I'm too lazy to type a full blog tonight, so I'm stealing an exerpt from another people's blogs. We've all been hanging out a lot so we're doing a lot of the same things.
This is from my good friend Julia's blog (pretty much the only blog I try to read. It's hilarious.).
Holy gracious Benin is weird. Between Christmas and New Year's, they have...or do...something called Kaletas (I think that's what it's called) which my language teacher tried to explain to me a few weeks ago by saying, "You know, the masks that people wear around Christmas time" which I responded to with a blank stare, and we ended up changing the subject without having managed to understand each other, because...what the hell. But now I know what he was talking about!

It's kind of like H…alloween, but massively creepier and in December. Children walk around in small groups led by one child in a Kaletas costume, which consists of: 1 creepy, hard plastic mask with the likeness of an animal or occasionally of Santa Claus (the kid who came up to me was wearing a mask that looked a lot like Moobie, the golden calf from Dogma); 1 scarf tied around the head like a babushka so that the whole head behind the mask is covered; 2 dirty tube socks placed over the hands and arms; and 1 otherwise normal outfit. Presumably the scarf and socks are intended to cover all proof that the kid is human and not a terrifyingly expressionless cartoon character. Anyway, apparently what they do is walk around and, if they pass by an adult, the uncostumed kids start beating on drums while the Kaletas kid starts dancing, and the expectation is that after a few minutes the adult will give the kids some money. So it's like trick-or-treating? The kids who came up to me actually walked up to my balcony to dance for me, which turned out to be hilarious because my door is made of glass which, at that time of day, was essentially a mirror, so when the Kaletas kid started dancing he was immediately distracted by his own reflection and started dancing for my door instead of for me.

I went to a beach called Grand Popo for christmas. It was really great. Very laid back. I stayed in a hut on the beach that cost me 8 dollars total, each night - and I had two other people staying with me. So, it was only a little over 2 US dollars each night -- and right next door to a pizza place! (spent more money on pizza than on where I was staying!). New Years is Parakou. I'm going back to post tomorrow - I've been gone a while and I'm excited to get back.