Finality

13 Days for me. I calculated it at 356 hours until I am in my sweethearts arms. I am ready to be there now.

I don't know what it is, but I am just done, mentally I am not here at all. I just wanna be gone. I'm sorry for all of you who have to be here with me these last days, I promise I will try to enjoy it, and I know that I will miss you very much. Hmmm, it sounds like I'm already saying a farewell, well I'm not, not yet. But since I got back from my weekend in Grand Popo I haven't been exactly the same. I have 4 shifts left, and tomorrow is only partial. Well maybe. Remember that Presidential invitation to a dinner at the palace? It's on again, and has only been postponed twice so far, it should be tomorrow, and if so I get half of my shift off to go. Thanks Murray. I am of course more doubtful than those people who were not here those many months ago when this scene originated.

James S. the DayVolunteer who works at reception is going to become crew on the 23rd, he is so excited, and I am really excited for him. He's had a hard time this last little while, the people that really took him under their wings in the beginning of the outreach are all gone now, and it's up to me and Hannah to help him along. He is a sensitive soul, and of course there are cultural differences, but he has been an invaluable addition to the reception team. Not many know this, but I was fully ready to pull a 'Rudy' and lay my epaulets on the Pursers desk if James wasn't accepted. I'm glad it didn't shuffle that way, but I wouldn't have minded a change in this last month.
I think I've done most of my souvenir shopping now, I am well aware of what money is being spent on these trinkets, and I am almost out, we'll see what life is like at home being broke. That is a lot to think about too, and something I definitely need prayer regarding. Going home I have no place to stay (I don't want to impose on my parents hospitality too much) and no job, as mine convieniently reached the end just before I thought I was coming here, and all other jobs were just stop-gaps. I think I'll get a travel insurance refund enough to insure my scooter for 3 months, that gets me mobility, but in winter, on a scooter. It's been done 3 winters before. So yeah, prayer.Despite that I am very excited to finally come home. They say home is where the heart is, and that would have to be true. No matter how comfortable the toilet seat is at my parents that is no longer my home. My heart has found me a home, and I am ready. My sweetheart is picking me up from Seattle airport on December 1st *sigh* We will take our time getting back across the border.

I think that is all I have in me at the moment. I'll intersperse pictures to liven it up perhaps.

Touristy

One more to go! Ok, well...

I've done a few things while here, some of them I've posted about and some I've not. Some of them happen to be touristy things, and so I'll post pictures and describe them, because it is easy, and because it is what people like, win/win!


I went to a football match! Benin vs. Mali, a World Cup qualifier. It wasn't that exciting actually, they tied in the end and that's the only time it had much action, the last ten minutes, but I'm glad. Had Benin lost I dunno what sort of 'reaction' there would have been. Note the barbed wire encircling the field.

I've gone to play frisbee pretty regularily. I was out of commission for a couple weeks, so I went and took pictures one time.

I gave blood. Not too touristy a thing to do, but my name was called and I had to be brave. We only do whole blood here so the recipient was just in the next room in surgery. I'm O+, if you know what I mean?

This last weekend I arranged it to get the latter part of my friday off to coincide with a ship holiday long weekend. It was cool. We went to Grand Popo and stayed at Awale Plage for a couple nights, 13 of us, in a few bungalows near the beach.

There was a pool of course, and we played a fair bit in the water. It was PJs birthday and he got an inflatable volleyball net.

There was also the beach where Ben and I made a sandcastle. It rained the next morning for a number of hours and so our creation passed away.

We saw some nice sunsets, no sunrises though, I sleep too much then. I like this shot.

On the Saturday evening we got to eat by the pool. All the resort staff were dressed a little like pirates and it was all decked out in lights. The power went out a couple times, but hey, it's Africa...

This is our group, sans me since I'm taking the picture. I ate barbequed prawns, with the shells completely on. I was hesitant at first, but they were tasty ;) Even the steak was good, though I've been without good steak for 6 months.

Overall it was a very nice and relaxing weekend, too bad we had to get back to the ship.

But not before finding and playing with another Praying Mantis, hmmm, did I not blog about the couch?! I should I guess, maybe when I'm on my way home, lol.

That's it, pictures. Now I think I have to go make a trifle, oh the trials of this life.

Oh, and just 27 days left until I come home ()!!!

Tranquility

I feel that to reward all of you for slogging through that last monster post I will post a few pictures. Plus it's easier to do and I still need two "ty" posts after this one ;)

Despite all the smog from zimidjans and open fires it is rare to get a spectacular sunset here, I think it might havesomething to do with the ocean breeze. This shot is from Deck 7 portside.

They laughed and mocked me for picking these flowers, which I had to do very stealthily, but I don't care, they are for someone very special to me. Taken during a relaxing day at Hotel Marina.

My apologies for the dude in the speedo (and now I've drawn your attention to him) but the other pictures I had also included less than decent folk. This one just had the most palm trees.

The beach where we play frisbee, I was out with an injury, so I decided to take a few pictures. You can see the ship way in the background. Sigh, wish you were here.

Moonlight on the water. Taken from the dock looking east, the picture doesn't do it justice.

An introverts thoughts on living in community

I have been on the ship here for quite some time, I have observed what I would consider "many things". I know, however, that not all is as it would appear at first, or even after a while.

For example: Any new crewmember, upon waking after their first night asleep in their bunk, will head bleary eyed to the dining room for breakfast(if they can find it). Regardless of if they are on time or not they will see people, someone, maybe me even at reception, but they will see people. To them those people, if they did not arrive on the same flight the previous night, will seem like they have been here 'quite some time'. Of course there are exceptions, some people retain that stunned fish look for a week or so and are thus obviously also new, but usually if a person arrives even a day before they will never know unless they actually become friends and talk about it.

One of the things I have observed here is the series of questions, The Questions. When an 'old' person makes first contact with a bewildered 'new' person they ask for a name (introductions are a vestige of polite society, but don't let that fool you). Then they ask for a location, an originating point. The next question is where they will be working, and the last, generally, is how long they are here. There are more questions on occasions, like when a boy catches his eye upon a girl, then an actual conversation may start, but these are the universal four.

Name and workplace are useful for finding or avoiding someone dependant on the answers to the other questions. The reaction to location varies from asker to asker; they may find the common bond of hometown-homestate/province enough to become friends; or a strange faraway place may frighten or intrigue; for some a language barrier could spell doom for any friendship, or it could provide much entertainment for the rest of us. Generally though there is indifference, the grimace of a forced smile as one listens to the other tell of their adventures in the land of the firsts youth, usually touristy stuff. For me it is usually a story or two of when they went skiing in Whistler.

The last question surprisingly(at first) carries more weight than the others. It is not that we are a judgemental lot, weighing a persons value against their commitment in time and money, but it really comes down to a matter of investment. It is our investment in time and energy into making a new friend of this person we have been polite to. To an extent we do this at home too, or at least I do. I only have so much time and so much energy in a given day, and only so many days in a week, month, and year, so I'd rather build quality relationships that give me the most for my limited resources. Now this may seem a selfish and insensitive way of viewing things, but really I'm using a quantitative vocabulary for something that goes far beyond numbers in red and black. But I don't want to get all into the mushy emotional side of things, how one person or another makes me feel and how that feeling is valued by me as compared to how it might be valued by you.

It is not all cold and calculating either. One must understand that to survive here you have an absolute need of certain types of relationships. If they do not exist you become strange, and we have quite enough people starting out that way to be adding more because of "simple" circumstances. The types of relationships needed, I believe, are directly tied to ones own answer to the fourth question; How long am I here? It is also my opinion that the longer a person is here for the less they can do without a strong relationship, I won't give examples of observable failures. So a person must arm themselves with friends of the right mettle, and that in itself is a dangerous expedition. Too much carousing and you may end up with a bunch of friends who are bright and cheery and ready to leave in a couple weeks, forcing you to start over. Too much serious philosophizing and you won't have any fun or see anywhere but the port.

But this is over-analytical, and I doubt much of this passes the brains of those who do have fun and visit exciting places outside. I think most people, for good or ill, settle for the easiest route: the roommates and the coworkers. Six females sharing a room, assigned there by age and job classification, are likely to "get along". Males likewise, unless of course unconquerable differences exist, such as too much cultural distance, or a (silent) conflict over a target of desire (a girl). This is the easiest and most common method of gaining friends and crashing social circles, at least among the short termers. Long termers have gateway, and don't even get me started on how it might be more aptly called "How to Gain Friends and Alienate Everyone Else".

I am on the cusp. I am not long term by any stretch (thank the Lord my Savior!), but 7 months is a tad longer than the average of 2 and a 1/2. This provided me with a relatively interesting experience. At first I faced the difficulty of being assigned to deck 2, a two berth deodorant testing facility. My roommate Atumbi and I suffered from too much cultural distance. We rarely spoke. I next had to deal with a work team that didn't ever work together. Scratch the two easiest and most common methods of being not anti-social.

It was about two weeks of eating alone, or if people sat with me then in the presence of others, and working alone, and being in my room alone. It was nice, to a point. Eventually though I was adopted :) There was a very nice group of longerish termers that scooped me up and decided I was their friend. I suspect it was so they could beat me at every game known to man. I don't mind. It turns out their cautious watching and evaluating was pretty right on, I fit in well, and have even begun to win some games. I still value my alone time, but they know how to give it, they need it too. I've made other friends as well, and watched them leave, so I understand the social dynamic that a short termer brings to a group of longish termers and I am thankful for them. I think I will stay in contact with them too, something my 21 year old self even struggled with after 6 months of bibleschool with the same people. And hey, apparently when I get married there is someone who will shoot my wedding for a song and a dance, quite possibly a literal song and dance.

This post seems to have gotten a bit sappy at the end. Dang you, you sweet, sticky friendship rainbow!!!

Missed Opportunity

The other day -that was how this post was supposed to start.


The other week I went off the ship. My mother always asks me if I get off the ship, I do. We are docked constantly, gangway down, with the exception of the very occasional refueling maneuver or dredging operation. Leaving the ship is easy, just go up (or down) to deck 5 and scan out, walk past the Gurkha and down the gangway, and you're off. There's not all that much to do in Cotonou, West Africa's premier port. I have been privy to the discovery of the best food in town; Bangkok Terrace is a Thai place, they've got the vermicelli I so like, I'll try the seafood next. You never order seafood the first time. I also play Ultimate Frisbee pretty much every week. We used to go to the sand field at the police academy, a pretty safe place to play I think. That got kyboshed recently, so we occasionally pay to play at another sand field, the local kids cheer us along. So yes, I get off the ship occasionally.


The other week when I went off the ship it was to the fabric market. I had just finished a shift, or was just about to finish, when a trio of new girls on their first day off work showed up at the desk asking James #1 for directions to the fabric market. He was very hesitant, telling them it wouldn't be safe for just the 3 of them to go alone for the first time. I hear like a fox, and I offered to accompany them for navigational and security reasons, as soon as my shift was over. They waited and we went.


I took them by a back way, it seems James #1 is not great at giving directions, lol. The fabric market is near the "big market", apparently West Africa's largest open market. You don't go down there with a ratio = or less then 1:1 My eyes weren't open well enough I don't think, or maybe it was my heart. I only thought about it on the way back really, so into the security detail I missed it, no excuses. I took a picture to show you. Here it is:



The dude in the foreground ducked out of sight when he saw my camera out. I am thinking that he was under the impression that I was trying to steal his soul. Voodoo is fairly widespread here, and seriously I haven't done much looking into it from a research perspective, so I'm going on hearsay, but I think that might be related.

We were in a shop that I had been in before with a different group of ladies, I had bought something that time, to make a dress for my beloved. Such a wonderful fabric ;) And the floor manager obviously recognized me at once, how many white guys with this much hair are there in Cotonou after all? We talked a bit, both of us with our accents, and he asked about Mercy Ships. I told him of the humanitarian effort, the improvements to peoples daily lives that we provide. He asked a lot of questions, and I think by the end I hadn't ever mentioned Jesus Christ. Bonnie-Jean, one of the girls that I was escorting commented "Do we ever get to tell people the good news?" and I knew I had missed an opportunity.


That got me thinking (finally) on my way back to the ship, the shops floor manager was an obvious (missed) opportunity. But going back to the dude who avoided the photograph, how I might have ministered to him, just walked up to him and told him that Jesus loves him? Maybe he would have understood english, maybe not. Maybe I would have thought I was speaking english and he might have heard Fon, I don't know, but I was in the wrong mindset and I missed an opportunity to save an eternal soul/plant a seed/water a seed/show Gods love :(

This experience has stayed with me for so long and I am only now writing it down, but it has definitely changed my thoughts on ministry and where I might feel called. Jesus is relational with us, and that is where He beats out any spirit or deity any human could imagine. We need, absolutely need, to be relational with those we seek to save, or at least with those we seek to share our own salvation with.

My thought, that's it.


I'll leave with a couple more pictures, another of the selection of prints in the market...



And to show dj kosmotronix that I did make Nanaimo bars at Tamaras suggestion... (I had no bakers chocolate, so I used 3 Ritter Sport bars)



And one shot of that fabric I am so happy with from that first trip to the market...

Tasty

I've been thinking of things to post about that end in "ty", as I've been challenged! :)
I've got pictures to go with it...


Ok, we get pretty good food here on the ship, it is brought from either Texas in a big container, or Holland in a slightly less big container (Texas, c'mon). Sometimes we start to run low on things and we don't get cheese or cinnamon for a while, but then a container will arrive and the wonderful cooks will run wild with their crazy ideas.



Today we had Tasty fish with a vegitable stir-fry and coconut rice. I always take pickles as a condiment when they are available, though they by no means rival my mothers. We normally have fish on fridays, but I think the new container bumped that off a few dayswith the endless possibilities it offered.
This meal is classified TASTY!








A couple days ago we had this meal, pulled pork with beans on a bun. Eddie, the baker, from Vancouver, bakes our bread and buns, and these were ever so Tasty. I'm not exactly sure what the pasta was for, but I took some anyway and put beans on it. That is also fresh pineapple that is sooo good. Obviously there were no pickles that day. This meal is also classified TASTY! (And I'm not even a pork fan)








I sometimes miss meals, due to my irregular shifts and subsequent sleeping patterns. I don't mind so much, I'm rarely hungry, and I've gained a few pounds since being here. But it has been really nice to not be tied to the galleys strict schedule. I sometimes enjoy some 25 cent ramen noodles when I am in the mood for something salty. I would say that in a way these noodles are Tasty.








Ok, seriously, do you wonder why I've gained weight. Look at this burger, crafted based off of a fine Canadian's recipe, this is not your traditional slab of slapped together American ground beef. This thing is thick, it's got all the flavour a cow never even dreams of, spices, herbs, even onions built right in, mmmm. The freedom fries ain't bad either, actually deep fried for that fast food TASTE-Y!! You may note the pickles I added to the meal ;)






The galley staff are not the only ones who dabble in the realm of Tastilicious, there are other brave souls who spurn the limitations of the snack shop and buy mixes for things, some even venture to the "from scratch" nebula! I made this TASTY cake for Ryans birthday (Happy Birthday Ryan!) and Deb made the icing. No pickles, but note the bear and shark locked in mortal combat on his shirt.

For those ever so not-very-hot African days (seriously, it's the rainy season) there is FanMilk. Vendors with little push carts and old fashioned rubber ball horns, wearing bright blue, ply their TASTY wares wherever there may be folk who sweat or could do with some refreshing. There are even a few with bicycle carts!! This is a FanChoco, my favorite, other flavours include FanIce, FanMilk, and FanYogo.

And lastly we come to my favorite, something I crafted from scratch, Apple Perishky, mmmmm. I tried blueberry first, but due to the terrible state of either the Texan or Dutch blueberries available to me, I gave up. The little yellow apples we get locally are great for baking, I don't even peel them. I've made em 3 times so far, from a recipe at www.Mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com and they have been a hit.

This last time I tried something new, I grabed a handful of bananas, local and ripe, and blended them with some whipped cream and sugar, making a runny, but TASTY banana cream filling. I then used a few mini marshmallows to give it form and packed it all up together inside the pastry. The marshmallows expanded, breaking the seal, but they also bowned nicely giving the Perishky a little crown with a banana core, mmmm.

Ok, I'm done, let's see if this works this time...

Until we meet again, eat hearty!

Visuality

A smattering of pictures for you. Been here a while now, and I finally figured out that the bandwidth is all mine, my own, while the rest of everyone sleeps and I keep the ship safe on night shift. Because of this I can upload pictures easier.


One of my favorite shots from deck 8, port side looking forward at all the little fishing boats in the harbour.







I got a chance to go out to the agricultural site with a guy named Ken and another guy named Jean-Claude. They are teaching local farmers ways to grow more cost effectively without use of commercial fertilizers and pesticides. I enjoyed it immensely.









This is where I work: Reception, deck 5. The bright window you see is the starboard gangway.

We're still not running on a full crew yet, and the pair of fill-ins we just trained are leaving in a month or so. Sigh, I won't be going home any sooner than December it seems.






We few canucks got out to deck 7 to celebrate Canada day. No beer because it's against the rules on ship, so we went to a little place at the end of the dock to make it feel a bit more like home. I had Citron Fanta.








A second trip to the Ag site, this time with just Jean-Claude. If Africa is this much of an etemologists dream I can't imagine how many cool bugs would be in South America.

Interesting note, there is a tree that's leaves act as a natural insect repellant. We crushed it up and mulched with it around the corn and beans, and made a spray with water too. I wonder if it grows back home?


Ok, that's it for tonight, I am now busy. Too busy to continue, I hope you non-facebookers enjoyed it. Maybe tomorrow night I'll try a video, wouldn't that be cool?