Written 27.05.09

I don't think I said in my last blog post that the journey went ever so smoothly.
It helped that my parents and sister Ali took the train from Bedford to Gatwick with us, to help with the 7 suitcases, 4
pieces of hand luggage, buggy, car seat and 2 children! We flew from Gatwick to Tripoli, and the staff of Afriqiyah were
brilliant. There were mainly Libyan men as air stewards, and they totally cracked for Benjy. Each time one of them went
past us he greeted Benjy and tried to make him smile! We had room at our feet for Benjy's car seat and each had a
screen to watch films, cartoons or listen to music. At Tripoli the heat hit us. It was 30°C when it had been only about 20°C in
the UK. We just had a couple of hours in Tripoli, which went quickly. The airport felt like the setting of a role play on
culture shock when we first arrived, with confusing queues, signs all in Arabic and so on. With kids though, we were rushed
through to the front of all the queues!

Ours were the only children in the departure lounge, and Simon seemed to sense that this was his opportunity to burn some
energy, and ran about happily. The second plane was less luxurious, but only about a third full, so we could take up 6
seats without worrying about it. There were no TV screens this time, but since we wanted Simon to sleep that was a good
thing!

As we stepped out of the plane at Cotonou, at 10pm, it was the humidity we really noticed compared to Tripoli. Like stepping
into a steam room with all our clothes on! We got through passport control quickly, and through Customs with only 2 of our
suitcases being searched. Roger, a Beninese man who works for SIM was waiting for us with Don, a Canadian missionary who
we'll be working with up in the North of the country after our time in Parakou.

We had originally thought we'd spend a while in Cotonou, but since Don was driving up to Parakou on Saturday and had enough
room in his pick-up for all of us and our luggage, it seemed logical to go with him then. Our crates don't reach the Port
of Cotonou until the 29th, and Roger may be able to get them for us. There is no point us going to try to buy our car, as we
would never be able to negociate a good price, so there again we will probably get someone Beninese to act on our behalf.

We also wanted to come up to Parakou as the Guesthouse in Cotonou is quite small, doesn't have much outside space, and is located
in a very noisy road. In Parakou there is a very big compound ... which to Simon's delight has a wooden adventure playground
in it! This was also our opportunity to meet Erin, Don's wife, and their little girl Hayley (who will be 2 in July) before
they went back up to the North of the country on Tuesday. Grace, the missionary translator I stayed with in 2003, had also
come down with them, and it was great to see her again!

We are still in the Guesthouse at the moment, but should probably be moving into our Parakou house on Friday (today, by the time this is posted!). It is in the
other mission compound in Parakou, where there is a school for missionary children and a radio station. There are also 4 (I
think!) other missionary houses there. There is a Swiss-German family with 3 children a bit older than ours, including a
10 year old girl who is very sensible and loves looking after Simon for us (we love it too!).

It is hard to know how I feel about being here, as we are very much living in the here and now and looking at the things that
need to be done straight away. (Though we did meet with the Director of SIM Benin-Togo, Clara, yesterday to talk a bit about
the future.) I feel I have been here in Parakou so often in my head that actually being here again just feels quite normal!
It was really good to see the Matchoudo family again too - a Beninese family I stayed with for 2 weeks in 2002.

The boys are doing very well. Both of them have been affected a bit by the heat, mainly with prickly heat rash, and they are
both waking in the night thirsty. Benjy has been feeding every 2 hours or so, so we have him in our (fortunately enormous)
bed with us so that I can easily feed him then go straight back to sleep again. Simon loves being somewhere where he can
spend a lot of his waking hours outside, and he has been trying to make friends with some of the Beninese kids who play on
the compound. He hasn't yet figured out that they are more likely to understand him if he speaks to them in French instead
of English!