rainy days and termites

I have decided not wear lipstick on rainy days. Lately when it rains the termites come out in massive numbers. It poured this afternoon and just when it stopped raining I had to walk across the compound. As I was walking up the hill (therefore breathing harder than usual) termites began bouncing off of my face and before I knew it there was one up my nose. Just as I finished freaking out one flew right into my face and stuck on my lip. I swatted it off my face. Then one after the other they were flying right into my face. I had no choice but to keep walking and breathing and so they kept hitting me. If anyone was watching me it must have been a humorous sight. Oh well. The point is, I have decided not to wear lipstick on rainy days.

baboons!

Okay, so this particular story is actually from our second day in Africa but I thought it would still be fun to share. We flew into Accra, Ghana and stayed overnight there before making the "5 or 6 hour" drive to the hospital compound in Togo the next day. On our way from Ghana to Togo we spotted wild baboons hanging out in the woods close to the side of the road. When something like this happens the international code of tourism mandates that we immediately swerve off the road giving no thought to the danger we are putting surrounding drivers and pedestrians in. After all, there were baboons on the side of the road!

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We, of course, had our cameras handy and commenced taking more pictures than anyone would ever want to see of 4 or 5 baboons on the side of the road in Ghana. Instead of using the zoom feature on my camera I wanted the wild and potentially dangerous creatures to come close to the van so that I could get better pictures of them. I had one pack of those fluorescent orange peanut butter crackers in my back pack (you can already see where this is going, can't you?) so I pulled them out and tossed one in the grass wondering if the baboons would even try them. Well, one of them came right over and picked it up, looked at for a moment and then decided to eat it. He must have liked it and somehow communicated to his buddies that the oddly colored cracker actually tasted good.

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Now let me interject something here...we had eaten breakfast sometime around 7am that morning and I guess we just assumed that we would stop for lunch somewhere at some point along the way. Looking back, I am not sure where exactly we thought we were going to stop 'cause there's no McDonald's around here if you know what I mean.

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Anyway, I continued to throw the crackers out the side door of the van until they were all gone and remember, there are only 6 in a pack. By this time I had thrown just enough crackers to bring the baboons uncomfortably close to the open door of the van in search of a much needed glass of milk and more artificially colored snack food. As they were approaching my husband was calmly videoing them while I, on the other hand, was starting to imagine them jumping into the van and hijacking us (they are very smart animals, you know). So as he is still videoing, I am now leaning all the way over him trying to slam the door shut, immediately regretting my decision to draw the nasty beasts (who only moments before were fascinating creatures) closer to the van! Funny how perspective can change so quickly.

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Just as I had closed the door of the van an African man approached the driver wanting to sell us small bananas to feed the baboons. So what did we do? You guessed it! We bought overpriced bananas and started tossing them out, taking even more pictures but this time we snapped our shots through the window!

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About 4 or 5 hours later, as the "5-6 hour" trip was turning into an excruciatingly exhausting 9 or 10 hour trip, with no where to stop for lunch, I was wishing that I had not given my fluorescent orange crackers to those stupid baboons who, come to think of it, ate better than we did that day. Nevertheless, enjoy the pictures! :)

mountain drive

The hospital compound is situated at the base of a mountain. There is a village at the top of the mountain and we can hear trucks struggling up the mountain all hours of the day and night. Every once in a while there is a truck that struggles while coming down the mountain! They lose their brakes or they take the hairpin turns too fast, etc.

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Just this past Saturday we took a drive up the mountain just take in some new scenery. The mountain road is quite narrow and in many places you can see right down the side! As we were driving up the mountain we noticed some cars and trucks that had gone over the side (some recently and some a long time ago). So what is a tourist to do? Get out of the van and take pictures of course! Only in Togo would driving up and down a mountain to look at wrecked cars and trucks be a source of leisure.

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One day a couple of months ago a truck was coming down the mountain and lost its brakes. The driver almost made it but lost control at the last hairpin turn just outside the hospital entrance. My husband went out with the video camera to watch them pull the truck upright! As far as we know the driver was not seriously injured but he did cause quite a traffic jam there for a little while!

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Well, if you're gonna roll your truck I suppose the best place to do it is right at the hospital entrance!

termites and bugs

Have you ever seen a termite mound? I had never seen one until I came to Togo. They are actually pretty amazing! We have one behind the guest house that stands over 20 feet tall! Those termites sure know how to build! I haven't gotten close enough to the mound to actually see a termite building it but I hope they are wearing little hard hats in case they fall from the top! Come to think of it, termites can fly so maybe little hard hats would just get in their way.

There are definitely some strange bugs here. My husband had to go down into a valve pit yesterday to shut off the water and while he was down there he noticed he wasn't alone! There was a spider-like creature in there with him! He came and got me and told me to bring the camera, which I did. I don't know how to describe this thing but it had legs on it that looked like crab legs and it also had 6 spider legs and whiskers on each side that were at least 6 inches long. Its' body was flat and wide and it had pincher's on it too! I couldn't believe he got back down in that hole again knowing that there was a spider-crab-cat-bug in there!

There are also little bugs in the pool that look like watermelon seeds and they swim very well. They come right at you and bite you! We always use the little net scooper thing to clean the bugs out of the pool before we get in!

Well, I guess this is all just part of living here in Togo. One thing's for sure, we're never bored. If, by chance, we do get bored all we would have to do is go and stand outside for about 30-45 seconds and without fail, a bug of some sort will show up and give you something to talk about or run from.

easter weekend

Happy Easter Monday from Togo! I'm not exactly sure why, but the Monday after Easter is a holiday in Togo (and some other West African countries). I am told that folks do not work on Easter Monday - instead they have a picnic. I always find it funny when people celebrate a holiday but they have no idea why! It's kinda like me and Labor Day! Sure, I'll enjoy the day off work but I have no clue why we celebrate Labor Day! Perhaps I should google Labor Day when I finish writing this.

Yesterday we went to church in a village about an hour north of the hospital compound. This village actually doesn't have a church building so we met outside under an open bamboo structure with a grass roof. The total service (including a lunch of rice and fish or chicken sauce) lasted about 7 hours! Needless to say we were "well done" after baking in the sun all day! I guess I should know by now to wear plenty of sunscreen when going to church!

On our way back to the main road from the village something came loose underneath the van and of course we had no tools with us! My husband got down in the dirt, crawled underneath the van and used a very long blade of grass to tie up the plastic cover that had fallen. He must have done a great job because that grass held that piece in place all the way back to the compound!

The greatest part about yesterday's service is that about 65 men and women gave their lives to Christ! What a wonderful way to celebrate Easter!

it's hot here!

Oh my goodness, it is blazing hot here today! I haven't checked the temperature but I think it must be somewhere in the neighborhood of about 174 degrees Fahrenheit. You think I'm kidding, don't you? Okay so maybe it's not quite 174 degrees but it is definitely very hot. The sky, however, is the most brilliant blue I have seen since we have been in Togo. I should get out there and take some pictures today!

Well, we have no gas bottles left in all of Togo! So many things we use need butane gas and every gas station in Togo is completely out! In the past we have been able to go over to Ghana and buy some to hold us over but Ghana is out too! So, the next thought was to go the other direction and get gas from Benin but you guessed it.....they don't have any either! The last gas bottle is on the stove now and they say that will last another couple days.

So what are we going to do? Well, wash clothes by hand, hang them out to dry, eat sandwiches (we'll have to buy the bread in the market instead of baking it here) and take cold showers! It'll be like camping! Should be fun. Someone please tell me this will be fun.... :)

back home!

Well, we are back home in the guest house apartment! We are not quite settled in yet but it is nice to be back in "our place" knowing that we can stay put for the next 8 months, Lord willing! I was in the capitol city of Lome all day today and am busy at the clinic tomorrow morning and then at the CRC (Christian Resource Center) tomorrow afternoon so it looks like I won't have time to unpack our belongings until Saturday!

The CRC is a neat ministry and I get to help out there on Friday afternoons by entering Bible lessons into the computer. The Bible lessons were originally all typed (on a typewriter) in the local tribal language of Ewe (pronounced ev-ay). One of the ladies here taught me how to type in Ewe so I sit there and type away having no clue whatsoever what I am typing! They say what I am doing is helping them so I just take their word for it and keep typing! Some of the Ewe characters require 3 or 4 keystrokes each! Most of their letters are the same as ours but they have thrown in a few unrecognizable ones just to keep us on our toes I think. Anyway, all of that to say I don't have time to unpack tomorrow.

We had a good day in Lome and actually made it back to the compound before dark which is a major accomplishment! Now that we are back in the guest house I don't need to buy groceries but we did figure out that even though cereal from the US is terribly expensive, it is still cheaper to buy cereal and milk in Lome than it is to eat breakfast in the guest house every morning.

Just to give you an idea, a small box of Raisin Bran is about $8 or $9. You can imagine my excitement when I found a clearance table at Citimart today that had a big box Kellogg's Corn Flakes for $1.50! I think it was on sale because it expires on 3/28 but we'll eat it before then anyway! Then I looked on the other side of the table and nearly wet my pants (skirt in this case) when I saw a box of "Smacks" for $1! Not only was the price exciting but the front of the box says that there is a Shrek Frisbee inside! I sure hope I get to the bottom of the box first. Or maybe I'll just do what I did when I was a kid and dump the whole box out in a big bowl, get the prize and then cram all of the cereal back into the box. Either way, the frisbee is mine.

this and that

No adventures to report yet today....it's 10:50am and I haven't left the house! Soon I'll head up to the guest house and then after lunch I have to take minutes in the bi-weekly MMC (medical missions committee) meeting. I don't mind sitting in on the meeting and taking minutes because they meet in an air conditioned conference room! They warned me when they asked me to be the MMC secretary that the meetings could sometimes run long. As long as they run the a/c they can talk all day as far as I'm concerned!

Today is once again moving day. We head back to the guest house apartment tomorrow but I need to get all of our stuff moved today. I am leaving tomorrow morning at 6am to spend the day in the capitol city of Lome. We have to do some grocery shopping for the guest house and then at 11:55am we need to pick up a couple who is coming to work here for a month. After we fetch them (I am from the south so I thought I'd should use the word 'fetch' whenever possible) we'll stop for lunch somewhere and then head back to the hospital compound.

The traffic in Lome is crazy but we always seem to make it back! Remember a few posts ago when I mentioned that it was a good thing to get back to the compound with your side view mirrors still attached? That's because some folks took the hospital van down to Lome to do some shopping and they parked the van on the street and when they got back in the van both of the side view mirrors were gone! Someone also took the metal Toyota logo off the back of the van! Apparently someone was driving around in a Geo and wished it was a Toyota so they took our logo off and put it on their Geo. I can't say that I really blame them. :)

"tractor ministry"

"Green acres is the place to be, farm livin' is the life for me, land spreadin' out so far and wide, keep Manhattan just give me that country side." This is the song that has played over and over in my head lately! My husband taught me how to drive the tractor this past Friday! There is work to be done at and around the hangar as well as near the airstrip and he needed someone to drive the tractor while he drove the backhoe!

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To get to the airstrip we have to drive off of the hospital compound and onto the main road in the village of Tsiko. We then turn to the right and follow the road that runs along the outside wall around the compound. Keep in mind that I have only seen one or two women driving a car since I have been here. Now imagine a white lady driving through the village on a big farm tractor. Yes, I provide the village folks free entertainment as I bounce down the road. Mind you, white people here are a constant source of entertainment simply walking down the road.....I had to take it a few steps further and get on a tractor!

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I have driven the tractor in Tsiko 4 times now and have quite a fan base. On one of those trips my husband was actually riding in the trailer as I drove the tractor. We had to laugh as people were clapping and waving like we were the only float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Yesterday afternoon as I was working on the computer (I was wearing shorts at the time) my husband came in and said, "Hey, you wanna drive the tractor for me?" I said, "Sure, I'll drive it...just let me go and put my skirt on." Now, what is wrong with that picture?? I changed from shorts to a skirt to go outside and get dirtier than I have been in as long as I can remember. Go figure.

Now let me just say that driving a tractor and hauling dirt around is fun for about the first 30 or 40 minutes, right? Well, yesterday about 3 hours into it I was ready to retire from my tractor driving career. I was using muscles that I'm certain I did not know I had! Nevertheless, the job got done and we had fun. And apparently, several other people had fun watching us.

Being that laughter is good medicine, and me driving the tractor through town causes much laughter I think I can add "tractor ministry" to my list of duties here in Togo. :)

green apples!

Well, my Saturday trip to the market was successful! I am the proud owner of 10 green apples! I ended up driving 7 brave short termers to the market for a bit of sightseeing/shopping and we had a good time. Actually any time you simply make it back to the hospital compound before dark, with the same amount of passengers you initially had and your side view mirrors still attached, you've had a good time!

I started a new job this morning! I was asked to help in the clinic a couple mornings a week in the "triage" area. Basically I take the patients blood pressure, pulse, temp. and weight. So there I was from 8am until 12pm seeing person after person. It was like playing charades at times but I had a good time and am looking forward to being back in there on Friday!

Oh, and by the way, in Togo they measure people's weight in kilograms. I think the US should change from pounds to kilograms. It wouldn't change the way we look but the number on the scale sure would be a lot lower. Just a suggestion.

market day!

Well, market day in Kpalime is tomorrow so if we need anything Saturday is the day to go and get it! Kpalime is 40-45 minutes south of where we live so we don't go there too often. There is a market in Adeta (which is only about 10 minutes down the road) but it is much smaller and you can't get apples there! I want some apples!

The market can be quite intimidating. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of people walking shoulder to shoulder and they don't have those convenient little signs at the beginning of each aisle telling you what's down that row. Hmm...something else I should mention to the chief. My shopping would go a lot faster if I only knew where to find what I was looking for! It could look something like this:

Aisle 1 - Machetes, Huge Rat Traps, Homemade Soap Balls

Aisle 2 - Fabric, Scarves, Bobby Pins, Nail Polish

Aisle 3 - Dried Smoked Fish, Hot Peppers That Will Make You Cry

Aisle 4 - Flip Flops, Pirated DVD's & CD's

Aisle 5 - Onions, Bananas, Potatoes, Apples, Lettuce

Aisle 6 - Plastic Buckets, Big Silver Pots

Aisle 7 - Cassava Root, Yams, Coconuts

Aisle 8 - Live Goats, Live Chickens, Eggs, Cow Hide Chunks

Anyway, I was just thinking that a nice little sign might help us who are less familiar with the market get around a bit easier. So, next time you go to Publix or Giant be sure to think of me aimlessly wandering up and down rows and rows of things looking for a few apples! Happy shopping!

virtual tour! sort of.....

Some folks have been curious about where we are living, what our apartment looks like, etc. So here are a few pictures so you can get an idea. Usually we live in the guest house apartment but from Jan. 22 until March 3 we were staying in a career missionary's house watching their dog while they were in the States for 5 weeks. We moved back to the apartment for 3 days and now we are in a different missionary's house watching their dog and 2 cats for 2 weeks while they are on vacation. We will head back to our apartment in the guest house on March 21. The apartment has a living room and a bedroom and we have really enjoyed staying there.

The hospital compound is also very beautiful and there is a pool here! There have been days when it has been so hot I have seriously considered packing all my things and moving to the pool. It has a wall around it so it would be sort of like a house and I could sleep on one of those pool rafts.

fall in togo

Yesterday was by far the coolest day (I am referring to the weather...) since we have been in Africa. It only got up to about 84 degrees and was overcast all day! It was wonderful! I felt the need to hang a fall wreath on the front door and drink apple cider.

Now it is currently about 9:30am here and we have already exceeded yesterday's temperature (I guess fall in Togo is a very short season....lasting only about 24 hours). But it was nice while it lasted!

fun with poisonous snakes

Have you ever seen the movie I Dreamed of Africa? Well, the teenager in that movie dies from being bitten by a puff adder, a deadly and common snake in Africa. I read on the Internet that it is the second largest of the dangerous vipers and that it usually lives near human settlements. Seriously, isn't Africa big enough for all of us to inhabit our own space? There should be a snake section and far away there could be the human section. Perhaps I should speak to the chief about this.

Nevertheless, one of the teenagers here on the hospital compound got a hold of a puff adder and then invited curious people (one of them being my husband) to watch him skin it. I just thought that some of you might enjoy seeing some pictures of the skinning!

A few days after these pictures were taken a snake was found in our house! The gardener came in the house, caught it and killed it. A couple days later as I was walking across the compound a different gardener called me over to look at a green mamba that he had just killed in the bushes outside of a friend's house!

I asked him if I could have the dead snake and he looked a little confused as to why I would want this highly dangerous snake but agreed to give to me anyway. I don't speak French and so I couldn't tell him that I wanted to hide it in our house and scare my husband when he came home for lunch. After thinking about it, it's just as well that he didn't know why I wanted the snake.

When I got home with the snake I discovered that my husband was already there! My plan to scare him was ruined! So we put the snake in a Ziploc bag and put it in the freezer. Don't ask why we put it in a bag and put it in the freezer. It just seemed like the thing to do. I must admit that it was kind of strange having to move a poisonous snake out of my way every time I wanted some ground beef.

Looking back on it I am glad that I didn't scare my husband with the snake. He has assured me that paybacks are much worse!

scorpion!

One of my main concerns since we have been in Africa has been stepping on a poisonous snake at night while out walking alone and dropping dead in the middle of a field with my flashlight still burning, wasting the battery and causing my husband stress over the wasted battery (he is quite frugal). As you can see, the time it takes to concern myself with this whole snake and wasted battery situation has left little time for me to be concerned about scorpions the size of my head.....okay so maybe only about the size of a dollar bill, but you get the point.

Just a few nights ago my husband and I were out driving around the compound in an old beat up Suburban. We had borrowed a flashlight from a friend the night before and we drove around to their house to return it. Now, before I go too far into this rather pointless story I must explain that the Suburban is high off the ground and my kind husband usually gets in the driver's seat first and then extends his strong arm across to the passenger side to help yank me in.

Well, he pulled up in front of our friend's house and I jumped down out of the Suburban, flashlight in hand, and walked down 4 stairs and onto their front porch. It was night time and they did not have their porch light on and I, trying to impress my husband by not turning on their flashlight, walked onto their porch, positioned myself on their welcome mat and raised my arm to knock on their screen door. Just as I was about to knock I felt something scratching on my heel (we wear flip flops almost 24/7 here). I quickly turned on the flashlight and pointed it to the ground only to find a huge scorpion looking up at me!

From that point things seemed to happen in slow motion. I yelled "scorpion" and took off running like a track star (mind you, I don't run as a rule), ascended the 4 stairs leading up to the road and leaped into the Suburban without the assistance of my husband who was still sitting in the driver's seat looking at me like I was crazy.

He, as usual, had some words of wisdom for me......"I've never seen you move that fast. You looked like something off of Dukes of Hazard." I just hope he wasn't referring to Boss Hog. Then we both got out of the Suburban and went back onto the front porch to watch some teenage boys catch the scorpion in an icing can.

Ah, Friday nights in Africa. It doesn't get much better than this.

let's get started!

Well, inspired by a friend, I have decided to keep folks posted by way of a blog! I enjoy reading my friend's blog and keeping up with what's going on in her life so I figured this might be a good way for me to keep in touch as well!

My husband and I are currently living and serving in West Africa. We have been here for about 3 1/2 months and will be here for about 8 more months. Life in Africa is certainly different than the life we were accustomed to in the US but with every day we grow a little and our understanding of the culture grows as well. By the time our year in Africa is over, we should be pretty well adjusted!