The princess bride
A young man who dreamed of changing the world and making something of himself set out on a journey from his parents' home in Mint Hill to a faraway country on the west coast of Africa.
He was 27 and, while high school and college friends had settled into marriage and fatherhood and professions, Aaron Forbes was still searching.
Now he was off to join the Peace Corps in a sliver of a country called Benin, where he hoped to do some good.
The experience, he also thought, might teach him leadership and management skills, perhaps help him figure out his way in the world. He never imagined he would fall in love so far from home and finally want to settle down.
He said goodbye to his family and flew to Benin in July 2007.
He traveled by bush taxi on red clay roads to the farming community of Agbangnizoun, where he would spend the next two years. The villagers welcomed him.
Aaron felt a connection. Thousands of Africans were shipped from Benin beginning in the 18th century to work as slaves in Louisiana, where he once lived. He was familiar with their culture - their music, food, the voodoo. And he could speak a little French, which most people there speak.
But during his entire stay, he said he remained an outsider, blond-haired, blue-eyed, in a country ...
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