Akon + Food Poisoning

Friday afternoon we were told that it was unsafe for stagiaires (trainees) to attend the Akon concert and we were forbidden to be in Cotonou on Saturday. This would have been really sad for me, but I ended up having food poisoning and was really sick Friday-Sunday anyway. I'm pretty much better now, but I will just say that food poisoning without running water is a HUGE pain! The water and therefore toilet at my host house wasn't working, so I had to get buckets of water from the well to 'flush' the toilet. When you're trying everything not to barf it's really difficult to pull water.

SO, no Akon. It slightly bothers me that they would forbid something like that, because we all are adults, but since it didn't affect me this time, I won't worry about it. I totally understand why they have certain rules and restrictions (like requiring helmets and forbidding travel to Nigeria), but the Akon thing seemed pretty silly. They even strongly encouraged current Volunteers (who have been here for a year or two already) to not go to the concert and to "think seriously about their safety."