Baking Day

The first class of Mediafrique (the training school we came here to set up) graduated last Saturday. Roger volunteered me to bake cake for 50-ish people. It isn't possible to bake early here as I had no where to store them so they would not go bad in the heat or be infested with ants. Therefore, on Friday morning, I baked 4 cakes. It took me until 1:00 and we didn't eat lunch until 2:00.

Then, in the evening, I had to decorate them. They were to have the logos of the school, and the partners in the school: RW, IBRA and Distance Media. Here are the final results. (By the way, we kept them in our bedroom, with a/c, overnight and the ants still found them. Oh well.)

Quick Update

Just to let you know that Danny and AnnMarie's suitcases arrived yesterday! At first the airline said, only 3 of the 4 had arrived, but when Danny and I got there to claim them, the 4th one was also there!! Now they can wear their own clothes and we got to sort thru TONS of Christmas presents that had been sent from friends and family. We're even enjoying Weihnachts Plätzchen (Christmas cookies) from Oma. Thanks to all. Can't wait until Christmas!!

~K

A Visit

We are really excited that Danny and AnnMaire Isenring (RW leaders) have arrived. They got here VERY early Sat. morning (2am). The whole family found it hard to go to sleep Friday night and Sydney especially so. Everyone was awake when Roger and Sydney got home from the airport with them.

However, they, unfortunately, arrived without their luggage. It wouldn't be so bad if we could've gone to Wal-Mart and buy some stuff for a few days, until Monday--hopefully--when the next plane arrives. We did go to the market and found a few essentials, tho the "new" shirt Danny found is already coming apart at the seam!

Even if they have only a few clothes to wear, we are excited they're here. They'll help Roger with the final exams at school the next few days and spend time with all of us. It's going to be fun. The girls are especially happy that "Uncle Danny" likes doing dishes for us each meal, among other things, of course!

“If the shoe fits, it's too expensive."

In my case I actually had to pay 3000 CFA. The equivalent of about $6. So, don't make the same mistake as I did and leave your house shoes on as you walk out the front door.
By the way, I've got a nice looking pair of leather sandals for sale. I'll make you a good offer. Let's say 5000 CFA. What do you say?

To church in new shoes

10:15 am. Everybody is halfway ready to go to church. I put the phone on mute and set my sandals by the front door. As we step out Fiona sees that our dog has dug up half of Kathy’s cornfield. So, my autopilot takes over and I have a serious talk with the brainless K9. I believe her body actually shrank to the size of a walnut during the conversation. But her dirty feet are still giving her away. Eventually, everybody is in the car. We’ve just taken the first turn when I realise that I’m still wearing my house shoes. Of course, I can’t go to church in flip-flops, but we don’t have time to turn around. Just then Kathy sees some shoes by the side of the road. I stop, reverse (almost running over a motorcycle), and try on. Two minutes later I am the new owner of some very African looking sandals. And off we go. I like Africa, when things are simple and uncomplicated.

The heart of the matter

Almost exactly 5 weeks ago, I (Kathy) began taking an antibiotic. It was one I don't remember ever taking before and I was given a large dose of it. I took it in the morning and then again in the evening like I was told to do. That night, I woke up with racing pulse, palpitations and nausea. It really scared me because I had no idea what had started it and what to do about it. I mean, we don't really have an emergency room we can go to. It was frightening, which didn't help the whole situation. Roger--by, I believe, divine guidance--thought of the antibiotic. After reading the paper that went with the med., we figured it must be the culprit. I began drinking and drinking and drinking water and by the time morning came round, was a bit better. We called a friend who recommended a heart clinic here in town. We went there and they did an ECG. By that time my pulse was normal and nothing abnormal showed on the ECG. I still had some restlessness for at least a day and it took a few more to finally start to feel relatively normal. However, I kept having a funny "fluttering" feeling which scared me and took my energy, and went back to the cardiologist. I did the full 24 hr, doppler ECG and the heart sonogram-thingy as well as blood tests. It showed my heart is healthy but that I have an "extra heartbeat". I have had this before (or rather noticed it before, many people have it but never notice it) but stopping caffeine always makes things right again. This time, nothing has helped. Apparently, the drug reaction started it going.

Now I take a medicine to try and calm it down a bit. I have done some internet research to see what other people say about it. I realize it's not something that will go away with medicine and that if I think and worry about it, it'll just be made worse. (Most people were totally consumed by the fatigue and stress brought on when the heart begins "fluttering" and I don't want to be like that, at all!)

It all "brought me to my knees" (actually, I was standing, hanging a very large load of laundry) and I asked God to give me the grace to live with my "thorn in the flesh" that He's given me. I pray daily for Him to show what He wants me to learn from this. I realize that He could take it away entirely, but not until He wants to. I also believe that, for now, He wants me to learn from this. He wants to be made powerful in my weakness. Therefore, I would like to ask each of you to pray with me that I can have the grace to live with this and learn from it. It, as far as the tests showed, is not lethal--no more than driving on the streets here in Togo is--but it may be a long time before I am totally free from this extra heartbeat (PVC) and feeling tired and breathless when it comes on for longer periods of time. It would be all too easy to feel sorry for myself in all this and get stressed about it. I don't want to become like that.

Thanks! (sorry this is so long)

Life is never boring

Sunday, Fiona turned 9 and we had planned a big party. All told, there were 17 kids, from 1 to 11 years old. I think everyone had a good time. There was certainly enough mess for lots of fun to have happened (why is it that good times seem to be messy when kids are involved?). Anyway, during the party, just as I was ready to bring the kids in for an indoor game where there was a/c and we could have a reprieve from the heat and humidity, the electricity went. That, in itself, is relatively common and we thought it would be back in a half hour or so. However, very soon afterwards, someone came to say that a big truck had just passed in front of our house and broken the electric cable, that runs to our house, in two. This was far more serious. Roger headed out to finish connecting our generator. He hadn’t gotten as far as he perhaps thought he had a few weeks ago and ended up working hard for about an hour and a half. He finally got it running at around 5:30-6 ish, just as it was getting dark.

We weren’t sure what to do about sleeping, since we couldn’t run the generator all night and it would get really hot without any electricity. Although Roger, with the help of a French friend—to try and get the real urgency of the message across—had contacted the electricity company right away at about 4pm when it happened, we didn’t expect anyone to come out until Monday or even later. However, by 8pm, they were here repairing the wire. It was lovely to have our electricity back so quickly and was truly a miracle to have it right away. However, it came at a price. They wired it up incorrectly and burned some light fixtures and 1 a/c. Roger got it all sorted and by bedtime, we had electricity and our rooms were cool. Praise God for getting the electric company to come out right away (4 hours later is right away here) and that we have a husband/father who knew what to do to get everything sorted.

The Midas Touch--NOT

What do you call someone who has the opposite of the Midas Touch? Sadim perhaps (Midas backwards) or maybe, Sodum. Well, however you say it, we've met him--the "man with the opposite of the Midas Touch". He came to our house in the disguise of a plumber and got the house ready for us to live in. So far, there is nothing he touched that hasn't had to be repaired, or if it hasn't had to be repaired yet, we're just waiting with bated breath for it to break. We even had a water heater fall off the wall because he had used some plastic washer things to hold it onto the wall. Good thing no one was under it at the time.

We have had so many problems that needed a better plumber. We found one. He actually repairs things and leaves them in good order. (He really likes our house, I believe, because we are financing his children's education) Anyway, Bartheleme is pretty useful and ends up being called frequently.

Our latest problem has been a busted pipe (see above photo) that took hot water from a heater to the kitchen and laundry room. Since the pipes are always firmly encased in concrete blocks and floors, it was a major undertaking to find the leak. He found it and fixed it--with only a minimal amount of wall busting, for which I am very grateful.

In the midst of fixing this, the faucet in the kitchen broke ("the man..." installed a real piece of junk). Now we are waiting for this to be fixed.

Bartheleme is not bad, but he never comes when he says he'll come, even when we have an "emergency" (like the pump not working). I wish I had a dime for every hour I've wasted waiting on the man. Today is no exception. He said yesterday that he'd have everything done today by lunchtime. I said, "We'll see." He repeated that he'd have it done by lunchtime, and I repeated what I said. then, just as he was about to repeat himself for a 3rd time, he laughed and said, "We'll see." It's now 4:45 and he still isn't here. We have no hot water to the kitchen sink, haven't had all week.

We'll see...

Student Trials

We are down to 5 students. Claire, the lady with the infant, did not return to class after her 2 month internship at a local radio station. When talking to her on the phone she told me that she was not feeling well. I thought it had more to with the $200 in fees she still owes the school.
About 10 days ago she came to the office to explain her situation. Yes, she is having trouble coming up with the money, but she wants to continue with the course. But unfortunately, she won't be doing anything in the coming months. On the night after her visit she was taken to hospital on account of a heart attack. She knew that her blood pressure had been high, but nobody expected it being that serious. When visiting her, the doctor had not yet started her treatment, since the medicine was going to affect her little son. So she will have to wean him first.

Most of the other students have had similar problems paying their fees, but nobody else has had a heart attack over it. I've been nice to them, trying to understand their situations. I've been mean, threatening them with expulsion. I have written letters and called their parents. Nothing seems to work. The students seem genuinely ashamed of it and the pressure is even affecting their performance in class. My colleagues believe that they will pay eventually, since all of them want their diploma. In fact, the piece of paper seems to be more important to people than the actual skill and knowledge gained. However, in the meantime I am struggling to make ends meet. On Friday I didn't have enough money to give to the cook to buy the food for the next two weeks. So, we started to economize by scrapping a meal. It is only the 10-o'clock break so far, but the next one to go is either lunch or dinner, if the students don't cough up some dough soon.

Whatever the situation, I'm not going to allow myself to worry. I believe that God will provide for our media school. He already has me convinced, since I have experienced his faithfulness so many times. I believe God wants the students to experience him as Jehovah Jireh. This morning I read a promise God made through the prophet Joel. I think it is the kind of experience I wish for our students to have too.

 2:26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
       and you will praise the name of the LORD your God,
       who has worked wonders for you;
       never again will my people be shamed.

helping the helpless

A week ago, I was a medic for a day. I visited some villages with Maritza, a doctor friend who volunteers a few days a week at a clinic about 30m/50km from Lome. She works at the clinic but also goes with the local pastor to various villages. This is what we did last week. We got out of the car, set our box of “goodies” on a chair under a tree, and got to work. There were a number of people who had boils on their skin, which had become infected and needed cleaning. I got really good at squirting Betadine cleanser on gauze pads for Maritza to clean the wounds. I was also the antibiotic cream squirter and bandage holder. Pastor Hammer cut the sticky bandages. There were some really disgusting wounds, the worst of which was a lady who had a hand and foot with really bad leprosy. It’s really sad. These people live in a village about 10km/6m from Vogan, where the “hospital” and leprosy clinic are. Leprosy treatment is free in this country but transportation to the clinic is not. This lady’s husband left her when she got sick and she has had no money to go to the clinic. She goes to meet the doctor or nurse who comes out from Pastor Hammer’s clinic, about every other day, to have her wounds cleaned. That’s about the best treatment she can hope for.

I believe the most heart-wrenching thing I witnessed was a little baby who was slowly starving. His mother had left him with his grandmother who already had other children to take care of and this one wasn’t a real priority to her. Although the grandmother had been given soy
formula and shown how to use it, she obviously hadn’t done it right. The boy was terribly anemic and hungry. Hammer talked to the grandmother while Maritza gave him some iron. I can only pray that the lady will actually feed the infant now and give him the medicine. I found myself incredibly upset because I felt so helpless. Unfortunately, it is complicated. There are no social services here. It’s up to the family and village. I have a hard time watching the TV and seeing programs where people spend loads of money to save a little kitten, when there are babies starving to death because of poverty and a lack of education.

By the end of the day, I was VERY dirty, tired and hungry, since we didn’t eat lunch until 4pm. However, I felt somehow changed because of my day as a medic. I realized how desperate these villagers are and how difficult life is for them. I also realized that Maritza and the other medics there, although they work hard, are really only scratching the surface of the problems facing these people. I have a whole new respect for them.

Remembering Pip

As planned, we buried Pip's collar at her favourite spot in our garden. Her memory rests in the shade of a coconut palm tree.

We all thought of something nice to say about her:

Sydney: "I liked Pip."

Fiona: "She could have been my grandmother. She was so old."

Elena: "She had such sad eyes."

But April is not herself today (which is actually nice for a change). She is so sad that her mother has gone.

two feet under

We buried our dog yesterday. I didn't know what to expect, since I've never interred a bigger animal in a city. We put her into a sack and carried her through a garden, over a wall and into another garden. The owner had agreed to have a grave dug among his maniok plants (for a price, of course).

I'm glad Sydney went with me. She was the only one who volunteered to join Pip and me on her last journey though Lomé. Somehow I didn't want to be alone. I think, I must have gotten attached to Pip more than I thought.

This afternoon we are going to have a 'remembrance service' in our garden. Pip had her favorite spot under a palm tree. That's where we'll bury her collar.

A sad day

I'm not sure how many of you followed the saga of our dog Pip (the bigger of the two we "inherited" here, who was also the mother). She has had some sort of infection for months now and has gotten progressively worse. Even after weeks and weeks--months, actually--of antibiotics, we still couldn't heal her. She was losing weight and even with lots of food, she just didn't get better. The vet here, who is actually about the best we have in Lome, basically came to the end of his knowledge and didn't know what to do. We wrote home and asked a vet (thanks for all the help by the way, Sheila and Bryon) if he had any idea. He came up with an idea and we tried it. However, he didn't have much hope. It seemed to give Pip some relief these last couple of weeks and she didn't have so much pain, but she wasn't getting better.

Anyway, sometime in the early hours of this morning, she died. Yesterday, as we left to do our shopping, she looked terrible and we stopped by the vet to make an appointment to have her put down. When we got home, she had perked up and was hanging around the garden looking happier. We didn't have the heart to put her down when she had perked up again so called the vet. However, by evening, altho she ate, she never seemed to recover again.

The girls are handling it well. They don't understand why God let her die even though we prayed for her. We've tried to explain but if any of you have any ideas, please send them!! Elena said, "I wouldn't mind so much if I knew she was going to heaven." What more can we say?

Roger and Sydney have gone with the vet to bury her. We had to contact him and he had to "find a place". Then he had no shovel or pick axe, so Roger had to bring them as well. We'll see how that went when they come back.


I'm putting a photo of her before she got sick.

School

Well, school has started. We got off to a good start on Tuesday and Fiona promptly proceeded to get a tummy bug and missed most of what we did on Wed. Today was normal again. It's nice to be in our new classroom and we now have Sydney with us. You can read a bit about her on the girls' blog.

Our school has a name: Kingfisher Elementary. Here the girls are with their teacher in front of our new sign.

Sydney says good-bye to her bushy Papa. (By the way, I have a quote from Minnie Pearl. "Kissing a fella with a beard is like a picnic. You don't mind going through a little brush to get there.")

Theology according to Sydney

Today while driving in town, a lady, with a large load on her head, decided to cross the road right in front of us and Roger had to slam on the brakes in order to keep from hitting her. While recovering from the shock of nearly knocking down a lady who hadn't made a very wise decision, he said, "What kind of brain did God give you?" (referring to the woman, of course). Sydney in one of her moments of saying the first thing that came to her mind, said, "Maybe she worships a different God." Then later... "She almost made us run over her, maybe she's not a Christian, maybe she's a real sinner."

You know you're going on holiday in Africa when...

1. You drive down the road, dodging enormous potholes, and see a chameleon crossing; then you have to turn around and pick him up, amazed that he actually made it across.

2. It takes you 2 days to drive to your vacation spot, approximately 470 miles/750km away. (Mainly because the roads are so bad that it's physically exhausting to travel more than 6 hrs at a time.)

3. Each village along the "highway" has put up their own obstructions to slow traffic down as it passes thru (ie huge tree trunks or large branches across ancient barrels).

4. At every town you pass thru some kid shouts, "Yovo-yovo," (a local term for white people) or its equivalent, as if they had never seen one in their lives.

5. Countless trucks, which are terribly overloaded, have broken down in the road and, if you're lucky, are marked by branches in the road some hundred feet or so before as a warning. And, all occupants have set up camp under the truck knowing it'll likely be a while before they set off again.

6. Your kids think "swimming" in the run-off ditch of a small dam, in the "middle-of-nowhere-Benin", is the best thing they've done. (Has a lot to do with the fact that they were surrounded by a bunch of other kids, which is rare for them here.)

7. Finding that there is almost as much water rushing OVER the only bridge connecting the north of the country to the south as there is rushing UNDER it. But finding that same bridge still intact on the way home a week later. Whew!

8. Noticing that there is no real connection to the large red line on your map indicating a highway and the road you're traveling.

9. Stopping to eat your picnic lunch in a place you were sure was "secluded", only to find a dozen kids watching your every move, within 3 minutes of getting out of the car.

10. Being too cheap to go to a hotel (or perhaps there isn't one) so you stay in other peoples' houses--even tho they aren't there (right?) =)

And finally...

11. You see some amazingly beautiful scenery and wonder that God has allowed you to live in such a place.

Just a few thoughts from our great holiday visiting friends in Benin.

sickness

Something that's inevitable, but dreaded is sickness. In Africa, whenever a fever is involved in a sickness, malaria is always suspected. Last weekend, Elena came down with fever and severe headache. These were the exact symptoms she had last time when her blood was tested for malaria. Since it was late and getting a test was not going to be easy, we decided to go and treat her as if it were malaria. She began to get better and by Sunday, was doing well. However, by Monday evening she had her headache again and by Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning (early) she was running fever again. She and I spent the entire morning waiting to see the Dr. yesterday. She was really miserable. He looked her over, cleaned some really gross stuff out of her ears (she can finally hear really well!) and said her throat was slightly infected. They also did a blood test to check for malaria. (By the way, the poor thing had to have her thumb pricked 4 times because the guy couldn't find blood!) She is now on antibiotics for her throat and another malaria med for that. These malaria meds really work fast. She slept well last night and, apart from a slight headache today, feels much better.

Please pray for us to remain healthy especially as right now is the malaria season with lots of standing water for mosquitoes to breed in. Thanks for all of you who knew about Elena yesterday and prayed for her. I just didn't get the chance to write to everyone asking for prayer. Praise God, she is now on the mend!!

Another thing is that we are going for holiday to Benin, leaving tomorrow. We'll stop in Kara, quite a way north of here, to visit friends and then on to Benin to speak German for a week. We're all excited to get away! Please pray for safety on these roads and a good time with friends. Thanks.

The Beach

Even though we live on the coast, we don't often visit the beach. The public one is not exactly the place for people like us who stand out in every crowd and the "safe" ones are a good drive away. Besides, they seem to think they can make all their profits on those of us wanting to spend an afternoon in the safety of their sand. However, we decided to go today to a "new" (as in, new to us) beach hotel. It is literally right on the edge of the great port of Lomé. There are no natural reefs (the Atlantic is too cold, I understand) and therefore, nothing to keep one from being carried out to sea by the strong tides so swimming is out of the question, but that doesn't stop the sand castle builders and shell seekers among us. Today was one of those days. You can see the giant castle Roger and the girls and a couple of friends made.

Building wasn't the only thing we did today at the beach. Being next to the harbor, we got to watch a big container ship drop anchor and turn 180 degrees then "back into" it's place at the dock. It was really cool (no photos of that). Something else that was interesting, was the contrast in the "modern and huge" and the "ancient and tiny" coming into the harbor. Notice the tiny local boat coming in near the huge container ship sitting at dock. (It's not as striking a contrast in the photo as it was in real life, unfortunately.)

It was nice to sit out there with the lovely wind blowing and all. I, Kathy, am not really into the beach, especially big waves and cold water, but today was really nice.

Our girls

Just a quick note. Our girls now have their own blog. You can read their thoughts by clicking here.

stepping back - seeing the bigger picture

Last night we said goodbye to Allain Normand, a visitor from Switzerland. He was here to get to know our school, mediafrique, and visit some media projects in Togo. For 10 days I had the pleasure of picking the brains of this seasoned media practitioner.

It was in fact very refreshing to look at Christian media in West Africa through somebody else’s eyes. I believe he saw and heard things that I no longer notice. It made me think:

• Is media training all that mediafrique can offer?
• Why are we not offering assistance in finding solutions to local problems?
• Why can’t we help radio stations with technical matters?
• Why are we not encouraging others to do “what can’t be done”?
• Why are we not more innovative ourselves?

I came to Togo to make radio work for the church in francophone Africa, so that the gospel might be communicated more effectively. But most of the time I find myself stuck in details. I am pre-occupied with the running of the media school, worrying about balance sheets, timetables and deadlines. Well, somebody’s got to do that…I know. However, it keeps me from seeing the bigger picture and pursuing all my ministry goals. But that's not how I want it be. Therefore, Allain, keep asking questions, even if I don't have any answers.

Finally, a Few Photos

Well, I'll try again to put a few photos of our house on here. So far the internet hasn't been good enough. We'll see.


This is a view from outside our gate. Notice the pretty Traveler's Palm.






This is a view of our garden. Taken before the rains started in earnest. Now it looks much greener.

4th of July (in June)

Yesterday, the US Embassy here in Lomé held a 4th of July celebration. Now I--Kathy--have lived in countries where there are American embassies (as opposed to the US where they aren't needed) for a long time, but have never gone to any 4th of July celebrations. It was really fun. God gave us lovely weather. It had rained up until shortly before we went there and even sprinkled a tiny bit while there. The clouds kept the temperature down and there was just enough of a breeze that it was pleasant. (It may actually be one of the most pleasant days we've had here in Togo--weather -wise.) There was lots of great fun for the kids and they ran around until they nearly dropped. The major highlights were the weather, the games and drinking real Root Beer! We missed out on the hamburgers as they were all gone by the time we got there. We ate Togolese type food instead--which is all that was left!

It was a lovely afternoon and we'll remember it for a long time to come. God keeps providing these little excitements to help us along here and we're very grateful.

As you may have guessed, we have no photos of this outing as it's forbidden to take them at the Embassy, or even around it. Oh well, we have our own "photos" in our minds.

According to Sydney

We have a little bit of potting soil at our house and we have used some of it to start some seeds (they didn’t work because of our over-eager waterers). I needed the rest of our soil so we could mix it all together again and start over.

Now, at our house, if we can’t find something, we ask Elena. This is because she has taken on the duty of knowing what’s in every box, cupboard, drawer, bag or empty milk tin we own. This has its good points and bad points. She often knows about things we’d rather she didn’t know about—like Christmas presents! However, she often knows where things are when the rest of us are totally clueless. I was just sitting on the floor surrounded by linens, trying to put them away when Sydney came in wanting to plant some seeds. Since I had told them earlier that we would do that today, I said we’d get started. Her job was to go and ask Elena where the potting soil was. She went off, only to come back about 2 minutes later to ask me again what “that stuff” was she was to ask Elena for. I said, “Potting soil.” (pronouncing the “t’s” nicely). She went off to ask Elena saying over and over to herself, “pott-ing soil, pott-ing soil, pott-ing soil”.

She just came running back to tell me that Elena didn’t have any idea where the “pot-in-soil” was and that we’d have to look for it ourselves.

I’m really not surprised Elena didn’t know where the “pot-in-soil” was, neither do I.

Moving...Togo Style

So, it’s finally happened—we’ve moved. There were times we weren’t sure we would when delays came up.

The actual day (delayed by 3 days) dawned beautiful…and wet. It had rained all night and was still raining when we got round to meet the truck at 7am. Roger went to the meeting point (a well known landmark not too far from our old house). He waited about half an hour and finally came home. The truck and “muscle” ended up coming at 8:30 and by 10am, we were on our way to the new house.

By 1pm, the truck was unloaded and we were looking for something to eat. We ended up going to a lady who cooks local food on the corner of the road. You have to understand that this is a different sort of “take-away”. One comes with their own bowl and asks for their “fufu” (a paste sort of stuff made of yams) and sauce. You pay according to the number of pieces of meat and hot peppers they put in. Since we hadn’t unpacked much of anything, we each ate out of a cooking pot. Roger, of course, had the biggest one.

We’re here, now and have enjoyed the air-conditioning, especially at night. The dogs bark and it echoes all over off the high walls, but I believe they don’t bark as much as they did at the other place—not yet anyhow. There are still problems with leaking pipes and we have a mountain to unpack but it’s good to be here—finally. Unpacking is almost as unenjoyable a task as packing and is made even less pleasant this time by the fact that there is NO storage in this house and we have very little of it ourselves. We have to have wardrobes made as well as shelves and cupboards. However, we have a/c so are happy. Now we just need to find everything!

Photos to follow.

Celebrating Elena

I realize we just posted something, but this is really important! Just think, you get 2 for the price of 1 today!

Thru Pawnee Heights School (where the girls went last year in Kansas), the girls are able to keep up with the Accelerated Reader program (AR). They read books and take comprehension tests on them. Elena was totally unmotivated to take read and take tests until she started reading books from a series about a girl called Mandie, around Christmas-time. She has become a "reading machine" these past few months and we've found a supply of these books to keep her going. She accumulated 243.1 points. She found out, via a friend on skype, that she would've been 3rd in her class had she been there! The school ended today and apparently the top 4 (who were there) got prizes. It's a pity that she worked so hard and did so well and got no recognition for it. Therefore, we want to celebrate her and her success here on our blog.


WELL DONE ELENA!!! We are very proud of her. If you can, please write her a short email, congratulating her as well. Her email address is fantastic_elena@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks!

What's up in Togo

I was inspired to write a bit of something to let everyone know we are still here and what's up. I have thought about writing but just haven't had the energy lately. Last time we wrote about Roger's colleague who had the fall with the motorcycle. Well, he finally went to the Dr. and found out his foot is broken. Since he walked round on it for about 5 days, it was too swollen to put in plaster last Friday so it will all take a bit longer. Anyway, that has meant that Roger has had to teach Adama's class this week. It would've been easier had he been prepared for the class but he wasn't. As a matter of fact, he has been preparing the day before all week (or waking in the wee hours and preparing). It's been a bit stressful as it has meant that, apart from the ladies who cook and clean, Roger is the only one there for everything. Hopefully, it'll be a bit easier next week--on the training side of things, that is.

On the homefront, next week will be even more hectic. We need to have everything packed by Wed. morning as the man with a big truck/lorry will come and move our things. Fortunately, this man comes with his own "muscle" so we don't have to help load the thing! It was looking like the girls and I would have to do all the moving on our own, but Roger is pretty sure he can swing it to be here that day. I'm pretty tired lately as well, as packing is tiring (tho we don't have that much stuff). Unfortunately, since Roger is swamped with work, I'm pretty much on my own. The girls have helped some, but for the most part, just hang around asking what they should do now that they have packed all their toys. (Actually, I told them to keep out a few things they wanted to play with until after we moved. They all complied, but Sydney--now 3 days later--has decided she doesn't want to play with these toys and is bored because she has "nothing to do". Too bad!)

It'll be nice to be moved. We still don't have much furniture--tho our bed has arrived, but we still have no matterss for it. I guess we'll be living out of Action Packers for a while, still. However, soon after we move, we plan on having a/c's put in a few rooms!!! That will be great. I was packing stuff today and sweating into the box at the same time. It's been extra hot lately, and when the electricity is off, it's worse.

Well, this is again a long entry. Roger tells me he "likes shorter entries", but, oh well... I'll put another photo on here. This one is of our friend the Blue-brested Kingfisher. He is the mascot of our newly named "school"--Kingfisher Elementary. (By the way, I just realized he hasn't been around since our trees got blown over last month.)

A few thoughts

I was looking at the blog today and realized we hadn't written anything for a while. It's not that nothing is going on here, it's just that it all takes over and we don't think to put any of it in cyberspace. So, it's rather long, but, here goes...

ROGER

The training school finally started, April 28th. Roger has been really tired because of all the work but in a big way, it's nice to finally start doing what he came here for. (**Right here I'll say that just today the other teacher was insured when the motorcycle he was on, fell over. His leg is banged up and he wants to go and have it x-rayed tomorrow. Please pray he is back to normal very soon**). We hope the "extra" things will slow down for him. He has spent quite a bit of time looking in on the renovations at the house we'll move into. We had to have furniture built but most of it is not yet finished, although we ordered it at end of January. The girls' beds are the only things that are ready so far. Hopefully, we'll have a bed and some chests of drawers to put our clothes in by the time we move!

THE "GIRLS"

Homeschool is almost fininshed for this year. I believe we have all settled down and are learning to "find our way" thru it all. At this point we would like for someone (preferably female) to come to Togo for a year to help teach. I think it would be a good thing for all of us as our students generally respond better to someone who isn't Mama. It would really lift a burden of my shoulders, since I am already wondering how I'll teach Sydney as well next year. She's very excited to be starting kindergarten and has been telling everyone about it. So, if you would like to come yourself or if you know of anybody who might fit the bill, please contact us.

MOVING

We are all excited about the "big move". We plan on moving on the 27th. I think everyone is looking forward to it! One big thing is that we plan on having a/c's and we are ALL ready for that. It should be easier for Roger as the new house is only 2.5 km from his office/school. We could even go there as well for a visit once in a while. It also helps to have something to look forward to. Our days are usually so much the same that even the thought of packing our things and moving then unpacking them in a different house across town is exciting.

A REQUEST

One thing I'd like you to pray about is what to do about our house helper. She is an older lady who is, well, not ideal--actually, the ideal would be NO ONE, since I don't like having anybody in the house all day. However, that would be almost impossible since I am teaching. Anyway, we'd like to find someone else but are having trouble thinking of this lady being without a job. It's not that she's bad or anything, she's just not what we need. She needs to be in charge somewhere, like in a nanny position or so. We just need someone who will help with household chores and not try to run things. Please pray we find a good way of phasing her out and finding a different person.

ENDING THIS LONG THING

Thanks to all of you who read this. Somehow, it makes us--well, me at least--feel closer to friends and family knowing that some of you read this and even look forward to what we might say next.

I'll leave you with a small photo of the girls. They were dressed up for their "Thursday Club" party. (By the way, Thursday evening meetings are the highlight of our week and we are so thankful to God for providing them).

Boy, time flies!

Well, I officially feel old. Last weekend, we got to see one of my former students and her BABY--and her husband, of course. Mari was one of my students in 2nd and 3rd grades at Rethy, Zaire. She has grown up and, along with her husband, wants to come to West Africa to work with a radio mission. They were in Ghana last weekend getting to know some of the people they will work with and we got to see them. It all started earlier in the week when her father wrote and told us they would be coming. He knew we were in the neighboring country and thought we might like to know. As Roger's school hadn't started--yes, it was put off yet again--we decided to go for a quick trip.

It was really lovely to see Mari and Alex and their cute daughter Adalyn. Thanks to Facebook, I can keep up with many of my former students, but she is the only one I've actually met with a child. I am thankful that I got to be a small part of the lives of these people and to see many of them as lovely Christian adults is, well, awesome. It also makes me see the need to pray for my own children and to try to raise them to know Christ.

I'm thankful I got to see Mari and her little Adalyn (and Alex, too, who was, by the way, a student at one of our radio courses while we were still in the UK, shortly before they got married and we left for France) and look forward to having them as "neighbors" in Ghana.

By the way, the girls thought Adalyn was great. They all wanted to hold her. However, the poor thing was uncomfortable with heat rash and sweaty all the time so didn't like getting far from the fan. (I can totally relate!)

Toto, are we in Kansas?

They say there's no place like home. Last night we felt like we were back home. At about midnight, the wind started to blow REALLY hard (we're talking Kansas hard) just before the rains began. The huge tree in our front yard began dropping it's seed pods--which sounded like bombs-- (see photo) and branches, but apart from that and unplugging everything, we didn't think too much more about it and went back to sleep. When we woke this morning, we saw that there had been a lot more damage done than we thought. Our two pretty little trees just outside our classroom window were completely uprooted and had fallen over--into the garden, not onto the house, praise God! (Then again, had they fallen onto the house we might not have slept as well.) It's a pity as they were pretty trees and they created a lot of privacy, which is becoming scarce around here.

For us this isn't a terrible thing, as we are moving in about a month, but for the family who come here, it will be hard. (Then again, they don't know what they are missing.) It also cuts down on the shade to the house which will make it MUCH warmer. It was already made warmer a couple of weeks ago when the neighbors cut down 3 big trees in their yard to make room for a building.

When we arrived, it was still rainy season, but we didn't have any storms like a couple we've had in the past few days. On our way to church last week, we saw the remains of a HUGE tree that had fallen across the road. The trees here don't have to send roots very deep to get water so they don't have much holding them in the ground when the wind does blow.

Update to the update

Just a quick note about our situation and Sydney as we've had a few people asking if there are any improvements.

Yes, Sydney is better. After her 2nd dose, of 3, of medicine and a good night's sleep Wednesday night, she was bouncing off the walls yesterday, However, by Bible study time yesterday evening, she was dragging. She slept most of today but is back to--almost--full-form this evening. Thank all of you for your prayers. It's always hard to watch our kids suffer. Thank God He healed her!

As far as the political situation goes, we seem to be pretty much back to normal. There have not been any other problems since this brother was "detained". The average Jean or Jacqueline on the street don't seem terribly upset by it all, which is a good sign at this point. It could so easily go the other way. Thanks for praying for this as well.

As far as the students for the training school go...We are still waiting for them to show up in time to start next week. We'll see. We trust that God's timing is perfect and we'll just need to be content to wait on Him, eh?

I guess that's about all for now. We'll keep you posted if anything else comes up. Please pray for health as the rains start soon, bringing mosquitoes with them. We try very hard to keep protected but it only takes 1 infected mozzie.

Thanks for standing with us!

Update from Lomé

I just want to give you a quick update. Poor Sydney has malaria (her very first one). I took her to the doctor yesterday, who prescribed medicine for her. She is already feeling better today, although she still complains about headaches.

Unfortunately, Sydney's condition is not the only news that gives us some headaches. If you've followed the news, you might have seen that we're having some tensions in Lome, due to some quarrels between the President and his brother. We hope that it does not spread over to the population, and divide them. Please pray with us for peace and stability in the country. Although we are doing business as usual, we are also following standard emergency procedures i.e. keeping gas in the vehicle, mobile phones charged, documents and a rucksack ready. We are in contact with others who are informing us of any further developments on the situation.

Today is actually the day that we finally wanted to start our radio school. But we'll have to postpone it again by another week. Some students from outside the country have not yet arrived due to problems with their travel documents; others in Togo are still looking for money to join. If all come, who have said they want to come, we would have 7 students. We will see (said the blind man). Knowing, that God knows (the plans for our radio school and the situation in the country), everybody in our office is willing to trust him.

By the way, we still haven't made a decision concerning our trip to Europe this summer. We got the new that we are not expected to teach at the Radio Worldwide summer course in England. However, now my father has been diagnosed with cancer and will have radiation treatment soon. So, we don't know what to do. Please pray for wisdom.

Easter - in Togo fashion

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were to color raw Easter eggs? Well, our neighbors in Lomé have managed to produce a new breed of chicken. As you can tell, even the children have not yet adjusted to the "new yellow".

We celebrated Easter today-in African style. It started out with church, which wasn't actually too bad (for me). If you were to ask Sydney, she would probably tell you a different story. Our friend Tony gave the keynote speech of the party conference (in English with a French translation), the girls sung a song with their Sunday School class, and we dedicated a newborn to the Lord. All in a record time of two and a half hours.

Other than that, it has been a pretty normal Easter so far. The girls did two Easter egg hunts yesterday. We had macaroni and cheese for lunch, and a chocolate cake has just endured 30 minutes of 350F temperatures in our oven.

Wishing you:
Happy Easter! Frohe Ostern! Joyeuses Pâques!


P.S. The chicks were actually dyed in order to confuse the ever present birds of prey. It must be working, since they are all still running around and growing out of their pink feathers..

Get them while they're there!!!

What is the difference between being greedy and stocking up? It's actually a fine line that we walk periodically here in Togo. You see, every half year or so, one or two of our supermarkets get a container of American goods. This time, they had loads of things like Dr. Pepper and Ginger Ale...and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese!!!!! We stocked up on it. I mean, this is a comfort food we really miss here. Since it is so expensive for packages to be sent, and we never know for sure if they will actually arrive anyway, we don't get much of this kind of thing. We saw it Saturday at the store and bought some. It was tempting to buy them all; however, we didn't want to cross that line between greed and stocking up, so we stopped at 16 boxes. We didn't want to be greedy. Elena is still worried that we were greedy. I doubt it because the next time we go there, it'll all be gone. Besides, we didn't buy a whole case like we could've--one sat there by the door ready to be put on the shelf!

UnHappy times without Helga

Well, the good times couldn't last forever. The day after Roger's birthday, Helga had to return to Germany. The girls each tried to fit themselves into her luggage. Sydney would not let go of her aunt at the airport and Fiona's emotions got the better of her.

It was the 13th time that Helga visited her brother. In the beginning it was him alone in Kenya and Zaire and later with Kathy and the girls in every single place that we've ever lived. We all think she's pretty special. As Roger always says, she's the best sister he has, and the worse one too (since she the only one).

Happy times with Helga

Well, I said I would write more when Helga arrived. She has been here just over 2 of her 3 weeks so I guess it's about time. We have had a great time so far. A highlight was going to Ghana (there are more "things to do" there than here). That was last weekend.

We went to a Botanical Garden where we saw, among other things, a hollow tree (photo left is looking up, inside the tree). It had started as a vine that grew around and killed it's "host" tree. It was really cool. This "tree", itself is over 100 years old and the host was already really big so one can imagine how old it was (photo right is of the girls IN the tree).

The next day we drove to the coast to walk on rope bridges in the canopy of the rain forest and to Elmina, the oldest European structure in sub-Saharan Africa. It was a notorious slave castle. The canopy walk was 7 "bridges" (photo below) between VERY big trees and was about 40 meters (131 ft) off the ground. Fortunately, you couldn't really see the ground for the treetops. I tried to imagine that I was looking out over rolling hills (the treetops) and seeing the periodic tall tree here and there (the REALLY tall trees). It didn't work and I turned around after the 2nd bridge. The rest made it all the way to the end.

Apart from a ton of driving--you wouldn't believe how many speed bumps Ghana has--and sleeping in a hot guesthouse, we had a good time. Since the media school (Mediafrique) starts on the 1st of April and our home school is still in session, we have been busy with our regular duties as well. Sydney gets to have Helga to herself most of the morning while we are in school, but we have all enjoyed her visit.

Another thing we have done while she is here is house hunt. We have seen many houses. Some we've only seen from the outside wall as the relator guy doesn't produce someone with a key (very common here). It's all rather different than what you might expect in your country. For one thing, we have to pick the guy up from somewhere: his "office", a filling station, or even from under a tree on the side of the road and then he tells us where to go. Sometimes we get to the house and find that there is no one to unlock the door. Sometimes it's simply a house we aren't interested in. For example, one was really nice but the local mosque was directly across the road with loud speakers aimed in the direction of the house. Our main questions are: "Is there a mosque or church that meets at all hours nearby, or perhaps a bar?" or "Do you have water all the time?", things like that. It's truly a different world.

We have seen 1 or 2 that we like, sort of, and will pursue them. In the meantime, we'll keep our eyes open as well. Please continue to pray. The best option we have seen so far still needs some work and it's questionable whether or not it will be finished before the end of May--this is Africa, after all. It would be nice to find one we could more or less move into right away.

Just a few things

For those of you who look at this blog and wonder why there hasn't been a new post in a while, I'll tell you. We just haven't gotten round to putting anything on here. Actually, I often think of things to put and want to add photos and all but the slow to non-existent internet takes all the joy out of it. Then I decide not to write anything because what fun is it to read a post without photos?

Anyway, there are a few things going on we'd like you to know about. The first one is that Roger's sister is coming tomorrow. To say we are excited would be an understatement, then again, I don't know another word, so it'll have to do. The girls have been counting down the days and Roger and I aren't far behind. I have a feeling she's a bit overwhelmed as we have loaded her with things to bring. She wrote yesterday that she has 3 pcs of luggage (and only 1 is hers)! The girls think Helga is pretty wonderful and we're thankful that she likes to visit us, but I believe part of the attraction this trip is that she is the first family to come here. I'm sure there will be another entry (with photos) soon, documenting her arrival.

The second thing I wanted to write about is that we are going to have to move. Actually, if you've kept up with us from the beginning, you'll know that the house we are in was only available for about a year. Guess what? That year (well, almost a year) is almost over. We got our notice that we need to be out by the end of May. We need to start looking for a house, soon. Please pray with us that we find the best house for our needs. We'd like one with a yard (you'd be amazed at how little yard many houses have), enough rooms to have a classroom AND a guest room, and in a good location. I'm sure God knows what we need and has it all worked out, all we have to do is follow Him to it. He brought us to this one and we have liked it here, now we need to find this other one. (Oh, one last requirement, it needs to be in an area where they don't mind dogs barking ALL the time.)

Thanks for your interest in all that we are doing here. And for those of you who pray for us, another BIG thank you!

Dogs-ology

Meet our neurotic dog, April. She's the one on the right. (Her mother is called Pip.) We have been pretty sure, for quite some time, that April was nothing but a coward. She barks at most anything and anyone and has even shown signs of trying to "take on" children--tho she's too afraid to rush at an adult. However, last night was the real proof that she's just a coward. At around 3:30am, we were awakened from a dead sleep to April barking, outside our window. Since Pip was also barking, albeit from much farther away, we decided it warranted investigating. Roger found Pip standing in one corner of the garden, barking at some distant dog. (This was actually an uncommon occurance, as we seem to be about the only ones with dogs around here, so a bit of barking was definitely in order--if you're into that kind of thing.) However, April was so frightened by this other dog--which she couldn't see--that she had run to the farthest corner of the garden from where she thought the "threat" came and barked as if her life depended upon it. It didn't matter that the other dog sounded relatively far away and was on the other side of a high wall, she was scared and making lots of noise to prove it. If you've ever read any Hank the Cowdog books, you'll know why we are seriously thinking of changing her name to "Drover"!

I've turned...40!

I had a great birthday! It was fun to read all the memories and birthday wishes from friends and family either on a Birthday blog Roger set up, on Facebook or in emails. I am blessed by so many friends and a family who love me.

Roger and the girls embarrassed me the night before my birthday when we went to our weekly Bible Study. Elena and I were left to search for something in the car while Roger got everyone fitted with “Kathy” masks and told them to imitate me by saying things like: “Shut up, dogs!” “Sydney, did you brush your teeth this morning?” “I really dislike sweating” “Roger, don’t encourage the kids” and “That dumb internet”. Of course, those are entirely made up, I never say such things.

The next morning I was awakened by Roger and the girls singing Happy Birthday. I went into the decorated living room and found presents. I got, among other things, a pink iPod shuffle. The girls were impressed that I was 40 years old and this was the first mp3 player I’ve owned. I guess they don’t realize that kind of thing wasn’t around when I was their ages!

We had a lazy day—Roger was not feeling real well and Fiona also began feeling bad—and we just had fun hanging out. In the evening we went to our pizza place that has sort of become our “party restaurant”.

We were to go to Ghana, but because Fiona came down with the tummy thing, and Roger still wasn’t well, we decided to wait and hopefully go this next weekend. Ghana is like pretending we are in the “West”. They have a mall and cinema (I had even washed our jackets, which we haven’t worn here, to wear in the air conditioned cinema!). We’ll see.

Thanks to all of you who helped to make my birthday so special. I am truly blessed!

Love,
Kathy

PS Sorry this is so late being posted, but our Internet connection (okay, that “Kathy-ism” was true) doesn’t even work well enough lately to post writing, let alone photos. I just have to wait until I can do it.

Awesome God

Have you ever prayed for something and had that prayer answered more than abundantly? We've been praying--Sydney in particular--that Mediafrique (the media training school) would have enough money for all the set up costs. Well, God really supplied. He has, in one donation, given a BIG chunk of what is needed! It's humbling and exciting to work for such an awesome God. Thanks for praying with us and keep on as we see how He will provide the rest of what is needed--including students.

Waiting on a slow connection

Sydney wanted to play games on the internet today. However, our connection, which is never fast, is particularly slow—or even non-existent—right now. I guess the wait was just too long for her. By the way, Sydney almost never wears clothes while in the house. She gets too hot. Poor thing, she inherited her ability to warm up from her mother!

A quick hop over the border

We just received our visas for Ghana (the country that Roger can see daily from his office building. You did know, that Lomé is the only capital city in the world which borders on another country?!) Can you believe it, the members of our family (all the females) with an American passport got a 5 year visa. However, for the same price tag, the German was supposed to get only 1 year, but was able to convince the immigration officer that he needed more. Well, he gave me 100% more, although he didn't have to. That's why I love Africa.

So, we made a very quick trip to the city of Accra over the weekend. Among many other attractions, Accra has a new shopping mall. Needless to say, the shopping-starved girls had a blast. Here are the reactions:

Elena: "I like the shopping and the roads."
Fiona: "It was like America."
Sydney: "I love the mall. I wished we could live there."
Kathy: "It was very nice."
Roger: "Boy, Accra is expensive."

Ps. Fiona's prayer was answered too. We received all three packages that were sent to our friend's address in Accra. Thank you Bre, Jodie and Gormans!

And the answer is...

Three weeks ago the question was "to move or not to move". Well, the answer now is: "move"! PTL! We will be able to relocate our office and media school to the new location in Lomé.

After several discussions with the old landlord, he agreed to let us go, wanting only our best (6 months of rent and the deposit). Although we don't know (yet) how we are going to meet all those obligations, we know that it is the right move, literally.

Thank you for praying through this situation with us.

Tag!!

So, I was just tagged by a friend I met in France, "redchampagne", who has a fun blog and cute kids who supply her with many interesting things to write about. As this is my first time to do this kind of thing, we'll see how it goes. Since we live in Africa, our internet is not always good so I hope I can get a photo uploaded. Guess I shouldn't complain, at least we have internet, eh?

Here are the rules:

1. go to your documents/pictures.
2. go to your 6th file.
3. go to your 6th picture.
4. blog about it.
5. tag 6 people …

This moth was hanging onto the screen outside our living room, here in Togo. It was actually there for a few days. You can tell it's a male because it's a moth. A female would be a myth--as I'm sure you know.

Now, I actually only know 3 people with blogs--besides redchampagne, of course--(at least 3 I KNOW of, I'm sure there are more of you out there), so unfortunately, I'll only be able to pass the tag on to them. Hope (since you just started blogging, here's some blog fodder for you), April and Kaley. Enjoy!