30. 12. Benin burning

The children woke up a bit later than we did. They simply stood there staring at us. I said “hello”, took a few photos and showed them, they smiled. Then on to Benin.

Border in the heat of noon, almost no water. The border official shouted at Manuel. A nun, who went from Africa to Europe without visa, was sent back in handcuffs recently. A nun! Who are we to think, that we can simply come here without visa and cross the border? Go back to Ouagadougou and apply for a visa at the Benin embassy!

Manuel showed the stamp from his entry last April: he always does it this way, it never was a problem before. You get a transit visa for 48 hours, and then prolong it at the embassy in Cotonou. “No way, go back to Ouagadougou, immediately!”

A woman in uniform was sitting in the corner, nodding, and another officer looked grim. Manuel told, that his girl friend was waiting to see him in Cotonou on New Year´s Eve. This did not impress them at all. What is his girl friend doing there? Manuel told them, that she is from Cotonou, then took his mobile phone and said, that he would call her now, and they could ask her. He tried, but she did not answer. What the hell did I want to do in Benin, he asked me. Tourist? Not really - we have many Africans in Austria, and I want to understand them better. The women waved me to her: “What would you think about marrying an African man?” – “Basically – why not?” “I like you”, she said, pointing at the other officer: “This is my brother – would you marry him?” “Many Austrian women marry African men, so basically…”

Everybody started to laugh. They offered us apples and watermelons, we were eating and joking, exchanging phone numbers, and after a warm good bye we were on the road again.

Driving through a country of smoke for hours and hours. Everywhere people are burning the grass and bushes to get new and fresh green, they burn their trash, there are fires for cooking… The sky was always grey, and every now and then you could see billows of smoke from far and near.

The night it became worse, we were driving through a burning country. We were driving until we found a place where we could breath a bit and fell asleep exhausted.