Family stuff

Someone asked me when we were back in the UK what our boys do with no special activities to go to out here in Africa. I said, "Um, play?" We are blessed to have a sizeable and relatively secure compound around our house, and the weather being what it is here in Benin, they can play outside more or less 365 days a year! We were also handed-down a whole lot of toys by other missionaries with older kids, and for the kids from the village our home is a bit like Disney World, so there are often other kids here to play with ours. Simon is quite into Lego at the moment, too, but most of the time he is taken up with imaginative play. The Bible being quite an influence on him, there tend to be a lot of soldiers (they have replaced his disciples for now!).

Just a few examples of what our boys get up to. Today I made the boys a little kitchen unit out of some cardboard boxes, with a margarine tub as the sink, and Simon made lunch which he and Benjy sat down to eat together. Apparently it was pasta and cake. He then ordered Benjy to "bed" (in the squashy playpen) for his afternoon nap.

Later I heard Simon telling Benjy a story he'd made up (I was making our real lunch so didn't hear much of what it was about). The story was a very long one, and after a few minutes I heard Simon say, "No, Benjy! Come back, the story isn't finished yet!" to which Benjy replied, "'tory finish!"

There was also a lot of running round the house chasing each other, with Simon shouting, "I'm going to 'pirate' you!" amid shrieks from Benjy. There was also some turning round in circles just to experience the world continuing to turn after they'd fallen over on the floor.

And this afternoon I went out for a walk in the fields with Benjy. He was very enthusiastic about it, and walked well, except when we saw a goat and he needed me to hold his hand. He also kept up a running commentary, reminding me about the place where we saw an elephant 6 months ago (except we hadn't - it was a large cow which we mistook from far away ... why does he have to remember our most embarrassing moments?!) and happily waving to the children we saw working in the fields. (I suppose if we run out of activities to propose to our kids there's always that!)

The boys in their "squashy play pen" playing at being in bed:


Newly-planted fields we saw on our walk:

second year of planting!

We know we've been in the village for a while when Simon's field is being planted for the second year running! We're branching out this year - not only are we planting corn and okra, but we're trying our hands at tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and carrots. Not that we're doing much, to be honest, most of it had already been planted when we arrived back from Europe! But Simon and Benjy have been helping with wedding and re-planting parts of the field.


The rains are disappointing so far this year - after starting late they haven't yet started to fall as regularly as the farmers would like. When they do come, we have been enjoying seeing the sky turn dark, and the wind pick up - seen here behind the recently-planted peanut field next to our house:

oops there goes my linguistic competence...

(Written on the 11th, but took a while to get posted!)

Ten days back in Benin and I'm feeling the changes. Obviously there is the material side – suddenly electricity, light and internet are no longer reliable friends, and I'm missing having a washing machine – but also the change of status. In Europe our main role was face-to-face communication with friends and churches about the ministry out here. In many ways that suits me very well – I love spending time with people, and in both English and French I feel confident expressing myself and explaining things. So I felt fulfilled and encouraged in that role.

Back here in the village, while it is good to be home, it is with some trepidation that I step back into the role of the person who doesn't understand everything and can't say all she wants to. I still feel on the outside here – everyone is friendly, but only with a handful of people do we have anything resembling a real friendship. This is partly our choice, in that we chose not to use French with people (with a couple of exceptions) to help us learn Monkolé. But it is really hard to build a friendship with another adult when you feel you talk like a child and can't show much of who you really are! We do need prayer that we wouldn't lose courage as we persevere with this.

Fortunately we have good friends among the missionaries and French-speaking Beninese in Parakou, and in our 3 days of vision and strategy planning for SIM Benin-Togo last week I retained the role I'd had in Europe, feeling I could participate freely and usefully in the discussions!

The pastor is taking his annual leave at the moment, so we have been settling back into life here, sorting out as many of our practical problems as possible, and easing back into using our Monkolé. While it is a little rusty, we don't feel we've really lost it. We'll be doing some revision sessions with the pastor before September, when I'll start on the translation work and Marc will begin his preparation for Dry Season Bible School. He will also begin home-schooling Simon in the mornings. I have been looking through resources I bought to help me with translation, and am getting quite excited about finally working with the team!