Salt Pools
December 2022 Day 2 Afternoon
Ouidah, Benin was our next destination. As we drove through the flat marshy countryside our tour guide, Boris, suggested an impromptu stop at the salt pools. A small community of people live, work, and send their children to a seasonal school the sometimes operates there. The women’s work is extracting and selling the salt that collects in the pools of standing water. It was amazing to watch the process of letting the water settle into a brine and then cooked it in kettle to remove impurities. The cooking happened in a small dark wooden building. We wondered if duties were rotated duties, or if each woman had her specialty. Whoever had the cooking job deserved extra pay! The children work with their mothers, happy, and engaged in repetitive tasks. They slept and played and seemed pleased to have the opportunity to practice their limited English language skills on some white visitors.
One young girl, who was fairly good at speaking English, said she was learned it when she was able to go to school. She also said she was Christian. It was touching to hear her bear her testimony of Christ. A young girl in a far distant corner of the world knowing she is loved by the Savior.
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