Parakou

Ah, Parakou. The city of lights. Well, not quite, but it's still something for a country-boy like Monsieur Robert coming in from the hills of Aklampa. Flu season is upon us it seems (they get that here?) and that means the backwater folks get to come into the burgeoning population center that is Parakou, a glorified dustbowl during this time of year, for their government mandated stabbing. Minerets replace steeples in this part of the country and shawls replace braids, it being a more Muslim influenced region than in the dirty south. Parakou has become quite the loci for us TEFLers over the last two weeks as it was just seven days ago that we were all here for our brief respite from the school year known as PSW (Personal Strategies Workshop). Thanksgiving, that ancient most American of holidays, found us all together and we had quite the fete, stuffing a guinea fowl in a duck and then stuffing the afformentioned amalgamation into a turkey tastes better than it sounds and throw in some mashed taters and home is just a taste away. The walls of the workstation sufficiently insulated us all from the prayer calls and zemijohn drivers as we all pretended to be back home. As trite as it sounds, there is a lot to be thankful for. Just a brief list to whet your appetite; showers, books, my dog, my family, my friends (old and new), and just plain being. Perhaps another thing to add to that list is movies, it never ceases to amaze me how awe-inspiring movies are after being au village for a month. For a culture shock it's always fun to take a walk outside of the station immediately after watching "I Love You Man" or "The Hangover". Sufficiently inundated with American popular culture and rearmed with new reading materials, Aklampa is calling. A la prochaine Parakou.