Travel Log: Days 2 and 3 in Benin

by Wally Langfellow

Tuesday was a relatively quiet day for us as we got a chance to catch our collective breath after an end to end day on Monday. A breakfast meeting with Coach Brian, who is an American that has been working with Fernando for close to two years but who is leaving Benin next month. Brian has given us great insight on the day to day workings of our project who will be missed by Fernando and our older players who he has been working with extensively.

After breakfast Fernando took us on a bit of a sightseeing tour, the highlight of which was getting an up close look at the gargantuan statue that has been erected just off the main highway not far from our hotel and the U.S. Embassy. It’s a 100 foot tall female warrior symbolic of warrior women of the Kngdom of Dahomey, which is now modern-day Benin. Of course there is some controversy around who built the statue as it apparently was done by a sanctioned North Korean company. The statue itself is brand new to the landscape in Cotonou having been erected in 2022, but is certainly part of an upgraded main highway that leads into the older more traditional and poorer sections of the city.

The good news of the day came in a little later. First, Gary retrieved is lost luggage which was a bag filled with baseball equipment, uniforms, and baseballs that didn’t show up when our plane landed Sunday night. Also, we got news from Brian that a reputable contractor was available to meet with us at the Don Bosco field on Wednesday to assess our project and potentially give us a bid. The day ended with a long conversation/meeting at dinner about how we will go forward with our vision of getting this field upgrade done.

Wednesday—Baseball, finally!

We got off to an early start on Wednesday heading over to an international school located near the US Embassy where the contractor had done some previous work. The QSI school had installed a smallish turf field inside its compound that this contractor had done.

By early afternoon Fernando showed up at our hotel with his visitor from Japan who had arrived to do some clinics. We took Mr Tomonari to lunch and heard some fascinating baseball history that stoked his love for the game. After lunch Mr Tomonari would accompany us to the Don Bosco field and practice where both the 12u kids (team) and our older players were waiting to start practice. We got the sense that our Japanese visitor was a little tense with Fernando’s hurried driving and our late arrival at the field. He was well traveled in Africa, but had never been to Benin, and we could tell. This all is par for the course in this country.

It was a blistering hot African day with few clouds and plenty of humidity. Temps around 90 degrees so Gary and I wisely lathered up with 50-block sun screen. The older kids would practice first and before anything would get started they spent a good 15 minutes raking the field to (which is really just a clay and sand mix) to even out the surface. Then the construction of the portable backstops would begin. Coach Brian had supplied them with a larger version of the backstop we had brought with us 5 years ago. About 5 or 6 of the players pieced both backstops together in about 10 minutes.

As Fernando was getting practice started, a couple of local TV journalists showed up and he along with me and Gary were called away to do interviews and talk about Baseball in Benin. A bit of a role reversal for me, but fun to be on the other side of the microphone and camera. Boy those guys have a tough job…

Next up was our meeting with the contractor at the field while practice was going on. A nicely dressed younger man named Constant, probably in his mid 30’s arrived at about 4pm and our discussion began. We gave him the scope of our project, including construction of a wall along one border of the field that would close down the “hole in the fence” that exists now. Constant spoke a little English, but Fernando was again pressed into duty to interpret most of the conversation. We were impressed. Constant suggested some options that would save us money and of course we were all ears to hear that. He indicated that removing the old soil wouldn’t be necessary, but that he would locate soil in Benin and the new surface would serve us well. He parted saying that his team would return to measure and give us an estimate soon. We have no idea what this all will cost, but we do know that he did the QSI project for around 40k…so we’re thinking that this would be in that range. We shall see.

Now it was time for the 12u team to practice and the older boys hung around to help run practice. This 12u group is the team that went to Nigeria for the first ever West African Little League tournament and took 2nd place out of the three teams that participated. We ran some ground ball drills and as was the case back in 2016 and 2018, these kids are pretty skilled at picking up grounders on rough terrain. Then I hit infield and outfield using Fidele to interpret my instructions as Fernando had disappeared. Again, the kids were good at picking up grounders and making throws, but their game situation skills were lacking. Not knowing where to go, cut offs, where to throw the ball etc etc. After about an hour of work I was more than convinced that sending this team to Poland for the Little League Regional would not be a great idea. They would get smoked.

After practice I was able to break out the trendy sunglasses that were donated to us by an eye care business in Lakeville, Minnesota. The kids loved their new fashion statement as we handed out about 40 pair of the new specs and took some photos. We’ll give away the rest of what I brought on Thursday. Wednesday night we got our first trip to Fernando’s home where his fiance Jocelyn and 2-year old daughter Shannon were. It’s a 2 bedroom 2 story apartment with 3 bathrooms and a huge large-screen TV in the living room. I asked Fernando where he got the TV and he explained he got it for nothing as part of a deal he cut with a local electronics dealer. Typical Beninese type of business dealing I guess. It was a long but productive day…more to come on Thursday