Day One, Met the President

... which needless to say set the bar pretty high for day two. So we’d been in town for just a few hours, all in the house moving furniture and putting stuff away. Being Monday, it was market day and we thought we’d head out to pick up some basics. Well, after 45 minutes of wandering, we couldn’t find it -- partly because everyone we asked said it was la bas and pointed in a random direction. For the unfamiliar, the two things you need to know about la bas is that the best possible translation into American English is “yonder,” and it is used by the Beninese to describe every place that is not close enough to touch. We didn’t know if we were looking at 10 feet or 10 miles, but such is life here in Africa.

So wandering off a side street onto the main road, we are greeted with two SUV’s with flashing lights, neither of which is a common site around here. Jaren made some off handed crack like “Maybe it’s the Boni Yayi out for a walk” at which I chuckled, but after a few seconds we realized it actually was the President out to shake some hands and kiss some babies.

Again with the disclaimers: What follows is simply a description of a brief salutation of a sitting head of state, specifically the state of which we are technically an invited guest. No political preference is contained there within.

Turns out given the pace of the procession and our location, there was only about 5 seconds between our arrival on the street and the President’s passing. Needless to say, when the man who grew up in this town saw two white faces looking back at him, more than just a handshake was in order. Dr. Yayi stopped, offered brief salutations in French to which we replied in kind, and then flat out asked us why we were here. We told him we were with the Peace Corps and that we were living here in Tchaourou. He didn’t seem to believe it at first, that we lived in Tchaourou, not Parakou or another larger area, but he did seem genuinely pleased. He inquired about our work, and the responses about business development and health education appeared to please him even more.

Then came the coolest part:

YAYI, Dr. Boni, President of the Republic of Benin and former head of the West African Development Bank: “Eka Bo.”

TICHY: Jaren, Peace Corps Volunteer and former head of the Central Valley High School Cheerleading Team: “Eka Bo.”

YAYI, Boni: “E ji da da?”

TICHY, Jaren “Dada.”

Even if it was just a brief conversation, Jaren was able to greet the President in Nagot, his native tongue. With a large smile on all three of our faces we shook hands again and he continued on with the procession.

We were honestly a bit star struck, totally forgetting to pick up groceries (good thing we brought some noodles with), headed home and contemplated what tomorrow had in store for us.