not the facial-twitch kind… but the blood sucking kind. maybe i should have brought my mosquito net to the US after all!
this little guy did not want to let go… even after my dad tried to fry him off my face. stubborn little bugger.
lauren laughs
proverbs 31:25 says, "strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come." well… at least i've got the laughing part down.
Author Archives: lauholder
flying dogs
flying back to the US from cotonou, i had a little extra baggage… her name was josie. her papers said she was a lab, but i’d never seen a lab look like josie before. she was born and raised in cotonou and belonged to a missionary family there. because dogs can’t travel (with certain airlines) between may 15 and september 15, the price family (who departs benin after may 15) asked me to bring josie along. this is the story of our adventure together.
josie weighs about 23 kilos. she’s really very sweet, though i’ve only been around her while drugged on sleeping pills (not me, the dog). when traveling internationally with a dog, there are all sorts of hoops to jump through. lucky for me, the prices did most of the hoop jumping. josies shots, papers, and even the little computer chip embedded in her shoulder… everything was meticulously cared for. all i had to do was get her from point A to point B. easy enough, right? eh… no.
it started with check in. the peeps in cotonou insisted that my luggage could only be checked to paris… not to dc. i said, “are you sure?” knowing they were wrong, but they thought they were right, so i let it slide. i was going to have to go through customs in paris anyway to take the dog out for a walk, what’s a little luggage to keep me company?
i arrived in paris. i waited half an hour for josie to appear. in the mean time, i talked to the luggage peeps… three men eager to help. they said to leave my luggage with them while i walked the dog. “you sure?” “mais, oui! of course.” ok.
josie and i got through customs and i took her out for a walk. she was very happy, though not as jumpy as i expected, feeling a bit groggy i suppose. we met a homeless man. there was no grass. she sniffed around for half a hour and was content to go back in her kennel. she even took two more sleeping pills without arguing. easy peasey.
we went back into the aiport, at which point i realized i was screwed. there was no way of getting back to those oh-so-helpful luggage men. i went to the airfrance counter to explain the situation and ask for help. they immediately said it was crazy that my luggage hadn’t been checked all the way to dc. duh. no changing that detail though… so onto the next solution. airfrance lady told me to go to the next terminal, with josie, to check in again. and my luggage? she promised it would make it. ok.
i made it to the next terminal, that was easy enough, and found my place in the longest line ever. at this point i accepted the fact that i was likely not making my flight. oh well.
(side note: in my effort to make this experience less painful, i left one of my carry-on bags with my friend rhett, who happened to be flying with me from cotonou to dc. unfortunately for rhett, he was spot checked twice in my absence, both times insisting that the third bag belonged to his “wife” who just stepped out to walk the dog. rhett and i are not married, nor will we ever be (unless he finds jesus), but half of cotonou thinks we are, so he just ran with it.)
back to me. after half an hour of not moving in the longest line ever, i realized i was in the wrong line… so i found the right line and waited another 15 minutes before someone yelled, “passengers for dc?!” yes! that’s me! i scooted to the front of check-in where i explained the entire situation to the lady behind the counter. thank God i speak french now. the lady said that the previous lady was crazy to send me on without my luggage. she also said cotonou peeps were crazy not to check my luggage all the way through. after establishing these truths (once again), she said she could get josie and me on the plane, but made no guarantees about my bags. good enough. i know people think the french are snobs, but this lady was a gem. 15 minutes later, i was racing through customs.
i ran to my gate and arrived just as they were shutting the door. i was the last person to board. i passed rhett while walking to my seat, at which point he said, “thank God!” (though he probably didn’t really say that since he doesn’t believe in God) and he filled me in on getting searched while carrying my luggage with “girlie” things inside.
i collapsed into my seat.
the funny thing is, josie didn’t even pee in paris. she just wasn’t feelin’ it. maybe she was too sleepy.
i got mugged… i forgot
i celebrated my 5 year reunion this weekend at the world’s finest learning institution… washington and lee university. you can say your school was better, and for you it probably was, but for me wlu was the best. is the best. in any case, i was catching up with friends, discussing world travels, when suddenly i remembered i was mugged last week! here’s the story…
saturday a week ago i celebrated my students’ graduation and then went to a dinner party for rhett, an american friend of mine who is returning to the US after 9 years of working in africa. i was sporting an african outfit (as pictured 2 blogs previous) and wanted to run home to change before late night activities ensued. so i jumped on the back of a zemi (moped taxi) and at the last minute asked my friend romeo to jump on behind me. this means there were three people on one moto-bike. this may or may not be illegal… technically, no more than two are supposed to be on a bike at once, but i’m convinced no one in cotonou is aware of this detail. so off we go, the three of us on a moto, at maybe 10pm… not even late.
the zemi driver stopped at a light… because it was red… this is normal. out of nowhere, like a flash of lightening, a man runs up to the moto, grabs my bag and runs off. only… he loses his grip. my bag was wedged so tightly between me and the moto driver–mugging man didn’t have a chance. plus, romeo grabbed me and my bag from behind for protection. it’s a darn good thing i opted to travel with the illegal third person!
so i’m okay. no harm done. maybe that’s why i forgot to write about it.
welcome… home?
i’m leaving benin tomorrow. after living here 9 months, it’s hard to say where home is. i was actually in the US for all of 38 hours a few weeks ago–yes, that means i spent more time in the air than i did on the ground… but it was for a job interview and it was totally worth it. when i got back to benin, my adopted family picked me up from the airport… which actually felt more familiar than when i landed in the US a few days before. i got to the house and my “little brothers” had made signs to welcome me home.
i am super psyched to move back State side, but i’m going to miss my family, friends and students here like crazy.
peace out benin!
graduation
so my students graduated from english class this weekend. we had a bit of a ceremony and i gave them all matching fabric so they can all have matching outfits. the quintessential gift of benin. here’s vincent (his english name was vinnie) receiving his certificate and gift. 
i’m very proud of each student. they worked so hard! it’s been especially fun to watch those that were too scared to even try at first… now they laugh at their mistakes and give it their best. good times.
photo shoot
so while i refused to stay put yesterday in my recovery… i did at least try to pick outings with air conditioning… the cyber cafe, the embassy, and fondation zinsou. the cyber cafe is an obvious must for blogging… i had to swing by the embassy to add pages to my passport (no room for visas!)… and zinsou was just for fun.
here are ricardo, ashley, romeo, me (holding ricardo’s niece catia) and rhett. zinsou has a photography exhibition i really enjoy. this was maybe my 4th visit. on certain afternoons, you can actually be part of the exhibit, which was the purpose of our group venture. props courtesy of zinsou. any guesses as to who the male models are?
gatorade saved my life
so yesterday i thought i was about to die. granted, i get a tad bit dramatic when i’m sick… but really, i felt like death. i lay in my bed with a cold rag on my face thinking of how i’d have to say all my goodbyes from behind my mosquito net… that instead of leaving africa next wednesday, i’d be leaving this earth this weekend. whoa is me.
though i usually live by myself, i’m staying with a friend my last days here. she decided to work from home for the afternoon after seeing my sad state. eventually, i worked up the energy to go to the malaria clinic to get my finger pricked. results were negative. i went to my doctor friend’s house. she was concerned. i had a fever and really low blood pressure. she handed me gatorade and told me to call her in the morning.
well, i’m not 100% today, but i feel sooo much better. turns out “heat exhaustion” can really knock you out… and progresses to heat stroke and coma if you don’t treat it with… gatorade. i’m under strict orders to stay indoors and lay low… which i’m not obeying… but i am wearing a baseball cap for the first time since i moved to benin. that should do the trick. i can’t spend my last days here indoors!!!
not as young as i thought
my friend ashley just got back to benin from morocco, so a group of us (rhett, ricardo, romeo and i) all went to the pool to celebrate. we have less than 2 weeks to hang out together, so we’re making the most of it. anyway, rhett has been teaching romeo to swim and he helped out ricardo yesterday as well. he also taught me to do a back dive. other than that, we pretty much hung out in the shallow end all day, playing like kids… because that’s what you do when you can’t swim well. seriously, we were like a bunch of 7 year olds. crawling all over each other, flipping and doing stunts. i think we pretty much annoyed every single patron there.
the result? today i am sore beyond belief. i did something to hurt my neck, and i’m guessing it had something to do with romeo and ricardo throwing me back and forth like a sack of flour. ow. at one point rhett and i tried to do that trick where you jump off the others’ shoulders, only we found we’re too old and heavy to do so.
def not as young as i used to be.
last class
last night was my last english class and probably my last trip to porto novo and back. it was quite the adventure. i arrived about 30 minutes late due to a major accident that stopped all traffic (and here, people actually turn off their cars… no use in wasting petrol, especially when there’s no AC to keep on in the first place). then, as i walked to the entrance of the school, i noted a huge political rally. i’m pretty sure the US embassy (or anyone else official) would recommend avoiding rallies of any sort in any country. but me? i join them.
like in palermo, italy. i once joined in on a parade, singing and skipping with everyone else. only later did i discover they were demonstrating against the american “fascist pigs.” oops.
or in la paz, bolivia. my bolivian professor’s father was running for reelection as a senator, so a bunch of us piled in the back of a truck wearing political shirts, waving political flags. that was fun.
and yesterday, when i couldn’t seen any other way to get past the crowd to my students, i started walking behind a car covered with political posters, smiling at all the shouting bystanders. good times. 
at last i walked in the classroom to find all my students quietly and diligently working on their exams. you can tell by their smiles they feel pretty good about their work. this i will miss.
bathroom humor
perhaps this is a bit off color for laurenlaughs… but i was in the paris airport yesterday (long story) and the bathrooms were just cracking me up. i walked into the ladies room in concourse E, near gate 90, and found that the doors to the stalls all made up a mural of white horses running wild. okay, whatever. interesting artwork, but nothing worth blogging over, right? oh, but then came the sound effects. yes, the speakers in the bathroom provided lovely “neigh!!!”ing and galloping noises for my listening pleasure. is this the frenchies’ idea of a joke? or is it to cover up other, er, less pleasant bathroom sounds? or perhaps some kind of new art… both audio and visual at once?
another funny thing… i ran into 2 friends from the cotonou salsa club in the paris airport. granted, we were all flying back to cotonou, but really… what are the odds?
and finally, i was flying next to a benin mama who kept asking the flight attendants for more chocolate or bread or anything she could then stash in her plastic baggy to take home to her family. ask and ye shall receive! i was glad the flight attendants were cool with her. she had a heart melting old lady smile.
and now i’m back in benin… for 2 weeks and 1 day… it’s not easy to say goodbye!
lauren laughs 