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. :)
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