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!
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