Showing posts with label cultural lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cultural lessons. Show all posts

What we talking about? This is NAS. Nasty, Recollect.

Posted by Gaurav On Wednesday, August 8, 2012 0 comments


from dreamstime.com

It’s not often you hear a song that just completely clicks with you. I recently had this experience with Loco-Motive from Nas’ new album, Life is Good, and so I wanted to share some thoughts on why I think this is a track good enough to write a 1000 something words about - and how it teaches an unexpected but valuable life lesson.

So here’s a breakdown of what makes this track so special...


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10 Things I Learned this Week, Edition 8

Posted by Gaurav On Monday, July 18, 2011 1 comments

Boy, have things ever flown by fast eh? Here we are in the middle of July, halfway through my 10th week in Benin and already the 8th edition of this post. For things I learned points 70 – 80, I was as not as stretched to find as you might think, there always seems to be something new to learn. So here is my collection from the past week:


1. Although locals might find it cute when you say hello in Fon, make sure you also know the term “I don’t speak much Fon” as well, because they usually revert to their more comfortable language otherwise.

2. Made my first trip to the police station, and it wasn’t a visit. A senior officer stopped me while I was walking to the orphanage around 8 in the morning, and demanded that I show my passport to prove my Canadian citizenship. After quizzing me on visa specifications he figured it was ok to let me go. Odd.

3. Staying on the subject of police, I saw my first up close and personal bribe when a policeman stopped us and saw that my host dad wasn’t wearing a seatbelt (no one here does). He refused to issue a ticket, instead insisting that we help him pay for a couple of beers tonight.

4. My leg hair is by far the most interesting thing about me to the Beninois. I wore shorts frequently last week and was fielding questions from the kids at the orphanage about it at work, and then at home when I returned.

5. As a result of personal observation: kids become sneaky around 2 and a half. Aristotle tries to convince Alberique to go eat with the rest of us so he can play with the Nintendo DS: “Rico, va manger no?”
Delicious slice of birthday cake for Mama's birthday. Iced cake is significantly more expensive here compared to other food, but they personalize the icing and it was scrumptious!

6. The Beninois generally don’t resent their socialist history as much as many other countries in the world. Many previously government owned farms that produced vegetables and livestock are now just overgrown patches of useless land.

7. A large portion of the Nigerians living in Benin are refugees of the Ogoni ethnic minority in the Niger Delta area. Read more about the conflict here.

8. The reason why using two hands to eat in Benin is frowned upon is because traditionally, one hand was used to eat, and the other used to wipe your butt.

9. The school system here, based on the French system, requires that the Beninois learn two languages in addition to French in school. That’s aiming for proficiency in 4 languages, including their local one!

10. The Beninois opinion of France is generally very low, but the country relies very strongly on France (as the most powerful Francophone country in the world), for everything from international news to financial aid, so it is an interesting love hate relationship.

And that’s all for this week! Hope you enjoyed and lease leave a comment or two of feedback, as always! Are these starting to get stale??


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Ten things I learned this week, Edition 6

Posted by Gaurav On Thursday, July 7, 2011 2 comments

This week, I had to think hard about what to include and what not to include. It was a week full of travel and sightseeing, new experiences and lessons. I am now more than halfway through my trip to Benin. I hope you enjoy this edition!


1. How the dread feels when you eat a delicious mango, only to inspect the plate and see tens of tiny white worms wriggling around the inside of the peel.

2. Zangbeto, the Voodun god of the skies and thunder, has a cruel sense of humour. On the day I wanted to try my new swim shorts out at the beach, it rained for 7 hours straight and a pool of water formed inside my room.

3. Being caught in the middle of a mom – dad argument is significantly more awkward when they are not your mom and dad.

4. After about 50 days of setting up my mosquito net, it has become so routine that I can do it in pitch black darkness... that’s going on my CV.

5. How to say “no” in the local language, Fon (“EY-yooo”). It’s helpful for the market when people won’t understand “non, je ne veux pas ça”.

6. You pretty much have to walk through the market saying “EY-yooo” at regular 2 second intervals.

7. The largest university in Benin, Abomey-Calvari, has an absolutely dreamy main campus, tranquil off the side of a busy road. It is larger than any campus I’ve ever seen and is about 80% green space.

One of the roads in the expansive university campus.
8. University students are the same everywhere. Saw “Vive la revolution” spray painted on a couple of buildings on campus. Vive la revolution indeed.

9. The people of Ganvié, “The City on Stilts”, have to leave their homes for land every October because the water level rises about a metre and a half and floods their houses, about a metre deep. Every year.

10. The unlimited mobile internet that I’ve been lead to believe exists by the posters plastered across Cotonou doesn’t actually exist, it’s just false advertising, as calmly explained the service provider representative.

Here’s to hoping this week is just as active. It got off on the right foot: today when Aristotle and I were having lunch he looked at me and said, “Gaurav... c’est chaud” with wide eyes, as if to say be careful. (this coming from a guy who couldn’t speak a word of French when I arrived here in early May). The cutest thing this kid has ever done lol. Anyways, as always, leave one. Peace!


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Dantokpa: Navigating the Largest Market in West Africa

Posted by Gaurav On 1 comments

The endless blaring of horns. Fumes from a moto that just barely missed your arm as it whizzed by. Claustrophobia as you realize you can’t step aside for the girl with a basket of fish on her head because the man holding wooden statues in his hands to your right is backed up by a group of children selling cookies and a woman bartering with a merchant in front. Squinting to avoid getting the dust that perpetually blows through the market in your eyes. Being constantly convinced that I need a new belt, a bar of soap, a baggie of peanuts, a keychain, Gucci underwear, or something neither I nor the vendor know the exact purpose of.

It's difficult to get a picture of the market as a whole because of the risk of taking out your camera. This fruit market wasnt as densely populated.

This is a small sample of the strain involved in navigating Dantokpa: a behemoth of a market sprawling the ravine through downtown Cotonou, where the equivalent of 5 million US dollars changes hands every day. The bustle of the market is unlike anything I have ever experienced: it is a sensory overload and it takes a toll on your body just to walk through it. While the smaller markets might be comparable as less organized versions of flea markets in Toronto, Dantokpa is a whole other story. I spent a good 4 hours just walking through the market and probably only covered about 20% of it.

Spend a day at Dantokpa and its a guarantee that you will come out of it having bought something you didn’t want, purchased at least one delicious frozen beverage from a Fan Milk vendor, and gotten out-haggled by someone who does it for a living. The busy nature of Dantokpa is also a great way to lose your wallet to sticky fingers well versed in the art of pickpocketing if you’re not careful enough. Equivalently, it’s a great place to meet and talk to people.

Wait, what? Yes, the thing that sets Dantopka apart from other chaotic environment I have experienced in my life is that amid all of the insanity, the merchants and vendors are often calm and approachable. This is not a stock exchange, or Bay Street, where you don’t get a second look from other people unless you’re a good friend. Numerous times during my trips to Dantokpa, I stop by a stall and use my broken French to engage in conversation with a merchant pertaining to just about anything: where they are from, what types of prices I can find for other things in the market, their perception of foreigners, and even simple stuff like the weather. Instead of being upset with me for “wasting their time” by chatting, they are delighted to take time away to engage in conversation, asking me as many questions as I pose to them. 

Is it ironic that you can find peace and kindness in the middle of chaos and commercialism? Maybe back home, but it is the norm here. The vendors at the market don’t just work at their shops, they do it for a living. Yes they are passionate about making sales, but the majority are also naturally charming and brilliant speakers, even when they are not trying to sell you something. Back home, it’s difficult to find that kind of intimacy – not because there aren’t enough flea markets – but because it’s fundamentally a different commercial culture and a different mindset.    

So maybe I did buy a belt that I didn’t even like at double the going rate. So what? The vendor was fine with joking around with me whether I bought it or not. He had emotion, he was human, and that is what is so amazing about Dantokpa. Admist all of the currency changing hands and motos nearly running people over, if you really spend some time there, it is clear that the whole place has a distinctly human feel. It’s not just a market: it’s a living, breathing, hub of emotion – and that is truly spectacular.  


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Let's Be Franc

Posted by Gaurav On Thursday, June 23, 2011 1 comments

A common theme throughout all of my posts has been perspective. Money is no different. In this post, I want to talk a bit about how I value the same amount of money so differently here than I would at home. This might be a common thing for those of you who had made trips to a country with a currency valued significantly less than your home currency. For me, this is a new occurrence.


The smallest coin of currency in Benin is the 5 FCFA coin (the equivalent of roughly 1 cent CAD). The bills start at 1000 FCFA and the largest bill is 10000 FCFA (the equivalent of roughly 20 dollars CAD). The fact that the largest bill in production is equivalent to our $20 bill speaks volumes about how much cheaper the cost of living is in Benin. In general, the trend is that everything except electronics is cheaper here than you would find in Canada. To illustrate this point: 700 FCFA is how much it costs to buy about 14 fresh pineapples at the local market, or scan one page of a document at the local cyber.

What does all of this mean for me, someone used to a whole different currency? I probably hadn’t eaten 14 pineapples total in my life before coming here, and I’ve never paid anything to use a scanner. Well first and foremost, the large numbers, and to a greater extent the fixed mindset of 100 cents in a dollar has led me to be stingier with my money here. I treat the 100 FCFA coin as if it had the worth of a dollar (I think that is how the locals treat it as well, at least from what my friend Stephen and I have deduced).

Now it might seem ironic, and downright cheap that I am shying from spending money here, especially given the economic situation of Benin and its people. However, I don’t know if I would be so protective of my money if it weren’t trying to be scammed from me every second! I take the same route to the orphanage every day and I still have taxi drivers trying to charge me double the normal price. As soon as you’re recognized as white, the price for everything (especially any souvenirs, etc) is hiked up about 4-5x higher than it normally is. Even though I enjoy bargaining, knowing that you’ll never get it down to the price a local would pay gets frustrating after a while.

The concept of change here is also very foreign. I’ve waited 10 minutes for change for a 2000 FCFA bill only to be told that they don’t have any, and that was at a bar and not a street vendor. I’m thoroughly convinced that there are more 100 FCFA coins in circulation than 50, 25, and 5 FCFA coins combined. Even in the rare event that they do have change, if the amount they owe you is reasonable (less than 200 FCFA), they will just pretend they don’t have any. You can ask a driver how much it costs to go somewhere, and they will often just avoid the question and request a ridiculously high amount after they drop you off. After a while, this constantly having to be on your guard really gets to you and just becomes second nature! Sometimes I lose myself in arguments about such small amounts of money that when I take a step back and think about what I’m actually arguing over in terms of Canadian money, I feel embarrassed. Of course not everyone is always trying to cheat me out of my money, but it happens often enough.

It is kinda pleasant seeing price labels and stuff occasionally at the supermarket. I’m sure when I get back to Canada, I will appreciate knowing that I’m charged the same price for a pastry at Tim Hortons as the customer before me a lot more than I have in the past. Here in Benin, you can forget about paying tax with a purchase. I wouldn’t mind paying taxes because the government would benefit a lot from revenue like that but because of the change issue, I think that would be a nightmare. And it’s not like it could be enforced anyway, with the majority of Benin’s businesses being street side or marketplace vendors without licenses to sell anything. Finally, when the vendors aren’t trying to take your money, they are significantly nicer and more polite than the majority of cashiers you’d find in Canada. They always take out a bit of time to chat and I just find that buying stuff here is much more memorable because of that interaction. 

When all is said and done, after I put this post up at the cyber I’ll probably stop someone carrying a tray of pineapples on their head, pay them 50 FCFA (or about 10 cents Canadian) and watch as they peel the pineapple for me so I can eat it fresh, holding it like corn on the cob.  Now that’s customer service you can’t get at Tim Hortons.   


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10 Things I Learned this Week, Edition 3

Posted by Gaurav On Thursday, June 16, 2011 1 comments

So, I am aware that this edition is late, and that I haven’t posted on my blog in over a week. Let me assure you that this is not because I have given up on the blog. I`ve been shown so much support that every day that passed without me posting, I felt extremely guilty. Although I`ve just been busy in general, I also have been preparing a long post about dealing with failure. Hopefully I will get my act together and have it up tomorrow. But for now, here are the 10 things I learned this week:

A vendor at the market in Porto Novo.


      1.       TV here is really diverse. On the same channel, I`m watching a kung-fu movie from the 70s before I leave for the day, and watching CBC and Nollywood (Nigerian) movies by the time I’m home.

      2.       Papaya has the consistency of avocado.


      3.       Aristotle will stop at nothing to injure himself. Last week he swallowed a 10 FCFA coin. I saw the x-rays, and its hanging around in his stomach – the poor kid might need surgery.

      4.       Friends are actually really easy to make here, and if you hang around somewhere long enough people will ask for your number to hang out sometime later.

      5.       So that’s what salt water tastes like... and feels like in your cuts.

      6.       Don’t play in the sand if you’re wearing double layered track pants with a hole in one layer (L)

      7.       It’s possible to have more coconut milk than you can handle, with this realization coming halfway through only my second coconut.

      8.       The legal age for driving a moto is how long it takes you to grow tall enough for your feet to reach the pedals. Yannick is 12 and he drives like a veteran.

      9.       I’m lucky I didn’t do my schooling in Benin, because the biology exams here are all long answer. I don’t envision myself writing any “Long Answer Strategies” posts anytime soon.

     10.   The orphanage I’m working with is actually very well off in comparison to many orphanages in this country. Some of the kids even have family that takes them in when they are done the school year. Of course, the issue now is that the orphanage needs constant funding to remain at this level, and that’s why I’m helping look for funding to start a sustainable project at the orphanage.


Ok! That’s all for this week. I see that I kind of went on a bit of a rant on the last point there but oh well. Check back soon because I’m going to start making up for my week of missed posts!


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The Gate of No Return

Posted by Gaurav On Friday, May 20, 2011 5 comments

           Yesterday started with my first French lesson. It was just me and the teacher for 2 straight hours, which was the upside. The flipside was that the teacher is not fluent in English, so he couldn’t provide much help translating words I didn’t understand. However, he’s a great guy. It went well.


After the lessons it was laundry time! My first time hand washing clothes (hockey equipment doesn’t count) in at least 10 years... and it showed. My host mama soon took over and I was relegated to rinsing and hanging the clothes on the line.

The day really took off however, when Jules and Jennifer dropped by.


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