So guess what happened?...THERE WAS A TORNADO! So exciting! I’ll back track a little to give you the full story.
So there I was, sitting in the living room watching a movie on Saturday morning. The girls were asleep so I was just hanging out by myself. All was calm and well with the city. Out of nowhere, this crazy freak wind came through our neighbourhood with what sounded like an airplane landing on our house! It went from calm, to extreme winds in one second. I have never seen such winds, it was so cool! I quickly ran to the back porch to get a better look at the situation! There were thing flying everywhere, and I mean everywhere even all the way up to the sky, the trees breaking and swaying, but my adrenaline was interrupted with me getting blinded by all the dirt and dust whipping around in the air. I stumbled back in the house and decided to watch at a distance, to spare my retinas. It only lasted about 5 minutes, but those 5 minutes were so exciting because I had no idea what was going on! Soon after, the normal insane rain storm hit, which was always fun!
It wasn’t till two days after that I found out it actually was a tornado! It made the situation so much better and exciting in my mind! Definitely my first tornado experience, so awesome!
April 30, 2010
Beninese Culture
To get people’s attention, I have seen two things being done. One, they clap really loud, and two, they do this very windy whistle.
Flip Flops seems to be the footwear of choice in all scenarios. The beach, at church, on the job, and...ON THE CONSTUCTION SITE! Eeek, don’t drop the hammer!
Motorbikes is definitely the transportation of choice, no matter what you need transported. Here are some things I have seen different people driving a motorcycle carrying/holding: over 10 long benches, a huge giant tire around the driver, two large sinks, 1 parent and 4 kids, the biggest basket I have ever seen filled with bread, someone on a motorbike holding a 25ft wagon trailer thing...you get the point!
Craziest things I have seen people carrying on their head: 40 pineapples, 7 DVD players, 50 hats, 100 pairs of sunglasses, 7 story device full of nail polish bottles, 2 shovels, huge round rack of clothes (you couldn’t even see the person), somehow someone piled up bread in a manner that it was facing upwards but in layers in a basket that ended up being taller than the person. It’s amazing what they can hold on their heads, so much more efficient! I can’t even balance a book on my head, yet alone 7 DVD players!
School system still confuses me. I think I have elementary figured out, 8-10, 10:30-12, 3-5. Highschool I think is mostly the same, but all of the highschoolers I know are all at school on different times, and later, and at random times on weekends, I don’t get it. UNIVERSITY...oh man, definitely do not understand that system yet! Apparently they start in Sept, but for 2-3 months or something is just registering and settling in, and I don’t know what else, they said January is when they really start classes. Best thing about it is that they don’t get homework! But not so nice thing about it is that their finals are worth 100% of their grade...eeek!
Very acceptable to sleep on the job, all the time we go into a store or a stand and the person is conked out. I love it! Who wouldn’t want to work here!
The culture requires everyone to call older women, “Maman (mom).” Kind of awkward, but I know that it isn’t awkward in their minds, so it’s all good!
Hmm...That’s all I can think of for the time being! I’ll let you know when I learn more, or remember more!
Flip Flops seems to be the footwear of choice in all scenarios. The beach, at church, on the job, and...ON THE CONSTUCTION SITE! Eeek, don’t drop the hammer!
Motorbikes is definitely the transportation of choice, no matter what you need transported. Here are some things I have seen different people driving a motorcycle carrying/holding: over 10 long benches, a huge giant tire around the driver, two large sinks, 1 parent and 4 kids, the biggest basket I have ever seen filled with bread, someone on a motorbike holding a 25ft wagon trailer thing...you get the point!
Craziest things I have seen people carrying on their head: 40 pineapples, 7 DVD players, 50 hats, 100 pairs of sunglasses, 7 story device full of nail polish bottles, 2 shovels, huge round rack of clothes (you couldn’t even see the person), somehow someone piled up bread in a manner that it was facing upwards but in layers in a basket that ended up being taller than the person. It’s amazing what they can hold on their heads, so much more efficient! I can’t even balance a book on my head, yet alone 7 DVD players!
School system still confuses me. I think I have elementary figured out, 8-10, 10:30-12, 3-5. Highschool I think is mostly the same, but all of the highschoolers I know are all at school on different times, and later, and at random times on weekends, I don’t get it. UNIVERSITY...oh man, definitely do not understand that system yet! Apparently they start in Sept, but for 2-3 months or something is just registering and settling in, and I don’t know what else, they said January is when they really start classes. Best thing about it is that they don’t get homework! But not so nice thing about it is that their finals are worth 100% of their grade...eeek!
Very acceptable to sleep on the job, all the time we go into a store or a stand and the person is conked out. I love it! Who wouldn’t want to work here!
The culture requires everyone to call older women, “Maman (mom).” Kind of awkward, but I know that it isn’t awkward in their minds, so it’s all good!
Hmm...That’s all I can think of for the time being! I’ll let you know when I learn more, or remember more!
Brainstorm
For those who are not aware, we have been working with a drama team here that have been helping us do ministry and such, while we plan, recruit and set up the official DRIME Team here in Benin! They are the team that was trained here when DRIME came last May. Many of those members though are interested in joining the DRIME Team, so to avoid misunderstandings or false expectations we thought we should create a break between the team practices and to-be DRIME Practices. We did so by having a celebration end of the year party for them, to celebrate and thank them for all they did in the previous since being trained by DRIME in May. It was a lot of fun! The most entertaining and fun game of 4 on a couch surfaced from that day too! They absolutely love seeing pictures so we prepared a slideshow for them as well. Great memories and time spent with the Vodje drama team!
Also, for those who are not aware, there are 2 other DRIME Canada members who are coming on Wednesday, May 5, in less than a week! One of them is Michele, who works for DRIME as the DRIME-GAiN liaison. She will be joining us only for 1.5 weeks. The other one is Abby, she will be here for the rest of the trip, replacing Carleigh who sadly has to go. All in all, it’s going to be fun to have all 5 of us here in Benin! Please pray for their remaining days in Canada, as well as safety during the long voyage they have.
We start recruiting this Sunday for the official DRIME Team. We were invited to perform and recruit from this huge event in which all the Baptist young adults are attending this Saturday. It’s some sort of celebration/party event, so that will be awesome! We are also going to two different churches Sunday morning to share about DRIME. Please pray for everything to work smoothly, and for people to show interest!
This week marked the half way point for me here in Benin! It has been an incredible adventure and I am so excited to continue venturing forth as a part of God’s plan here in Benin! Please keep us in your prayers! Thank you all for your constant support!
Also, for those who are not aware, there are 2 other DRIME Canada members who are coming on Wednesday, May 5, in less than a week! One of them is Michele, who works for DRIME as the DRIME-GAiN liaison. She will be joining us only for 1.5 weeks. The other one is Abby, she will be here for the rest of the trip, replacing Carleigh who sadly has to go. All in all, it’s going to be fun to have all 5 of us here in Benin! Please pray for their remaining days in Canada, as well as safety during the long voyage they have.
We start recruiting this Sunday for the official DRIME Team. We were invited to perform and recruit from this huge event in which all the Baptist young adults are attending this Saturday. It’s some sort of celebration/party event, so that will be awesome! We are also going to two different churches Sunday morning to share about DRIME. Please pray for everything to work smoothly, and for people to show interest!
This week marked the half way point for me here in Benin! It has been an incredible adventure and I am so excited to continue venturing forth as a part of God’s plan here in Benin! Please keep us in your prayers! Thank you all for your constant support!
April 23, 2010
Tourist Endeavours
For the first time in just under 2.5 months, we were able to visit some tourist locations here in Benin! It was awesome!
The day started with us 6 shoving and squishing into a taxi, clearly suited for 3 people...It was pretty fun, and definitely grew us closer, literally haha. An hour later, doesn’t feel so fun anymore though, kind of turned painful...haha! We all piled out of the taxi when the doors opened and we had arrived at our first museum! It was the museum of slavery. It was so crazy and shocking to hear about the things that here in Benin all those years ago. They would sell these like dinky pipes for 5 slaves, the King would have slaves killed for his amusement, they would shove the slaves in boats in which half would die on the journey, the King would have 41 of his wives buried alive with him when he died...Crazy to think that things like that actually happened! I couldn’t imagine even begin to imagine the things those people went through...
The next stop on our venture was the python museum...yes, you heard me right, PYTHON MUSEUM...or so we thought it was a museum. It turned out to be this temple where voodoo priests would come and like worship the pythons, offer sacrifices and execute rituals. It really wasn’t what we expected, but nonetheless were still excited to get to the snakes! The guy brought out a python from the temple for us to hold and get used to it before we entered the temple. The snakes felt so weird but cool when you held them! They are surprisingly very calm creatures! I kind of got a little sketched out when it started crawling up and licking my arm! But a fun experience all in all. He finally let us enter the temple thing, and to all of our surprise there were like 100 pythons just let loose in this temple room place. It was sooo intense! They were everywhere, just roaming around freely. It was a little sketchy but awesome all at the same time! We were able just to pick one up whenever and put it around our neck and move them around, it was awesome! At one point this one python kept like crawling around me into and around my backpack, it was hilarious! I have definitely grown to love pythons now, awesome creatures!
After leaving the python temple, we decided to hit the beach! Even though they warned us it was a very long walk, we decided to anyway, there was a cool breeze that would keep us sane in the African heat, so we decided, why not! The long, long road to the beach was the same path that the slaves walked all those years ago to get to the boats. It was crazy to think that the slaves walked on the very paths we were walking, crazy crazy stuff! It ended up being a little longer than we thought, taking like 2 hours, but the breeze from the ocean was worth a million bucks! When we arrived at the beach, I couldn’t help but just get overwhelmed by it all. We were the only people on the entire beach, no one in distance of sight. The ocean was so incredible, water as far as the eye can see in every direction! I don’t know why but I felt like I was on top of the world when I looked out into the vast and powerful ocean. To know that God made that, such a powerful yet beautiful thing, amazes me, purely captivates me! It was an amazing & awesome day that we got to spend with some of the leaders of DRIME Benin!
The day started with us 6 shoving and squishing into a taxi, clearly suited for 3 people...It was pretty fun, and definitely grew us closer, literally haha. An hour later, doesn’t feel so fun anymore though, kind of turned painful...haha! We all piled out of the taxi when the doors opened and we had arrived at our first museum! It was the museum of slavery. It was so crazy and shocking to hear about the things that here in Benin all those years ago. They would sell these like dinky pipes for 5 slaves, the King would have slaves killed for his amusement, they would shove the slaves in boats in which half would die on the journey, the King would have 41 of his wives buried alive with him when he died...Crazy to think that things like that actually happened! I couldn’t imagine even begin to imagine the things those people went through...
The next stop on our venture was the python museum...yes, you heard me right, PYTHON MUSEUM...or so we thought it was a museum. It turned out to be this temple where voodoo priests would come and like worship the pythons, offer sacrifices and execute rituals. It really wasn’t what we expected, but nonetheless were still excited to get to the snakes! The guy brought out a python from the temple for us to hold and get used to it before we entered the temple. The snakes felt so weird but cool when you held them! They are surprisingly very calm creatures! I kind of got a little sketched out when it started crawling up and licking my arm! But a fun experience all in all. He finally let us enter the temple thing, and to all of our surprise there were like 100 pythons just let loose in this temple room place. It was sooo intense! They were everywhere, just roaming around freely. It was a little sketchy but awesome all at the same time! We were able just to pick one up whenever and put it around our neck and move them around, it was awesome! At one point this one python kept like crawling around me into and around my backpack, it was hilarious! I have definitely grown to love pythons now, awesome creatures!
After leaving the python temple, we decided to hit the beach! Even though they warned us it was a very long walk, we decided to anyway, there was a cool breeze that would keep us sane in the African heat, so we decided, why not! The long, long road to the beach was the same path that the slaves walked all those years ago to get to the boats. It was crazy to think that the slaves walked on the very paths we were walking, crazy crazy stuff! It ended up being a little longer than we thought, taking like 2 hours, but the breeze from the ocean was worth a million bucks! When we arrived at the beach, I couldn’t help but just get overwhelmed by it all. We were the only people on the entire beach, no one in distance of sight. The ocean was so incredible, water as far as the eye can see in every direction! I don’t know why but I felt like I was on top of the world when I looked out into the vast and powerful ocean. To know that God made that, such a powerful yet beautiful thing, amazes me, purely captivates me! It was an amazing & awesome day that we got to spend with some of the leaders of DRIME Benin!
Leader’s Retreat
We had our leader’s retreat this past weekend at our house. It was a great time of fellowship, laughter and growth for all of us! Throughout the weekend, we were able to discuss with each other some Leadership topics and books and get through more of the DRIME ministry descriptions, drama training, recruitment, and even started looking at DRIME Benin more specifically in terms of where and how to recruit here, what/where/when ministry and practices will look like here. It was great to see the leader’s just really take ownership of DRIME Benin and start really working out the details. When we were talking about DRIME Benin, all we had to do was kind of start the conversation, then they just went full throttle at the topic and would start working things out and discussing without even us having to do anything! It was awesome!
The whole weekend we obviously had to feed them, and from that came the highlight of the weekend for the Leaders! Haha. They loved the food we made! We made sloppy Joe’s, Crapes and Spaghetti. I’m not going to lie, it was all very delicious! This was a statement by one of our Leaders, “We will start a Canadian Restaurant here, and all other restaurants will go out of business.” HAHA. Hoorah for somewhat-Canadian cuisine!
The whole weekend we obviously had to feed them, and from that came the highlight of the weekend for the Leaders! Haha. They loved the food we made! We made sloppy Joe’s, Crapes and Spaghetti. I’m not going to lie, it was all very delicious! This was a statement by one of our Leaders, “We will start a Canadian Restaurant here, and all other restaurants will go out of business.” HAHA. Hoorah for somewhat-Canadian cuisine!
April 16, 2010
Traveler’s Log #60, No Time to Blow Your Nose:
No time to waste, no time to think, I must act quickly or it’ll all be over! After what I thought started off as and would finish as a normal day, I found myself in the midst of a war, at the battlefront, behind enemy lines. Where did this come from? One second I was writing a letter home to my family, the next I was under siege, fighting for my life. I could hear them, closing in, closer and closer. I was at a crossroad at that point, flee & take the cowards way out, or fight and risk it all...I knew what I had to do, I was not going to leave a coward, but I was going to stay a soldier, I was going to fight! I took a deep breath as I felt the adrenaline start to build up. The next thing I knew, I was charging out onto the battle field, sliding across the floor to get to cover. I ran out to gain some ground, to stop their advancement, artillery flying by me, just missing me, in what it seemed like slow motion. I stopped, crouched behind a corner for just enough time to reload then blared back in the battlefront. Minutes later, there I was, at their base, it was now or never! I charged into their camp and gave them everything I had, not knowing how many of them there were, not knowing what fate laid before me. I had taken one to the arm and fell behind cover. No time to give up, I had to fight! To their surprise, I got back up and charged. No backing down this time, it was going to be them, or me. I closed my eyes and gave them all I got. After what seemed like hours, I opened my eyes to find myself still standing...Standing as the victor!
P.S.: That was a recreation + Exaggeration of a battle we had with Kleenex packs, yes Kleenex packs! Haha. It started as a simple and innocent Kleenex pack thrown around...Few minutes later, we found ourselves in a full out war. Kleenex packs make for great ammunition by the way, it doesn’t hurt really, and they are just heavy enough to get thrown across a room, and with the right technique, they can sure fly! Also, because of my allergies, we stocked up on Kleenex, A LOT of Kleenex, so we had like over 60 packs of Kleenex to use as artillery! Fun Times!
P.S.: That was a recreation + Exaggeration of a battle we had with Kleenex packs, yes Kleenex packs! Haha. It started as a simple and innocent Kleenex pack thrown around...Few minutes later, we found ourselves in a full out war. Kleenex packs make for great ammunition by the way, it doesn’t hurt really, and they are just heavy enough to get thrown across a room, and with the right technique, they can sure fly! Also, because of my allergies, we stocked up on Kleenex, A LOT of Kleenex, so we had like over 60 packs of Kleenex to use as artillery! Fun Times!
Wish I had some carrots...
Today, our friend from our church took us to his Rabbit Farm, yes that’s right...RABBIT FARM! There were so many rabbits, and apparently he had just sold 70! Could not even imagine adding 70 to the number that was already there! I have never seen so many rabbits in one place! There were rabbits of all ages, some of the biggest I have ever seen, and some of the smallest I have ever seen! There were these two rabbits that were only 5 days old, and they looked like little tiny rat pig babies, it was hilarious! I held one,...and almost let it go, my bad!
Afterwards he took us out for lunch at this place he always goes to...and guess what, THEY HAD PIZZA! It was incredibly delicious, one of the best I have ever tasted! No Pizza for 2 months...almost didn’t make it! Haha. Then to top it all off, WE HAD ICE CREAM! Pizza and Ice Cream all in one day, couldn’t get any more delicious than that! Some of the best ice cream I have ever tasted as well. I got to find out how they make this stuff, incredible!
...K I retract my statement on most amazing day ever + most amazing pizza ever...We got sick, very very sick! We’re pretty sure it’s food poisoning! Eeek. Not fun at all. All three of us started to get nauseous all at the same time, and the rest of the night only went downhill from there! Ironic because I started getting sick when I was writing how awesome the pizza was! Never ever had a worst night in my life, at one point it was like 3am, and I was so delusional & basically passed out on my bathroom floor...Ya I won’t go into detail but you get the gist of what happened I’m sure! WORST PIZZA EVER!...haha...but not bad eh! 2 whole months in Africa without getting sick! Praise God!...but still, WORST PIZZA EVER!
Afterwards he took us out for lunch at this place he always goes to...and guess what, THEY HAD PIZZA! It was incredibly delicious, one of the best I have ever tasted! No Pizza for 2 months...almost didn’t make it! Haha. Then to top it all off, WE HAD ICE CREAM! Pizza and Ice Cream all in one day, couldn’t get any more delicious than that! Some of the best ice cream I have ever tasted as well. I got to find out how they make this stuff, incredible!
...K I retract my statement on most amazing day ever + most amazing pizza ever...We got sick, very very sick! We’re pretty sure it’s food poisoning! Eeek. Not fun at all. All three of us started to get nauseous all at the same time, and the rest of the night only went downhill from there! Ironic because I started getting sick when I was writing how awesome the pizza was! Never ever had a worst night in my life, at one point it was like 3am, and I was so delusional & basically passed out on my bathroom floor...Ya I won’t go into detail but you get the gist of what happened I’m sure! WORST PIZZA EVER!...haha...but not bad eh! 2 whole months in Africa without getting sick! Praise God!...but still, WORST PIZZA EVER!
And so it begins!
We had our first official training session with the Leader’s of DRIME Benin! They really dove into it, asking so many questions, and all we shared was the description of the DRIME ministry, and they had questions like no tomorrow! It was so awesome to see them take such an interest in this ministry, and want to understand as much as they can so they can do the best they can! We decided on meetings with them every Monday night and Wednesday night for the remainder of our stay here! It is so exciting to see it all start to take form! This weekend we planned a retreat with the Leader’s! This should be a great time with the Leader’s getting to know them better, spending the weekend together & diving into more DRIME & Leadership training!
Africa’s Hidden Nature
On Friday and Saturday, we were so blessed to be a part of two full jam packed days spent in some villages here in Benin. It’s so crazy how after living in Africa for 2 months already, I have just only experienced “Real Africa” to say. Both days were filled with experiences of a lifetime!
Driving to the villages took quite awhile, driving through the middle of nothing but African plains for a couple hours! The roads were quite fun to ride on, many times feeling as though we were experiencing constant earthquakes from all the craters and bumps on the road! It felt like we were on an African Safari, minus the animals, but nonetheless enjoying the incredible views! I’m almost positive we ran into the place where they filmed Lion King...haha! At some points, we had to drive through like complete bush, 4x4’s sure do come in handy!
When we chose our spot to do the dramas, the word would spread fast that there were visitors, and the whole village would gather around to watch us, it was amazing! At each village, we took a long break between drama sets just to hang out with everyone in the village, and love on them!
A group of ladies came out at one point and started singing some traditional songs for us, eventually teaching us their traditional dance, oh man...the sight of the day for sure was a white boy dancing away! Haha.
We played some games with all the kids, including the most epic and exciting Duck Duck Goose game ever, it was so much fun! It was the normal game, but the whole entire village was watching us play this with all the kids, cheering, laughing and creating a really fun atmosphere! To put it into context, it seemed as if they were watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs or something! They would start cheering so loud when it was a close race and the kids would slide into their spot, and then the crowd goes wild and starts jumping and laughing! It was one of the highlights of my trip for sure, it was a blast!
One of the members of the team here, showed me this mind game that you play in the sand, and you have to line up your three pieces before the other one does (complicated to write it down), anyway, all the kids started gathering around us, and they were all helping me out beat him and cheering for me! It was hilarious, I definitely did not have to do anything because they would just tell me where to move to beat him! Haha.
There were definitely some voodoo priests/witches at the second village who watched us the whole time, but we were not bothered by them, they kept their distance. It was crazy to experience and see that there is a strong voodoo presence here in Benin, because in Canada it’s kind of something that people make fun of or don’t think twice about, but here, people live in fear because of voodoo and it is a huge part of this culture! Thank God for his protection over us during our ventures in the villages!
In the first village, when we were just about to leave, they stopped us before we left and brought us all this food, seriously food to feed an army! In the villages, it is an insult if you do not eat the food they prepare for you, so we knew we had to eat it! It was quite delicious actually! After a while though, I found myself having to shove it all down because we have to eat all the food, but I have never felt fuller in my life! My stomach was literally about to explode, definitely did not eat the rest of the day!
Performing the dramas in the heat was quite fun! I don’t think I have ever been dirtier in my life, but it was so much fun, felt like a kid again, playing in the dirt! Haha. It was incredible to see them respond to the dramas, and see many discover Christ through them! We had about 60 people in total both days come to know Jesus! Praise the Lord! Amazing 2 days spent in the villages, I had a blast!
By the way...Saw someone walking down the side of the road wearing a scarf...YES, A SCARF!
Driving to the villages took quite awhile, driving through the middle of nothing but African plains for a couple hours! The roads were quite fun to ride on, many times feeling as though we were experiencing constant earthquakes from all the craters and bumps on the road! It felt like we were on an African Safari, minus the animals, but nonetheless enjoying the incredible views! I’m almost positive we ran into the place where they filmed Lion King...haha! At some points, we had to drive through like complete bush, 4x4’s sure do come in handy!
When we chose our spot to do the dramas, the word would spread fast that there were visitors, and the whole village would gather around to watch us, it was amazing! At each village, we took a long break between drama sets just to hang out with everyone in the village, and love on them!
A group of ladies came out at one point and started singing some traditional songs for us, eventually teaching us their traditional dance, oh man...the sight of the day for sure was a white boy dancing away! Haha.
We played some games with all the kids, including the most epic and exciting Duck Duck Goose game ever, it was so much fun! It was the normal game, but the whole entire village was watching us play this with all the kids, cheering, laughing and creating a really fun atmosphere! To put it into context, it seemed as if they were watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs or something! They would start cheering so loud when it was a close race and the kids would slide into their spot, and then the crowd goes wild and starts jumping and laughing! It was one of the highlights of my trip for sure, it was a blast!
One of the members of the team here, showed me this mind game that you play in the sand, and you have to line up your three pieces before the other one does (complicated to write it down), anyway, all the kids started gathering around us, and they were all helping me out beat him and cheering for me! It was hilarious, I definitely did not have to do anything because they would just tell me where to move to beat him! Haha.
There were definitely some voodoo priests/witches at the second village who watched us the whole time, but we were not bothered by them, they kept their distance. It was crazy to experience and see that there is a strong voodoo presence here in Benin, because in Canada it’s kind of something that people make fun of or don’t think twice about, but here, people live in fear because of voodoo and it is a huge part of this culture! Thank God for his protection over us during our ventures in the villages!
In the first village, when we were just about to leave, they stopped us before we left and brought us all this food, seriously food to feed an army! In the villages, it is an insult if you do not eat the food they prepare for you, so we knew we had to eat it! It was quite delicious actually! After a while though, I found myself having to shove it all down because we have to eat all the food, but I have never felt fuller in my life! My stomach was literally about to explode, definitely did not eat the rest of the day!
Performing the dramas in the heat was quite fun! I don’t think I have ever been dirtier in my life, but it was so much fun, felt like a kid again, playing in the dirt! Haha. It was incredible to see them respond to the dramas, and see many discover Christ through them! We had about 60 people in total both days come to know Jesus! Praise the Lord! Amazing 2 days spent in the villages, I had a blast!
By the way...Saw someone walking down the side of the road wearing a scarf...YES, A SCARF!
April 8, 2010
Village Ministry!
We were called early this week to see if we wanted to partner with GAiN to go to a village and do ministry with them! This is super exciting because we were not expecting that we would get a chance to go to a village for another while, it coming so soon is exciting! We are heading up Friday + Saturday to a village with the drama team here, GAiN, and our new DRIME Benin Leadership Team! We are all so excited to finally have the opportunity to go to a village and serve there! Please pray for us this weekend!
Leadership Debut!
Wednesday night we had our very first leaders meeting with the DRIME Leadership Team! It was very exciting, fun and eventful! We started off the night with some games that involved lots of team work, just to get them used to the idea of working together, and see how each other works! We made them play the game where you all have to stand on this cloth, and somehow you have to flip it over with all of you on it. It was hilarious to watch them play that game! We all had fun, they were laughing so hard and we were of course too!
It is crazy how well they work together! We all now know why God put those names in our mind and head! Every time they played a game or a challenge, they listened to everybody’s ideas, and discussed them and analysed them to see if they would work, if they thought it was a good idea then they would try it out, then try another idea and discuss it! Their teamwork together is amazing, we are excited to see them take that to DRIME Benin :D!
It is crazy how well they work together! We all now know why God put those names in our mind and head! Every time they played a game or a challenge, they listened to everybody’s ideas, and discussed them and analysed them to see if they would work, if they thought it was a good idea then they would try it out, then try another idea and discuss it! Their teamwork together is amazing, we are excited to see them take that to DRIME Benin :D!
Oh Sweet Sweet Celebration!
Sunday Easter Service was so much fun to spend it with our fellow Beninese brothers and sisters in Christ! The whole service was just pure celebration that Jesus has Risen, people dancing all over the place, proclaiming his name! It was so awesome to celebrate Easter with them! I think one of my favourite parts during that whole service was watching the group of elders go to the front of the church and start dancing, so classic! Everyone was just having a blast, laughing & celebrating!
Even thought it was a day to celebrate, us three were a little nervous because we were telling all the leaders that day who was chosen to be on the Leadership Team...which meant giving two no’s! It wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be though, the yes’s were very excited, and so were we, and the no’s took it really well and knew that God has a plan for them, that didn’t include being on the Leadership Team! DRIME Benin is on its way :D
P.S.: Most random thing that has ever happened here thus far I would say, but someone at church on Sunday was wearing a CANUCKS JERSEY! Took us all off guard because that’s the last thing we would have expected to see that morning! Half way across the world, in a place where they don’t even know what hockey is, someone is wearing a Canucks Jersey! So crazy!
Even thought it was a day to celebrate, us three were a little nervous because we were telling all the leaders that day who was chosen to be on the Leadership Team...which meant giving two no’s! It wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be though, the yes’s were very excited, and so were we, and the no’s took it really well and knew that God has a plan for them, that didn’t include being on the Leadership Team! DRIME Benin is on its way :D
P.S.: Most random thing that has ever happened here thus far I would say, but someone at church on Sunday was wearing a CANUCKS JERSEY! Took us all off guard because that’s the last thing we would have expected to see that morning! Half way across the world, in a place where they don’t even know what hockey is, someone is wearing a Canucks Jersey! So crazy!
Chapter 1, Volume1: Electric Fail
So the power has not been the friendliest to us the past week. I told you last blog update that the power was out for over 24 hrs, only for us! And that has happened many more times my friends, many more times...
I will take this time to share with you all 2 occasions when this happened again. In the past 48hrs our power has gone out twice, for long periods...only for us! We woke up Tuesday morning to find that our power was not working. We went about our day just thinking that it was out everywhere, because it happens quite often like that, but as night dawned on us, we saw lights on everywhere! I know, I know, puzzling eh? So it turns out we sat in our Sahara of an apartment all day without power, when we could have had power the whole time! Turns out our little switch thing is kind of messed up or something like that (again, not sure what our landlord says sometimes haha) and it randomly turns off sometimes!
The sequel to that story is that very same night. After enjoying maybe 6 hours of the nice cool fan, our power went out again! By this time it was after midnight, so most people were asleep, including our landlord. We went downstairs of our apartment building to go flip the switch because obviously it had switched off again for some reason, and there was a door that stood between us and the box thing. Never before have we ever seen a door there by the way, so we were kind of confused. And Of course, the door was locked. We had to endure another night of sleeping in the desert.
I will take this time to share with you all 2 occasions when this happened again. In the past 48hrs our power has gone out twice, for long periods...only for us! We woke up Tuesday morning to find that our power was not working. We went about our day just thinking that it was out everywhere, because it happens quite often like that, but as night dawned on us, we saw lights on everywhere! I know, I know, puzzling eh? So it turns out we sat in our Sahara of an apartment all day without power, when we could have had power the whole time! Turns out our little switch thing is kind of messed up or something like that (again, not sure what our landlord says sometimes haha) and it randomly turns off sometimes!
The sequel to that story is that very same night. After enjoying maybe 6 hours of the nice cool fan, our power went out again! By this time it was after midnight, so most people were asleep, including our landlord. We went downstairs of our apartment building to go flip the switch because obviously it had switched off again for some reason, and there was a door that stood between us and the box thing. Never before have we ever seen a door there by the way, so we were kind of confused. And Of course, the door was locked. We had to endure another night of sleeping in the desert.
Chapter 2, Volume 1: Electric Malfunction
One night, as we all were heading to bed, I went to turn on my light, like any normal night and all of a sudden *BOOM BZZ*. My light had exploded/blown a fuse or something. That was a shock I tell ya! Thinking that this was just one unfortunate situation, I didn’t do anything about it, just used my flashlight. I mean I bet that rarely ever happens I’ll deal with it later...
Turns out, that same night, when Carleigh and Janna went to bed, the light in their bathroom did the exact same thing! Now get this, in a 24 hours span of that night, my bathroom light went out (while I was showering might I add...soap in the eyes for sure!), when Janna was turning on one of our hallway lights, that exploded too, one of our living room lights burnt out randomly, one of our power adapters blew, our kitchen light makes really weird sounds, Janna’s air conditioner doesn’t feel like blowing cold air anymore, Carleigh’s mp3 player died...I’m sure there are more haha! Makes for a fun experience, guessing which light or electric something will blow next. The funny thing is that we are too chill to do something about it, so we haven’t even told our landlord about it all yet...haha!
Turns out, that same night, when Carleigh and Janna went to bed, the light in their bathroom did the exact same thing! Now get this, in a 24 hours span of that night, my bathroom light went out (while I was showering might I add...soap in the eyes for sure!), when Janna was turning on one of our hallway lights, that exploded too, one of our living room lights burnt out randomly, one of our power adapters blew, our kitchen light makes really weird sounds, Janna’s air conditioner doesn’t feel like blowing cold air anymore, Carleigh’s mp3 player died...I’m sure there are more haha! Makes for a fun experience, guessing which light or electric something will blow next. The funny thing is that we are too chill to do something about it, so we haven’t even told our landlord about it all yet...haha!
Chapter 3, Volume 1: ELECTRIC FURY!
So I go to plug in my cord for my Nintendo DS before it dies, and come back down to play some of it while it charges. I notice that it isn’t charging at all, even though it is plugged in! I go to fiddle with it, to re-plug it or whatever, and *BZZZ*, that little bugger shocked/electrocuted me! Weirdest feeling ever! I thought that I touched something weird or something, so I was careful to only touch the plug this time (reaching at it again, being my smart self...). *BZZZ*...Electrocuted again! I really wasn’t sure what was causing it to do that but I knew I had to unplug it, so I grabbed a cloth and yanked at it as quickly and briskly as possible...I HAD TAMED THE BEAST! My fingers were tingly the whole rest of the day...weirdest feeling ever! Apparently my plug didn’t like me that day because it was the only time it has ever done that, it still works after all that...hmmm!
DRIME Benin!
So the day finally dawned on us, as we woke up Saturday morning, it was the day that we were going to choose the Leadership Team of DRIME Benin! As exciting as that was of course, we all were kind of dreading actually having to choose, which meant saying no to two people! The Lord definitely brought us through that process for sure! We took the morning to have some alone time with God and get our heads in order for the long day ahead of us! Once we all decided to finally come out of our rooms, we got right to the task! Throwing teams ideas back and forth, discussing each person, looking at it all from every point of view, even taking a mathematical view on it, (haha....I would do something like that!) and of course taking plenty of time to pray, we had finally reached a decision at 10:30pm at night...what a day! We were all exhausted after a mind draining day, but super excited that DRIME Benin finally had an official Leadership Team!
*Drum roll*...meet Calixte, Olivier, Martin & Rachelle! They are all wonderfully amazing people and we know that with God, they will build up this ministry here in Benin to eventually reach all the corners of Africa! Thank you so much for all the prayers during the choosing process! Please keep praying for the team as we + God build into them, so they can build into Benin & Africa!
*Drum roll*...meet Calixte, Olivier, Martin & Rachelle! They are all wonderfully amazing people and we know that with God, they will build up this ministry here in Benin to eventually reach all the corners of Africa! Thank you so much for all the prayers during the choosing process! Please keep praying for the team as we + God build into them, so they can build into Benin & Africa!
April 2, 2010
The Call backs
We are at the brink of a huge stepping stone for DRIME Benin! Last Sunday we received back all of the leadership application forms, and this week we have been meeting with all of the leaders one-on-one to talk more in detail about the applications and to get a final chance to ask questions and get to really know them before we choose the leadership team this weekend! We have 6 applicants, and they are all incredible so it is going to be very difficult to narrow it down to the 3-4 leaders we are envisioning. It’s going to be extra difficult because meeting with those that we’ve met with already has really brought many new things into consideration, changing our minds about some people, and maybe some people that we saw the least as leader’s we see the most as leaders now, and our contact giving us his opinion on people, bringing a whole new view on everyone, causing so many back and forth’s! Definitely going to be a very full Saturday of praying and intensely discussing with each other putting all the possible situations together! Please keep this special item in your prayers this week, asking God to clearly show us who he has chosen for the leadership team of DRIME Benin and to give us discernment with this task!
Traveler’s Log #55, Trapped in the Netting
I can’t go back in there...I can’t do it. Every night I find myself dreading the thought of going back in there, back in bed surrounded and caged in by the mosquito netting. I can’t do this much longer. Just the thought of going back in there has me staying up and away from that place till I can’t no longer. Too many restless nights...too many weary days, nightmare after nightmare being caged in by that netting! I lay in bed, staring at the net that surrounds me as it stares back at me, waiting, watching till I fall asleep before it moves in. Caged in, boxed in, my bed is no longer a place of rest. It stalks me though, because it I can’t get rid of it, it is too valuable to be thrown away. It Protects me, but all the while endangers me by the sheer thought of climbing back into that square...that cage.
Some Beninese Turkeys
We found a sport we can play without much movement at all!!! (Because running + a lot of movement would likely result in us sweating out our entire water weight + heat stroke + fainting and who knows what else...haha!)
BOWLING! Saving all the 1.5L water bottles that we have drank over the period we have been here (Over 150 I’m sure of) has finally paid off! We were bored one day and put our heads together to find something to do, which eventually resulted in our creation of a bowling alley! We use the bottles as the pins, we use this Canadian baseball as the bowling ball, and we have this really long hallway that is the perfect length for a tough bowling challenge! We even went as far to make a line that we cannot pass while bowling + sticking little marks on the ground so we know exactly where the pins go, ensuring a perfect set-up each time...we’re cool...haha!
We had a blast the first time we played! We actually played 10 frames and kept score and all. It was awesome! Even though it was only bowling, I was still sweating SO much just from that little bit of movement in this intense heat! I wouldn’t change anything though, I love it! I think it will actually be weird coming back home to Canada and not sweating all the time, I’ll feel so nice and clean...weird! haha.
BOWLING! Saving all the 1.5L water bottles that we have drank over the period we have been here (Over 150 I’m sure of) has finally paid off! We were bored one day and put our heads together to find something to do, which eventually resulted in our creation of a bowling alley! We use the bottles as the pins, we use this Canadian baseball as the bowling ball, and we have this really long hallway that is the perfect length for a tough bowling challenge! We even went as far to make a line that we cannot pass while bowling + sticking little marks on the ground so we know exactly where the pins go, ensuring a perfect set-up each time...we’re cool...haha!
We had a blast the first time we played! We actually played 10 frames and kept score and all. It was awesome! Even though it was only bowling, I was still sweating SO much just from that little bit of movement in this intense heat! I wouldn’t change anything though, I love it! I think it will actually be weird coming back home to Canada and not sweating all the time, I’ll feel so nice and clean...weird! haha.
“If your refrigerator running?” – “Umm...nope” – “Oh...well...k...umm....my joke failed”
So Friday night/all of Saturday, our fridge stopped working. It has happened before where it stopped working but it has come back on, so we just let it be thinking it would come back on...Our bad. It definitely did not come back on, which resulted in some VERY questionable food/meat/smells. We finally went to our landlord Sunday afternoon and told her, and luckily was able to store out meat and perishables in her fridge and freezer...but being out of the cold for like an entire 24 hours... a little bit concerning in my books. But we can’t afford to throw it all away! At one point on Sunday morning, it was hotter in the fridge than in the room itself! Someone came and looked at it Sunday night and worked at it for a big then randomly left without saying anything and never showed up again that night...leaving the fridge unplugged...? We were kind of confused but oh well!
The good news is that someone came and took it away and our landlord bought us a new one! For awhile though, it was kind of weird not having a fridge because we didn’t really have easy access to our food...and we still had to throw some out. That left us with very little food that we had to live on for a few days. One meal a day it is! Haha. We are alive and well though so no worries! We are for sure cooking our meat triple well though!
After all that though, the power went out once again, like it usually does each day for awhile, but this time was way longer than we expected! Also, I don’t know how we didn’t notice it, but we eventually noticed that everyone else’s power is working, but not ours...Our power never came back on for 24hrs...till the electrician fixed it in our apartment! All that meaning 2 things. One, our new refrigerator wasn’t even working because there was no power...so another 24hrs with sketch food! Two, we had to sleep with no A/C or anything, so basically worst sleep ever for all of us, sleeping in our own pool of sweat! Oh man, the second the power came back on, we all stood infront of our fan and didn’t want to move for so long! Haha. But now power is restored to us so we can live with food and cool air again! Yay! All in all, awesome experiences and fun times nonetheless.
The good news is that someone came and took it away and our landlord bought us a new one! For awhile though, it was kind of weird not having a fridge because we didn’t really have easy access to our food...and we still had to throw some out. That left us with very little food that we had to live on for a few days. One meal a day it is! Haha. We are alive and well though so no worries! We are for sure cooking our meat triple well though!
After all that though, the power went out once again, like it usually does each day for awhile, but this time was way longer than we expected! Also, I don’t know how we didn’t notice it, but we eventually noticed that everyone else’s power is working, but not ours...Our power never came back on for 24hrs...till the electrician fixed it in our apartment! All that meaning 2 things. One, our new refrigerator wasn’t even working because there was no power...so another 24hrs with sketch food! Two, we had to sleep with no A/C or anything, so basically worst sleep ever for all of us, sleeping in our own pool of sweat! Oh man, the second the power came back on, we all stood infront of our fan and didn’t want to move for so long! Haha. But now power is restored to us so we can live with food and cool air again! Yay! All in all, awesome experiences and fun times nonetheless.
“LET’S DO THIS!...oh...okay, never mind.”
So it’s Friday night right, and we are so stoked to be doing a full day of ministry in a town/village called Abomey on Saturday (the next day). Even though we had to leave at 6am, we were so looking forward to spending the 3 hour drive to hang out with the team, to arrive ready to do ministry and spread God’s love to the people! *Ring*Ring*...Oh hold on, the phone, 2 seconds...IT’S CANCELLED?!?
That was definitely our reaction Friday night. It was 10pm and the last thing we expected to happen was that we would get a phone call saying that the pastor that is coming with us to do follow-up and was our main contact couldn’t come anymore. So there we were, 10pm Friday night, everybody else on the team thinking that they had to be ready at 6am the next day. After all that conversation, we find out that even with the pastor backing out, we still are going because of a meeting we were performing at. K cool, the event is still on! *Ring*Ring*...Oh 2 seconds once again, so sorry, the phone...”No point in going for just the meeting eh?”
Then we get a call saying that there is no point in going that whole way just for the meeting, which makes sense because it was a 3-hour drive, but then we had to phone the whole team and...*Ring*Ring*...I AM SO SORRY, the phone once again, man it is ringing off the hook tonight!...We still might do ministry but you are not sure where or when?
We then found out that we could still do ministry but that we wouldn’t really know where or when or how till the next day. So there we stood, late Friday night, having to quickly think fast on what to do. Cancel the whole thing because it is too complicated now and we wouldn’t be able to get a hold of the whole team, and there would be miscommunications anyway or just tell the team that the village thing is cancelled but wait for a phone call that might come and we might have to meet at the church? We ended up just calling the whole thing off because it was getting late and we had to tell people to not be at the church at 6am, or someone would not be too impressed being there all alone at that time in the morning! Eek....Be right back...Our turn to phone people now *Ring*Ring*Ring*Ring*Ring*Ring*
We were indeed disappointed that the whole event was cancelled, but we couldn’t really do anything about it so we just ended up hanging out with some friends on Saturday, and relaxing. It’s crazy how different this culture is from Canada. Here, it seemed like it was so nonchalant and not a big deal that a huge event was cancelled like a few hours prior, even though we felt so so bad that we had to cancel on the team so last minute! It is really cool though how everyone is just very laid back and has a ‘whatever happens, happens’ attitude! We have definitely had to adjust to that though, because it has on a couple occasions already happened that people have cancelled like very very close to the event or appointment, so we just have to get used to that I guess!
That was definitely our reaction Friday night. It was 10pm and the last thing we expected to happen was that we would get a phone call saying that the pastor that is coming with us to do follow-up and was our main contact couldn’t come anymore. So there we were, 10pm Friday night, everybody else on the team thinking that they had to be ready at 6am the next day. After all that conversation, we find out that even with the pastor backing out, we still are going because of a meeting we were performing at. K cool, the event is still on! *Ring*Ring*...Oh 2 seconds once again, so sorry, the phone...”No point in going for just the meeting eh?”
Then we get a call saying that there is no point in going that whole way just for the meeting, which makes sense because it was a 3-hour drive, but then we had to phone the whole team and...*Ring*Ring*...I AM SO SORRY, the phone once again, man it is ringing off the hook tonight!...We still might do ministry but you are not sure where or when?
We then found out that we could still do ministry but that we wouldn’t really know where or when or how till the next day. So there we stood, late Friday night, having to quickly think fast on what to do. Cancel the whole thing because it is too complicated now and we wouldn’t be able to get a hold of the whole team, and there would be miscommunications anyway or just tell the team that the village thing is cancelled but wait for a phone call that might come and we might have to meet at the church? We ended up just calling the whole thing off because it was getting late and we had to tell people to not be at the church at 6am, or someone would not be too impressed being there all alone at that time in the morning! Eek....Be right back...Our turn to phone people now *Ring*Ring*Ring*Ring*Ring*Ring*
We were indeed disappointed that the whole event was cancelled, but we couldn’t really do anything about it so we just ended up hanging out with some friends on Saturday, and relaxing. It’s crazy how different this culture is from Canada. Here, it seemed like it was so nonchalant and not a big deal that a huge event was cancelled like a few hours prior, even though we felt so so bad that we had to cancel on the team so last minute! It is really cool though how everyone is just very laid back and has a ‘whatever happens, happens’ attitude! We have definitely had to adjust to that though, because it has on a couple occasions already happened that people have cancelled like very very close to the event or appointment, so we just have to get used to that I guess!
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