Uninspired by translation!

Seen on a toy being sold in Cotonou.

Something tells me this was translated ... badly! Either that or they simply strung a few English words together...

Easter sunrise service

Every Easter Sunday our local church holds a sunrise service on a nearby hill, known in the church as "Galilee". This in reference to the verse in which an angel tells the women who've found Jesus' tomb empty, "Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’" (Matt. 28:7)

Marc has been to this service before, but I never had, and this year Simon and I decided to get up early (the service starts soon after 5am) to go to it. The night had been a heavy, hot and sticky one, so it was quite a relief to stop fighting for sleep and to get up and go out into the relatively cool night (still about 30°C!). There was a bit of a wind, which was lovely, and the moonlight was so bright that we walked the first bit of our way without torches. After that we were on a path through the fields though, and I thought it would be better to have torches to scare away snakes. As we made our way up towards the hill, we did hear a rustling sound nearby, and I swung my torch round to see the coils of a snake not far from the path. I momentarily regretted my decision to come, and to bring Simon with me, but we'd got that far, so we weren't going back again!

We could see a light on the hill, and the smaller lights of people making their way to the hill on foot or by motorbike. After a while our path crossed that of some young people walking up from the village, and we were glad to let them lead the way (and scare off any more snakes!).

It was very pleasant on top of the hill, and if it hadn't been for my lurking fear of snakes (or my fear of lurking snakes) I would have been tempted to suggest that during hot season we should always hold church services up there early in the morning, instead of packing into a small church building once the sun is beating down!

It was good to be with brothers and sisters, though I was a little disappointed that the service wasn't more concentrated on the Easter message! There was a disturbance not far from us during the service, people exclaiming, and leaping up, and a young man hitting something with a stick. I thought they'd killed a snake, but learned later that they'd seen a snake, which had got away, and had killed a gecko (said to be dangerous - perhaps they are different from European geckos?).

The sunrise was also a bit of a disappointment, being a typical hot season sunrise where the light just starts to become apparent through the haze. But I was glad to mark a special day by doing something a little different.

I haven't yet mastered night photos, but here is the blurry moon (and the blurry red light on a mobile phone tower in the village):



Once the sun was up, here are some of the people at the service:



Here is everyone leaving the hill again after the service (a few of the village roofs are visible in the background):



And this shows you how small this hill is, despite being the highest hill around:

Temua

The Monkolé word "temua" can mean both "patience" and "perseverance".

"Patience" is a great help in teamwork.

"Perseverance" is essential in Bible translation.

I thank the Lord for a team blessed with plenty of "temua"!

Here comes the Sahara...!

During dry season we are used to the cooler North wind bringing dust and sometimes sand with it. However, the few sandstorms we get usually come in May, at the end of hot season and with the first rains. So we were not ready for a sandstorm on Friday! This was what we woke up to ... the weird red light is not a filter, it really looked like this ...

As the day slowly got lighter, we realised just how much dust and sand was covering everything in and outside the house. This is Simon's comment on our windows (it says "Dirty!" in French):

This is the front of our car, despite being under the cover of our car port:

And here are the leaves on our mango tree - the bright green underside of a leaf shows you what they should all be looking like!

The last few days have seen us gradually trying to remove the sand and dust from every horizontal surface in our house, and even some of the vertical ones. The mosquito netting over our windows is particularly good at catching dust and then releasing it in huge clouds at the slightest touch or breath of air!

And all this without the temperatures falling below about 28°C first thing in the morning, and still hitting 40°C in the afternoons!

Scary, scarier, scariest...

In the series of "things to remind us we're in Africa", we had a stray dog wander into the compound yesterday afternoon. The first thing we knew about it was when Benjy called us to say that Eve had pointed it out to him. We hustled them inside the house - you can never be too careful with dogs here - and Marc managed to chase it out of our smaller compound into the outer, larger one.

Most dogs here will run if you throw a stone or wave a stick near them, but this one was acting weird, and that didn't exactly reassure us! It did seem to be trying to get out of the compound, but couldn't find the open gate. And instead of running away from us and therefore letting us herd it, it seemed entirely unimpressed by us. It sniffed around a locked gate at the other end of the compound, and then headed towards me where I was standing by the open gate to our little compound. As it got close, I waved a stick at it, and instead of running away, it ran straight towards the thrashing stick (and me!).

Not what I was expecting! I wouldn't generally act in a threatening manner towards a dog, but I was getting rather scared by its unpredictability, and tried to poke it away from me with the stick. It squealed, and dashed past me and through the gate back into the little compound. The kids were in the house, and so were safe - Benjy had even locked the door, which meant I couldn't get in! Marc opened the big gate between the two compounds, having opened the big one out of the other compound, and managed to get the dog (eventually) out of both.

I was quite shaken, though I had to smile at the following conversation:

Me: Wow - fire, snakes and then this!
Simon: Fire-snakes?
Me: No, fire comma snakes.
Benjy: What are fire comma snakes?

And you've guessed it, I do NOT have a photo of the stray dog!!

Anonymity and where's Whitey?

One thing I'm looking forward to in Europe is anonymity. Simply being able to walk down the street and blend in with the crowd. I feel at home here now, but on my weekly shopping trip I still get kids calling after me in town because they aren't that used to seeing white people.

During one of our last visits to France I went into Paris on the train. I thought that after living in a small African village I might feel intimidated by the crowds, but on the contrary, the lack of any attention paid to me at all was refreshing!

Overall I think it is great for our kids to grow up here, but I do hate it that we only have to walk out of our front gate for them to be pointed at. In our (large) village they are known, and have some very good friends, but with others they have a kind of celebrity status, so we hear people calling their names wherever they go. It probably bothers me more than it bothers them, as they have never known any different, and it isn't as if there is any hostility. It's pure curiosity with a complete lack of empathy, even from adults.

Spot the white family at a wedding last year (my own version of Where's Wally?)

Fire and snakes

Sometimes we are so used to living here that it feels anything but exotic. And then sometimes things happen which remind us that we are a long way from Europe!

On Friday while working in the office I smelled smoke. My colleagues and I worked out that there was a fire to the north-east of us, but we didn't think much of it as some farmers in that direction had loaded up their cotton on Thursday, so we assumed they were burning their fields.

Later that morning we realised that what might have once been a controlled fire was no longer anything of the sort. It was now to the north of our compound, and in places the flames were metres high. At one point there was a "whoosh", and I saw smoke billowing up behind our house. I ran out of the office to check how close it was, since I had washing hanging out behind our house, and I really didn't want that catching fire! Fortunately the big flare-up was 100 metres or so away from our compound walls, but the smaller flames were approaching.

By the end of the morning the dry grass to the north and east of our compound was burning. We were very glad we had taken the precaution of having the long plants cut down, so the flames never got too high. My colleagues went to help prevent the fire reaching a black-market petrol "station" near us, and Marc passed water over the wall to them.

I then noticed that the fire had managed to spread under one of our gates - which was easily put out - and had also begun to burn the wooden roof beams of our (disused) chicken coop, which is built into one of the compound walls. This was also put out with water.

With the efforts of my husband, my colleagues and some helpful neighbours, the fire was soon completely under control, and eventually burnt out, except for a large tree trunk in front of our property, which carried on smouldering for another 48 hours.

Then on Sunday,  Marc went over to the little guest/schoolhouse on our property to put some water in the water filter over there. When he was about to get some water in the main room, he suddenly saw a snake gliding away from him, which hid under the kitchen cabinets.

Snakes are not something we have much experience with, unlike most people around here, so Marc immediately called a friend from church. He arrived with another guy within about five minutes, and another five minutes later they had killed the snake! Phew! What a blessing to have helpful friends like them!

A not-very-impressive photo of the fire (well, I could hardly send someone to stand next to it to show the scale!).