Bless The Rains Down In Africa: Visiting Benin by Lissa's mom- Part 2

Lissa lived in Porto Novo her first 3 months of training and her host family invited us for a meal-- we were overwhelmed by their generosity, friendliness, wonderful hospitality. They treated us like royalty! We loved each one of them!!!

Here is Host Papa, his sister on his right, Barb then Host Mama, their 4 daughters. Also here is Papa's youngest daughter by his second wife, who we did not meet.

The meal they served was fantastic!!! So many dishes! Three types of meat and specially made fried plaintains because they are Lissa's favorite! After all that, they gave us wonderful gifts to bring back to America with us.

Lissa lived on the 3rd floor.

Too soon it was time to say goodbye to our new friends and head back to Daagbe, Lissa's village.

In order to have a Peace Corps volunteer, the village or at least the person who requests a volunteer, must provide a place to live that’s not a hut and a has private bathroom. That’s it, that’s the requirement-- the bathroom could be a latrine and the water doesn’t have to be indoors or even running- some of the volunteers have to get their water from the local well.

Playing spades with Gabriel (another teacher) on Lissa's porch

Lissa has a 3-room apartment in a concession which is a row of about 8 apartments. Each one has 3 rooms, electricity most of the time, and running water with a real toilet and shower! The kitchen is as you make it- Lissa has a propane tank and a 2-burner stove on a table. (Lissa has even designed a little dutch-oven that she bakes banana bread and brownies in!) She has a large bucket for water and scoops out what she needs into other plastic pails for cooking, washing, etc. Her neighbor, Elise, uses charcoal to cook, but I don’t know what sort of stove she uses.

The people are all so amazing and wonderfully friendly, hospitable and fun, too! Of course Lissa was translating non-stop as everyone speaks French.

Lissa's neighbors, Elisa and her husband brought scrumptuous fish meal!

Elise, Lissa's neighbor will be opening a computer service business in which she will type and print documents and make copies and such. She is a real sweetheart... We enjoyed their citron flavored sodebe even though it, like moonshine, had a real kick!

Head coutourie and I with my new custom-made skirt

Barb and I bought tissu, the local cotton fabric with the wild and wonderful designs. For a couple of dollars the couterie made us a pair of pajama pants, a wrap skirt, and a custom made skirt. It's addictive because they are so good. You choose a style from hundreds of pictures on the wall and they take your measurements and sew it up- beautiful and perfect!

Everyone we met in Lissa's village was wonderful, beautiful, and gracious. They all wanted us to enjoy Benin and were very proud of their country!

We also found some cool local industries- Palm oil (like olive oil or canola oil for cooking) is made- whew so much hot labor! The palm nuts have to be husked, roasted, put in water and stomped on, then the resulting foam is boiled and the result is pressed down for the oil to flow!