We finally arrived in Benin on Tuesday! After 9 days of sailing we were in sight of the port when something went wrong with the engines, because of the nature of the dock the captain didn’t want to sail in without the ship in full working order so the engineers worked all night to fix the engines so we could sail in safely.
Mercy ships has been to Benin 3 times before, and each time there have been difficulties with the docking, last time in 2004 the ship crashed into the dock, before that we hit another ship and took out all the life boats on the starboard side... so it was pretty important that everything was working before we tried to dock! However we were a day late and we missed our own arrival ceremony! There are some pictures below of the dock when we did arrive though!
The Ship from along the beach
Us waiting to dock...
The Gangway coming down
The people waiting for us to arrive on the Dock
Benin is a crazy place! Hundreds of motor bikes everywhere, they call them dzemi-djans and apparently there are traffic laws but no one takes any notice, and I’ve already seen 2 crashes on the road! Crossing the road is also pretty interesting!
There are some pictures below of Cotonou which is the city that we are docked in. Yesterday I went to do a little exploring with some friends and we reached the main market. It’s absolutely massive and totally crazy, absolutely everything and anything is sold...and there are so many people it’s unreal.
I haven’t been to West Africa before, but a lot of people here that have say that they can’t believe how clean it is here. When we walk along the street we get called ‘Yovo, yovo’ which basically means ‘white person’
These shanty towns are literally on the beach next to the port...
We are right next to a fishing dock, and they sail out at all times throughout the day and night...
From the market
As for work on the ship we’ve been busier lately, we had a media and civic reception on Friday, there were about 150 people here and we set up food and drinks for them, it was actually quite exciting, we were all dressed in our uniform looking smart! I also had my first evening of being on duty for arrivals, we had 20 people coming in, and they didn’t arrive on board until about 11pm, it was a bit hectic, and we weren’t finished until about half midnight! So Friday was a busy day!
I’m absolutely loving being here, exploring a new country is amazing, I’ve never been to Africa either so the first time off the ship was pretty exciting, I’m hoping to do some more travelling to the neighbouring countries, probably Togo, Nigeria and Ghana... which will be really exciting!
The screening for the patients is on Thursday and Friday, where we will all be going to the local sports stadium and a few thousand people will come to see if they can have surgery, this is going to be an amazing day, I’m told the things we will see will be shocking and it can be emotionally draining to say the least.
On Friday night they had an open house in the hospital to allow the crew to see everything down there. It was so much fun and there was such a buzz, the surgeries start the day after the screenings finish so I think everyone is getting pretty excited to finally start the ministry that we came here to do.
Below is an extract from a humanitarian news website...
COTONOU, 12 February 2009 (IRIN) - The 150m-long mobile hospital called “Africa Mercy” has docked in Benin’s economic capital Cotonou and is expected to provide free surgeries and other medical care until December.......
As of 2004 there was approximately one doctor to cover every 27,000 residents and 12 dentists for the country of more than eight million, according to the government. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least one doctor per 10,000 residents to ensure basic care. Mercy Ships is expected to set up a dental clinic in Akpakpa, on the outskirts of Cotonou, equipped to provide up to 20,000 procedures. Health screenings will be held in Cotonou on 19 February, required for patients seeking care from Mercy Ships....
to read more click here: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82905
The article gives a good outline of what we are trying to achieve while we are here.
So that was a pretty long blog! And just for anyone who is interested I’m going to be updating it at least once a week to try and keep to up to date...
Hope England or wherever you are is smashing..... Oh yes and the other piece of exciting information this week... Kathryn got engaged!! So this was genuinely one of the most exciting weeks of my life!!
Massive Love
Jen 
I’m absolutely loving being here, exploring a new country is amazing, I’ve never been to Africa either so the first time off the ship was pretty exciting, I’m hoping to do some more travelling to the neighbouring countries, probably Togo, Nigeria and Ghana... which will be really exciting!
The screening for the patients is on Thursday and Friday, where we will all be going to the local sports stadium and a few thousand people will come to see if they can have surgery, this is going to be an amazing day, I’m told the things we will see will be shocking and it can be emotionally draining to say the least.
On Friday night they had an open house in the hospital to allow the crew to see everything down there. It was so much fun and there was such a buzz, the surgeries start the day after the screenings finish so I think everyone is getting pretty excited to finally start the ministry that we came here to do.
Below is an extract from a humanitarian news website...
COTONOU, 12 February 2009 (IRIN) - The 150m-long mobile hospital called “Africa Mercy” has docked in Benin’s economic capital Cotonou and is expected to provide free surgeries and other medical care until December.......
As of 2004 there was approximately one doctor to cover every 27,000 residents and 12 dentists for the country of more than eight million, according to the government. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least one doctor per 10,000 residents to ensure basic care. Mercy Ships is expected to set up a dental clinic in Akpakpa, on the outskirts of Cotonou, equipped to provide up to 20,000 procedures. Health screenings will be held in Cotonou on 19 February, required for patients seeking care from Mercy Ships....
to read more click here: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82905
The article gives a good outline of what we are trying to achieve while we are here.
So that was a pretty long blog! And just for anyone who is interested I’m going to be updating it at least once a week to try and keep to up to date...
Hope England or wherever you are is smashing..... Oh yes and the other piece of exciting information this week... Kathryn got engaged!! So this was genuinely one of the most exciting weeks of my life!!
Massive Love
Jen
Here is a picture of my room-mates and I Barbara on the left is from Germany and is the pharmacist, next is Sarah, from California and she is the hair dresser. Then Lauren who works in HR is also from California...San Francisco, and finally me! This is us on the last day of the sail watching the beautiful sunset below...
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