The language Fon, or Fongbe in Fon, is spoken by roughly two thirds of the Beninese population. I was told it would be easy to learn, verbs are practically not conjugated, and friends had given me a language book as a goodbye present, so I decided to give it a go. I have to admit that it is far more difficult than thought.
By now I have learned 219 words.
This language is full of suffixes and particles referring to the finest nuances of intention, direction, time, and so on and so forth. Another difficulty is that the Fon vocabulary is limited. Words are mostly monosyllabic, and they are distinguished by their intonation. In the vocabulary given in the Web, I counted 24 times “nu”, with meanings so different as “beneficiary”, “mouth”, “as soon as”, and something resembling the French word “truc”.
Few words have more than one syllable, and these are mostly composed from monosyllabics. Take the word for “owner”: it is put together from “nu” (the “truc” mentioned above) and “no”, a suffix indicating an owner (but not to confuse with “mom”, “stay” or the marker for repeated actions). A specialist, on the other hand, is a “to”; “da-bla-to” (hair-plait-specialist) is the hairdresser for women, or plaiter, while “da-kpa-to” (hair-cut-specialist) is the one who treats the men. “Xo-jla-to” (word-spread-specialist) is the journalist, “mawu-xo-jla-to” is the specialist to spread God’s word or priest, God’s own journalist so to speak.
At this point I would like you to recall that Mawu is the highest god in the Voodoo religion, the one that always goes together with Lissa and has no image. Very good catholics will refer to God rather as “gbe-do-to” (life/world/nature-have-specialist), or the master of all things.
By intelligent combinations, the Fon can express any entity, phenomenon or concept, however abstract it may be. “Du”, for example, means to eat. You cannot just “eat”, you always have to eat something: “du nu” (the “truc”), or “du kwékwé” (bananas), or any other edible thing. But you also can eat a dance (“du we”= dance; but not to confuse with „we“, the particle for ongoing actions: “un do we du we“ means „I am dancing“), or even life (“du gbe”= enjoy). It is obvious, the Beninese love eating, and you can see the result everywhere in the street.
If this brief overview has sparked your curiosity, you can look up the website http://www.langues-africaines.com/FONGBE/index.htm. I unfortunately will have to interrupt my stay in Benin and come back to Brussels for a few days. As a goodbye, I would like to show you Cotonou at night – beautiful, isn’t it.

Due to a mild diarrhea, we could not go to Lomé as foreseen. During endless time spent on the toilet seat, the mosquitoes feasted on my behind.
Consider the recommendations of the Routard concerning malaria prevention: not only should you sleep under a mosquito net, but also wrap yourself up in clothes impregnated with insecticides, not to forget thick socks and shoes. You may slavishly follow all these advices, it is all in vain the moment you go to the toilet.
Going to the toilet affronts you with another adversity: Although people find it utterly stupid, houses are obstinately constructed with the bathroom and the kitchen across the back yard. So in cases of an urgent need during one of the frequent downpours, you find yourself facing the following scenario:

Note that the water stands ankle-high in the yard.
I spent whole yesterday watching TV: You remember, ORTB, “votre partenaire pour les grands énervements”, the President’s own channel. The President seems to be everywhere these days – Benin celebrated Independence Day on 1st of August – which makes you wonder, by and by, if he is really only one person. As discussed during my favorite early morning emission, "Bonjour Citoyen", one of the few bright spots in ORTB, he seems to be already in election campaign mood for 2011.
One remarkable event of the last few days was our visit to the Kota waterfalls, one of the sights not to be missed in the Atacora province. Here are some pictures.
First we tried to find them on our own. People indicated that we should take this road:

Can you spot the road?

This was the road we took the following day, when we came back guided by two zims (motortaxi conductors).

The landscape is great.

Then we arrived at the Kota waterfalls.
To see them in their real splendor, though, we still have to cross the torrent. Which we managed, thanks to the help of our guides, without too much damage to the knees and clothes.
Then we took a picturesque path down to the waterfalls. The vegetation is unique.
Here is the waterfall in all its splendor. Unfortunately it is too cold to plunge in.

And here it is again, undisturbed by people popping in.

The guys in white and yellow are our zims, the third one came independently to see the waterfall.

On our way back we already have developed some routine for the crossing.

Me being back in good health, we are going to a visit to Tanguietá tomorrow, little village some 30 km north of Natitingou tomorrow.