Africa - Part VI

Monday:

Monday morning we woke up early, packed our bags and headed out to the Village of Ganvie! 

"Ganvie is a village of roughly 20,000 people that stands on stilts in the middle of Lake Nokoue. The founders of the village fled there to avoid Fon warriors, and in the roughly 500 years that have passed since, Ganvie has developed an intricate and prosperous culture within the constraints of life on the lake. The villagers of Ganvie travel almost exclusively by boat, and the few domesticated land-animals they maintain live on plots of grass that spring up from the water. Without a good supply of domesticated animals, Ganvie relies on a complicated network of underwater fencing to corral and farm various fish populations. The village sits several miles from the nearest shoreline and is about a 4 hour journey from the capital. Ganvie is Africa’s largest lake village.” atlasobscura.com

Here we are…almost ready to go!

Now we are ready to board the boat :)

I really didn’t like waring the life jackets…but it was mandatory, especially since where

we were traveling, the water was about 25 feet deep. 

Our tour guide spoke broken English and shared bout this village, the history and the people as we made our way down the river. It was all very interesting!

Once we arrived in the “hub” of the village, we stopped at a restaurant and had breakfast. Look at those chairs we sat in (they were very heavy)!

They served us fresh pineapple, egg omelet with onion and bread (this was our breakfast most mornings). We enjoyed the atmosphere, the little shop and the views of the village. 

After breakfast, we went back to touring the village. These villagers lead a very hard life. Many of them did not want their pictures taken. Some of the kids smiled and waved, but most adults ignored that we were there and moved on with life. This village was so intriguing to me!

See the storm clouds rolling in?! Thankfully, we did not get caught in the rain! 

After the tour of the village we at lunch and dropped two of our team members off at the airport (they were leaving a day before us). 

Then we headed to a Guest House where we met with 2 Team Leaders. We had a chance to interview them, talk to them about the ministry and learn about the work they were doing in their countries. The thing I took away most from them was their passion for what they did!

We then headed to a hotel near the airport. This was a nice place and we enjoyed dinner outside (with a view of the pool). I of course, enjoyed one last bottled coke :) 

Our dinner took about 3 hours and we were all exhausted by the time we got to our rooms. Up until that night, I had 2 cold “sponge baths” (I could never get my shower to work in the last hotel). I was thankful for a working (cold) shower in this hotel! I even got the chance to wash my hair (for the first time since I left the states). I slept so good that night!