Jessamyjoy's travel blogs:
- Senegal 2007
- Two months translating, interpreting and... 2005
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Daily life.
Entry 13 of 33 | show all | print this entry |
Thought I'd fill you in on what we/I actually do here. There's an idea. For those of you unfamiliar with (perhaps unsupportive of) missions, the missionaries here are far from pith-hat-wearing, westernizing, enforcers of foreign values. For one thing, they come from all over so whose values would they choose? For another, you're all well-aware that I believe the only thing worth living for is God and accepting the grace of Jesus to love and serve him. This kind of life fits in any culture because God created it all. So the missionaries adapt just like lifestyles adapt, according to culture. SIM Benin is basically a support mission. They run a highly respected central hospital north of here at Bembéréké and are partnered with the UEEB (Union des églises évangéliques du Bénin-Union of Evangelical Churches of Benin). So they do pastoral training and like I said, basically support the local churches in their teaching of the Bible. The north station in Parakou has a school for missionary kids that just let out for the summer and indefinitely since next year there are no kids scheduled to be here. The south station where I work is the main office for Benin and we also have guesthouse for people passing through, like the one in Cotonou where I stayed when I first arrived. In the office I work with an American, a Canadian and two Beninois (notice the lack of "e" on the end-means they're men). My job is mainly to help translate some documents such as project reports, thank you letters and agreements mostly into English but some into French, under the watchful eye of the other missionaries. I'm also doing the work that was previously done by Bridget such as sending and receiving all e-mails on this complicated server system, monitoring random office stuff like e-mail and STA files and generally being available to help the guys out. We meet for prayer at 8-8:30, work from then to 0 when there is an hour long "pause café" (otherwise known as coffee break) where a Béninoise serves great pancakes and coffee for what amounts to pennies in US$. People come from around and sit and chill under our "paillote" (straw hut) and then we all wander back to work until 12:30 when we wish each other "bon appétit" and head off until 3, because everyone takes a nice "sieste" before coming back and working until 6:30 when we call it a night before it gets dark around 7 which is by far the hardest thing to get used to!
This post is rather dry and informational, but I do want to thank God for the completely uneventful trip I had here and the ease I've had with jet lag (I was so exhausted to start with I don't feel like I even noticed!) and a week without the slightest headache or upset stomach. I'm just getting into things today, so I don't know how often I'll be getting to do this. Please pray for SIM and UEEB as they work out an agreement and partnership to clearly define their roles and place in ministry in Benin. Pray that God send qualified workers to the hospital and here as teachers to equip people to carry "la Bonne Nouvelle" (good news).
Random info, AIDS isn't the scourge here that it is elsewhere in Africa, but malaria is a problem-you see ads everywhere for mosquito nets and how to protect yourself. Currently people in this region are very worried at how late the rain is...weeks now without. It has rained twice since I've been here for no longer than an hour each time. Yesterday the rain was deafening, pounding the dry ground, shaking even more mangos down on my roof. No electricity so no fan whirring away but I could hardly hear myself think between the wind, rain and occasionally crashing mango, which, by the way, almost always makes me jump.
Latest Comments (1)
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thankful (reply)
Jun 7, 2005 23:19 EST by shasan
I'm so thankful to hear everything is going so wonderfully. How amazing that you haven't gotten the slightest bit of belly ache yet. (what an accomplishment if that lasts all the way through!!).AAAhhh...so great to see what you're doing only hours after you do it! It was such a good idea to start this. :-) I'm prayin' for ya and the people you're helping. And looking forward to future posts!
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