Di-pan-tad

"Di-pan-tad, Di-pan-tad, on a Di-pan-tad pour vous ! "

Etienne arrived at Educolo to teach his two students (young guys) this afternoon and that was the first thing they said to him. He was slightly confused and couldn't understand what they were saying so he asked them what they meant and they repeated the same thing.

Then a light bulb went on. The French word 'pintade' = guinea fowl.

And 'dix' = ten.

Images of a bunch of frozen birds popped into his mind... And then he remembered he was in Bénin.

Indeed, these two guys have just returned from a couple of days in 'the village' (Banikoara), and they brought back a gift for their computer teacher of ten live squawking birds!!

HELP!!

Michée and Elmire left for Cotonou this morning as they need to get their visas for their trip to America later this year, so they're not on hand to tell us what on earth we should do with the things!

Etienne asked the boys if they could look after the birds until Monday and they said that would be fine. Phew!!!

Oh, and Lazare (our church elder who also works at the computer centre) said if we needed someone to kill them, he would be more than willing to oblige...!

We can't complain that life is dull here! :-)

Exam invigilation

And it's exam week again!

There are four exam periods here in Bénin: one at the beginning of December, one at the end of January, one in mid-March and one at the beginning of May. They're so close together that it's not possible to teach much between each exam!

Today, I was assigned one of the older year groups for their exam in Philosophy. They laughed in shock when I walked through the door - I guess they weren't expecting a white invigilator!! Fortunately they soon settled down and got on with their exam.



I had to tell them that if they get stuck on any of the four questions, I didn't study philosophy so I can't help them! Not to mention the fact that I barely understand the text and the questions...

This definitely beats teaching my horrible class at this school though! :-)

Nature Retreat

To begin the year, Pastor Michée decided it would be good for the church members with special responsibilities here (elder, deacons, deaconesses, music director etc) to follow the example of Jesus and spend some time in nature praying. We didn't go as far as to wake up before dawn and climb a mountain but opted to go in the afternoon after church on Saturday instead ;-)

Attendance at church by some officers has been sporadic lately but on the day there were 19 of us - a very healthy number indeed :-)

We met at church at 3pm... ish (this is still Africa) and prayed together before leaving.



With plenty of enthusiasm, we then began our 'hike' into the hills...







Unfortunately, the pretty spot we were hoping to use was sectioned off in a 'Forbidden Zone' so we had to resort to Plan B...



A quarry.

Not quite the 'nature' we had been anticipating, you know, trees and grass and a river!

After walking for half an hour in the heat of the day, nobody was inclined to carry on any further so we proceeded to make ourselves as comfortable as possible with some mats and rock benches...





At least there was a bit of water to look at...



And a tiny bit of colour...



During the next couple of hours, we attempted to take a spiritual gifts inventory and then quickly abandoned it as it was proving far too difficult for many people to understand, Michée gave a presentation about what it means for us to work as a team with a common vision, we prayed openly together on our knees (I am so not in the habit of kneeling - that was pretty painful...) and handed over to God our personal struggles and appealed for Him to guide us as His body here in Kandi and of course, we closed with the inevitable but totally necessary 'kum-ba-yah time', holding hands, singing songs of praise and praying for our fellow church members, family and friends, especially those who are facing particularly big challenges at the moment.



We may not have covered all of the training material that Michée had prepared - laptops without a projector don't work so well in nature - not that we didn't try, but nobody could see anything...



...but it was a really blessed time of honest sharing and bonding, which is surely more valuable than what any training materials can provide.

May God bless His people in Kandi as we do our best to serve His mission here in 2015 and may we be a blessing for the whole town!

Kids are funny!

One of my kids made me laugh on Friday...

I was at CEG3 and we were having a revision lesson ahead of their exams, which started today.

One of the tasks was this:
Write a paragraph about yourself using the answers to these questions...
What is your name?
Where are you from?
How old are you?
Where do you go to school?

And here's what one of my boys gave me:



Lol.. Dream on boy!

When Happy Me walked out the door...

So we were warned at AFM Training that there is always a difficult period or periods during mission service, a time of depression of one kind or another...

My first couple of days in this country were awful. I hated it and would have jumped straight back on the plane if it wasn't for the fact that God had clearly called me to be here through specific answers to specific prayers, including providing all the funds we needed through very many generous people without us having to beg.

My first couple of months were hard because school hadn't started, so I didn't really have anything to do and I was bored - it doesn't do my soul any good to be bored at all... It turns me into a crazy person! Etienne was spending time at the computer centre, so I was also kind of lonely (thank the Lord for the internet and everyone who was sending messages and photos and emails!). And everyone was speaking French all the time, so I couldn't follow conversations and felt pretty isolated. On top of that, it was HOT, and I felt physically exhausted all day every day and wondered if I would ever have the energy to even start teaching...

That phase passed and then I was really starting to enjoy being here. The Christmas period was difficult as we were on our own and facing food challenges (another thing that is just not good for my soul!) but there were some fun moments too.

What took me by surprise was what happened to my mindset mid-January. The first week of January, I was ill. I had a thumping headache, terrible diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and complete fatigue. I didn't have enough energy to stand up longer than it took to run to the toilet... So I spent the whole week in bed. Etienne brought all my meals to me and took really good care of me. I felt a bit pathetic and useless as a missionary but I was content to rest a bit after the challenges of Christmas. The second week of January, I was better and able to start teaching again but then Etienne got sick with similar symptoms. During that week, I started to feel really angry inside, for no apparent reason. When Etienne asked me to do something for him, I felt annoyed but also frustrated with myself because of how loving he had been when I was sick and how uncaring I was feeling now that he was sick... When I could find a god excuse not to go to church meetings, I stayed at home. I wasn't interested in talking to people or listening to them pray their long prayers or sharing their testimonies about what God had done in their lives. When Elie and Eliora asked me to help them with their schoolwork or come so they could show me something, I wanted to tell them to leave me alone... I just wanted to hide from the world.

Towards the end of that week, Etienne was making the cleaning rota for church and asked me if I wanted to be on it. My response included silence and a screwed up face. I hate cleaning. Really really hate cleaning. I'm not good at it either. And besides, 'Service' isn't one of my spiritual gifts...

Excuses, excuses. The truth is that I'm selfish and lazy.

The battle between who I am and who I want to be will continue until the day I die. I wish I had the willingness to serve that Etienne has. I wish I was as hard-working a missionary as Quentin was. (And I wish I didn't love my bed so much...)

On 15 January, as all this anger and frustration was raging inside me, a Bible verse app on my phone shared this with me:
"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it." 1 Thes 5:23-24.

Peace. Blameless... I was certainly not feeling either of those.

"He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it." Jesus has called you, chosen you. He will fill you with peace. He will continue to dig out the deeply-embedded weeds in your heart, the selfishness, the pride, the laziness, the fear, and He will make you blameless. Because you simply can't do it on your own.

I cannot do it on my own.

That night, as I was trying to go to sleep, I started crying. Crying because I didn't want to be feeling so hostile and angry, crying because I was ashamed of myself and how I'd been treating other people and having bad thoughts towards them, crying because I had alienated my husband and not shared my struggles with him. It was one of those situations where I didn't want Etienne to know I was crying, but I did want him to know at the same time (that's a woman thing!). It didn't take him long to realise, and then I was able to open up about all the stuff that was boiling inside. It was such a relief to share my burden (as always... When will I learn to share sooner?). And then Etienne prayed, turning over my issues and our lives to God once again, claiming the promise that His grace is sufficient.

I am so grateful for my husband and so grateful that God is who He is.

No doubt there will be more trying times, when Happy Me walks out the door and is replaced by Hostile Me. But no doubt, God loves me anyway and chooses me anyway and continues to fulfil His promise to change me to be more like Him. Amen!

PS Thank you to everyone who is praying for us. We are so in need of God's strength!
PPS I'm not pregnant :-P

We're still alive!

We are still alive, just in case you were starting to wonder...

The last couple of weeks have gone by quickly as Michée and Elmire were away for just over a week at a pastoral conference in Possotome (south Benin) so we had more responsibilities at church than usual...

Etienne is currently leading the new church building project, along with a small committee of church members who have building experience. We've had several meetings but the whole process is proving to be a bit of a challenge as we don't know the procedures and order of doing things in Bénin when it comes to building, and we're discovering that the concept of 'giving clear explanations' is alien to this culture...

A couple of other recent incidents reminded us that we come from another culture with a different way of thinking. I'd had a particularly traumatic day at school (CEG1) last Thursday and so when Etienne arrived to pick me up, he suggested we go and buy some frozen juice lollies to make up for it. (The trauma: I had to call the discipline manager to come to the class because nearly all the kids were talking and they wouldn't stop. He gave them a speech which scared them a bit and then called the chattiest kids forward - one of my students had been making a list at my request. He then got out his whip and whipped them hard across their chests. One girl was crying softly for the rest of the lesson... After that, they didn't talk with their friends but they didn't participate in the lesson either. It was like they'd turned into zombies. I hope I won't have to witness that again.) Anyway, we knew of two places where we could buy frozen lollies. We drove to the first one and the door to the shop was locked. So we went to the second one, only to discover that it wasn't there anymore - all of the freezers had been removed and the shop was empty. There was a guy on a bike with two small kids so we assumed he would know where to buy lollies. We asked him and he didn't seem to know what we were talking about. After a few minutes of further descriptions, he said "Ahhh yes, you can get them behind." "Behind what?" "Behind you. [pointing down the road] Over there." We enquired about how far down the long road and he just kept pointing and saying "That way, behind you"... We asked if it was near the pharmacy or near the bank, before or after the roundabout, and he repeated "Behind you." Then he gave up, told us to follow him and started driving down the road. After a few hundred metres, he stopped at the supermarket, which was locked, told us the lady must have gone out but that she would be back in a few minutes. Well, we waited a couple of minutes and then gave up and went home!

Giving directions using distances and landmarks really doesn't seem to be part of this culture!! We'll just have to learn to ask people to take us to where we need to go in the first place!
Then today, we went to a fabric shop to buy some fabric for Elmire's birthday so she could have some new clothes. We saw something nice but weren't sure whether the fabric was for curtains or tablecloths or men's or women's clothes. We asked the shopkeeper, "Is this fabric for clothes?" He replied, "It's a set." We asked again, "Do you use this fabric to make curtains or clothes?" Again he replied, "It's all there. It's a set." We decided it was for clothes, asked the price, realised he was trying to rip us off and went to another shop. At the second shop, they seemed to have mostly fabric for men's clothes, so when we saw something nice, we asked "Is this for men's or women's clothes?" The guy there replied, "It's a 'bassin' [French for bowl..??]. It's a complete set." Déjà-vu ??!

It's amazing how impossible communication can be, even when you basically speak the same language!!

We did buy some fabric from the second guy in the end so Elmire did receive a present, despite our communication difficulties!

Practical fashion!

Over the last week or so, the Harmattan wind from the Sahara has been blowing a lot more strongly, bringing with it much cooler weather and seriously lung-damaging amounts of dust... Playing football on Sunday in the sand was probably not the healthiest idea - the dust clouds that arose with every kick of the ball were enough to make us all choke...

On a lighter note, the cooler weather has brought out the best of Beninese fashion. Yes, Denver Annable, you are a fashion icon over here: socks and sandals (usually of the flip-flop variety) have taken over!



Of course, for the guys and girls who want to be noticed, long stripy or patterned socks are the way forward ;-)



Other fashionistas were spotted wearing once-shiny high heels and wedges with long grey grandad socks. Sadly I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of them.

Long live practical fashion!!

Rigo's shirt from the accident

While we were in Sonsoro, Rigo showed us the shirt he was wearing that was torn from him when the thief came to ransack the passengers...



All the stains are blood from the accident. Rigo is recovering well and is riding his motorbike again, although he still can't really put weight on his right heel.

Sonsoro has doors, windows and t-shirts!

Saturday was equally as joy-filled as Friday :-)

In the morning, church was more full than it had been for weeks (news had probably spread overnight by special African means - which we just cannot comprehend - that the Badés were back and a visitor was in town). 15 year old Suzelle led us in an exuberant time of worship and praise...



...and Marc preached a humbling sermon about our unworthiness and God's extravagant grace. It's easy to see that he was a missionary in West Africa for several years - he knows exactly how to connect with people here and speak straight to their hearts. Marc is very softly spoken but preaches the Word with conviction and the power of the Spirit. Inspiring indeed.

We shared a noisy and delicious lunch together - we all still had so much to share about what had happened in our time apart...



A well-needed nap followed and supplied us with the energy needed to make an evening trip to Sonsoro so Marc could see the work that is going on there and encourage the believers.

A couple of terrorists hopped in the back of the car for the journey!



Just kidding ;-)

Etienne and Aymar decided to put their dust masks on to save their lungs when we turned onto the dust track a few moments after a big cotton truck.

Once we arrived in Sonsoro, we had the surprise of discovering that the church building there had been kitted out with doors and windows! We have no idea where the funds came from, but Rigo obviously found a way! Praise God!



Marc also spotted that Rigo was wearing an Adventist t-shirt and, upon closer inspection, realised that it had 2015 printed on it and was therefore not an old hand-me-down from Michée... He asked where Rigo had got it from and Rigo replied that he had had it printed especially. We then learned that every member of the Sonsoro group had one of these t-shirts, all in different colours, proclaiming 2015 as the year of deliverance and salvation for Sonsoro!



May God bless them as they join His work and free the people of Sonsoro from evil spirits, curses and the unawareness of God's great love for them.

Marc delivered a great message of encouragement to the people there based on the story of Baalam and the talking donkey and how God can turn people's desires to curse us into blessings.



The service there finished with some more lively songs of praise in Sonsoro's unique style!



To God be the glory for the great things He is doing in the lives of the people in Sonsoro!

A very good Friday

Friday was a day of sheer joy ! Our three weeks of hardship and the Badé family's three weeks of exhausting travelling and draining family visits came to an end as they returned home to Kandi from the Ivory Coast. The relief that we all felt as we saw each other once again was very apparent as we ran into each other's arms and held each other tight. "Weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning!" In this case, the joy came at about 9pm and although we were all physically tired, we stayed up late, catching up on each other's news and laughing together once again.

We said goodbye to Michée's mother as she left with the Badés in mid-December - she is now settled into her new home in Ivory Coast. And now we welcome Michée's brother, Florentin, who has come to live with them for a few months.

Friday was also a day of rejoicing as we welcomed Marc Coleman, AFM International Field Director and Africa Field Director (Michée's line manager and mentor), for the weekend. Marc was an answer to my mother's prayer for a courier who could deliver a huge amount of goods to Kandi in a short space of time (sadly DHL don't have an office in Kandi and Royal Mail have weight restrictions!). So we also gave thanks on Friday for the box of goodies that arrived with Marc :-)





I'm not sure we've ever started a Sabbath with quite so much joy! Praise God that He doesn't allow us to be tested beyond what we can bear!!

Happy New Year !

Happy 2015 to you all!! :-D

We still can't believe it's 15 years since all those 'millennium bug' scares and predictions of the world ending... We must be getting old!

Well, New Year seems to be a bigger deal here than Christmas, presumably because Muslims and Christians celebrate New Year! Christians here tend to welcome in the new year with a church service, so we did the same thing here, meeting at church at 10pm...

Before that, we headed to our local buvette for a quick bite - spaghetti and omelette (with yummy turkey sausages) as usual!



Once at church, we spent some time (nearly an hour actually) sharing different ways God had blessed our lives during each month of 2014. It was a highly encouraging time: one guy shared how God had freed him from his 33-year smoking habit (365 days without a cigarette) much to the surprise of everyone who knew him, another shared how God had proved him innocent when someone took him to court over something he hadn't done and another shared how God had spoken to him through a Bible verse and completely transformed him at a time when he was deep in depression and about to give up on his faith... And my personal favourite, from a 9 year old boy: "I would like to thank God because my dad said we were going to kill a goat for Christmas but [frowning] we didn't kill a goat... But [big smile!] today I ate TWO chickens!!" Lol... That kid loves his food - and sadly his family doesn't always have much money to buy food... But he obviously had a blessed last day of 2014!! :-)

Our first day of 2015 was allocated for a spring clean as our apartment was really really filthy... Like disgusting! The amount of dust and the number of cobwebs in this country is incredible... And cleaning seems like even more of a waste of time here than in Europe as about 10 minutes after cleaning, everything is covered in dust again!

Here are some before/after pictures...







Yes those windowsills are both supposed to be dark grey. The orange one... Caked in dust. Minging or what?

Neither of us are big fans of cleaning so it wasn't the most wonderful day in the world (two tired and grumpy people + dust and dirty rags = not a good combo!)...

But the job is done now and the result is pleasing!! :-) Time to chill...!

The highlights of the day were: 1) a visit from the lady across the road who we've been buying lunch from for the past few days (rice pancakes with a salty spicy peanut powder and tomato sauce) - she just wanted to wish us a Happy New Year and introduce herself properly, and 2) a visit from our neighbour Christian with a plate of couscous and chicken that his mum had made for us for the new year - an answer to Etienne's prayer for couscous and my prayer for not having to cook!! God is good!!





Wishing you all a new year full of joy and not too much cleaning...! ;-)