baptism sunday

Just wanted to share a few pictures from yesterday. We drove to a church in a village about an hour north of Mango for the baptism of 5 people. The pictures above show us walking from the church to the pond, a man giving his testimony before being baptized, his wife being baptized and a little boy who walked along with us.

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The tall man pictured above is the first believer in this particular village. In giving his testimony he explained how he had lived his life in darkness but now he has light because he knows and believes the truth! His wife gave a similar testimony! This couple has donated a piece of their land and a small church has been built in this village.
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This church plant is a result of a Togolese pastor who led this man to the Lord about 5 years ago and then continued to have a Bible study with him. This man's wife accepted the Lord and then 3 other folks from the same village believed as well. There are more who have believed but these are the first 5 to step out and publicly identify themselves with Christ!

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What a blessing to see the fruit of the labor of a faithful Togolese pastor! And what a privilege to be there yesterday to catch a glimpse of what the Lord is doing even in a remote village in northern Togo!

our little corner of the world...

This is our room. It has a bed and a bathroom but you'll notice the most important feature....an air conditioner! And it works too! When it is running it sounds like all the parts inside are bouncing around but it puts out cool air so I don't care how much noise it makes!

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This is the view of our room from the front door.

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This is our bathroom. We also have a sink but I chose to focus on the toilet in the shower. It's actually a bidet (bih-day) but I think it's way funnier to refer to it as a toilet in the shower. It's a nuisance to have in the shower but it might be useful as extra seating if someone came to visit us.
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This is the road that runs along the front of our place. The pinkish color wall on the left side of the picture is our wall. The little structure you see in the picture is the closest store to us. They sell little cans of tomato paste and soap balls (among other things, I'm sure). Very convenient.

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Just another view of the neighborhood.
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This is still the road in front of our place - beyond the little store, heading toward the main road.
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And these are children in Tsiko (where the southern hospital is). Cute!

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So there you have it! A little introduction to where we are in Mango. Come see us sometime!

made it to mango...

We made it to Mango, Togo last Monday (December 13th, I believe) and now have our internet set up so I thought I'd let you know we are here! I'll post some pictures soon. This internet is very slow and won't allow us to make a skype call even if we only use the audio. :( But hopefully some pictures will do for now!
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Well, the calendar says that today is Christmas Eve so I will trust that the calendar is correct. The work team is at the site working and will be back 2 hours early this evening so that we can celebrate with the rest of the Mango team. We will have a ham dinner and watch a Christmas movie if we have electricity. If the power is out we can always sing some Christmas carols! :)
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Tomorrow, we are going to a team member's house for Christmas breakfast and then another team member is having an open house for anyone who wants to come starting at 2pm. Some of the Togolese have a skit to perform so that should be fun to watch. Sunday morning we are driving about an hour north of Mango to a church for baptism Sunday. We'll eat lunch there in the village and then head back sometime in the afternoon. Should be an exciting day!
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One of the interesting things about celebrating Christmas in Togo is that you have to be pretty creative with gifts. Kevin asked me if I had any spare change this morning as he was leaving for work. I gave him the equivalent of about 60 cents and he headed out the door.
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I'm pretty sure I'm getting a watermelon for Christmas.

walking in a winter wonderland...

What a beautiful day the Lord gave us today! It began snowing last evening and was even more beautiful today as it snowed until about 1pm. Some friends invited us to their off campus apartment for lunch and so we walked in the snow, uphill both ways, barefoot - taking pictures along the way. Actually, it's only about half a mile to their house, on level ground and we wore our shoes...but the bottom line is that it was a wonderful walk in the snow! And the lunch they served us was great! I'm so thankful for all of God's blessings!

visit to a local chateau

Last Sunday after church we went to lunch with some friends from school and then we visited a local chateau. I never get tired of wandering around these incredible places! The picture at the top on the right was actually taken as we passed by a house on our way to the chateau. Not sure why, but these folks had corn cobs hanging all along the front of their house. It was oddly beautiful! There is also your standard picture of me standing in front of the chateau and then Kevin, taking time to smell the flowers.....and making the old French lady that was sitting there watching him laugh her head off. It was a nice day!

swiss chocolate and apple pie...

Well, I don't really have any stories to tell....things here continue to go very well and we continue to enjoy each day! It is starting to snow more in the mountains and we have a beautiful view right outside our apartment window!
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We needed to walk to the grocery store this evening after class but it was sprinkling and very cold so I went and found us a ride! Normally we really like the walk but it would not have been any fun today in the rain (it started to really come down once we were at the store). It is also completely dark here a little before 6pm now so we would have been walking back in the dark as well! Anyway, my point is (and I'm sure I have one) that we were very thankful for the ride to and from the store!
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While we were in the store I decided that an apple pie sounded good so we bought the stuff we needed. While I cooked dinner, Kevin peeled the apples and then I finished it up. I don't have an oven but the girl down the hall let me borrow hers. I suppose now she'll expect me to share! Ha! Of course we will!
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Anyway, the other picture is Kevin studying. This is his normal studying position but I can't really make too much fun of him because our seating in this apartment is rather limited and so is our lighting. The part I can make fun of, however, is the fact that he has a huge bucket of Swiss chocolate right next to him to 'help' him study! That bucket was full when we bought it in Switzerland last week and I've had less than 5 pieces! Oh well, whatever helps him learn French, right?

a good time was had by all...

We returned from Switzerland last night and have many pictures to prove that we were there! We are definitely in the running for the 'Tourist of the Year Award' with this trip. Let's just say that we took a lot of pictures. We couldn't help it though....Switzerland is absolutely beautiful! Even the cows are pretty. And as you can see from the picture above they didn't think Kevin was too bad either!

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We had a marvelous time with our friends and they really rolled out the red carpet for us! We visited a cheese factory (and NO, I did not sample any), a chocolate factory (and YES, I did sample some), a model train, motorcycle and antique machinery museum, a WWII army bunker system that is now a museum, a farm, a beautiful 1000 yr old castle, took a ride on the "Golden Pass" Railroad through the Swiss Alps, took a cable car to the top of a mountain where we could see Germany, Austria and all of Lichtenstein, ate lunch in the revolving restaurant on top of the mountain, had fondue night (again, I'm not a cheese fan so for me this night was more of a 'ravioli night' than it was a fondue night), visited with some of our hosts' friends in their homes, joined in their Thursday night prayer time/small group, went out for a wonderful Swiss meal (Kevin ordered pizza...), attended their very friendly church and much, much more! It was incredible and we were amazed every day with all that they were showing us and taking us to do!

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We are so thankful for the time we were able to spend with them and their precious family. It was a true blessing and a wonderful vacation that we will remember for years to come!

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And if we start to lose our memory well, we can always look back at the more than 3,000 pictures (no, I did not mean to type 300) that we took over the past 10 days. Sometimes we even crack ourselves up.

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We praise the Lord for a wonderful fall break! And now....school starts again tomorrow morning so I am heading to bed! Bonne nuit!

les trappeurs...

Tonight my class and our teacher went out to eat together at a great restaurant called "Les Trappeurs." It is an old trapper's cabin in the mountains that has been turned into a restaurant that serves traditional Savoie region food. The food was excellent and the atmosphere was even better!

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Kevin and I decided to order 2 different things and then share them so I ordered "Raclette" and Kevin ordered "Braserade." All of the other students ordered the same dishes (as well as fondue) so the servers brought 2 charcoal stoves to the table for the raclette and the braserade.

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For the raclette we had a huge platter of sliced cheese (thick slices), a platter of 3 different types of meat and a bowl of baked potatoes. Basically, you put slices of cheese into a little pan and then set the pan in the bottom part of the stove to melt the cheese. Once it has melted you pour it over your meat and potatoes.

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For the braserade they brought plates of raw chicken and raw beef that you grilled on top of the stove. They gave us a plate of 4 different types of sauces for our meat. The braserade meal also included a large cheesy potato dish that was very good.

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We ate our meal and didn't feel our arteries clogging up yet so we thought it was safe to go ahead and order dessert! We (me and Kev) shared a chocolate fondue cake that was incredible.

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This was by far one of the best restaurants I have been to in a very long time. Next time you're passing through the French Alps and get a little hungry (and have about 3 hours to kill) stop in at "Les Trappeurs!" You'll be glad you did!

market day...

Well, it was another stellar day in the life of Emily Hall. Our entire class (that would be all 12 of us plus one teacher) walked to the market this morning to get more practice speaking French. Our instructions were clear: "You must ask the price of something, you must purchase something and you must ask one of the vendors if you can sample something." Simple enough, right? Well, let's just say that I did great on 2 out of the 3. Pretty good, huh?

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First, I asked the price of something - no problem. "Quel est le prix..." Then I swiftly moved on to making my purchases. The exercise was going well. I was on a roll. Nobody could stop me.

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I had one more task....sample something. I was walking around with 2 of my classmates and we stopped in at a cheese vendor. Let me just mention right here that I am not a huge fan of cheese. Now, don't get me wrong....I appreciate fine cheese like the bright orange powdered cheese that comes in a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese Dinner or the ever so delicate flavor of that white cheese product that you can buy in those convenient thin slices wrapped in cellophane....but I draw the line there.

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The cheese vendor must have had a good night's sleep last night because he was on his game this morning to say that least. We didn't even have to use our newly learned phrases to request a sample - he was willingly giving them out. The first one, he explained as he handed us our samples, was "sheep cheese, very mild." I took a tiny bite and forced a smile as I hid the rest of the sample in the palm of my left hand. At that point I didn't know what to do with the remaining cheese so I just crammed it in my left pocket. Yes, you read that right.....I crammed cheese in to my left pocket.

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From there he proceeded to slice up some "cow cheese" (he was speaking to us in English which I think defeats the purpose of our little French speaking excursion) and graciously passed out more samples. Again, I accepted, took a small bite and then artfully deposited the remainder of the sample into my left pocket with the sheep cheese that was already there.

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At this point I was trying to take small steps away from the cheese vendor but he kept right on talking (in great English, I might add) as he reached for the cheese that finally did me in. I could tell from the moment he began slicing it that this was going to end badly. He proudly handed out this cheese with black mold on it to my 2 classmates as I had turned my back trying desperately to act like I was otherwise occupied, hoping that he would leave me out of this 3rd sampling. Nope. I could hear, "Madame, madame..." and I knew he was talking to me. I also knew that I could not ignore him so I slowly turned around resigned to the fact that I would have to take the cheese that would surely bring me to my knees.

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I took the cheese and even managed a quiet, yet polite, "Merci." I reluctantly raised the 'enormous' slice to my mouth and forced myself to take a bite. From there it is all a blur. I began praying that I would be able to keep it in my mouth. Then I prayed that I could swallow it. I must have missed the chewing step but like I said, it all happened so fast....

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At this point, I knew I had to get away from him so I smiled (at least that's what I think the expression on my face was), nodded my head, crammed the rest of the moldy cheese in to my left pocket and started walking. My classmates followed closely behind. They were stunned when I told them I had a pocket full of cheese and I had to get it out because it was melting.

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Anyway, I have recovered and am doing okay now. I was also able to get the cheese out of my left pocket and dispose of it properly. You would think that is the end of the story, wouldn't you? Well, think again because about 15 minutes later I found myself in the same horrible position at the 'sausage' vendor.

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And yes, I ended up with 2 different kinds of meat in my left pocket.