It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

The only real noticeable change in the landscape in Benin is a few additional stands to sell very cheap plastic toys that everyone will buy for their kids. Been playing a lot of Christmas music in the apartment but it's still 100 degrees with humidity so I guess I'll just have to wait for next year for a white Christmas. This morning we drove down into Cotonou to go clean up a park with the other missionaries in Benin and the most Benin thing that could happen did. As we were all cleaning a mid aged lady came into the middle of the park took her clothes off, took some of our water bottles and started to take a shower in the middle of the park in downtown Cotonou.

Putting The "Remer" In Thanks

In talking with so many people I'm obligated to introduce myself at least a million times every single day. The people here usually have a hard time with my last name either saying "Remy" (Like a frenchy way) or "Reemar" (The broken english way) and in explaining how to say it; my go to way is to say it's like the remer in "je vous REMERcie". The verb remercier in french means to thank so in the spirit of Thanksgiving and my last name here are a couple things I'm thankful for (if you don't really care just scroll down for some cool pictures):

I'm thankful for the opportunity I've had to live here for the past year and a half

For the occasion to learn another language

For the people here that I love

For the people back home that I love

For the people who have helped me grow and better understand the world

For the guy that invented air conditioning

That we can talk from the other side of the world so easily

For my crocs

For sliced bread

For the gospel of Jesus Christ

Anyway hope everybody has a great thanksgiving- here are some pictures of my dope nativity set, us baptizing Donatien, and another random kid wearing the legendary Remer hat.

More Shananigans

The sun is starting to get buff as the natives like to say. Broke a hundred everyday with crazy humidity so we got to wring out our shirts of sweat every night when we got back which is oddly satisfying.

I'm convinced the heat is starting to boil my brain because I have started to do everything I possibly can to stay sane and that mostly consists of me messing around with the locals. The first picture is of Jojo wearing my legendary outdoor hat; that I wear everyday because sunscreen is lame but so is skin cancer. Second picture is of me playing cards with some kids during lunch and taking them for all of their money (I gave it back tho- so we're all good). I picked up a hard hat that was on the ground at a construction site so here's me being a construction manager. Last but not least we got locked out of our apartment because the other guys took the keys but my food was up there so we found a sketch ladder and broke into our apartment like professionals.

That's all for this week, hope you guys have a good one.

Lake Day, Now We're 4

This week we got some contacts that live out on the lake. The village of Ganvie was constructed on the lake when local people were afraid of being captured by the dahomey empire and being sold into slavery. With this danger the village of primarily fishermen fled onto the lake and constructed houses on stilts so that they could not be easily captured by their neighboring enemies. We haven't gone out there yet but our bishop is planning on going out there with us and teaching and with any luck we'll go do a little fishing too.

Also this week we got to whoop some kids in foozball or baby foot as they like to call it, might try to get a video of me next week scoring and yelling "goooooooaaaal" in their ears.

Today we got 2 more guys added to our apartment because of the grind me and E. Shuldberg have been putting in the last couple weeks and niether of them really speak french and my guy is new so I get to try and teach people french in 5 weeks haha rip.

But here are some cool pics of what the docks of the on land market look like also a candid picture of me and Elder Shuldberg teaching some university students. Hope you all have a great week.

Pineapple Jack-O-Lanterns

Spent most of the week just laying on the ground battling malaria for round 2 so no exciting pictures or stories. However, here is a pineapple jack-o-lantern that Elder Shuldberg carved for his first holiday away from home in his boredom.

Black Panther

First things first, go Colts.

This week I focused a lot on just trying to help people out in as many random situations as we possibly could. From sweeping people's houses, carrying water on our heads, we lifted a car out of a ditch with some people that were stuck, and just hitting as many random things as possible.

Also a crazy old french guy rode up to us on a bike and asked who we were going to vote for in 2020, I responded that I was not thinking about it since we were in africa and then he spit on my face and said "Jesus Deux-Mille Vignt!" so I now know who I'm going to vote for when I get back.

As teased in the subject Elder Shuldberg and I got our Black Panther-esque boombas made so feast your eyes upon our wakandian glory.

Hope you guys all have a great week.

Stuff & Stuff

Stuff #1 All our baptisms this week
Stuff #2 Me catching Pew-Pew for the family
Stuff #3 The Boys with a voodoo statue
Sorry for the short email but power keeps cutting and I've written a long one out 5 times already but the african grid isn't cooperating. Hope you guys all have a great week!

2014 Forest Hills Drive

The streets were destroyed by the rain this week but I made Elder Shuldberg power through the mud so that we could hit a ton of lessons. Nothing to much to report this week just in the grind of getting work done.

While we were waiting for a couple of missionaries at their church that was locked we decided to break into their church so we hopped the wall. We decided to take some iconic 2014 forest hills drive album art pictures done of us so if you've been looking for the coolest africa-french-missionary-J Cole related picture to make your wallpaper here ya go.

Hope you guys all have a great week!

Somebody Actually Reads These?

Shout out to Mrs. Shuldberg who started reading these a couple months ago when her son got called to the Benin Cotonou Mission. Little did she know that her son would have to be formed by me. 

This week was pretty good, started off just hanging out with Elder 'Aluesi while we were waiting for our new companions to get here. Seeing the guy I was training was pretty wack, I saw his face months ago when he found out he was coming here when I was in the office so I knew what he looked like already but it was just a headshot that I saw. All 6 foot 5 of him hopped out of a taxi and that was pretty awesome. He's a really nice guy from Texas, into baseball, science, memes, and is just a really chill guy.

It's been really fun showing him everything I've kind of forgotten how weird my life is here but in just showing him all the local food I love and teaching him the language I've really just re-realized how awesome it is here and how surreal it all is when you first get here. 

Forgot to take any pictures this week so here's a live photo of my comp talking to his family.
Hope you all have a great week.

New Adventures

Had a great time this week visiting members who showed their affection and gratitude for Elder Mugongo's going home present as giant african meals. So we ate everything from pat to atteke to inyam pele to kum to manyoke. Greatest trial this week was just walking after eating meal after meal. On Wednesday night three different families fed us and I don't know that I've ever felt that mixture of content and distaste of food before in my life.

We had stake conference this week so all the members in Benin got together. Isaac and some of the other young men from Gbegamey swarmed me and sat by us for all 4 hours and had a blast catching up and just playing games with them.

This week we got our new assignments and I'll be training a new american missionary named Elder Shuldberg who is from Texas.

Hope everybody has a great week!

Finally Some VooDoo

We got to go to Ouidah- the birthplace and center of religiously practiced vodun. The people of the Dahomey kingdom started to worship the first and most powerful voodoo god here many hundreds of years ago- the snake. A temple has been built around the tree where every year thousands come and sacrifice blood to the snakes so that they will be protected throughout the upcoming year. The temple has a couple hundred large pythons that live there are in the surrounding town that are free to come and go. So when we went there I didn't want to sacrifice any of my blood, but I did lay down in the pit of snakes and then kiss one and wear her around all day (see the dope attached photos). After that we walked on the trail of no return. The heart of the slave trade was here and so we took the same long walk that all slaves took before being loaded onto ships to be sold. At the beach there's an arc called the point of no return, if you weren't able to escape before going through, a life sold into slavery or dying along the way was certain, for many it marked their last steps of "freedom". Some pretty interesting and sad history but that's just what it is- history. All the locals now celebrate their own lives and are thankful that the practice of owning slaves ended a long time ago. Anyway enjoy some cool pictures of me clowning around and hope you guys have a great week.

Old Friends, New Roads

Transition. That's a nice way of usually saying that you're leaving what you know to be put into uncomfortable situations. I remember pushing my forehead on the back window of my dad's truck and it staying there because of the cold, sitting in one of those tiny somehow legal stowaway seats leaving our grandparents'' home in Littleton Colorado the 21st of December back in 2007. We were in California 6 months before this making a similar move; but I remember much more distinctly moving from Littleton to Castle Rock because I felt like I had just found friends, was fitting in my class, and all that work was white-washed. All of us go through these awkward transitions in our lives; moving, going to college, marriage, a new job, etc. Out here we move around a lot, always changing our circumstances. I think the two biggest things that I've learned from this are 1) New experiences and unfamiliarity will help us grow and will be great memories so we should always look to try new things, talk to new people, learn new skills 2) Everyone in life is always experiencing change so when you find friends that will be there even after circumstances for them or for you change you should make an effort to keep them in your life.

Out here in Benin we're going through a transition here too. All of the missionaries who have been out here longer than me are all going home at the end of the month. Thursday was the last time we all will see each other in person. I've shared a lot of good memories with all these guys since I've gotten here but now new missionaries are coming and they'll be transitioning back into normal life. I'm thankful I got to make some lifelong friends and memories with these guys. I am excited to make new memories with the new guys and the new areas I'll be in for the next 9 months. I'm also thankful for everyone that has stayed in touch.

1) The Tahitians

2) Gramps & I (Kipoy)

3) New Roads

Remer Lives

I hope everyone had a great summer vacation!
Fletch quickly became a cult film after it's release in 1984. With Chevy
Chase fully embodying the role of Irwin M. "Fletch", great one liners, the
cyinical tone that Fletch imploys in solving his case, clever disguises, a
somewhat interesting plot, and even a reference to the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Alan Stanwyk: Do you own rubber gloves?
Fletch: I rent. I have a lease, with an option to buy.
In 1989, 5 years after the original came to the big screen "Fletch Lives"
was released. It received similar praise for the similar tone of cynical
comedy driven by a somewhat interesting plot but at the end of the day it
was just the same thing in a different time and in a different place.
That's not to say anything was wrong with it, it still made a lot of money
and was appreciated by the majority of their audience. But to me it lacked
the qualifying characteristic that the first film gave us with the on your
toes humor, it made an attempt it just didn't feel as genuine.
So I'm going to do what Chevy Chase and Michael Ritchie couldn't. I am not
going to give you a sequel of what happened while I was in Gbegamey.
Different people, similar experiences, but at the end of the day I was
still with Elder Legall and our last 4.5 months together felt like a whole
lot like the first. I have a new companion who is from the Democratic
Republic of The Congo, in a new area called Calavi-Universite, and should
hopefully in the coming weeks be able to crank out some entertaining and
uplifting content. For today I've just included some of my favorite
pictures from the last couple months.

Back in Benin

It's been a hot minute since I've had the occasion to write everyone.
I hope everyone has had bumping start to summer back home. Here's the breakdown of the stuff that has gone down since the last email:
-I became the driver of the mission bus and did some offroading in Togo with a bunch of missionaries in the back.
-I fixed the old truck of the assistants so now we're cruising around in Black Betty.
-I made burritos for some people here for my birthday and they hated them.
-I learned that you should never give burritos to Africans.
-I got put back with my old companion, for anyone counting that's month #7 together.
-I went to the beach, not bad over here in Benin.
Should have some actual stories next week but way to much stuff has happened since the last one for me to put all of that in one email.
Hope you guys have a great week!

I try to walk on water

This week we had some crazy rainstorms here in Cotonou. For being in a tropical climate with a lot of rainstorms you think that drainage would be an important aspect in planning out a city. Then again, maybe not.

Sunday morning at church it rained pretty hard so when we went out in the afternoon most of the roads were blocked off. So we decided to follow the example of the natives and take off our shoes and just wade through the water. That probably doesn't sound that dangerous but very much tested how far I would go for the people here because about every 50 yds or so we see people taking care of bodily functions on the road, trash is everywhere, and oil is left out and creates a nice film on top of the water.

I was half hoping that when I started to wade on the water that I would end up walking on top but no dice. End of the day just took a shower so no harm done.

Also enjoy this video of a girl we taught to say "Yeah bro"

Hope you guys all have a good week!

Mother's Day

Sorry got nothing today too busy talking to my mom. So if you guys didn't talk to your mom yesterday, you probably should today. Enjoy some photos from the week. Please enjoy a photo of me driving a trike taxi and a bracelet one of the kids made here for me.

Shots Fired

Round 2 of political turmoil was not all just talk like I thought. First thing Tuesday morning I had to go to a doctor's appointment that I was not particularly happy was taking place. I felt fine all of that morning except for a high fever and migraine that I'd had since Saturday; we had a lot of things we needed to get done that day so taking a couple hours out of it I thought was the worst thing we could do for me.

I held that same attitude even when we were in the hospital waiting on the doctor to do a check up on me until about 20 feet in front of her office. I just kind of lost control of my limbs and my ears started ringing uncontrollably and I had no idea where I was at. I started to fall over and three tiny African nurses grabbed me and helped into the office and get onto the examination table (not after they led me straight into the doorway- have a nice bruise from that). They took some blood, started some tests on it, and then decided the best course of action for the present would be to give me two giant shots- one in each cheek. I always thought those shots would be the least painful because you know, there's not a ton there; But these felt like they pumped liquid fire into my unprepared buttocks. They let me go after that and I got to do a lot of work that day that I needed to get done.

Later that night I got a call from my Mission President (who was in Ghana for a conference) telling me I needed to pack a bag and check myself into the hospital. Got there and got settled in and then my doctor came up and explained I had some pretty serious Malaria. She explained that my concentration of it in my blood was way past the fatal line and she had no idea how I was not dead or collapsed dying so that kinda freaked me out a little. She continued to explain normal sick people sit at Malaria concentrations of 30k-40k, hospitalized cases are at like 45k-50k and most people lose control of their body at like 60k. And then she explained I was sitting around 68k. So I guess +1 for Ketron's theory that all diseases are just in the mind?

Anyway they got me hooked up to an IV and pumped with drugs and in air conditioned room (score). First day was awesome just slept and got to eat African hospital food. Then that night stuff started to get crazy again. Remember those political elections and then nothing happened? Yeah stuff started to happen. Started to hear gun shots and yelling at about 6 pm and that lasted a good 4 hours. The shots were fairly close and I could tell they weren't using little billy's 22, they had the big guns out. I attached a picture that some random person took but basically in the riot that was next to the hospital (numbers from members of the community) 8 dead and about 25 who were injured from gunshot wounds.

So in all of this most of the nurses left the hospital because they were scared that the military was going to come in and disturb them. With that my nurse started me on my next round of drugs told us "I'll be back in 5" and then I never saw her again. The homie janitor Francois kept all my drugs and drips and stuff in order until the next nurse started her shift a couple hours later. Needless to say I am fine now and one of the primary girls drew a picture of me to help me feel better but she chose to draw it "back when [I] had long hair and was handsome". Interesting week here but I hope you guys all have a great week.