Content....

I sit here now, at one of the most content moments of my life.  Picture yourself sitting at your dining room table having just finished a meal of fries and grilled steak, that you just enjoyed with one of your best friends within an hours drive of you, eaten by candle light while listening to Andrea Bocelli softly in the background, almost at a whisper with your dog curled up at your feet.  Possibly one of the greatest moments of any man's life, potentially romantic for some.  Now picture yourself doing the same thing, except you are sitting in a room surrounded by bare concrete walls, bare concrete floor, exchange the candle for a kerosene lamp and the fries for fried white yams, while sitting in one of the poorest countries of the world, and imagine how much more content and satisfied your life is. Life couldn't be better for this soul at that particular moment in time.  

Now all of this having been said, this come from a man that enjoys his steaks, enjoys his company, enjoys his music, and enjoys his creature comforts that remind him of home.  This also comes from a man that enjoys the pleasures of life, like no other man in the world.  It was only a week ago, that I raved about the toilet that I just installed in my latrine, another glorious moment of my short stay so far in Benin.  I would not have changed this evening for anything else, well maybe to be eating a better quality steak and actually eating real fries with Ketchup, but one can't demand so much in my position.  The fact that I was able to eat a steak in Benin, that was grilled over a real charcoal grill is an amazing feat in of itself, that took nearly 1.5 hours to complete, but it is the experience isn't it.

On that note, who ever knew there was a beef season.  Isn't beef a meat and aren't cows living all year round?  Well, yes! but not in every part of the country.  When the cattle is driven from the north of the country to the south, by solitary men walking along with the cattle every step of the way, selling a cow at each village they pass, one is able to realize that beef is a cherished commodity (and expensive) that must be appreciated the few times a year that it is available to eat.  I explain this, just to further enlighten those (like me, no less than 3 months ago) that do not know any different, since we are used to having beef, for example, readily available at any time of the year.  This is just one more lesson that I will be able to take back to America with me, when I return, enabling me to understand how lucky I am to have been born and brought up in a country with all commodities, including food, readily available at little expense to me.  Life is too easy and that is why we have become corrupted in ways that we do not even understand, including myself.  The adventure has only begun and will continue throughout the rest of my stay here in Benin.