Rain Rain dont go away...
this past Sunday I was just sitting in the dining room eating with Chris and Emma Cole ( a brother and sister pair that I have become quite fond of) and kendall when all of a sudden I looked out side and it was RAINING!!! i know i shouldnt be so surprised.. rainy season is starting, but it hadnt rained in a while... so in all my excitement I decided we should go on deck eight and play in the rain.. which we did. it was POURING! but it was so fun. we walked on deck seven, heading to the stairs on deck eight-- passing many confused faces... and then we bolted up the stairs and played in the rain. we were completely soaked through and decided we should just go ahead and go swimming. so we did. We swam in the pool while it thundered and lightninged (i dont know what word to use here.. so we'll just pretend thats right.. ) it was so beautiful.. the storm over the ocean. I know it prob wasnt the safest thing ever now looking back on it.. but it was really fun. and im alive, so dont fret! after we played in the pool for a while I looked over and there was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. okay, so every night its beautiful.. but tonight the entire sky was completely gray, but all of a sudden there was an opening in the clouds and through this random lil opening you could see the sunset! except it wasnt just your regular pink and orange and red.. there was purple and blue and green.. and yellow and red and orange and pink, every color you could think of almost! it was like a rainbow interspersed with the sunset. It was so beautiful, I wish I had had a camera. So we all sat there staring at it until we decided we should probably go back inside and get dried off. That is one of my favorite memories I've had here so far.
Yes Mr. President...
well, I went to the president of benin's house on Tuesday! It was really really cool. He invited all of the mercy ships crew over to his palace for dinner. We showed up and went through security, then we all went into this big room with extremely high cielings and were given drinks and just talked for a little while until they showed us into the dining hall. They had all the tables set up really nice for us, and the food was really good. The president had hired dancers from up north to come and dance for us while we ate and there was a ceremony thanking Don Stevens and Some other people for all they do for the ship and all they do for benin. It was a really nice time.
These are the days..
yes. im using really cheesy titles for all these things I'm telling you, but I'm in a strange mood. sorry. IVe just been realizing here lately that I don't have a whole lot of time left here. I only have about two weeks left here in Benin. I need to make the most of the time I have left here. I was pretty sick for about a week so i didn't get to get out much, and other than that I feel like Ive been working. Ive gone to the market and the hospitality center a few times, but I'd like to go work at some more ministry sites still. I have tomorrow off so Im hoping to go into the orphanage. The crew is busy preparing to prepare for the sail.. telling all of us what were going to need to do and such, it's about to get really stressful/exciting here on the ship. We have to secure everything because apparently its really rocky which I honestly believe will be quite fun. I wish I could learn to appreciate something to the full extent while I have it with me, but I dont know if it's possible. I realize how much I took for granted while I was home but thats because I'm away from it. I wish I could wake myself up... i think this may be a continual struggle for me. Im going to miss the simplicity of life here. I hadnt noticed before someone pointed it out to me.. but it is really nice. life is simple here, the only person who can really complicate it is yourself. I like it.
works been interesting, Im team leader now and three new people were put on my team. Its kindof stressful, trying to train three new people at once and still get the job done, but I haven't had a breakdown yet.. so that's good. I'm relying on God to give me strength to get through. I don't really know what else to tell you.. its just winding down here in benin (then we sail to teneriffe) so I'm trying to end everything as involved as I was when I first came. O! something random, I don't remember if i told you about Charlotte.. my friend from the prison? well guess what? she was set free! that is such good news! she had been in prison without a trial for about eight months.. and she's eighteen. I am so happy that she's gotten to go home... :) well.. i hope you all have a blessed week.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
changes...
whenever I got back from the north I had two new room mates (dorothea and Mel left) Aimee and erika are the replacements. ha.. theyre both really nice, and im glad they came. That makes a big difference, having new people in your room.. and also. Chelsea is changing jobs. In case you didnt know, we work on the dining team together-- but now she's changing to work in the O.R. and then sales and then the O.R. again, which is really exciting for her! I'm really going to miss her in the dining room though :( and now i have to be team leader.. so i would appreciate your prayers on that. we're also getting 4 new people in the dining room.. which will be fun. this is short.. but i just wanted to let you know the things that are changing currently in my life... :) God bless!
Northern Benin... a week late :/
first of all.. i apologize its taken me so long to write this, second of all-- im just going to copy my journal entries for that weekend, because they are pretty detailed, and hooray for a new style of writing! just in case you've gotten bored with the regular way...
10/30/2009
well.. im in the bus on my way up to parakou- a city in northern benin. I'm going up with Bienvenue Soo Yeon, and Fabio... and right now we're stuck in a traffic jam of some sort-- so im listening to polar bear equation/writing. To my left are some HUGE leaves and a black lady bug just crawled across one.. wierd. another random thing: I have 650,000 CFA strapped to my body right now to deliver to the psychiatric clinic in Parakou. I feel like a hard core drug dealer or something. I'm about to fall asleep...
later:
Alright, well when we finally arrived (it took 7 1/2 hours) Soo was freaking out about all the different animals and babies. She's so cute. We went to Bienvenue's church (he lives there) we ate some Yams and then just kinda walked around on the street- one of the kids was really scared of Soo. It was really funny/sad. There were goats, and chickens and horses all of which Soo was freaking out about. O! there was a cow sitting right in the middle of the street which was a funny sight to see for some reason.. A lady on the street gave us this snack that tasted like crunchy doughnuts.. they were basicaly balls of fried dough, but it was really good. After all that we came to the hotel- which is a pretty nice one, there's trees you can climb in and grass and flowers on the ground-- i played on the playground when i first got here, me and Soo See-sawed, and then I just sat in the tire swing thinking how thankful I was for the grass. I hadn't walked on Grass in a long time. It was just so nice to be outside. Then I sat in a tree for a little while, because frankly, I was just happyto see a tree. Then I took a nap and Soo and I set up our mosquito nets. We all ate dinner here, and I got to talk to some of the people working with the psyciatric clinic.. It was really interesting. I would write more, but SOo's trying to sleep. Night! :)
10-31-2009, Saturday:
well, I'm currently writing by candle light because all the electricity in Parakou went out.. Which I honestly think is Kindof fun.. Probably because mom and dad always made it really fun everytime the electricity went off at home. today was quite an eventful one, we did a whole lot. This morning I woke up and went to breakfast where Soo almost electricuted herself by sticking a knife in the toaster- a random man from australia freaked out a little bit. Then we went to Bienvenue's church-- where we spoke to the youth who were actually more college aged kids. I spoke first about living your life for Christ and being fuffilled in only him. Soo gave her testimony, which was really moving and Fabio preached about God comforting us- he used Psalm 119:76, he's so soft spoken, its quite precious. Afterwards we met everyone at the church (about 30 ppl) not everyone was there because the night before they had a prayer meeting till 3 AM-- whoa. Then we waited on Bienvenue's friend from Nigeria to come pick us up-- we were to have lunch at his house. While we were waiting Soo and I went out side and sang/ danced with the kids "making melody in my heart.. making melody in my heart.. making melody in my heart.. to the king of kings."Then they tried to teach us some songs (aaa... aahhh.. jesui something... something hahaha I dont remember) It's the "dancing song". Then we took pictures and stuff and went back inside until Bienvenue's friend came. Soo's so funny, she keeps on trying to take pictures of all the animals, its so funny to watch. The sky is so beautiful, I feel like i havent looked at it in a really long time, but here I somehow notice it more. Anyways, We went to his nigerian friends house and just went inside and talked.. and then we went outside and let me just say, it was so nice to just sit on the side of the street... I sat under a tree on a mossy patch and watched Soo chase a goat and the children laughing at her. I just looked at the sky and the land. it was so beautiful. I've decied I want to live a simple life, and have a simple house. We went back inside and were served our lunch on the living room floor-- fried rice with chicken.. tough chicken, with alot of skin, but I ate all of it except the bone and they served us coke! After we left their house we went to the market to look around. The market there was much less stressful than cotonou's, not as many people yell at you. After the market I loaded onto the back of the motorcycle with Bienvenue and Soo (Bienvenue rode with his friend) and we went to his mom and dad's house. He told us he didnt grow up with them though, He moved out when he was younger to be a muslim.. but then he became a christian and moved in with his grandma when he was 18. It was a 3 room house-- tiny, and made of cement. There were about 11 people living there. The strange thing is.. that doesnt really seem sad over here, I know that sounds shocking to read.. but it wasnt shocking to see, i'm quite used to it. They sat us down and brought us water from the well, which was cool- to drink water from a well. Then Soo gave the children the plastic animals she brought. We took pictures and drove over to Bienvenue's grandmothers house. (o yeah, at his parents house there was a really beautiful view) His grandma wasn't at her house, but we got to meet more family members! and i got to hold a puppyI met a little girl a=named Mimi-- she had some crazy hair, I mean I feel like she came from an ancient tribe or something, she was just wearing underwear and her heair was tied up in every which way.. yeah.. o! while we were there we had more well water, and a random little naked boy kept wanting me to take a picture of him.. it was slightly awkward. ha. We walked to the market with Bienvenues Aunt to find his grandma-- its cool, all the african women (well not all.. but alot) act like your best friend 10 seconds after they know you-- so she was holding my hand and laughing with me, everyone stares at you when you walk by-- some babies cry! o man, like 3 babies cried today when they saw soo but she always ended up making them laugh by the end of it. Anyways, we found his grandma's "store" but she wasn't there, so we just walked around some until we found hersitting with some women. We sat down and they gave us the local drink made from maiz. Then we took more pictures and went back to his grandmas house..o! and while we were sitting with the women a crowd gathered around us because, well.. I am literally the only white person in Parakou, and Soo's the only korean, and Fabio's the only 1/2 brazillian 1/2 korean man... so people just watch us. Back at his grandmas house we visited for a little while, and then left for his uncles house. His uncles a police man, and I suppose he's pretty wealthy because they had a really nice house. we went in and he was just lying on a mat outside, he sat up, but didnt get up to greet us. We all went inside and sat down until his Aunt asked us if we'd like to go on a walk until the food was ready, honestly I didnt really want to go because I was really tired.. but I went anyways. Ha. We walked by this "club" sort of place outside where they played really loud music. and we sat down for literally ten seconds and just walked down the street. There were mosques about every ten feet I feel like ( so many people are muslims here) There were some girls walking by us laughing at my facial expressions/ awkward body movements, ha. AND I saw a big tree, so i took a picture by it and the moon was shining all pretty in the back grounf. Then we walked up and sat with some women bienvenue's aunt knew, and we talked for a while Then we went to another place where they all sat around the fire and they gave us free drinks ( the maiz one) then we went back to his aunt and uncle's house and ate dinner :) It was rice with beans and fish.. and i only got a little part of the fish because it's not my favorite.. but bienvenue's aunt piked on an entire fish tail, which i had to eat or it would have been rude. Now were back at the hotel, I'm going to go take a shower. okay. well.. goodnight!
P.S. I didnt take my malaria medicane today, and I've been bitten alot I really hope I dont get sick..
P.S.S.My favorite moment here: riding on a motorcycle through the streets of parakou with the warm wind in my face... it was so very nice. :) k bye.
11-1-2009
random thoughts going through my head during church:
-Church here is so much more of a conversation between the pastor and the congregation, they stand up and answer questions, and ask questions all throughout. its interesting.
- ROmans 6:1
- "hallelujah, amen" "praise the Lord, Hallelujah" over and over and over again..
- Its hard for me to concentrate or focus on worshipping when im so far out of my comfort zone... and people are taking pictures, and I dont know the songs.
- i think about the most worthless things sometimes.. like how off key the clarinet player is. and what the heck is a clarinet doing in africa? why cant my mind just focus on things of substance for like 10 minutes?
- alright, so if people at home dont like it when people make you raise your hainds and such, they'd hate it here.. they just made us jump up and down and raise our arms and say "hallelujah!" and shout to the Lord.. not the biggest fan, sometimes i feel like its all for show.
-K Im confused, God says to pray in secret, not in the streets like the pharisees, but then David is praised for dancing for the Lordin the streets, which one is right? I guess its just whether its genuine or not... but its hard for me to believe its genuine in front of people.
- i my goodness. its so loud-- im right in front of the speakers, and my ears hurt real bad. Im sitting in a plastic chair, on a cement uneven floor.. so my chair keeps rocking ha. They set up a rotating fan, so i feel okay about every ten seconds.. its real nice and hot in here. Theres a tile "stage" with green pillars and darker green polka dots on it.. and 2 white pots with circular green bushes on them. I feel like every preacher here is one of the preachers from TV.. its always loud and epic. yet, I'm still about to fall asleep.
- 11:25-- we leave at 12:00 to get our bus tickets.
- Im annoyed with all the loud, showey stuff here.. and I couldnt even worship. what is wrong with me? maybe im just on edge because im tired... and i want to go home.
- the pastors wearing a full on suite and he's sweat all the way through the jacket.. it's only ben 2:30 hours. he's from Nigeria.
-"IN THE NAME OF JESUS!!" o my goodness I just jumped so high.. so now theres a really intense prayer time. but i cant help but look around and question everyone's motives. people are sprawled across the floor.. speaking in tounges.. but every once in a while they look up to see if anyones watching. what? I just cant tell if this is for real? I dont know, i guess it shouldnt matter.. its not my place to judge. ra. im so distracted.
-SURPRISE! we just had to get up and share with the church. ha. hooray! that was slightly nerve wracking.
- people are giving tithes and offerings. The tithe is pretty much mandatory..
-during offering people dance by the basket and put their money in.. it was basicaly a parade of beautiful african colors..
- and they just made me and soo and fabio stand up and everyone came by to shake our hand and sing " you are welcome in the name of the Lord" it was nice..
- the pastors got snakeskin boots and a gold watch and everything.
later:
after church we went outside and soo handed out her yellow balloons to the kids, and then entertained them with her camera. While fabio played soccer with the other kids.. o excuse me, "futbol" I wasnt quite in the hyper, play with kids mood.. so i just sat on the ground and watched. an older woman came up and talked to me.. we didnt understand each other, but it was just nice to share a smile and a handshake... then i started taking pictures and all the kids rushed over. .. then they brought me and soo to one of the kids house (the one that cried when he saw soo..) and then we went and ate lunch in the church-- fish, rice, and red sauce. Then we came to the bus stop and said our good byes to beinvenue's friend and waited for 45 minutes.. were finaly on the bus. and a man just walked by and asked me if I wanted to stay in parakou with him. I said regretfully I have to return to Cotonou to work on a ship.. sorry. ha. it was quite interesting. loading on here was interesting as well, we were all squished together trying to load onto the bus. everyone was pushing and shoving.. apparantly they sell as many tickets as they feel lie, but give the seats on a first come-- first serve basis :/ o my. it's 3:20. when we finally left, I hope we get back to the boat on time.
- well the ride up here i slept most of the way, so i didnt get to see much of benin.. but now im pretty much awake, and theres MOUNTAINS! its beautiful, the sun is setting over the mountains to my right.. were passing all of the small villages with dirt houses and tatched roofs.. and the sun is setting. o its so beautiful!
well, thats the end of my journal entries for that trip, sorry that was so long.. but if you were ever wondering what goes on inside my head.. theres a little glimpse for you :) I might try to put up pictures later this week..
10/30/2009
well.. im in the bus on my way up to parakou- a city in northern benin. I'm going up with Bienvenue Soo Yeon, and Fabio... and right now we're stuck in a traffic jam of some sort-- so im listening to polar bear equation/writing. To my left are some HUGE leaves and a black lady bug just crawled across one.. wierd. another random thing: I have 650,000 CFA strapped to my body right now to deliver to the psychiatric clinic in Parakou. I feel like a hard core drug dealer or something. I'm about to fall asleep...
later:
Alright, well when we finally arrived (it took 7 1/2 hours) Soo was freaking out about all the different animals and babies. She's so cute. We went to Bienvenue's church (he lives there) we ate some Yams and then just kinda walked around on the street- one of the kids was really scared of Soo. It was really funny/sad. There were goats, and chickens and horses all of which Soo was freaking out about. O! there was a cow sitting right in the middle of the street which was a funny sight to see for some reason.. A lady on the street gave us this snack that tasted like crunchy doughnuts.. they were basicaly balls of fried dough, but it was really good. After all that we came to the hotel- which is a pretty nice one, there's trees you can climb in and grass and flowers on the ground-- i played on the playground when i first got here, me and Soo See-sawed, and then I just sat in the tire swing thinking how thankful I was for the grass. I hadn't walked on Grass in a long time. It was just so nice to be outside. Then I sat in a tree for a little while, because frankly, I was just happyto see a tree. Then I took a nap and Soo and I set up our mosquito nets. We all ate dinner here, and I got to talk to some of the people working with the psyciatric clinic.. It was really interesting. I would write more, but SOo's trying to sleep. Night! :)
10-31-2009, Saturday:
well, I'm currently writing by candle light because all the electricity in Parakou went out.. Which I honestly think is Kindof fun.. Probably because mom and dad always made it really fun everytime the electricity went off at home. today was quite an eventful one, we did a whole lot. This morning I woke up and went to breakfast where Soo almost electricuted herself by sticking a knife in the toaster- a random man from australia freaked out a little bit. Then we went to Bienvenue's church-- where we spoke to the youth who were actually more college aged kids. I spoke first about living your life for Christ and being fuffilled in only him. Soo gave her testimony, which was really moving and Fabio preached about God comforting us- he used Psalm 119:76, he's so soft spoken, its quite precious. Afterwards we met everyone at the church (about 30 ppl) not everyone was there because the night before they had a prayer meeting till 3 AM-- whoa. Then we waited on Bienvenue's friend from Nigeria to come pick us up-- we were to have lunch at his house. While we were waiting Soo and I went out side and sang/ danced with the kids "making melody in my heart.. making melody in my heart.. making melody in my heart.. to the king of kings."Then they tried to teach us some songs (aaa... aahhh.. jesui something... something hahaha I dont remember) It's the "dancing song". Then we took pictures and stuff and went back inside until Bienvenue's friend came. Soo's so funny, she keeps on trying to take pictures of all the animals, its so funny to watch. The sky is so beautiful, I feel like i havent looked at it in a really long time, but here I somehow notice it more. Anyways, We went to his nigerian friends house and just went inside and talked.. and then we went outside and let me just say, it was so nice to just sit on the side of the street... I sat under a tree on a mossy patch and watched Soo chase a goat and the children laughing at her. I just looked at the sky and the land. it was so beautiful. I've decied I want to live a simple life, and have a simple house. We went back inside and were served our lunch on the living room floor-- fried rice with chicken.. tough chicken, with alot of skin, but I ate all of it except the bone and they served us coke! After we left their house we went to the market to look around. The market there was much less stressful than cotonou's, not as many people yell at you. After the market I loaded onto the back of the motorcycle with Bienvenue and Soo (Bienvenue rode with his friend) and we went to his mom and dad's house. He told us he didnt grow up with them though, He moved out when he was younger to be a muslim.. but then he became a christian and moved in with his grandma when he was 18. It was a 3 room house-- tiny, and made of cement. There were about 11 people living there. The strange thing is.. that doesnt really seem sad over here, I know that sounds shocking to read.. but it wasnt shocking to see, i'm quite used to it. They sat us down and brought us water from the well, which was cool- to drink water from a well. Then Soo gave the children the plastic animals she brought. We took pictures and drove over to Bienvenue's grandmothers house. (o yeah, at his parents house there was a really beautiful view) His grandma wasn't at her house, but we got to meet more family members! and i got to hold a puppyI met a little girl a=named Mimi-- she had some crazy hair, I mean I feel like she came from an ancient tribe or something, she was just wearing underwear and her heair was tied up in every which way.. yeah.. o! while we were there we had more well water, and a random little naked boy kept wanting me to take a picture of him.. it was slightly awkward. ha. We walked to the market with Bienvenues Aunt to find his grandma-- its cool, all the african women (well not all.. but alot) act like your best friend 10 seconds after they know you-- so she was holding my hand and laughing with me, everyone stares at you when you walk by-- some babies cry! o man, like 3 babies cried today when they saw soo but she always ended up making them laugh by the end of it. Anyways, we found his grandma's "store" but she wasn't there, so we just walked around some until we found hersitting with some women. We sat down and they gave us the local drink made from maiz. Then we took more pictures and went back to his grandmas house..o! and while we were sitting with the women a crowd gathered around us because, well.. I am literally the only white person in Parakou, and Soo's the only korean, and Fabio's the only 1/2 brazillian 1/2 korean man... so people just watch us. Back at his grandmas house we visited for a little while, and then left for his uncles house. His uncles a police man, and I suppose he's pretty wealthy because they had a really nice house. we went in and he was just lying on a mat outside, he sat up, but didnt get up to greet us. We all went inside and sat down until his Aunt asked us if we'd like to go on a walk until the food was ready, honestly I didnt really want to go because I was really tired.. but I went anyways. Ha. We walked by this "club" sort of place outside where they played really loud music. and we sat down for literally ten seconds and just walked down the street. There were mosques about every ten feet I feel like ( so many people are muslims here) There were some girls walking by us laughing at my facial expressions/ awkward body movements, ha. AND I saw a big tree, so i took a picture by it and the moon was shining all pretty in the back grounf. Then we walked up and sat with some women bienvenue's aunt knew, and we talked for a while Then we went to another place where they all sat around the fire and they gave us free drinks ( the maiz one) then we went back to his aunt and uncle's house and ate dinner :) It was rice with beans and fish.. and i only got a little part of the fish because it's not my favorite.. but bienvenue's aunt piked on an entire fish tail, which i had to eat or it would have been rude. Now were back at the hotel, I'm going to go take a shower. okay. well.. goodnight!
P.S. I didnt take my malaria medicane today, and I've been bitten alot I really hope I dont get sick..
P.S.S.My favorite moment here: riding on a motorcycle through the streets of parakou with the warm wind in my face... it was so very nice. :) k bye.
11-1-2009
random thoughts going through my head during church:
-Church here is so much more of a conversation between the pastor and the congregation, they stand up and answer questions, and ask questions all throughout. its interesting.
- ROmans 6:1
- "hallelujah, amen" "praise the Lord, Hallelujah" over and over and over again..
- Its hard for me to concentrate or focus on worshipping when im so far out of my comfort zone... and people are taking pictures, and I dont know the songs.
- i think about the most worthless things sometimes.. like how off key the clarinet player is. and what the heck is a clarinet doing in africa? why cant my mind just focus on things of substance for like 10 minutes?
- alright, so if people at home dont like it when people make you raise your hainds and such, they'd hate it here.. they just made us jump up and down and raise our arms and say "hallelujah!" and shout to the Lord.. not the biggest fan, sometimes i feel like its all for show.
-K Im confused, God says to pray in secret, not in the streets like the pharisees, but then David is praised for dancing for the Lordin the streets, which one is right? I guess its just whether its genuine or not... but its hard for me to believe its genuine in front of people.
- i my goodness. its so loud-- im right in front of the speakers, and my ears hurt real bad. Im sitting in a plastic chair, on a cement uneven floor.. so my chair keeps rocking ha. They set up a rotating fan, so i feel okay about every ten seconds.. its real nice and hot in here. Theres a tile "stage" with green pillars and darker green polka dots on it.. and 2 white pots with circular green bushes on them. I feel like every preacher here is one of the preachers from TV.. its always loud and epic. yet, I'm still about to fall asleep.
- 11:25-- we leave at 12:00 to get our bus tickets.
- Im annoyed with all the loud, showey stuff here.. and I couldnt even worship. what is wrong with me? maybe im just on edge because im tired... and i want to go home.
- the pastors wearing a full on suite and he's sweat all the way through the jacket.. it's only ben 2:30 hours. he's from Nigeria.
-"IN THE NAME OF JESUS!!" o my goodness I just jumped so high.. so now theres a really intense prayer time. but i cant help but look around and question everyone's motives. people are sprawled across the floor.. speaking in tounges.. but every once in a while they look up to see if anyones watching. what? I just cant tell if this is for real? I dont know, i guess it shouldnt matter.. its not my place to judge. ra. im so distracted.
-SURPRISE! we just had to get up and share with the church. ha. hooray! that was slightly nerve wracking.
- people are giving tithes and offerings. The tithe is pretty much mandatory..
-during offering people dance by the basket and put their money in.. it was basicaly a parade of beautiful african colors..
- and they just made me and soo and fabio stand up and everyone came by to shake our hand and sing " you are welcome in the name of the Lord" it was nice..
- the pastors got snakeskin boots and a gold watch and everything.
later:
after church we went outside and soo handed out her yellow balloons to the kids, and then entertained them with her camera. While fabio played soccer with the other kids.. o excuse me, "futbol" I wasnt quite in the hyper, play with kids mood.. so i just sat on the ground and watched. an older woman came up and talked to me.. we didnt understand each other, but it was just nice to share a smile and a handshake... then i started taking pictures and all the kids rushed over. .. then they brought me and soo to one of the kids house (the one that cried when he saw soo..) and then we went and ate lunch in the church-- fish, rice, and red sauce. Then we came to the bus stop and said our good byes to beinvenue's friend and waited for 45 minutes.. were finaly on the bus. and a man just walked by and asked me if I wanted to stay in parakou with him. I said regretfully I have to return to Cotonou to work on a ship.. sorry. ha. it was quite interesting. loading on here was interesting as well, we were all squished together trying to load onto the bus. everyone was pushing and shoving.. apparantly they sell as many tickets as they feel lie, but give the seats on a first come-- first serve basis :/ o my. it's 3:20. when we finally left, I hope we get back to the boat on time.
- well the ride up here i slept most of the way, so i didnt get to see much of benin.. but now im pretty much awake, and theres MOUNTAINS! its beautiful, the sun is setting over the mountains to my right.. were passing all of the small villages with dirt houses and tatched roofs.. and the sun is setting. o its so beautiful!
well, thats the end of my journal entries for that trip, sorry that was so long.. but if you were ever wondering what goes on inside my head.. theres a little glimpse for you :) I might try to put up pictures later this week..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
