who am I anyway?

It's about time for a post about language. Not translation as such...

The first thing is just something funny that happened last week. Simon (5) and Benjy (3) were playing with a friend, Timothy (5 ½). They don't see him a lot usually, but as we were in Parakou they had played with him on Sunday and Tuesday afternoons and it was now Wednesday. It tends to be Simon and Timothy who play together, and Benjy plays near them or runs after them. Although Benjy talks a lot when he's just with the family, he doesn't say much around other people unless he knows them very well.

Anyway, at some point Benjy came to see me, to ask if they could have their afternoon biscuit. I said yes, and Benjy got up on a bench and started shouting, “Simon, time for a biscuit! Simon, come now! Come and have a biscuit! Come quickly!!” Simon and Timothy both came over to me, and Timothy said to me in a very surprised voice, “I didn't know Benjy could talk!”

I posted once before about the different names I can be known by here. In church yesterday, I was, as usual, hoping not to be asked to pray out loud in front of the whole church, but trying to listen carefully so that I would at least know if someone did ask me to. I was listening out for either “aboi Maaku” (Marc's wife) or “Maman Benja” (Benjamin's mum) or maybe even some version of Hilary. The guy who was leading the service said he wanted several people to pray, and I heard “kpaasi something” and thought “eh? Someone's friend?” (this being one meaning of “kpaasi”). I figured maybe he'd forgotten someone's name and so was saying “the person sitting next to so-and-so”. Then he looked straight at me and said, “Did you understand?” So in front of the whole church I said, “No!” Everyone laughed goodnaturedly, and he launched into a rather long explanation about how not many people had said things they were thankful for and so to express our deep-down thankfulness he wanted Jeannette and Fidèle to pray … and possibly someone else, but once again he didn't actually say my name (or “you”!).

So Jeannette and Fidèle prayed (and I was sitting there thinking, “Um, since I'm not sure I don't think I will pray!”) and after a pause the service leader prayed too.

Anyway, after the service Marc told me that I'd been called “woo kpaasi tia”, which, given the flexibility of the Monkolé language, could mean “translator” or could mean “the person who changes paper” (and possibly other things too!). Ah well, I guess they'll realise that if they want me to pray they need to make it completely clear that it's me they're talking to! Perhaps I should have done things Benjy's way, and not given away that I knew how to talk until it became really important!

getting there!

After 6 days without internet (technical problems after a big fire in Cotonou) we're back! Fortunately our builders have no need of the internet to get their work done. The wall around our mission property is just about finished now:


(It looks like that mountain might be here to stay, though!)

Our extension is coming on nicely too. Here is our new bedroom with half the roof on and the electrics in progress:



And here it is three days later after the ceiling had been fitted:


The walls were plastered inside yesterday, and the outside's being done today. Then it needs to dry for a week before it can be painted, and then we are away for a week, so things will come to a standstill for a while. Hopefully the painting then fitting of our built-in wardrobes won't take too long after we get back.

Fêtes!

I feel I shouldn't ignore Christmas and the New Year on my blog, as if they didn't exist just because we're in Africa! They most certainly did! And I found my third Christmas here less difficult than the first two. Now that we're used to it, it doesn't feel so strange to be celebrating in the heat, and this year's Christmas service at church was more joyful and Christmassy than last year's! I enjoyed reading the Christmas story with the boys too, now that they are both old enough to understand at least a bit about what it means.

We also had a friend from Parakou, Esther, staying with us, and having a visitor made it feel more special too. Also another friend we'd known in Parakou, our first language helper, was up in the village for Christmas, so came for tea on Christmas Eve. Here we are with Abraham and Esther:


And here we are on Christmas Day! We have a tradition of doing a one-take family photo on Christmas Day. This year it nearly didn't happen, as Benjy was feeling rebellious, but suddenly he gave in and we snatched the opportunity!! We are wearing the outfits we'd had made specially for Christmas.


We didn't do anything for New Year this year. In fact we couldn't even be bothered to stay up 2 hours past our normal bedtime to see the New Year in ... it isn't as if our boys would have let us sleep in an extra 2 hours in the morning!! But our pastor did give a New Year's message at church on the 1st which almost made me wish I'd got more excited about it!

a bit more building

Yes, my blog is full of building at the moment, but then we are living in a building site so it's kind of inevitable! Plus I don't even know that much about building in Europe, and seeing how it's done here is interesting!

Here is our (old) bedroom wall before anything was done to it. The thing looking like a door is actually the top of our big desk:



Here is the "after" photo - if you look carefully you can make out some of the butterflies still! Despite looking very different this photo was taken from the same place. A wall has been built to the left, and a doorway now leads into the newly-built room.


Here is the "scaffolding" used to build as the structure got higher:


And here is the finished building ... I say it's our walled garden, but Marc thinks it's a sun room ;o) We are now waiting for the roofer and electrician, who are booked in for next week.

up up up

The building work has had its ups and downs but is progressing fast. A few photos from the last week. The foundations are laid:


Then they begin to prepare to make the floor:


After the concrete floor had gone down:


The walls are now up:


And the holes for the windows are in place:


And they were nearly in the wrong place! I happened to go out to bring the clothes off the line yesterday afternoon, glanced over at what the workmen were doing, and decided to take a closer look. There had been a misunderstanding, and they were putting them in way down at the end of the room, right next to where our built-in cupboards are going to be, and where we wouldn't get any air circulating over our bed! I ran to ask Marc about it, he went out to speak to them, and fortunately since the mortar was still wet they were able to correct it and put them where we wanted them!

Finally, a photo of the cement being mixed - no cement-mixers here except the human kind!

so far so ...

Well, our builders have already managed to ... make lots of bricks:



... dig the foundations of our new room:



... and break the pipe which brings the water from our well to our house, several hours after discovering it, and after we'd congratulated them for not doing so! *sigh*

the wise man built his house upon the rock...

Well, our house is already built, but we are building on an extra bedroom to give us some office/guestroom space, and a wall around more of the misson's property here. This is a bit of a challenge for our skills and courage, as we have never done anything like it before. I'm not quite sure why I'm saying "we", as it is my lovely husband who is taking most of the stress and strain (I'm just back-up!). Not doing the actual building, but at least coordinating the different workers and sorting out the logistics. (And here is his blog post, in French, about it!)

This is the best time of year to build, as there is no rain. But that means that everyone who wants to build is getting ready to do it now, so we needed to get in early to get better prices on the cement ... or even, to get cement at all!

So on Monday we had seventeen and a half tons of cement delivered, in these 50kg sacks ... each carried on someone's head from our gate to our car port. We've hired a night guard to watch over them!



On Tuesday we were supposed to have 7 skip-loads of sand delivered ... but only 2 got here, and today none ... however it seems that this problem is being solved :o) A lorry delivering sand:


Here is the site of our extension before any work:


Here is the beautiful tree we had to have felled today ... I am slightly consoled by thinking that tucked away behind the house no one actually saw it very much.


Here it is on the ground!


And here are bricks for the extension being made by hand:


I got a great video of a brick being made with commentary by Simon ... but if I tried to upload it on this connection you'd be waiting a looooooooong time for it!