I GOT TO TAKE A PEACE WITH ME || PORTO-NOVO || BENIN || AUGUST 2018

Day 15 – Friday, August 3rd, 2018

We started with breakfast at the hotel accompanied by the usual antics of that whole experience; check out the previous West Africa Blog Posts to get what I’m talking about when I say “experience”. The breakfast was simple; orange juice, coffee, bread with butter and jam, and some people ordered omelets. This was the day I left my sandals in the hotel room because I wasn’t planning to take them home with me. Does anyone else do that? I buy shoes to go on trips and then leave them in the country I’m traveling in, in hopes that someone else will have use for them. I may be the only one who does that. *shrugs* Anyway, one of the managers brought them down to me because I left them in the room so that was awkward. I can’t actually remember what ever happened to those shoes after that; not sure if I took them or if I ended up leaving them somewhere else. *I’m acknowledging my privilege in that moment*

After breakfast, we dropped off a few of the ladies who were going to get their hair braided.

We then headed back to Baba Morpheus’ compound to finish everyone’s consultations. I got mine done that day. We talked about some pretty heavy stuff. It was like being in therapy except I wasn’t allowed to cry. We literally had to stop if I started crying because it through off what the Babalawo was interpreting. So, I held in my tears in and it started raining. Thought that was eerie but cool at the same time. I interpreted it as God listening to me. The area we were talking was in the corner of an open courtyard, so I could see the rain coming down but the part we were sitting under was covered. Anyway, I took my Fa or Ifa that day which was an interesting cultural experience for me.

I’ll explain the basics since I can’t really go in depth. The Fa is basically a reference to the situations and circumstances surrounding and affecting your life. There are 16 major principles that provide 256 different possible outcomes. These principles are passed down orally from Babalawo (male) (or Bokono) or Iyanifa (female) to Babalawo. A Babalawo is a priest of Ifa that relays the teachings of the Orisa of Wisdom (Orunmila). Note: these are the Yoruba names for stuff. They are different in different languages depending on where you are (example: Ghana, Haiti, New Orleans, Brazil, Cuba, etc.). So basically, the priest gets the messages from throwing out the kola or palm nuts and depending on the combination or pattern, one of the sixteen principles, you get a reading about your life and the consequences of your actions and things that may come up in the future, and what types of things are best for your spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional health / lifestyle changes you may want to make, etc. It is up to you to decide if you want to make the changes / take the advice, etc. I hope I explained it correctly as I am not a subject matter expert. But like I said, it was a cultural experience for me and I got to take the kola nuts used during our discussion home with me. At this point, my spiritual confliction was at an all-time high because Jesus, *prayer hands* Amen! But being a Yoruba girl, it felt cool to experience the types of things my ancestors did to sustain themselves spiritually, so I got over the anxious feeling eventually. Ha!

I could write a whole series about my anxiety in different places or even right here at home and the funny / ridiculous situations it’s got me into in the past; looking back on it now. *just thinking out loud* Maybe that would be a good mental health series to do. I’d just have to tie it into food and travel to fit the Taste Tutor platform but could be cool. I’ll call it “Anxiety all over the World!” *crying face emoji* LOL!

While all that was going on, people who got stuff from the tailor where getting their items back. Those who weren’t occupied were just hanging around talking, relaxing on the front porch, and eating oranges.

After everyone was done. We headed back to Palace of the Mito Akplagon (Minister of Culture & Spiritual King of Kingdom of Porto-Novo) for the Zangbeto demonstration of force. Check out the previous day’s blog post to learn what Zangbeto is.

This is to show that the spirits of the ancestors are the ones controlling the Zangbeto. They played games with the audience and did tricks during this time as well which was super fun!

That evening we had one more dinner at the compound before departing. Dinner consisted of a Beninese carrot and cabbage dish, grilled fish, and salad. Can’t find the picture of dinner so it must’ve been too good! Ha!

Until next time…

Thanks for reading all these words!

Love ya!

Taste Tutor

TRAVEL BLOG THURSDAY - PORTO-NOVO (part 2) || BENIN