USA TO GO

I have to show these to you. I've never noticed before how connected the United States are with Togo.  Take a look.

All I can say is, "wouldn't it be nice..."

Ode to April

We just got word that our dog in Togo, April, had to be put to sleep.  She was being guard dog to Daniel and Natalie and seemed to enjoy her life there.  However, it looks like she ended up with the same or at least similar problems as her mother, Pip, had.  They tried and tried to help her get better but to no avail.  Our household is a sad one right now.  I don't know what's harder, being there when the dog dies or being away.  I can imagine Daniel and Natalie feel bad that she died while under their care, tho we know it wasn't due to a lack of it.  She just seems to have had the same problems as her mother had--canine cancer.  April always acted a bit "blonde" but we liked her.  She was a good dog and never harmed a soul, even the rat she was supposed to chase.  There will certainly be a lot of changes in Togo when we return.

Daniel and Natalie, we thank you for all you did for April.  She liked you and Henri-the-Cat.  Sorry you had to be the ones to deal with all this, and sorry you no longer have a watch dog!

 On another, entirely unrelated note, I just uploaded 3 photos at the same time and it took less than 30 seconds.  This would never have worked in Togo.  I never cease to be amazed at the internet here compared to there.

Kansas so far

Time has certainly flown these past few months.  Here we are at Thanksgiving already.  I think the girls have finally begun to feel more "at home" in school here.  It looked that way quite quickly but at the parent/teacher conferences at the end of the first 9 weeks, I found out that Fiona hardly said anything in class--and we were worried we'd get notes home complaining about her being the class clown!  Her grades were not the best because she was afraid to ask questions of her teacher and she never volunteered answers even if she knew them.  However, to hear her talk during that time, she really was the class clown.  I guess she was just 2 different people in class and outside it.  Now, however, she's come out of her shell and even had to be moved away from a friend because they talk and distract each other too much.  Time changes things.

Don't know where they are, but anyway...

E & Fi have both gone out for jr. high volleyball and basketball.  As Grandpa says, "The first game [of either sport] they ever saw was the one they played in as well."  For never having played either game, they have done incredibly well.  Fi still looks a little like a deer in the headlights on the court but at least she's out there trying.  E has grasped quickly the idea and is doing well.  She has come SO close to making a goal the past 2 games, I know it'll come.

Syd is has adjusted really well.  She has learned that the reason for home basketball games is to spend time with your friends, forget about those sisters playing ball.  She has a number of little girls she enjoys playing with and talks about when they aren't together.

Sydney and some friends, Abby and Olivia at the church hayride and picnic.

I, personally, am so glad to see the girls having fun with other kids their ages.  It was a rather dry time in Togo without friends consistently.  Praise God for providing them.

Roger has been enjoying the advent of hunting season.  Even though, due to the drought, the pheasant population is sadly depleted, he still likes going "walking" in the fields looking anyway.  He finally got some the other day.

 Some of Roger's work.  Photos later of the finished room.

I am just having fun doing "stuff".  I keep house, help my Mom, run errands, have fun, etc.  I also really enjoy not sweating all the time!!

 My work.  Some things are always the same, no matter where we are.

A Cultural Experience in WalMart

We went shopping yesterday.  Somehow, I ended up standing in front of the room deodorizers.  Trying to choose a fragrance is rather daunting as there are so many but not many smell all that special.  Anyway, I saw one called something like Fresh Linen and there was a picture of clothes on the line.  I find it strange that the only way to get that fresh laundry smell is to get it from an aerosol can!  And, it didn't even smell that good.  NOTHING like clothes that really come off the line. ~k

2 Months On

Well, it is now exactly 2 months since I last wrote.  So much has happened since then.  We got enough boxes and found storage space.  Our dog found a home and we got everything taken care of.  We even enjoyed staying in an "American" house the last 2 or 3 nights in Togo.  It had central air and was extremely pleasant!

We are now in Germany and have been for a month.  It's lovely to be here.  Coming to Germany is for us like a holiday.  No more work.  No more telephone.  No more sweating constantly.  No more getting up early to get going each day, etc.  We just enjoy being here and visiting and doing things we don't usually get to do.

We've gotten to do a number of the things on our list of things we couldn't wait to do, like wear jeans and closed shoes--it's kinda cold and rainy here in Germany this summer--and eat.  The jeans are nice but I must admit that closed shoes are not as comfortable as I thought they would be.  Actually, because of the second thing, the jeans aren't fitting as well as they did when we first arrived.  Gotta make sure we do a bit more walking and less eating, but it all tastes so good!!

Only a month until we head to the US.  Then we get to have summer a bit before experiencing fall and winter.  The girls get to go to school and Roger and I are looking into courses we can take.  For Roger this is more urgent but he isn't finding what he is looking for.  We'll see.

Nearly time!!!

Well, we now have exactly 24 days until we leave. It's hard to believe it's finally nearly time to head home for a year-ish. We fly on the 27th to Germany and then again on the 8th August to the US. It's exciting. However, it's hard just now. We have to pack everything but still need to use a lot of it. We don't have enough boxes to pack in and we don't yet have the pressure of time pushing us to get on with it. Therefore, we sort of go thru a few things and make messes in every room, but don't really get a lot done.

There are lots of things we are looking forward to seeing, doing or eating. Here are a few:

 1. seasons, not just hot and rainy or even hotter and no rain, but real seasons, where you have to wear different clothes

 2. family and friends...not a lot of explanation needed there

 3. broetchen (in Germany) and bagles (in America)...Yummmm

4. Rob's steak

 5. fresh milk 

 6. experiencing long evenings

7. grilling and just sitting outside and actually enjoying it 

 8. stockbrot (roasting bread over a fire and eating it with a filling)

9. wearing jeans and closed shoes

10. fast internet 

 11. kids going to school—no homeschool!

12. time away from kids and vice versa, time away from parents—we're ALWAYS together here. Sounds like a good thing but when always together means always in the same house and rarely having anything else to do or anywhere else to go, without parents, is tiring.

This list could go on and on. Mostly with food. We're all looking forward to being home. We really should get started packing...

A wedding gift

After 16 years and 3 weeks of marriage, I got a wedding gift. What a surprise! This gift is that old as well. It's spent more time in Africa than I have in those years and has seen lots more trauma and destruction than I have. It is a big Kitchen Aid mixer that we received as a wedding gift in 1996.



We got married in Kansas and then went to Germany. By the middle of 1996, we were on our way back to Zaire. All our wedding gifts were packed in a container along with other people's things and left Europe not long after we did.

We arrived in Zaire in June or July 1996 and by November, the civil war had begun and we had to evacuate. Our gifts were in a container, in Uganda, waiting to be taken to Zaire. Eventually, we went to England to Bible school and our things, along with a few missionaries, went on to Zaire. Unfortunately, the civil war got worse again and the missionaries had to leave a 2nd time after only a few months. This time our things were there and most were looted. Through the years, we've heard of a few things that people have found with our names on them and once we even received an IGLOO water cooler and a study Bible, among a few other things. However, we had figured it was all lost and we were just glad we weren't lost with them.

For the past 3 ½ weeks, Roger was in Congo (as Zaire is now called...again) to do some training. He got to stay in a room in our house, the one we lived in for 6 days before evacuating. He returned last Saturday, with a red ActionPacker (very rare these days, so I knew it was something of ours) and told me he had a wedding gift in it. I opened it to find the mixer. It still had its packing foam around it and the plastic bowl guard was even unbroken. How it survived is beyond me. It is truly a gift since we never dreamed we'd see any of our things again! How exciting to actually be able to use one of our wedding gifts, 16 years later.