17th Ebola victim

8/7/2014 9:28:52 PM

well he doesnt look out of place at all

8/7/2014 10:54:55 PM

Looks like he smokes a lot of weed

8/8/2014 12:49:20 AM

I never smoked much weed and now I don't smoke any.

We're awaiting test results on two possible Ebola cases in Benin. Specifically in Porto, an hour south of me and a town I have to pass through to get out.

8/8/2014 5:23:31 AM

^And the other is in Cotonou. I know your chances of getting it personally are low, but when it started appearing in Lagos and your previous mentions of all of the Nigerian people in Benin, I was concerned that it could spread that way moreso than coming from Ghana and Ivory Coast, since on the map at least it looks like that shit ain't 50 miles from the border.

8/8/2014 7:23:14 AM

don't worry, the voodoo haystack man will keep it away

8/8/2014 7:47:35 AM

Looks like the lizard/cat omen was right.

8/8/2014 7:49:39 AM

that's awesome! Be safe!

8/8/2014 9:35:34 AM

You think you'd be more freaked out if you were a newbie?

On a scale of 1-10, how bad is your Mom panicking?

What would you do if rumors started to spread that someone in your village might have ebola? Stay away from him? Tell authorities? Tell everyone that he needs to gtfo? Just GTFO yourself?

[Edited on August 8, 2014 at 12:24 PM. Reason : moar questions]

8/8/2014 11:57:26 AM

give them one of your turds to make a protection charm

8/8/2014 11:57:38 AM

Are there any local gov or groups disseminating information on how to avoid getting Ebola?

8/8/2014 12:11:20 PM

I bet the fucking witch doctor is.

8/8/2014 12:40:17 PM

Wait this thread is over two years old now. Aren't you back, dude?

8/8/2014 12:41:17 PM

RTFMT

8/8/2014 12:43:07 PM

Lagos is 81 miles from my house by road.

I don't think I'd be to freaked out even if I were just arriving. I've been interested in Ebola for twenty years, I know that I'm not really at risk. Mom does not know. Mom is at about an 11.

I'm only in my village for another week anyway, bit a car in village would probably make me gtfo.

Supposedly the radio and TV stations are now all about some Ebola bit there is still more misinformation than information. Now people think you can protect yourself with a bath of hot water, onions, and salt.

8/8/2014 2:02:17 PM

So the only way you'd be remotely at risk would be if you had to go to a hospital or something right?

8/8/2014 2:31:54 PM

I would hope that Grumpy's line of work stays away from other people's bodily fluids and he doesn't seem like the type to eat either bush meat or dried bats, so I'd guess his chances of getting it are pretty damned low.

8/8/2014 3:01:34 PM

when in doubt, make soup out of yourself

8/8/2014 3:19:23 PM

Awww, poor Mom

Good thing you set up those latrine, amiright?

8/8/2014 5:49:36 PM

^^ That's what I was thinking. Just whip up some self stew.

8/8/2014 7:26:38 PM

I don't seem like the type to eat bush meat? I eat that shit on the daily. Meat is meat, I'm a carnivore, I don't ask questions.

Meanwhile, trapped inside by Oro. We can hear drums and the special "bull roarer" instrument society's with it.

8/9/2014 11:08:47 AM

how long are you confined?

8/9/2014 11:15:08 AM

It started midnight last night and will go on until four Sunday morning. I'm I'm learning a lot from this head student staying with me. He's from Duke studying Yoruba culture and just wrote a paper about Oro. He also speaks the language. But even he doesn't know what the damn thing like like.

8/9/2014 12:01:30 PM

Past couple of days I've had a sore throat. It's fading but let me tell you: the middle of an Ebola outbreak is not the time. I'm not a hypochondriac but there are limits.

Down to my last few days in village. I move on Friday, which is complicated by the fact that it is a holiday: assumption, a catholic thing. You think Jews have a lot of holidays, I don't think they've got anything on Catholics.

8/11/2014 5:04:30 AM

Dis nigga eatin' rat.

8/11/2014 11:27:47 AM

Quote :

"The WHO Friday declared the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa as an international health emergency as two suspected cases of the deadly disease were reported in Benin and Uganda. ‘A coordinated international response is deemed essential to stop and reverse the international spread of Ebola,’ the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a statement issued after a two-day meeting here of its emergency committee."

8/11/2014 1:01:12 PM

Quote :

"The WHO Friday declared the..."

This type of journalistic phrasing bothers me. Look at any article, and chances are, it starts out this way. President Obama Friday announced... Obama Friday? Whodat? How is this grammatically correct?

8/11/2014 1:03:23 PM

Yeah looks like they came back neg

Quote :

""The samples that were sent to a specialist hospital in Lagos came back negative," Dorothee Akoko Kinde-Gazard told reporters. Tiny Benin shares a common border with Nigeria, where 10 people have contracted Ebola. Of those, two have died."

Either way being anywhere in W Africa would be sketch and I would be freaked the fuck out regardless.

8/11/2014 1:07:36 PM

^^ They teach you in journalism school/class to get the day/time as early in the story as you can. That is pushing it, though....

[Edited on August 11, 2014 at 4:04 PM. Reason : sss]

8/11/2014 4:03:59 PM

The wolf web news van brought Benin this breaking news. First I saw of it was here. Thanks guys.

8/11/2014 5:28:14 PM

Also some new pictures up but not many. They'll be in dribs and drabs for a while I admit. Next week though, Wi-Fi begins

8/11/2014 6:05:52 PM

heck yeah I'm all like

if Africans shouldn't eat bush meat, what the hell sort of meat are they going to eat? It's like saying you can't eat deer, hogs, etc.

8/11/2014 8:25:14 PM

Quote :

"^^ They teach you in journalism school/class to get the day/time as early in the story as you can. That is pushing it, though...."

this is the part that bothers me. the day/time is above the article, don't write like it's a novel.

8/11/2014 8:26:39 PM

^^ Bush meat, at least in the definition I've always heard it, is meat from animals that died of their own accord, and was found after the fact. Then butchered and the random meat called "beef" and sold/distributed around the village.

Meat that was hunted, is fresh, and you know what it is would not be considered bush meat.

8/11/2014 9:35:28 PM

^ where the hell have you heard that definition? bushmeat has always meant meat from hunted wild animals, particularly non-human primates and other endangered species. I've never heard it refer to carrion.

8/11/2014 10:38:46 PM

In Benin at least it refers generally to wild animals, mostly squirrel, bush rat, giant rat, the occasional rabbit, and antelope up north. I've never heard this business about it specifically meaning found meat, although Beninese wouldn't turn up their noses at that.

8/12/2014 4:21:04 AM

Well in this case, change my original statement to use the word carrion in place of bush meat.

There, linguistic problem solved.

8/12/2014 3:47:14 PM

In spite of having no game animals to speak of Benin is big on hunting and trapping. A big part of the market is given over to what look like small near traps - one reason I don't let the dog run free. And I've seen some scary homemade guns.

8/12/2014 5:03:37 PM

6.896988,2.623007

My coordinates if anyone wants to check out my town on Google earth. Place is called Ikpinle.

8/13/2014 9:48:53 AM

8/13/2014 9:53:01 AM

Looks right. Leave here in about thirty six hours.

8/13/2014 2:59:18 PM

did you get to go to the beach at all?

burkina faso has a fun name. did you go there? what is its reputation if other PCs are there?

[Edited on August 13, 2014 at 4:16 PM. Reason : -]

8/13/2014 4:15:41 PM

Cotonou has a beach and he goes there a lot so I'd imagine he did

8/13/2014 4:40:47 PM

I don't think they're technically allowed to swim in the beach. But I believe they do a lot of things they aren't technically allowed to do.

Did you give any sage advice to the newbies?

[Edited on August 13, 2014 at 4:44 PM. Reason : .]

8/13/2014 4:43:56 PM

I go to the beach in Cotonou a lot. I swim there against the rules. Also at Grand Popo. Near the Togo border. Has a great hotel and bar ruin by Rastafarians.

I snuck across into Burkina for about an hour. At the specific place I crossed the difference was stark: no trees on Burkina. The PCVs there are done of it and most Benin volunteers visit.

I love advising the newbies. Though the girl replacing me is very different: five get tall and days her goal is to never get drunk in her life.

8/13/2014 4:53:43 PM

So, they pretty much found your opposite to replace you? Interesting. Hope the village likes this sober girl.

8/13/2014 5:14:53 PM

Haha. Several people, including my moonshine dealer, bartenders, and my boss (who is partial to having a nip whenever I stop by, regardless of the hour) have expressed regret.

8/13/2014 5:34:31 PM

This would get that kid shot in America

8/16/2014 12:54:42 PM

I'm wondering if you've seen parrots there, what species and what their behavor is like, and how the locals interact with them (are the kept/sold as pets, etc).

8/17/2014 2:23:40 PM

I am scared of Africa.

8/17/2014 4:24:24 PM