Do Justice

Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

If any of you have ever wondered about the title of my blog, this is where it comes from. Today I want to address the part about doing justice. I recently listened to a sermon that my mom sent me given by Bethany Dudley at my church back home. She read alot of verses about justice and told us that justice is the second most talked about thing as far as number of verses in the Bible (over 2,000 verses). She told us to think about injustices that make us angry in our lives and to let out a loud cry of frustration. Okay so I didn't let out a cry of frustration because the neighbors might have come knocking but I did later start making a list of the injustices that burn me up inside here in Benin.

In Amos 5 it says "but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream".
Another quote she emphasizes is "it is not that doing justice will help the church, it is that we are not the church until we do justice". I am made in God's image, and I believe that when injustices burn righteous anger in my soul it is the Holy Spirit urging me into action. I think before I have just responded by holding the feelings inward in the form of anger at the state of things, but now I realize that I can do something in my own small way to help.

Injustices:
- Men eat sodabi and drink while their wives and children are hungry and malnourished
- Women are treated and talked about as objects, that can be given or traded. Sex and love and
marriage is a joke to men here
-Teachers and men and even students oppress and force girls and women to have sex (they
force sex for grades or just because they can) It is even depicted in their videos that women
have been raped multiple times but their is no real legal consequence for the men. A
satirical comedy I saw showed a woman confessing to being raped by 5 different men and
the punisher was the chef de village. In the end she had difficulty addmitting that even the
chef had raped her but somehow this was supposed to be the joke. What saddened me was
that as you looked around the bus it was not just the men that were laughing but the women
- There is no school past 3eme or sophomore year equivalent in highschool for the girls in
Toffo and probably many other villages in Benin. They have to go to Houegbo where i live
but many girls either cannot afford it or end up with unwanted pregnancies by teachers or
students
- women are constantly harrassed by men
- girls dont get the same advantages as boys in school
- some children live in fear of their parents and/or teachers because they might be hit for
making simple mistakes
- people over all lack confidence and a positive self image to beleive in themselves that they
can succeed and make a difference. this is not all people, but even when I am trying to do
something people constantly doubt me or are overly suprised when i do something they
didnt think i could do


So response... some of it is in the works and i may not do all of these things but...
- CAMP Glow- empowering girls, a week long camp that I am helping with and bringing two
girls from my commune to participate
- Women's groupements- savings and loans... helping women and their children. by practicing
savings and meeting together we can encourage them to manage their money better
- Possible future mentoring and hangout sessions with informal discussions about issues girls
face at school with girls in Toffo. I am hoping that this can be a new development after
camp Glow
- possible soccer club in Houegbo. there is soccer for boys but not girls
- future life goals.... ambiguous but hopefully as I see now.... maybe I wanted to do these things
already but now i see that God gives me knowledge and skills to help people, but what i
choose to actually do can be much more affective if i partner it with my passions

Visiting Tanagou and Fish weekend (a tribute to my father)

Well I will be talking about fish weekend later but first my Tanagou trip. This was a much needed breath of fresh air to my life in Benin. I took a spiritual wellness weekend and went to visit my friend Jeremy in the vrai north of Benin. He has one of the most beautiful posts in my opinion, being within 10minutes walking distance from the waterfalls. This is where we spent alot of time and where I searched for God in meditation, which for me turns to singing. I am trying to practice just sitting quietly, but I find that when I pray music just starts coming out of my mouth. If I don't sing it I feel like my head will explode unless I let it out. Sometimes it is praise, sometimes other feelings of yearning or pain or frustration. It is amazing how much feeling I can give to God in song prayers and how many songs I actually know. Besides visiting the waterfalls Jeremy showed me his village and introduced me to the women that he works with in the garden. He also pointed out the dam that the community is building and explained how right now there is a meandering river so they are creating a dam that can be eventually moved in the case that the river would again change course. I enjoyed hanging out with the Senegalise guys as well. They gave us tea which they brew with lots of sugar. For muslims in Benin this is their form of sodabi or chuke...(the local alcohol). One of the guys stopped by one night when we were watching episodes of the office on my computer. He enjoyed watching the screen and seeing our expressions when we laughed. I figured it would be more interesting though if I got out some french movies that Sam had given me and so we watched Babylon which was actually in English but with french subtitles.

The last day I was in Tanagou we experienced part of a 3 day fete that only comes every 2-3 years. The whole village as well as many of the surrounding villages go out to the lakes in the hunting zone and fish for three days. Now dad, this is not fishing like we are used to, they use spears and a basket that has a hole at the top. The baskets are designed in that you trap the fish by forcing the basket into the water and then reaching your hand in the top to see if you have caught anything. Now before the fishing could actually commence, people set up camp, searching for firewood and waiting for the fettishers to arrive. The fettish had to make a sacrifice on one side of the lake, wade through the middle of the lake, make a sacrifice on the other side of the lake and wade back. The goal of this ritual is to evict evil spirits and animals that wish to cause harm to the people as they fish. This was important because as the people fish they dont stand on the side of the lake casting in lines, but instead walk directly into the water, right into places where animals and diseases live. Jeremy and I took pictures and attempted to fish with a spear that a guy let us borrow. Oh yes, we were also approached by one of the fettish guys and he was acting his usual crazy self in front of us. Usually you are supposed to give him money but we didnt have little change. Jeremy bought him sodabi which the guy then gave a little back to Jeremy. He said that women cannot drink sodabi but he said he would buy me chuke which is like a fermented rice wine i believe. Well needless to say that after wading through the muck as we "fished" we were both filthy. We were able to get a lift back to village with some German tourists. I packed my things and ran to the waterfalls, rinsing my clothes in the waterfall and changing up there. It was so refreshing.

As I got ready to leave Tanagou I realized that a burden of frustration and anxiety seemed to have been lifted. I am taking it one day at a time, seeking God and it is amazing, because I have found that as I pray it becomes easier to deal with the things that usually aggravate me. I love how God knows how to meet me and when i will listen the best.