Our days in Northern Benin and the villages

Hello Everyone,

After 10 days in the north, we have finally returned to Cotonou. Here is a descriptive summary of our time up there.

On the afternoon of the 19th, we had a team meeting, which I thought needed to happen because many of us were in bad moods because we were keeping in our feelings. We talked about our frustrations with being in Benin and also talked out problems that we have with each other. Recently, we have been together all of the time. Since February 11, we have all been sleeping in the same place; whether it is our apartment, a hotel, or a hospital. Because we are constantly around each other, we deal with the struggles and joys that come with living in community. After our team meeting, we sang some praise and worship songs; that really reunited us. Then, we ate a delicious meal of spaghetti, cooked by Adrienne.

On Feb 20th, we met "the dude from the north"-- as Sonja has titled him. He is an evangelist from the village of Saah and he was responsible for our schedule in the north. After much discussion about scheduling, we finally left Cotonou for the north. The ride in turbo turtle was long and dusty. It was very hot and humid until we got to northern Benin, where it is dry. We stopped for lunch, then stayed for a long time because the car needed to be fixed. We were quite annoyed that our driver didn't get it fixed before when were in Cotonou. While we were waiting for turbo turtle to be fixedn we foud out some about what we would be douing in the north. At firest, we were told that we would be doing door to door evangelism in two groups, but without any music. We were quite surprized and overwhelmed by this. It reminded us of the Jehovah's Witnesses church near our apartment. As a team, we discussed how we weren't comfortable with evangelizing door to door. Also, we didn't feel it was our role to Christianize others by teaching. Instead, we like to follow YE's mission statement: to partner with Christian communities to strengthen their youth ministry. We do this primarily through music and relational ministry. Our team leader expalined this to the evangelist and he said we could just go door to door and sing a few songs while inviting them to our program. After turbo was fixed, we stopped so Luke could buy a djembé. Then, finally, we were on our way until there was a large semi that was jack-knifed in the middle of the road. Turbo turtle is a Peugeot and is not very comfortable. The heat radiates from underneath the seats. We didn't get to Parakou until 11 p.m. We were frusterated and tired!! We slept at the first hotel they found, which was 15,000 CFA a night per room--way more than what we should have spent. Thankfully, the hotel had air-conditioning, so we enjoyed a cooler night.

On Feb 21st, our driver was getting the tires oin turbo rotated when we wanted to leave, but we left for Kandi at 9:30. We got to Kandi at 2 p.m. When we arrived in Kandi, we were expecting to do door to door ministry, but instead we just ate and rested? The rest was very needed after two long drives on bumpy roads. We stayed at a cheaper hotel in Kandi for three nights. This time, there wa no air conditioning, but there was a fan, when there was electricity. All of the girls slept in one room to save money. I was surprized how comfortable Adrienne and I were on the floor with our matress pads. However, it was hot!! During our stay in Kandin we bought our breakfasts of bread, nutella-like stuff, jam, and oranges. For lunch and dinner, we would go to a restaurant where I usually had rice and chicken, but I also had goat and French fries once. It was tough to not get much variety in our food, but we enjoyed drinking cold pops.

On Feb 22nd, We travelled 45 minutes to the village of Saah. The roads were very bumpy and we had to walk part of the way to the church because turbo got stuck. This time, the church looked more cultural than usual. Instead of being a large, sturdy building; it was a small building with a thatched roof and thatched walls. I really appreciated seeing that instead of a large churh built by missionaries-- like the many huge, fancy, Catholic churches we saw on our drive up. I like seeing churches started by locals. The church has only been there since October. The evangelist leads the church, but has a year and a half before he will be a pastor. So, no one is baptized in the church and no one has communed, but there is worship there every Sunday. Some of the service was in French and some of it was in Macolé, the language that people spoke in that area. We sang three songs. The drummers at the church had really beautiful djembés, I hope to get one soon. After church, we were led to what we think was the nicest house in the village. We were followed by many children. We tried some cashew fruit. The kids enjoyed watching Luke pump water. Prosper was offered at 12 year old wife; thankfully, it was a joke, but he did jokingly accept. Adrienne played tic-tac-toe with some kids, but they never really learned how to play so she lost every game. Thekids were thrilled when they won; we clapped for them! Most of the people in the village speak Macolé, very few spoke French, and no one spoke English; therefore, it was tough for us to do ministry. We did a 45 minute program. We enjoyed singing for an audience full of dancers. I don't know how much people got of our message, considering the songs were mostly in French, with only one verse of a song in their language. On our drive back to Kandi that night, we got a flat tire. Surprizingly, we actually did have a spare.

On Feb 23rd, we went to a high-school in Kandi. We were told we would to an hour of programming in English--which was a huge change. I planned for that only to hear that school had been let out early. So, we went to meet the mayor of the city, but he was busy. Since we had no other programming for the day, we decided to do some street ministry. We sang songs at four different places in teh market. It was hot and very dusty, but also fun. It was really relaxed, we just picked songs as we went. We had pretty good audiences, most of them were kids. We all enjoyed a snack of sugar cane that evening.

On Feb 24th, we left Kandi for the village of Saah, but this time we had all of our bags with us. Upon our arrival in Saah, we went to an elementary school and found outthey wanted us to do two hours of programming, which is a lot for kids attention spans. We did two hours of sing-a-longs, a puppet show, songs in French, and a skit. The kids really enjoyed most of it, but got restless towards the end. They loved the songs with actions and silly noises. I actually felt like I gained some energy from the kids. There were probablyabout 400 kids. Children love having their picture taken, so we regularly take pictures of them after programs. After the school program, we went to the hospital, where we stayed for five nights for free. The rooms were empty and there was no running water. We all slept on the floor. Thankfully, people from the village brought us water and food, that we paid for. During our stay there, we ate cous cous, rice, chicken, goat, and beans. For the most part, the food wasn't bad, but it wasn't very healthy and our bodies were all lacking proper nutrients. It was a very hot day!! 116 degrees!!!!!!!!! At least there wasn't humidity. In the afternoon, we travelled 30 km to the village of Fouet. It took us about 2 hours. We met the chief of the village, but he only shoke the men's hands. We did an hour long program there. The evangelist translated Prosper's French into Macolé; that made the program feel a lot longer. The evangelist often spoke way longer than Prosper and we assume that was to further explain things to people that he understood the culture and beliefs of. Our programs in teh villages were much more evangelistic than normal, which took some getting used to. There are few Christians in the villages. Some our Muslims and some are animists. Tehre were probably about 250 people at that program. Thekids enjoyed dancing along when their parents would let them. We eventually learned that it was mardi gras, but we weren't really feeling it as we went to be pretty hungry.

On Feb 25, we woke up not knowing our schedule. Then, we travelled a short distance to the village of Bani Kani, where we did an hour and a half program. Lindsay wasn't feeling well, so she sat out most of the program. Our lunch didn't arrive until 3:40 p.m. We were told that we would have another program that afternoon, but we waited in vain. While waiting, we got pretty bored. I taught Adrienne some music theory. We didn't do anything for Ash Wednesday.

On Feb 26, I led a devo and decided to do the imposition of ashes, as we didn't do it the day before. We all talked abou Lent and our feelings about saying "alleluia" during Lent. We decided that we would keep it in our songs because we need to keep praising God in the midst of our struggles. Also, we feel like our year on team, especially our time in Africa, is a huge sacrifice. We rehearsed some songs and Lindsay and Sonja said they both weren't feeling well enough to do a program. They had some stomach and diarrhoea issues. I had some diarrhoea as well, but knew I would have to forget about that. The four of us who were left made necessary adjustments in our program to do a program with four instead of six. I played guitar on some extra songs and sang louder since I was the only high voice, without Sonja. It was tough for me and really hurt my voice, but we did an hour and a half program in the village of Foure. We were excited to see fruit in the village!! We bought some bananas and oranges. We thought we saw watermelon, but that was only a mirage of peppers. We went back to the hospital and ate in the dark. The generator was only on for part of two of the five nights that we were there. Thankfully, the evangelist brought us a lantern that shings brighter than our flashlights. Without lights inhibiting our view, we saw many stars. When I look t the stars here I am reminded of how far from home I actually am. Orion is in the center of the sky instead of low in the south. Also, the big dipper doesn't come out until 1 a.m. Luke and I slept outside on the back porch. I actually woke up cold several times, even though it was 83 degrees. It is funny how our bodies have adjusted to the heat. When afternoon temps are in the 100s, anything under 88 feels cool. My alarm clock tells temperature. We really appreciate cool breezes here.

On Feb 27th, we did another program in Saah. My voice hurt; so, I didn't sing for some of the program. Thankfully, we had all six of us again. We were hoping to go to the south since we didn't have any more programming in the north, but that didn't happen. We decided to take turbo turtle into Kandi, where we went out to eat. We all toasted our cold drinks and enjoyed more meat than we had had during all of our time in Saah. We walked around the market for awhile and bought our supper and breakfast. We enjoyed eating fruit and bread for dinner. A Muslim man came by with a chicken for us. But it was alive!! Luke graciously accepted it, as the rest of us tried to restrain our laughter. We all debated what we would do with the chicken. We thought about taking it with us to the south, but didn't know how we would transport it, but thought eggs would be nice to have. The evangelist came and said he would cook it for us to have the next day.

On Feb 28, I woke up early in the morning several times with an upset stomach and diarrhoea. I felt awful. Around 6 a.m., we left Saah for Bohicou. Most of the day, I couldn't keep down liquids, so I didn't bother eating food. It was a miserable day of travel for me. I wanted to stop when the team ate lunch, but we kept going until 10 p.m., when we got to the driver's house, where we stayed for the night. Thankfully, we stayed there for free.

On Mar 1st, we left Bohicou for Cotonou at 8:15 and we arrived in Cotonou at 10:30. I was glad it was a short day. So far, I am actually keeping down food. It is nice to be back in our apartment, except for the humidity.

Tomorrow, we have a day off, some of us our planning on going back to the pool we visited before.

Hope you are all doing well!! I miss you!!!


Peace,

Tiffany