EIS Benin

Years 4 and 5 Trip to Porto Novo

Macey Collins, Year 4

On the 1st of February 2017, we went to the Temple of Zangbeto. After that we went to the Museum of Honme. It used to be a palace but now it’s a museum. Then we went to see the god that had nine heads, but they put nine snake heads on the building instead of human heads. After that we went to Toffa’s Palace and saw the king. I thought it was amazing seeing the King of Porto Novo. We all kneeled down and put our heads to the floor because that is the tradition. Then we saw the first mosque of Porto Novo. Then we had lunch and I had chicken and chips. It was delicious but we couldn’t finish it all, so we took the rest back home. The place where we had lunch was called The Lagoon. After we went to another museum and we saw horse tails used as dusters and shields and swords. It was a fun trip.

Ivan Simo-Dzumgang, Year 5

On the 1st of February Years 4 and 5 went on a field trip to Porto Novo. We visited places with the school mini-bus and learned new things. In that time we also went to the King’s palace. When we went out of the mini-bus we were told that the palace was sacred so we needed to be barefoot and be quiet. When we entered, we saw two golden lion statues. One of them was smoking. So when we entered we sat down on a designed red mat. We sat down and waited for the King to come for a while. Everybody looked excited to see him. When he came he was wearing very nice clothes and red, light shoes. When he came we needed to greet him by bending down in front of him and putting our heads on the ground. King Toffa sat down on a big pale yellow chair. They said that each of us could ask him five questions. One of the answers to the questions was a long explanation of how Porto Novo got its name and one was why did King Toffa The First allow the French to colonise Porto Novo. Another was what the work of the king was like and how they were chosen to be king. When we finished visiting the King, Years 4 and 5 did souvenir pictures, and after that we bent down again and continued our trip.

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News

Selina Vitho, Year 4 sums up the lesson learnt through the visits by saying the following: “I have learned that nothing good comes easy. I must work hard to achieve my dreams. I must be patient in everything I do.”

Two E.I.S. students were recognised as being ‘one of the highest calibre of entries this year’ in the Immerse Education Essay Competition.

Two new after-school activities are encouraging young and older children to explore the five senses, develop their imagination, sprout logic thinking skills and more.

Several EIS classes participated in the National Geographic Project Exploration webinar on Global Citizenship.

Year One pupil, Dhakshin RAJESH KUMAR, has been entered in the India Book of Records