Adventerous weekend!

Hi!
I hope everyone had a nice weekend! This weekend for me has been full of adventures to say the least! Ha!

I left for the wedding early Saturday morning with Dr Martin and his family. We left around 7:30 and got to the city of Djougou by 9:30. The wedding was supposed to start at 10 but since this is Africa the church didn’t even fill up until 10:45! We sang for awhile and listened to the choir and the groom and the best man then danced down the aisle- ha! Very different than the US! The bride and the maid of honor then followed a little while later. The pastor gave a very long message and then the normal wedding stuff happened like the “I do’s” and rings and stuff! After that part was over, everyone danced to the front to greet the bride and groom and gave them their gifts. It was very interesting to observe all the differences! The wedding was about 4 hours long total…way longer than I expected! The bride and groom weren’t very affectionate…which was weird to observe! The final kiss was just a kiss on each cheek and that was about it! I learned later that public affection is not common here and just minor things like that are allowed!
After the wedding, Dr Martin, his wife and I drove a few hours north to see the scenery and spend the night in a different city. The northern part of Benin is beautiful! There a tons of huge hills covered in green and I just had the “George of the Jungle” theme song running through my head the whole time- the landscape totally looked like that! Ha! We spent the night at a Catholic center in a city that I can not pronounce or spell! When I woke up Sunday morning I was covered in bugs bites- I got eaten alive by mosquitos all throughout the night! I counted and have more than 15 bug bites on each shoulder and about the same number on my face and eyelids! No fun! I look and feel like I have chicken pox! Sunday morning we went and looked at a waterfall that was about 30 minutes outside of the city. We took a van there that looked like it was going to fall apart and the road was extremely bumpy- it was an experience just getting there! When we got to the waterfall sight we had to climb to the actual waterfall. We had the help of two men and we slowly made it to the large waterfall. It was a beautiful sight hidden in the African bush! I got lots of pretty pictures and got a video of the 2 African boys jumping from the waterfall! They were nuts!

The rest of the day we spent driving home- it took almost all day! A couple funny stories happened along the way that made my day! Dr Martin was considering buying a sheep on the way home even though we were hours from home. I thought that was the most random thought ever and didn’t even know he was considering buying a sheep! He decided against it and as we were leaving the falls he saw a baby tree along the side of the road that he decided he wanted to plant in his yard. So he had the help of a village boy and dug up the whole thing! It was quite a process and I thought it was hilarious! We also stopped and bought tons of stone on the way home because Dr Martin wants to eventually build something but he doesn’t know what, so he is going to save the stone until he decides what he wants! Dr Martin is a funny funny guy! My favorite line of his from yesterday is when I asked what happens if I hit a sheep or goat on the way home (I was driving for a bit to give him a break)- he told me that you throw it in the car and bring it home for dinner!! Ha! Only in Africa!

Anyway, it was a good weekend and it has been a pretty normal day at the clinic today! I just helped deliver another baby boy this afternoon- he is very cute and is about 6lbs! Im off to visit one of the pharmacists and then go to Dr Martin’s house for dinner! Later!