my top 15

Well, 47 weeks 2 days down, 3 weeks 5 days to go. But who's counting? As I have been thinking about leaving Togo I started thinking of some of the things I will miss....which then lead me to think of some of the things I will not miss.

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15 things I will miss:

1. little men on blue bicycles tooting their horns incessantly, trying to sell half melted individual servings of ice cream in little bags from coolers attached to their bikes

2. huge togolese smiles

3. not having to follow any traffic laws

4. wearing flips flops everywhere - even to church

5. chickens and yams in the offering plate

6. seeing people carry huge loads on their heads

7. little kids yelling at us everywhere we go (calling us "white people" as if we didn't know we were white)

8. driving the tractor

9. beautiful togo scenery

10. the huge one string bass they play at church

11. 5 people and a goat all riding on the same motorcycle

12. christmas pageants that involve rifles and pistols

13. colorful outfits that may or may not match

14. togolese church choirs (man, these people can sing!)

15. the beautiful togolese people that God created

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15 things I will not miss:

1. scorpions

2. skirts

3. fufu and goat sauce

4. fufu and fish sauce

5. fufu with no sauce

6. co-habitating with little black ants

7. co-habitating with little red ants

8. huge black army ants (especially the ones that wear combat boots and carry AK-47's)

9. termites up my nose

10. snakes inside the house

11. having to make my own bagels

12. bats flying around on our front porch at night

13. millions of centipedes coming dangerously close to my front door

14. sweating 99% of the time (I figure I am in the shower 1% of the time)

15. freakishly large snails

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So there you have it. Some of the things I will think of fondly and some of the things I will try not to think about at all. It's really hard to believe we'll be heading back to the States in just under 4 weeks. We are looking forward to seeing our families and being with them for the holidays! But we will sincerely miss the friends we have to leave behind in Togo. What a blessed year this has been!