It turned out to be a lovely day for us and we stayed until after dark and had dinner at the hotel eventhough the power and water were reportedly back on by early evening. 
The kids had pizza and how they love pizza, especially the boys.Sunday held a couple of nice surprises. We had planned to have a potluck brunch with some of our friends, mostly to honor our good friends that we went to gateway in Texas with, Sam and Amy, who recently got engaged. 
We met up on deck 7 at 11 or so in the morning and it was almost 100 degrees F in the shade - very odd I know for the end of November back home in North Carolina. It wasn't long before the kids were all playing with water guns and wanting to turn on the hose. 
Our friend Peter went and filled up a cooler full of ice and dumped it out on the deck for the kids to play in. 
And, being the fireman that he is, did an outstanding job of manning the hose so that everyone had ample opportunity to get drenched. There were battles too between the kids and some of the adults who think they're kids to see who could get the other wetter.
That involved treachery and sneaking around and also the more obvious usage of large tubs from the galley. It was quite a blast for all involved, even those who mostly watched.
We met up on deck 7 at 11 or so in the morning and it was almost 100 degrees F in the shade - very odd I know for the end of November back home in North Carolina. It wasn't long before the kids were all playing with water guns and wanting to turn on the hose. Our friend Peter went and filled up a cooler full of ice and dumped it out on the deck for the kids to play in. And, being the fireman that he is, did an outstanding job of manning the hose so that everyone had ample opportunity to get drenched. There were battles too between the kids and some of the adults who think they're kids to see who could get the other wetter.That involved treachery and sneaking around and also the more obvious usage of large tubs from the galley. It was quite a blast for all involved, even those who mostly watched.On Sunday we broke with tradition and went out to eat again. A couple of our Canadian friends had been wanting to go with us to the Neuer Biergarten on the beach here because they had discovered that they have live jazz on Friday and Sunday evenings. Well, I didn't expect much and I hadn't heard great things about the food there, but Jenny and I decided to leave the kids in the care of our good friend Juan and go anyway. We invited another Canadian couple, and mutual friends, to go as well. It turned out to be one of the loveliest evenings by far that we have had since we arrived in February. The all-Beninese band they had was just fantastic, great musicians and wonderful rich vocals - and of course very laid-back. 
They sang songs, many of them familiar to us, in French, English, and Spanish. The food was quite nice too, and all in the gentle ocean breeze. It was like being transported somewhere else entirely for a couple of hours. We started wondering why we had not discovered this and some of the other really nice things that we have been recently discovering about Cotonou until right at time to leave!
They sang songs, many of them familiar to us, in French, English, and Spanish. The food was quite nice too, and all in the gentle ocean breeze. It was like being transported somewhere else entirely for a couple of hours. We started wondering why we had not discovered this and some of the other really nice things that we have been recently discovering about Cotonou until right at time to leave!Overall it was probably one of the nicest weekends for us in many months.
John
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