1. Everyone looks good, always. How you dress here is a symbol of how much respect you have for the people around you, so everyone takes a lot of time to wear pretty tissu and things. I like this idea. I might use it to justify my shoe collection when I get home.
2. Animals are absolutely free-range. I have seen goats, chickens, dogs, and even cows wandering freely down the main road, zems and trucks swerving to miss them.
3. The Beninese people do not like rain. When it rains, no one goes outside unless they have to – you can show up to a meeting (or school) two hours late if it’s sprinkling, and no one will be mad. Actually, everyone else probably will have skipped, also. Oh, and if it’s raining and a woman has to go outside, she wears a shower cap until it stops.
4. TV here is hilarious. For some reason, the tv companies take Brazilian soap operas and dub them in French. This makes the already-bizarre plotlines seem even more awesomely ridiculous than usual.
5. They think we’re dirty. We went over stereotypes of Americans and Beninese people recently, and I learned that each culture thinks the other is dirty. We think they’re unhygienic and don’t wash things (like food), and they think we don’t shower enough. Apparently they normally shower 2-3 times a day, and thus think we’re gross for only rinsing off once daily. Kinda makes sense.
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