On Saturday morning I was invited to go along with 7 other girls and two fellas to drive to the capital city. I was really excited to go since it is the last free Saturday that I have in Africa for this trip. We loaded up into a land rover and drove 30 minutes, chatting along the way. When we arrived into town we stopped at the local street markets and walked around a bit to stretch our legs. We found this Voodo place that was selling some interesting dead animals. The smell was beyond rancid, it was so bad that it gave me a stomach ache. We then got into the car and drove around to find a new stadium that had just been opened up to the public about a hour an hour before. We got out and followed the crowd into the stadium. As we were walking a helicopter was flying overhead and everyone started to get so excited. The stadium was beautiful.... the grass was so green and the structure was like something back at home. When we got to the other side of the stadium... we found out that the President of Benin had flown in to give the opening of the stadium an initiation. The crowd was so overjoyed and intent on meeting the president. The stadium had vendors... but their vendors were walking around with their product in containers on their heads. They had doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, Ice cream (Fan Milk- the vanilla is my favorite), they had bread and drinks, and they had pineapple. I have never seen someone skin a pineapple so fast. The woman would sharpen her knife in front of you then skin it right in front of your eyes within a minute.... all in one spiral piece. I was impressed.
As the futbol game started the crowd filtered in and started to cheer. The team was a younger league but their skill level was amazing. We watched the game a bit then headed to a another market to walk around. There really wasn't much to do in Porto-Novo but I am glad that I went. I had a great experience. Beth, a nurse from Australia, is in the picture with me at the stadium.
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