Baptisim

africanmei — Sun, 20 May 2007 03:46:00 GMT

Today I had a chance to witness a Catholic baptisim of a baby boy. One of the employees in BAT was getting his baby boy baptized and invited all of us to join in.

We left at 11 and arrived at the church. Typical of the housing it was made from brick and plaster and left unpainted. It was a warm day and the church was no equipped with air conditioning and just only 2 standing fans for a congregration of around 25 people. The Reverend Father turn out surprisingly to be the father's elder brother. ......Perhaps that is the reason why they choose that particular church. Have never attended a Catholic mass before so was an eye opener for me. Somehow I have the feeling that this services are conducted in the same manner in any Catholic church. Unfortunately service was in French ...so the whole part of the mass was mostly alien to me .. We just followed the crowd ...There was the dedication of the baby and the baptisim. The god parents were also present and they were smiling proudly.

Later we left for their house in Contonou for a some sort of small party. I was surprised at the grand scale of it all. According to other employees the party would last through out the night till next morning. I could see there were free flow of drinks and of course the indepensable beer. It's unimaginable to seperate an African from beer. Food was ok ... and we sat there for around 2 hours ....just listening to the music which was turn on at full blast. The house was something like a shared communal housing whereby there were 2 or 3 families living together in a 3 storey house .... Each foor had some roooms ... We did not enter the family living space instead we were brought up to th e roof where some tables were laid out. Later we proceeded to a the lower floor where there were some rooms that were partially built and uncompleted I find in puzzling here .... a building can be half completed and there would be people using and residing in it. I am tno sure however whether they even plan to complete it.

According to one of the employees; Benin is aiming to be another Dubai in the near future. However I think that will be some time off ......

Well give a few years the landscape of Benin might totally change

First day blogging

africanmei — Sat, 19 May 2007 07:44:00 GMT

Here goes my first time at blogging...The wonders of internet and so much time at my hands.

I guess this is more of a travel website ... so I will try to summarize what I am doing in Benin. I work in a global company that is rolling out SAP (if you have heard out of it - you don't need an introduction)across its offices in Africa. I have been previously in Turkey, Zimbabwe, Kenya and now in Benin.

Benin - West Africa ...If you look at the map; some people say that the shape of this country really looks particularly strange, arkward...(My friends have good imagination). My stay in Benin has been largely limited to Contonou. Contonou is a port and it's the economic center in Benin. The administrative capital is in Porto Novo. Since this was my first trip to West Africa; I was taken a back by the pace of development in Contonou. Coming from Kenya & Zimbabwe; I expected a similiar pace of development there but I guess each country is unique.

Contonou appears like a relatively small town. Here most people go on motorcycles and I guess that is the most favored means of transportation. They have bike for hires (the drivers wear a yellow shirt) that will take you around Contonou though I don't think safety can be guranteed. I guess safety is the least of concern for the goverment here ...and people go around on bikes without wearing helmets. Traffic is horrendous ... everyone goes in all directions and there hardly seems to be any respect for traffic rules. Houses are basic construction; made from wood with corrugrated tin roofs or the better ones are made fom brick however ( I think due to lack of finances) they are left uncompleted with the iron pilling left sticking out ...Some of them are not painted; so they stand out like a dull gray building. Those houses that are nice ...we can see them being surrounded by high walls and gates to prevent intruding eyes.... Very typical of African homes.

There are 2 hotels of international standards in Contonou, Marina Bay & Novotel. Both these hotels are located by the beach ...so you will have an amazing view of beach & sea - the Blight of Benin. I think this directly extends to the Alantic Ocean. Marina Bay has slightly older rooms compared to the Novotel ...however the plus side of it; it has a mini golf course, swimming pool, nice bar area... just by the beach. Novotel is not that bad after all ..The only problem is it's under renovation during this period. They are really expanding the place & I think at the end of this year it would be a much better place to stay than Marina. The rooms are very functional, nice & pratical. They have adopted this Novation concept of furnishing & design for all the rooms here .. I don't know whether this concept applies to Novotel in other parts of Europe. So if you are ever visiting Benin later this year or next year; Novotel would be a much better bet of an enjoyable stay...Currently now the rates in Novotel are much lower than in Marina Bay.

Well I would try to attach some pictures of Contonou when I log in the next time ..

It's going to be a long weekend here...

Home away from home

Baptisim

First day blogging