The Benin Picture

These voodoo dancers are the picture I had up as the profile picture the month we were in Benin.

Attracting where your mind is

One of the interesting things about this travel blog I that I've noticed that frequently the things I write about here and experience in virtual reality often lead to real experiences. Whether that's just because I'm more apt to notice or more apt to take advantage or if it's genuinely that the universe somehow opens up to me in some cosmic way I'm not sure. One thing is certain--since beginning this blog I have suddenly been able to do more real traveling on a more regular basis than ever before. In the past two years, I've been to the real Cancun, Montana, Aruba, Hawaii, Disneyland and Denver. Coming up trips will be Nashville and Disneyworld in October, and Dave will be going to London this summer. I like this trend!

Benin-wise. We had long thought to finally thaw and fix the extra Christmas turkey around Valentines. We did and had my Mom up for a nice meal. But it WAS funny that I had just been reading about the chicken blood in voodoo rituals and the next thing I know, I've got poultry blood all over as I disembowled the turkey. Then, on almost the last day of the month, a friend invited me to come to a real African Dance Class. I went and had a blast! It was the perfect finish to my month in Benin (which, by the way, is pronouced Be--neen).

Beautiful Benin

After the slavery and voodoo, I was looking for some of the beauties of Benin. I didn't have to look far. here is one very cool pic from Google images:

I never think of Africa as having lush anything, but part of Benin is on the coast. I lifted the following paragraph and picture off of a tourist website.

                                           
                                            Lake Nakoue

If you’re heading to West Africa to unearth lost treasure, look no further than Benin. This club-shaped country, on the western edge of Nigeria, was once one of the most powerful empires in Africa– the Dahomey kingdom. The ruins of the Dahomeyans’ palaces and temples can be seen in Abomey, while Ouidah is a poignant reminder of where their riches came from: the slave trade. The Route d’Esclaves in Ouidah was the last walk on African soil for slaves bound for Brazil and the Caribbean. Museums here and in Porto Novo, Benin’s lagoon-side capital, examine the resultant Afro-Brazilian society and culture. Cotonou, on the other hand, is urban Africa at its most frazzling and polluted - but is not without its own charms, a lively nightlife and good shopping being a couple of them.

Benin dinner

Poor Benin.  It's not their fault that my cooking didn't work out on Friday, but it didn't.  It seems appropriate that this country with the poor history also had the poorest dinner to celebrate.  The appetizer was the real disaster--Akkra Fun Fun. Blech. Not FUN.  It sounded ok--you cook white beans then mash them up add some onions and a little cayenne pepper and deep fry. It was the deep frying that didn't work--after a few minutes the bean patties broke apart and then dissolved completely. We had a big pan of white bean oil that we thew out. We took the remaining bean mush and fried it up with just a little bit of oil and that seemed to work better and was actually quite tasty.  Also tasty was the "hot sauce" pretty much just onions and tomato paste with habanero pepper. Very nice flavor--I put it, as called for, in the crab cakes. The cakes were made in ramekins with lump crab meat, celery, breadcrumbs and scallions--sounds good enough and they were ok, but just ok. As a side dish there was okra with tomatoes and habanero--again ok. Dessert was lemon flan--but since I didn't have a double boiler--I got creative and made one out of our electric frying pan--I put one pie plate upside down in the fryer and then another pie plate with the flan in it on top of that--but water in the bottom of the frying pan and the lid on top to steam the flan. It took forever because I had no idea how to tell if it was done or not. We ate it the next day--the taste was ok, but somehow the texture was just really wet--it felt as if it held more water than it actually held. We each ate a piece and threw the rest out. 

Ah well---like real traveling--sometimes you're just glad to be back home with familiar food.

Voodoo Queen

This is the tomb of the most famous voodoo queen, Marie Laveau. Who is buried in New Orleans. She "reigned" from 1830 for about 40 years and people attributed incredible powers to her. I can't help but like her. She was a smart, if completely unethical, business woman. Voodoo was highly frowned upon and parts actually illegal--so she used as much Christian symbolism as she could to make it acceptable with surprising success. I'm surprised anyway--she was famous for dancing in Congo square with a giant snake. Then she found out the secrets of wealthy white people through their servants and then pretended to read minds or reveal "truths" which turned out to really be true. White people often came to her for potions and advice--she charged them a fortune and then she blackmailed them too. Serves the slave owners right!

Even now she has a mystique about her. This tomb is a major tourist stop in New Orleans. People will draw 3 x's on the tomb so her spirit will grant them a wish.

Voodoo

Yikes! It seems as though Voodoo is probably even scarier and more sensasional than Hollywood makes it out to be.  Based on my extensive "research" of reading part of one children's non-fiction book about Voodoo, I am officially creeped out.

There are spirits everywhere--spirits of nature and of the dead. The voodoo priest or priestess opens herself up to be possessed by these spirits (the snake is an especially powerful one) and speaks with the voice of the spirit. Scary---the main person thrashes around like the picture here--and then often everyone dances and spins around until they are in hypnotic trances themselves. Animals are sacrificed and the blood painted on or tasted by the people in the ritual.

Historically there's good reason for voodoo--the slaves brought it with them and clung to the practices--and small wonder, it was the only thing the white people couldn't take away from them and the only thing that gave them some sense of power over their own lives. Interestingly, voodoo has no problem incorporating some Christian beliefs--after all, what are saints other than their familiar ancestral spirits?

Dance!

This is Debra Bono.  I have one of her other African Dance workout videos at home now. They are GREAT fun! I have no idea how authentic her dances are---my guess is that a lot of the movements really are what one would see if they went to Africa. I suspect though, that nobody in Africa would recognize what I do when I try to dance, as anything resembling real African dancing. Doesn't matter. I'm willing to be the stereotypical white woman dancer with no rythmn tourist. I have no choice. It's what I am.

Malaria

Malaria is the leading cause of death in Benin. And a big part of the problem are drug vendors like the lady in the picture. The following paragraph came from a blog on how the Benin government are dealing with the crisis.

In the markets of west Africa, malaria drugs are on sale as openly as oranges and bananas. Trader Simone Adechinan claims to know her stuff. "With these," she says, producing a beige box marked Chloroquine Phosphate, "you want to take six tablets a day for a week, then pause for a week and take paracetamol, then start again." She issues the dubious advice without seeing the patient or referring to a doctor's prescription. And she sells the box of 100 tablets – which has no manufacturer's name – for 1,000 CFA francs ($2).

Kudos to the Benin for trying to find solutions. They have opened free malaria clinics all over with real treatments. Also, they are training regular people in first aid and allowing them to distribute real drugs for simple problems. These people aren't paid much, but it's a job worthy of respect and they can still do their other jobs. What struck me is that sometimes this lay person is the ONLY medical contact a pregnant woman might have. It makes me feel incredibly grateful for the priviledges I have.

Pizza oven

Catherine found a book on African cooking. One of the receipes calls for pizza made in a termite mound oven.  Talk about using resources!!  I found this pic on the internet from someone who actually made one. It looks fine--once you sort of get over the idea of what built the oven--it's just a great idea. After all, the bugs aren't there anymore.  Why not?

Fetish Markets

I read a little of a non-fiction children's book yesterday which successfully avoided mentioning the word "voodoo" but nevertheless seemed to give a pretty good idea of what's behind it. The concept seems fairly simple--there are good and evil forces all around us and in people, animals and objects. The idea is to strengthen the good and weaken the evil. How all the specifics evolved is something else. But I imagine the weirdest and wildest thing to western eyes has got to be the fetish markets.

Here is all the creepy stuff straight from Hollywood. The local priest would know how to use it. The thing that's important to remember is that none of the stuff for sale has any power because it hasn't been blessed yet.  As soon as it IS blessed. Watch out!

Most wretched History?

Ahhhhhh.  It feels good to be traveling again--especially to a warm place in the dead of winter. This country, Benin, will be a real adventure. I'd never heard of it, and expected to have trouble finding information about it (it's in south western Africa by the way) No problem! Benin is the birthplace of Voodoo and it's coast became known as the slave coast--shipping 10,000 to 20,000 slaves out DAILY at its peak.  It's impossible for me to objectively compare the histories of every country in the world, but if I could, I bet Benin would be a strong contender for "Most Miserable Country."  Even now, it has one of the world's bottom literacy rates.