We Made It!!

So after many hours of flights, lots of sitting, rushing through security and to our gates, we finally made it to Cotonou, Benin. Some of the flights felt long and others really short, but in the end we made it, with jet lag and lack of sleep running our minds at that moment. 

When we got here, it was so hot compared to Paris it was unbelievable! We went to the house of the Palmers, some fellow Canadians working with the Mercy Ships. On Saturday, we headed up to a lake called Bab’s Dock. We walked to a little boat, and drove through this really cool passageway, it almost seemed like a ride at Walt Disney world, and any second a big automated hippo was going to pop out of the water. We got out of the bush, and boated across a lake to a area with tables, chairs, hammocks, and places to order food and change into your bathing suit. It was so hot out that we decided to change first thing and hop into the lake. Unlike Saskatchewan, the lake was so warm it was almost like a hot tub!!! We were going to see if we could walk across the whole lake but when we got about half way we saw floaters for a fishing net, so we turned and went back to the others. For the rest of the day we just relaxed in the shade with the wind from the lake blowing on us, and watching some of the kids and staff from the Mercy Ships play killer volleyball. When the sun started going down we hopped in the boat and went home. On the road back to the Palmers, there were these two men on these horses, running full tilt in and around the cars and motor bikes, we were laughing so hard when we passed these two men, and five seconds later, we looked to the side of us and here they were passing us!! We were wondering if the men were in control or if those horses were running scared!! That was something that you don’t see in Canada! On Sunday, we all slept in and had a wonderful meal of pancakes and we sat around talking until we were ready to pack up and

head to the ship. When we got here we were amazed at what we saw. Our room is way bigger than we thought, the boys are sharing a room and I have my own little room, and my parents are using the double bed in the living room. We explored the ship and went to the dining hall for supper and upstairs for the family church service. Then we checked emails, and set up accounts, and headed for bed. This is my room for the next three weeks.Today, we got up at 6:45 to have breakfast, (which was a stretch for some of us in the family….ahem Mom, Brett). Adam was still sleeping so we let him sleep and he didn’t wake up until 11am!!! I don’t think we have EVER seen him sleep that long. At 8am my dad went down to the hospital to start his first day of work on the ship. For the rest of the day we did school, read, went to the library, checked emails, went to the ship shop, Adam did some piano practicing (shhhh don’t tell my mom I didn’t get to mine…haha), and after supper we had our tour of the ship and some orientation and did our laundry. We are now getting ready for bed and waiting to see what we will be doing tomorrow!!!

Carly