We're not in the US anymore

Feeling good tonight. Maybe it was the grand Guiness I drank with Okey, or the pork I ate for lunch (Malanville is amazing... ah, Benin), or the completely understood conversation I had just now while getting a post-beer tea and egg sandwhich... Or maybe it's that this place has really become home. I feel comfortable here. Not like in the US, but it's nice and safe, and puts me mostly at ease.

That said, let me relate my day and its expansion of the intrinsic knowledge that this is notthe US and maybe never will be anything like it.

Awoke early to a phone call from Kelsey. Always a welcome awakening and today like none other as I was excited (scared?) for her airplane jumping and especially excited for the 6 weeks before I see her.

Did laundry and then hopped on my bike for a quick jont the 7km or so down to visit Megan in Malanville. Nice ride; cloudy, not too hot. Only slightly drenched in sweat by the time I got there. The purpose: to eat PORK. Living in a muslim country (98% officially) pork is pretty much non-existant. I miss it. I miss my hogs and swine. Hence the early rising for a pork lunch. The place we went was nice enough. It attracted a lot of people from the bar across the street, and you'd be surprised how many people can be DRUNK by 11:30.

We did get to pick out our own piece of meat and eat it while watching the lucky living pigs wander around and munch on decomposing trash, happily unaware that tomorrow it couls be them we're eating. Note if you come: get here early or be ok eating fat, though PORK fat is pretty darn good-tasting after a 10 month hog-fast.

Over lunch I got some scarry news from Megan and the main recollection that I am not living in America anymore:
Apparently the police in Malanville caught five bandits who had been working the road south of town, riping off trucks that rolled through. After arresting them, a mob show decended on the station demanding the prisoners as it was believed they were responsible for the death of a driver. The police, fairly enough, declared the prisoners would go to a jail in Kandi, 150km South. The mob was none too happy, but left.
Now I don't know if it was an attempt to be sneaky or an attempt to give into the mob demand in some way, but the police apparently decided it was best to send the suspects to jail on a rented bush taxi with only two officers as escort. They didn't make it 100 yards. A reformed mob stopped the car, dragged the handcuffed suspects out and BEAT THEM TO DEATH with clubs, sticks, fists, and feet. Each was killed in a mob frenzy, save for the escorting officers who were apparently too afraid to even get out of the taxi and a woman apparently involved with the bandits, who was only badly beaten.
This happened not fifty feet in front of Megan's house, and had she not gone to the market she would've been there to witness the bloody scene, which was apparently so bad people were running away and blood stains were left until the next day's heavy rain.
It's been hard trying to explain to people why this was wrong. "But they deserved it" is the response. Mob rule. Africa is really in the hands of mobs. Mobs and those who can stir them up. Look at Kenya's recent elections. South Africa's anti-immigrant riots. Rawanda. The only places mobs fail to achieve their goal is where they're crushed or subdued by strong government and police/military support, employing superior firepower.
The concept of organized justice, the attempt at fairness, level-handed and level-headedness is missing. Blame it on weak governments and judicial systems. People will automatically consign the fate of individuals with little or no debate or viewing evidence. What good is all that? Especially to a mob stirred to a frenzy. Never mess with angry Africans mobs. Scary.
Safely back in Gaya now where only student protests have actually hinted at this facet of African life, though people in Niger have equally been known to beat to death people accused of thievery. Though in all fairness, I doubt this is an "African" thing as much as weak police/judicial/governmental problem. It's just that this, poverty and frustration, and heat all add together for a dangerous stew that can easily boil over here.

Ok, but really I do like it here and I do feel safe... that was just a little ranting about mobs. Even Italy has mobs, and they're fighting over TRASH. That's so lame.