I mean, COME ON! Obviously the person who wrote those had never been in Nigeria. I mean if Lagos is the "Centre of Excellence", I'd hate to see the "Centre of Chaos". Read a bit about the upcoming election and you'll fully appreciate the irony in "Centre of Unity" - You can't just fire the Vice-Pres because you don't like him can you?
I went to the school with a lady I work with. She has been able to help raise $30,000 for the school over the past year through corporate donations. She heads out often and the children love her - they sang with her when she saw them again after being away for the break. As you can imagine, music is huge with these guys.
Anyway - here are some photos of us trying to get the kids to float on their backs and practice kicking in the water. As you can imagine, swimming is a crazy sensation for the kids... they lose their tactile senses, can't feel the ground etc so it can be very scary for many of them. Often after floating for a while, you have to guide their feet back to the bottom of the pool because they have lost reference while floating around.
September long we decided to get out of the city and take a drive to Benin. We stayed in a lovely beach hotel just about 15 minutes outside of Ouidah (small village), or 30 hour outside of Cotonou. The place was amazing! So relaxing, and NO GARBAGE on the beach.
Getting to and from on the other hand..... Let me give you the run down..
We meet the police escort 0730, and pick up our travel mates. Three cars including our own and the police. The police are basically two guys in a truck, with lights and sirens and of course AK-47s. Never leave home without em.
With lights and sirens a blazing we head out of town. The police, for the most part, travel behind us, that way if something happens they can't loose us or we can't get cut off. In the really congested areas they will jump up front. The drive itself is NUTSO! Traffic here is fast, unpredictable and well just plain crazy. On our way racing out of the city, sirens wailing, the second vehicle in the convoy clipped a Danfo (public bus) which pulled out of nowhere. No stopping just pedal to the metal. You can see all the Danfos in the picture below. They are usually run down, dirty and lucky to have sideview mirrors.
We drive for only a couple hours to get to the border (100kms). With the police escort we conveniently avoid and fraudulent check stops (usually put on by other police), and also avoid getting robbed. See the photos of check stops below. It is difficult to take photos, as the military and police don't always like it. (wonder why?).
After a lovely, relaxing drive in the country, we hit the border. This is where things get exciting.
2 hours, 60 bucks and loads of heckling, being pulled into immigration office for questioning, we pass through the border. The border gate consists of a measly little bamboo stick held up by two oil drums, and of course a guy operating the stick.
Lessons learned for next time, just pay the guy operating the bamboo stick.
Benin has nice roads, traffic a bit more mellow and French road signs. We made our way to the hotel and instantly hit the bar. Casa del Papa is tucked away from the village of Ouidah on a peninsula. One side a creek/ lagoon and on the other side the ocean. We soaked in the sun, played tennis, swam, ran on the beach, and just relaxed. We kayaked on the lagoon side and saw a huge tarantula, and were even greeted by some whales or dolphins (still being disputed) on the ocean side. I just saw some black things in the water as I wasn't wearing my glasses.
Below are some photos we took while strolling on the beach, we wachted some locals repeatedly attempt to launch a boat into the ocean. The ocean was especially rough that day, and as you can see in the photos, one guy was ejected out of the boat. When they finally made it the crowd watching, including ourselves cheered with amusement.
This was the third attempt.
Uh, oh.
Hold on!
Beninis are friendly and speak mainly French. It was really handy to be fluent, and really helped with the heckling at the border. We also discovered Ryan has a ways to go with his French after repeatedly asking for "chemises" by the pool (shirts) instead of chaises ( chairs).
The border crossing on the way back proved to be once again, even more eventful. Random people (not officials) just claiming to be hang around asking to see your documents. Then try to nail you on anything, even though they have ZERO authority. They tried telling me our immunizations weren't up to date. Boy did he try to pull the wool over the wrong person's eyes. We were all up to date, as I was traveling with some of my patients! I gave my friend Nancy the go ahead and she seized the opportunity to roar her big land cruiser through the bamboo stick when the guy lifted it for a motorbike. After a while the cheaters gave up.
The siren was broken on our police escorts truck, so the drive back in took hour or so longer. The police presence did prevent us from being stopped and heckled at the numerous check stops (about 9 or ten in about five miles). Here is a photo of a spike belt thingy attached to a rope, they will pull it in front of your tires as you drive past, or push it with a stick...
Escaping the stick, at a check stop.
Below is just some things we saw on the drive back. We at first saw two guys and a TV, then we saw these guys, even better.
This is a local gas station in Benin. Fuel is very expensive in Benin, as it is not subsidized by the government as it is in Nigeria. In Nigeria, gas stations resemble more western types. In Benin, most of the fuel is smuggled across the border so this is the gas station. I think they are kinda pretty actually.
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Note the front end loader demolishing shacks in the center of this photo. This village is only a small strip of sand between the Kuramo Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean. All the people are only able to stand by and watch their homes be destroyed. 
