Bab's dock/church

Saturday I had an oppurtunity to go to bab's dock-- it's this place on the lake with kayaks, canoes, a sail boat, hammocks all along the "beach" and a volleyball court.. so i took that oppurtunity. and i am very glad i did.. :) It was so much fun! it was raining that day, but still.. it was really cool. we drove for about forty minutes out of town which was really interesting because i got to see alot more than just downtown cotonue.. aaa! i just figure dout how to put pictures on here.. these are pictures on the way there.. and at the lake.. i'll put some more up from that day..anyways, lea and i took out a kayak and we were out in the very middle of the lake when it started to pour down rain, and it's really warm here.. so it was really refreshing, and being out in the middle of it all was just beautiful.. we just sat there laughing and talking about how beautiful his creation is till it stopped raining.. and then as if God just wanted to perfect the scene a bird came flying by.. it was really great. I got to talk to everybody about alot of different things, it was just a really nice day. let's see.. i feel like adding pictures now, so that's what I'll do-- there will be a picture of my room, one of me and Dina (she has red curly hair) and one of me dina and chelsea in front of the ship.. and the sunset--there was a beautiful sunset one night, which is very rare.. because it's rainy season right now here.. soyou can't really see the sun. :( but it was so very beautiful one night.. the picture of the girl with the braids is lea.. we took them out after she had them for three days because they got on her nerves.. and theres one of me dorothea and dina i do belive before we took the boat ride to bab's dock.. we had to take a boat ride through this river thing until it opened up into the lake.. and if i can upload all of these i hope to put up some pictures PJ took.. they're really good.. the random toilet shot is of the toilets at bab's dock.. cuz we thought they were wierd... and we thought wed take a picture.. ha. you basicaly went in this hole and dropped in tree bark shavings to make it not smell bad.. i do realize this isn't that funny to anyone else. but lea and i thought it was for some reason.. anyways..

Sunday

On sunday i went to church, not the same one that i went to las time though.. i went to church in a soccer stadium this sunday. There were more than a thousand people there-- almost filling up the stadium (the practice stadium).. we got there and realized we were the only yovos.. four white people-- three girls and one guy in the midst of more than a thousand locals.. it was really cool. we walked in and were first taken to these really nice seats, but i felt really wierd because i would have much rather just sat with everyone else.. they came back and moved us though because the president of Benin was coming!! that was exciting.. so we moved to the back of the stadium with everyone else, and listened to the many announcements in french translated to the native language. and then leah leaned over and informed me we were sitting in the mens section, and sure enough! i looked around and we were the only women on that half of the church.. ha oops. it was actually pretty funny. they seperate women and men during church... well at least at this one church we went to. then hooray! the worship started.. that's always my favorite part. there was a whole lot of dancing, clapping and singing and then the message began. it was really hard to understand.. and we had to leave early for some reason (i cant remember now.. this was last week) BUT... we had to walk down the stairs to the middle of the stadium to leave.. hahaha. so not only did we draw attetnion to ourselves because we were white, but we were also the only women in the mens section and we had to get up and leave in front of everybody. wow that was awkward. sunday night we had an international night of worship on the ship-- it was so cool. there are 32 countries represented on the ship.. so alot of the countries got groups together and led us in worship. Liberia's was my favorite.. it just turned into a raggae jam fest and we all danced around the room for a while.

Ouida

well, i went to ouida-- a town about two hours outside of cotonue-- this saturday. we went and saw the gate of no return, which was a monument put up for all the slaves taken out of benin. It was really sobering. I don't know how else to describe it. Then we walked down the beach a little ways and there was another monument put up for all the missionaries that had come into benin.. it was really cool too-- to was a big rock slab basicaly, with the shape of benin cut out of it.. and then there was a cross on the other side, so through the shape of benin you saw the cross. I liked that monument alot. after we went there we went to a museum in downtown ouida.. a "prosperous" town-- meaning it had rock instead of dirt roads and more concrete houses instead of wood shacks. we were given a tour guide for the museum.. and he told us all about the history of Ouida, as well as the historyof voodoo in ouida and cotonue. voodoo is so prevalent here.. it's really scary, i don't know.. i guess you don't think about spiritual warfare so much at home. He said that alot of people go to catholic church sunday mornings and then practice voodoo at night "it's no problem.. it's normal here" what? my gracious that one sentence hurt my heart.. how exactly are we supposed to make it known that Jesus is the only way, that God is the ONLY God.. that even though that is there tradition here, that that is wrong. so if you'd like to pray.. pray for this spiritual warfare going on..

Sunday!

well... this sunday i went to action faith church-- i think im going to go there the rest of my time here.. it's a whole whole lotlike New City fellowship back home.. the songs are in english, so i actually knew them!! i was so happy to be singing a song i knew that i was singing at the very tip top of my lungs.. it was so great. and the message was really good, but we had to leave early because we were going to a futbol game that night, the word cup qualifiers it was benin VS Mali. that was quite fun! we were all herded through the doors, ive gotten used to feeling like cattle. we got there two hours early so we had front row seats!! it was really fun. Chelsea and irina and leah disappeared for the second half of it all.. because they went outside to get ice cream and couldnt get back in.. so that was slightly worrisome because i dodn't know where they went. i have to go back to work. that's what my weeks looked like so far though... i'm praying for all of you! o and if you're friends with me on facebook i put up an album...

august 28, 2009

well, for the past few days i have had a really wierd work schedual because i'm switching teams.. so i've worked one day, been off the next day, then worked the next day.. it was pretty much every other day. i usually work 2 days, off 3 days, work 3 days, and am off 2 days... over and over again.. which i think is a pretty nice schedual.. you want to know something funny? the most sung song here is "we are the world" hahaha you would only find that funny if you were familiar with the whole graduation song escapade earlier this year.. it is cool though, to serve with people from all over the world, to know that we are all united under christ. There is one really cool story i'd like to tell you about-- there is a team here that goes out every tuesday and friday into the bush to show the Jesus film (i hope to go in with them sometime soon when my work schedual allows) and in one of the villages there was a woman there who was pregnant. She said that her baby stopped moving and she went to the doctor and they said the baby had died.. that she would have to deliver a still born.. she asked the people from our ship and the christians of the village if they would pray for her and her child. The people prayed all day long, prayed fervently for this child, that God would somehow spare it's life. and guess what?! her baby moved, she delivered a healthy, beautiful baby boy whom she dedicated to the Lord. isn't that just so cool? i think it's amazing! i wish i had been there to see it, i just got to hear about it at our last community meeting.. but it was still incredible. I got chills.



so.. here's some random things that i find funny and i want to tell you. I am learning more German than i am french-- because two girls in my room speak in German all the time, and one of the girls i work with. There is a girl in my room named Lea, and she intimidated me so bad.. she still kinda does. she's very blunt. but she's not trying to be mean, that's just the way she is. so i've had to get used to that.. anyways, all that to say.. we adopted a patient together in the hospital.. an 11 month old little boy with a twin sister. so we went down and played with them for about an hour. It was really cool to get to see her playing with a child-- she's a little less intimidating you know? I've also had to get used to having no personal space at all.. at all. i share a room with six other girls at the moment, share a four by four bathroom with three of them, o how fun. suzannah, if youre reading this.. this bathroom makes our bathroom look like a palace!

there's a lord and lady on the ship... i've become pretty good friends with chelsea and Dina, Dina is a 20 year old from Holland, who might i add.. started dating her boyfriend 2 days before she left for africa for 3 months... that's a little fun fact about her. she has big curly red hair.. and she's really fun. Chelsea is 18 and from north carolina i do believe, she used to be a cheerleader and she got prom queen, but you would never have guessed by looking at her.. she is so sweet. Tio and Patrick were davids old room mates.. i think i might have already told you that. there's a creepy guy here whose sole purpose for coming on mercy ships was to find a wife i think.. he just hits on girls all day long, saying really cheesy things that no one would ever actually respond to.. . There is a very shy and very beautiful girl here named marond.. i can't remember where she is from, but she is so shy.. it took me forever to get her to talk to me... and even longer to laugh. she's really nice though. i've disapointed alot of people here because i don't have a southern enough accent. :/ sorry... the people i work with in the dining room are loveth, antoine, and Bona.. and they're all day workers here-- from cotonue, except for Loveth.. shes from Nigeria. we sing and dance together. Bona reminds me alot of Pop.. he's about 67 and dances and smiles all the time. It gets a little frustrating sometimes when they wont speak in english to me though.. especially at 5:30 in the morning and ll i have to go off of are hand signals and grunts. i do believe the Lord is teahing me patience.. there is this guy that comes in every morning and watches us set up.. correcting us if we do the slightest thing wrong, but what bothers me most is the silent staring.. just please sir, go back to your room till the food is ready. you're getting on my nerves.. yes. it is then i must pray, or i will say something i will surely regret. o patience. i'm trying to learn Lord.. but why all of this? anyways, i'm not quite sure what else to write or if this is of any interest to anyone.. but i have to go back to work now, I'm gong to bab's dock tomorrow! i hope you all have a blessed day..

please pray..

hello, please be in prayer for my room mate Kate and her family. Her cousin was killed in Peru in a bus accident-- the bus went over a ravine.. and it's really hard on Kate as she is here, away from her family at a time like this. pray for Emma as well-- his girlfriend who had gone to visit him in peru, she had to identify his body... as you can imagine this is a very hard situation. pray that God would use us to comfort Kate, to be his love to her. she was very close to him.

la iglesia

well... i went to church today, it was five and a half hours long. :) I met up with one of the day workers at 7:30 at the bottom of the ship (bienvenue- that's his name, althou i think it means welcome..) and guess what? i rode a motorcycle for the first time in my life... that was exciting! i was attempting to modestly ride on this thing, but it was near impossible. anyways, we got to church and there were about 25 people there, I was the only one from the ship visiting this church, ( prob because everone else already knew this one was five and a half hours long. ha) so i felt a little out of place at first. I have to keep reminding myself that life isn't about comfort. It would be so so easy for me to just stay on this ship, to stay comfortable. I have to keep reminding myself that it's good for me to get out of my comfort zone, it's good for me.. i'm just repeating that to myself. anyways, also-- I'm going to church to be with God, and to be with his people. It's really cool to be with his people on the other side of the world. to worship the same God that we worship on the top of lookout mountain in cotonue benin, in a warehouse. The church was more of a shack i would say-- let me rephrase that, the building was more of a shack. The church was full of passionate believers, of lovely lovely people that wanted to live for the Lord. There is some intense spiritual warfare very present in cotonue. Voodooism is a big thing here, actually we aren't allowed to take pictures of people because they believe that when you take their picture you are taking their soul... I've been hexed a few times while i've been here-- just walking down the street.. some really intense people think that we are the evil ones, we aren't really helping... that we are actually hurting their people. Most people don't think that, but the ones that are hexing me do. Anyways, in church we sang and danced.. i didn't know the songs, and i didn't know french. so i just hummed along with the piano chords. Let me just say, the music was the most out of tune, off beat, most beautiful thing i have ever heard. everyone was practicaly screaming and dancing around, the drummer didn't quite know how to play just yet-- they had been donated a drum set, so he basicaly just sat down and started playing, but he played very passionately.. worshipping with all his off-beat might. the voices were not in harmony, rather off key most of the time.. but right then, in the middle of my lovely judgement. i realized that this noise, this terrible beautiful noise was our offering, our praise, our worship to the creator, and to him it was like incense. He was smiling on our ridiculous musical efforts, being lifted up for all the city of cotonue to stop and stare and wonder to who this racket is going.. ha. i'm not laughing because i think it's funny, I'm laughing because i don't know what else to do with that joyful realization. We sang, prayed, and listened for five and a half hours. Then bienvenue took me back to the ship. That was my sunday, i hope yours was equally as blessed. God bless you all..

my first ten days..

Well, let me start this off by saying that it may be a little lengthy, so i will not be offended if you don't read all this. I actually wont know if you don't read any of it... and thats alright too. This is for my supporters and friends that want to know what i'm doing over here in cotonue. I also have to put a disclaimer... so here it is:

I serve with Mercy Ships. Everything here, however, is my personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. Opinions, conclusions and other information expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Mercy Ships.

Okay, so i left home August 11th 5:00 pm and arrived here august 12th, 11:00 PM (benin time, were five hours ahead) it was a lengthy trip-- nothing extrodinary really happened on the way over, besides of course me not knowing french and being at the airport in paris. :/ you know how we tak louder and slower to people in english when they don't speak english? yes, well they were doing the same thing to me in french, and let me just tell you- it doesn't help. I arrived here, put my bags on the ground and went to sleep. It was the strangest feeling.. finaly being here-- laying in a bed i'd lay in for the next five months. I had looked forward to and talked about this day for many months, and it was finally happening. I didn't quite know what to do with myself. I woke up the next morning and met with miss Mary Lou-- she is my boss of sorts on the ship. She gave me a tour of the dining room, and told me what i was going to be doing. I'm kindof bad at telling stories, and i don't really know how to do this blogging thing correctly. So i apologize in advance. What i do exactly is work in the dining room-- on my working days i go to work at six and set up breakfast, and serve breakfast, then clean everything up.. and i do the same for lunch and dinner. we have one or two hour breaks in between each meal.. so the days i work i am really tired. on my off days I have different things i can do.. i can stay on the ship and do whatever i want, i spend alot of time on deck eight-- the top deck, watcing the other boats and looking out at the sea. I send you all a hello and a prayer quite often across those waters. I can go into the city with mercy ministries-- to the orphanage, the psychiatric hospital, the agricultural center, or to visit the prisons. I can also just go into the city and look at the markets, or go on a walk... you always have to be with someone though, preferably a boy if you are of the female gender. We can also go to the beach, but we cannot swim, it's really dirty, and someobody stepped on a needle there last week :/ i went in and played volleyball one night with a group of people. every tuesday night there is a volleyball game, every friday night there is an ultimate frisbee game, and there is also a soccer team on board. there are alot of things to do... o! and there are overnight trips you can take, I would really like to go in with the group that shows Jesus films, they go out into villages and set up a Jesus film and then talk to people about it.. i think it would be really interesting to get out into the more rural areas of benin. o there is so much to write i don't quite know where to begin... I'll try to break it into sections.

Cultural differences:
well.. it's interesting living on this ship. there are thiry two different countries represented here, almost everyone you meet is from a different place, and almost everyone has a different accent. it makes it a little hard to communicate sometimes. you learn to talk slower, and not use a whole lot of difficult words after a while. I might come home talking pretty simply. it truly is a miracle that everyone can live together here without many problems. My room mates are dorothea (switzerland) Lea (Germany) Michelle (Canada) Eleanor (UK) Kate (australia) and Chelsea (North carolina) before Chelsea was here it was Naomi and she was from ireland... so we were all from different countries.. all have very different back grounds, but so far we've all lived together just fine. It's interesting living here, because it's not really any one culture i'm learning about-- i'm learning about so many different ones. we all make up one big interesting one together. In the actual city it is really interesting to be the minority. I've never really experianced that before. I am staring at the people of cotonue.. carrying baskets around on their heads, and babies on their backs and they are staring at me-- the white girl, carrying her bag on her arm wearing wierd, bland clothes. people stare at you alot. and they always say the local word for white person.. and the children come up sometimes and touch your skin. they think it might be different feeling i think. It's funny. One day I had been called a white girl about twenty times on my way back to the ship that when a little girl same up to me and called me that i looked at her, looked at my skin and acted like i was completely shocked by what i saw. she just started laughing really hard.. and her mother just smiled at me. it was kindof a funny moment. it might have been a thing where you had to be there... most people here are pretty friendly. I've become friends with alot of the day workers, they're from benin, and we pay them to work on the ship during the day. There is alot of poverty here-- most people live in shacks, or on the streets. alot of the fisherman just live in their boats... or canoes. and there is not a sewage system really.. not one that they use at least. people just go to the restroom on the streets-- so you have to be careful where you walk. if someone has to go, it's just down with their pants in front of everybody.. that's something i'm not quite sure i'll get used to. I was sitting on the top deck one day reading when i heard some yelling, so i looked up and saw a canoe full of naked men... just jumpin into the water, taking a bath. i was like, well.. "good morning benin!" ha.

Orphanage
I went to the orphanage on my first off day. We pulled up, were greeted by the translater and were brought to the children. we were there to entertain them basicaly while one of the women from the ship taught computer lessons. There were about fifteen infants, and five toddlers. I picked up a baby at first, and this little boy came over and grabbed onto my leg.. his name is miracle-- he was thrown into a well by his mother and left to die. alot of the babies there were left by the ocean, with the hopes that the tide would take them away, or someone would find them. it's really sad. i put the infant back down and picke up miracle, we walked outside and played on the playground... i won't tell you every single thing we did. at the orphanage though they don't have diapers, so whenever they went to the bathroom they just went on top of you, or in their crib.. and their cribs didn't really get washed out, so they would just lie in their own urine for hours, it broke my heart. I don't know if the people working there didn't care, or if they just had so much to dothat they didn't notice. bath time was interesting-- there are so many babies that they have to wash them in a sort of assembly line. they just put five or six babies in a bucket at a time and dragged them down to the washroom... sprayed them with a hose, scrubbed them down, dragged them back and we set up an assembly line to dry and clothe them all.. i don't think they recieve very much love. I'll be going back to the orphanage whenever i can.. i like that i'm here for a while, because you can build real relationships with the people. The language barrier is kindof difficult, but we have translators, and i'm taking french lessons.

relationships
well.. it's interesting on the ship, and im saying interesting alot.. anyways, no one really comes and goes at the same time.. so people are continually leaving, and there are always new people showing up. So not every one is waiting here on the ship for you with open arms neccesarily. they were nice, bu i felt completely and utterly alone for the first few days. I had no one to talk to really, no one to lean on, i was being broken. I needed to be broken, to wake up. I was used to home, used to comfort.. the comfort of my friends and family.. so God reminded me that he's the only one i can lean on through all of this confusion, and newness. I have made some friends now, Chelsea-- she's from North carolina, and she's doing the same thing I'm doing basicaly. She's really nice and really cool. She loves Jesus very much, and she loves everybody else very much as well. I hope that she rubs off on me, I want to be on fire for God like she is. we're each others accountability partners-- we make each other do devotions.. and be POSITIVE about life. whenever i got here the first thing i realized was that i had this big blanket of negativity surrounding my life back home. and here, everyone else is really positive about things... i used to be like that. I'm hoping that will rb off on me as well. O MY GRACIOUS! i met david miller's old room mates. if you don't know who david miller is he worked on this ship last year in liberia and he's best friends with my brother... so it was really cool to meet some people that knew someone from back home. Their names are Patrick and Tio, I went in town with them and chelsea last night and we got ice cream and talked for a while, it was really fun. Patrick has been dubbed my african big brother, so now i have a protector over here :) hooray! They are both from Ghana. I met a day worker today, I can't remember his name :/ but he is taking me to his local church tomorow. He can speak spanish.. and for some reason I've been wanting to speak in spanish all the time, so i can talk to him. ha it's fun. I am so excited about going to his church tomorrow!! he's taking me on his zimmy john (motor cycle.. i don't know why that's what we call them) i've never ridden on a motorcycle so that should be exciting as well..

Psychiatric Hospital
I went to the psychiatric hospital this morning with a group of people that go every saturday. now when i say psychiatric hospital please erase the picture you have in your head right now of a hospital. it is actually a walled off village within a village where everyone with mental problems is sent to live. there were all different kinds of people, some who obviously were sick-- who talked to people that were't there.. or just sang and yelled all the time. or there were people who looked and acted pretty normal, who only struggled with depression. There were no workers there when we showed up. only the patietnts, and the only worker was inside not doing anything. we walked around the village greeting everyone.. and inviting them to participate in the activity, which was a lesson and singing.. and then a craft. I had been around people with mental problems before, so it wasn't that which shocked me so much. It was the living conditions. They had nothing, nothing but the house over their heads, and a little bit of food. There was a man lying under a tree in his own feces, covered with flies. All of the floors here are dirt, so everythings was dusty, everything was muddy. people just used the bathroom all over the place, and it smelled. They were dirty. They wanted to dance. I have had to learn to not care about any of my articles of clothing i have here, they have been peed on, pooped on (by the babies), and just plain dirty.. I have had to learn to stop caring about cleanliness.. at least when it comes ot people here. they all wanted to hug you, to kiss you, to hold your hand.. and I had to pray pray pray that God would help me look past the way it smelled, past the way it looked there... and see the people as his children-- the ones he loves just as much as everyone else. and he has helped me to do that. we sang and danced together... they think i'm a good dancer. ha. they like to watch white people dance. but not to make fun of us-- which is new.. they just think it's interesting to watch us dance. so i danced for alot of people.. i also turned down a couple proposals today. ha. It was sonya's birthday, so we sang happy birthday to her in korean, english, spanish, german, russian, and french. :) it was fun. About what i was saying about looking past everything to see God's people.. i sent an email to my friend when i went to church in the ward last sunday and i'm going to put part of it here...
"I went to church today in the ward-- with patients and nurses. (i didn't get to go to a local church because I had to work today, and we didn't get finished until 10:30). I walked up to the door semi awkardly because i was late.. and this lady came up and took my arm and sat me down next to this woman holding her daughter who had puss coming out her face, out her nose, out her mouth... it was discusting. I glanced at her, and looked back at the pastor because i thought i was going to vomit. it smelled like blood down there, dried blood, and the girl was making really gross noises while she was just attempting to breathe, i thought i was going to throw up every time i heard her spit into the bucket her mother was holding. i was trying so hard not to show the discust i felt on my face, i prayed, and looked at her. I looked at her right in the eyes and smiled. i felt all my discustedness go away and i just saw a little girl in her mothers arms. She had the most beautiful eyes. she tried to smile back but went into a coughing fit of some sort. i handed her mother a rag to wipe her face. she smiled at me when I left. People are to be treated like people. everyone i meet should feel like they are the most incredible person i have every met. i don't care if they are the ugliest, most discusting, fat, pussing person i know.. i'm going to treat them like everyone else, i'm going to love them like everyone else. That is how i can show love. i can not just sit there and observe their life politely, but become involved in it. it's so interesting that all you have to do is treat someone who feels the farthest thing from normal like a normal person to touch their hearts. I am to enter their world to truly show the love of christ."
So i suppose that is mostly what's going on here.. i have alot more to say, but i don't know how to say it. I love you all.. and i miss you. Open your eyes. Open Your ears. I'm praying for you and I will try to write more later.