Two weeks straight no visits

So this is where I talk about how I spent two weeks straight at post without going anywhere and what my weekend was like after the big rain storm. On Saturday I went to a fellow teacher’s place she had promised me that she would take the day to teach me how to use the African yams, which are a main staple of the northern diet and provide a nice variation to pasta and rice which are pretty much my other options. I arrived at 11 which was the prearranged time but was of course to early because when a Beninese person says 11 what they mean is sometime after 11 more like 12 but being there early allowed them to show me the boarding buildings. CEG Copargo has a small group of boarding students and these particular teachers I was visiting are like the dorm parents. They showed me the girls side of the compound and I even got to see one of the sleeping rooms which was basically a concrete room with some cubby holes and mats rolled up against the wall, when I asked how many girls to a room the said 5 but this year they had a large number so sometimes 6… Considering my boarding experience of a single room with a sink, desk, and bed this seemed… cramped. But the rooms where clean and bug free and the girls and boys all seem to like the area so there you have it. They also took me to the Catholic Mission where I met Father Michel the French priest in residence, let me tell you I was not expecting to meet a white person, and I don’t think he was particularly expecting the visit of a white person either, but he seems nice enough, and I figure that as long as he is cool with me not being a christen then we’ll get along just fine, although his French is considerably harder for me to understand than the beninese French. The yam cooking commenced shortly after this visit and let me tell you, this is a lesson they should give to every volunteer that is moving north. Now most volunteers will say that they can just buy the yams already cooked, and why bother with buying them and cooking them themselves, but I really think its useful, particularly if you like to cook for yourself. The African yam is a HUGE root veggie, and when you first see one you’ll probably be a little frightened that you are ever expected to eat that. I learned that you can cut off a piece to use and leave the rest, that it will keep for a very long time. I learned that you can boil them, fry them, and pile them. I also learned that people will feed me loads and often its not things I should be eating, there was definitely unfried wagasi on the table and chicken which since I’m a vegetarian was not something I was excited about, but I suppose I’m happy it was chicken and not fish. Aside from the less appetizeing aspects of the meal it was delicious and I learned a very good lesson on how to prepare a yam. Of course the lesson doesn't end there! When I went to marche to buy yams I ended up with 6! Suffice it to say I don’t think I’ll be buying yams for a few weeks at least.
Now you might think that the weekend is over but its not. There is in fact more. The next day, Sunday I decided to get off my lazy ass and go for a bike ride get to see some of the country side, and so I went off on my bike in the direction of Taneka, 7 k away, My plan was to go for an hour bike ride so I’d go out for 30 mins and then come back in, wherever that got was where I was going but, 15 mintues into the bike ride, at Taneka I ran into a bus, which was really suprising! A BUS! But not just any bus, a bus full of white people! I mean what on earth was a bus full of white people doing on a backroad out to taneka in the north of Benin, but it gets better. I assumed as I do with most white people I see in this country that they were French, and so was planning on continuing on my way, but they stopped me. In English! A bus full of American white people! Who were so full of questions what was I doing where there any other aid programs in the area, was I really living this way minus running water and all?
"You must have running water?"
"No I get my water from a well."
"a WELL!" (you can i'm sure imagine the tax payers outrage)
"yes"
"is it safe to drink? you must have tablets you add?"
"I filter it, and then boil it"
"thats alot of work for a glass of water"
"You have no idea..."
So instead of biking out the other 15 minutes I spent about 25 being drilled by American tourists. All the while a little dazed at finding the tourists where I did. Really really weird.