A DAY OF SUPRISE

How does one describe the world around them when it is so new, vibrant and disturbing all at once? As I walk the streets of Benin, I am met with sights and smells familiar, though not to Canada. Something is different though. I can not place it. As I look around me I see everyone staring at me. Then the realization hits me. I know what is different, it is me. I do not belong here. I am a lone white man standing in a sea of Africans. Interestingly enough I can not remember if I experienced that feeling in Guatemala. A moment of unease passed through my mind as all the eyes that were staring at me seemed to be accusing me, the white man standing in the country where so many slaves were dragged away and never seen again. I had a very mixed range of emotions streaming through my mind. Emotions that were not easy to describe. Emotions that seemed not of my own design.

Then an interesting thing happened as I turned to investigate the 6th watch shop lined up in a row. As I peered into the jumbled mess of watches of all makes and sizes trying to find one that I could wear while working, a man approached and took me by the shoulders and said in english "this man here, listen everyone, this man here is a good man, you treat him right, this man here he work with the ships, see, you see his bottle it says Mercy Ships, you man are good man, thank you for all you do..." He went on for a little while and not too quietly at that. Perhaps it was just me but the eyes that surrounded me seemed to soften and some turned away. I felt very self conscious but now for the opposite reason. This man had turned up out of no where and had now put me on a pedestool trying to make me better than the other people. I felt I did not deserve the attention I was now recieving. I quickly barterd for my watch, which the shop keeper had initially asked 20000 CFA for and now accepted 8000 CFA, turned and left the market respectfully accepted the nods, smiles and affirmations offered to me. This new attention will be difficult to understand.

I really do want to communicate with everyone who is reading this about how much of an amazing day I had yesterday. It was a simple day, one that demanded nothing of me. I was free to wander and explore Cotonou as my heart for adventure pounded in my chest urging me out into the town and into the unknown. As loud as that pounding was, there was another beat of my heart that surged to great heights than I had expected. A little boy, about ten years old, who I had met in the hospital the night before needed a friend. I had visited him breifly the night before but he was not doing too great so I told his father I would come back the next day. I sat at breakfast in a deep debate, two passions of mine, adventure and children, were competing for space in my day.

Suddenly it donned on me that the unexplored country lay not off the ship but near at hand. In fact he lay just one deck down from mine on a hospital bed, with a few tubes, dressings, and a chance at a new life. I am limited as to what I can share openly but I will try and describe a little of what I can.

This boy, amazing and so very brave, has lived his whole life with a tumor consuming half of his face. The growth distorted his face into unlikely proportions, displacing anything in it way. He has had an amazing surgery through the grace of God and is now lying in a hospital recovering from a traumatic and difficult surgery. I look into his face and see a new boy. Time will still be needed to fully recover but he has been set free. His tumor has been removed and he is now able to live a very different life than before. His father tells me that he has never been able to talk because of this tumor but he has his own ways of communicating.

As we sat together and he tried to teach me how to drum on his knee I experienced a different sensation. I was connecting with this brave boy without language, without a translator. It was just me playing with an amazing kid. The tubes, dressings and insisions did not change who he was. As we looked into each others eyes and silently communicated I could not imagine anywhere else I would have rather been. A brave boy experiencing freedom from a life darkened by despair, who had been lying on an operating table just nights before struggling just to survive the night. Now, sitting and playing with a smile creeping into the corner of his mouth as the swelling subsides.

I was part of his moment. I was part of his life, if only for a little while. We connected and played. I could see a light in his eyes the more he played becoming brighter. His eyes opened wider, I think he was distracted from his pain. He was free and could soon go home to a new life. His father was taking a nap under the boys hospital bed already. I realized we had been playing for hours already. The boy reached around on his bed, searching for something. Anxiously trying to find something hidden in his sheets and then he found it. Triumphantly yet exhaustedly, he pulled a little giraffe out from the sheets. Clutching it tightly he turned over and instantly fell asleep.

Where else could I want to be but in this place, watching a boy clutching a little giraffe falling asleep with the feeling of hope surrounding him? He slept peacefully while I held a little baby boy in the bed beside him.

I had found my adventure.

Giles