Africa - Day 8

We woke up in Lome and headed towards Benin, stopping in Aneho on the way. Aneho was the German capital of before they lost it in the war. When we got out of our taxi in Aneho, no one could understand why we wouldn't take 'motos' - motorcycle taxis - where we wanted to go. When I told them I was scared and it wasn't safe, they laughed at me like I was kidding them.

It turned out that Aneho didn't have all that much left of the German capital, or else we couldn't find it, and we had a long sweaty walk with all our bags. But I did get this fabulous picture of myself on a moto borrowed from some guy driving by, and no I don't actually look like that, I'm just a little shy.
After Aneho, we headed for Benin, K warned us before we got to there that the officials at the Beninese border are incompetant and rude - a lovely combination.

Once we crossed the border, we took a cab from the other side to Awale Plage near Grand Popo. A lovely beach resort. Being sick I had decided to be vigilant about eating only safe stuff. Also, by the time we got to the resort we'd been on the road for many hours with nothing to eat and I was starving and had low blood sugar. So I scoured the menu for something really safe to eat. I settled on breaded shrimp and fries, nothing there would be raw. Then when the food arrived and it was drowning in a garnish of wet lettuce. I sent it back and the waitress put the same shrimp on a new plate without the lettuce. I don't think she grasped the idea that I was concerned about parasites and bacteria and not just some big picky bitch. I was frustrated... but instead of just being miffed and moving on, I started crying. How embarrassing. I drag everyone on a third world vacation and then I end up being th one who cracks up. It was just low blood sugar, and lack of sleep, and being sick, but I think I ruined everyone's lunch. Here's a picture of Dan trying to cheer me up - no wonder I couldn't stop crying!

I felt bad about it, but, I cried in Bangladesh every time we took the train, so escaping this trip with only one crying jag was pretty good.

At dinner when we preordered our dinner with long explanations about not contaminating my food with their infernal lettuce, it came drowning in lettuce again, then after I sent it back, it came back again on a new plate, with bits of lettuce still stuck to the bottom of it. I handled it better the second time around.

Who could really be angry for too long staying on a beach like this though?