Questions on Top of Questions

I have almost been here 5 weeks and my stay is almost half way done, which is hard to imagine. It has been a huge transition here to Africa and to the ship. I have fallen into a routine and now I have begun questioning.

When we are back home we know that Africa has a lot of need and that things are bad over here but you have no idea how massive it is until you get here. When I first got here you see the surface problems but after awhile you see how deep the issues go. I have begun questioning why are we helping a nation or maybe the continent that doesn't want to help itself? Benin isn't all poor, well at least in Cotonou. There are some, granted it is very few in comparison to the whole population, that have a lot of money. There are some buisnessmen who drive BMW and have western style houses. Why aren't they helping their own people?

Also are we doing any good at all? I believe that all NGOs do both harm and good and you just hope the good out weighs the bad. I know that we are performing so very life saving surgeries here. There are many people here that have tumors that are slowly suffocated them or making them starve because their tumor is pressing on their esophagus or trachea. Also there are other surgeries that restore large wholes that are missing out of people's faces. This all being the case, are we making a lasting impact or we just helping individuals have a better life and if so is that what Africa needs?

There have been a lot of books that have written recently discussing that foreign aid is not helping africa and in fact that is harming the continent, which I believe. The USA, World Bank and UN, all have good intentions but they are giving massive amount of money to Africa and it going into the hands of the corrupt and it is not making a difference. So what does Africa need then? I am a big supporter of micro-financing is that the answer?

When did all this poverty in Africa start? This is a vast continent that has a wealth of resources but it is so far behind the rest of the world?

I have also noticed that life is a lot more expendable here. In Benin the average life span is 55, which isn't too bad. However there is no fear of death here. Death is common. I have seen many mothers who are disconnected from her child and it is often due to the child having a defect and some are as little as a cleft lip or cleft palate. I try to look at it through the women eyes and I guess when there is no form of both control and you have a lot of babies and many of them die I guess it is easy for that to happen, I am not sure. Then the question arises how do you teach someone that the child or person has value because they have life in them?

There are so many questions and I will have ton more. I don't regret coming here or helping out Africa but I will still continue to question. Maybe I will know the answers one day when I got to heaven, maybe.

Bab's Doc

On Saturday I went to Bab's Doc with a few friends. Bab's Doc is a doc that is located on a lagoon. It was so nice, peaceful and quiet. The best part of the trip was that I was able to escape from the noise, pollution and the poverty of Cotonou. I never realized until being here how important that is to decompress.

I went kayaking and swam in the water. However most importantly, I just relaxed!

For lunch I had beef kabobs, which was surprisingly good. It was nice to have a good piece of beef.

Bab's Doc is owned by a man and woman from Belgium.

Engine Room

My friend Gray, who is from Ghana, took Lotte and I down to the engine room which is located on Deck 2. Deck 2 is completely underwater. When I got down there I was amazed at the size of the room and anyone can keep everything straight. It is very noisy , with lots of alarms going off. Gray took us around an explained everything to us.

He showed us the back up generators and explained why Mercy Ships has to go to dry dock in South Africa. The back up generator causes the ship to move too much so if we needed to use it then no surgeries could be performed. So in South Africa they are cutting a huge whole in the side of the ship to take out the old generator and put in a smaller one. The cost them about $6 million to do this.

October 15: Porto Nov"

On October 15th, some friends and I went to Porto Novo for the day. Porto Novo is the capital of Benin but is not the main city of the country. Porto Novo has the more "culture and arts" in comparison to Cotonou but all the main business is done in Cotonou.

When we arrived it was a dramatic difference from Cotonou. The streets weren't as crowded. There wasn't as much pollution and there were a lot fewer new/modern buildings. It was nice to be out of the noisy city.

We went to a museum which use to be an old palace of some lineage of kings. There are a lot of kings still present in Benin even though the government here is a democracy.

The museum here is nothing like back home. It is pretty much the old palace with some random "artifacts" that aren't well kept up. It was interesting to see where the kings lived and had all their 41 wives. Furthermore, all the kings were buried in the palace as well.

Afterwards we walked to the botanical gardens, where we had lunch. The lunch was actually very good. I had a chicken sandwich which was fresh with onions and other vegetables. It was a nice change of pace from the food on the ship. The botanical garden was very simple, mostly trees with some labels. Some the trees were very impressive, I have no idea what they are called and I have never seen them before. Also in the botanical gardens there were monkeys! We had bought bananas beforehand so we fed them to the monkeys, it was great to be so close to them! They were very friendly.

work on the ward

Working on Mercy Ships is different from back home. Things are busy and we get really sick patients sometimes but we have a good time working. Managers and fellow staff are always supportive. Everyone here is on a first name basis. The physicians are always willing to teach and are appreciative of the nurses.

The picutres are from out cancer awareness day and we wore pink. We put on patient gowns and wore them for the whole shift!

Benin vs Ghana: Sunday, October 12

On Sunday, I went to the football match of Benin vs. Ghana. This was a very big game for Benin. They needed to win this game to stay in the tournament. Ghana had already qualified for it.

Me and a couple of girls from the ship went to the game together. Our driver picked us up and took us to the game. The streets were crowded more then usual and people we singing and dancing everywhere. When we arrived at the stadium it was chaos! There were people everywhere. Just getting into the parking lot took about 10 minutes or so.

Once we parked our driver negotiated Benin jerseys for us. We got them for $5.

People were lined up body to body to get into the stadium. There was no real order and these men were ready to get in. (the stadium had to be 98% men there) I didn't understand their system of lettng people in. Our driver got us past the line and we were allowed to go in front of people which was nice. Once you are in the stadium you have more lines to get into a different sections.

Once we got in there were no seats, just concrete rows with numbers on them. The numbers didn't mean anything. The concrete was hot and we had gotten there 2 hours before the game had started. Besides all that the game was fun. We did the wave all the way around the stadium which was fun to see. Also there were a ton of bands in the spectator sections. One band had shirts that made up the Benin flag.

The mascot for the Benin football team is a squirrel. The saying here is when the squirrels come you better protect your nuts. I don't know how that is scary but that is their mascot.

The game was good. There were some really good plays made by both teams. The game was scoreless until the very last few seconds and Benin scored a goal and the whole stadium went crazy. They were cheering and screaming! The whole city went crazy. It was fun to see. As we were driving back to the ship people were lining the streets in hopes to see the football team.

Saturday, Oct 10 to Sunday, Oct 11th: Possotome

Saturday morning, Lotte, Kimberly, Jenna, Kaitlyn, Jess and I went to Possotome. This village is known for provided mineral water for the country. It is a village that sits right next to Lac Aheme.

Our driver, Anicet, picked us up and all 6 of us crammed into a small car. Four in the back and me in Jess sharing the front seat. I was happy that it was only a 2 hour drive because the right side of my body was going numb.

When we arrived we got a hotel which we stayed at for $3 a night. The room were simple but they had electricity, running water and fans, which can be hard to come by here sometimes. The rooms were simple but clean. The owners were very nice and gracious.

Afterwards we went to go learn how to fish. When we got to the place that provided lessons there were other people from Mercy Ships there. The first thing that our guide did was give us fresh coconuts. His son climbed the palm tree with only his hands and feet and got us fresh. coconuts. Then they used a machete to cut open the coconuts. The coconut was sweet and the coconut inside didn't have much flavor to it but it was good.

Then i sat down with two local boys who were fishing off the side of the dock. They let me try but I was not successful. It is hard just fishing with a stick.

The big group of us got on this wood boat and headed out onto the lake. When we got out there I was for certain that we were going to tip over. I have never been on a boat that rocked back and forth so much. Furthermore, because the boats are wooden they had to constantly scoup out the water, so that we wouldn't sink.

Our guide showed us how to hold the net and throw it. The net has weights on the bottom of it, there are no hooks on them. They let us practice with a small net and it is a lot heavier then I expected. It was fun to learn. It took a couple of hours for all us to practice throwing the fishing net and so it was really hot in the African sun.

After we made it back to the dock we walked around the village. All this kids were calling us "white people" in Fon. This village doesn't get that many visitors. The kids were incredible - they would walk up to us and follow us around. Their parents didn't mind at all. Also people here are so much inviting then people in Cotonou.

There wasn't too much to see in this town but it was nice to get away and be out of the city. We hung out at the beach by the lake and played with the kids for several hours.

For dinner we went the nice hotel and ate there. We got the pre-fixed dinner which had a mexican salad (which was a lot of corn, some tuna and a dressing), chicken and rice and crepe with chocolate. The dinner was really good but it was more then our hotel room, which is the funny part.

I also tried their local Benin beer. It taste very much like Coors Light but with little alcohol in it. Also the label has a beer glass with Africa in red on it. Then they have Benin colored in black but it is such a small country that it is hard to see unless you look closely.

Then we walked back to our hotel and you could see stars! I haven't stars that clear in such a long time. It was amazing! There was hardly any street light so the sky was so bright.

Back at our hotel we ended up talking to a local named Wilfred who spoke a little bit of english. He asked if we like R. Kelly or Celine Dion, we said yes of course - just because he wanted to dance so badly. he is a dancer in his heart, it is obvious. So we put on some bad remixes of american music and regaton and danced his heart out. We danced with him for awhile. Then towards the end of the night he put a Celine Dion album and did slow dancing, which is was so funny dancing with someone from Africa who knew all the words to to her music.

We ended the party around midnight and went to bed. When we went to sleep there was no sheets on the bed except the one for the bottom one. So during the middle of the night I got cold, which I was surprised by.

The next morning we got up early and went back to Cotonou so that we could get ready for the football game!

Ouidah

Today I went to Ouidah. This place is known for the place of were slaves departed for the New World.

We started out this morning at 830am. As soon as we met our driver he told us that there was a mechanical problem and that he had to stop by the mechanic but it shouldn't be long. I was sitting in the front seat praying that we would get in a wreck because the car is trying to die and there are zemijons and other cars all over the place.

We pull into the parking lot of the football stadium. The mechanic pulls up a few minutes later on a motor bike with the parts. After a little while our driver realizes that it is going to take a long time to fix so he calls one of his friends. This old man who doesn't speak english at all comes. His car looks like it is on its last leg. Do roll up the window we had to use an old window handle that had fallen off.

This was the first time I had been out of Cotonou, so we took the "big main road" out of town and it was crowded. I thought driving in Costa Rica was bad, they had designated lanes, here lanes don't exist. There is not paint on the road.

About an hour and a half later, we made it to Ouidah in one piece.

Our first stop was a Portuguese fort that was turned into a museum. We had a guide who could speak english so he translated everything for us. The museum was interesting for the following reasons: how the lack of preservation there was - nothing labeled like back home or electricity for that matter; we saw actual chains that they would put around the people neck and it would go in the slaves mouth - both for adults and kids; I was standing in an old fort where slaves were. Apparently the Portuguese, French and a few others had forts in Ouidah. The slaves use to sleep outside in the middle of the fort, this is kind of where their journey would begin.

Next we walked about 4km along this pathway that the slaves took. They started in an area where they were bought and sold them. The slaves would continue down this path. They were putt in this cell for weeks at a time where they wouldn't see daylight. I think it was to mentally break them down. Then if they weren't fit enough for the journey they would just kill them. They would pass this tree of No Return. The men and women would circle it several times which was to help them forget about home, forget about Africa. At the end of the walk there is a monument that the city built in 1992.

The journey didn't necessarily have that many amazing things to see, it was mostly statues. However walking the same walk that slaves did a few hundred years ago was heart breaking. When we came up the The Place of No Return Monument all you see is the ocean that goes on forever and I thought how terrifying that must be. The slaves knew nothing about this new world, they were beaten and living in horrible conditions. It is a walk I won't ever forget.

After that we had planned to go to Casa del Papa which is hotel that is on a nice beach. The problem was that is was 7km away and we only had 3 hours before our ride came and picked us up. So we decided to ride a zemijon, which is a motor bike taxi. Motorcycles, motor bikes, scare me at home, let alone here. Here the drivers don't wear goggles or helmets and they drive like crazy so I am terrified. I got on the bike with one other girl from my group. The ride was pretty but I was terrified the whole time. We were riding on a dirt road that ran along the beach front. I made it in one piece!! I am sure I will never do it again - once was enough for me.

We got to the hotel and had some cokes. Then we walked along the beach. We stood by the water and the current was strong. The rip tides are super strong here. As we walked a little further we came up upon this group of fishermen who were carrying the largest fishing net I have ever seen. There had to be 10 men carrying it. A little later they were moving this big wooden boat up to shore. So as we were walking back they asked if we would help them and we did. It was amazing to see these men work together to get this very heavy boat up to shore. What also impressed me was that these men go out to sea with just a wooden boat and oars, no motor on it what so ever.

We went back into town. Our driver took us to the Python temple. One of the gods is a python. They make all these sacrifices to it. It is strange to me. The guide at the temple put the snake around my neck!! Terrifying. I hate snakes!! I have a picture as proof.

Right across the street is a catholic church that Pope John Paul II spoke at. During the popes time there some voodoo person came up to him and said he was the most magical man he has ever seen.

That was my day - two terrifying things in one day is enough for me!

Church on Sunday in Cotonou

On Sunday I went to a Christian church here in Cotonou. The church was in English translated into French. One of the women that we went with actually spoke at the service, which I wasn't aware of until we got there.

The church service lasted for 3 hours! It was in this open area, well it had a rough and cement walls and white plastic chairs but that was about it. They worshiped like I have never seen people worship before, it was incredible. They sang, danced and were not afraid to worship. They were very inviting to us.

The kids who were tired would sleep on a mat in the back. There is this one girl (the one in the red dress) who saw me and came up to me. I ended up holding her most of the service. She never smiled but she always came back to me and wanted me to pick her up and hold her.

Afterwards the 9 of us met with the pastor who is originally from Nigeria and he spoke to us. He told us that we were doing great work and sorts.

Stilt Village and Hotel du Lac

Saturday I went to the Stilt Village which is in Ganvie, Benin. There are approximately 25, 000 people live here. The original reason why people moved onto the water because they believe in voodoo and there is a particular god that can't attack them on water.

Ganvie is a village on a large lake. There are parts where you can stand and other parts that are really deep. They have their market of fresh good - veggies and fruits - which is made up of a few women selling these items in their boats. They also have 3 buildings that are for their school. Everything you need is in a building over water.

Approaching this town you see this small "house" and we were told there are men who live there who guard the fish of that area. They are to make sure that no outsider comes in and tries to fish in their area.

After the Stilt Village some of my friends and I went swimming at Hotel du Lac. I felt really weird swimming there because it is a very nice hotel and I felt like the white person who stays at a very fancy place in Africa. A lot of people from Mercy Ships go to swim there - it is a way to get off the boat and do something.

The orphanage and the first day off orientation

Wednesday:

In the morning I went to an orphanage that is run by nuns from Mother Theresa's organization. The place consists of two parts: orphans and children who are sick, mostly malnourished. When I arrived I thought it was a well kept up place, simple but clean. Then some 20 children mostly toddlers came running out and they were adorable. Some of the orphans are HIV and others were abandoned.

The children don't use diapers some the majority have wet pants, which is somewhat grosse but you have to get over it. Also like any other kids they have runny noses. Despite this the children are well behaved and actually somewhat more self sufficient then American kids. At lunch time majority of the children were feeding themselves, with a spoon which hardly any kids do at their age in America. Also all of them have to sit on a little potty whenever they are done with lunch - it is funny -- there are twenty two year olds sitting against a wall all on their own potty.

Then there is this one boy that I feel in love with. I am not sure his name but he is probably around 2 years old. He has a great smile and he is always laughing. During part of our visit we brought out bubbles. He stood next to me as a blew bubbles and I tried to get him to blow but he couldn't. Then after some 15 minutes after watching me and other kids blow bubbles he got it. It is amazing to see a child learn a new skill for the first time, he was happy.

When I got back I had to go to work. It was a slow shift but a lot of fun. I played games with several of my patients for hours.

Thursday

Today was my first day off orientation and granted I only had 2 days, which isn't long at all, when you think that back home we have 3 months of orientation and I am doing something I have never done before. When I got report this morning I found out that I had to do 4 dressing changes to do, which remind you I had never done a wound dressing on a skin graft patient. This being the case, my shift was busy which made my day go by fast. I now feel more comfortable with it and my day should go by faster.