Some thoughts (rather a long read, sorry)

There is a girl who comes by our house periodically. She is somewhere between 10-13 years old—I would guess. She comes at various times during the day so I know she doesn't go to school. She doesn't speak more than a few words of French, so I know she hasn't ever gone to school, where kids normally learn French. She works really hard as well. This girl comes by our house, and any other house she feels like knocking on the door of, to buy bottles. She carries a very large aluminum basin on her head with glass whiskey and schnapps bottles and on that is a huge woven bag full of plastic bottles. I've helped her get it off her head, so I know it's heavy. When I have bottles to sell, I help her get her load off her head and set it in the sand before our front gate. Then I go get all the bottles I've collected. We then debate over the price.

Now here in Africa, one never accepts the first price. That's just the way it goes. Even if you end up paying about the same amount, you have to debate about it first. I have had times where I was willing to pay their asking price but debate anyway, 'cause that's just what you do—and I usually end up paying less.

Anyway, somehow, with this girl, I don't have much desire to try to get more money out of her. I always feel sorry for her. (Besides, she doesn't understand French and I don't understand Ewe—her language—so it's pretty useless to argue.) She usually pays me 75cfa for 3 big, 1.5 l, plastic water bottles and 50cfa for 2 smaller, 1 l , plastic water bottles. That equals around 15-20 cents USA. She will then sell these bottles to other people.

Sometimes I think about things I'd like to have but don't. Then people like this little girl come by and make me feel like a millionaire. This little girl works really hard walking miles each day from house to house buying bottles that she won't sell for a whole lot more than she bought them. It's hot here and her load gets pretty heavy. She, however, is trying to make a living. I don't know her circumstances. I have no idea where she lives and who she lives with. Most likely, she does this for her family, whoever that consists of. I'd like to take a photo of her, but haven't yet decide to ask her. I'd need a translator.

Now that I finally write this down, I find I don't have all the words to express what it is exactly that I feel. It isn't just pity, but I also feel proud of her for trying to do something about her poverty, not just beg. There are 2 words and neither are totally adequate. Life is hard here, not for all Togolese, but certainly for most of them.

One last thing, if you'd like to know what they sell in the bottles this girl collects, write a comment to this blog entry and I'll tell you. ~kathy

A graduation on Saturday

Jonathan graduated today. Jonathan is one of Roger's colleagues. He is also a missionary—works in Togo but is from Guinea Conakry/Sierra Leone. He just finished his Master's in Missiology with most high honors! It was a privilege to be there to watch him graduate and we were glad to have been invited to be a part of it all. However, we had no idea just what this graduation ceremony involved. We got there at 7:30am so that we could be sure to get a seat under a fan—they were already almost gone—and the thing started pretty much on-time at 8am. Roger (I don't know if he was thinking positively or if he really wasn't thinking) said we'd be home by 10am. We got home a little after 1pm.

The girls were actually pretty good thru the whole thing but that was only because their new friends were there also and they could sit and chat the whole time (all 4 ½ hours of the ceremony). Since the only thing we had to tell them was to be quiet a couple of times, we didn't mind.

Afterward, we assembled in groups of students with the people they had invited and had snacks and drinks. This was interesting as the groups were organized according to country that the graduates came from and each group was in some sort of shady spot on the campus. Those happened to be pretty close to each other and some groups were REALLY loud. We had a loudspeaker just behind us and couldn't tell what was going on in our group (Jonathan's). Oh well. This part only lasted about an hour so we didn't have to endure it so long.

Even though it was long and not our favorite way to spend a Saturday morning, it was a real privilege to be a part of Jonathan's celebration.


LtoR: Adrienne and Adama (the cook and other trainer at mediAfrique), Jonathan and his wife Rose (with their two daughters, Maggi and Blessing), and Roger and I. (Our girls had disappeared as far away as they could get by the time we began taking photos.)
By the way, I have no idea who the little boy is.

update

Here we go again. It's been a along time since anyone wrote on here. It's not that there's nothing going on, it's just that we don't seem to get round to writing any of it down. Also, I prefer to have photos but haven' learned to edit them on this computer. So, how's that for some excuses?

Yes, we've had a number of things going on here. We met a family with 3 girls who are here temporarily. Unfortunately, it's just temporary, because we really enjoy them. The girls are good friends with Fiona and Sydney and then they have a younger one.

We've also celebrated 2 birthdays. Elena turned 13 on 23 Sept, and Fiona turned 11 on 1 Nov. We now have a teenager in the house!!! Sydney will turn 8 on 23 Dec. Fiona has really shot up this year. She's nearly as tall as Elena, who is only about an inch shorter than I. (Not that that is saying too much, but I guess for them, it's tall.)

One last bit of news is that Roger finished his 3rd year of teaching at mediAfrique, the training center we're here to help get started. There are a lot of questions about the future of the center. Like, do they want to grow? Where can they relocate with bigger facilities? What about more trainers? And so on... Roger, his 2 colleagues and their wives and I went on a little retreat to pray and try to find answers to these questions. There was a definite desire to branch out and offer more courses, maybe in TV, etc, but no solution as to where. God knows the answers and we just need the faith to wait and trust Him to show us those answers.
~kathy