official at last!

In the excitement of moving I forgot to say that I at last received my permanent Beninese driving license!! Hooray! The day before we moved, Esther said to me as I left home to do some shopping, "Weren't you going to see if your driving license is ready yet?" I had completely forgotten, with everything else on my mind, and wasn't very optimistic. But I thought I had better drop into the transport office to find out ... and it was there! The big boss said he'd made a special effort to get it for me, so it's a good thing I did go before we left!

The episode-before-last was that a month or so earlier one of the driving school instructors turned up at the mission headquarters with a photo of me, trying to track me down because they didn't have my contact details and they had found out that my passport wasn't enough, they needed to send in my birth certificate too. He'd been asking for "Rachel" (my middle name) so strangely enough hadn't found anyone who knew me, hence the clever idea of using a spare photo of me they had. Marie-Claire, who was on reception at the mission that day, thought it was a bit strange though, and went to ask someone else whether she should admit to knowing me or not!

So anyway, we'd been to the law courts with him so that they could get a photocopy of my birth certificate "legalised", and he'd thought it was unlikely that the license would be ready before we moved. But it was! And I now have a life-long Beninese driving license - so no need to renew an international one every year ... it has been worth it in the end!

greetings

Yesterday after church a “delegation” was sent to greet us. Mainly the mums of the church, with assorted children, probably 30 or 40 altogether. They didn't stay long, just gathered in our porch, the pastor's wife said a few words of greeting, and then a couple of them prayed for us. It was a very welcoming gesture, and they seemed to appreciate me thanking them in Monkolé.

This morning we went out early into the village with the pastor to do some official visits. We were introduced to the local kings, mayor, imams and other important figures in village life. Lots of smiles and greetings. The greetings are quite ritualized, which makes them easier to learn! Pastor Samuel also explained who we were, and that we are going to take over from Grace, who also accompanied us. I am suffering from an affliction common to many language learners. When people are talking I understand the gist of most of what is said … unless people are speaking directly to me, in which case I understand nothing at all!

People were all very friendly and welcoming. We received lots of blessings (if you hear the word “God” at the beginning of a sentence you know you can reply with “amen”!) and Simon and Benjy were able to see lots of animals (cows, goats, sheep, dogs …).

It was pleasant to be out in the early morning, and we needed to go out that early to escape the heat. When we finished just after 9, it was already starting to feel uncomfortably hot in the sun! I didn't envy the guys from church who we saw working on digging a foundation for the new church building!

I'm afraid I haven't taken many photos of the village or its people yet. I'd rather wait until I know people a bit better.

settlers

And here we are, settling into our new home in Pèdè (North Benin). So far, so good! We are being well looked-after by Grace, a Canadian missionary who has lived here for years (but will retire in May), and the pastor and his family. It does help when you already have friends around!

I do occasionally have a moment of feeling tired of moving and starting all over again – after our fourth major move in two and a half years. But then I remind myself that – God willing – this should be the last move for some years, and that this time I can enjoy decorating the house the way I want it, and get to know people with the perspective that these can be daily friendships that will last!

Life here is different again from life in Parakou. Our water is pumped out of our well into a huge plastic storage tank on the roof. Some of it then goes into a solar water heater (basically pipes heated by the sun), giving us lovely warm water for our evening showers. The rest is piped into the house, and some of that we put through a sand filter then a Katadyn filter for drinking water. It is hard to convince our boys that the water coming out of our taps is not for drinking!

Our electricity is provided by solar panels on our roof. We are being eased in gently, since Harmattan is the best season for solar power – plenty of sun during the daylight hours and then cool nights which mean the fridge doesn't use too much power overnight. We were hoping to use a borrowed kerosene fridge during hot season, but it is proving hard to get it working properly. Marc has some tiny solar panels my Grandpa gave him which are powerful enough to charge our mobile phones! We try to make sure we remember to charge the laptop, and run the bread machine or the food mixer, in the middle of the day, when we have plenty of power.

Having had to get used to a limited range of food products available when we arrived in Parakou, now it's time to get used to having even fewer things on sale! The only Western-style cheese we can get is “La vache qui rit” (soft spreading cheese), and fresh fruit and vegetables are scarce, as it's hotter and drier here than in Parakou. I did manage to buy onions, tomatoes, okra, cabbage, carrots, bananas and oranges, so that's better than nothing! And I have some vegetables I canned in Parakou, and some fruit I dried there too.

I make my own granola, yoghurt and bread (Grace is selling us her bread machine) and if we want cake or biscuits I have to make them too. Almost all meals have to be made from scratch. Fortunately I enjoy spending time in the kitchen! (And it's a good thing we like the taste of “scratch” - haha!)

We have help with the housework, as we did in Parakou. The pastor's wife worked for Grace when Grace was living in this house and she is now working three days a week for us and two days a week for Grace in the smaller house Grace has now. She comes highly recommended by Grace! We have also taken on a younger girl to do the clothes- and nappy-washing, since we have such a lot and it all has to be done by hand. I did find it a bit strange when we arrived in Parakou to have people working for us, but it helps us enormously, and the provision of jobs is useful for the local economy. The side benefit is that it means we get to know some of our neighbours very well. Esther, who cleaned for us in Parakou, became a good friend. Here it is also good to hear Monkolé spoken and to be forced to use our own Monkolé, limited though it is!

Our house:

the day before...

Today had the potential to be stressful. The day before moving day always does, but when your contact for getting a taxi to transport your stuff announces at 9.45 that the taxi you thought was coming tomorrow is turning up today ... anytime from 10 onwards ... well, it is a bit of a surprise, to put it mildly! After the initial shock, I realised that actually we'd managed to be so well-organised (praise God!) that we just about had enough stuff to fill a taxi, so I just threw some more things into a couple of crates and a suitcase, and by the time the taxi eventually arrived at 11 they had plenty.

Here is the taxi getting loaded up...

It actually worked out really well, as all that stuff was out from under our feet, and our friend Abraham who went up to the village with the taxi will be able to get back tomorrow morning and go back up again with tomorrow's taxi (just taking a few last boxes which won't fit in our car). Our bulky stuff left this afternoon on a lorry transporting cement from Lomé (Togo) to somewhere in Niger. We're just hoping no one will tomorrow be getting too excited about what "came off the back of a lorry"! The photo below shows the lorry - though they were going to cover our stuff up with tarpaulin so it wouldn't be quite so obvious!

We have also been very well-looked after, with one or other of our neighbours giving us lunch and tea today, and breakfast tomorrow! Plus another missionary has invited us to lunch en-route tomorrow, and our co-worker up in the village has promised us our evening meal! We do feel very blessed and carried - many thanks to all those praying, too!