First Days in Benin

Hi everyone, my name is Christopher Burch.  I'm a recent graduate of the Babcock School of Management.  I'm writing from an internet cafe in Benin, Africa.  The idea for this trip to Benin was actually conceived in Nicaragua.  I was fortunate to be a founding member of Project Nicaragua.  Project Nicaragua is a student led organization that sends around 15 students to Managua, Nicaragua to put on seminars and consult with small businesses.  Sylvain Boko, a professor in Wake Forest's economics department joined our last trip to Nicaragua.  He immediately became interested in the possibilty of taking the Project Nicaragua seminar and consulting model and bringing it to his home country of Benin.  With the help of Ajay Patel, the dean of Babcock, and the support of the provost's office, the trip was approved.  I could not be more excited about what the next few days have in store for me.

The trip to Benin was quite lengthy.  I flew from Atlanta to Paris and from Paris to Cotonou, Benin.  The total trip, door to door, was clost to 24 hours.  Neela Rajendra, also a recent MBA graduate and member of Project Nicaragua, met me in Paris.  Sylvain Boko had already been in Benin for a couple of weeks with a group of undergrad students.  After landing in Benin and joining the undergrad group for a familiar (much like Nicaragua) meal of rice, fried fish with an onion and tomato sauce, and frech fries with the group of undergrads.  I headed to bed.

Cotonou is on the coast and is the largest city in Benin.  The morning after our arrival, we all piled in a van and headed for a nearby town called Oidah.  In Oidah we visited a sacred forest.  I learned that voodoo, which I had always thought came from Haiti, actually has many of its origins in Benin.  We moved from the sacred forest to visit "The Temple of Snakes".  Snakes are a sacred and respected creature.  Many of us posed for pictures with a very large python.  Dr. Boko even posed with the snake.  Although he looked cool and collected sporting a stone face and stylish sunglasses when the pictures were taken, he showed his true feelings moments after the snake was removed when he bagan jumping around swatting at the snake that had already been taken away.  His signature smile was as big as ever (I will add pictures soon).

The next part of our journey took us down the path that many slaves had been before beeing shipped away.  It was a surreal experience to follow the path that had brought horror to the lives of so many people.  The trip ended with a visit to the "Port of No Return" where slaves boarded ships, many of whom were never seen again.

Next, we visited a school that Dr. Boko is very proud of.  The school is the first of its kind here in Benin.  The school will focus on teaching music and art to the children in the community.  Music and art have rich tradition in western Africa and this school will pay a great tribute to the history and future of the arts in Benin.

I will write agian in the next few days with more tales from Benin.