kpotome

this weekend we finally went to see the farm. yuppie!!! it's not that far but there's always sth to be done in the office. it's a scrap of land on the verge of a huge swamp. a small house, ponds with tilapia (fishhhh) and lots lots of plants. hibiscus, manioc, bananas, papayas, craint-craint, cucumbers, zucchinis (how do you spell it?), corn, rice, bread-trees, pineapples and basilic (damien apparently can't live without it:)) it's wonderfull and full of surprises...

there was also a hunting house - the "observatory"- to spy on animals not to kill them of course. but it's not there any more... it collapsed with us inside. we landed in muddy water of the swamp coverd with a film of iron coming from the laterite soil. no injuries. no crocodiles.

then we worked. we've built a small fish-pool made of clay. we've survived a clay&mud battle and ate a well deserved meal - cucumbers and zucchinis from the farm and akasa (slightly fermented manioc thing). once the women from the village of kpotome notice poeple coming to the farm, they come carrying things on sale on their heads. we've spent a wonderfull evening in our UN group, as we call it (one german; one polish, one urugayian, two french; one frenco-spanish, two beninian) listening to stories of Leon (the guardian of the farm) and Damien.

next day without swamp-swimming but with snake-hunting. damien noticed a snake on the tree right in the middle of the farm. a few people from the village gathered and organised themselves to catch the snake. they threw sticks to make the snake fall from the branch and then beated it to death with clubs. hard not to feel sorry for the snake. it was almost 2m long, green and beautiful. i don't know the name in english. but there'll be more snakes. Leon's found a skin of a 3m long cobra.

next time I'll write more about the people as they're the highlight of my life here. it's hard to put it in words but i'll try:)