Porto Novo

Yesterday we moved from Cotonou (the largest city), to the capital of Benin- Porto Novo. It is a smaller city about an hour away- towards Nigeria- and even though it is the official capital all of the government buildings, Embassys, etc. are found in Cotonou. It is nice to get out of the big city- Cotonou was really overwhelming!

We moved in with our host families last night. Our family is very well-to-do; they both work in Cotonou for the Benin Government. We are the 1st Americans that they have hosted; no pressure, right? We have a very nice room and our own bathroom with running water, so I'm not sure how this is going to help prepare us for the next 2 years that we are going to live in an African village, but we'll enjoy it while we have it! We had dinner with the family last night: fish, fried potatoes, salad, and pineapple. The food here is great- just very oily and very starchy. I'm loving all of the fresh pineapple, though! So, all in all, we are doing great!

Our whole training group before everyone departed for their host families.

A cool billboard for a cell phone company we passed on the way to Porto-Novo.