I love what I see here in Africa and would love to share it all with you, however, unfortunately people can become very offended when you take photos of them, and a camera is a huge symbol of the wealth they do not have. Where possible I will try and take photos to share with you, and I will try and show Mercy Ships photos which relate to what I see, however, sometimes it is difficult to be discrete enough to get photos. As time goes on hopefully I will learn some good techniques about how to take photos discretely, however, in the meantime please bear with me, it's not that I don't want you to see, it's just I want to respect the West Africans. However, that said I do have a few photos which I will post in the next few days.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Some sights and sounds of Benin
Yesterday I had the privilege of going into Cotonou and seeing a bit of Africa (instead of the ship which is most definitely not Africa!). In the morning we went in one of the 30 odd Mercy Ships Land Rovers and saw a couple of the hotels who let Mercy Ships crew use their pools for a reduced rate, a fruit and veg market, one of the 'gates of no return', and the Mercy Ships hospitality centre where they house some of the pre and post-op patients and do some of the assessment of the eye and VVF (vesico-vaginal fistula - child birth injuries) patients.
In the afternoon a couple of lovely British ladies took my on a long walk to see the Grand Market. This is a large, sprawling market where all sorts of items are sold including: clothes, fabric, plastic pots, beads, wigs, fish, veg, fruit, goats (live) among many other varied items. There are rows upon rows of corrugated iron roofed stalls lined by hundreds of colourful umbrellas (of the large sun variety). The paths between the stalls are just wide enough for a small family car to squeeze through, if you don't mind touching the stalls occasionally, and they are filled with a constant stream of people. Some are out shopping and looking at the stalls, some are stall owners moving about the market, some have huge baskets on their heads as a mobile 'stall', and every so often a man comes running through with a wooden cart behind him. As the cart comes hurtling towards you, you have to manoeuvre yourself around the hoards of people to get out of the way, otherwise your foot is sure to get run over, if they don't bash into you anyway. All around you are bright colours and patterns as the African clothes use a multitude of different fabrics which are tailored according to the persons personal preference. As you wander around the stalls you see the stall owners chatting, braiding hair, arranging their produce (such as baby plum tomatoes) into neatly arranged little individual piles, gutting fish and generally milling about. And the noise is incredible, people are chatting and shouting to each other, and you can hear the traffic and the never ending horns from the busy roads surrounding the market. It is truly a bustling market like no other I have ever seen, however, unlike in the DR where people constantly pestered you to buy from them because you are white, on the whole the African's left us alone. The only negative point was when a police car came rushing through the market and drove straight into one of the stalls. Goodness knows how the people (there was at least 5 or so where the car stopped just seconds before) managed to dive out of the way, particularly in such a densely packed place, but they did. Once the police car reversed out of the stall and then made it's way down the street (where there were throngs of people, yet the car would only just squeeze between the stalls) the people picked themselves up and their produce and started putting the baskets back on their stools and refilling them. Life carried on as if nothing had happened. The bustle returned and we went on our way.
This morning I went to an African church. African church is very different from Western church. We arrived just before 10 (which was after a fair number of people) and then we left at about 12:30 which was before the service ended. The service was in English and French and had a fair amount of repetition. The choir sang with gusto, in a mixture of the two languages, often singing the same single line refrain for minutes on end, however, they were praising with all their hearts. Everyone sang and clapped and danced as they worshipped. It was colourful and it was loud (although quiet by African standards) and very hot, even with the ceiling fans on throughout the service. Certainly an experience, and I felt very tired as the service went on, I am definitely not used to such heat!
This morning I went to an African church. African church is very different from Western church. We arrived just before 10 (which was after a fair number of people) and then we left at about 12:30 which was before the service ended. The service was in English and French and had a fair amount of repetition. The choir sang with gusto, in a mixture of the two languages, often singing the same single line refrain for minutes on end, however, they were praising with all their hearts. Everyone sang and clapped and danced as they worshipped. It was colourful and it was loud (although quiet by African standards) and very hot, even with the ceiling fans on throughout the service. Certainly an experience, and I felt very tired as the service went on, I am definitely not used to such heat!
Thursday, 19 November 2009
I'm on the ship in Benin, West Africa!
I have finally arrived and am now on the ship. My journey was thankfully very smooth and whilst a little long it was very pleasant. Currently I haven't seen much as we arrived fairly late and very tired, but a few observations I've made are:
- Africa is hot, very hot, even at 10pm
- You can always feel the ship swaying
- The doors are heavy
- And I find big groups of new people very intimidating
But I am really happy to be here and look forward to getting stuck into my job and ship life over the coming weeks.
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Photos from the Dominican Republic
A few snapshots from my time in the Dominican Republic
The mound of rock at the beginning (this was later replaced with equally large mounds of sand and gravel and more rock)
Over half of the new dinning room floor filled with a layer of rock about a foot deep
Moving the rock to fill the base layer of the floor
Moving the cement to put on top of the base layer of the floor (and whilst I am posing here with an empty wheelbarrow I did actually move many wheelbarrow loads filled with cement!)
Making and moving cement
Resting after a long days work
Finished foundation and floor of the dinning room extension
Team after completing the floor
View up into the village from the school
In the school:
Owansa (Bible teaching day) games
Front of the hotel where we stayed
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Some reflections on the Dominican Republic (part 1)
So I arrived back in the US early Thursday morning (5th November) and after a debrief that day I flew home on the Friday, arriving in the UK early on Saturday morning, since then I have been getting over my jet lag, making a poor attempt at unpacking and sorting things, visiting church and seeing friends.
Unfortunately this has meant I have been slow to update my blog and I apologise for this as I really want to share about my time in the Dominican Republic.
The field service component of Gateway aims to build on what we have learnt in the classroom phase. As discussed in previous posts, change of value is lasting change that brings about a change of world view and enables people to grow and develop after we have left. For this reason we partner with individuals and groups who have ongoing long-term work: our partners were Sandra in Aguas Negras and Kids Alive in Villa Ascension who I mentioned in the previous post. Alongside this work we spend time with the people in the communities, investing in relationships and demonstrating love.
The time in the DR was a time for us to put what we had learnt into action, for us to live and serve the people in a way that really seeks to empower them and bring about changes in world view that do not remove their culture, but that enable them to progress out of poverty. This is not always simple as I came to discover. Some things are different to what I am used to but they are not bad, however, some things are not conducive to lasting change and breed reliance on outside help and a culture of paternalism. It is challenging to understand which falls into which category at times.
I have a passion for teenagers and young adults as this is when I really came to know God personally. I have experienced the incredible growth that comes from having God centred advice and encouragement, and have hugely benefitted from the time and energy that people invested in me. Why am I saying this? Well for me personally it wasn't the naked children that bothered me, or the torn clothes, it was the teenagers who had no apparent direction to their lives. There were many people trying to work with the children, and Kids Alive is doing an incredible job of really bringing about lasting change by taking younger children and investing in them, and is showing remarkable success. However, it was those who hadn't had the opportunity to benefit from such a good program, who had got older and now seemed a bit lost that I found hardest.
Some of the teenagers are going to school, they do want to make something of their lives and this is brilliant, but many sit out in the village and just hang out, day in, day out. Some just end up having babies because essentially they are bored. It saddens me that they find this lifestyle unfulfilling, yet do not have any vision to better themselves. But realistically how can I blame them for this? They are living in a depressed town, fairly far away from anywhere, with no real infrastructure or economy. There is hope and progress in this town, but it is slow and it is difficult because of the poor initial development of the town. If I was living there I would I have a passion to work or to serve the community, maybe not.
Then the question is: how can you inspire these teenagers to strive for something more, to live different lives to those around them? I don't know the answer to this question, I hope that somehow we as a group were able to convey some truth to them and to show them that they do not have to carry on life in the same way that they have before.
I have a passion for teenagers and young adults as this is when I really came to know God personally. I have experienced the incredible growth that comes from having God centred advice and encouragement, and have hugely benefitted from the time and energy that people invested in me. Why am I saying this? Well for me personally it wasn't the naked children that bothered me, or the torn clothes, it was the teenagers who had no apparent direction to their lives. There were many people trying to work with the children, and Kids Alive is doing an incredible job of really bringing about lasting change by taking younger children and investing in them, and is showing remarkable success. However, it was those who hadn't had the opportunity to benefit from such a good program, who had got older and now seemed a bit lost that I found hardest.
Some of the teenagers are going to school, they do want to make something of their lives and this is brilliant, but many sit out in the village and just hang out, day in, day out. Some just end up having babies because essentially they are bored. It saddens me that they find this lifestyle unfulfilling, yet do not have any vision to better themselves. But realistically how can I blame them for this? They are living in a depressed town, fairly far away from anywhere, with no real infrastructure or economy. There is hope and progress in this town, but it is slow and it is difficult because of the poor initial development of the town. If I was living there I would I have a passion to work or to serve the community, maybe not.
Then the question is: how can you inspire these teenagers to strive for something more, to live different lives to those around them? I don't know the answer to this question, I hope that somehow we as a group were able to convey some truth to them and to show them that they do not have to carry on life in the same way that they have before.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Dominican Republic - day 2
I am in the Dominican Republic! And have managed to get to an internet cafe so thought I´d give you a brief update on what I am up to.
We left the IOC at 3am on Sunday morning and drove the 2 hrs to Dallas airport, thankfully I slept. We then flew to Miami, again I slept, and then after a nearly two hour delay we flew onto Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. During the journey I managed to do quite a bit of reading so was very happy (I´m currently reading Bruchko by Bruce Olsen, a book about his life as he went to work as a missionary at 19 reaching a South American Indian tribe whose language was unknown and who were said to be savage warriors). All in all it was a pleasant journey. We were met at the airport by Sandra, who Mercy Ships has worked with on many occasions, and the girls from a girls club she runs. Our wonderful bus driver, Manuel, and our brilliant translator, Dennis, had got the tables ready in our team room and the girls had washed them ready for our arrival. This was a real blessing as it would have taken us a while to set up and we were tired after a long journey.
Monday morning we went to see the work Sandra does in Agros Negros at the school and in the various community projects she runs. It is an interesting place. Sandra is Dominican and is doing incredible work to develop the area where she lives through teaching the children and providing new enterprises so that people can make money, however, there is still obvious need there and many people live in poverty. Many of the houses are far too low and every time it rains they flood. The houses are in a disorganised order and the drains are not good. It is sad to see such poverty but such an encouragement to see how passionate Sandra is, and how she has built a program to help the people move out of poverty. It is a real example of successful development, as it has been embraced by the community and is improving the general quality of life.
In the afternoon we went to Villa Ascension. This is a community that was originally set up to harvest the now bankrupt sugar cane plantations. It is far away from other towns and has a mixed population of Dominicans and Haitians which creates some racial tensions. However the houses are in ordered plots and all have numbers which is brilliant for helping us learn our way around! We visited Kids Alive, the school where we will be doing our construction project and looked around the village. I was really struck by how isolated the people were and how little there was to do in the town.
Our wonderful cook (whose name has currently escaped me) cooked the most incredible spread for our dinner and we were able to rest after a long, hot day.
Tuesday we went to Kids Alive and started on the construction. We were moving a huge mountain of rubble from the grass into the base of the new dining room in the Dominican heat. It was hard work but we have an incredible team who worked tirelessly to get huge amounts done. In the afternoon I played with the children, who laughed at my accent and played with my hair (including pulling it in all directions!) and then did some more construction before going visiting, however, I will post about that another time!
I will update when I can however, time is limited here and we can´t always come to an internet cafe but I hope everyone is well.
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Off to the Dominican Republic
My time in Texas has nearly come to an end, and after really settling here I will be sad to leave, however, I am excited about the adventures to come. Thankfully the next adventure is with my Gateway class, it will be a really privilege to be able to share these experiences with these people and get to know them better prior to moving to the ship.
Sunday at some time in the early hours (i.e. before 3am) I will be leaving Texas and heading to the Dominican Republic for two and a half weeks. During this time the Gateway group will be spending time working with a couple of organisations in Puerto Plata, in the North East of the DR part of the island (which is shared with Haiti). The main place we will be working is Kids Alive, a supplementary school type establishment. The state schooling in the DR is not hugely substantial so Kids Alive run extra classes for the children. The younger children come in the morning and get breakfast and lunch and the older children come for lunch and then classes. Providing these free meals for the children is a way of ensuring they get at least one nutritious meal a day. Unfortunately in this poor area many of these children are unable to be fed properly, therefore Kids Alive is very popular. Each child who attends Kids Alive is sponsored, to provide the necessary funds to run the school and provide the meals. Those running Kids Alive have plans to extend the scheme to more children, however, they currently do not have enough dining room space. This is where we come in, along with providing the rest of the funds to complete the project we will be helping with the construction of this new dining room, we will also be doing some teaching in the classes, and spending time in the community. I probably won't have much opportunity to post much whilst I am away, however, I will do an update once I return.
Some of the issues in the area we are visiting are the interactions between the Native Dominicans and the Haitians, who were originally invited to the Dominican Republic to work the land during the farming season and then to leave, however they did not leave. These two groups live in the same town and there is a lot of tension between the two groups which has previously resulted violent disputes.
What I'm looking forward to most about the DR is spending time learning with my Gateway group, particularly getting to know them better in a setting other than the classroom. It will also be brilliant to spend time in a country with a very different culture to mine.
I think it may be challenging spending time so closely in a group, and interacting with people who speak a different language will be difficult. However, I believe the experience will be really good for preparing me for my work with Mercy Ships and creating stronger bonds with people prior to joining the ship.
Hope everyone is well and I will hopefully update you soon!
Sunday at some time in the early hours (i.e. before 3am) I will be leaving Texas and heading to the Dominican Republic for two and a half weeks. During this time the Gateway group will be spending time working with a couple of organisations in Puerto Plata, in the North East of the DR part of the island (which is shared with Haiti). The main place we will be working is Kids Alive, a supplementary school type establishment. The state schooling in the DR is not hugely substantial so Kids Alive run extra classes for the children. The younger children come in the morning and get breakfast and lunch and the older children come for lunch and then classes. Providing these free meals for the children is a way of ensuring they get at least one nutritious meal a day. Unfortunately in this poor area many of these children are unable to be fed properly, therefore Kids Alive is very popular. Each child who attends Kids Alive is sponsored, to provide the necessary funds to run the school and provide the meals. Those running Kids Alive have plans to extend the scheme to more children, however, they currently do not have enough dining room space. This is where we come in, along with providing the rest of the funds to complete the project we will be helping with the construction of this new dining room, we will also be doing some teaching in the classes, and spending time in the community. I probably won't have much opportunity to post much whilst I am away, however, I will do an update once I return.
Some of the issues in the area we are visiting are the interactions between the Native Dominicans and the Haitians, who were originally invited to the Dominican Republic to work the land during the farming season and then to leave, however they did not leave. These two groups live in the same town and there is a lot of tension between the two groups which has previously resulted violent disputes.
What I'm looking forward to most about the DR is spending time learning with my Gateway group, particularly getting to know them better in a setting other than the classroom. It will also be brilliant to spend time in a country with a very different culture to mine.
I think it may be challenging spending time so closely in a group, and interacting with people who speak a different language will be difficult. However, I believe the experience will be really good for preparing me for my work with Mercy Ships and creating stronger bonds with people prior to joining the ship.
Hope everyone is well and I will hopefully update you soon!
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
Well this question is all about perception, if you can perceive it does it therefore exist or something along those lines. Whilst of course I spend huge amounts of time pondering these obviously crucial(!) questions in life, this one is not top of my list! However, I do know that if a tree falls at the IOC I definitely hear it, particularly when it is a tree as big as this!
I might add that there are normally cars all along the side where the silver car is (in the second picture to the left of the fallen tree) and it was incredible that no cars were injured in the falling of this tree.
I can only presume that the tree fell down due to the torrential rain (yes it has rained more here than in the UK whilst I've been here) that we have had today.
Week 3 - Rejected Nooma Video
Well, when I shared my poem on Sunday, I didn't mention that the whole group presented something in some way for that part of the course. They were all brilliant, but unfortunately I can't share them all. However I do feel the need to share Keith's contribution. To really appreciate the video you need to have seen Nooma videos by Rob Bell. So I present to you Keith Johnson's Mercy Ships Gateway Project - Rejected Nooma Video!
"I attended a 3 week training course called "Gateway" at Mercy Ships. Our last day we had to present a project sharing some things that jumped out at us. During this training a video by Rob Bell (Dust - a part of the Nooma series of teachings) was shown to us. I figured I'd make a copy/parody of the video to share a few things that popped out to me. Couple things to know:
1) 22 out of 24 participants were heading to Africa to serve as missionaries... I was one of the two staying in the States.
2) They fed us snacks (very yummy snacks) about every two hours... sigh... I miss that.
If you haven't seen the Dust nooma video by Rob Bell the "look" won't mean as much and some of the subtle jokes you wouldn't get unless you were part of the Gateway.... but it should still be worth a view. Our family had fun making it :)"
"I attended a 3 week training course called "Gateway" at Mercy Ships. Our last day we had to present a project sharing some things that jumped out at us. During this training a video by Rob Bell (Dust - a part of the Nooma series of teachings) was shown to us. I figured I'd make a copy/parody of the video to share a few things that popped out to me. Couple things to know:
1) 22 out of 24 participants were heading to Africa to serve as missionaries... I was one of the two staying in the States.
2) They fed us snacks (very yummy snacks) about every two hours... sigh... I miss that.
If you haven't seen the Dust nooma video by Rob Bell the "look" won't mean as much and some of the subtle jokes you wouldn't get unless you were part of the Gateway.... but it should still be worth a view. Our family had fun making it :)"
A day full of surprises in Texas!
I was very privileged to have my birthday in Texas this year! The day started with an early rise to get to the morning devotionals at 7:45am (I didn't mind this given I am a morning person and had had plenty of sleep the previous night). I got up, perfectly happy and went to shower. On returning to my room I was slightly bemused to find that the entrance had been decorated with lanterns and small traffic cones, particularly as I hadn't noticed the decorations on leaving the room.
However, thankfully I was informed that I was not indeed going mad (although some would say that is because I am already mad), as the decorations were put up whilst I was out of the room. The decorations did not stop there though. Whilst I was out the night before, a fairly large group of people decided to create a couple of posters to decorate the door for my birthday.
The poster (for anyone who is not familiar with Mercy Ships) is jesting at how many people meet their future spouse on the ship. I have to admit it is probably more funny for us here than anyone else as it draws on some in jokes which just don't sound as funny when explained, but I had quite a chuckle at the poster.
Anyway I went to devotionals, and the class sang to me. Then we went and 'fixed' snacks for the people doing their Basic Safety Training (which I did four weeks ago), including a birthday cake which Nancy had kindly made. We appear back in class for break, when yet again the class sang to me!
My next surprise came at lunch, when I was asked if I had picked up my basket? Basket? I wasn't expecting a basket and was thoroughly confused. I proceeded to sit down with my lunch, and someone brought over a huge basket full of cookies for me, and of course everyone sang again!
(Picture shows the remnants of the cookies after the class had each had some). Well shall we say my family had managed to organise for a bouquet of cookies to be delivered to me, although thankfully they didn't send them all the way from England!
In the evening, a group of 11 of my Gateway class headed over to Dallas to see Muse and U2 in concert at the Cowboys Stadium. Sat up in the Gods (second to back row) of a stadium that seats over 100 000 people watching an incredible show listening to outstanding music. For me it was a brilliant ending to a wonderful day, so thanks to everyone who made it so special.
The Cowboys stadium is soooo huge!
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Week 3 (part 4) - True change takes time
As part of our assignments for this week we had to do something (poem, powerpoint, song, drama etc) about an aspect of what we had learnt over the week concerning the poor, specifically those who are the poor within the developing world. I have to admit it took me a long time to do this as I had so many different things going around in my head and hadn't had time to process all my thoughts. Having not written anything creative in years (I have worked with numbers and formal reports in the last four years and haven't really taken the time to be creative in a written way) I did find it quite refreshing, once I got past the writers block! Anyway I wrote something which resembles a poem, and thought I would share it.
True change
True change, doesn’t start to disintegrate 2 hrs after the ‘missionaries’ have left. It doesn’t fall apart at the first signs of difficulty or crumble when something doesn’t go to plan. It’s change that develops as the community learns and can be applied to new situations. It has the capacity to permanently improve lives, and to bring lasting growth and development.
But bringing about true change is difficult and requires constant reliance and guidance from God. It can’t be rushed, or forced on people. It can’t be rote learnt like multiplication tables, or the alphabet. It requires a complete change of world view. But it’s hard to see where to begin for such a big change.
True change starts with love and understanding. Loving people as created beings and meeting them where they’re at. Initially the prospect of true change can seem impossible, as the results don’t appear straight away. In fact, results don’t always appear even if you’ve been working with people for years on end.
But true change is not impossible. God is bigger than any change. He is sovereign and works in people in His time not mine. So I choose to trust God and accept that true change just takes time.
True change, doesn’t start to disintegrate 2 hrs after the ‘missionaries’ have left. It doesn’t fall apart at the first signs of difficulty or crumble when something doesn’t go to plan. It’s change that develops as the community learns and can be applied to new situations. It has the capacity to permanently improve lives, and to bring lasting growth and development.
But bringing about true change is difficult and requires constant reliance and guidance from God. It can’t be rushed, or forced on people. It can’t be rote learnt like multiplication tables, or the alphabet. It requires a complete change of world view. But it’s hard to see where to begin for such a big change.
True change starts with love and understanding. Loving people as created beings and meeting them where they’re at. Initially the prospect of true change can seem impossible, as the results don’t appear straight away. In fact, results don’t always appear even if you’ve been working with people for years on end.
But true change is not impossible. God is bigger than any change. He is sovereign and works in people in His time not mine. So I choose to trust God and accept that true change just takes time.
Week 3 (part 3) - Hakini
Another powerful docudrama we watched was that of Hakini.
"Buried alive because her tribe thought she had no soul. Plucked from the grave at the last moment by her brother. Then forced to live as a social outcast for three long years until sickness and neglect brought her once again to the doorway of death...
This is the story of Hakani – whose name means "smile" – one of hundreds of children who are targeted for death each year amongst Brazil's 200 plus indigenous tribes. Physical or mental handicaps, being born a twin or triplet or being born out of wedlock – all are considered valid reasons for taking a child's life.
A growing number of indigenous people are rising up to fight this practice. But when they seek help from the government, they are told that their children are not protected by Brazilian or international law, and that preserving culture is more important than saving individual lives.
Featuring actual survivors of infanticide as well as those who have rescued them, Hakani is a powerful docudrama that tells the true story of one girl's journey to freedom and a people group's struggle to find a voice – a voice for life."
"Buried alive because her tribe thought she had no soul. Plucked from the grave at the last moment by her brother. Then forced to live as a social outcast for three long years until sickness and neglect brought her once again to the doorway of death...
This is the story of Hakani – whose name means "smile" – one of hundreds of children who are targeted for death each year amongst Brazil's 200 plus indigenous tribes. Physical or mental handicaps, being born a twin or triplet or being born out of wedlock – all are considered valid reasons for taking a child's life.
A growing number of indigenous people are rising up to fight this practice. But when they seek help from the government, they are told that their children are not protected by Brazilian or international law, and that preserving culture is more important than saving individual lives.
Featuring actual survivors of infanticide as well as those who have rescued them, Hakani is a powerful docudrama that tells the true story of one girl's journey to freedom and a people group's struggle to find a voice – a voice for life."
Infanticide is unfortunately a practise which goes on in some areas of the world on a more regular basis than we would like to admit. The story of Hakini was filmed because the tribal Brazilians wish for people to understand their culture, a culture which is heavily animistic. Whilst they do not wish to loose the good parts of their culture many of these tribal people do want to end practises which are not good. However, in trying to end these terrible practises of burying children alive they have come against opposition. This saddens me that we can value 'culture' over life. The change in the tribal values and the push to end infanticide shows a change of world view, not a loss of culture. The opposition to change shows a lack of understanding of the difference between world view and culture.