Cotonou Quirks

The Top 10 Sounds Heard Most Often in Cotonou, Benin:
10. 2-3 different languages being spoken at once – French, Fong (a common tribal language), and English (but really only between the 3 of us)
9. The roar of airplanes (we live somewhat close to the airport)
8. Pigs and chickens squealing (we are 70% sure there is a slaughter house close to where we live)
7. The “yovo” song (the song for white people – see a previous blog entry for a more detailed story)
6. Children screaming (either because they are playing or crying)
5. Music (either live music from outside, music from our laptops or the guitar, or Jamie whistling)
4. Motorbikes purring
3. Our huge fan (we kept it on like 13 hours a day!)
2. Horns honking (this could actually be the 4th language spoken in Cotonou)
1. Roosters crowing (at literally all hours of the day!!)

So I know I’ve told you that we’ve shared our apartment with cockroaches. Well, we have also had spiders and ants, but the most exciting and welcome creatures that we’ve been living with are geckos!! Yeah! Little geckos will get into our apartment through cracks between the walls and the ceiling and then run along the wall! They are so cool and cute!! I almost touched one but they are really, really fast!! On Friday, we found one in our kitchen cupboard! We tried to usher it out the door so it could go outside but it just freaked out and ran into a crack in the wall. There are also a lot of lizards here (not in our apartment but everywhere outside). Those are also pretty fun! I haven’t been able to get a picture of one yet but I’m definitely gonna keep trying!

Apparently we are starting to enter the rainy season here in Benin! We have had a couple more thunderstorms but mostly it has just been dry, dusty and humid! For example, this morning we dusted our entire living room and another layer of dust has settled again and it’s only 2pm! One of my teammate’s allergies are really acting up so we are actually praying for rain so the dust will settle!