Arrival Ceremony, Airport Runs and Screening

Our Managing Director, Robin MacAlpine, talking with the
First Lady of Benin, Madame Claudine Talon.

Last week we sailed into the beautiful country of Benin. Since our arrival, it has been a whirlwind of excitement. On Thursday we were privileged to host the First Lady of Benin, along with many other dignitaries and media, to celebrate our arrival to Benin. There was a beautiful ceremony outside where speeches were exchanged, all looking forward to the exchange of information and skills that will take place, and will help the people of Benin. Tiffany and I were tasked with identifying the media, distributing press packs to them, and ensuring that only a select few media were allowed to come onboard for the after ceremony reception. Overall, I think everything went well, but it was definitely a new experience, having protocol officers and security guards everywhere; having local performers; handling the local press while attempting to not be in the way of our internal team or National Geographic; and doing all of this while all the crew looked on from deck 7. I was grateful that we were so well represented – our leadership did an amazing job. One of our crew members, Emmanuel, is from Benin and has been serving with Mercy Ships since we last came to Benin in 2009. He was chosen to carry down the flag of Benin and hand it over to the First Lady – it was a very special moment. 

Emmanuel Essah carries down the flag,
into his home country, followed by Jessica
carrying flowers for the First Lady.

On the weekend we had our first opportunity to go out and explore our new home! We spent one night just wandering around for a few hours. I love that the city is still awake and thriving at night, which is very different from Madagascar. We felt very safe as we walked around, and we seemed to draw less attention than expected. There were people selling things on the street, and we stumbled across a large crowd of men watching a football game on TV (English Premier League of course). There is a great sense of community. We were also approached quite a few times, by people asking us for details about screening and where it will take place. My French has proved to be really helpful. We’ve found some good places to eat and they all seem very happy to see us (I’m sure they will see quite a boost from having us around for 10 months). 

I also had some adventures doing airport runs. Because the international airport is about 10 minutes away, we no longer have the long bus rides that we had in Madagascar. But that does mean we need people constantly going to the airport to pick people up. And last weekend we had around 30 new arrivals. And so, my first time driving in Benin was marked by driving a giant van that I had never driven before, to a place that I had not yet been. However, I made it in one piece, was assisted in reversing the van into a parking place (who knew the airport would be so busy?!), and managed to get all the arrivals back safely. Each time I’ve been to the airport so far has been an adventure – once they wouldn’t let Tiffany inside; another time they didn’t let any of us inside; once we waited 3 hours for someone and they never showed; one time I struck up a conversation with someone and he told me he was a Quaker from Germany, attending some sort of monastery in Togo for a week (I think that’s what he said…); one time an older gentleman proposed to me and I just laughed (which is what I do in awkward situations) and I could tell he was a bit offended so I remembered our cultural training and told him that my father would not be happy, which he seemed to understand. I may have to rethink my eagerness of doing airport runs (but not really…I love meeting all the new people as they step into a whole new world).

And so, as Monday came around, we headed to screening. Screening typically means leaving at 5am (the security team leaves even earlier…) because they start letting patients in at around 6:30-7:00ish and we wanted to be sure to get some good shots of the lines. I was the only one from our team to attend screening every day this week, with my main job being to take care of any local media that appeared so that the screening team could focus on their jobs. Over the week, we had two local media teams come, including one from the national broadcaster of Benin (ORTB). It was fairly simple to host them. I explained what we were doing here, allowed them to film wide shots of the patients in line for pre-screening, set them up for an interview with our screening team leader (who is amazing), and took their information for follow up.

Patients lined up for pre-screening.

Outside of that, Tiffany and I helped out with National Geographic, interfacing between them and the crew and making sure they drank lots of water! I have to say, my favourite thing about screening was going together as the whole Comms team and being able to serve them as they took photos and captured footage. It’s very rare that the whole team works on one project – we are often split up doing very different tasks. It was a lot of fun to carry their stuff, be their bodyguard as they wandered the lines, drive them around, encourage them, translate for them and just generally find ways to help them. It’s taken me a while to figure out how to make myself useful when I don’t have a specific task, but I think I’ve finally got the hang of it. Often the most helpful thing is just knowing what is going on and letting them know so they can decide what they want to shoot. 

I have to say, screening was far harder emotionally than I expected. Seeing thousands of people lined up waiting to get in, and knowing that we are unable to help the majority of them. Many people slept outside for days, hoping to be let in. Some days, it was too rowdy for us to go outside, so the police corralled people and we let in 10 people at a time into the compound. We climbed up on a roof at one point, and were overwhelmed by the giant crowd/line that lay before us. As we wandered down the line, the tension in the air was palpable. People asked us what was happening, what we treated. They tried to push their children in front of us once they saw us taking pictures. We tried to make it clear that us taking pictures didn’t improve the chances of them getting surgery – we aren’t doctors. The need was overwhelming.

Twin girls with bowed legs.

There were twins girls with bowed legs, who didn’t get in that day. I haven’t seen them since then. Another set of twin girls with bowed legs were seen later in the week and they were skipping and dancing when they got their patient cards. There was a young man who didn’t have use of his legs, so he pulled himself along on his hands. As soon as I saw him, I knew we would be unable to help him. It was heart breaking. There was a little baby with a facial tumour who was struggling to breathe. She was brought over to the palliative care unit because the tumour was malignant and there wasn’t anything we could do to help. I saw one of our day crew carry a patient through the entire line because the patient couldn’t walk and didn’t have a caretaker. I saw day crew who were guarding the door thinking about how we could do it better, make the process more fair. A policeman remarked to me how amazed he was at all these sick people – he said he had never seen anything like these tumours and other illnesses, he told me we were doing a really good thing. I saw our crew respectfully refer to older patients as ‘mama’ and ‘papa’, and assist them when they needed it. I witnessed our chaplaincy team spend long amounts of time with patients, explaining their situation and why we couldn’t help and yet still leaving them with a sense of hope. I saw a mom holding her baby, walking towards the exit and heard a nurse remark, that baby won’t make it another 6 months. I saw our screening team members give interviews with National Geographic and break down in tears. I met a 62 year old man named René, with a facial tumour that he had lived with for 30 years. I saw policemen shout at people to get them into a line, walking with their batons in hand and praying they wouldn’t use them (they didn’t). I saw a member of the National Geographic team so affected by what he saw, that he started tearing up as he talked about it. I witnessed crew volunteering to get up at 4:00am to come and help with security, being assigned to smile and gently lead the ‘no’s’ to the exit. This is what it is to be human. Powerful moments of connection, hope, despair, sadness, joy, love, peace, heartbreak. Screening encompasses all of these things. 

God is the ultimate healer. He is the only one who can truly bring peace to all of these people. Screening has made me grateful that we can help, even if it’s only a few. But it’s also made me yearn for Jesus to come and make all things right. I think that maybe that’s a good place to be. Seeking to live for Him right now, walking the path He has set, but also looking for Him to come and restore this broken world.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. ~ Philippians 3:20-21

The ship sailing into Benin!