HAPPY CANADA DAY FROM BENIN!

Don't worry, we're celebrating Canada Day here in Benin too!!

Well friends, the count down is on – 12 more days until we leave – CRAZY!!! How does time go so fast? I have been asking myself that question a lot lately and I still don’t have the answer! In some ways it feels like I have been here a lifetime, yet at the same time I feel like I just arrived! How does time do that? I’m trying to soak up as much of Benin as I can while I’m still here – trying to enjoy every minute. But why is it that you are always busiest right before you have to leave? It makes it really difficult to enjoy your time and get everything done! I seem to be saying goodbye and hello to people a lot in my life - I know, that’s the price I pay for travelling the world – but I hoped that it would get easier with time, but it doesn’t. And the ironic thing is that even though goodbyes are hard, even though I keep leaving my heart in different cities around the world – I wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything. Funny how that works. Speaking of experiences, let me tell you about......

A DAY AT THE ZOO
Last Friday we found out there is a zoo here in Cotonou – so we went to check it out – we wanted to see some “cool” African animals before we left – the only animals we have seen in the last 5 months have been, dogs, a few cats, tons of chickens, lots of goats, too many cockroaches to count and lizards, gecko’s, and even more lizards and gecko’s!

We arrived at the zoo full of expectation and excitement and left feeling a little sad and disappointed. The official name of the zoo is The Mini Zoo of Cotonou. But really it should be called The Hobby Farm of Cotonou. It was small – you could see from one end to the other no problem. And the animals, well they were either roaming free, tied to a tree, kept in empty freezers, or in cages so small they couldn’t do more than turn around. We saw 2 baboons, 2 other monkeys [not sure what kind], a baby monkey [again, don’t know what kind] alligators, crocodiles, turtles, pythons, a stork, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, guinea pigs [we think], fish, a cat, some sort of lizard, dragon thing, 2 birds [I think one was just a pigeon], an eagle [with a dead goat carcass in it’s cage – it just ate apparently], a stork and I think that’s about it. Oh, and did I mention that it really stunk?? I don’t think they ever change the water or clean out their cages, or in some case freezers.

The highlight for me was the turtles and the baby monkey! I’ve always wanted a pet monkey – and this just made me want it more! And turtles are really cute! Oh and the snakes, I held pythons again!