Every once and a while on this trip, we have the pleasure of moving between countries on something other than a plane.  We spend so much time flying, it is always a relief to take another form of transportation.  We were ecstatic when we found that we were traveling from Togo to Benin by car.  ROAD TRIP!  This gave us an excellent opportunity to see African life as it passed by beside us.  To some, it may come as a surprise that although life was simple here, I was able to see so many instances of happiness during that three hour drive.

WIth communities and small businesses stretching along the side of the road, the examples of simple pleasures in life where plentiful and in just our short drive, I saw plenty.

There were kids playing soccer with makeshift goals on the side of the road.  Some of them didn't even have shoes as they kicked up clouds of dust while running, laughing and yelling back and forth.  

People were relieved to take shade from the oppressive heat under a variety of objects from trees, palm leaves laid over sticks and even the underside of parked eighteen-wheel trucks.  

Two guys selling a mysterious beverage on the side of the road sported large grins while calling after a girl that was walking away from them.  She, in turn, was smiling as well at the attention.

A farmer with a roadside plot of land sat down to take a satisfied rest after pulling the last weed from the ground.  He stretched his face to the sky and you could see the pleasure of having finished his work.

A flatbed truck road past and the back of the pickup was loaded with people sitting around the edge.  They were packed tightly and I had fear that one of them would pitch over the edge on one of the many bumps in the dusty road.  One man in particular closed his eyes, leaned his head out and smiled as he took the time to enjoy the wind coming from the moving truck in the sweltering heat.  

Pleasure raced across the face of a man crossing the border on foot when he took the first bite out of an ice cream bar he purchased from a kid with a cooler attached to a bike. 

And the moment of happiness that touched me most during the ride:  A small, barefoot boy with no shirt was running down the street, rolling a bike tire beside him.  When he saw me looking at him from the car window, he gave me a emphatic thumbs up.  When I broke out in a big grin and gave him thumbs up in return, his face opened up in a joyful smile and his pace increased as he tried to keep up with our van, while continuing to smile and throw the thumbs up sign into the air.  Seeing his smile as he ran with that bike tire warmed my heart.  

I guess what I want to say is that here in Benin, life is very simple but, if you know how to find it, happiness is too.