(new friends we met at a local church)

You've heard it from Giles, we've arrived safely. My initial impressions of Africa and Mercy Ships have been very good. We have received a tremendous welcome here from the staff. Everyone is eager to help us settle in, as well as cautioning us not to do too much all at once! Still, we enjoyed a brief tour of Cotonou, and yesterday visited a local church. The weather here is what we expected, hot and humid. I sure am glad the hospital and ship are air conditioned. Still, traveling around in the back of land cruisers in this hot heat is not so bad! I had expected worse.



Today marks the beginning of our official work on the ships. We will both be orientated to our respective departments. Mine begins as all nursing orientations should - at Starbucks. I'll let you know the details later. Giles was happy to find the carpentry shop was a tad bit larger than a closet, and has received numerous pats on the back for being the first official carpenter on the ship since last year. He's been told the work has been piling up for him. We have yet to see wood.

As Giles mentioned, Africa definately has its similarities to Guatemala. The markets definately have the same flair about them. Brightly coloured clothes & open stock fruit are widely visable. The same perplexing methods of marketing exist here, whereby you'll pass 5 or more vendors selling the same thing beside each other. Whenever your vehicle stops, you're surrounded by people trying to sell you things from kleenex to phone cards to soccer balls. The tell tale signs of overwhelming poverty are not hard to find. It doesn't take much more than driving a few streets from the populated main streets of Cotonou to find the faces of those in need.

The power of a smile is unquestionable. Separated by language barriers, cultural stigmatisms and the like, it is near impossible to communicate with many of the patients. The hospitality center, as mentioned by Giles, is a converted warehouse used to house patients who are waiting for surgery. When we were there, approximately 14 women had travelled from Northern Benin to wait for VVF surgery. Many more are scheduled to arrive today. Since then, I've been advised that I will likely need to translate through 5 different languages in order to communicate with these women. And yet, with a hand shake and a smile, this daunting task of communication doesn't seem so overwhelming. Through this simple gesture, a world of words is communicated.

And so our learning has begun. We have so much to learn and understand about the culture and customs here in Benin. We'll keep you updated as we go!

-adrienne