Trip to post

I am the first Yovo off the bus. I wave goodbye to the group of PCTs and their work partners who have spent the last 5 and a half hours with me traveling north to our posts in Benin. This is only a temporary goodbye. I’ll see everyone again in 2 weeks in Porto Novo, but like the first Thanksgiving break of freshman year of college, we’re all not quite sure how it’s going to be not seeing the faces you’ve become accustomed to seeing on a daily basis.

This is my first time farther north than Porto Novo, which is to say, I haven’t seen much of Benin yet. I tried to spend the ride watching the scenery speed by outside the window, but those of you who know me know that car/bus/tube rides are like taking an Ambien for me. I was asleep except when I was woken up by the bus honking as it passed other vehicles.

The part of the countryside I did see was, minus the palm trees, like driving through the forested parts of the Midwest. The paved road was lined by “mountains” that aren’t tall enough to have snow at their peaks. They were covered in green trees and an occasional sharp cliff edge. I cannot verify that it was limestone, but from the bus, they looked a lot like the cliffs I used to climb in my neighbors’ backyards when I was little.

Turns out some things aren’t as different as we sometimes make them.