Quick blog entry because I just wrote a long one and it got erased
when the power went out! Now the Internet café is on a generator, but
I’m not trusting it to work for too long! So, here goes.

BENIN! A wonderful, wonderful trip. Not so much because of the slave
trade related stops we made, which were, although really interesting
and probably ultimately enlightening, sort of stressful and awkward in
the moment. More detail about that later. The cool part was seeing
this other West African country; it really taught me, I think, not to
make generalizations about things I’ve seen in Ghana as just being
parts of “West Africa” as a whole – Benin was actually surprisingly
different from Ghana.

A lot of things, of course, were the same. People dressed in the same
type of cloth, selling the same types of products, everybody
communicating in African languages that, like Fante, I couldn’t really
understand! But there were also definitely differences. According to
our academic director, Uncle E, French colonization philosophies were
really different from those of the British. The French always made it
possible for Africans in their colonies to work their way up to high
positions in the government, through education, while the British
never allowed their “African subjects” the same kind of mobility.
This, ironically, meant that Benin has lost a lot more aspects of
their indigenous cultures than British colonies like Ghana. But, it
also means that countries like Benin have received and continue to
receive a lot more aid than Ghana for developing their country now.
Uncle E told us that everything that Accra has now was planned and
built by Ghanaians, while a lot of the infrastructure that we saw in
the city where we stayed in Benin, Cotonou, was contributed by the
French government. That would explain the shady, tree-lined avenues
and little French bakeries on every corner!

In the streets, there were more motorcycles than I’ve ever seen
before, and men and women (women often with babies in their laps)
speeding all around the city on them. My friend Leigh and I, after a
productive morning shopping for fabrics in the market, sucked it up
and split a motorcycle taxi back to our hostel – it was terrifying and
exhilarating! I really like motorcycles! Later that night, on the
most adventure-filled evening I’ve had since I arrived in Ghana, I got
a ride on a motorcycle from a translator friend, and almost had a
heart attack when the motorcycle crashed into a huge pothole in the
middle of the street! We were fine, though, thanks to the expert
chauffer.

Other aspects of the Benin trip: One day, we visited Ganvie, a village of about 20,000 people who live entirely on the water. They moved onto the water during the slave raids, because it became common knowledge that slave raiders had a spiritual aversion to water and avoided it at all costs. Even now, centuries after the end of the slave trade, Ganvie people have decided to stay on the water. A few years back, the Beninese government decided to turn Ganvie into a tourist attraction. This meant that all of a sudden foreign tourists began pouring into the village and taking pictures of the people as they paddled around in canoes. Probably because Ganvie residents never asked to become a tourist attraction, and initially moved onto the water in ORDER to avoid unwanted interactions with foreigners, they are to this day very hostile toward foreigners. We weren't briefed on any of these "details" before we ourselves took a motorboat into Ganvie, and the subsequent visit, in which we motored through the alleyways between houses on stilts, making waves for all the canoeing men and women, was really, really uncomfortable for everyone. Children hissed at anyone who took out their camera, and the only place we actually stopped in the village was this touristy hotel on stilts, where people wanted to sell us local artwork.

During the debriefing session afterwards, we all talked a lot about how uncomfortable we had felt, and about the feeling we had had the entire time that our presence was really unwanted, and that we probably shouldn't have gone there at all. We were surprised at SIT, who we felt like has usually planned such culturally sensitive excursions for us, always in agreement with the people who we go to visit...this time, it just felt like we were really not showing respect for the people whose home community we were barging through.

Umm...I have four minutes left, so I guess I have to send this now. More details next time I can make it to the Internet. Love you everyone!!!! I miss you and will be home SOON!

Love,
Sara