This was the preferred method of transport in Benin. You'd hop onto the back of a moped and they'd take you wherever you wanted to go. Pretty cheap. Could get around Cotonou for about fourty cents. They were dangerous though cause we saw plenty of accidents where cars plowed into these things and the people were seriously hurt. But we took them anyways cause they were cheap and quick.
A group of participants from the team that was up in Abomey decided to go to a game park in the north of Benin for 3 days. It took them about 10 hours to get there but they had a blast. On one of the days they decided to go cliff jumping. Wish I was there, but I was with my team in Pahou.
I'll have to tell you this pretty amazing story of God's goodness, but just the highlights cause it could get long. What happened was that the Segue team in Abomey came across an orphanage which housed about 109 children in a small rundown house which had no latrine or well. The children had to walk 3km to get water and just went to the bathroom wherever they pleased. In addition to this they slept on dirt floors crammed into tiny rooms. In the end God provided them with a huge house with a lot of rooms and bathrooms and everything they could've possibly needed. Its an amazing story and one that truly illustrates the father heart of God. This picture was taken when the orphans had just moved into their new homes. Things hadn't been set up yet, thus they were taking naps on the hard floor.
A picture of Africa, don't know where it was taken but it was a nice picture so I decided to post it.
This was some of the girls from the Abomey team with some of the orphans in front of their old home.
One of my best friends Sam, who led the team up in Abomey along with Robin. This was taken on his birthday.
The day that the orphans moved to their new home, the team up in Abomey threw them a big party. This was some of the kids waiting for the party to get started.
This was the game park where a group of the participants from Abomey went to in the north of Benin. Picture of elephant tracks.
This was the statue that you saw when you first drove into Abomey. The statue was of a king who was holding out his hand saying no to the white person. Pretty welcoming huh? The people's attitudes in this place towards the team was indicative of the statue. For the most part they weren't very friendly or hospitable. But God still worked and did some amazing things.
I was only up in Abomey for a total of two days so I don't know any of these kids names. Thus I just call them orphans.
Picture of some of the kids sleeping on the floor of one of the rooms in their new home.
One the first day that the orphans moved into their new place some of the girls on the team wanted to tell a bible story. But the story ended up being really long so a lot of kids fell asleep. So all of the pictures of the kids sleeping on the floor was a result of this bible story.
The orphans actually had two new homes, the one on the right and left. Don't know how many rooms they had but they were quite large. Their old home had no running water and no well nearby (they had to walk 3km to get water everyday). This house had all of that, as well as flushing toilets. God provided more than any of us could have imagined. It was amazing to see.
I don't know what they're doing. But the girl behind the children, her name is Sherah. She looks a lot like Robin.
This should probably be the new picture for the Segue brochures. The guy's name is Graham and the kid that he's holding was probably the biggest attention seeker ever. People said that he acted like a king cause he wanted everything his way. Pretty funny little guy.
Tom, he was from England, was one of the hardest workers on the team. He was also one of the dirtiest, cause they had this red clay up in Abomey which would stain your clothes and shoes. Pretty nasty stuff. Don't know why he was cutting this log with a machete, but I'm sure he was building something.
The guy on the right Carel, was the doctor that I lived with. He worked as a translator in the ward on the ship, but also went up to Abomey on a regular basis. On this day he was examining some of the children. Some of them had never seen a doctor in their lives so this was a blessing.
Picture of the cistern that they had at the back of the team house in Abomey. Pretty deep. But sometimes things would get dropped so they would have to go in after it.
This was one of the taxis that people would take from Abomey into Cotonou. Took about 1 1/2 hrs for them to drive the roads, but it took us about 3 hrs to do the same. The roads at certain points had huge potholes so you had to be careful or you'd pop a tire or break your car. But these guys were used to the roads so they could speed down them. They also fit four in the back and two in the front seat, minus the driver. So if a large person got in their with you it was a long and uncomfortable ride.
