“I’ll be going to Benin for a month to see old friends and sort out my stuff”: sounds easy, doesn’t it? Where was that creepy music that warns you in films that something unpleasant is going to happen?
I asked the office staff about buses to Parakou or Djougou in Benin: I was told I could get one only Thursday or Sunday, which would really have cut down on my time there, so opted for a trip to Tanguieta, the first large town inside Benin. Apparently a minibus left for there every day at 7am. So I rock up at 6.30am on the Tuesday after finishing teaching and the one late Bible school exam Monday ready to get a ticket and get sold a ticket instead on the direct bus to Djougou instead which left near the mission. Soon I was told to get on a motorbike to go over there with my luggage in front and objected since I was at the bus/taxi station for all trips east and was then told the bus would stop by on its way out of town. Next the story was it was full, and my ticket was changed to Tanguieta at 7.15 for the 7am minibus, almost full. I ended up in the back row without through airflow, but after a lady and two kids joined were left alone for the trip so not too crowded.
At 1.30pm I was dumped at the Burkina frontier town with a slight refund for ‘the taxi the rest of the way’. I asked the border police several times in the next hours if there really were taxis and if I could walk across to the Benin frontier and learned that it was in fact 25km away. At about 3.30pm a crowded minibus pulled up and the police arranged for them to take me across to the Benin border.
I had changed my dates several times lately working on different information about what visas were available at the border for Benin and had no idea of cost but had all the trimmings ready (photo, addresses, money,…) and hoped I wouldn’t be too long holding up the taxi as had happened in other border crossing. After a nice conversation about UEEB (the Benin church) and SIM I ended up just getting an entry stamp and no visa and on to the next stage (I ended up paying the border visa cost later in Cotonou).
It was another trip, another wait, and 6pm before arriving at Tanguieta, and then 8.30pm before starting out for Djougou and arrived at 10.30pm at the mission station there after wandering a bit the streets on a taximoto trying to find familiar landmarks. All the lights were out and everyone asleep. I had tried to contact them from Tanguieta but the fixed phone was dead and two of the 4 mobile phone networks (including of course the one my friend was with) were out due to nonpayment of back taxes. So I couldn’t buy a sim card for my phone as hoped either, since everyone had already used them up switching to the two working networks.
But at least I made it … and had one day of rest before the travels started again.
