More News from Benin - Newsletter January 2005
Dear All,
Well. It's been quite a month, and I confess that I'm still unsure whether it's all been one of those utterly bizarre dreams that you have just before waking up...
2005 started excellently with a New Year's Eve ball on the ship. It was great to have an excuse to dress up - definitely some bonding-time for the girls in our cabin as we pooled our wardrobes, accessories and make-up in an attempt to make 4 passable "evening dress" outfits. And the ballroom dancing was certainly entertaining, as anyone who's ever seen me "dance" will know. At midnight the Brits introduced everybody else to "Auld Lang Syne" - which met with widespread amusement. Sparklers on the dock and even a few fireworks bought in Cotonou that afternoon made for a great end to a special evening.
The whole ship was on holiday between Christmas and New Year, so I had an exciting opportunity to travel upcountry in Benin. Prior to colonisation, Benin (or Dahomey, as it was then called) was one of the richest, most powerful and most stable kingdoms in West Africa. The famous elite female "Amazon" warriors were part of a large army which conquered a vast area of West Africa, and the kingdom remained under the rule of a single dynasty for hundreds of years. The palaces of the kings at Abomey (200 miles north of Cotonou, where the ship is docked) are a UNESCO world heritage site and we felt a trip to Benin would not be complete without a visit. So four of us set out by train from Cotonou to make the journey. The train was quite an experience. We decided we'd splash out and pay for whole seats - so the ticket cost us about £1.50 each... And the whole episode was an wonderfully "Michael Palin" style adventure. The train gradually took us out of the sprawling and ungainly city of Cotonou into the surprisingly lush scrubland of the West African countryside. We stopped at market towns every half an hour or so, where furious buying and selling would commence through the train windows and vendors would walk down the train with pineapples and bananas or bags of frozen yoghurt (tempting, but not recommended for consumption unless you have the immune system of a... west african). We arrived in the bustling market town of Bohicon and travelled by zimidjan (motorcycle taxi) to Abomey. In the afternoon we visited the palaces, which were not the luxurious affairs I was expecting (think farm outbuildings with dirt floors) but nonetheless were full of interesting artefacts and our guide enlightened us on the culture and religion of traditional Benin. Certainly interesting, also distinctly murderous... After a great time laughing and chatting late into the night over a traditional Beninois meal with good friends we got some rest and the next day we headed for home - another adventure (this time by taxi) but I won't relate it here.
We got back to work on the 2nd of January and all was pretty much smooth sailing - a couple more months remaining in Benin and I felt like I more-or-less knew the ropes. Our friendship group had solidified into a fairly close-knit group and I realised one Saturday as we went out for dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday how fortunate I am to have fallen in with these fun, interesting and godly people. I'm the youngest in my group of friends and they all look out for me a bit, which is very nice. The next Monday everything was rather blown up in the air, however, when my friend Bethany (the ship lab technician) ran a routine blood test before I donated some blood. To cut a long and complicated story rather shorter - I had to return to the UK for further tests because she uncovered a rather bizarre but worrying result. So I packed up and made tearful farewells before catching the next flight home on Wednesday night, hoping to return to the ship at a later date but utterly unsure what was going on. I arrived home to some rather worried parents, and of course it was wonderful to see them and to be back home. In the event, after some more blood tests it seems that nothing whatsoever is wrong with me! The test on the ship seems to have been a very bizarre anomaly (though it was repeated several times) and more sophisticated and thorough testing in the UK has reassured everybody that it's all been a bit of a storm in a teacup. I returned to the ship this Wednesday after what has been an emotional rollercoaster of a fortnight! In many ways a ship full of medically minded Christians was perhaps the ideal place for me to be when this happened: talking and praying with my friends here is something that I have found immensely valuable. I've discovered that perhaps I wasn't trusting God with my health, my future and my career as much as I thought I was - it's terribly easy to say and much harder to do. I haven't really worked out what I think God was up to and I suppose I may never do that, but yesterday I found a prayer in Isaiah 38 that pretty much sums up how I feel about it:
"But what can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this. I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul. Lord, by such things men live; and my spirit finds life in them too. You restored me to health and let me live. Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back."
Unfortunately, Hezekiah, the King of Israel who prayed that prayer after God healed him, then went rather drastically downhill and courted destruction by seeking to impress the Babylonians and failing to trust God. Please pray that I would make the time to think and pray about all this and that God would enable me to "walk humbly all my years".
Anyway, back on the ship it feels in many ways as though I never left. I've slotted back into my job in the operating theatres and it's very good to be back. I can't believe that we only have a few more weeks in Benin - I am very excited to see what there is in store next, and as an added bonus we are spending a week in Ghana in between for a short break before launching into outreach again in Liberia. It will be sad to leave Benin - especially to say goodbye to some of the patients who have been with us "for the long-haul" having major reconstructive surgery, but it's so great to think of the new life that they have ahead of them.
This month more than ever your prayers and support have meant a huge amount to me. It was so good to be at the ten-forty service with everyone in Chrishall, and to meet up with people for coffee, or to talk on the telephone without the satellite delay. If you didn't know I was in the UK - apologies - I was trying to keep a relatively low profile particularly before I knew that everything was ok, but nonetheless thank you for emails, thoughts and prayers! I would really value continuing prayer this month:
- for the end of the outreach in Benin, that everything that needs to be done gets done, and that everyone would have the energy to keep going.
- for continued safety from dirty needlestick injuries at work
- for the engineering and deck departments as they gear up to get this fifty year old ship into action again for the sails to Ghana and Liberia
- and for the advance team in Liberia as they make final preparations for the ships arrival, that they would continue to be kept safe and would have a sense of peace as they know that God is in control.
There we are - another epic email - I'm going to have to work on conciseness... I suppose I will end with the now-traditional promise to do better at correspondence this month! Take care of England for me,
With lots of love,
Rosie/Rosalind
xxx... Read more!
Well. It's been quite a month, and I confess that I'm still unsure whether it's all been one of those utterly bizarre dreams that you have just before waking up...
2005 started excellently with a New Year's Eve ball on the ship. It was great to have an excuse to dress up - definitely some bonding-time for the girls in our cabin as we pooled our wardrobes, accessories and make-up in an attempt to make 4 passable "evening dress" outfits. And the ballroom dancing was certainly entertaining, as anyone who's ever seen me "dance" will know. At midnight the Brits introduced everybody else to "Auld Lang Syne" - which met with widespread amusement. Sparklers on the dock and even a few fireworks bought in Cotonou that afternoon made for a great end to a special evening.
The whole ship was on holiday between Christmas and New Year, so I had an exciting opportunity to travel upcountry in Benin. Prior to colonisation, Benin (or Dahomey, as it was then called) was one of the richest, most powerful and most stable kingdoms in West Africa. The famous elite female "Amazon" warriors were part of a large army which conquered a vast area of West Africa, and the kingdom remained under the rule of a single dynasty for hundreds of years. The palaces of the kings at Abomey (200 miles north of Cotonou, where the ship is docked) are a UNESCO world heritage site and we felt a trip to Benin would not be complete without a visit. So four of us set out by train from Cotonou to make the journey. The train was quite an experience. We decided we'd splash out and pay for whole seats - so the ticket cost us about £1.50 each... And the whole episode was an wonderfully "Michael Palin" style adventure. The train gradually took us out of the sprawling and ungainly city of Cotonou into the surprisingly lush scrubland of the West African countryside. We stopped at market towns every half an hour or so, where furious buying and selling would commence through the train windows and vendors would walk down the train with pineapples and bananas or bags of frozen yoghurt (tempting, but not recommended for consumption unless you have the immune system of a... west african). We arrived in the bustling market town of Bohicon and travelled by zimidjan (motorcycle taxi) to Abomey. In the afternoon we visited the palaces, which were not the luxurious affairs I was expecting (think farm outbuildings with dirt floors) but nonetheless were full of interesting artefacts and our guide enlightened us on the culture and religion of traditional Benin. Certainly interesting, also distinctly murderous... After a great time laughing and chatting late into the night over a traditional Beninois meal with good friends we got some rest and the next day we headed for home - another adventure (this time by taxi) but I won't relate it here.
We got back to work on the 2nd of January and all was pretty much smooth sailing - a couple more months remaining in Benin and I felt like I more-or-less knew the ropes. Our friendship group had solidified into a fairly close-knit group and I realised one Saturday as we went out for dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday how fortunate I am to have fallen in with these fun, interesting and godly people. I'm the youngest in my group of friends and they all look out for me a bit, which is very nice. The next Monday everything was rather blown up in the air, however, when my friend Bethany (the ship lab technician) ran a routine blood test before I donated some blood. To cut a long and complicated story rather shorter - I had to return to the UK for further tests because she uncovered a rather bizarre but worrying result. So I packed up and made tearful farewells before catching the next flight home on Wednesday night, hoping to return to the ship at a later date but utterly unsure what was going on. I arrived home to some rather worried parents, and of course it was wonderful to see them and to be back home. In the event, after some more blood tests it seems that nothing whatsoever is wrong with me! The test on the ship seems to have been a very bizarre anomaly (though it was repeated several times) and more sophisticated and thorough testing in the UK has reassured everybody that it's all been a bit of a storm in a teacup. I returned to the ship this Wednesday after what has been an emotional rollercoaster of a fortnight! In many ways a ship full of medically minded Christians was perhaps the ideal place for me to be when this happened: talking and praying with my friends here is something that I have found immensely valuable. I've discovered that perhaps I wasn't trusting God with my health, my future and my career as much as I thought I was - it's terribly easy to say and much harder to do. I haven't really worked out what I think God was up to and I suppose I may never do that, but yesterday I found a prayer in Isaiah 38 that pretty much sums up how I feel about it:
"But what can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this. I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul. Lord, by such things men live; and my spirit finds life in them too. You restored me to health and let me live. Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back."
Unfortunately, Hezekiah, the King of Israel who prayed that prayer after God healed him, then went rather drastically downhill and courted destruction by seeking to impress the Babylonians and failing to trust God. Please pray that I would make the time to think and pray about all this and that God would enable me to "walk humbly all my years".
Anyway, back on the ship it feels in many ways as though I never left. I've slotted back into my job in the operating theatres and it's very good to be back. I can't believe that we only have a few more weeks in Benin - I am very excited to see what there is in store next, and as an added bonus we are spending a week in Ghana in between for a short break before launching into outreach again in Liberia. It will be sad to leave Benin - especially to say goodbye to some of the patients who have been with us "for the long-haul" having major reconstructive surgery, but it's so great to think of the new life that they have ahead of them.
This month more than ever your prayers and support have meant a huge amount to me. It was so good to be at the ten-forty service with everyone in Chrishall, and to meet up with people for coffee, or to talk on the telephone without the satellite delay. If you didn't know I was in the UK - apologies - I was trying to keep a relatively low profile particularly before I knew that everything was ok, but nonetheless thank you for emails, thoughts and prayers! I would really value continuing prayer this month:
- for the end of the outreach in Benin, that everything that needs to be done gets done, and that everyone would have the energy to keep going.
- for continued safety from dirty needlestick injuries at work
- for the engineering and deck departments as they gear up to get this fifty year old ship into action again for the sails to Ghana and Liberia
- and for the advance team in Liberia as they make final preparations for the ships arrival, that they would continue to be kept safe and would have a sense of peace as they know that God is in control.
There we are - another epic email - I'm going to have to work on conciseness... I suppose I will end with the now-traditional promise to do better at correspondence this month! Take care of England for me,
With lots of love,
Rosie/Rosalind
xxx... Read more!
posted by Rosie @ 12:25 AM
0 comments
