Over Board!

On Thursday night we had a special thanksgiving community meeting and it was all about ,well thanks , and I certantly have something I am thankful for! Just recently the ship has installed a bascetball hoop on deck eight. So just today we perchested a bascetball for five dollars and eighty five cents , and with so many people playing with it and we had not played with it for twenty minutes and it hit the back board of the hoop and BLOOP into the water it went! I had no hope and I thought it was gone forever cause some fisherman would come and find it and keep it for himself. I rushed down to the dock to see if I could save it , I waited until the ball came into veiw , then I was sure there was no hope. Then a man from a nearby boat dove into the icky water and grabbed the ball , he was going to keep it for himself , until mommy yelled -"it's her ball can you give it back?" And sometimes people want money for good deeds - he did. So we went back to our cabin , wrapped a few nougats and a 2000 cefa bill in a plastic bag and gave it to him , and he smiled so I got my ball back! and that is what i'm thankful for! It was a complete mirical until he said he wanted to marry me!

Bethany

Have You Hugged a Plumber Today?

For the past week in our cabin, we've been tolerating low water pressure from all the fixtures in our bathroom. The toilet would barely fill, the faucet was just a trickle and the small stream from the shower head allowed the water normally spent on a 2 minute ship-shower to be spread out over not less than 10 minutes!

Well, today I put in a work request and asked the plumber on the ship, Tom KenKnight, to "please help!" He came quickly to rescue us from this problem and had the water flowing to all fixtures by this afternoon. GO TOM!

We were all very excited about the restoration of water flow and there were gleeful giggles heard as all three kids (and Momma) turned on the shower and sink faucet to test and see for themselves the wonderful sight! As much as I love sitting in a bathtub, I thought to myself that our restored shower is almost as good as a bath! WooHoo!

Before

After

Hug a plumber today!

Jenny

Elisee Visits from Cote d'Ivoire

On Tuesday of this week I realized that a singer whose music I had become familiar with (when I was looking for music to include in a slide show to show on our visit home this summer) had been visiting the ship here in Cotonou. He goes by the name Elisee and lives in Cote d'Ivoire. All of his music has French lyrics, but he is working on Enlish versions presently. My favorite song of his is a very encouraging song called "Ca Va Aller" roughly translated "It'll be Okay". It was great to have an opportunity to meet him!

John

The Goat Wash & Feeding Monkeys

This past weekend was a three day weekend for many on the ship. The kids were out of school on Friday and we had another opportunity to go to Porto Novo, the capital of Benin, about a 45 minute drive away. Our family had been there some weeks back and visited the botanical gardens there, but had not seen the monkeys we had heard usually hung around in the trees. So Bethany and I decided to give it another go. Jenny was not feeling well so we left her to rest and the boys were more interested in being couch potatoes than getting out. When we arrived at the gardens this time, we immediately saw the monkeys coming to see if we had bananas, and we did. So we had a chance to feed them and watch them for 10 minutes or so until they lost interest in us.

During the drive we saw something interesting, which is usually the case for us here as we are still discovering many new things about the culture. This time it must have been time to give the goats a bath. We saw quite a few goats in a fairly localized area getting a good cleaning.

John