Say Hi...

...to some of our hard working Ward Nurses! Olly

Photos of dinner with Mr President

Above, the President's dining room, with the spotlights facing the guests (not at all intimidating!)

Above, the President of Benin meets Don.

Above, traditional Beninoise dancers with the President and VIP guests in the background.

We weren't allowed to take our own cameras into the Palace, hence the limited number of photos. Olly

Bugs

The decks of our ship are covered in bugs right now. Flies, mosquitoes, acid bugs, big grasshoppers, praying-mantis', all kinds and shapes of beetles and moths...it is an extraordinary plague of Biblical proportions (well, almost)...Olly

Dinner with Mr President

Tuesday 17th November, 11pm: This evening we had dinner with His Excellency Yayi Boni, the President of Benin; just me and Sally and our kids, oh and 320 other Africa Mercy crew. He invited us all to the Presidential Palace, which is rather...er...presidential (in a 1970s kind of way). The evening was mixed: 2 hours of sitting in a suit in a very hot big room whilst buses ferried the rest of the crew from the ship to the Palace; then a stampede for drinks (where both glasses and soft drinks actually ran-out), followed by half an hour of speeches in French, repeated in English, and an award ceremony where he recognised some of the crew...followed by an excellent buffet meal whilst we watched some traditional Beninoise dancing. The kids (in fact, all the ship kids) were awake and well behaved and with us throughout...they have only just fallen asleep now (11pm)...A long evening, but quite pleasant, and very special; it is not often that all the crew are in their best clothes and on their best behaviour, and tonight was that night! Thank you Mr President! Olly

Liberia Electricity Corp's customer base to reach 2000 by year end. Alright!

MONROVIA – Efforts by the Government of Liberia to improve the expansion of electricity to Monrovia and its environs through the Liberia Electricity Corporation received a major boost recently with the arrival of four HUGE transformers, which have been set up at four key Monrovia sub-stations: Kru Town, Bushrod Island, Capitol Hill, and Paynesville sub-stations, thereby increasing the number of electricity users in the capital when made operational. The equipment is a deliverable of the European Commission-funded Monrovia grid rehabilitation project being implemented by ELTEL Networks AB, a Swedish electrical company hired by the European Commission at a total cost of about 13 million Euros. ELTEL has also been rebuilding 27 kilometers of 66/22 Kv transmission and distribution lines from Bushrod Island through Vai Town to central Monrovia, parts of Paynesville and in Gardnersville along the Somalia Drive. The expansion drive by the LEC will see the distribution network increase from 12 kilometers to 45 kilometers to include building additional medium and low voltage lines. LEC's customer base is expected to grow from 700 to more than 2,000 customers by the end of this year. As part of the improvement of the transmission and distribution system, ELTEL Networks is replanting the tubular poles on Somalia Drive, which were uprooted at the commencement of the project, but was erroneously reported in the media as being sold to scrapped dealers. Meanwhile, the Government of Liberia has made available more than US$500,000 to the LEC for the purchase of low voltage materials, some of which have already arrived at the Corporation for the connection of customers. Taken from http://www.liberianobserver.com/node/2899

Another photo...

...Presentation of five-year anchor pins to six crew members on the Africa Mercy on Wednesday. Left to Right: Alison Briesman (OR supervisor) - New Zealand; Lena (seated) - Sweden & Lars Kristensen (1st Officer) - Denmark; Don Stephens (Founder & President of Mercy Ships, seated); Kevin Yangas (Chaplain) - USA; Ann & Ken Berry (Managing Director, Africa Mercy); Deyon (co-founder, seated); Olly & Sally Peet (Transportation Manager & Speech Therapist) - UK.

Five-year awards

This evening Sally and I received our 5-year awards from Don & Deyon Stephens, the founders of Mercy Ships. Photo by Noah. Olly

Another big grey French war-ship

Three days ago another French Navy ship arrived in the port of Cotonou. I understand it's called an amphibious something-or-other: it carries landing craft and high-speed launches, and can lower itself into the water so the smaller boats can sail out of it's hold (as I've tried to show in the photos below). Olly

Anastasis painting

We were given this print of a painting of the Anastasis earlier this week. Nice eh? Thanks Marcel & Annette. Olly

Happy Libby Day

Today we celebrate Libby being part of the Peet family for four whole years! Olly

First diving injuries

I've now dived under the Africa Mercy 49 times without any sickness or injury...although on our last dive both Shawna and I got some kind of irritation causing a nasty rash...


...we were scraping the hull in preparation for our sail north, and both got something into our wetsuits - maybe it was bits of jellyfish or those red spongy things we scraped off...Next dive we'll wrap duct tape around our wrists to keep the stuff out. Olly

Making salt

Across the lagoon from Babs Dock is a very weird landscape:

Dominique told me it is where locals make salt during the dry season. The sand is rich in salt - it is placed in the baskets, and fresh water is poured through to wash the salt out into the collecting bowl below. The salt-rich water is then boiled away over cooking fires, and the salt is collected. Very resourceful, eh?

However, like most ingenious things in West Africa there are drawbacks. The cooking fires use up huge amounts of wood, resulting in local deforestation. And the "home-made" salt is iodine-free, so many local people suffer from conditions due to a lack of iodine in their diets, such as Thyroid conditions and goiters. Olly

Remembering Guy Fawkes

Last Thursday night, 5th November, we remembered Guy Fawkes along with a few other Brits, with a packet of sparklers on the dock. Fawkes belonged to a group of Roman Catholic restorationists in England who planned the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 - their aim was to displace Protestant rule by blowing up the Houses of Parliament. Fawkes was arrested a few hours before the planned explosion, during a search of the cellars underneath Parliament in the early hours of 5 November prompted by the receipt of an anonymous warning letter. To this day many people still believe that Fawkes in the only man to enter Parliament with honest intentions! Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night, is celebrated throughout the UK every year with bonfires, fireworks and sparklers. Our attempt was a little feeble, but not bad considering...Olly

More goat abuse

Thanks to Murray for this photo of live goats tied to this guys motorbike. Poor little things. Olly

Our cook

Introducing Jesse, our Head Cook, from Canada. He has a passion for serving good quality food, even if the ingredients aren't always very inspiring. Food standards have risen amazingly since his arrival earlier in the year - we are very blessed by having him here. A well fed crew is, indeed, a happy crew...Olly

Castles in the sand

Our Canadian crew doctor and I (and other dads from time to time) recently built two big sand castles on Benin's only safe beach (El Dorado). The first photo is of a mythical cathedral-style castle (of ancient England maybe?), and the second is a faithful reproduction of the Citadel in Halifax (Canada, not West Yorkshire). Sand castle building is a strange concept in Benin - one beach security guard needed a lot of persuading that the sea would level the castle very easily (and it wouldn't need demolishing), and as soon as we had turned our back on the last sand castle we built, it was occupied by fully grown Lebanese men, who continued playing in it like children. Olly

Last Fire Drill

Our last fire drill was in Reception. S'funny, people just can't understand a word you say when you answer the phone wearing breathing apparatus! That's me on the far right of the picture. Olly

My latest purchase

I try to purchase a painting in every port city we operate in, that will remind me of that city in years to come. My choice for Cotonou is this one below; cheap and badly drawn (in fact, Sally hates it), but unique to Benin, and slightly humorous too. Olly

M/V Sharon

One of our favourite little ships that visits Cotonou is the M/V Sharon - the blue freighter on the right in the photo below. Registered in Guinea, she is crewed by English speaking Ghanaian and Nigerian crew, who are very nice guys - their bosun even knows our bosun, and I enjoyed taking Anna and Libby for a tour of their ship a few weeks ago. The Sharon survives by taking charters to carry freight along the West African coast (in fact, they used to work the coast of Liberia until they arrived in Cotonou last month). Their most recent charter has, however, got them into very serious trouble - they were chartered to take cargo and over 300 passengers from Benin to Gabon (further down the coast of West Africa) but weren't allowed to land the passengers because they didn't have the right documents and weren't a passenger-carrying vessel...so they were sent back to Cotonou and the ship was promptly seized by the authorities. Our friends the Captain and the Chief Engineer are now in prison in Cotonou, but will be released soon, I hear. The real culprit is the charterer, who is facing prosecution and imprisonment. Yesterday a TV crew from Canal 3 turned up to film the vessel; today it is heavily guarded by armed soldiers and various Police divisions...

Below, a senior Marine from Benin's Armed Forces talking to the Police...

Below, Immigration Police standing by...

Below, an army gunboat standing by...

This investigative report was brought to you by Olly...

Sunsets

Berthed almost north/south, we don't get to see many cool sunsets in Benin - the sprawling port lies between us and the horizon. But last week was an exception - we had absolutely spectacular sunsets on a couple on nights. Wow, eh? Olly