Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The Palace of the King of Pobe

It's that time of the week - injecting a little geographic exploration into an otherwise sedentary life.

I was in Benin for work and spent most of my time in the sort of capital, Cotonou, at the US government offices. As with any work trip I always try to fit in a site visit - staring at a computer all day doesn't exactly give you a sense of what you're doing - what is your purpose.

Fortunately a meeting of different partners (the US government term for grantees or contractors - doesn't it sound lovely? though misleading...) was taking place north of Cotonou in one of the provinces.

Several hours later by Range Rover (thank goodness for Beninoise drivers who can navigate potholes that would swallow a Mac truck) we arrived in the village of Pobe (pronounced Poe Bay). We toured around the village and checked out the building in which we were going to host our meeting. We had a concrete building with chairs etc - quite a nice village.

But before we could do anything, we had to visit with the King. It's his town, we had to pay our respects. We were ushered into the palace amongst a crowd of excited screaming children (all his I suspect) and were seated in some plush chairs to greet the King. As is custom, we removed our shoes and waited politely until he made his entrance. As is custom, he was wearing big sunglasses. Funny how even the most remote places have access to Ray-Bans.

Our meeting with the King was very pleasant. He thanked us for coming. We thanked him for hosting us. He hoped we would support his village financially, we chuckled. He was a pretty cool King.

Have you ever met royalty? Of the British or other variety? Perhaps a Kennedy?



(I'm the fourth from the left - in black)

5 comments:

soccer mom in denial said...

Oh my GOODNESS!! That is just AWESOME! Nope, no royalty meeting by me.

I've met a few Kennedys but isn't that part of the territory here in the Commonwealth?

Jen said...

I used to take skating lessons with John-John. It was weird, because the secret service guys had to get out on the ice WITH him. It was just a regular, old skating class in Central Park.

Candy said...

I'm so glad you weren't sitting to the left of the King, because that skirt she was wearing looks hideous.

Kate said...

This is amazing! Wow.... Wow

Anonymous said...

I have met: King Hussein of Jordan; the Queen of Thailand, and Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, of Saudi Arabia.

King Hussein was a really nice guy, and Prince Bandar, when he was Ambassador to the U.S., was as well.