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Togo Mission 2007with Kipuke Ministries
The Vacation Bible School, bring a toilet seat with you to Africa and the Fatted Calf.
They put us in 2 rooms Esahu and I in one and his daughter and Mary in another and then switched us at 6am to 3 rooms. Ebu, his daughter has relapsed into malaria and is feveris with chills and will stay in bed today.
L’Hotel des Princes in Bonicon, Benin is impressive , but don’t compare it to the Holiday Inn in America. The entire apartment with bathroom is 9 x 11 with the bathroom taking up 4 x 7 of that. It has a very comfortable but low double bed and AC, A 13 Sharp color TV, 1 electrical outlet, a toilet with no seat, lavatory and a shower head in the far end of the tiled floor bathroom, no shower stall.
This seems the norm in Africa as we saw this same shower set up in both houses and now here. This bathroom has no toilet seat and the one in Kara was broken. Plastic seats slid and wobble and break Voila, no toilet seat. This is nice compared to some that we have seen on the road. This is more geared for Europeans or wealthy Africans.
It has a restaurant that we ate breakfast at this am, Omlette, some of the best french bread I have ever eaten, Nescafe and water (l’eau)
We were then met by a man from the VBS and after he enjoyed breakfast he rode and directed us to the campus. It a a college campus of sorts, ( don’t think ahead , remember This is Africa ). Dirt road there full of holes
Oh, on the way to VBS in town we say the military and there were many armored tank vehicles with wheels. I questioned was this normal ( I’m thing coup or revolution ).
No, they are just in transit apparently.
Open air buildings, yellow in color, electricity, no running water in the buldings that I saw. Cooking outside, chopping wood etc.
The kids will eat today yams that are crushed and dried and then a porridge is made of it, A sauce made of leaves – tastes like a minty lettuce, possibly some dried fish (le poisson) Soaked in a black sauce. By our standards it looks disgusting.
In the pantry thinks sitting on the swept cement floor ( cooler their ) is rice, wheat, tomatoes and other staples. Last year Esahu had money budgeted for this evet and bought them a cow for meat. Nothing goes to waste. This gave me an idea!
Money this year was prioritized to the Learning Center in Kara. He sais he will buy them a pig. ( I’m thinking a pig won’t go far with this many children and more coming tomorrow from Lome.)
We continue our tour of the fascility, the dorms ( converted open air classrooms ) kids sleep on mats on floor, but this is normal for them. Boys separate building from Girls and Teachers separate from them. The girls space is obviously neater than the boys.
3 little girls rush in and gather their bathing supplies ( bucket, cloth, towel and soap). They failed to bathe this AM because they were cold and now must bathe or will not be served lunch. They are so cute.
Children act the same where ever you go. We notice many more children , boys and girls preparing to do the same because they were cold. It seems amazing to me. We are in shorts and tshirts and all thru Africa you will often see people in long sleeves and in winter jackets at times and they will complain of the cold. It is not there hot season.
We go to their dining area, open building, and they sit as table families with an older child and/or teenager , male and female acting as their family mother and father.
Lunch is not ready so the song leader from the Methodist church (Eglise Protestante Methodiste Du Benin) leads the kids in having a dance competitions among individuals of different age groups as they play modern French African music.
Esahu is asked to be the judge.
We are asked to pray a blessing and then we prepare to return to the hotel. We stop at a pharmacie and apparently they do not have Tylenol or it’s equivalent here. We get other fever reducing medicing for Esahu’s daughter to alternate with motrin.
After getting a new sims card for the phone I call Pastor Chuck. He tells me the girls and dogs are great. I discuss my idea of buying a cow from the church with him
and he thinks it’s great, just keep a receipt.
He will pass on to the congregation Sunday that Marvin donated a “Fatted Calf” for the kids. Esahu leaves to go back, insists we stay here and rest. Not what I came here for , but he is the boss. So here I am writing passage in my journal. Oh by the way it is way common to hear very loud arguing here.
We checked on Epu and her fever had broken. We had dinner prepared for her and there was confusuion and Mary did not get a plate so we shared. I can’t say enough about these small tough chickens, but that and fish was on the menu, so chicken it was. The sauce was excellent. Everywhere we go they make a sauce of tomatoes and onion and it is not like anything at home. I tried to get bread, which I knew they had, but apparently I was asking for Rabbit, which they do not have.
After making sure Epu had was ok we went for a walk down the street, passing shops and a couple of 18 year old teenagers approached us and we conversed for a while . They were very happy that we were so open and friendly and even stated Americans that they had met in past “were not happy”. They wanted us to share our addresses, but Esahu had warned us not to do this. We got there addresses and will send some test letters and test emails from a special account to make sure we will not become spam recipients. If all is honest then we will try and find some kids there age that would be willing to be a pen pal. They seemed as if they were on the up and up. It was a blessing.
We made our way to a huge Catholic church, shot some photos, went in and prayed. As we went in it started pouring cat and dogs. As we left it was just a sprinkle. We made our first purchase with African francs.
Here everything is a negotiation. We bought corn from a street vendor. Corn roasted over an open grill fired by wood chips. They wanted to sell us 2, we wanted only one, it was fun and we got to meet other people. We joined Esahu as he ate dinner and talked of this ministry and the blessings it has been to us.
By the way, African soap operas and music videos are very interesting.
Good nite and God Bless.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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