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Togo Mission 2007with Kipuke Ministries
22July2007
Women’s/Girls Center and Yippee-ki-yay! Or how to buy a Cow in Benin
Today did not start out necessarily the most exciting , but what we did this morning had most meaning. We drove 10-14 k into the bush thru some narrow mud roads to the girls center like the women’s training center in the North. This one takes young girls, but is terribly dilapidated and in need of help.
This center is sponsored by the Protastant Methodist Church of Benin and Kipukee Ministries partners with them here as he does with the VBS. Last year the dorm building was roofed, but walking inside you think you are in a 3rd world prison.
There is only one bed. Bed and mattress about 200 USD. Needs a ceiling on the intire to try and keep some of the heat down related to tin roof.
Bathrooms do not work, need repair, they ran electricity here last year.
There is no longer a school teacher because the church cannot pay one. Last year’s teacher was paid by Kipuke, but priorities dictate that the northern fascility take first priority.
They have 3 sewing machines ( 150 USD each ) , but need more and they have a couple of looms. The girls were learning how to do hair extensions when we arrived. They sang for us and I taped it. Their cooking area is outside the dorm, a designated area to build a fire, that’s all.
They have us fresh oranges grown in the area.
After prayer leaving the center we stopped along the road at a farm where some cows were being tended so I could take a pic of the chic filet cow from becky with a real African cow. The farmer held the cow doll for us and then his wife and baby came out .
We then realized the baby had ceft lip and Pallet . I took a photo. This is a great need in the area. Esaho said he would try and get a chief to inventory the area of this type of defect so we could report it. Prayerfully we could get some surgeons here to repair these. Baby looked strong and nursed well. This is the first Cow story.
We then went to the VBS camp and made arrangements for the cows storage. Mary and I played with the kids for a while and I tried to teach them how to play with a yo-yo. They will eventually get the hang of it . Much fun.
Now the real fun began , we went down one rutt filled village road after another looking for the abitory to buy the beef cow from Marvin for theVBS.
The first place we went was removed. This little neighborhood that sponsored the abitory had been torn down. They lived in mud huts and the govt. said go….no mud huts in this village.
So we then went hear and there looking for the cow. The car overheated, we let it cool down and went back to VBS.
Over an hour Esahu negotiated for a truck to haul the cow in and a taxi to take us where the abitory really was.
Well what this was, was a field with parked cars and trucks and a lot of muslim Mali’s smoking cigarretts , kids everywhere and a few cows. Apparently Mali’s are the travelers of West Africa. They speak French, but travel on foot with these cows to Togo to sell them. We met a Mali Kid begging on the street early in our visit, had blue eyes.
Now the fun starts and it all in French and very loud. Aparently the cows closest to the road are more expensive than the cows further back in the bush. Esahu went back to an old man and a crowd of younger men followed. They haggled and yelled and finally you here “BON!”( Good! ).
Looks like we have bought a cow. But this is not the end of this story.
Let me describe the cow, "bull" actually. Sort of like a Brahma. The face is so different from an American Heffer, almost horse like and very pretty. Well any way back to the trials of cow buying.
Understand Esahu pinches a penny until it screams and he negotiates for everything here, Loudly.
Well they want to charge him for a receipt.
Then for parking the cow…then for loading the cow…..
then for the rope the cow was led with and tied with…
I thought it was going to get Very Ugly.
They wanted to butcher the cow there and deliver,
Esahu said "NO!". He explained that they would steal part of the cow,
we took it with 2 butcher boys to the VBS (no kids around).
Unloaded the cow and now began a 20 minte negotiation on how much to kill the cow.
The boys would not back down and told Esahu “here take the knives and do it youself” Esahu responds, “Fine I will, give me the knives”.
The boys “no you can’t…a special prayer has to be made to Allah!”
Esahu, “WHAT Allah?! This is a Christian Camp, give me th knives!”
They then agreed to Esahu’s price.
All for a cow from Marvin. What fun!
Esahu stayed to make sure they butchered it correctly .
He sent us with 2 of the counselors from the camp in the taxi to the museum in town.
It is sort of like the Forbidden City in China but Africanized.
Huge to say the least in acreage and all walled.
It was the fortress/Palca of the Kings of Benin reigning from the 1600’s to the 1800’s.
They were very organized as far as warfare went and very much into Vodoo.
Vodoo originated here.
The legend that we know of the Amazons actually is from here, they had women warriors called…Amazons. It was all in French and even though the rooms and displays were all lighted, They did not turn on the lights. Alex, one of the counselors speaks some English and interpreted the best he could.
To get in this museam was almost like an argument ,but these young boys don’t have it like Esahu does. They charge foreiners more, then they add a tax on top of it…
finally I yelled “How Much for all of us?” He quoted a price, I repeated it and paid him.
It didn’t include the taximan, but I waved for him to follow us and he did.
I don’t believe he had ever been in the museum before.
The educated kids here are starving to learn and want penpals in America. So we have 2 more addreses to bring back.
Traveling back tonight to Lome, I swear we almost hit several motorcyclist. There are 1000’s of them. It’s dark, the people are dark, no taillights, pedestrians, shops on the side of the road, pot holes, sometimes a person would not have been able to walk thru the spaces inbetween vehicles. I have never seen anything like it. You just have to pray. His daughter is again having Malaria symptoms and we stop twice to get her medicines.
We finally make the boarder and they hold us up on the Benin side for about 30 minutes as people come and go because Esahu does not give them money in the passport. “Give them money for what? I’ll wait all night if I have to.”
Then before the Togo side of the boarder, they wanted us (everyone but Esahu, to walk through , but when we got there the guard who was awakened angrily yelled at the person sending us there to get in the car, so we did. Then at the Togo side , the gatekeeper made Esahu leave the car and go wake a guard who shooed him away back to the car, to be let thru finally.
Esaho states, “Bob, I hope you are writing this down”.
The rest of the trip back here was uneventfull.
Tomorrow night we fly home.
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