Van hot naar her - Van Benin naar Noordwijk

"It helps if you never have a best friend," Stephanie says, advice she got from her mother. It is better to be just a little friendly with everyone, for if she attaches herself to just one person, it will only end in sorrow. For example, her friend Jill will leave shortly for Johannesburg in South Africa. Stephanie was born in the Netherlands and has lived in Ethiopia, Moscow and Mali. Now, she and her parents and sisters live in Cotonou in Benin. Stephanie likes the African country very much, despite the poor living conditions. "It's a little like Holland used to be," she thinks. Stephanie gets along very well with Wasiato, the cook. However, eating is restaurants is hard for her because there she has to eat with her right hand, whereas she is actually left-handed. According to religious custom, you use your right hand to eat with and your left hand for dirty things, like cleaning up after going to the toilet. In May, Stephanie will be staying in the Netherlands for a while. There, she always catches a cold right away, eats with a fork, and misses Wasiato. Speaking Dutch in school takes some getting used to; at the international school in Benin, everybody speaks English. Still, she feels most at home in Africa. Before long, Stephanie's family is off to Budapest, Hungary.