so much!! I do love my famerlee!!! Here they are...



It really was a very very very very very happy day and I thank God for all of you and for your love (and cards and messages and powerpoints and videos and pictures), and I pray that in the next 30 years I can love others as much as you have loved me! BIG HUGS!

And here's the old lady herself!

(Thanks Nat for the balloons!)

What a lot of love!

This is just a quick post to say...

THANK YOU ALL VERY VERY MUCH! :-D

I don't think I have ever received so many lovely (and hilarious) messages in one day! It has been a very special birthday indeed and I am feeling very very loved!! So here's some love back! Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PS Sorry I have been RUBBISH on the blog lately... Will rectify that next week (after marking about 150 exams, writing and delivering a sermon and writing the November newsletter!).

First bike accident - but we're fine!

Yep, it had to happen sometime!

This evening, we were on our way to our Monday prayer meeting in the Gansosso quarter of Kandi. It was really quite dark so the car and motorbike headlights on the road were dazzling... We were driving along the main road and needed to turn left onto a side road, so Etienne indicated with his arm and moved into the middle of the road. As we were about to turn, a moto taxi appeared from the left and made it clear he was going to cut in front of us so Etienne slowed right down to wait for him to do his thing before turning. Just as he had passed across us, Etienne looked in front and there was a motorbike heading straight for us at speed. I could see that we would certainly collide if the other bike didn't manage to stop or change his course, and that's exactly what happened! Somehow I managed to step off the bike before the collision happened (despite not being able to reach the ground when I'm sitting on the back) and Etienne thinks he must have turned the steering to the left and leaned the bike down as he stepped off it and the other guy crashed into the right side of the bike. The other guy skidded on the floor and hurt his ankle and grazed his knee but he managed to ride off a few moments later. Etienne picked up his bike with ease (despite it being incredibly heavy) and parked it on the side of the road and then we went to see if the other guy was ok. I think some angels were around to help us both during and after the incident - it was all a bit surreal! Neither us nor our bike had so much as a scratch. Praise God for His protection!

Three-in-one!

Saturday was a very special day for the Adventist community in Kandi as three major events took place: the placing of the first stone of the new church building, the baptism of 27 people and the official organisation of the group into a church!

We had over 100 people attend to celebrate this special day, including local businessmen, pastors from other churches in Kandi and many of our friends from the Sonsoro church group, which was planted by a Muslim man, Rigo, who discovered the saving grace of Jesus through studies with Pastor Michée and was baptised a few years ago. God has blessed Rigo's life and evangelistic work in Sonsoro greatly and he brought 24 of the baptismal candidates on Saturday, ranging in age from teenager to really quite old.

The service was led by the president, secretary and treasurer of the Bénin Adventist Mission, accompanied by Pastor Simon from Parakou and Pastor Michée.

Here are a few photos from the day:


Friends from Sonsoro arrive in jam-packed taxis!


The symbolic first stone of the new church building. We are still raising funds for this but hope to start building in the next few months.


Everyone gathers round the baptistery, with the candidates all standing on the right in their white vests.


Our good friend, Prof Aymar, takes the plunge for Jesus.


Spot Etienne!


27 people's wet clothes drying in the sun!


The very lively Sonsoro worship band provided a few musical items throughout the service.

Let the sun shine!

We're not exactly big fans of the heat but there are benefits to having sunshine every single day... Free energy for example :-)

One week ago, we had two small solar panels installed on the roof of the dialogue centre that is currently functioning as our church building, thanks to some generous donations towards the project from the UK and France.

And what a blessing they are!

As the dialogue centre is situated out of town, the electricity cables do not extend to it, and to pay for the extension of the cables would be extremely expensive. For the last few years, a variety of generators have been used to provide power, but these are very draining on the budget. They constantly break down and need repairing, the eat fuel like there's no tomorrow and it has proven extremely difficult to regulate the voltage (despite attempting to fit regulators in several places), resulting in light bulbs being blown nearly every week. As a result, we only used the generators for our big church meetings on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Any other meetings (morning and evening prayer sessions, youth meetings etc) took place without ceiling fans and without proper lights (we just used a couple of LED torches which made reading the Bible a bit challenging!).

The solar panels have changed all that! We are now not spending any money on fuel, although we will put some money by for maintenance of the panels, and we can use the ceiling fans, lights, mics and musical instruments at all of our meetings! What's more, it will now be possible for us to start music lessons for keyboard, electric guitar and bass guitar at the dialogue centre, which some of the teens are very happy about!

Thank you to everyone who donated money towards the project here - Kandi Church is very grateful indeed!

Visa obtained! Sort of... / Visa obtenu... En quelque sorte....

This afternoon, we went back to Immigration to see the lady who thought she could fast-track our visas... The door to the visa office was closed and somebody was waiting outside, so we joined her and waited, assuming that after the staff had finished their lunch break, they would open the door. Oh what naive thinking!



After a few minutes, a small African guy arrived and knocked on the door. It was opened enough for him to squeeze in and then closed again. Two Arab guys who were waiting with us then decided to just walk in. The African guy reappeared seconds later and told the lady who had been there first that the office was not open yet. So the three of us waited some more. Then an America couple arrived with their African guide and marched straight in. At that point, we figured that waiting was a waste of time and we also went in, inviting the other lady to join us. It all looked pretty open! And it was air-conditioned!

Within about ten minutes, we had spoken with the visa lady, who told us that it wasn't our fault that the administration had problems, that we had come nice and early to renew our visas and that we shouldn't worry. She stamped our application form to confirm that we had tried to apply, informed us that we needed to keep this form with our passports and told us to come and get the visa next time we're in Cotonou... We told her that could be July 2015 and she said that was fine! Sorted!

And we managed to find a couple of pairs of shorts at the big market (and escape the huge rain storm) so it was a successful day! And to top it all off, tonight is pizza night, courtesy of Pastor Mary Barrett - thanks Mary! :-D

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Cet après-midi, nous sommes retournés voir la dame de l’immigration qui pensait pouvoir accélérer l’obtention de nos visas….. La porte du bureau était fermée et quelqu’un attendait à l’extérieur, nous nous sommes joints à elle et avons attendu, croyant que lorsque le personnel aurait terminé sa pause déjeuner, ils ouvriraient la porte. Quelle pensée naive !

Quelques minutes plus tard, un petit Africain arriva et frappa à la porte. La porte s’ouvrit juste assez pour qu’il puisse se faufiler à l’intérieur et elle se referma. Alors, deux Arabes qui attendaient avec nous ont décidé de rentrer. L’Africain réapparut quelques secondes plus tard et dit à la dame qui était arrivée la première que le bureau n’était pas encore ouvert. Alors tous les trois nous avons encore attendu. Puis, un couple d’Américains accompagné de leur guide africain sont entrés directement. A ce moment nous avons compris que nous perdions notre temps à attendre et sommes entrés en invitant l’autre dame à en faire de même. Tout paraissait ouvert ! Et il y avait la clim !

En moins de 10 mn, nous avions parlé avec la dame des visas qui nous a dit que nous n’avions commis aucune faute et que l’administration rencontrait des problèmes, que nous étions venus grandement en temps pour renouveler nos visas et que nous ne devions pas nous faire de soucis. Elle a tamponné nos formulaires prouvant que nous en avions fait la demande, nous demandant de les garder dans nos passeports jusqu’à ce que nous revenions les chercher la prochaine fois que nous reviendrons à Cotonou… Nous lui avons dit que cela pourrait être en Juillet 2015 et elle a répondu, « c’est parfait » ! Très bien !

On a pu trouver des shorts au grand marché (et aussi échapper à l’énorme pluie d’orage) et ainsi la journée fut une réussite ! Et la cerise sur le gateau, ce soir c’est soirée-pizza, grâce au don du pasteur Mary Barrett – Merci Mary ! 

Arts and Crafts / L'artisanat local

Yesterday evening, we went to the 'Centre Artisanal' to look at some of the locally-made things for sale there. It's quite an experience! Every single shop owner is DESPERATE for you to see their wares, so they step outside of their shop and implore you to visit them before going to see anyone else! They virtually grab your hand and drag you in!! When there are seven people begging you at the same time, it becomes rather tricky as none of them take 'No' for an answer!

We had a really lovely chat with a lady in the first shop. She was a Christian and was very happy to know that we are in Bénin as missionaries. She had some pretty jewellery, nice wooden boxes and fabric bags to sell - all very good quality stuff but pretty expensive too!
We went to a few other shops and began to see a lot of the same things for sale: wooden boxes, coaster sets, wooden statues, masks...





One lady dragged us into her shop, where she had some pretty fabric for sale. One was particularly nice and she promised that if we took it, she would give us an exceptionally good price, just between us. This same line was repeated for about 10 minutes as we tried to ascertain exactly what this good price was. I had bought almost exactly the same fabric (same colours, same brand, same quality, same length) in Kandi for 5000 FCFA so I assumed the price was going to be better than that. We eventually told the lady we really didn't have much money on us, maybe 3000 FCFA, but this didn't put her off! She told us we could take the fabric, pay a bit now and then bring the rest of the money tomorrow, because she would give us such a very special price if we would agree to buy it now. Etienne was getting fed up and finally demanded to know the price. It turned out to be a real con! She said that this fabric is amazing quality and usually sells for 25,000 FCFA but that she would give it to us for 17,000! When we told her that we could buy the same thing for much cheaper, she denied it and wouldn't let us leave she shop!! She stood in the doorway insisting that her price was really really good! Some people are funny!!

We did manage to leave in the end, without the fabric, and saw plenty of other nice things among the many shops. Colourful paintings, carved elephant stools, djembes... and Tintins!











At dusk, we turned a few more eager shop owners away as we were starving and headed to our local spaghetti/omelette bar for dinner... Only to find that they were out of gas and wouldn't be getting a refill (for their camping stove) until 10pm. Doh. When we asked where we could find food nearby, the guy there pointed us to a shack just across the busy main road, so we prayed that it would be relatively hygienic and made our way over there. It looked like a very similar set up, except this Mama had gas :-) She cooked us up some spaghetti with omelette (and non-spicy sauce, which was still pretty spicy for us!), which we devoured with great joy :-) Until we saw a mouse crawl across the floor in front of us... Well, it was only a little one, and the food we ate all came from sealed packets/containers/shells so we figured we were safe! ;-)



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(Veuillez voir les images ci-dessus)

Hier soir nous sommes allés au Centre Artisanal pour voir quelques objets fait mains à vendre. Ce fut une expérience ! Chaque propriétaire de magasin désire ABSOLUMENT vous faire voir ses marchandises, alors ils sortent de leurs échoppes pour vous implorer de venir voir ce qu’ils ont avant de passer voir ailleurs. Pratiquement, Ils vous prennent par la main et vous trainent à l’intérieur. Et quand il y sept personnes qui veulent  vous servir simultanément, cela devient assez difficile car aucun d’entre eux ne considère « Non » comme une réponse.

Dans la première boutique, nous avons eu une conversation agréable avec une dame. C’était une chrétienne, très contente de savoir que nous étions au Bénin en tant que missionnaires. Elle avait quelques beaux bijoux, de jolies boites en bois et fabriquait des sacs pour les vendre – des objets ce qualité, mais assez chers.
Nous sommes passés dans quelques autres magasins et y avons vu à peu près les mêmes choses ; des boites en bois, des dessous de verres, des statues en bois, des masques…
Une femme nous a conduits dans son magasin ou elle avait des beaux tissus à vendre. L’un d’entre eux était particulièrement beau, et elle nous a promis que si nous l’achetions, elle nous ferait un prix d’amis, juste pour nous. Cette même phrase a été répétée pendant presque 10 minutes, pendant lesquelles nous avons voulu nous assurés de ce qu’était ce bon prix. J’avais acheté à Kandi un tissu absolument identique, -même couleur, même style, même qualité et même métré pour 5000 FCFA à Kandi, et je m’attendais à un prix inférieur à celui-là. Nous avons dit à la vendeuse que nous n’avions pas beaucoup d’argent avec nous, peut-être 3000 FCFA, mais elle ne s’est pas découragée. Elle nous a dit que nous pouvions prendre le tissu avec nous, en payer une partie aujourd’hui  et amener le reste de la somme  demain, parce qu’elle nous ferait une offre alléchante si nous acceptions de l’acheter aujourd’hui. De guerre lasse, Etienne a finalement exigé de connaitre le prix. Elle a dit que ce tissu est d’une qualité remarquable et vendu d’habitude pour 25.000 FCFA, mais qu’elle nous le ferait à 17.000. Lorsque nous lui avons dit que nous pouvions trouver le même article pour bien moins cher, elle l’a nié et ne voulait plus nous laisser sortir du magasin ! Elle s’est mise devant la porte affirmant avec insistance que son prix état vraiment intéressant. Il y a parfois des gens étranges.
Finalement nous avons réussi à partir sans le tissu et avons vu beaucoup d’autres jolies choses dans de nombreux autres magasins. Des tableaux colorés, des chaises en forme d’éléphants, des djembés et des Titntin !

A la nuit tombante, nous avons tourné le dos à d’autres commerçants zélés, car nous avions faim, et nous sommes rendus pour le diner dans au bar local à spaghetti et omelette… pour découvrir qu’il n’avait plus de gaz pour leur gaziniere et qu’il ne pourrait être réapprovisionné avant 22 heures. Dommage ! Nous avons demandé ou nous pourrions trouver à manger dans les alentours, et la personne a pointé une case juste en face, de l’autre coté de la rue principale. Nous avons prié souhaitant que le lieu soit relativement propre, et nous y sommes allés. Cet endroit ressemblait au précédent à la différence que la Mama d’ici a du gaz. Elle nous a préparé des spaghettis et une omelette (avec une sauce non piquante, mais qui l’est quand même pour nous) que nous avons dévorés avec une grande joie. Jusqu’à ce que nous voyons une souris traverser lentement la hutte juste devant nous… Bon, elle était toute petite et notre nourriture provenait de boîtes de conserve bien fermées ; nous avons pensé que nous ne risquions rien. 

Badminton in Bénin / Badminton au Bénin

Yesterday, we had three main tasks in Cotonou:
1. Pick up our 'Cartes de Sejour' (residency cards)
2. Stock up on treats from the Super U supermarket
3. Find some shorts for me - life in Bénin is just too sweaty... Two pairs of shorts is simply insufficient!

At 8.55am, we joined the 'queue' at Immigration as the gates were not yet open. When they did open just after 9am, the mob surged forward, attempting to push through the small opening to enter the courtyard. The police guards were clearly not cool with this approach and they hastily closed the gates and told everyone to step back a bit. One by one, we explained our reasons for wishing to enter. Those who wanted to drop their documents off for passports and cartes de séjour were told that the service wasn't available and they should come back tomorrow. We felt a bit gutted for them as some of them had probably travelled a long way! We were let in and after about half an hour of very unclear directions and general unhelpfulness from members of staff, we eventually ended up in a small office giving our fingerprints to check if our cards were ready. Fortunately for us, they were, complete with very flattering photos of course!





We then filled in forms to renew our visas but were told there were some administration problems and visas would take a week... Given that we need to be back in Kandi on Wednesday night, this was not really an option! The miserable lady in the visa booth told us to 'come back tomorrow and it should be ok' but then she gave us our forms back without recording any of our information !?!?! We had no choice but to trust her!

Next stop, Super U. We found some herby cheese (like Boursin), Pringles and halva, which made us very happy!!

We noticed there was a small market beside Super U so we decided to hunt for shorts there...

Before we had entered the dark cluttered alley where the tiny booths were, a lady selling fruit yelled out to her friend to come and help us. Beninois people can be extremely helpful sometimes! Her friend appeared after about one minute of yelling and invited us into the filthy alley so we could see his shop. When we reached his shop, he invited us to sit down and enjoy the music (which was being played at rock concert volume in a space of just 2 square metres) while he went to see his friends to find some ladies' shorts. As soon as he left (entrusting his laptop, Aladdin & Jasmine table, sound system and several mobile phones, all decorated with little Catholic stickers, to us), we turned the volume right down!!



While we were sitting there, I looked up and saw a very familiar object which I was not expecting to see in Bénin... A badminton racket!! It seems this wonderful sport is not foreign here :-) Chances of us being able to play in Kandi are slim though... A good ol' Slazenger it was, complete with a sellotaped handle ;-)



And to reassure us that Christmas will not be an entirely strange affair here, a little Christmas tree completed the decoration of his boutique :-)



After a long wait, the guy returned with a filthy, yellowing pair of cream jeans which had had the legs hacked off, and a pair of what looked like men's pyjama bottoms. He tried! We thanked him for all his help and headed back to our hotel to enjoy our herby cheese with some bread and fresh pineapple. Yum yum :-D

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(Veuillez voir les images ci-dessus)

Hier, nous avions trois tâches à accomplir à Cotonou:
1. Aller chercher nos cartes de séjour.
2. Faire nos réserves de gâteries à super U.
3. Trouver des shorts pour moi – on transpire trop au Bénin … deux shorts ne suffisent pas!

À 8h55, nous sommes allés faire la queue à l'immigration alors que les portes n'étaient pas encore ouvertes. Quand elles se sont ouvertes juste après neuf heures, la foule s'est précipitée essayant d'entrer dans la cour en poussant à travers la petite ouverture. Les gardiens n'ont pas du tout apprécié cette approche et ont rapidement fermé les portes nous enjoignant de reculer. Un par un, nous avons dû expliquer pourquoi nous voulions entrer. On a dit a ceux qui voulaient déposer leur dossier pour obtenir leur passeport ou carte de séjour que le service n'était pas ouvert et qu'ils devaient revenir demain. Nous étions écœurés pour eux car plusieurs venez de très loin ! On nous a laissés rentrer et après presque une demi-heure de directives confuses et d' une totale inefficacité des membres du personnel, nous avons atterri enfin dans un petit bureau pour donner nos empreintes digitales et vérifier que nos cartes étaient prêtes. Heureusement pour nous, elles l'étaient, avec bien sûr des photos très flatteuses !

Nous avons ensuite rempli des formulaires pour le renouvellement de nos visas mais on nous a dit alors qu'il y avait des problèmes dans l'administration et que ça prendrait une semaine… À part ça nous devons être de retour mercredi soir à Kandi, et ça ne se discute pas!  La pauvre femme au stand des visas nous a dit de revenir demain et que ça devrait être bon, mais ensuite elle nous a rendu nos formulaires sans avoir enregistré aucune de nos informations !?!?! Nous n'avions pas d'autres choix que de lui faire confiance!

Étape suivante, Super U. Nous avons trouvé quelques fromages aux herbes (genre Boursin), des Pringles et de l'Halva, ce qui nous a fait très plaisir !!!

Nous avions remarqué qu'il y avait un petit marché à côté du Super U et nous avons décidé de partir à la recherche de shorts là-bas… Avant que nous ne soyons entrés dans cette ruelle sombre et encombrée ou se trouvaient de minuscules boutiques, une marchande de fruits demanda en criant à son ami de venir nous aider. Quelques fois les gens du pays peuvent être extrêmement utiles ! Son ami apparut après une minute de hurlements et nous invita à le suivre dans la  ruelle sale pour nous montrer sa boutique. Une fois là il nous invita à nous asseoir et à écouter de la musique (dont le son était monté au niveau d'un concert rock dans un espace de 2 m²) pendant qu'il allait voir ses amis afin de nous trouver des shorts pour dames. Dès qu'il fut parti (nous confiant son petit ordinateur, la table de Aladin et Jasmine, sa sono et plusieurs téléphones portables, tous décorés de petits autocollants catholiques), nous avons tout de suite baisser le son!!

Alors que nous étions assis ici, je regardais en l'air et je vis un objet familier que je ne m'attendais pas à voir ici au Bénin… une raquette de badminton !! On dirait que ce merveilleux sport n'est pas étranger ici :-) mais les chances pour nous de pouvoir y jouer à Kandi sont minces… c'était une bonne vieille "Slazenger" avec un manche "enrubanné" de scotch ;-)

Et pour nous rassurer, Noël ne sera pas complètement absent ici, un petit arbre de Noël terminait la décoration de sa boutique :-)

Après une longue attente, le gars est revenu avec un jeans sale de couleur jaune-crème délavé dont on avait tailladé les deux jambes, et quelque chose qui ressemblait à un bas de pyjama d’homme.
Il a essayé ! Nous l’avons remercié de toute son aide et sommes retournés à notre hotel nous régaler  avec le fromage aux herbes, du pain et un ananas frais. Miam, miam