A day in Possotomé

Fisherman's nets by the nearby lake.

Yesterday, three friends and I happened to have the day off from working in the hospital.  All of us are nurses, so it is amazing that the four of us had the same time off.  We decided to spend the entire day off of the ship and explore a bit of Benin!  Our destination was a place called Possotomé, about 2 hours from the Cotonou port.  To get to the town, we first took zemidjons, then a taxi ride (for about an hour), and later one more zemidjon.

Note the pink T-shirts of the Comé zemidjon drivers.

What is a zemidjon you may ask?  Zemidjons are motorbikes that double as cheap taxis in Benin.  Registered drivers wear coloured shirts to identify themselves.  In Cotonou, Benin's port city, the zemidjon drivers wear yellow shirts, but in Possotomé, their shirts were pink.  Zemidjons are the most popular means of transportation in costal areas of Benin, but they are not always the safest.  For instance, we had a patient on the ship with major burns to his leg from the exhaust pipe of a zemidjon.  As well, very few people wear helmets and there are frequent traffic collisions.  However, because taxis are often overpriced and much too expensive for most people, the motorbikes are favoured.  I enjoyed travelling on zemidjons, and the running joke was how many people could fit on one, or what was the craziest thing you saw on a zemidjon?  One day I saw a coffin strapped onto the back of a zemidjon.  Another time, a person was sitting on a zemidjon holding a large flat screen TV.  I have seen five people on one motorbike.

Four of my friend's children needed to get home from church, so this man drove all of them on his zemidjon.

The scenery on our trip was beautiful!  The video below is a time lapse of one section on the highway.  Everything is fairly flat, but there was one section on our final zemidjon ride, between Comé and Possotomé, which had some nice rolling hills!  It reminded me of Central America at that point, with lush green trees and palms and the fluffy clouds in the blue sky!

Although we came to Benin to serve the people and work in the hospital, it definitely was nice to have a relaxing day away from the ship and from the busy streets of Cotonou.  When off shift, I like to leave the port for a few hours to get some fresh air, but I forget that there is no fresh air in Cotonou!  Everything smells like gasoline and exhaust and dust.  But in Possotomé, there truly was fresh air, and it was out of the hustle and bustle of big city and crowded life.

Relaxing under cool palm trees beside Lac Ahémé.

We left Cotonou in the late morning, and arrived to Possotomé in time to order some lunch and relax on the shores of Lac Ahémé.  The water in the lake is quite muddy, so not good for swimming, although we did bring our swimsuits.  At the resort/restaurant we stopped by, they offered some options as to tours around the area.  We had three options to choose from:
1) boat on Lac Ahémé and catch fish,
2) have a tour around the village and go to the "sacred forest", or
3) a phytotherapy lesson about local plants, and then after, a massage

Restaurant/Resort.

Lac Ahémé.

We opted for the phytotherapy lesson, as we were not too keen on learning about the voodoo practices.  This phytotherapy was learning about how local plants and plant extracts can be used medicinally, and our guide explained that these practices have been done for many years.  Unfortunately, rather than being a lesson in science, our guide mainly talked about different traditions held by Beninese people, with close ties to voodoo.  Having a more than basic knowledge of science (all being nurses), we knew that the traditional uses for many of these plants actually do not work.  It was difficult to see such a lack of understanding when it came to medicine, and I also struggled with the fact that so many people here believe that false voodoo gods can heal them.

Riding home on a zemidjon.

The journey back from Possotomé was very relaxing.  We knew that we had missed supper (suppertime is from 1700 to 1830), so we stopped at a market to pick up food to prepare our own meal.  It is great that while on the ship, we were able to enjoy an activity with only day off.  It is also possible to explore, take part in sports events on the dock, or serve with Mercy Ministries before or after a shift.  The day and evening shifts are approximately 8 hours long, and night shifts are 10 hours long.

Another thing I am enjoying about ship life is that there is so much more time to spend with other people in the community, and especially that there is time to study the Word of God regularly!
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