So I am sure most of you have heard by now... if not, I missed my flight to Frankfurt meaning I missed my flight from Germany to Ethiopia. Because Ethiopia isn't such a hot spot the next flight out isn't until Monday morning at 6:45 AM. When I first found out I was being delayed for 48 hours I was pretty upset, I had just gotten off of my all night flight from Benin to Paris and I spent an hour running all over the airport on minimal sleep to find out I had to find a place to stay for 48 hours. At first I thought I might just stay in the airport and save some mula... but I finally got my head straight, bought some wifi and got a hold of my mom who of course made everything better just with talking to her.
Long story short I made it to a nearby hotel on Saturday and slept the afternoon away to catch up on my lack of sleep from all of the excitement of leaving the ship. Last night I did a lot of housekeeping stuff on my emails and pictures and just took it easy and tried to adjust from being around people constantly to being all alone. It was strange eating a meal by myself surrounded by people who don't even speak the same language, but I got used to it.
Today I decided to make the most of my time in Paris and ventured out to the city. My hotel has a free shuttle service to the airport and from the airport I took the train to the Latin Quarter to explore Jardin du Luxumborg and Notre Dame. On the way some men boarded the train and entertained the train with their violins, it was so fun. Then they got off and just a couple of stops later a husband and wife boarded the train and he played his accordian and she sang, it was so interesting. This was just the first of odd run-ins with an eclectic assortment of people. I have seen more people with pigeons eating out of their hands and sitting on them today then I have in my whole life. As Amy has said, pigeons are like rats that fly, why you would want a living carrier of diseases to perch on you I will never know, but it was strange to witness nonetheless.
Paris is also home to a wide variety of entertainers... from mimes, footballers, artists, puppeteers and everything in between, I was definitely entertained all day. I think I could have sat on a bench and just people watched all day long.
The absolute best part of my day was how much God provided. Even the small things, like I really wanted McDonalds (don't judge me), and there happened to be on right next to the metro station where I was headed to right around dinner time. In the back of my mind I kinda wanted to find a unique but not expensive little souvenir to remember this whole random trip and to celebrate my birthday with and I found the coolest little boutique in the Montmarte section of Paris and got some earrings and a necklace.... just down to the last euro He had all the details worked out for me and the past two days have been such a breath of fresh air for me, which reminds me....
It has been amazing to breath CLEAN AIR!!!! :) Oh I have loved it! I feel like I can relate to someone who was a smoker and quit, all day I couldn't help but take the deepest breath just to savor the delicious clean air. And the weather was unbeatable, clear, crisp and cool. About an hour after I got to my room it started to rain, but all day long it was clear.
Also I met a Ghanian on the train home! How random is that??? But it made me acutely aware of how much I miss all of my Ghanian and Mercy Ships friends, but was a neat reminder to pray for them. I also had a random man approach me and tell me "Hakuna Matata! It means no worries, share it with your friends and family!" He then proceeded to make me a bracelet out of green, yellow and red string (the National colors for my 3 favorite African countries, Ethiopia, Benin and Ghana) while talking to me and didn't even charge me for it! It was like God's way of giving me a reminder of all my special experiences in Africa.
All that to say THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! for all of your prayers!!! They have been noticed and responded to with love and care that I have experienced in such a real way throughout my time alone over the past couple of days. My flight leaves at 0645 Monday morning (about 4 hours from now) and I will arrive in Addis around 7pm Monday night. I will spend the night in Addis alone for one more night and will meet up with the team (and my dad and Ashley!!!!!!) Tuesday midday. Then I will have 2 full days of ministry (wednesday and thursday) before we all head back to Addis on Friday and I venture onto the Middle East for one last week abroad. I can't believe that I will be home in less than 2 weeks! Crazy!
Please continue to pray for safety and mercies as I continue to travel. I just got word today that one of the girls that I am meeting up with in the Middle East may have pneumonia and I am going to try and pick up some medications for her in Addis. Please pray for her health and that I could be of help and get a hold of some drugs.
much love to you all back home! I will write more when I can!! :)
Sunday, November 15, 2009
E-mail Update...
Dear Friends and Famille!
I can't believe Friday November 13th has arrived! In one hour I will say goodbye to the Africa Mercy and all of the friends that I have made over the past 3 months and make the 24 hour journey to Ethiopia to meet up with Dad, Ashley and Teki. It will be hard to say goodbye to everyone here, but I can't help but be excited to be reunited with my Ethiopian pals. Please be praying for safe travel and for travel mercies, especially that my flight from Benin to Paris would be on time because I only have a one hour lay over to catch my flight out of Paris to Frankfurt to then head to Addis with Ashley. Flights out of Benin are often late and I am a bit nervous that I will be stranded in Paris, but I also know I am in God's hands and he will take care of me.
This next week I will be working with dad in Northern Ethiopia helping out with eye clinics and sharing the gospel before heading to the Middle East next Friday for one final week of ministry there working with university students. Please also pray for strength as I have finally fought off that nasty virus that I have had for the past month... God is so good because I am feeling 100% for the first time in 4 weeks and just in time to leave. :) Thank you again for all of your prayers and encouragement. I will update again soon but wanted to keep you in the loop of my departure.
I look forward to seeing you all soon and am so thankful for each and every one of you as thanksgiving is fast approaching and I am reminded that I have so much to be thankful for.
Love to you all....
Katie
I can't believe Friday November 13th has arrived! In one hour I will say goodbye to the Africa Mercy and all of the friends that I have made over the past 3 months and make the 24 hour journey to Ethiopia to meet up with Dad, Ashley and Teki. It will be hard to say goodbye to everyone here, but I can't help but be excited to be reunited with my Ethiopian pals. Please be praying for safe travel and for travel mercies, especially that my flight from Benin to Paris would be on time because I only have a one hour lay over to catch my flight out of Paris to Frankfurt to then head to Addis with Ashley. Flights out of Benin are often late and I am a bit nervous that I will be stranded in Paris, but I also know I am in God's hands and he will take care of me.
This next week I will be working with dad in Northern Ethiopia helping out with eye clinics and sharing the gospel before heading to the Middle East next Friday for one final week of ministry there working with university students. Please also pray for strength as I have finally fought off that nasty virus that I have had for the past month... God is so good because I am feeling 100% for the first time in 4 weeks and just in time to leave. :) Thank you again for all of your prayers and encouragement. I will update again soon but wanted to keep you in the loop of my departure.
I look forward to seeing you all soon and am so thankful for each and every one of you as thanksgiving is fast approaching and I am reminded that I have so much to be thankful for.
Love to you all....
Katie
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Things I don't want to forget...
This blog probably won't make much sense to you.... but there are so many random memories and experiences from my 3 month time in Benin I have to put them into words so that I don't forget about them, hope you enjoy my reminiscing...
White people are called "yovos" - when you're walking down the street kids will shout it or sing "Yovo, yovo bonsoir, ca va bien? merci!" meaning: "white person, white person, good evening, how are you? good. thank you!" So random.
On an almost daily basis ships the size of sky scrapers come in and out of the port, they're so big it's hard to imagine they can float out at sea, they're incredible! And I always heard of tug boats, but I had never actually seen them in action, it's pretty cool to see how they maneuver and pull the big boats in and out of the port. Last week a boat hit us.... my roommate was on the toilet at the time and screamed, it was funny. But apparently now we have a hole in the side of the ship that has to get fixed before the ship sails in December. We were also hit a couple weeks ago, but that was just a "kiss" and didn't do any damage.... talk about bumper boats, I am just glad I don't have to control one of these ships.... I can't even parallel park!
Ghanians speak Twi. Seeing as some of my good friends on board are Ghanian they thought it would be fun to teach me some basic Ghanian terms, it was all fun and games until I started talking about my vagina instead of saying "come here..." Needless to say it didn't take much for me to realize I had said something that I shouldn't have when the 3 Ghanians I was "talking" with couldn't stop laughing. I learned quickly the importance of pronunciation.... especially when it comes to "chea" and "shea" sounds. After saying "good naked!" to a room full of Germans instead of good night and after my Twi mishap I am starting to think linguistics is not my forte and maybe I should just stick to speaking English and working with translators. :)
One day Kelsey, a roommate of mine, and I were heading to the big market, Dankopta, when we saw 4 young, male Yovos walking in front of us intently studying their guide book and looking thoroughly confused so Kelsey approached them and said: "What are you yovos doing in Benin?" Little did we know that was the beginning of a 48 hour friendship, we spent the rest of the afternoon with the 4 guys who were recent graduates in demography from Canada and were visiting Benin for 4 days on holiday from their internship in Togo. They were really cool guys and appreciated our help in showing them around Cotonou and they even came to the ship the next night and received a first-class hospitality tour of the ship and we all went to a reggae concert together. So random, but so fun! I love the unique experiences you have when you travel.
Since coming to Mercy Ship the word Ghurka has become a part of my vocabulary. Wikipedia describes them as: "Gurkha, also spelled as Gorkha or Ghurka, are people from Nepal and northern India[1] who take their name from the eighth century Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath....Gurkhas are best known for their history of bravery and strength in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments and the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas. The Gurkhas were designated by British officials as a "Martial Race". "Martial Race" was a designation created by officials of British India to describe "races" (peoples) that were thought to be naturally warlike and aggressive in battle, and to possess qualities of courage, loyalty, self sufficiency, physical strength, resilience, orderliness, the ability to work hard for long periods of time, fighting tenacity and military strategy. The British recruited heavily from these Martial Races for service in the British Indian Army." Our security is made up of a group of Ghurkas and they are some of the sweetest men I have ever encountered. I will miss them dearly and I always felt safe knowing they were guarding our gangway.
One of my favorite things about Western Africa that was so different from any other country I have ever been to is their unique fabrics. Their prints are so bright and colorful and I am pretty sure they have designs of just about anything under the sun. I personally saw fabric with vegetables, nintendo controllers, the elements for communion, UFO's and gas pumps. SO funny!
Towards the end of my trip I realized I hadn't had an authentic African meal experience with any of my friends from Africa.... so I asked my friends to take me and boy did I get an experience. The first time we went and got foofoo (a staple part of the Ghanian diet, kinda tastes like potatoes but a little more bland and it has the consistency of bread dough) and an assortment of fish (mind you it was the whole thing, skin, face, eyeballs, bones... basically just caught out of the ocean and cooked, a crab, same thing... the whole thing in the dish and a piece of cow skin cooked. Before we even begin eating our table was covered in flies, so the owner of the little road side shop came in with a container of kerosene and dips a rag in it and soaks our kerosene, this obviously was to keep the flies away!!! Well it worked, but I think I may have ingested some considering we used our hands to eat and I was touching the table. So I was waiting for someone to bring some kind of tool out to crack the crabs when Stephen, my Ghanian friend, informs me you just break of a crab leg and stick the entire thing in your mouth, crack it with your teeth and spit out the "non-meat" portion of the leg! I am proud to say I ate all of the cow skin, some foofoo and some of the crab legs. I couldn't bring myself to eat the fish.... but I enjoyed watching stephen devour the eyes and brain. hmmm... I am ready to order food and not have it stare at me while I eat it. :)
I did have a second African food experience... I had foofoo and goat meat, the kicker that time was the skin was still on the meat, hmmm, nice and chewy. I think the worst part was looking out the front door into the street and watching goats walk in the street as I was eating it. I didn't like that.
Baking for 400 was always a unique experience.... 52 eggs, 24 cups of brown sugar, we definitely got creative!
I will never forget going to the deaf school and spending time loving on those kids, or the kids from Mother Theresa's Sister's of charity orphanage. The night Bethany, Kaylee and I went with the Jesus film ministry team, the ward church services, the VVF ceremony celebrating the women being made whole or the countless trips to the hospitality center. MS is such an incredible ministry shining its light in so many different ways in Benin. From surgery to dental clinics Christ is being made known in a powerful way in Western Africa and I loved being a part of it!
God definitely blessed me while I was on board with a study by Beth Moore that started the week after I got onboard and ended the week I finished, so I was able to go through the entire study. It's called breaking free and it was all focused on filling your life with God's truth and trying to find the lies that the devil has planted in our hearts and minds. This study has been amazing and I have learned so so much through it... I would completely recommend it to anyone who has the chance.
Well, that was a little lengthy... but I do not want to forget all of those little details that tend to slip out of my memory as time passes. Hope you enjoyed the reminiscing. :)
White people are called "yovos" - when you're walking down the street kids will shout it or sing "Yovo, yovo bonsoir, ca va bien? merci!" meaning: "white person, white person, good evening, how are you? good. thank you!" So random.
On an almost daily basis ships the size of sky scrapers come in and out of the port, they're so big it's hard to imagine they can float out at sea, they're incredible! And I always heard of tug boats, but I had never actually seen them in action, it's pretty cool to see how they maneuver and pull the big boats in and out of the port. Last week a boat hit us.... my roommate was on the toilet at the time and screamed, it was funny. But apparently now we have a hole in the side of the ship that has to get fixed before the ship sails in December. We were also hit a couple weeks ago, but that was just a "kiss" and didn't do any damage.... talk about bumper boats, I am just glad I don't have to control one of these ships.... I can't even parallel park!
Ghanians speak Twi. Seeing as some of my good friends on board are Ghanian they thought it would be fun to teach me some basic Ghanian terms, it was all fun and games until I started talking about my vagina instead of saying "come here..." Needless to say it didn't take much for me to realize I had said something that I shouldn't have when the 3 Ghanians I was "talking" with couldn't stop laughing. I learned quickly the importance of pronunciation.... especially when it comes to "chea" and "shea" sounds. After saying "good naked!" to a room full of Germans instead of good night and after my Twi mishap I am starting to think linguistics is not my forte and maybe I should just stick to speaking English and working with translators. :)
One day Kelsey, a roommate of mine, and I were heading to the big market, Dankopta, when we saw 4 young, male Yovos walking in front of us intently studying their guide book and looking thoroughly confused so Kelsey approached them and said: "What are you yovos doing in Benin?" Little did we know that was the beginning of a 48 hour friendship, we spent the rest of the afternoon with the 4 guys who were recent graduates in demography from Canada and were visiting Benin for 4 days on holiday from their internship in Togo. They were really cool guys and appreciated our help in showing them around Cotonou and they even came to the ship the next night and received a first-class hospitality tour of the ship and we all went to a reggae concert together. So random, but so fun! I love the unique experiences you have when you travel.
Since coming to Mercy Ship the word Ghurka has become a part of my vocabulary. Wikipedia describes them as: "Gurkha, also spelled as Gorkha or Ghurka, are people from Nepal and northern India[1] who take their name from the eighth century Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath....Gurkhas are best known for their history of bravery and strength in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments and the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas. The Gurkhas were designated by British officials as a "Martial Race". "Martial Race" was a designation created by officials of British India to describe "races" (peoples) that were thought to be naturally warlike and aggressive in battle, and to possess qualities of courage, loyalty, self sufficiency, physical strength, resilience, orderliness, the ability to work hard for long periods of time, fighting tenacity and military strategy. The British recruited heavily from these Martial Races for service in the British Indian Army." Our security is made up of a group of Ghurkas and they are some of the sweetest men I have ever encountered. I will miss them dearly and I always felt safe knowing they were guarding our gangway.
One of my favorite things about Western Africa that was so different from any other country I have ever been to is their unique fabrics. Their prints are so bright and colorful and I am pretty sure they have designs of just about anything under the sun. I personally saw fabric with vegetables, nintendo controllers, the elements for communion, UFO's and gas pumps. SO funny!
Towards the end of my trip I realized I hadn't had an authentic African meal experience with any of my friends from Africa.... so I asked my friends to take me and boy did I get an experience. The first time we went and got foofoo (a staple part of the Ghanian diet, kinda tastes like potatoes but a little more bland and it has the consistency of bread dough) and an assortment of fish (mind you it was the whole thing, skin, face, eyeballs, bones... basically just caught out of the ocean and cooked, a crab, same thing... the whole thing in the dish and a piece of cow skin cooked. Before we even begin eating our table was covered in flies, so the owner of the little road side shop came in with a container of kerosene and dips a rag in it and soaks our kerosene, this obviously was to keep the flies away!!! Well it worked, but I think I may have ingested some considering we used our hands to eat and I was touching the table. So I was waiting for someone to bring some kind of tool out to crack the crabs when Stephen, my Ghanian friend, informs me you just break of a crab leg and stick the entire thing in your mouth, crack it with your teeth and spit out the "non-meat" portion of the leg! I am proud to say I ate all of the cow skin, some foofoo and some of the crab legs. I couldn't bring myself to eat the fish.... but I enjoyed watching stephen devour the eyes and brain. hmmm... I am ready to order food and not have it stare at me while I eat it. :)
I did have a second African food experience... I had foofoo and goat meat, the kicker that time was the skin was still on the meat, hmmm, nice and chewy. I think the worst part was looking out the front door into the street and watching goats walk in the street as I was eating it. I didn't like that.
Baking for 400 was always a unique experience.... 52 eggs, 24 cups of brown sugar, we definitely got creative!
I will never forget going to the deaf school and spending time loving on those kids, or the kids from Mother Theresa's Sister's of charity orphanage. The night Bethany, Kaylee and I went with the Jesus film ministry team, the ward church services, the VVF ceremony celebrating the women being made whole or the countless trips to the hospitality center. MS is such an incredible ministry shining its light in so many different ways in Benin. From surgery to dental clinics Christ is being made known in a powerful way in Western Africa and I loved being a part of it!
God definitely blessed me while I was on board with a study by Beth Moore that started the week after I got onboard and ended the week I finished, so I was able to go through the entire study. It's called breaking free and it was all focused on filling your life with God's truth and trying to find the lies that the devil has planted in our hearts and minds. This study has been amazing and I have learned so so much through it... I would completely recommend it to anyone who has the chance.
Well, that was a little lengthy... but I do not want to forget all of those little details that tend to slip out of my memory as time passes. Hope you enjoyed the reminiscing. :)
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