Bonjour Benin
I came to Africa with Malaika.
She was only 17 but looked my age (add 10 to that). Malaika hold Beninese passport but was as white as myself. Her origins were very exotic: half Lebanese, a quarter French and a quarter tuareg.
Lebanese dad payed her high school studies in London and now will pay 2 years of jewelry studies in Florence. Not bad. Malaika is part of one of the first Lebanese settlers in West Africa, she is the fifth generation. I knew about Lebanese dominance all over Africa (now the Chinese dangerously gaining ground) but I'd never imagined that the dominance started so long ago.
Malaika and I met in Casablanca, while waiting for the connection to Cotonou. Mohammed was also sitting besides me waiting for his flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle. He adviced me to stick to my purse..."the airport is not safe, don't accept to surveille any packet or hold any bag to somebody when crossing customs", he whispers to me. He is going back home. Home is France. He went there 45 years ago and stayed forever. He shows me pictures from his 6 sons and his 9 petit-fils. "Now they are all French, they will never come back to Morocco". He does not seem sad. Does it only seem to me or he is as white as I am?
Following the rule of those who count airport stops as countries visited too...I technically visited 3 new countries in the last 3/4 days. Ireland, Morocco and Togo. I had flight connections in all three. I was hoping that my flights got cancelled to be able to visit Dublin, Casablanca or Lome. It did not happen. I was hoping to travel luggage-free too. But again, it did not happen. I brought 11 damned pairs of shoes to Benin and 20 tank tops. For a second I dreamt that the keys of my "Paquita", my 10-year old luggage (my first ever!) were lost...and my worst nightmare became true. Dissecting "Paquita" with a kitchen knife has not been easy...but the pairs of useless shoes were inside.
So I landed in Benin. Ready to save the world evaluating UNICEF's program EDUCOM. I have a summer to confirm or refute my theories about education and development. If I get bored with all this, I'll change track. I am really impressed with my team, today we had a 3-hour meeting in which we discussed so many problems that I left the room kind of grasping the problems out there. I am going 'out there' too and this blog will be prove of that with some pictures and stories to come.
She was only 17 but looked my age (add 10 to that). Malaika hold Beninese passport but was as white as myself. Her origins were very exotic: half Lebanese, a quarter French and a quarter tuareg.
Lebanese dad payed her high school studies in London and now will pay 2 years of jewelry studies in Florence. Not bad. Malaika is part of one of the first Lebanese settlers in West Africa, she is the fifth generation. I knew about Lebanese dominance all over Africa (now the Chinese dangerously gaining ground) but I'd never imagined that the dominance started so long ago.
Malaika and I met in Casablanca, while waiting for the connection to Cotonou. Mohammed was also sitting besides me waiting for his flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle. He adviced me to stick to my purse..."the airport is not safe, don't accept to surveille any packet or hold any bag to somebody when crossing customs", he whispers to me. He is going back home. Home is France. He went there 45 years ago and stayed forever. He shows me pictures from his 6 sons and his 9 petit-fils. "Now they are all French, they will never come back to Morocco". He does not seem sad. Does it only seem to me or he is as white as I am?
Following the rule of those who count airport stops as countries visited too...I technically visited 3 new countries in the last 3/4 days. Ireland, Morocco and Togo. I had flight connections in all three. I was hoping that my flights got cancelled to be able to visit Dublin, Casablanca or Lome. It did not happen. I was hoping to travel luggage-free too. But again, it did not happen. I brought 11 damned pairs of shoes to Benin and 20 tank tops. For a second I dreamt that the keys of my "Paquita", my 10-year old luggage (my first ever!) were lost...and my worst nightmare became true. Dissecting "Paquita" with a kitchen knife has not been easy...but the pairs of useless shoes were inside.
So I landed in Benin. Ready to save the world evaluating UNICEF's program EDUCOM. I have a summer to confirm or refute my theories about education and development. If I get bored with all this, I'll change track. I am really impressed with my team, today we had a 3-hour meeting in which we discussed so many problems that I left the room kind of grasping the problems out there. I am going 'out there' too and this blog will be prove of that with some pictures and stories to come.
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