need a visa?

I just came back from a short trip to Ghana. My colleagues and I accompanied Marcus, our West African Coordinator, to the airport in Accra. The boys had a good weekend together.


I wish we would have had more time to spend in the city, in order to take advantage of all that it has to offer. The services of Doris Quarsh (or was it Koresh) caught my eyes in particular. If you ever need help passing exams or have any other kind of sicknesses, I can contact her for you. Or go ahead and call this great spiritual woman of God yourself. By the way, Ghana's country code in +233. In case you didn't know.

Ils sont finalement arrivés (They've finally arrived)!

Yesterday, at about 20:00 GMT we had Christmas, Easter, Birthday and Wedding Anniversary all at the same time! In other words, our personal effects from the UK finally arrived!
After more than two years of separation, it feels as if a piece of home has caught up with us. Although they are just things, there are so many memories attached to them. The girls were so excited to play with their toys. We couldn't get them to sleep before 11 pm. Kathy and I unpacked till we crashed onto our "new" feather pillows.
Thanks for praying with us as we are putting our lives together in Togo. One piece at a time.

Personal Effects or personally affected?

I've seen our things from England!
I went to the port yesterday, since I had to be present when the custom officials looked through our boxes. They were interested in valuables for which they can make us pay import taxes. It's actually quite humiliating to have strange people dig in your personal belongings, as you can imagine.
Today I found out that customs alone wants about $300. That's actually not bad, according to the clearing agent who was assigned to us by the church. He told me that he'd been able to negotiate such a good price, because the custom's director had been satisfied with a lower amount for himself, since we are working with the church. In other words, customs was only willing to release our goods once their their wheels had been sufficiently greased. And we were actually supposed to be thankful for it. So, did we actually pay a bribe or were we extorted? Are bribery and extortion just both sides of the same coin? Would there be one without the other? Can anybody who plays in this game keep their hands clean?

Tomorrow, we might be able to unpack the things that we packed over two years ago, if there aren't any more surprises ambushing my conscience and our piggy-bank. But I wouldn't count on it.

Filling up

Looking
at it
this
way,
"filling up"
takes on
a totally
new
meaning.

possible solution

We've found out more about our freight. Unfortunately, the documents haven't yet been sent from our office in the UK. The lady working on our case had collapsed in the office Tuesday, two weeks ago. It was found to be caused by a mass on her brain. She was operated on and the mass was completely removed. Assuming the results are OK, she is expected to be discharged either today or Wednesday and she will send the Bill of Lading off immediately with Fedex.

In the meantime I have been contacted by the shipping agent in the UK who told me that they had a way of getting our effects released, even without the original documents. However, that will only be possible once they have received full payment for the delivery. Something else that has not yet been done, for the same reason the documents are still in the UK. If I would make the transfer of nearly 1000 £, the shipping agent could send a message to the port in Lomé, which will hopefully do the trick. But I first want to check with the lady in hospital, so that we don't pay twice. So, communicating with Brenda, is what we need pray for now.

Urgent Request

We have a situation here. Please pray. Our personall effects from the UK are going to arrive tomorrow. The 5 wooden boxes were supposed to get to Lomé three months ago, yet the ship was delayed several times. In order to get out belongings out of the port we need to have the Bill of Lading. However, those clearing documents have not yet arrived. The documents were to be fedExed to us by our mission, but they havn't shown up yet. After enquiring this morning, I found out that the two people who do the forwarding in the UK, are both in hospital. So, at this point I have no idea if they sent the documents or where they are now. Please pray that the documents show up or that we find another solution to get our things out of customes.

Thanks for folding (you hands) with us!

getting hinged

While driving through Lomé we saw a car decorated for a wedding. Fiona cried: "Look, somebody is getting hinged!"

I like the image.