a smile for you today

Is that not one of the cutest smiles you have ever seen? Just thought I'd share that with you today. These are some of the children who come to the hospital compound every Wednesday for Children's Bible Club at one of the missionaries homes. It's not uncommon to have 150 or 200 kids running around here on Wednesdays!

Anyway, I trust you are having a great Sunday. It poured here this morning for about 10 minutes while we were in church and we couldn't hear the pastor talking! Now, the clouds have moved on and the sky is bright blue.

Amazing that it can be so cool, beautiful and calm just moments after a dark storm. Similar to life I suppose. I'm thankful that the Lord does that for us.

legs, don't fail me now...

I'm not sure what the deal is with the internet lately but it's just not working very well. I have now been connected for about 5 minutes without getting kicked off which is a major accomplishment these days!

There is a mountain behind the hospital compound and I decided to walk up it today for some reason. Before I ever made it to the first turn I was already gasping for air and questioning whether I should continue or turn back and go to the hospital to have my head examined.

Well, since there were many people watching me by this point I decided I would continue at least until I made the turn and they could not see me anymore. I figured once I was out of sight I could collapse if necessary.

I made the turn and kept going up, up, up. I stopped a few times along the way to take in the beautiful scenery from way up there (and to give my poor heart a chance to recover) and then would keep going until my chest felt like it was on fire and then I would stop again.

At some point I decided to turn around and head back down, still wondering why I felt the need to walk up there in the first place. Exercise is one thing, but this was pure, self-inflicted torture.

The stupid part of all this is that I am going to crawl out of bed at 5:15am tomorrow morning and do it again.

snakes and mud

Have you ever wanted a pet snake? Me either. But if you know someone who has always wanted one, get them on the next plane to Togo because we have some to spare. This is a ball python that was killed today at the back of the compound near the airstrip.

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I thought they said it was a "bald python" which would make plenty of sense because it doesn't have any hair but when I questioned if it was in the same family as the bald eagle I was politely informed that it was, in fact, a "ball python."

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I think bald python sounds better but since the professional snake people have already named it I guess I won't argue. By the way, it is called a ball python because when it is in danger it rolls up into a ball. Clever.
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Well, that's all the excitement we've had around here all day so I'll close. Actually, we got the backhoe and the tractor stuck in the mud this afternoon. I was on the tractor and Kevin was on the backhoe. For the record, he got stuck first and then had to pull me through the mud. Two days ago I did much worse though....I was on the tractor mowing the back half of the compound and just as I was about to finish I got the tractor stuck and instead of stopping and going to get Kevin I thought I could get it out myself.

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I backed up and then went forward again and then backed up again and then slid to the side and then went forward and then backed up again and came within about 4 inches of ramming into a big tree and then I decided to go and get Kevin. You should see the mess I made. He drove the backhoe over to pull me out but first he just stood there for a minute shaking his head.

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Anyway, that's what's been going on around here! Hope you had a good day too!

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And by the way, for any of you who were wondering....I am fully aware of the fact that eagles and pythons are not in the same family. :)

you can't take it with you...

We were driving by a cemetery in Kpalime the other day and saw a "headstone" like we have never seen before. So what do good tourists do? Stop the car and take pictures! Good thing we each super glued our cameras to our side before moving to Africa for a year. That way, we don't miss a thing...

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Anyway, this headstone is a car! It's a Mercedes to be exact. I thought it was hysterical so I decided to share it with you. Gotta run, I just got an idea for my headstone and I want to sketch it out before I forget it...

go-karts in ghana

Last month Kevin and I went to Ghana for about 5 days. The main purpose was to deliver 2 short termers to the Accra airport and the secondary purpose was to spend a few days together on a sort of "mini vacation." I'm here to tell you that when you vacation in West Africa it is definitely a "mini" vacation. I do not know of any "major" vacations that have been taken in this area. But I digress.

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We had heard of a place in Accra down by the coast where we could ride go-karts. We found the place, walked into a building where 2 men were playing cards and asked about the go-karts. They just motioned for us to go out the backdoor, which we did.

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Once outside we saw 2 or 3 more men sleeping on the ground next to several go-karts that looked like they were the first ones ever made. We asked if we could ride the go-karts and he said "yes, 7 cedis for 10 minutes (which amounts to right about $7) and pointed to what looked like the only 2 operational go-karts there. He also grabbed 2 helmets and I thought to myself, "I'd rather crack my head wide open than put that thing on."

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My eyes moved quickly from the helmets to an even greater concern....the seat of the go-kart looked terribly small from where I was standing (and I'm sure it was simply the angle at which I was looking at the seat and not the angle at which I saw myself in the mirror just an hour before).

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Anyway, we decided to go for it and I was just praying that at the end of my 10 minutes I would be able to get up from that small seat that was extremely close to the ground. Do I need to add that I was, once again, in a skirt???

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We took off around the track, each of us with cameras in hand. About half way through our ride we pulled up next to each other and switched cameras so that there would be video of both of us flying around this little circle on little cars. I'm sure we must have provided some entertainment to the men that had, by now, sat up from their naps and were watching us.

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We finished our 10 minutes, pulled into the "pit" and parked our go-karts. I was able to get out of the thing without totally humiliating myself and we waved goodbye to the men who had already laid back down to finish their nap. Ah, another memory made and we have the video to prove it.

ants at the funeral

Well, here's another story from the life and times of Togopal (that's me by the way). Please let me start by saying that I am in no way making light of a very sad situation that has taken place here, I am only telling you about the part that was unique to me and my attendance at this particular funeral yesterday.

One of the gardeners here at the compound passed away yesterday morning after being diagnosed with cancer about 6 weeks ago. Please pray for his pregnant wife and their 2 small children.

Here's where my story begins...

One of the missionaries here asked me to go with her to his funeral. I told her that I didn't really know him but she said she didn't want to go alone so I, being the incredibly nice person that I am, went along. The service was nice and the gospel was clearly presented to the packed church. After the service we all exited the church to go to the graveside (similar to in the US). The difference here though is that most people do not have a car so we all walked to the cemetery.

I have seen a cemetery close to that particular church and, silly me, I simply assumed we were walking to one that was "just across the street." Well, we set out and with the dark clouds looming overhead and the boom of thunder in the distance I thought to myself, "I think we're going to get wet." Getting wet is really no problem for me though because my mom has assured me many times that I will not melt.

We walked quite a way and then took a right at a little cluster of huts and continued to walk back into the woods. The path kept getting more and more narrow as we walked and then we hung a left into what I would call "the dense forest" but then again I may be exaggerating (but I don't think so). As we were walking back into the woods pushing bushes and branches out of our faces I thought to myself where are they burying this guy? Will they ever be able to find his grave again? Should we be dropping little crumbs of cookies or something in case anyone ever wants to reach this place again?

All of the sudden my thoughts quickly turned to the fact that my feet were on fire (keep in mind we wear flip flops here) and I looked down and there were ants all over my feet. By this time the pastor was praying and I was marching like the tuba player in a high school band during halftime. I told myself not to freak out but then I started feeling bites on my back and then in the front of my shirt where, by the way, ants should never be.

Anyway, I had to gracefully (yeah right) exit stage left and get outta there! To make this story just a little more interesting, it started to rain, I had to go to the bathroom really bad and we still had quite a long walk ahead of us. I made it through the village and back out to the main road where a motorcycle taxi man was just dropping someone off. I flagged him down, jumped on the back, burned the back of my leg on the exhaust and away we went!

Now, I've got ants in my pants (or skirt in this case), I've gotta go to the bathroom, I'm being pelted by rain on the back of a motorcycle praying that we do not crash, the back of my leg is now on fire from the exhaust burn and to add insult to injury my hair was getting wet!

I did make it back to the compound only to realize that I did not have the key to my apartment with me and I also had no change in my pocket to pay the man. So I motioned for one of the Togolese maintenance men to come over and he very kindly gave me the 100cfa (which is about 24 cents) needed to pay the man, found Kevin who gave me his key to the apartment and then booked it home to take care of my little ant and bathroom situation.

Well, you know what they say..."All's well that ends well." Just another adventure to share. I'm sure I'll never attend another funeral quite like that one.