World Women’s Day was March 8th, but like all holidays here in Benin, it was not celebrated on the actual day but rather a week later. Preparing for this event took a few weeks to plan and countless hours of waiting. Waiting? Yes, waiting because working with the local Women’s Groups (women who all live in the same quariter who work together to process a certain product to sell in town. Ex: taking manioc and processing into gari) they have NO concept of time. This lack of punctuality was not new to me, but having to wait that long was a new concept. For an average meeting, let’s say it was to start at 9am would not start with at least quorum until 11:30 while most turned up around 12:30. Time wasted?
It gets better.
In the meetings details of the event were discussed. How many drinks were needed, what would be the parade route, what VIPs would be invited, etc. The detail that astonished me because it took an hour, yes an hour, to decided were the sandwiches. Here in Benin, there’s really only one of kind of sandwich offered at big events (or on Confort Lines Bus) and that is a purred mix of fish, onion, garlic, oil on bread. So when the discussion of the sandwiches turned into this huge debate basically about where should be buy the bread, how many sandwiches to make, how much oil do we need, and then when someone mentioned adding carrots to the mix that just set everyone off and thus the hour long debate.
Here’s a group of women the night before making the sandwiches. I helped cut onions for 3 hours. My hands smelled awful for days.
It gets better...
Check out this outfit!!!
But really, there's more waiting.
The day of the event, the parade was to start at 8am with all the women’s groups lining up at 7am. After waiting and waiting…and waiting for everyone to turn up the parade started at 11!
More of the parade:
The pomp and circumstance: Here's our Mayor (who Steve swears looks like Willie Stargel. In a housecoat. Without any front teeth.)
But after all the deliberating and waiting, the event was a big success.
It gets better.
In the meetings details of the event were discussed. How many drinks were needed, what would be the parade route, what VIPs would be invited, etc. The detail that astonished me because it took an hour, yes an hour, to decided were the sandwiches. Here in Benin, there’s really only one of kind of sandwich offered at big events (or on Confort Lines Bus) and that is a purred mix of fish, onion, garlic, oil on bread. So when the discussion of the sandwiches turned into this huge debate basically about where should be buy the bread, how many sandwiches to make, how much oil do we need, and then when someone mentioned adding carrots to the mix that just set everyone off and thus the hour long debate.
Here’s a group of women the night before making the sandwiches. I helped cut onions for 3 hours. My hands smelled awful for days.
It gets better...
Check out this outfit!!!
But really, there's more waiting.
The day of the event, the parade was to start at 8am with all the women’s groups lining up at 7am. After waiting and waiting…and waiting for everyone to turn up the parade started at 11!
More of the parade:
The pomp and circumstance: Here's our Mayor (who Steve swears looks like Willie Stargel. In a housecoat. Without any front teeth.)
But after all the deliberating and waiting, the event was a big success.
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