abomey was great till the end. i've spend a lot of time talking to a local radio dj then to mr 'la lutta' and his brother and then even more to morvan (who's working for a german development agency in abomey).

what i've learnt:
...the seson for mangos in abomey is now over...:(
...yayi boni has good ideas but never finishes anything
...the government's solution to the food crisis is ridiculus - they order everyone to sell their crops to the government and then they sell it at an even higher price...
...benin's two biggest problems are poverty and sorcellery
...voudun makes it sometimes really hard to have good contact with people
...in cote d'ivoire people are much more open than here
...it takes a lot of patience and resistance to frustration to work in development in benin
...and many more...

then i went up north - to nattitengu, the weirdest of towns
...there are regional specialities: near allada - there are pleny pineapple sellers, near dassa it's gari (ground cassava)
...atacora mountains are BEAUTIFUL
...there are huge rice containers in natti - leftovers from a development project. the project ended and nobody is taking care of the containtrs anymore. what's with the ODA quality, huh?

then the most frustrating day of my life (13 aug), overnight at the border of burkina and benin (in the middle of nowhere) and i'm safe and sound in ouagadougou

abomey's colors. the bottles on the left it's the
illegal petrol from nigeria (0.5 euro per a small bottle)

tanguieta. our beautiful "9 places3 (even though we were 12...).
and a mosque, since the north of benin is mostly muslim

the north of benin, the country of 'tata somba'

ouagadougou. the capital of african cinema.
and cinema oubri in the capital ;)