My adventures serving in the Peace Corps

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Chaleur and spiders and PIRATES, oh my!

So this happened a while ago, but I forgot to write about it until now. A few weeks ago, PIRATES attacked a ship 18 miles off the coast of Benin! Believed to be Nigerians, they boarded a Ukranian oil tanker and killed one crew member before- get ready- the BENINESE NAVY stepped in to save the day. The Beninese Navy?! I'm picturing a bunch of old men in fishing boats here. (No, in all fairness I do know that Benin has a Navy, it's just that you never hear of them being needed for anything.) Apparently pirate attacks off the coast of West Africa have grown much more frequent over the past year or two, and what makes these attacks different from the ones in Somalia is their close proximity to shore. Crazy! I still can't get over the fact that Benin was mentioned on the BBC!
I have been stuck in Cotonou for the past four days, mostly just lazing around. I did have two meetings with the president of the Mamans Modeles who are sponsoring Camp GLOW this year, both were at the restaurant that she owns and manages! Pretty cool to see a Beninese woman doing stuff like that. I just checked and the PCPP is still not up on the website, but I will be surprised if it is not up by the end of the work week. Hope you're all enduring the bitter cold over there; I am, I kid you not, sweating profusely as I type this.

5 comments:

loehrke said...

Pirates??
The Beninese NAVY???
Best. Blog. Post. EVER!!!!!
Arrrrrr, stay safe matey, Marrrrrrrrk Loehrke (Carrrrrrrly's dad)

THE BENINESE NAVY!!!!?!!??!?!?!

Angelina said...

Yep. The Beninese Navy.

Judith A. Johnson said...

I really find this hard to imagine, too!!! What? Who knew- do they have uniforms? What kind of vessel?
Amazing information.

loehrke said...

I just donated to Camp Glow!!!
The site is up and open for business!!!!
Go Camp Glow!!!!
Good Luck, Mark Loehrke (Carly's dad)

Angelina said...

Thank you!! The posting has been up for 6 days and we have already raised about $500! Happy Holidays!