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As was the case in most of Togo and Benin, Abomey has few restaurants,
outside of those connected to hotel. But being a bigger town, Abomey
provide us with the opportunity for our preferred breakfast; omelets, baguettes and a hot drink. Fueled up and back on
the road we left the legacy rich environment and went back into the Benin
that is much more of the moment.
Though we are definitely in a rural area there are a signs of relatively
more affluence than you see in many parts of rural Benin and Togo. In
this case, it is a school with a lot of bicycle parked in the yard.
Bicycle are a major purchase in most of sub-Saharan rural Africa and if a
family does have one it is unlikely that it will be given to a student to be
left parked at the school all day. The suggestion is that some families
in this area have more than one transportation machines. Maybe a
couple of bicycles, or a bicycle and a motorcycle, or even a bicycle and a
car. Which raises the question of why is this area economically better off?
There may be several factors; more fertile, productive soil for agriculture,
closer to the market for agricultural products so less of the selling price
is eaten up by transportation, closer to larger population center with
higher demand so that commodity prices are firmer, more remittance from
family members working in the larger towns and cities. From the
signage, buildings and land use it looks like the agriculture is moving up
to the scale of agro-industry.
As we head south the temperature doesn't seem to drop but the humidity is
climbing steadily, which drags along the heat index. It is easier to
heat up and harder to cool down. Warm water from a water bottle loose all
appeal and it is time to find out what is chilled at the local beverage stands.
Often the selection is just a couple of the better known sugar drinks or a
local knockoff of the same.
 In Benin (and Togo), if you are lucky you can find a bottle of
'Cocktail de Fruits' (pronounced in French). Ingredients aren't
generally listed on beverages in Africa so it is hard to know for sure what
is in it but it seems to be the least sweet and most thrust quenching
beverage that you are likely to find in a Beninoise drink stand. It
taste like it has a lot of grapefruit juice in it. The label also
shows a pineapple, orange, apple and mango, and says it is made from fruit
extract, which might mean concentrate. A cold bottle sure flows down
the throat nicely.
 After
passing through a stretch of a lot of "give me, give me, give me"
between Dassa and Bohicon, this stretch was refreshing for the warmth and
friendliness of the people. It motivates you to get off the bike and
make it more of a people-to-people experience, which is what bicycle travel
really excels at, and the best bicycle travelers excel at.
 Bicycles
also offer additional control over your life that public transportation in Africa
doesn't provide. It is not that bicycles don't break down, they
do, but when it happens 99 times out of 100 it is a fix that can be handled
within the resources of the group and it take a matter of minutes.
What may not be apparent in this picture is they are not just fixing the
tire and there is a group of people under the trees to the right -- who look
like they have been there for a while.
This is an addition to road side collection of reading material that probably
was posted after the year 2000.
In particular it advertises an action in October 2007. The sign
advertises a
campaign for the free distribution of insecticide impregnated bed nets -
'save the lives of children'. Funding for the program came from
the World Bank, UNICEF, USAID, WHO and several other organizations.
 On
the subject of signs, hopefully this one, with school girls, books in hand,
will resonate with the local people as much as it does with me. We saw
it several times. It says "All the girls to school." Among the
sponsors are USAID,
UNICEF, Dutch, Danish, French, Swiss, World Bank, World Food Program, UN
Family Planning, Aide et Action, Plan International, CARE, CRS and other
non-governmental organization.
 The
relative affluence of Azove and
Lokossa showed up in the market as well. Both towns are off the main
national highway and probably, largely have to depend upon their own means
for their wealth, but both towns have what seems like an abundant supply of
new motorcycle available. I trust the local businessmen to know not to keep that
much inventory on hand unless they expect to sell. The follow-up
question is, "Is there credit or payment plans available, or are purchasers
expected to pay cash?" Historically credit was rare and the later was the norm.
Lokossa also had the typical African market that is a labyrinth of wooden
stalls where anything and everything was being sold. The merchandise
from the stalls often spills out into the isle, which were already crowded
so it was a very intense experience. There was resistance to pictures
taking in the market so you have to take my word for it that they had the usual array of grains, fruits, vegetable,
meat, poultry, fish, soap, hair products, fragrances, shoes, cloth,
blankets, tools and other sundry. What made this market a little
different than most is they had a section specializing in animal skins, parts
and skulls for use by traditional healers and practitioners of Voodoo.
This foreshadowed things to come.
 Every
town has one or more hair salons. Generally the specialize in men or women.
They are identified by signs showing the latest styles. Some signs will show
twenty or more styles. I am not sure if the shop advertised here is
call, "Super Hairdressing," "The Difference," or "Without God Nothing."
 This gentleman is
Totoh Gnawoi, the founder of the town of Lokossa, in 1780. It is nice
to see a monument to African history. So much of Africa's history is
oral history so as older people pass away and younger people move out of
smaller towns, it is getting lost. Not that cultures aren't dynamic,
but sometimes it seems that Africa isn't even protective about the best of its
history and culture, which preserves its identity.
Note: When this was posted a search of the Internet gets no hits for Totoh Gnawoi.
At least that should change when this page is indexed.
 The
opportunity for meal in Lokossa was as good or better than it had been in
other towns this size. The bar is pretty low and there still wasn't a lot of choices. For
dinner we found a restaurant that had outdoor seating under some large shade
trees. It was still hot, but the slight breeze made it far more
tolerable than it would have been inside. Plates were custom prepared and we
dined on our personal choice of rice, sauce, meat, chicken, beans and
cheese.
  Typically,
the restaurant where we ate dinner was not open at breakfast -- and the
restaurant that we found for breakfast hadn't been open at dinner. In the
end all you need is one that has what you want. We were able to find out
beloved omelets, baguettes and hot drinks, which seem to have enough staying
power to get us most of the way to lunch, so life was good.
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Addendum: |
As was the case in most of Togo and Benin, Abomey has few restaurants,
outside of those connected to hotel. But being a bigger town, Abomey
provide us with the opportunity for our preferred breakfast; omelets, baguettes and a hot drink. Fueled up and back on
the road we left the legacy rich environment and went back into the Benin
that is much more of the moment.
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