Goodbye Benin!

well, quite a bits happened since the last time I wrote. We've left benin now. We're actually in the middle of the ocean on our way to Spain. I should prob write about everything that happened before I left though.

Orphanage:

I went to the orphanage for the last time three fridays ago, it was hard to say bye to all of the kids. We went in and were greeted with the familiar smell of urine. The children are changed once a day at a chosen time and have to wait in their dirty diapers until it's time. We usually leave smelling pretty terrible, but it's completely worth it to see the smiles on their faces. One of my good friends (and room mate) kendall made a good point about how us entering into the filth of these children is like God entering into the filth of our lives. He doesn't care how completely discusting we smell or that were covered in filth, he lifts us up in his arms and holds us close.

I usually play with the older children, but that day I just held the infants. I rocked them and danced around the room with some. The president of this organization (FRA) surprised us by having a little thank you ceremony for all that we had done for them. It was really nice... Saying goodbye was a little bit difficult, the children didn't quite understand why we all wanted to hug them just a little longer and just a little tighter than usual, or why we looked sad. They didn't understand why all of a sudden we were showering them with kisses and prayers... I'm really going to miss them.

Boys Home

the CEO boys home is a home here for abused and trafficked boys, we were given the opportunity to spend time with them throughout our field service. I didn't ever go to visit with the boys but one of my friends Ram (who works in the dining room too) spent alot of time there. I went the last saturday I had off to help paint. Emma kendall and I all went and helped chip the old paint off the walls and paint a new coat on. The boys helped us, and let me just say-- they were quite amused when i climbed the wall and was hanging from a window pane to paint a hard to reach spot above the stairs. haha. that was fun. it was really hard work but it was really fun with kendall and emma. After we finished at the boys home we went to hotel du lac and swam and had a nice dinner. It was really relaxing.. a perfect ending for that day. We ate outside with the sun setting over the water, a nice warm breeze blowing our hair.. it's so strange to think that its winter back home! My body is going to be so confused by the intense climate change i do believe.

Day worker farewell

well, sadly at the end of a field service we have to say good bye to our day volunteers (people that live in Benin working on the ship). endings are always bitter sweet. When you are right on the brink of losing someone you tend to appreciate them so much more. The last devotion we had with the deckies almost made me cry. They always line up on deck seven and dance and sing and then someone shares. It's just such a sweet time in the mornings.. The last one we had I just looked at everyone and realized how i had grown to love each of them and how empty the ship would feel without them here. They brought so much life and laughter to the ship. We had a service for the day volunteers thanking them for all they had done. Worship was so incredible. i dont think I have ever seen so many people dancing in the international lounge. we all lined up and danced across the front. It was so funny.. the people I had been working with for the past four and a half months looked at me so shocked and said, "bonny Jean! you can dance!" haha. it made me laugh.. but i smiled and laughed that whole time... overfilled with joy, celebrating the time I had had with each of these people.. and celebrating the fact that these were my brothers and sisters in Christ. I can't wait to get to heaven and see all their beautiful faces again.

THE SAIL!!!

we left for the sail on Tuesday, December 8th. It was such a strange feeling pulling away from the dock we had been at for so long, seeing it from a different point of view. There were people on the dock all waving goodbye to us. It was such a strange feeling, pulling away from the people we had known for so long.. the streets that had become so familiar. Its already all just a memory. My ministry in Africa is finished. Now I only serve those on the ship. I cant believe Im about to come home. time has gone by so fast. anyways, back to the sail.. its been so incredibly beautiful! Ive seen dolphins, whales, flying fish, and a water spout! we sailed right on by it. The sunsets are beautiful and the stars are magnificent. The sun reflects off the water like a million jewels, it almost takes my breath away. Can you imagine how beautiful the creator must be of all this? i think i might just pass out it will be so overwhelming. I wish you could all be here with me to see this. It is wonderful.

I'm only here for a week and a half more so I think this will be my last blog, I can talk to you all in person soon. :) I am so thankful for the time God has given me here and for all that he has taught me. I am so thankful for all the incredible people he has put in my life, and for all that they have taught me. Im thankful for Chelsea, Emma, Kaylee, Kendall, Aimee, Michelle, chris, Josh, Ram, Mary Lou, Priska, Irina, Dina, kelsey, dorothea.. and so many others. Im going to miss everybody so much.. but I am really excited about going home. I miss everyone so much. Ill see you all soon! God bless.

well...

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.

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..

life..

well, Im feeling less and less motivated to write on here.. because i feel like Im just living, and i dont see how that could be interesting to anyone at all.. lets see, whats happened these past two or so weeks? I went to the craft market with Chelsea and Kelsey last week to get christmas presents. that was exciting as always. "my darling.. come to my store".. and kissy noises to get your attention. This one lady basicaly forced me to buy this necklace. i didnt even want it. but i ended up gettingit.. because she forced it in my hand and wouldnt take it back.. so i now have a very random necklace in my possesion. Ive worked and done college applications for the past week or so, so I haven't been able to go into the city much. I went to one of our dayworkers churches last sunday, that was really fun. I liked it alot. The preacher was really good. One of our dayworkers-- Loveth went home on monday, that was kindof sad, and Dorothea, our small group leader is leaving on friday which will be sad. Im really going to miss her. You start to get used to goodbyes here though, which is kindof strange. My mindset is that I'll either see them later in this life, or later in glory, and I'm thankful for the time I had to get to know them. This weekend Im going up to Northern Benin with one of the dayworkers to his home town. Soo (from Korea, she's my room mate) Fabio (from Brazil) and I are all going.. it'll be really nice to get out into the country side again.

one of my room mates is sick--michelle, in case you want to know really random things. We only have 5 weeks left in Benin, and then we sail to teneriffe. Im really excited about the sail :) I need to make the most of the time we have left here before we go. I feel like Ive done everything you can do in Benin. Im not sure if I wrote about the prison, but Ive been trying to go there as much as I can, and ive gotten to know alot of the women there, it's been really cool. last night we all went out with dorothea for the last time :( it was really fun though. O! and another one of my room mates, Mel is leaving on friday. and we have 2 new room mates on sunday. I have lived with so many different types of people, I will be so prepared for whoever my room mate is in college! Well, im sorry this is so short and not very interesting, ill try to upload some pictures-- one is of my dining team.. o! and we had a costume dance party on deck eight.. and ill include a picture from that.. i hope you all have a marvelous week! :)

Ghana!

Friday:
Well we started our day off at the lovely time of 3:30 AM. Our group consisted of Kendall, Michelle, Chelsea, Laurel, Belinda, Mariechen, Tillman, Paul, Tod, Grace, and myself. It was quite a fun group actually. I am really struggling to figure out how to put this trip into words. It was truly incredible. I’m going to attempt to make my words make sense, which might be rather difficult. Okay. We had to travel for most of Friday (it took ten hours in total to get to Ghana). After we arrived we were met by a very friendly man named Prince. He had been a patient earlier this year on the ship, so the doctors and nurses knew him already. He was the person who showed us all around Ghana. We picked him up and he took us to our hotel, which was actually pretty nice. The beds there were HUGE just to give you an idea Chelsea, Michelle, Kendall, and I were all going to share one—and share it comfortably for that matter. Paul ended up giving up his room though so Chelsea and I shared one room and Michelle and Kendall shared the other. After we were all settled in we went out to eat at a “fast food” restaurant in Akraa. We were staying in Tema, but Akraa is the capitol of Ghana, and it’s very well developed. The roads and everything were pretty nice. It looked like a city in the states.. except African. J After we went out to eat we went to a gelato place! Which was quite a treat for us, I haven’t had ice cream (besides fan milk) in 2 months. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and slept better than we had all slept in quite a while. I never realized how loud the engine is on this ship until I laid down to go to sleep that night. It seemed so quiet.

Saturday:

The next morning Chelsea and I were awoken by a sick Rooster, ha. I’m not entirely sure what was wrong with it. But its cock-a-doodle-doo sounded more like cock-a-doodle-eeerr…. (Imagine a beautiful screeching noise there) it was actually really funny to wake up to. We went to this little pavilion where we were served breakfast which consisted of omelettes, cheese, and toast. It was really good. I don’t know why I just told you what we ate, I doubt that’s really exciting to read about. I apologize. Prince (who just got married in march) brought along his wife and some of his family members. ANYWAYS, after we ate we drove to Akaa falls which took about 2 hours. We hiked down to the bottom of the falls which was just beautiful. Then we hiked to the top of the falls which was really lovely as well. The water was really calm until right before it went over the falls. Then we hiked up to a miniature version of the umbrella rock and sat under it. The view there was beautiful. It overlooked a village in the mountains. It was so nice to see so much green and breathe in so much fresh air. Then we went to the botanical gardens. The queen of England used to have a house in Ghana (so we were told) and she kept a beautiful garden which they have preserved. There were a lot of interesting plants and trees there. I know I keep saying beautiful, but I don’t know how else to describe everything. We were only at the gardens for a little while because they were setting up for a festival later that night (which we would in fact be attending). We went to Boti falls which was a little bit more of a hike than Akaa falls. There were two waterfalls at the base, two rivers ran beside each other, but never came together until they both fell into this pool. It was really pretty. I’ll try to put up some pictures next time, but I don’t know if pictures can really capture how incredible it all was. After the falls we hiked/rock climbed across two mountains to the top of another mountain which had the umbrella rock on top! Where we climbed to the top and looked out at the lovely view. It was truly breath taking. I don’t know what else to say. We went to the festival after that and watched some African dancers perform. On our way home we were drivng down the mountain and a bus came zooming past us—almost hitting our bus and screeching around the curve. We all thought he was just a really crazy driver, but Grace suggested we pray for them.. just in case something was wrong. We prayed for them and then forgot about it until we got to the bottom of the mountain. We saw all these people outside of a bus on the ground screaming and crying. It took us a while to figure out what was going on, but we finally realized they were praising the Lord that they were alive. The bus’ breaks went out—it was a miracle that they made it to the bottom of the mountain without an accident. God is cool huh?

Sunday:

Sunday morning we went to the canopy walk. Okay, so do you know those old bridges with the wooden planks and rope? We walked on those across the top of the rain forest, it was so cool. You would walk a little distance and then get to a platform in a treetop that had a really pretty view, and then walk again. It was really beautiful and really fun. I attempted to walk it with no hands. I succeeded for three of the bridges! Ha. That took up most of the day because it took a while to drive there from our hotel, but we still had a little time afterwards so we went to a castle on the Cape Coast. It was actually a fort where they kept the slaves until they were sent off in the ships for different countries. It’s really sad all they things that happened there, but the building itself was really pretty. It actually reminded me a lot of Greece. Not that I’ve been to Greece, but pictures I’ve seen of Greece. The ocean was really pretty. I wish I could describe everything to you, but I feel like in the end it would be kind of futile. It’s impossible to fully describe every aspect of our lovely little trip. After the castle we went out to eat and got ice cream again. O! I forgot to mention, Paul kept on trying to sell me to different street vendors for what they were selling, and outside the castle he traded me for 4 bracelets.. really? 4 bracelets? That’s all I’m worth? Ouch… He told me he wanted to make a thousand babies.. but I told him I don’t think that could happen… and I had to go.. so luckily I escaped that marriage.

Monday:

Monday morning we went to the market. The market in Ghana is much more pleasant than the market in Benin. No one yells at you to come into their store or anything, and they’re all really polite which is nice. After we picked up food for breakfast and some random fabrics we went on our way home. Our trip home was a little bit more exciting than our ride to Ghana. We kept getting pulled over and kept trying to distract the police men so they wouldn’t give us a ticket for random things.. people give you tickets here for the dumbest things.. so one time when we stopped one of the policemen kept looking at me, and then decided he wanted to marry me. He told me he’d be waiting for me till I came back, and he’d be praying for me everyday… Im sorry to disapoint you dear sir.. but i dont think I'll be coming back anytime soon. One policeman that pulled us over wasn't distracted so easily. He was rather drunk I do believe. He saw that we were white, and then proceeded to look for a way to fine us. He was trying to find anything he could, but everything was fine until our driver got our of the car. He was wearing Flip flops, which are apparently illegal in ghana. So he told us that we had to bribe him or he'd send us all to jail to wait for our court date, and we wouldnt bribe him, because it's part of the Mercy Ships rules, and because it's illegal. So we were waiting on the side of the road so he could tell us where to go, or that another officer could come get us... I was praying that we could just leave because i really wanted to get back to the ship, and not spend the night in a ghanaian prison.. and then out of nowhere a random man came up and told the officer to "let those people go" (like moses! ha... "let my people go") and then he just waved us away, so we pulled off as fast as we could! :)
We made it back alive and well, just slightly tired from our ten hour journey.

This week:
I slept in and rested on tuesday, and worked wednesday and thursday. On Friday I went with chelsea into the ministry sites, we went to the dental clinic, eye clinic, and the construction site. It was really interesting to see all the people we serve working at their different off ship sites. It made me realize that i sort of only pictured them eating. hahaha. I know that sounds funny, but i think in the back of my mind it was almost harder to just work and serve them because i had this attitude towards them like they never worked, but it was cool to see them all working. It's amazing all the different gifts God has given us.
Today I went to the prison and visited with the women again, I really like going back to the same place, you get to build relationships with each of the women. Chelsea and Kendall and I were holding this little girl who never smiled, and chelsea got a little laugh out of her. I was very proud of her. :) but when we left she started crying, it was kindof depressing really, but we'll be back next saturday.. tomorrow I'm going to church with one of the dayworkers--antoine. he works in the dining room with me. Im pretty excited. I hope you all have a wonderful week. :)

10/7/09

Prison

On Saturday I went to Prison. It was honestly a lot cooler than I was expecting it to be. I had had my heart set on going to the psychiatric clinic every Saturday but I decided to go to the prison at least once. Chelsea, kendall, Michelle and I all went. We unloaded from the cars into the street and waited on the people to come that came every Saturday (prison evangelists?) When they all showed up we filed in through the big metal doors into a room where a man just gave me a list of names and motioned for me to call them out (either he couldn’t read.. or our names were too hard to pronounce I think) Once all the names were called out we went to our different sections (I was in the women’s group). We walked into this big courtyard area (much like the psychiatric hospital) and it was packed with men… all the different prisoners. Now let me clarify something for you about the prisoners here—75% of of them are there without trial. In Benin you are guilty until proven innocent and sometimes it can take up to 2 years for you to have a trial, so many of the people in the prison were in there for crimes they never committed. It’s really sad. We were told that the police are bribed by people sometimes to arrest innocent people. It hurts my heart to see them in there for no reason. Its so unfair. We walked through the courtyard and went through an “alley” and we reached another metal door with a little window with bars over it, it was knocked on and we were allowed in—the women’s prison. Please remove any idea you have in your mind about what a prison should look like over here. There are no cells, it’s a courtyard.. with alley ways and “houses” there are no beds inside—just mats where they sleep. They are all given different jobs to do throughout the day to keep them busy. There are also a lot of children in the women’s prison—there’s no where else for them to stay, so they come to prison with their mom.
As always, when you first arrive at a ministry site it’s slightly awkward. You’re never really sure what to do. I prayed that God would help me, help me to love these people. That he would show me what he wanted me to do. Someone made the suggestion that we divide into groups of two or so and spread out. So I walked into the first “house” and saw two younger women inside with their children. I asked the woman with the older child if I could sit down next to her and she nodded yes. So I sat down on the matt next to her. She had a really cute baby girl who just stared at me and smiled some. There was another lady in the house with a new born baby, o yes, and one younger girl—about my age. I basically just sat and laughed at the children with them. I mimicked the different faces they were making and we just laughed. Michelle came in too, she was being followed around by a little girl who kept jumping on her. We decided to go out into the courtyard and listen to the message, but then the two women went back inside, so I went and sat in the doorway and just watched Kaylee play with this little girl. I love watching my friends play with kids. Michelle (who is my room mate if you didn’t know) was holding this little girl that didn’t like anyone it seemed besides michelle. She has quite a gift with children. I love getting to know all the different people on this ship. I’ve come to realize how many different gifts people have. I just think it’s so cool that we are all so different. I know that sounds really silly, but I am so glad that we aren’t all created the same. Anyways, after watching my friends for a little while I went back inside—and then the fun commenced! Kendall (one of my new room mates) came into the house, and so did Chelsea. They can both speak French (chelsea’s learning!) so I could finally understand what the women were saying. We sat around in a circle and just talked and laughed. There was one prisoner named Priska who was hilarious! She was trying to tell us that the little girl we were playing with had three brothers and sisters but we couldn’t understand her for some reason. So she said “her mother—(insert labor noises) 4 times!” hahaha it was so funny. They were talking about me but I couldn’t understand what they were saying so I just kept making weird facial expressions, which then resulted in laughter again.. then they would say something weird and I would start laughing. If felt like we had all been friends for a really long time. There was a little more confusion because Priska was trying to ask me if we breast fed back home, but I thought she was asking if I breast fed right now. So I said no, because actually I thought she was asking if I’d breast feed her baby for her.. hahaaha o dear, I said “I could try, but I don’t think it would do any good” It was quite a funny confusing situation. Then they said I looked like a singer they knew, and Chelsea decided to tell them I was, so Leah and I sang for them. Then Chelsea, Kendall and I sang and danced for them, Then The ladies joined in. It was so much fun. We were then told we had to leave, but I will definitely be going back. It was such an incredible experience.

Stepping out of the boat

As I told you last week my small group and I have decided to “step out of the boat” into the city of Benin to pray for the different people. We went in for the first time on Saturday. Priska, Dina, Chelsea, Dorothea and I all met on the dock and prayed that God would show us what exactly he wanted us to do today and who he wanted us to pray for. We walked down the street—just praying for the city of Benin and for the different people we saw. It was strange because usually there are a whole lot of beggars and crippled people on the streets, but that particular day we didn’t see any—the one day we were actually looking for them. We walked all the way down to the market and still.. no sign of anyone. Then we all started singing. Yes, I realize we probably looked like a cult, but we were singing “open the eyes of my heart Lord, I want to see you” It was so cool because then we saw a crippled man in the middle of the street. We all walked up to him and sat on the ground with him and asked his name and some other random questions, then a little crowd of curious men gathered around us and we asked if they wanted us to pray for them. We talked to them all for a little while and then prayed for each of them. Then we sang, I feel like I sing a whole lot more here, but that could be debatable. We then walked down the street on our way back to the street and prayed for the people we were passing when we saw another man who we went up and talked to—he looked to be crippled, but I’m not really sure if he was. We talked to a woman beside him and another boy, we just got to know the people and then asked if they wanted us to pray for them which we did. On our way back to the ship we lost Chelsea and Dorothea, they went off and played with some kids on the side of the street (they were walking behind us) we got back to the port and prayed again for the city and for the people. It was really cool to start building relationships with the people of cotonou and to actually pray with them. We’re going back out tomorrow and Tuesday.

Speaking of our small group: it’s been incredible. The girls that are in it—
Chelsea: she’s probably my best friend here, she’s my bunk mate, and we have the same working schedule, needless to say we spend a whole lot of time together. She’s our dining room team leader and she’s really great. She loves Jesus a whole whole lot. You can see it in everything that she does. She’s been an incredible encouragement to me in my walk with the Lord

Kelsey: She’s the newest arrival in our group, she’s really encouraging. I feel like God speaks to me through her in every small group we have. She always has a scripture or a quote or some amazing truth God has shown her that she can share. Tonight she talked about having a heavenly focus, I don’t know how to explain it really. I just feel like everything she says comes straight from the heart of God. She is such a blessing. She’s from The states as well, although I can’t remember which one :/

Dinante: She’s from the Netherlands, and her life is a really incredible testimony as well. I feel like she’s so full of wisdom. She passionately seeks the Lord in all she does. She’s really funny too, she and Chelsea were my first two friends on the ship really. Sadly she’s on the other dining team now so we don’t get to work together as much L

Dorothea: She’s our small group leader. She is also my room mate. J She is such an encouragement as well, I know I keep saying that. But it’s true about every single one of these girls. She’s so honest about what’s going on in her heart.. that even through her struggles she is a light to people. She is so loving, so compassionate. She made me cry tonight. She told me I was encouragement to her and I haven’t heard that in so long. I know that sounds silly, But I realized I have been so selfish lately that I couldn’t have been an encouragement to anyone. I was always bringing people down.. God’s been changing my heart though, and It was just really encouraging to hear from someone that they see a change. I want to be different. I want to be completely his. Tonight was a hard night for dorothea, one of the translators in the ward (shes an admissions nurse) was killed in an accident last night, so it was a hard day for her.. for everyone really. If you could be in prayer for daniel’s family, he has two children and a wife. O yes. Dorothea is from Switzerland. She blesses everyone around her with her contagious joy. She leaves on the thirtieth, which I don’t want to think about.

Priska: She is from Switzerland as well. She prays all day long which I think is really cool. She’s very honest about her struggles.. and what I love about her is the fact that she’s not afraid to yell at you if you’re being stupid. I was talking about my struggle with unbelief, and it was so so refreshing to just have someone tell me that I have a problem rather than sugar coat it. I said that when I pray for healing for someone I think I doubt in my heart, because if I fully believed God would and could heal this man and he wasn’t healed it would prove God wasn’t real to me. So she said “that’s your problem! You don’t believe! How can you pray like this and expect something to happen if you don’t believe?” Except in a swiss accent.. She’s really great. I am so thankful she’s in our group.

Irina: Irina is gone. Which hurts my heart. I miss her. She’s from Russia, except she lives in Poland. She was a new Christian, which was really cool to have in our group. She was always very honest about her struggles, and we had a lot in common which was nice. She really and truly desires to live her life for the Lord.

All these girls are such a blessing in my life—I put up a piture of us, this was before irina left.. our last small group all together L well I hope you all have a blessed day!

O and PS—we have three new room mates: Kendall: from St. Louis, Mel from the UK and Melanie from the UK. Melanie is only here a month, and I don’t quite remember how long Mel is here for.. but they are all quite nice. Our room mates all get along fine. That’s been a blessing.