Tribute to MJ - Part II

For my last night in Cotonou, we hit my fav restaurant again—the fabulous Shamiana’s. Nate, Katharine, Shaloo, Nina and I had way too much food and planned to follow it up with karaoke at local haunt Chevalier.

We hit Chevalier a bit early, and there were only 3 other people there. We picked our spot and ordered bottle service for 4 – one in our party went home after dinner, so the 4 hardcore’s went out for the second weekend. A bottle of Gordon’s and 4 tonics later, and we were set to go. We didn’t realize, however, that karaoke here isn’t like normal karaoke where people actually sing. There are 5 or 6 staff who basically perform a concert to karaoke tracks. The songs were in French, English and Fon (local language) and it was amazing. All of the performers were really talented. There was a particularly rousing “We are the World” where the entire bar sang the chorus together and a Michael Jackson video played in the background. We decided after a few hours and while on the second bottle of gin that it was time to hit the club next door. There wa slots of dancing and fun times, followed by me almost breaking the gate at Shaloo's trying to get

back in, and being locked out of the house at 4am for awhile. But, we figured it out eventually.

After a fabulous sleep, I had a delightful brunch--Benson cooked me an omlette! I thought this was pretty fantastic. It's a rare day when a man cooks me breakfast. I took what I thought would be a quick run out to the store to get some food for a surprise supper (really, leftover maple curry pasta). Unfortunately, it was only 3 pm and the store was closed til 4, so I ended up buying Paul (the driver) a beer and talking about his life and how he was left heartbroken by a mean North American who had his child and left him to return home.  I grabbed more brie and wine at the store, and made supper for Shaloo, Nate and Katharine-- my last meal in Cotonou. Strangely, it was kind of sad.

Shaloo took me to the airport. We were both pretty exhausted, and when I got to the airport I

was physically ill. I had more anxiety from seeing that hell hole again than I've ever had before. I even tried to have a beer and relax a little bit failed.

After saying goodbye, I went thru security where the customs men asked me if I was ever coming back to Benin. They told me I should come back and get married. Had to get in one more marriage comment before I got out of the country.

Going through the metal detector and xray machine was fun-- they let me keep 1.5L of water, but took the batteries out of my camera and inspected my Blistex pot for 5 minutes. Someone else asked for my shoes-- I thought he was asking me to take them off an scan them-- but then I realized he was asking to HAVE them. I replied they were the only shoes I had. That seemed sufficient. It was a quiet departure from Cotonou--far better than my arrival. I had a great time with Shaloo and his friends and wish I was there for the parties planned on Tues and Thurs-- I expect Thurs will be epic.

Off to Kigali! Will post pics soon... my net connection is pretty lame as of now.

xo