Great discovery - there is a little food place at the door of my hotel (by the way, hotels here are not actual hotels, more like a box with a bed and shared bathroom, just in case you thought I was living a luxurious life!) and they make the best hot chocolate. The great thing about africa, or the countries I have been to is that they really cater to sweet toothed people! So my milo (pronounced meeelow) had condensed milk, sugar and milo. Nice and unhealthy I know but seriously the best thing Ive had since arriving in africa! Decided I would share a few African things that I find it hard to get used to…

1. The pollution – Here in Cotonou I actually try to breathe through some material as the fumes from the zemi jongs is disgusting! In Accra and Lomè the roads were lined with rubbish. As in, there are no rubbish bins, and if there happens to be some miracle and a rubbish bin is near the road then it gets emptied onto the road to add to the collection. Very sad.
2. It is not unusual here for people to pick their nose, grope themselves or make seriously painful sounding hoicking noises. In fact, they all happen all the time!
3. The assumption that any white person is a walking ATM. It is very frustrating, but I know that my daily budget (very stingy by western standards) is more than most people here make in a week or more. Knowing this makes it understandable that they do ask (demand) money but it really doesn`t add to the experience here.
4. Ok, people urinate everywhere and anywhere. You can be driving or walking down a main road and there will be people peeing along the sides. Sometimes they face away from the road… You can be stepping off the tro tro and someone will be peeing right at the door so you have to wait for them to finish. Or yesterday, coming from the border, the shared taxi stopped and everyone got out and used the `facilities`aka pretty much in the middle of the road.

Ooo, serious problem – I had an allergic reaction to my lovely fake gold wedding ring. I now have a nice red band around my finger. But it was quite fun today to talk about my husband, “He works in Ghana, yep, in business.” And I`ve almost given up trying to explain where New Zealand is. Now I just answer yes to what people say, as here they don`t ask they just assume. “You American, yes?” “Yes.” Or “Hey, you from Canada?” “Yes.” Although this afternoon I have been from Holand, England and Germany…