Beyond vague !

A few months ago, a new sewing lady started renting the shop beneath our flat for her sewing business. Soon after, it appeared that the shop had become her home too, and she could be heard working at all hours of day and night, while her little boy occupied himself with sticks and tin cans and other pieces of rubbish he found in the street.

Maman Christian, who we share a courtyard with, has taken the lady and her little boy under her wing it seems, even if the two ladies are frequently heard yelling at each other in an African language! The sewing lady now uses our courtyard to do her washing and cooking too.

Today, we arrived back from school to find the lady washing some clothes in the courtyard. The short conversation that ensued reminded me that communication is not just a matter of words!

[We enter the courtyard on the motorbike]
Sewing lady: Bon arrivé !
Me: Merci, bon travail !
Sewing lady: Tu as fait un pain ?
Me: (Surely she doesn't think I've made bread. Perhaps she means that she's made bread.) Tu as fait un pain ?
Sewing lady: Non, tu as fait un peu ?
Me: (I've done a bit? What sort of sentence is that? A bit of what?) J'ai fais un peu ?
Sewing lady: Oui, un peu de travail ?
Me: (A bit of work! Of course, I should have guessed....!) OHHHHH ! Oui, j'ai enseigné à CEG3 ce matin. C'est bien passé.

Lol... Will I ever get used to these seemingly unfinished sentences and get skilled at guessing the meaning?!

As Quentin says, "Sometimes you understand every single word a person says but you have no idea what they are trying to tell you!"

Living in another culture is funny. Some people here must think we are really stupid at times!! :-)

SPECIAL REQUEST: Pray for Prospère!!

Prospère is a 14 year old boy who has been attending the Adventist church here in Kandi for a few years.

Unfortunately, he failed his school exams last year and so his father refused to sign him up for school this year and instead sent him off to do a blacksmith apprenticeship. That was in October. Since then, he hasn't been able to come to church at all because he works 7 days a week, usually from early in the morning until quite late at night. We went to visit him and his father with Pastor Michée in November to offer to help with the school fees because Prospère had said that he really wanted to stay at school instead of working. His father was completely drunk, as he usually is, and refused to speak with us. He just hurled a load of abuse at the pastor before running off to buy more drink. (Prospère's mother doesn't appear to be on the scene at all.) We continued to pray for him but didn't feel there was much else we could do.

About a month ago, Prospère started coming to the prayer group that we have with his friends on Monday nights just around the corner from his house. Prospère is always so full of joy, always filled with stories about what God is doing in His life, always wanting to pray for the missionaries around the world so that more people can know the love and forgiveness of God... Over the last couple of weeks, he has begun to pray earnestly that God will do a miracle for him so that he will be free at least on Saturday so he can worship at church with his family in Christ. Tonight especially he expressed his desire to be at church this Saturday as his friend Suzel is getting baptised.
Please join us in praying that God indeed will do a miracle so that Prospère will not have to work and can share our day of celebration at church on Saturday!

And then everything turned ORANGE

This morning I woke up to find Etienne had just returned from morning prayer and was about to switch the ceiling off.

"Are you not baking?!" I asked. It was as warm and humid as any other morning over the last few days and I just couldn't understand why Etienne would want to turn the fan off!

He then opened the curtain and invited me to look outside.

Everything had turned ORANGE.

I then began to smell the dust in the air and feel it going deep into my lungs. The dust had covered everything and was lingering in the air, creating a kind of fog that reminded me of the smog scenes I've only ever seen in pictures and videos of the Chinese capital.

Making my way into the living room, I realised there was a new layer of dust over everything that had been cleaned the day before. Everything in the bathroom was also covered in a layer of orange. It was like some aliens had invaded our town overnight and sprayed every single thing, big and small, with a choking, orange powder.

Thoughts of pneumonia and other lung diseases filled my head as I stepped outside, and yet I felt completely powerless to save my breathing apparatus from the evil menace filling the air.



The bike, which Etienne had used to go to morning prayer, looked like it had been abandoned months ago when we went to use it again an hour later to go to school.



Inside the classroom, it was hard to teach because we were all coughing incessantly and the kids at the back of the room couldn't read the board properly on account of the hazy air. Perhaps I should have cancelled the class but most of the other teachers seemed to be teaching so I didn't think I was allowed to skive!

When we got back home, I realised just how bad the visibility was when I noticed that I couldn't see the minarets of the central mosque from our staircase.



And the worst thing?

It won't be going away overnight. Normally these dust clouds rest for a few days before dispersing.

Please pray for everyone in Kandi, particularly that God will protect our health during these days of dust clouds.

Feels like 53°C!!!

After a suffocatingly hot and somewhat sleepless night, the headache that started last night was still very present. (It may in part be due to the fact that I had a football smashed into my face yesterday afternoon from close range...)

I thought I would check the weather forecast this morning to prepare myself for the week, and was horrified by today's predictions:



Feels like 53°C!!! That's not funny. Really not funny. And at night it will feel like 44?! Is that some kind of sick joke? How on earth are we supposed to sleep in that with no air conditioning? (We must sound like very spoilt Westerners....!)

Thank the Lord it's exam week and I do not have to teach my horrible class at 8am tomorrow morning!!!

May He give us the energy, water and rest we need to survive these inhospitable temperatures...

Sunday scrubbing

It would be fair to say that our domestic efficiency has reduced significantly since we arrived in Africa. The bookshelf is always covered in dust and we both lack the will to do much about it since it seems like such a futile task. The basket of dirty clothes has been in a state of overflow for several days, maybe weeks even... And that's with Marina doing a couple of bags of washing for us every 10 days or so!

What can I say? Clothes just get dirty very very quickly in this country!

This morning, after delivering a very efficient computer lesson on how to use 'mail merge' with Professor Aymar, Etienne came home and threw a load of whites into the big wash bucket. We then spent the next hour or so together in the bathroom, scrubbing and rinsing the clothes with the voice of Marie Laforet playing in the background. It's hard work but not so bad when you have good company.

I took charge of the smaller things while Etienne dealt with the towels and pillow cases. Before going to hang everything up, I swirled my hand quickly through the revoltingly brown water to check I hadn't missed anything. Then off I went to hang things up on the strings holding up the mosquito net in our bedroom.



I heard Etienne pouring the dirty water into the toilet, followed by, "OH !"

Lol.

It appears that Etienne now has one odd sock. Oops!

Fortunately he brought quite a few socks with him, and whilst it is a shame about that lost sock, these African comedy moments are always welcome!! :-D

PS I take full responsibility for the lost sock. (Etienne told me I had to declare that publicly if I was going to include the fact that uncharacteristically an unsavoury word slipped out of his mouth..!)

The beautiful sound of silence

I woke Etienne up from his afternoon nap a few minutes before we needed to leave home to go and clean the church, ready for tonight's prayer meeting. It was hot and sticky, so sticky in fact that I hadn't even bothered trying to sleep. The sweat just repulses me too much for my brain to switch off!

We opened our front door to leave and were met with bright sunshine and complete and utter silence. The sound of silence. Something that I didn't think really existed in Bénin. It was beautiful and it made me feel instantly peaceful.

I guess silent afternoons are the reality of 'chaleur' (the hot season).

There was a truck opposite our house, which would normally have several workmen chinking away at the metal, banging various nuts and bolts into place, but today, there were no workmen. Just two guys napping under the truck on their prayer mats.

The lady who usually sits under her make-shift shade on the corner, selling food and chatting or arguing loudly with other ladies, was braiding her little girl's hair, her hands moving slowly, her attention focused solely on her silent task.

There were no motorbikes whizzing past. No cobblers drumming on their wooden boxes-of-tricks to attract the attention of anyone in need of shoe repairs. No children running around and shouting.

Just silence. Beautiful silence.

Maybe I like chaleur after all.

May your Sabbath be full of peace and moments of silence as you contemplate the love of our wonderful Creator :-)

Pictures of the day: Wednesday 11 March

The weapon of torture used by the discipline manager at CEG1 in an attempt to rectify wayward behaviour:



Some tasty treats, made by deep-frying a slightly sweet dough, prepared by Maman Accalogoun to sell to peckish passers-by:



Part of the brick-making process which is currently taking place just behind the church's plot in the blazing heat of the day:

Raoul and Denise's kids

And here's a picture of the five energetic but adorable children, outside their old house :

On the move...

Pastor Raoul, his wife Denise and their five kids, plus Pastor Raoul's younger brother, have been living peacefully in a small courtyard in the south of Kandi for a long time. But a few weeks ago, they suddenly found themselves 'under attack' from other families living in the courtyard. Vicious rumours, angry looks and disrespectful remarks became the norm and as if that wasn't unpleasant enough, someone then decided to cut off their electricity supply...

That was the final straw. They immediately started looking for a new and happier home, and were pleasantly surprised to learn that the house next to their friend, Professor Arsène, was available. Pastor Raoul has been praying for Arsène for some time as he got baptised a few years ago and then drifted away from church and from God. Divine providence seems to have intervened!

On Sunday, we helped them make the move. I have never seen a removal truck in this country. All house moves seem to be DIY, usually involving a Peugeot 505 estate taxi, loaded several metres high with all furniture and belongings including beds and motorbikes! In Raoul's situation, the plan was to use Michée's pick up truck... Of course, the plan was scuppered after only a few minutes!

Etienne reversed the pick up truck out of the Badés' driveway by releasing the handbrake, with the idea that Florentin and I would push the truck down the road to bump start it (there's a problem with the starter motor which would be incredibly expensive to fix so everyone has got used to bump starting it). Well, we pushed it a long way down the road, with some help from the neighbourhood kids, but regardless of everything Etienne tried, it didn't so much as cough...



Etienne figured the battery was completely utterly dead (turning the key resulted in no noise whatsoever) and so we were forced abandoned the truck at the side of the road (I certainly didn't have the strength to push it up hill!), where it quickly turned into a climbing frame for the kids!



It was time for Plan B!

We rushed back to the house and grabbed the 4x4, sped over to Raoul's, and discovered a house full of busy and grubby kids! Danny, their 1 year old, had spent the morning playing mechanic with Raoul's motorbike which was parked in the house with a flat tyre. He had black smudges all over on his face, arms and legs, which made for a very funny sight!

The other kids and the adults were shoving things in refugee bags and other sacks, ready to load into the car. The boys did a great job carrying all the heavy furniture and packing it compactly into the interior of the car.









Raoul was tempted to serenade us all with a guitar piece but decided efficiency was the way forward!



Three car loads later, everything had been deposited in their new home, on the west side of Kandi, just opposite CEG3...









We pray they will make friends quickly with their new neighbours and enjoy developing their friendship with Arsène :-)

The Building Saga, Part 2: The Testimony

In my earlier blog post I neglected to share an important detail!

On Thursday evening, we had our late night prayer meeting, 10pm til midnight, as we always do at the start of the month.

All of our prayer meetings feature a time for testimonies: a time for people to share what God has done in their lives during the day/week. Papa Antoine was the first to ask for the microphone on Thursday night to share his testimony.

He shared the story of the missing cement and total disrespect of the young guy who was at the shop. He emphasised how unacceptable the guy's manner of speaking was in this culture and how in his pre-Jesus days, he would have absolutely exploded and punched the guy. I don't doubt that at all! Even now, in his pro-Jesus days, Papa Antoine is a guy with a lot of energy and passion!

But Praise God, Antoine shared that he now has the love of God dwelling in his heart and he was able to deal with the difficult situation without falling into acts of violence or disrespectful retorts! He seemed almost surprised that he had remained so calm during the dispute and gave all the glory to God for the change that had taken place in his life.

Truly, our God is a good God! May He continue to change hearts in Kandi for His glory!

PS Here are the two tonnes of bricks, made under the watchful eye of a transformed Papa Antoine:

The Building Saga

If you received our February newsletter, you will know that we have just started acquiring materials for the construction of our new church building. Exciting times !

Unfortunately, things are never straightforward here...

On Monday, Etienne went with Papa Antoine (church member and famous local builder) to the shop selling the cheapest cement in town. (It was about £2 cheaper per tonne and we needed 4 tonnes... Every little helps!) They confirmed that they had 4 tonnes of cement in their store and that they could hold onto it until we needed it to be delivered to the building site. Delivery was tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, the same day we were hoping the sand would arrive.

Etienne went back to the cement store on Tuesday and paid for the 4 tonnes. In the meantime, Papa Antoine spoke with the sand people and learned that they could only deliver the sand on Thursday. They then spoke with the cement people to say they would take delivery of the cement on Thursday.

On Thursday morning, Etienne and Papa Antoine trotted off to the cement store to ask them to ferry the cement to the site by motorbike, only to discover that they had sold the cement we had paid for to someone else and now they had no more cement. Both Etienne and Papa Antoine was pretty annoyed and started asking when they were expecting their next cement delivery. The young guy in the shop responded incredibly disrespectfully and avoided answering their question. At that point, they decided the safest bet was to get their money back and go elsewhere.

That process wasn't straightforward either!

The young guy said their money was with his boss, the shop owner, and that he wasn't in town. Antoine asked him for his boss' phone number and Etienne called the boss to ask him what was going on with their money. The boss said he was on his way back to Kandi. Etienne asked how long they should expect to wait, to which the boss replied, "Well, I'm on my motorbike, and you know they can breakdown so I don't know when I'll be back."

Papa Antoine was particularly unimpressed with that response and immediately phoned his mate, the chief of police. (It's all about who you know in this country!) The chief of police said he would arrive in about 10 minutes.

It just so happened that as the chief of police arrived, the boss also appeared on his motorbike! He hastily returned the money and Etienne and Papa Antoine left in search of another cement store.

Fortunately, there was one not too far away and delivery was arranged for the same day. The sand was also delivered, so Papa Antoine's brickmaker friends were able to get started on the making the brick mix...

Take a bit of sand...



Add a tonne of cement and some water...



Put it in a mould... And voila! Bricks! 406 of them to be precise.



That picture was taken on Thursday. Another 400 or so bricks were made yesterday and the remaining 800 needed for the foundations will be made next week. In the meantime, we have to keep these bricks well watered ! You learn something new every day :-)

The old man!

Etienne has now reached the grand old age of 33 and gained a few extra grey hairs (well, I assume so anyway... It's hard to tell!).

Thank you all for thinking of him and taking a few moments to wish him a happy birthday.
He was very very happy to receive so many emails on his birthday and a few cards and phone calls too :-)



It wasn't the most relaxing of birthdays... He was running around trying to organise materials for the construction of the new church here, as well as teaching his students at Educolo and ferrying me to and from school.

However, he was treated to a real feast for his special day! Elmire prepared a big salad, some really tasty chicken and chips and lots of birthday cake :-D











Yum yum!

May God bless him with many more happy years!