Day 1
The hope team of 14 members arrived in Lagos on November 10; most of the team members slept at County Estate Agege, while the Naija explorer team of four members came over to Agege to board the bus; we planned to leave earlier. But the Naija explorer team went over an hour late before we could set out.
We left Lagos around 8.30 am and arrived in Benin Republic by 4 pm on November 11. On arrival, we stopped at the magnificent statue of the first female fighter in Port Novo and from there to Ouidah, where we parked our van by the market along the shores. Unprompted, the children started approaching the bus. We started playing music, and the children joined in the dancing. We also shared gifts, candy, and toys. The team was ushered to a boat to take a trip to a floating village, Ganvie, where we saw the children living in the floating village. Ganvie is a floating village likened to the one in Venice. It was the most breathtaking experience. For some of us, that was our first time on a canoe, and for most of us, that was our first in other African countries. At the Floating village, we couldn’t get to the children, but that didn’t deter us; we still went on the boat, throwing the gift items in their various boats as they canoed towards us, some of the gifts fell inside the water, and they jumped inside the water to get them. It is customary for kids as young as six to own and ride their boat. In Ganvie, a typical family will own three boats. One for the father to fish, one for the mom to sell the fish, and the last one for the children to attend school.
Also, we saw a pregnant woman lying outside so weak with her other children; we wondered how she would get medical treatment in that place because we didn’t see a hospital. We saw a Church, a hotel, and a Voodoo temple on the water. Voodoo is their primary religion, and they proudly practice it.
As we shared the gifts, you could see the happiness on the faces of the children. It melted so many hearts. Still, on arrival, some children were running away from the camera. The guide indicated that the children hated being photographed. It seemed people took pictures of them without making an impact, but when they saw we brought them gifts, they came running and waving at us; that was a wonderful and life-changing experience. Who would have thought that a community like this existed? Until recently, most of them couldn’t walk on land because they didn’t have land, and the only land was used as a graveyard. By 6 pm, we proceeded to Togo.
Day 2
Our volunteer Moïse met with us on arrival to the slum community. We took a boat to Tayoyome, a community partially on water. Moïse had prepared meals for the children ahead of our coming. We met 100 children eagerly waiting for us at the
Tayoyome primary school, the students were so excited and joyful; they sang and danced, and a dance troupe did a cultural performance; most significantly, some of the children stood out in their performances. We also met a girl named Vivian, who was sick and whose dad was dead. The boat ride was a little scary because most of us had not used such a boat before; it was moving like it will capsize but thank God it never happened.
After we left, Pastor Jerry Edeni donated for the school fees of 35 children; we shared gifts, gave sanitary pads to the girls amongst them, and had to leave for our next country, Togo.
Benin Republic was a great start to the Hope Tour. We learned about contentment and living with little. We saw the grace of God in action.
