Traveler’s Log #48, Public enemy #1:

We didn’t think that this was possible, that he could do something like this, but somehow, someway, the cockroach has found a way to create havoc in our lives, even though I buried him. I can’t believe this is happening, I buried him...I BURIED HIM! He took the one thing that was ours and turned it against us...our food. It used to be fine; we made food with ease, until he stepped in. I swear that he was the one that did this to our onions, to our eyes. He unleashed a secret weapon that I have never seen before. Somehow he rigged our onions, all of them, to turn on us, and burn our eyes. Yes, onions are supposed to make you cry when cut, but not like this, this is the work of him, I know it. It was a day like any other day. There I was, making food, cutting up onions, finally feeling safe that my enemy can’t do more harm. Then like a speeding train hitting a brick wall, my eyes started burning, burning like the sun itself dripped poison into my eyes. I fell to the ground, disoriented by the pain, blind to what was happening around me...the next few hours were a blur, blackening out from the pain. I regained consciousness, finally being able to think again. My vision started to blur back in and I could see 2 figures beside me. I jumped back from the fear of not being able to recognize them....It was Carleigh and Janna, they had run to help me, but fell victim to the onions as well. The cockroach struck again, destroying some of my vision permanently with his catastrophic onions.

P.S.: Honestly, the onions here are insane! Whoever cuts them ends up not being able to see or open their eyes and has to leave the kitchen from that effect. Whoever fries them also has to like stand as far away as possible, looking in the total opposite direction protecting their eyes! Those onions I tell you are something special! Trust onions of doom!

Big Blog Blurb

Apparently, to our surprise, we have entered the rainy season that will last until we leave in July apparently! We are definitely glad to hear that, even though it hasn’t rained yet. It has on the other hand been really overcast and humid which creates A LOT of dust to be everywhere and in everything floating around! Patrice said that this is very unusual, it should already have started raining by now so that the dust goes away, but for a week now dust has just been getting like thicker and thicker and has basically consumed the air! Eeek! Me being hypoallergenic doesn’t really cope well with that! My allergies have been acting up severely in the past few days so I pray that it will rain soon so that the dustiness will go away! It’s actually insane, every day we wake up, there is a thick layer of dust on everything in the living room, not even exaggerating. We have to wipe down the whole living room every day because the next morning, a huge thick layer of dust is on everything again!

Oh how I could go for a vanilla bean or strawberries and cream frappucino from Starbucks right now!

DRIME Benin is on its way! We put together and handed out all the leader’s applications! We are going to get them all back Sunday, and then much prayer is in order for the next week to choose our leaders for DRIME Benin, so exciting!

There’s no place like...homes? I can’t wrap my head around it at all because it’s crazy, but it honestly feels like, in a good way, that we have lived here forever! Last night we looked back on pictures and videos of us arriving here in Benin and such, and we all agreed that we can’t even fathom how that was only 1.5 months ago, it feels like it was an eternity ago. In the same manner, it just feels like this is how we live now, and how we have always lived. Benin is starting to feel a lot like home now! To be honest, I never thought it would feel like home, just because, well, it’s not home. But it definitely feels like home now! I have two homes now.

We are participating in an evangelism event this Saturday in Abomey, a village about 3 hours from where we live! We are all very excited to do ministry in a village for the first time, should be an awesome full day! Definitely going to be very tired though because we have to leave our house at 6am-ish then we are there the entire day, then we drive back at night, then wake up extra early for church because it’s starting an hour early this week because of the annual general meeting after the service! It’s going to be an awesome yet tiring full weekend!

Tuesday morning we had a meeting with the Head Leader’s of all the Baptist Churches. After doing our spiel, they had many questions for us which showed much interest in the DRIME ministry which is exciting. They wanted to know about how DRIME works, how the partnership with the churches would look like, and right there in the meeting they even went as far to call someone and ask about us coming with them on an evangelism campaign/event they are leading! They took to DRIME right away and we’re on board. They told us that they were going to give us a full list of the churches we could visit to share, and the date to attend them. They also wanted to know if we would plan an evangelism campaign with them in a couple months! We definitely have the Baptist Churches partnered with us by the looks of it! Praise God! This Saturday they are going up to a village to do ministry and wanted to know if we would join them. Right away we said that we were unable to due to the fact that we are already doing ministry this Saturday. As it turns out, they are going up to that same village to have a meeting and do ministry on Saturday, just at a different time than when we were going to go with our church! So now we are going up the full entire day to do ministry twice in the same village! So awesome how God works everything out!

Daylight Nada

So we found ourselves very, very confused on Sunday afternoon. We haven’t really changed our laptop clocks to Benin time so we always just calculate 9 hours ahead to see what time it is. We had to be ready at 3:30pm and apparently, out of nowhere might I add, it was already that time and we were not close to ready at all! We sat there wondering forever how it is possible that it was already that time, there was no way at all! After much thought, we finally clued in! We had forgotten about daylight savings! Then we were even more stressed for a second because the clocks went ahead an hour, so once again we were not ready at all at the time we were supposed to be ready for! Then once again got confused, our Beninese cell phones only said 2:30...? Then we clued in again, Benin doesn’t have daylight savings!

So crazy and weird that back home it’s now an hour later, but here it isn’t! Haha. Not too upset though because we didn’t have to experience losing an hour of sleep! Totally bypassed it this year woot! Definitely wished for this day to come, I certainly do not losing an hour of sleep, and now I don’t have too for another whole year :D!

Traveler’s Log #44, Never ever Red-Red Black-Black...Or else:

One month in and it’s already happening. They warned me it would happen, but the fool inside of me didn’t believe them. “DO NOT PLAY...” my friend screamed, trying to warn me for the last time while I left for this trip, drowning him out before his last word. Seems so harmless, so entertaining, till it gets to you. I see them sometimes, outside of its element, they follow me like cat and string, clawing at me till I finally give in. The colors are everywhere, red, black, they are drawn to me, wanting to be released from their cage. I can’t even stack something red on top of something else red because my psyche just goes berserk, “THAT’S NOT HOW YOU WIN” my mind screams. The numbers, I dream about them, think about them, I just can’t get enough of them. It’s to the point where I can’t get away, they are everywhere and they follow me. I try to run, oh I try to run but I am just not fast enough, they are always ahead. But it’s too late, might as well give in. I’ve tried to switch, play the other one, but I can’t! I keep thinking about how they are not in order, and how I must save them! I didn’t sign up for this though, they tricked me, suckered me like everyone else. I thought after I saved them once, they would stop bothering me and all peace would be found, but then they needed my help again, and again. Now it’s too late, even though it never ends, I can’t stop. I can’t escape it either, it comes in disguise under different forms, and all of a sudden the numbers are back, right back where I started. They must be in order, Red-Black-Red-Black and nothing else! The Aces can’t be left alone either, or the numbers will lose, and if the numbers lose...I lose. Should have listened to my friend, to never play it because I will get sucked in...I can hear him now...”DO NOT PLAY SOLITAIRE”.

P.S.: Card game, laptop, ipod, it’s everywhere! Haha. It’s actually so much fun, never thought I would take a liking to solitaire, but there’s actually way more strategy to it than I thought, which makes it that much more fun! I was even taught a One-handed solitaire game that you can play anywhere, just in your hands, so I even find myself playing it while we watch movies! Haha.

Ahoy Captain

Do you want the good news first? Or the bad news?...Let’s stick with the good news for now!

Exciting news! All of our potential leaders that we had chosen, after meetings and careful thought and prayer, have said ‘Yes’ to filling out a leaders application and letting their names stand in the choosing of the DRIME Benin Leadership Team! Praise God! This is super exciting because we have some amazing people who have true servant hearts for the Lord who are willing to take this base upon themselves with our help and be on the leadership team here long-term!

Now the bad news...We really hoped that it wouldn’t have to end up like this, but it did L. We have 6 leaders who are interested, but are looking for a leadership team of only 3-4 people. That means we have to actually turn away some people. Eeek! Good thing God is in control of this whole thing! Please pray that those who are not put on the leadership team do not take it hard, but will still want to be a part of DRIME Benin! Please also just keep praying for this whole process, that God will give us discernment to pick the right people!

Nonetheless, we are so excited through it all that things are progressing and soon we will start training the leaders and get this DRIME Base on the way! Praise the Lord!

‘Vroom Vroom!’

We finally did it! We rode on motorcycles here for the first time! During the whole evangelism event weekend, our friends picked us up and dropped us off. It was so much fun! Kind of dangerous, but it’s all good, we are alive and well! The roads are intense here, people just weaving in and out of traffic, so real lanes at all, but all the while it was so much fun! Definitely 100% beats walking! They found it really weird that we had never rode on these types of motorcycles before, just because it’s normal and common here. Everyone has a motorcycle; you rarely see cars compared to motorcycles. I definitely had one of those ‘wind through your hair” moments, so much fun!

3-day Marathon

We participated in a three day evangelism event with the church we are attending here. It was so much fun and such an experience! Hundreds got to hear the gospel proclaimed through drama, video & speech. God is moving fast here in Benin! The people here were so into the dramas, clapping & cheering like crazy at certain parts in the dramas. Many, many people gathered during the weekend & many came to know the Lord! Praise God! It was really neat to see DRIME happen in Benin too, just to see how it worked there, and the differences from Canada. During all of the dramas, someone was narrating and translating everything that was happening, which gathers HUGE crowds & creates crowd involvement which is really awesome! Definitely cool to perform with & be a part of the Beninese team!

We performed in this big open sandy/dirt field area in the middle of a like market square area just off of the main road. It was actually so much fun performing in the sand/dirt, definitely quite the experience! Although, being all hot & sweaty and being roles in the drama that require me to get thrown all over the ground caused for sand to get stuck to me in layers! Haha. I’m pretty sure if someone did not see the beginning of the drama and only came and saw the end, they would scream “SAND MONSTER! RUN!”... haha. So much fun though!

There were of course the casual challenges though. One thing was the heat factor! Us being in our DRIME black, with the sun beating down on us, man, felt like I was swimming in a pool of my own sweat! The children were so much fun and awesome, but sometimes I found myself trying to run for safety! Of course, being Yovo’s, all the children come running and gather around us and just follow us which is totally fun, but the second we took out our camera, riots I tell you! Every kid wanted to be in the front of the picture so they would start pushing and shoving and eventually start like rioting and mauling each other...definitely a bad idea to take out the camera, we didn’t do so very often all weekend after that experience, unless we secretly took it out to take a few stealthy pictures! Haha.

Being a part of two evangelism events here in Benin has definitely been quite the experience, just observing & seeing how different evangelism is here. In Benin, God is very present in this community. Even though some people worship other gods and partake in voodoo, everyone here is aware of God & believe in higher beings. So they are very open to everything to do with God & Jesus, because religion & believing in a God is part of life here. Now, it’s our job to proclaim the message & to share Jesus Christ with them so they know the truth and who is the truth! It’s crazy how different cultures vary so much! In Canada, as we all know, you have to be very careful and ease into sharing the gospel, not in a hostile way. Here in Benin on the other hand, you are more than welcome to get right into “do you know Jesus as your personal saviour” right after you say hello. It’s definitely a very evangelistic community here! Evangelists here are so passionate that I even find getting the evangelism message said to me every once in a while, them knowing I am christian! Haha. It has already happened a couple times so far, even at church! I will be talking to someone at church, then one thing leads to another and I am find myself listening to the gospel! It is awesome how passionate people are here; they just can’t get enough of sharing the gospel. Amen!

Evangelism Event

We and the drama team here are participating in a 3-day evangelism event put on by the church this weekend. We are not too sure what is happening but God does so please pray for this event, that God would speak through the dramas and that the message would be clearly understood by all, that God would give us wisdom in everything we do and say and for the strength to keep going strong all weekend even with the intense heat!

Tidbit Hour

Random occurrences during the week:

ICE CREAM! Our contact showed us this restaurant type place that has gelato ice cream. Oh man, so delicious, I’ve never had more satisfying ice cream in my life! Nothing like some chocolate and vanilla ice cream (I know I’m plain and boring haha) to cure the heat!

Janna was making some tea, and she was waiting for the water to boil when we ended up getting really into the movie we were watching...2 hours later...”OH NO THE WATER!” We ran into the kitchen to find the pot, but no water...all the water had evaporated haha! We also had one very sanitary pot that was sizzling with no water in it, oops!

5-5-5-5-5 YAHTZEE! So we have generated a rather intense liking to the game Yahtzee! We get so intense playing it, I’m pretty sure our neighbourhood hears us when we play...there’s a lot of screaming, haha! We definitely have our own Yahtzee names too. Jamie = Havier, Carleigh = Hobble and Janna = Janihnip...don’t ask me where I came up with those, cause I don’t even know.

K, so I really don’t know if there is such thing as nicky nicky nine doors here in Benin, but I really truly believe there’s a huge sign over our doorbell saying “RING ME CONSTANTLY”. Someone is ringing the doorbell for our apartment all the time, people we don’t even know and they just keep going, and going. First of all, it’s kind of annoying to answer the door because our ‘door’ is like our apartment gate. So we have to get out of our apartment and walk downstairs to open this like huge metal door. Secondly, no one really just comes to visit us, they would phone us first, so we never really ever answer the door. When we finally give in after someone ringing it for 10 minutes, it’s always someone for our neighbours, so either they really don’t know whose doorbell is whose, or they like seeing us answer the door or something. I woke up the other day with someone ringing our doorbell constantly at 6am...fun.

We totally forgot about these starbursts we had brought with us and we left them on our shelf since being here in Benin...that was a mistake. We found them melted on the shelf. It was kind of a different experience though, it was like eating sour and sweet pudding...weird.

You know in movies where you see people waking up to the sun rise, with birds melodiously singing away, enjoying a nice cup of coffee...they definitely did not shoot that scene here in Benin haha. Every couple of days I wake up to the very loud and crazy sound of pigs and roosters being slaughtered. I’m also pretty sure it’s always like outside our apartment because it is so incredibly loud that I always wake up thinking they are being killed right in my room! Kind of getting used to it now though, turning into my sound of ‘birds melodiously singing’.

A motorcycle and motorcyclists definitely came sliding and skidding down the road right beside us while we were walking home from practice Wednesday night. The funny thing is that the people right behind them were all honking at them and getting angry at them for crashing and holding up traffic...?

We’ve been warming up to the team here in Benin and have been becoming really good friends with them all. Now instead of being in that awkward foreigner stage, we have been having actual conversations with them, getting to know them, hanging out with them, laughing, and just having a blast, definitely becoming Beninese! My name is Jimmy here though, haha. They spell it like that and call me that. I’ve given up trying to get my real name across haha. So Jimmy it is!

Traveler’s Log #41, The Cookies Monster...Unveiled:

Don’t give me any, don’t do it! You don’t want to see the person I become when those things are at hand, at my reach. I thought I would be able to stay away from them, but it’s hard, much harder than I thought it would be. The first two weeks were a cinch; I was doing fine. Some days I even found myself not thinking about them at all. Then week three came, my worst nightmare. My roommates and I went to the market...a mistake I’ll never live down. I tried my best to avoid them, so the temptations couldn’t get me, but then my roommate said something that changed our lives forever...”I really want some cookies, let’s buy some.” The next few days were a blur in my memory. It’s as if someone...something took over me. I remember only being able to think of those cookies, in line at the market, on the ride home, at home just staring at the cupboard. I couldn’t handle it anymore, something inside of me got released. I ripped off the cupboard doors, took the cookies, ripped off the plastic, and then I blacked out. The rest of the night was a blur; the cookies had taken over. All I remember is waking up the next morning, covered in chocolate and cookie crumbs, with empty cookie trays everywhere. Never again, no more markets, no more stores, no more gas stations, I’m staying as far away from those things as I can, so no one has to meet the other side of me...the cookie monster.

P.S.: I actually ended up eating all the cookies we bought in less than 2 days...they were too delicious...my bad! Also, a little background information for those who don’t know, but both my parents work for major cookie companies, Kraft (Christie) & Voortman. We basically have boxes of cookies in the house 24/7. Living somewhere where we can’t really get cookies that easily and that they are not as popular here...SAD!

Leader Meetings

We had the opportunity to meet with 6 of the potential leaders we kind of ‘scouted out’. It was really cool to meet with them, take the time to get to know them better, and also for them to ask questions to get to know us better and what we came to do! We are making some really good friends here already which is awesome. We’ve already had some of our friends that we made here just like phone us and be like “Hey...I’m coming over see you soon!” haha. We are very excited that we’ve had a lot of interest in the leader area. Hopefully if everything works out, we will have our leaders chosen before the end of the month! Please pray that God will reveal the leaders he has chosen for DRIME Benin!

Living in a National Geographic

So Tuesday night was at hand, and we were not doing much so we decided to go on the roof because it always has a nice cool breeze at night time, plus we get to look over the town and neighbourhood we live in, plus we were experiencing our very first lightning storm! Even though we have been here a month now, we still can’t believe we are actually here and living here. The sights and views just amaze us every time we take the time to admire them. Where we live is a real 10-page spread in a National Geographic magazine, it’s amazing! The lightning was amazing, it was honestly like nothing I’ve ever seen. It was a continual stream of lightning for a couple hours, lightning just kept happening, lighting up the sky every second. The greatest thing happened next, we were chilling then all of a sudden we heard a torrential downpour coming straight for us from a distance. We couldn’t feel it but we sure heard it coming! All of a sudden, DOWNPOUR! It was hilarious. So there we were, enjoying the sights, soaked from head to toe, just having an awesome time. It was so refreshing to get rained on! It was the closest I’ve been to being somewhat cool and cold here in Benin, even though I totally wasn’t close to being cold! It was the coolest first Beninese thunder/lightning/rain storm experience. Sights and an experience taken straight out of National Geographic!

Run, run, run the race, keep, keep, keep the pace

Sunday was crazy! We had so many things to do and prepare for all in one day, while leading the practice at the same time! It was so awesome though to lead our very first practice here in Benin though! We started with a quick devo. to remind them of the greater purpose why we do the dramas and then got right into drama training. They picked up on things so quickly, they were awesome! During all of this training, we also had to get together the Monday night event team together by asking around who is free and able, we had to set up a whole bunch of meetings with potential leaders and we also had to make sure things were good to go for the evangelism event that is coming up this weekend. All in all, we were wiped when we got home! Pretty sure I lost 45 pounds in sweat that day!

Partners from the Start

Friday we had a meeting with the National Director of Campus Crusade for Christ Benin. We really had high hopes coming into this meeting, just knowing Campus Crusade for Christ and that their vision aligns with DRIME’s, and also that their ministry is highly involved with the university students, as is ours! At first glance, it did not seem like they were that into our plans and vision here in Benin, but that totally 180’d. They ended up asking many questions about things like partnership details, the relationship that would exist between the two ministries, financial information, our exact plan here, future plans, more on vision. It was very exciting to see them take a liking to DRIME right off the bat. This will hopefully open many doors into the campus! We even got our first ministry opportunity! The director approached us after the meeting while we were leaving and asked us to be a part of this evangelistic event they were hosting! That event was on Monday night, and went super well! Going into the event, we were all a little worried, because we absolutely had no idea of any of the details, we were not sure of the time, location, specifics, we were not even sure whether it was an evangelistic event or just a gathering of the Christian students. God definitely came through in the end though, working out all the details so that we could get together a little team and go to the event. Seems like that happens a lot here, so we will definitely be totally putting these events in God’s hand so that he can work out the details and give us peace during the whole process.

God's Calendar

So this week, we didn’t have much planned at all, well plans that involved progress on finding leaders, which was a little discouraging that finding our leaders was going to take longer than predicted. God had other plans though by providing us with three important meetings that were totally out of the blue and unexpected!

1.We had the privilege of meeting with the elders of the church this Sunday to introduce ourselves, why we are here, and to share DRIME and DRIME’s vision to them. They were very welcoming and kind hearted. After our whole spiel, they told us that they are totally on board with this and that we just need to let them know if we need anything! It was awesome to know that they are behind us and are on board with what we are here to do! They even recruited us to perform at this event they are hosting at their church for 3 days. We agreed, but totally have no idea what we are doing haha! I didn’t really understand what the event was or how or when we will be performing, so hopefully we will be able to clear that up soon! So excited to be a part of this event though!

2.We got a call Monday night at 11pm that we had a meeting with the leader of all of the Pentecostal churches here in Benin, at 8:30 the next morning! So that was very unexpected but very exciting! He was on board with everything we want to do and is willing to help us find leaders! Our goal was to ask if we can go to many of the different churches to host info meetings and such so that we could find leaders and members. He made it way easier for us though! He was like “that is way too much work going into different churches, I’ll just get you in contact with a whole bunch of people I know would be interested in joining!” So that was a huge blessing!

3. We have a meeting Friday afternoon with the leader of all the campus ministries and Campus Crusade for Christ which is awesome because most people interested in DRIME are university age, and he’s the leader of all the campus ministries...hello...praise God!

Please pray that the meeting goes well, and please keep praying for us in our time here, that God would keep us safe and healthy, that he would give us great discernment in choosing leaders, and for his guidance in our time here in Benin!

Traveler's Log #36, Cockroach Battle, The Sequel

I was tired. looking forward to the thought of passing out the second I laid my head down on my pillow, enjoying a good night sleep. But of course, that was not going to happen. I was just about to doze off when I heard two deafening high-pitched screams. It came from the kitchen...it was Carleigh and Janna! I tried snapping out of my daze while sprinting into the kitchen. I turned the corner and...How could it be, there it was, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I entered the kitchen to be welcomed by the cockroach. How is that possible I asked myself? It was dead and gone during our last encounter. It had taken Carleigh and Janna captive; they were tied up in the corner. I guess the cockroach figured that our last encounter’s three against one wasn’t fair odds. So there we stood, it looked like it was going to be a classic one on one battle. We both knew that this world wasn’t big enough for the both of us. Whoever it was, was going to be the last one standing. He took an early unexpected jump at me, catching me off guard and pinning me down. Looks like this battle was going to be harder than I thought! We both took a couple shots at each other back and forth. It was a pretty even match, but I had a plan. I threw him off of me, launching him across the room leaving just enough time for me to stand. But that sly pest was too fast for me. Before I knew it, he was already charging at me, knocking me off my feet and bashing my head on the ground. I was half-unconscious at this point, was this battle over before it even began? I couldn’t give up! I wasn’t going to let Carleigh and Janna down, I had to save them! I slowly stood while my opponent stared me right in the eyes. I was weak, very very weak. He took one last jump at me, a jump that made my life flash before my eyes, but at the corner of my eye I saw Janna kick over a broom. I picked it up and saw the look on his face in mid jump...pure panic. I took one giant swing at him and bam...I had created a new design on our wallpaper, no way could he have survived that. I guess those 10 years in major league baseball finally paid off.

Puzzle Pieces

So since many random things happened this week, that don’t relate to each other what so ever, I’m going to fill you all in by having my week at a glance!

Our contact was so kind to bring us some fresh croissants! He brought us ten, which we were so happy to hear because then they would probably last awhile, or so we thought. They were so moist, fresh and warm, that we couldn’t put them down. We wanted to eat them so bad that we ended up convincing ourselves that we had to eat them! Haha. We convinced ourselves that if we did not eat them all, then they wouldn’t be warm anymore, and who knows, maybe the ants will get to them first! So there went 10 croissants...Au revoir!

I don’t remember exactly what night it was, but one night, the power decided to play tricks on us apparently. It started casual, the power went out for a couple minutes, which is totally normal so we didn’t think much of it. Then, the power turned on! We were really happy caused that meant that we can enjoy the presence of our mighty fan again, we call it the “OX”! Then it went out, and on, out, on. It started going on and off faster and faster. It got to the point where out power was flickering on and off every second for about 2 minutes straight. We were watching a movie, but because of the circumstances, couldn’t really concentrate on it haha. We ended up just laughing, and playing a guessing game, to see when the power was going to go on and off...we find ways to amuse ourselves apparently! Haha.

We’ve had to get used to the food situation here, not the food itself, but the fact that you can’t really stock up on food here because of the humidity and the insects...those pests! I know I’m being dramatic like usual, but it always seems like we are trying to survive on what little food we have, and that it is our last food supply, like we are on a deserted island or something haha. Here, you go out and by fruit and food every 2 or so days, because you can’t stock up, so there is like no food in our cupboards ever, so it always seems we are trying to survive, even though we are doing totally fine! Just thought I would share that little insider’s scoop into my brain with you guys. Haha!

Friday night, we had a couple visitors! The landlord lives under us and she has all these different people that work for her and do random jobs, like maids or servants or something like that. Anyway, Friday night, seems like they were trying to fix some circuit thing in our house because for about an hour, all these different people just kept coming in and out of our house, just helping themselves to the door haha! It wasn’t a problem but it was just funny, we would be chilling then all of a sudden someone would be walking by us, then another one, then another one. Haha!

On Sunday, we enjoyed another fun service here in Benin. During one of their songs, we were definitely not ready for what happened haha! We were enjoying another very high energy song, people dancing up and down the aisle, dancing away to their own pace. All of a sudden, the song ended with everyone clapping once in perfect unison then sitting down. We definitely had no idea that that was going to happen, so we definitely did not catch the whole unison thing, our mistake! Definitely caught me by surprise! Haha.

Sunday afternoon, we went to the practice once again! It’s so cool to see a DRIME practice here in another culture! We met with everyone else that we were not able to last week, just to chat, get to know them more, and see how things have been going the past year! We are going to start leading the practices next week, while we are on the search for leaders, so please pray for that! Getting to know people, observing practices and seeing how people work with each other, has definitely been revealing many potential leaders! We are so excited that we have been seeing a lot of leadership qualities in many people. We have a few meetings with some Christian organizations, and are going to do some information meetings at a couple of other churches, then we will finally be able to sit down, pray and choose our leaders! So excited for that day! Please keep praying that God will help us see the leaders he has chosen for DRIME Benin!

Le Chef Jamie

During the past few days, I’ve taken a considerably liking to cooking, trying to do something new each time. It’s been a lot of fun! Even through my many successes though, there have definitely been failures. But what’s cooking without failures eh? Haha.

In all my cooking ventures, I’ve so far experienced the following. Not knowing how much pasta grows when cooked, I’ve managed to accidentally make a meal that could have fed 10 people. Carleigh and I ended up burning black our chicken! I’ve had many close encounters lighting the stove...eek! I apparently bought and cooked an onion of death, I couldn’t even see or open my eyes when I was frying those bad boys up! I didn’t put enough water in the pot while making rice, so the water got all sucked up, and delightfully left an inch layer of burnt rice on the pot. My masterpiece however was lighting a cloth on fire, and not noticing at all! Haha. Let me explain.

The pot was really hot, so I decided to hold a cloth in my hand, in order to hold the pot and stir the rice. In my expert smell opinion, I deducted that the rice at the bottom of the pot was burning, because I smelt this really strong burning smell while stirring. I was really sad that the rice was burnt at the bottom, so I just left it to finish. I walked away from the pot with a cloth on fire in my hand! Apparently it wasn’t the rice that was burning that whole time, and the cloth had caught on fire from the flames...my bad. Definitely threw that cloth in the soapy water where Janna was washing dishes...my bad Janna. Haha! (No one was injured during this unfortunate event J)

I would like to think I’m still a good chef though, so play along! Haha.

Traveler's Log #32, Trapped in the Flames

It was a day like any other day. The sun rose, the roosters crowed, and the children we’re off to school. The day progressed as usual. Breakfast, lunch and it seemed like a typical evening dinner would have followed suit...until it happened. My chef instinct had pushed me to volunteer to cook dinner. Rice mixed with meat and tomatoes was on the menu. Boil the water, cut the tomatoes, and mix it together...simple task Jamie, simple task! I was stirring the rice when my attention was averted by a vigilant smell. It was the smell of something burning, the rice was burning! Seems like I hadn’t put enough water in the rice to boil it, guess I’ll need to rethink my career choice. I went to dump out the rice when I noticed something, something that changed my life forever. The cloth I was using to hold the handle with was on fire, it wasn’t the rice after all. I threw it aside to stop my hand from enduring anymore permanent damage. I made the mistake of throwing the cloth on top a box of matches, one mistake I’ll never live down. The cloth was engulfed in flames by this time and was burning right in the middle of the doorway. I was trapped, no escape, my only hope now was to douse the flames...before it was too late. Hands trembling, I quickly grabbed the first container I saw and turned the tap on. The water was pouring out slower than usual, drip by drip, why did it choose now to get clogged? WHY! At the corner of my eye I noticed the fire spreading, heading directly towards...No it couldn’t be...the propane tank. I was in panic, the water seemed like it was coming out even slower now. Hurry, HURRY...that’s all that was going through my mind. The fire was drawing closer, closer and closer to the tank. I took the water and dove as far as I could, launching the water across the room at the fire. I lifted my head to see if it was too late. To my amazement, the fire was gone. All that was left was a burnt kitchen, and sadly...an ex-chef.

Activate!

Even though we are all probably losing a lot of weight from sweating uncontrollably because of the heat, I still wasn’t satisfied sitting around on the couch day after day when we were home. Saturday I was feeling extra lazy, so I said enough was enough, I wanted to exercise. I got Janna and Carleigh up to the idea too! While Janna and Carleigh exercised to this dance workout video, which by the way might I add was hilarious to listen to the lady’s description for all the moves, I ran back and forth our little hallway in our house. I couldn’t really run outside, one reason being the blistering heat, and second the roads outside our house are covered in sand/garbage/chickens haha! It felt good to be active again, even though after running for awhile I’ve never been sweatier in my life. I had to stop running because I started to slip everywhere because of the sweat I had generated...my bad! We all enjoyed attempt at a workout though, and I’m sure there will be more!

After that, we were motivated, so we cleaned our house! We swept and washed the floors...WOOOOOW...Who knew there was a foot layer of dirt and dust on the floor. The second you swept a part of the floor, it turned a different color...maybe that’s why our feet were black every time we would take 2 steps in our bare feet. Now we can happily walk around in bare feet again!...for the time being.

Han Solo

We finally did it, we dared to go buy groceries and do random errands all by ourselves, with none of our contacts! It was actually way more successful than I thought it was going to be. We were able to communicate better than we thought we were going to be able to. I guess being equipped in the art of pointing and nodding helped a lot too! Haha. As far as we were concerned we didn’t get ripped off either! We were warned that if there was not a Beninese with us, then we probably would be ripped off, but we calculated the prices and they were considerably cheap, so we thought well, why not!

We did however, for the first time, try to barter at one point, which was a complete...epic...fail! It was quite hilarious! We were going to buy this bag of rice from a street vendor, and we did not have a clue to how much they cost, so we offered lower than the price she told us obviously. Apparently we did not look intense or convincing enough, since she was like “umm...no” then she offered the same price as before. Then us three went off and talked for like 2 minutes, obviously breaking any advantage we had. Haha. We ended up getting nervous and ran away, definitely got to rethink our strategy next time!

The one part that we forgot about was that we were going to have to cross the road alone as well...dun dun dun! The roads here are a little chaotic, no cross walks and a million motorcycles everywhere going everywhere! You basically just have to step out slowly, and hope that people go around you. We ended up standing at the side of the road just waiting for a huge gap in the cars to cross...but after 10 minutes of waiting, that wasn’t going to happen! Haha. We stepped out bravely and just booked it! We made it across safely and the cars went around us, and some of them even stopped! We’re so pro at crossing the road now that we can do it with our eyes closed! K well, not really, that would not end well, not end well at all! Haha.

We definitely successfully completed that solo mission! Score one for the three Yovo’s!

Hilarious P.S. : I was asked, while on our solo adventure, if I had 2 wives, bahahaha! Im pretty sure a lot of people think that here, but he was the first one to actually come up to me and ask me that! Hilarious!