A Week in Review

My first week in Benin has been a week of transition and adjustment: adjusting to ship life and close quarters: living, working, eating, recreating and communing with 350 crew members and taking in the culture on the streets of Benin. Work this week was all about cleaning, disinfecting and setting up the patient wards as all of the equipment and beds were secured and tied down during the sail. We stripped, mopped and waxed all of the floors and man, do they shine! We set up the beds in the patient wards and now the Africa Mercy Ship is really looking like a hospital! I ventured out into the port city of Cotonou to encounter a whirlwind of sights, sounds and smells. Imagine brightly colored clothing, hundreds of motorcycle taxis, diesel exhaust, music blasting in the streets, people carrying baskets and boxes of all sorts of goods on their heads to sell, anything from bananas to sunglasses to yams to smoked fish.

Brightly painted wooden fishing boats in the port of Cotonou with flags from different nations of the world blowing in the breeze.

Exploration through the winding streets of Benin landed us first upon these boys playing soccer. We walked further and found ourselves in a village and were soon being followed by a group of 20 or so children who were smiling, clapping their hands and singing this song, universally known and sung by all Beninois children:

“Yovo, Yovo, Bon soir! Ca va bien, Merci!”

Children will call out “Yovo” when they see white-skinned people. This song is suggesting that these are the only words Yovos know how to say in French. In my case, the kids are right, this is just about all I have retained from my French classes in high school:

Good Evening, I am well, Thank you.

Motorcycle Madness! Zemi-jahns are the main form of transportation around here. Drivers of these motorbike taxis wear bright yellow shirts. I saw 1 child, 2 adults and one baby secured with cloth to one of the adult’s backs riding on a motorbike. Other people ride while holding onto giant sacks of lettuce from the market. Most impressive are women dressed up, riding a motorbike while wearing high heels. No license, age requirement or registration to operate one of these vehicles! Mercy Ships has strongly urged us to refrain from using zemi-jahns as a mode of transportation due to the large number of accidents as there really are no rules of the road.

For now, as Bob Marley sings it best, "my feet is my only carriage."

This young boy is performing an impressive feat: walking over a bridge while balancing large metal objects on his head AND playing a handheld video game!!!

Buffing up the Ward