Ouidah accommodation, Benin
| country: | Benin |
| location: | Ouidah |
| price: | From €10 per person per night, from €5 per night from children (6-12yrs), children under 5yrs are free |
description
This house otherwise known as The House of Joy is a private charity created by women originating from the north of the country in order to provide a shelter and a job to women abandoned by their husbands or girls expelled from their villages. Most women hosted in the house originate from the north, which is the poorest part of the country. All of their children are sent to school. In general, you may expect to find about 10 women and 20 children in our house.
Benin is a peaceful country and a real democracy with free elections. Schools and hospitals are good, but their cost is prohibitive for a large share of the population. Before colonization, the kingdom of Dahomey developed in the southern portion of Benin. Royal palaces, temples and artefacts can be admired at various places in the country.
Ouidah used to be one of the major ports of the slave trade, its forts and museums tell its history. Ouidah is a major centre of the Voodoo religion. In the python temple, you can take living snakes in your hands. In the sacred forest you can understand ancient rites. Important Voodoo rites and festivals take place in January.
Guided visits to the historical town of Ouidah: Python Temple, Sacred Forest, Portuguese Fort. Excursions to the lagoon city of Ganvié and the royal palaces of Abomey and Porto Novo, remnants of the pre-colonial kingdom of Dahomey. Shopping in the markets of Ouidah and Cotonou with the help of African women. Ask a tailor to make a dress just for you! Experience how Christianity, Islam and Voodoo can live together in a multi-religious family. Learning how to cook traditional West-African food in our restaurant. Learning about simple methods to advance African agriculture in the Songhai Centre, Porto Novo. Organise a journey to the north with the help of our relatives there. In the north, you can visit the castles of the Sombas and a national park in the savannah.
Benin is a peaceful country and a real democracy with free elections. Schools and hospitals are good, but their cost is prohibitive for a large share of the population. Before colonization, the kingdom of Dahomey developed in the southern portion of Benin. Royal palaces, temples and artefacts can be admired at various places in the country.
Ouidah used to be one of the major ports of the slave trade, its forts and museums tell its history. Ouidah is a major centre of the Voodoo religion. In the python temple, you can take living snakes in your hands. In the sacred forest you can understand ancient rites. Important Voodoo rites and festivals take place in January.
special things to do and see here
Guided visits to the historical town of Ouidah: Python Temple, Sacred Forest, Portuguese Fort. rooms, food and facilities
We offer 8 rooms and 4 common bathrooms. Family friendly: We have about 20 children in our house so your children will find company to play with. We organize dance contexts and trips to the beach for all our children.
Baby friendly: We have about 5-10 mothers and several elder children who take care of the babies. You can safely leave your baby in our house while you are doing excursions.
Cycling friendly: We have bikes to rent. Many side roads provide opportunities for excursions. The beach is just 6 Km away. It is huge and empty. Water is warm 365 days a year, but beware the ocean: it’s never calm. A villager collects coconuts behind the beach, chops them upon request, lets you drink the milk and eat the pulp.
Pet friendly: We have two dogs and a cat: your pet is welcome to join them. We feed pets with home-made food, no industrial pet food.
how to find this Ouidah accommodation
By air: Cotonou is the nearest airport. We can arrange for a taxi to pick you up at the airport for €20.By car: If you wish to come by public transportation you can take any shared-car in direction Lomé at Place Etoile Rouge and step off at Ouidah, quarter Gbena.
how this holiday makes a difference
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The house is devoted to the provision of a viable working and social life to single women and their children. Through the restaurant, a street bar and a beauty shop, a provisional job is offered to single women experiencing financial difficulties. Work is assured until a woman has found independent means to make a living. Children are offered schooling all through high school. Women who leave the house are offered a possibility to leave their children there, who will receive an education at no cost. All schooling is financed by private donations.
We value traditional, environment friendly practices. Examples include:  We are still working at the following issues, that will be implemented as soon as possible: Our enterprise is owned and managed by Beninese women. It is a native initiative that makes use of local providers for all food and services. No foreign company has been involved in the building of our house or in its furnishing. All Beninese workers employed in construction, maintenance and servicing are independent artisans. We are experimenting with a project to alleviate famine in Sahel during the dry season. Since tomatoes and other vegetables are available in huge amounts during the rainy season, we wish to teach housewives simple means to make conserves in-house. Besides the immediate aim of providing food, we hope to diffuse a mentality oriented to saving that may contribute to induce families to send children to school. Ouidah is a historical town. It used to be one the main places in Africa where slaves were exchanged for weapons and loaded on boats to the Americas. Several historical buildings explain how the commerce was organised and how slaves were deprived of their will to resist. We encourage our guests to visit these historical places and to understand how slavery has been possible. We think that understanding historical slavery is important to fight its modern versions. We encourage our guests to benefit other native initiatives, besides ours. We are keen of pointing to places where traditional handicraft may be purchased and to help with bargaining. We are glad to give any information concerning what food and fruits can be safely eaten by westerners and where they can be bought, where good restaurants can be found and as well as any information concerning lodging in other towns and cities. In Benin, most people wear traditional clothes. We would like to invite you to the experience of choosing a fabric, bringing it to a tailor and ordering a traditional dress or suit just for you. Although most clothes cannot be wear in western daily life, some models resembles women summer dresses. We would be very happy to make fashions travel south to north, rather than the other way around. |
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