Mission to Parakou

The purpose of this trip was a mission for the Quebec organization Accueillons un enfant that had taken steps with the Secretariat for International Adoption (SAI) to request approval to adopt with Benin.

The objective of the mission was:

•        To get in touch with official Beninese organizations working on adoption files

•        To visit the orphanage managed by the NGO Caleb in Parakou

•        To consider the reception conditions for future adoptive parents

This is also my first trip to West Africa. A very nice discovery.

Itinerary

Day 1 : Montreal Brussels

Day 2 : Brussels Cotonou

Day 3 et 4  : Cotonou

Day 5 : Cotonou Parakou

Day 6 à 15 : Parakou

Day 16 : Parakou Cotonou Brussels

Day 17 : Brussels Montreal

Accomodation

During this stay, I did not go to the hotel.

In Cotonou, I slept in a mission of the evangelical church of the assemblies of God.

Then in Parakou, I occupied a room in a local's house.

Travel

Plane

From Montreal, there is no direct flight. So I had a stopover in Brussels before arriving in Cotonou.

Car

To make the trip from Cotonou to Parakou, I was driven by a colleague with a personal car. The car was far from comfortable, no air conditioning, but at least it held up on the more or less chaotic roads. We were forced to make a detour of more than 100km because the direct road was impassable. In total 9 hours of driving, to do 425km.

Bus

There are several bus lines that shuttle between Cotonou and the major cities of Benin. Taking the bus is an adventure in itself. You more or less know when you are leaving, but not at all when you are going to arrive. The hazards of the road are numerous. You have to be patient. It took another 9 hours to travel between Parakou and Cotonou, still without air conditioning of course.

Zem

Zems or zemidjans are motorcycle taxis that can be found in all cities in Benin. Fast and economical transport, everyone uses it. I was no exception for my trips to Parakou.

Cotonou

The city of Cotonou is located in the south of the country and is bordered to the north by Lake Nokoué and to the south by the Atlantic Ocean.

The economic capital of the country, Cotonou is the largest city in the country with nearly a million inhabitants. The presidential palace and the main ministries are located there.

To get around or find your way around Cotonou, there was no map. The streets do not have names and are sometimes numbered. So you always had to locate yourself in relation to a building, an administration or a square close to where you are going.

Just like in all the cities I visited during my stay, the Beninese mainly travel on "Zems", small motorcycles driven by drivers who are not afraid of anything! For my part in Cotonou I was lucky enough to be transported by a colleague.

I didn't have time to really visit the city because I didn't stay very long and I had several meetings organized which left me little time for sightseeing.

Parakou

Parakou is the third largest city in the country. This is where I spent most of my stay because the NGO Caleb has its facilities there. Parakou is 425km northeast of Cotonou, a 9-hour drive by car or bus.

The city was in full development. Work was underway to build an international airport.

As in Cotonou, travel is mainly by "zems". However, traffic is much less dense than in the big city in the south and therefore safer.

Parakou has few tourist attractions (apart from its small museum) but it is a city on a human scale and pleasant to live in.

Kouandé

During my stay in Parakou, I had the honor of being invited to the retirement ceremony of a pastor of the Assemblies of God Evangelical Church. The ceremony was held in Kouandé, a small town in the northwest of the country.

We left at 5am to be on time for the ceremony, which lasted from 11am to 2:30pm. It took us over 4 hours to drive from Parakou, including 1.5 hours on a red dirt track. It is a fairly remote rural region.

The party took place in the village hall. Everyone dressed up for the occasion. Many pastors from the congregation came to pay tribute to the retiree and make a financial contribution towards his retirement. Each intervention was celebrated with songs and dances. Several choirs were invited for the occasion. Among the distinguished guests, the king of the region made the trip with his court and his musicians, exactly as I had seen at the Parakou museum a few days before. But this was for real, it was not a staging for tourists. I really feel very privileged to have been able to attend this event.

See you soon...