Nomes on the Africa Mercy: Hello Mr President

The entrance to our wharf- see fishing villiage at the end.

Well there is never a dull moment here.
But first some pictures from the orphanage mentioned in my last blog

On route to the orphanage- this is the main rd heading North out of Cotonou

Live chickens in their hundreds on a Zime John to market

We arrived at dinner time. This little fellow is under nourished and on a feeding program. Hey drank faster than I can.

Oh so sweet

Emma having a cuddle

The balloons were such a hit

Road side home and cooking stall

A 'FAN Milk' bike- These guys are out in there hundreds and wind in and out of traffic selling frozen icecreams and yoghurts that taste amazing and cost only 30c. You just slow down in traffic and falg one down...If the traffic moves no problem he will catch up with you to give you your change.

Village kids outside the orphanage checking out the Yovo's (Yovo means white person- the children yell out all the time in a very cut song that they have made up about us. The song seems universal as the kids in the capital city also sing it to us. It goes:

Yovo Yovo (white person white person)

Bonjour (hello)

Cava (how are you?) Bien (good) Mercy (thankyou).

The adults will also yell out and sing it to us. Often they then add a Mercy ships? to the end of the song in Cotonou paticularly as the assumption is if you are white you are from Mercy Ships. It is almost true though we have met several other missionaries who are white and live here. A few business men and very few tourists can be seen in town.

Kids singing Yovo song to us.

This week I had Wednesday afternoon at the hospitality centre playing games with the kids and painting the ladies nails softening their hands with cream. Language is a barrier to some extent though you can show love to people in these simple ways without much conversation. Hand gestures and a smile go a long way. We had balloons, bubble blowers and bible stories (in French) though the gorgeous little french speaking boy Daniel who I brought the stories for had left for home which is great for him. He has been around the hospital for a long time for contracture releases of both his legs. Before coming to the ship he could only crawl. His legs were contracted from the knees. He was depressed and quite (apparently). Now he can walk upright a short distance on his own and he gets around fast with a walker. Hopefully with continued walking his muscles will improve so he can walk unassisted. He curled up asleep on my lap in church last week. On leaving his mum told the OT staff that she gave thanks to God that he had brought people to help her son to walk.

Another boy Evie has also been around for a while. I felt so sorry from him, He also has a contracture (I think) and they stretch out his leg with a horrible looking brace. His hamstrings appear contracted and as they are stretched he was screaming the halls down this week. I had promised him i'd visit him but no amount of distraction could calm him. He comes to the ship for regular exercise up and down the hall ways.

Friday night I went with the team to show the 'Jesus' film in a nearby villiage. The Jesus film recounts the gospel stories. We arrived at the designated meeting spot- it seems like the middle of a sandy street just outside a fishing villiage/ tin shanty town. We were told to park there though and the guys put up a big screen. To start with we had a few spectators then the drums started and soon we had a crowd- mostly young children under 5. People here know all the Christian songs so soon the crowd are all singing and clapping along in Fon a local dialect. A local church brings out some wooden pews and puts them in the street all but blocking it. No one seems to mind- the Zimie John motorcycles just toot and divide the crowd to get though or take an alternative route around us. I take a seat on the sand to watch the film and pretty soon some children have made there way one my lap and snuggled up- totally amazing these kids have no idea who I am and I don't know them but they cuddle in and their parents who I assume are somewhere in the distant crowd don't seem worried at all. A few children are scared of the white people and stay away occassionally venturing close and then over time into the laps of some of the girls.

The most amazing thing was that as the night grew dark so we could start the film we had a crowd of around 200 people. Advertising unknown- drums bring people out of anywhere here.

The film is shown in Fon. I couldn't understand any of it but I could guess from the pictures what part of the bible we were up to. Amazingly when Jesus's miracles are shown 2 cause the whole crowd to errupt in clapping and cheering exclaimated by someone beating the drums. Those 2 are when Jesus's turn the couple of fishes and bread loaves into enough food to feed thousands and when Jesus healed a blind man. Ironically these two challenges- hunger and cateracts are two of the afflictions the people can most likely relate to best. It is great to not only serve these peoples physical health needs but to also give them a hope beyond the struggles they face in this world. The hope of eternal life that can never perish, spoil or fade kept in heaven for those who simply trust Jesus.

Today is Saturday. We took a road trip to Porto Novo the capital of Benin. We went up a toll road- wow the first tarred reasonable road in a month. The drivers were still crazy although we mostly kept to our side of the road with the occassional diversion around the hundreds of broken down cars littering the road.

Porto Novo is much like Cotonou. The level of living standards appear much the same (later on I have added some general life pictures from Benin to give you and idea of living standards in the cities).

In Porto Novo we went to some markets and were sung the Yovo song on every corner- some kids even broke into dance whilst singing to us. The kids and even some adults want to touch white people so shy children run up touch you and sneak away giggling. The bolder kids want to hold our hand or shake it. We stumbled across the tourist info centre- a run down building that was full of beautiful craft wares. A girl with us spoke a little French thankfully and we got some directions.

The market Porto Novo

One of the many amazing fabric stalls

We attempted to find the botanical gardens when the sign posts are in French it's fun times. After going the wrong way down some streets and venturing down a street where cars are not permitted we made it (our French speaker was in the back so only read the signs after it was too late to rectify our route).There are two gardens- an free entry one which was a square of dry red dirt with an occassional green plant. The paid one we was green and from the gate it looked quite nice.

We went to the local sports stadium which had a good reputation. On arrival there were security guards and militray every where. We were directed in. Many people were arriving in beautiful clothing. We just followed the crowd having no idea what the hype was about. Then a military helicopter landed and out stepped the President of Benin to open the days game of football (or soccer as we call it). The game was free so we entered the stadium. It was huge and reasonable modern with more entrances than I could count. Some of the crowd makes it's way into the grandstand- just as many are on the field. Many vendors wander through the crowd with huge baskets on their heads- some are merely children. The weight people carry on their head is astonishing. Kids start young with unbreakable things like plastic bottles on their head and progress to baskets of vegetables then entire bakeries of bread!!!