Everyone was all excited. Everyone got dressed up in their African outfits or nice clothes. People were taking pictures, it felt like prom.
We were told to be ready by 530pm. The government had to transport almost 400 people from the ship to the offices. They brought vans not buses. I didn't get there until almost 7pm and I wasn't the last person there. We passed through the gates to offices and you could see these military tanks, men in uniform and regular civilians. I wouldn't be surprised if the tanks that were in the grounds were the only ones that Benin had. There were about 4.
We unload from the van and we had to be checked my the military men.
We arrive is this waiting room which is large. At first you think it is nice but then you start to look. They had plastic chairs but not enough for everyone. At one point they brought out more plastic chairs but the chairs had the plastic wrapping on them and they didn't even bother to take the plastic off.
After about an hour of standing there, they served drinks. However they ran out of drinks. There wasn't even enough cokes for people for half the group.
There were huge wholes in the ceiling. The details were lacking as it commonly does in my experience here.
Around 830pm we get moved to another room where we are going to eat dinner. We have to go through a metal detector but it beeps for everyone so who knows if it actually worked. So we walk into this large room and it is decorated in orange and white. There were pillars that were partially wrapped in white plastic and had a orange bow on top.
The table had wrinkled white table clothes. The napkins were plastic, the plates were plastic and didn't match. All the tables had different candle center pieces. Some of our dinner ware was dirty.
Once we all got in the room, there wasn't enough seating. After about 20 minutes they came u with another table and placed some dinnerware there.
We sat there for another 30 minutes waiting for things to start. The president finally comes out and makes a speech about how much Mercy Ships has done for Benin and how grateful they are. We stand for this 30 minute speech.
Then we go stand in line for dinner. It was buffet style. By the time I got up there, they were out of meat and some of the other sides. The food was typical African food and it wasn't bad what I was served.
During dinner they had traditional Benin entertainment in the form of song and dancing. It was great to see. There was this one point though where these dancers came out dressed in the voodoo saucer outfits and it freaked me out. There is power behind those outfits. I felt very uneasy about it. Besides that the dancers were great. I saw two of the dancers giving necklaces from one dancer who was done to another.
Side note - I wore flip flops to the dinner.
The dinner and the experience was an experience that I would normally never get. It was just amazing to see even at the Presidential level how much of Africa is still there. It makes me think how far off Africa is from the Western world. The simple things of drinks, places settings, food, etc. The fact that we ate 3 hours the time we were suppose to. Don't get me wrong, they did the best that they knew how to and that is commendable. It was just eye opening.
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