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).