The transport was, in all honesty, kind of hellish. Getting there involved a taxi at 4:30am (or, well, 4:50, because it was raining and the taxi driver didn't want to walk outside), a speed-drive to Cotonou, and a nine-and-a-half hour trip to Nati. Nine and a half... that's about eight and a half too long. On the positive side, we got there in three pieces, and were in time to eat lots of riz au gras.
The day of the spelling be started early -- we ate, spent an hour or two studying, then were ready for the competition. First up were the boys, and it was a fierce fight. Soulemane made it to the top eight, and got out on the word "organisation" (all British spellings) because he forgot the R. He was disappointed, but the two kids who got first and second certainly deserved it: it was a 30-40 minute battle between the two, and they were throwing out words I probably can't spell: haemhorrage, anoemia, etc. Intense. The one that finally won (from way up north in Banikoara) was shaking he was so pumped up -- he definitely, definitely deserved it.
Kind of sadly, the girls' competition was way, way faster. Half of the girls were out on the first word, including Estelle, who spelled "animal" as "element". That's a clear example of how much harder school is for girls: whereas a motivated boy can go home and study for a few hours every day, a motivated girl has to clean the house, take care of the kids, make dinner, wash the dishes, and wash the laundry first.
We had a girls' winner in about 20 minutes, also from Banikoara (what do they put in the water up there??), and then we spent the rest of the day playing volleyball, watercoloring, eating pate, and watching "B Movie" in French. Also, Soulemane and two other boys took over the dishes for the girls one night, and made a point of yelling to me, "Madame! Look what I'm doing! It's dishes!!"
Traveling back down was even more hellish than the first trip thanks to an accident on the one road between Allada and Cotonou, but we made it! My kids had a great time overall, and it was really cool to see Estelle come out of her shell a little... she's normally really shy, sometimes too shy to even smile in front of me, and this weekend she actually laughed with me! We played volleyball together, and that, somehow, just relaxed her and made her friendly and social and happy... : ) The things I get to do and the kids I get to know here, yall, are so, so cool.
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