Post Visit: Copargo

Copargo is in the north of Benin, about an hour south of Natitingou but slightly north of Djougou it is one the highway so its a long town the follows the paved road, with some spread of dirt paths back into the housing. The market in Copargo is every 4 days and should have a decent selection of tomatos, yams, rice, beans, wagassi [wagashy] (cheese), and a few other things, like onions, nothing really tropical because the north is a bit more arid. So to get to Copargo what one would usually do is get to either Bohicon [boy-con] or Cotonou to get the confort lines bus (no i did not misspell comfort it really is an 'n') and then take that the 7 hours North to Copargo, but, we missed our bus. So instead the three of us going to the Nati workstation region and our three directors (big guys all) stuffed into a taxi and off we went, forgetting all concept of personal space for 7 hours, on this taxi ride, we hit a dog, ate pate, watched our taxi driver threaten a small child with the whip stick he kept on the dashboard, watched our taxi driver get into a petit fight with some random guy on the street, wondered how on earth our taxi driver knew that the random guys standing on the hill 100 yards behind us and waving his arms wanted a cigarette, and even eventually got to our posts. I arrive in Copargo around 6 in the evening and was taken to the house that will be mine for the next two years, only to discover, that not only am I inheriting a house, I'm also inheriting all of the furniture, bed, pots pans etc, buckets, basins, school supplies, and a cat. His name is Acote, he is incredably friendly and was all ready to curl up on my lap for a nap as soon as I arrived. My school is nice, it has a student population of a little less than 1500 and even a computer lab (no internet) and Robyn, the volunteer I'm replacing started a library project which I will probably end up finishing. Copargo also has a post office, a few small stores with non-parishable supplies, and the usual assortment of tailors, street vendors etc. There is also a catholic mission in Copargo. I met my post-mate Mohamed who was very nice, and despite not feeling well spent some time getting to know me and showing me around. The Area of Benin that Copargo is in (the north of the Donga region) is absolutely beautiful, with small mountains, rolling hills, and lots of patches of trees, right now its all very green as its the rainy season still, but we've been told that the north will start browning in october, which I figure works for me because I'm used to brown grass and hills. Mohamed also told me that the heat will only ever get as bad as it would be in Las Vegas, and that with a fan its not overwhelming, which is nice because I have electricity and Robyn left me a fan. After the post visit finished, I went to the Nati workstation for the night before catching the bus back home, the bus is considerably more comfortable than a taxi, and if you're into it they give you a fish sandwich. We took the bus to Bohicon, and then we took zems from Bohicon to Azove, which is about a 50 minute zem ride, unfortunately my zem got a flat tire half way so we had about 40 minutes of walking to the repair shop and repairing the tire (10 m walk 30 m repair) then we took a taxi from Azove back to Lokossa. The awesome thing about having a very short post visit, my total time in Copargo was less than 24 hours, is that all the money they factored in for time spent at post I get to keep so now I'm very wealthy.... well, I have more money than the people who were in the south and got to spend 3 days at their posts. We start model school on monday and I'm teaching at 10 am, i'll be doing functions of sentences to indicate health "I feel weak" "You should take medicine" "If you don't filter your water you will get sick." so wish me and all the other TEFL stagaires luck as we embark on our model school experiences!