African Church!

So this was the first time ive managed for various reasons to get to go off ship and visit a local church! So it was a church called Agla Pentecostal Church, and it was planted back in 2001 when one of the old MercyShips was here back in the day!

So the service was in French and Fong (local language) but it was translated into English most of the time which was handy!

So im not sure ive ever done so much clapping or standing, then sitting, then standing, then sitting, i would continue with that but you can work it out!

The over riding thing i left that place with was the thought of how the fact they were in a almost shed like place, with water from the night before all around, on hard bits of wood for seats and im sure other things ... none of it seemed to matter ... they were there to worship God with all of their hearts. It just makes me wonder what would happen if every christian did that ... Gave their all to God ... I reckon it could change the world!!!

Thanks to my sis for the pics :)

Pendjari National Park

So having 4 days off over Easter some friends and I decided that it was a good chance to go exploring and see a little more of Benin!!!

... So Miriam, Esther, My lovely girlfriend Amy and myself (with 6 other MercyShipers) travelled 8 hours on a bus that had people sitting on oil cans in the middle isle to a place called Pendjari which is right in the north of Benin, so north in fact we saw another country on our travels!

So Pendjari is a national park which has lots of cool animals and such! It even has its own very nice entrance ...


So this be our mode of transport for our time ... now 11 people in this car was a little bit of a squash to say the least ... so we got a little creative with the seating arrangements ...

We got a fair bit of animal action while we were there, off the top of my head we saw ... elephants, deer, hippos, buffalo, water buffalo, baboons, antelope, crocodiles and a little wart hog action! Here be some deer ...

So We really did ride on the top of the car as shown below ... (and we enjoyed it muchly :) )

So of course some pretty sweet views came along with the ride ...

Ok ... so im not a big tree fan, but i have to be honest, i loved these ones, They were really green at the top, then got brownier as it went down, kinda like going through the seasons. They also had some pretty cool fruit growing on the top, which were not really sure what it was because our driver didn't really speak any English! But we did find out that the elephants pull down the trees to get to the fruit, which we didn't get to see in action, but sounds cool none the less!

More sweet views ...

Now not a normal hotel room ... but i tell ya this i was pretty excited by the room! and that said even after realised all i had in the baking hot heat was a little fan that i couldn't get in the right place!

Ok, so we were on our way to the hotel type place (shown above) and Esther and myself were up top and for some reason being surrounded by totally white clouds started talking about rain, so we then decide to sing a little rain song ... and well this is what happened next ...

So we got the chance, very brief chance at that, but a chance none the less to go to some waterfalls and well ... jump off! Im gonna be honest here, i was pretty scared! But jump i did ... in fact over and over and over, 6 times! now not because i was loving it (although it was fun!) but because it really took that many attempts to get a picture of me in mid air ... so here it is...

Fun Fun Fun was had by all :)

Swimming Pool Fun

So i think i knew this before i came to Benin, But i cant dive, im not sure why ... there is just something in me that cant do it!

Its not that i dont try, trust me! or you could ask people that have seen me here ... i mean people looked scared for me when i dive sometimes cause i put so much into it and land in the water in some pretty painful looking ways it seems ...

So with diving a no go for me, ive decided to take up the back flip! ... now that may seem like an interesting choice for someone that cant dive, but oh well ... :)

So today was the 3rd time ive been to the pool since i took this bold step of trying to work out how to back fip ... and well just as the 2nd time was an improvement on the 1st time today was the same!

Im now officially doing a back flip, now it looks pretty ugly sometimes and i really pull sideways, but none the less its a back flip!

Here is a little proof ...

and a little more ...

Now this isnt back flipping, just jumping with some friends :)

Market Madness

Its at times like this morning when i realise just how different it is here to anywhere ive been before!

So Sarah (my sister http://thefarrells.org.uk/) and me took a little trip to a local market.

Basically its a fruit and veg market, its all stacked so cool, in really went organzied piles and stacks, but i tell you thats only the start!!! I mean you wouldnt expect to add in chickens, geese, pigeons and even kittens tied up for sale!

Ok so were on a little mini mission there, trying to get hold of some mango and pineapple action for some smoothie action 2nite, well its harder than you think! i mean Sarah speaks some french and well we were both very lost at one point at to what exactly our lady was saying the price was! So it was possible 1150 of the local currency. So i have a 2000 bill, which i mean you wouldnt think would be hard to give a little change! Oh how wrong you would be! So she takes a look in her little carrier bag, no change in there, so tries a few people around her, no luck there. So gives the money to some1 else, time passes, and they come back with nothing but the 2000 bill again! So then the lady next door gets involved with a few coins, so our lady is then trying to explain to us that she doesnt have enough still we think, so we settle on getting some bananas as well!

So no normally bananas, like midget sized ones! so she has like 20 maybe in this bunch and were like how much? and she puts out 3 fingers, so were asuming 300 maybe, well we decided we wanted half of em, so she then gives us 500 back from the 2000, but then says she wants another 100, which we were fine with, very confused because 1/2 of the bananas were now like 450! Who knows, all very amusing really and a good experience id say!

So walked back via the meat section, i tell you what i pointed out some sort of animals heads on display ... lets just say we didnt stay in the meat section, we left by the nearest exit!

Good times indeed :)