August 21 - Off the Beaten Path: getting to Peonga

Peonga is off the beaten path.  Very.  My journey there on Sunday, August 6, started at 4:45 am when my alarm clock went off.  After a bucket bath and a bowl of baobab “bouillie” (gruel) for breakfast, my host parents drove me to the intersection where I and other volunteers were to meet our bus.  Our counterparts from post were also there – they had come to Porto Novo to meet us.  The two previous days had been a workshop with them to go over the work we will do together.  Twilight turned to morning as we waited for our bus, got on, got off to take a more comfortable bus, and loaded luggage, finally leaving at 7:40 (instead of the official departure time of 7:15).  Our destination: Parakou, Benin’s second largest city, 7-8 hours away from Porto Novo.  Other than the speed bumps (which were placed in sets of 6, one right after the other, far too frequently along the road),  I enjoyed the ride.  It was our first real foray out of Porto Novo.  The first several hours the landscape was the lush palm tree plantations of the south (Palm oil is one of Benin’s primary exports).  We saw marshes and lagoons with lily pads, and people working in their fields.  The road, one of Benin’s main highways, was two lanes and relatively smoothly paved.  As we continued north, the vegetation changed.  Less palm trees, less intensely cultivated – more standard deciduous trees of various kinds.  After a “bathroom” (aka open field) and snack break in Bohicon, a major crossroads where the highway splits, we drove through the “collines” (hills) region with beautiful rock formations.  

We arrived in Parakou about 7 hours after leaving Porto Novo.  Most of us were spending the night there, continuing our trip the following day.  There’s a Peace Corps workstation in Parakou, but since all the beds there were full arrangements had been made for us to stay at a house owned by missionaries who were out of town.  It was a very nice, very American house.  Our counterparts stayed elsewhere, and most of us made plans with them for when/where we’d meet to continue our journeys the next day.  Mine just said he’d call me the next day when he’d arranged for transportation to Peonga.  The next morning, many of us went to the workstation to practice that essential Peace Corps skill of waiting.  I talked to my counterpart, and he told me we’d leave after 9.  After 9 is a very flexible time.  The waiting was made delightful by the presence of a basket of 6 puppies at the workstation.  Their mother, who belonged to a Peace Corps volunteer, had been hit by a car and they were staying at the workstation until other volunteers adopted them.  I had not expected to spend a morning cuddling with adorable puppies, but always expect the unexpected in Peace Corps.  

When “after 9” finally came, around noon, I and another volunteer going to the same region met my counterpart at the main road and had what will be the first of many bush taxi adventures.  A bush taxi is essentially a compact car with too many people in it – really the only way to get anywhere near Peonga.  In this case, there were 4 of us (plus a kid on her mother’s lap) in the back seat and two sharing the front passenger seat.  At one point, I was sitting towards the front of the seat – one person had to sit forward or we wouldn’t all fit – and the woman next to me kept falling asleep.  Her head rested behind me, her nose tickling my back.  Her little girl was also sleeping on me, and I was squished next to Devon, the other volunteer.  It was more comfortable than one would think, although my foot kept falling asleep.  The road to Nikki, a major town on the way, is in the process of being paved and the unpaved parts were relatively smooth red dirt.  After Nikki, the road was completely dirt and less good.  In a dusty roadside town named Derassi, my counterpart and I got out.  There we waited for probably half an hour, as he arranged for motorcycles to take us the final leg to Peonga.  It seemed like he was just waiting for people he knew.  Finally he found two to take us, my luggage was strapped to the back of one, and  I had the most beautiful motorcycle ride of my life.  We saw very few people – the occasional motorcycle, and women carrying large bowls of various things on their heads.  We passed through at least two herds of the beautiful, noble-looking Fulani cattle.  The sky was blue, with billowing clouds, and the scenery was open and green.  The ride took about half an hour.  We pulled up to the red mud “boutique” (convenience store) owned by my host and his wife, and my stay in Peonga began.  

My return from Peonga, a few days ago, was much the same as my trip there.  We took a different route, with a longer motorcycle ride (1 hour 45 min) and a more crowded bush taxi (15 people in a car meant for 7).  This is my life now!  I’ll be making at least the part of the trip to and from Parakou at least once a month, to do banking and spend some time at the workstation.  I realized recently that I’m four days travel from America – two days to get to the airport in Cotonou, and about two days of air travel to the US.  But as you’ll see from the other posts about site visit, my post is definitely worth it.