our wedding invitation

you'll have to rotate it; of course it's all on one page,

which can be folded to create a little card; the map

is printed on the other side of course (Natty) to save paper.

I've received compliments on the creativity of the invitation

so Natty, give my tree hugging your best shot!!!!!

Ema's birthday & vote for your favorite wedding photos

okay, here are photos from Ema's birthday on Friday (Ema's b'day/Earth Day) and some photos for you to vote on please. tomorrow I will finish and send out our wedding invitations (electronically not to be cheap - to save the planet!!! that's for Natty!)

one more Benin post

these photos speak for themselves! from my last two days in Benin! le foto (sopra) 1st row: I call these retrofitted bikes "bombs" because the huge petrol tank will be filled at the pipeline in Nigeria then driven back into Benin ... on occasion, one of these bikes blows up and Friday was market day; 2nd row: look very carefully at the first 2 photos on this row - a guy is on the back of a bike holding another bike w/ the tires pointing up! look closely! the rest of the photos are typical crazy Beninese traffic except for dear Flora and her beads; she used to work for embassy Cotonou ... Flora knows so much about west AF beads partly because 4 generations of women in her family have collected and

studied the lovely beads of this region!

Benin is just a whole different world!

scenes from days 3 & 4 in Benin - Bienvenu, Cyprien & my colleague's whose name I don't know posing w/ an Obama cut-out on row 2 and the charming Romaric, who can seriously reel off a soliloquy - he'll be president of some country in west AF in 10 years! and of course lots of insanity on the roads between Cotonou, Porto Novo and back

on the road to Cotonou

those of you who follow my travels through west Africa know Benin has consistently been my most interesting post - I've seen motorcycles hauling full sized refrigerators (twice), big sheets of glass (successfully) and up to 5 people often. Today was no exception ... some of the sights on the road from la frontiere (the border) w/ Togo through Benin into the capital, Cotonou.