Still Sailing

It's hard to believe that we have been sailing for eight days now. We seem to be rolling a bit harder today, enough to make me feel a bit queasy, but it's still smooth and we've had good weather for the most part. A couple of nights ago there was a very nice meteor shower that we were able to watch from deck eight. The above photo was taken up there at night, but of course there are no meteors visible in the photo, just some squiggles where the stars are. Sailing at night with a clear sky has a way of making you feel really small with the huge expanse of the universe above and the expanse of the deep below. One can only dream of what may be out there in any direction, up or down.

On Saturday it rained and the kids decided to start playing in the little wave pool formed by the water that had accumulated on deck faster than it could drain. The water formed little waves as the ship rocked back and forth. The kids got soaked of course, but it was a great opportunity for them to burn off some energy, so we were happy for it. They even made "water angels". Of course you couldn't see anything once they got up except maybe a slightly cleaner place on the deck, but they had fun doing it. Sometimes the kids make "sand angels" too in Africa as there is no snow that I know of within 1000 miles of where we spend our time.

We had the annual Winter Wonderland on board a couple of nights ago where people sell Christmas crafts and snacks and stuff. The kids are working hard on play rehearsals for the Christmas play the Academy is doing this week.We have had our usual drills too. I got a photo of Jenny just before the camera battery ran out.

David and I got a little bored at lunch the other day. We entertained each other, and a few others, with napkins.

We're having a good sail, but we're ready for Tenerife. I just like land.

John

An Education

In the early fall of this year (I should probably say September since the idea of fall, or any of the other seasons for that matter, does not translate in Africa at all) I met a fellow on the dock who said that his name was Mark, that he was from Ghana and that he had come to Cotonou in order to work as a day volunteer with Mercy Ships. He arrived much later than February and there were no positions available by the time he arrived. He said that his friend who brought him here had assured him of being able to work with the ship and had stolen his money and headed to Nigeria. He claimed he had no place to live.

A couple of weeks later I bumped into him again as I was walking along the very polluted beach area not far from the dock. He said he had been sleeping in an abandoned building by the beach there and that he had no money, no job, and had been scraping by hoping to get enough money to replace his passport that had been stolen so he could return to his home in Ghana. I told him my name and left because the time had come for me to do laundry on the ship and I didn't want to lose my laundry slots.

Some days later Mark came to the ship and I got a call from the guard at the gangway that he was there looking for me. Well, his purpose was to ask if I would help him to pay the fee to get his passport replaced. He said that someone else from the ship had helped him with getting photos for the passport. It is normally better to say no and, if you really feel you want to help in a financial way, help only people that you have a real relationship with rather than give money to just anyone who asks. There are so very many of those kinds of requests where we live. Nonetheless, contrary to common wisdom, I believed this fellow and agreed to help him. I gave him some money for his passport, and on another occasion gave him some money for his return trip to Ghana and prayed with him. I expected not to see him again because I had helped him to get out of Cotonou and back home.

Well, that was not the case and he came back to the ship a week or so later claiming that he had returned to Ghana, had found out that his grandmother had died while he was in Benin and had left him an inheritance. He claimed that he had a valuable gold necklace and some property deeds that he wanted me to keep for him. He also claimed that his bag had been kept by the bus station until he paid the remainder of what he owed for his return ticket to Cotonou. At this point, I was certainly questioning the man's character and wondered if there was any truth to his story, although I really wanted to believe that he had been telling me the truth up til now. I did not agree to keep anything for him to his great disappointment. It was clear to me that that was not the thing to do, although I did give him the relatively small amount of money he asked for on the off chance that he was telling the truth.

Later that night my friend Olly spoke to me and said that he had seen me on the dock talking to "his friend, Mark". Olly wanted to know the story that Mark had told me. Olly is in charge of transportation and spends a lot of time on the dock dealing with the ship's vehicles. The story that Mark had told Olly about himself and his situation was very different from the story he had told me. It was very clear at that point that Mark, if that was even his name, was a spinner of tales. Olly and I had both compassionately given him money thinking that we were really helping him. Olly also told me other really interesting stories that he had heard in his interaction with shady characters on the dock over the years.

I confronted Mark the next time he came asking for me and told him that I did not believe his story and he did his best to spin his way out of that too including stories accusing others of diamond smuggling. I began to wonder why he would talk about smuggling and at the same time be so eager to get me to take and keep something for him on board the ship if he were not engaged in some kind of smuggling himself.

It became clear to me later that he most likely was trying to see how difficult it would be to get some cooperation from crew members in smuggling drugs or even people on board the ship while lying to get some money in the process. It was so educational for me to go through this that in the end, although it didn't feel at all good be lied to, I felt like it was worth the money I gave him to have the knowledge I gained on how to recognize criminals despite how silky their tongues. No great harm had been done and I feel much wiser for the experience.

John

Green Thumb

On April 25 Jenny wrote about how Joey and I had gone into town to work on an orienteering requirement for Boy Scouts. That was the beginning of a story that I didn't write about then, but has now played out much more fully. Our final destination on that walk into town, following a map and using a compass, was a mosque nearby that had a couple of towers that Joey could measure the height of using some techniques from his Boy Scout handbook. Once we finished the scout work we were confronted by a group of people begging in the median in front of the mosque. We spoke with them and tried to help them understand what our purpose in town was. We explained about the ship and that the ship offered surgeries on board. I knew at that time that the schedule had already gotten very full and I wasn't qualified to screen people for surgery. There was one fellow lying there on the ground, however, who said he had "sickness" in his thumb. He unwrapped his thumb and showed it to me and it looked quite bad, tapering up from the joint to a greatly swollen, 1.5 inch diameter tip that was open and infected. He had been packing the wound with herbs in an attempt to stop the infection. I figured that he could easily die from infection with his condition and I thought I should really try to help him. I gave him what clinic information I could and gave him my name. A few days later he came to the gangway of the ship asking for me. I asked Jenny if there was any way to get his thumb looked at. She doubted it knowing how full the schedule was, but knew that there would be an orthopedic surgery team doing some additional screening soon and so she referred me to the orthopedic team leader. I had to go to a bit of effort, but was able to get him a card for the screening. By the time I worked that out he had left so I drove back out to the mosque the next day to deliver the card and, thankfully, Vincent was there lying in his usual spot in the median. After the screening, I was told that Vincent had gotten "the thumbs-up for a thumb off". I was happy that my extra effort had landed him a place in the surgery schedule. Well, Vincent came to the ship, had a portion of his thumb amputated and left. It was not the last we saw of him though. He returned multiple times afterward for more surgery on his thumb because it continued to get infected. I began to wonder why I had found him and worked to get him seen if he may be in no better shape when we leave Benin. I don't know how Vincent is doing now that we are gone. I pray and hope that his thumb is healing. What I do know is that there were a number of day volunteers (local people who work with us during the day as translators or who help in other ways on the ship) who began asking why we were helping him. They had apparently said that he had been cursed and that was why his thumb would not heal. They said that he had been caught stealing and had had his thumb slashed because of it. I don't know if there was any truth to their story, but clearly they thought he was not a good man and we should not be bothering to help him. I doubt all of this would have come about if he had not been returning multiple times to the ship for treatment. It all made me wonder if maybe part of the purpose for him being a patient on the ship and returning again and again was to help our day volunteers understand that, in following the example of Jesus, we do not turn away those who may need help the most. Jesus was a friend to all and spent time among the outcast and those who society considered to be evil and had rejected. If we are to follow Jesus example, we also have to reach out to those same kinds of people. I hope that the fact that we were helping this man, whom some of our day volunteers did not consider worthy of our help, helped them to understand more about the true character of Jesus. I don't know the full purpose of having found Vincent that day, but I'm sure that God knows and I will have to leave that for Him to sort out. I am encouraged, though, that perhaps the purpose for him to come to the ship was much greater and went much deeper than just helping to fix his thumb.

John

Sailing

We have now packed up, said our goodbyes, left Benin, and are sailing to the Canary Islands for some down time and preparation for another field service in West Africa to begin in February. The sail so far has been nice and smooth, but there are still some who feel a bit rough. It's a bit hard for me too to look at the computer for very long without needing to go out on deck and get some fresh air. Yesterday was pretty eventful, especially in the evening when we saw a water spout pass by us on our port (left) side at not more than about 200 yards away. I was able to see it change shape and size over time as it stirred up the water beneath it. It was an incredible sight. It lasted for probably ten minutes at various intensities. We are also seeing quite a few flying fish flying away from the ship as it passes through the water. They must think we are an awefully big whale and want to escape as quickly as possible. They sometimes are hard to distinguish from birds flying continuously just above the surface of the water. They often fly 100 yards or more before they disappear back below the surface of the ocean. Yesterday evening there were Christmas plays and stories told all over the ship in 20 minute intervals by different individuals and groups. Since we don't have cold weather to remind us that it's the holiday season like we're used to, its nice to have some Christmas spirit on board.

John

President's Dinner

In November we had the honor of attending a dinner in Cotonou given by the President of Benin, Dr. Yayi Boni. Not long after the ship arrived in Benin, the president issued an invitation to the entire crew of the Africa Mercy (all that could come) to a state dinner. A few weeks ago it came to pass and our family and most of the crew were able to attend. (That's Joey and me in the photo below on the left. By the time we entered there were no tables with five free seats so Jenny, Bethany and David sat at another table.)The president gave distinguished national awards to the founders of Mercy Ships (Don and Deyon Stevens) and three key administrative crew members. Don presented Dr. Yayi Boni with a framed photo of the Africa Mercy in Cotonou made up of many smaller photos taken during our work here. That was an honor to me also because I had taken that photo of the ship from the nearby fishing village. It was a very nice dinner followed by dancing by several dance troupes from all over Benin. It was one of the more notable events of our time in Benin. (Photos by Debra Bell)
John

Weathering Storms

During the initial time after we arrived back on the ship after our trip home in the summer, we experienced a pretty extreme case of homesickness. We really struggled with the blues to such an extent that it was difficult to get back to work and, frankly, I think that is the main reason there have been so few posts on our blog over the past few months. Now that we are less busy at the end of the field service and feeling better about things in general, I'm trying to catch up a little with blogging. I hope you will agree that late news is better than no news.

In the early fall this year, our community here experienced a period of difficulty. Three of our crew came down with malaria and spent quite a bit of time in the hospital on the ship under the care of our medical crew. All three recovered from their illness, but it was a very difficult time for them. Around the same time, Citra, one of our Gurkha security guards was out running in the morning with a good sized group from the ship. They had reached the usual turn-around point where our Gurkha friend was hit by a motorcycle while crossing the street. There was a doctor & a number of nurses in the group who tended to him. The physician in the group also insisted that the Beninese ambulance that arrived take Citra to the ship rather than to a local hospital. It took some convincing, but the ambulance driver ultimately agreed and they brought Citra to the ship. The medical staff suspected a head injury and probable internal bleeding. The cat scan and portable x-ray on board were very useful in determining the extent of Citra's injuries. He spent about a week and a half in the ICU on the ship and continued his recovery in his cabin. Despite his head injury, Citra made a full recovery from a situation that could have easily taken his life. Citra was thrilled to come back to work and has just recently gone home for his yearly scheduled vacation. We were all so happy here on the ship that he is doing well and we credit God and thank Him for taking care of our dear friend!

John

"One day Jesus said to his disciples, 'Let's go over to the other side of the lake.' So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, 'Master, Master, we're going to drown!' He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 'Where is your faith?' he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, 'Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.'" Luke 8:22-25

Blackout, Ice & All That Jazz

What do the words blackout, ice, and jazz have in common? Maybe not too much ordinarily, but they describe our weekend pretty well. Last Saturday was the day at the end of a field service in Africa when all the power and most of the plumbing are shut off on the ship in order to do certain maintenance work that requires these systems to be off. So since niether Jenny or I work in the engineering department and we were aware that it would be happening, we planned to be away all day at the Hotel Du Lac letting the kids swim their hearts out in the pool there. It turned out to be a lovely day for us and we stayed until after dark and had dinner at the hotel eventhough the power and water were reportedly back on by early evening. The kids had pizza and how they love pizza, especially the boys.

Sunday held a couple of nice surprises. We had planned to have a potluck brunch with some of our friends, mostly to honor our good friends that we went to gateway in Texas with, Sam and Amy, who recently got engaged. We met up on deck 7 at 11 or so in the morning and it was almost 100 degrees F in the shade - very odd I know for the end of November back home in North Carolina. It wasn't long before the kids were all playing with water guns and wanting to turn on the hose. Our friend Peter went and filled up a cooler full of ice and dumped it out on the deck for the kids to play in. And, being the fireman that he is, did an outstanding job of manning the hose so that everyone had ample opportunity to get drenched. There were battles too between the kids and some of the adults who think they're kids to see who could get the other wetter.That involved treachery and sneaking around and also the more obvious usage of large tubs from the galley. It was quite a blast for all involved, even those who mostly watched.

On Sunday we broke with tradition and went out to eat again. A couple of our Canadian friends had been wanting to go with us to the Neuer Biergarten on the beach here because they had discovered that they have live jazz on Friday and Sunday evenings. Well, I didn't expect much and I hadn't heard great things about the food there, but Jenny and I decided to leave the kids in the care of our good friend Juan and go anyway. We invited another Canadian couple, and mutual friends, to go as well. It turned out to be one of the loveliest evenings by far that we have had since we arrived in February. The all-Beninese band they had was just fantastic, great musicians and wonderful rich vocals - and of course very laid-back. They sang songs, many of them familiar to us, in French, English, and Spanish. The food was quite nice too, and all in the gentle ocean breeze. It was like being transported somewhere else entirely for a couple of hours. We started wondering why we had not discovered this and some of the other really nice things that we have been recently discovering about Cotonou until right at time to leave!

Overall it was probably one of the nicest weekends for us in many months.

John

Port Police Escort

My friend, Craig, and I had been talking about trying to get a ride in one of the multitude of fishing pirogues that move about the waters along the coast of West Africa since we were in Liberia last year. Well, Craig made a connection with a local fisherman during the course of his work here. The man actually offered a trip on board his canoe and so Craig invited me along. We went to the fishing village with our two young sons in the harbor here on Saturday morning to meet the fisherman there. There were a few maintenance problems with the canoe so we got some net mending lessons from an older fellow there to kill time while we waited to see if things were going to work out for the ride. After a while, we realized we would have to come back another day, so it was decided that we would return this past Monday morning and try again. So Monday morning early we headed over there without the boys this time and watched as one of the fisherman's adult sons carried a boat motor across the slick, algae-covered landing to mount it on the boat. The motor slipped and fell into the water, but was quickly recovered and mounted onto the canoe. It wasn't long before we were invited aboard and headed out into the harbor next to one of the half-sunken boats here. There one son cast the anchor and while the other son helped the fisherman work on the motor to get it running. After a little while we were off and headed out past our ship toward the mouth of the harbor. It was really quite odd to see our ship and everything else around from the water level. We waited at the mouth of the harbor while one of the enormous automobile carrier ships passed in front of us to find its berth in the port. I felt a bit like a small fish at that point riding in a canoe next to one of those giant ships. Soon we headed out to sea and began paralleling the coastline headed east. We were gone not more than five minutes when a Beninese port police boat came screaming toward us. The boat carrying three uniformed men pulled alongside us and ordered us to return to the port. The boat followed as we headed back. As we arrived back at the mouth of the harbor, our motor stopped working again. The men on the police boat ordered us to throw a rope so we could be towed back into port. So we again passed by the Africa Mercy, but this time it was clear to all watching that we had been busted! Some of the deck crew were watching and waving to us from the ship to our humiliation. We were more concerned, however, about any consequences that may result for our hosts who had so graciously offered to give us a ride. Soon we arrived alongside one of the small gray naval vessels on the dock opposite our ship's berth and were ushered out of the canoe, across the deck of the vessel and onto the dock to the station there. (The gray vessels can be seen in the photo below taken earlier - we don't have any photos after we were confronted by the police boat as it would have been inappropriate to have our cameras out during that time.)Surrounded by uniformed men we were questioned mostly in French about what we had been doing. Craig, who has a very much better understanding of French than I, explained that we worked with Mercy Ships and had just been out for a spin around in a fishing canoe. Once they knew we worked with Mercy Ships and were apparently not involved in illegal activities (eg. smuggling, illegal immigration, piracy, etc.) the mood became much lighter. I guess we did look a little suspicious because it is very unusual to see a "yovo" (the fon word for white person) riding around in an African fishing canoe - at least in the not at all touristy port area. One of the officers there had trouble with his knee and so Craig, being a physician, examined his knee and gave him some advice concerning it, which the man was grateful for. We were then offered a ride in the police boat, which we graciously declined, and given permission to freely continue our voyage in the fishing canoe. Both Craig and I felt we had done all we needed to so we got back into the canoe with the fisherman and motored the short distance back to the landing. We were assured that there would be no further problems for our hosts, thanked them and returned to our ship home. Craig returned later in the day to follow up and to take photos we had taken of the trip to our fisherman friends. They were delighted and we had a great story to tell about being arrested in the port a stone's throw from the ship!

John