TravelStream™ news feed for member mgibb05 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mgibb05 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:15:17 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1240992780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1240992780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1240992780/tpod.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:15:17 -0400 Teaching in Togo

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Accra, Ghana

Time flies!  I cannot believe that my time in Togo is over!  We have already started making our way towards the US and are in Ghana until Thursday night when we all fly out to America.  I will, Lord willing, be flying out at 10:40PM on Thursday (that's 6:40PM Eastern time) and I am supposed to be landing in Atlanta at 10:10PM on Friday.   I just wanted to take this post to thank each of you for your prayers on my behalf, your thoughts and your words of encouragement during my time here in Togo.  You may not know how important all of those things are to me, but let me assure you I truly covet them all!  I also want to thank you for your financial support!  I know that I would not have been able to make this trip without God's and your help and I wanted to make sure that you know how much I appreciate your support!  I hope that each of you have been able to see God's blessings in your year and are able to see God's work in your lives.    I will send out a post when I get home to let you all know when I have arrived safely!  If you want to see more pictures or hear more about what I have been doing please feel free to email/message/call me!  Thank you again for everything!   God bless!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1239441480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1239441480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1239441480/tpod.html Sat, 11 Apr 2009 05:25:41 -0400 Teaching in Togo

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Kara, Togo

Eight months!  I cannot believe that I have been here for that long!  It has been such a great year and I am going to miss it a lot!  There are only TWO weeks left of school!  We are trying to wrap things up with the curriculum and get ready for our open house play that is being written by the 5th graders in their journaling class.  All of the kids have been VERY wired this week.  I think it's because they know that the end is near!   All but two of our kid's families are going on furlough at the same time that I leave here.  The preschoolers don't really remember America since they were 2 the last time they were there!   School has been going really well!  The preschoolers have gotten into a really good routine and they are doing so well in all of their classes!  They are reading very well and it's so much fun watching them learn new things!   The third graders are doing SO much better about finishing sentences in their writing.  They are starting to get the concept of an introduction and conclusion sentence and are finishing thoughts much better in their paragraphs!  Fifth grade is learning a LOT of geography right now!  We are on our Africa chapter and I always give them a map quiz over the area of the world that we are studying, but I decided that I should break down the map quiz over ALL of Africa.  Every week they have been having a map quiz over a different set of countries in Africa plus the ones that they did the week before.  They have been doing SO well!  I'm really proud of them!  They are going to have a map quiz at the end of the year over most of the places that we have studied and I think that they will do really well!    Daniel and I have started biking a few miles every few day.  It is SO hot out there, but it's never a boring ride!  The road is paved, so that is a very nice part of the ride!  There are always kids around singing "Anzi! Anzi! Anzi!" (white person) and the adults looking at us like we are crazy (which I would have to agree with them on that one :).  There are lots of eighteen-wheelers that come through and they tend to not be in the best working condition and there are always some broken down along the way.  We have to watch out for the ever present goat/sheep/donkey/pig/chicken that will walk in front of you and the moto taxis (motorcycles) that zip by.  Thankfully it has not been as hot lately because we keep getting random rain showers that cool things down a little...and then it gets muggy...but it's cool for a while!    I will, Lord willing, be leaving Kara on April 28 and flying out of Accra, Ghana on April 30.  I should be in Atlanta late on the night of May 1 and then I'll be going from there to Relay for Life in Roberta!   I'm not sure how awake I will be at that point, but Mom will be there working, so I will be there!  :)  Prayer requests: The team here as so many of them are getting ready for furlough and the rest of them are having interns here this summer; Please pray for the people in the states (and everywhere) that have gotten laid off; Please pray for each other!   Thank you so much for the messages!  I hope that you are all having a wonderful weekend!  God bless!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1237660500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1237660500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1237660500/tpod.html Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:24:43 -0400 Teaching in Togo

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Kara, Togo

Happy spring to all!  I hope that you have all had a wonderful week!  I also hope that you are all cherishing the cool/cold weather that you might be having!  It has been a cool 96* here most of the week.  I have never seen such dry heat!  It's crazy!   I turned 23 in Africa (which is better than 21 in prison...it's a Johnny Cash song :)!  It was a wonderful birthday!  Full of going to the pool, eating lunch out and sharing a birthday party with one of my students!  Hannah's birthday was on the 15th and mine is on the 16.  We had some amazing cake and cupcakes thanks to Becky's amazing cooking skills!  I was very surprised that after Hannah opened her presents  they had presents for me!  The presents were so great!   The preschoolers and I have fallen into a wonderful routine!  Every morning when we are ready to start I tell them that I am coming and they both run for the school at full tilt!  They have squares that they keep their shoes on and they hang up their book-bags and hurry to sit against the wall in a meditation (crossed legs...arms up...eyes closed).  I count to four and then come in and ast like I cannot find them.  They sit there very quietly until I get close to them and then they scream and give me  big hug and sit on their squares for us to start the day!  It's been a great week!   I have come up with a new endeavor!  I have been trying to bike twice a week.  I don't know how far it is...but it is far enough!!  It was POURING down rain the first time that I went with Lisa...which meant that it was really cool!  I was not even sore after that!  Daniel and I went today and although I thought that I was in good shape after the first ride...apparently I was NOT!  Daniel was riding circles around me, but it was a lot of fun!  There are a LOT of hills here that you don't notice in a car!  Who knew!  :)I hope that all of you have had a very blessed week!  Please keep me in your prayers as I only have 6 weeks left to be here and I am trying to be prepared for that and still be concentrating on being here!  Thank you all for your prayers and messages!God bless!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1236369480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1236369480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1236369480/tpod.html Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:33:43 -0500 Teaching in Togo

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Kara, Togo

I have made my last move of my time in Togo!  I am now living at the Kennell's house (they are the family that moved here in November).  The mango's are almost ripe and there are going to be a ton of them so long as we don't get a frost...haha!!  I am really excited about that because I love mango's!  The average temp this past week has been about 36*C...I don't know the exact conversion of that but let me tell you something, that is H-O-T!!  School is going really well!  We seem to have gotten into a great groove now that school is not too far from being over!  :)  The preschoolers are reading really well now!  I am so proud of them!  There is never a dull moment with two boys that have known each other all of their lives!  Gabe is pretty sure that he has Star Wars (the latest preschool craze...because they are not allowed to watch it) completely figured out and Asher agrees with him.  It has become one of the highlights of my day to listen to them talk about "Star Wars episode __."  Did you know that there are "chicken walkers" in episode 5!   They are big and silver and go through the forest shooting at the bears and Luke!  hahaha!  In case you are wondering...almost everything is in episode 5.  :D  The older kids have kind of figured out how to get along well which makes our (teachers) lives much less dramatic!  The third graders are a little too smart for my good at this point.  They learn the 14 different "sight words" that are assigned per month in about two weeks at the most and then we have two weeks of the month left.  I have been giving them review words to work on, but they are just too fast at it to keep them interested for long!  They were very proud of themselves last Saturday we got to have a third grade class party because they all finally got 100 points!  I made each of them a small chocolate cake and we took two class periods to play games and eat too much cake!  The fifth graders are learning about the Middle East in history.  I really enjoy studying that area of the world and I think they are starting to catch on!  I just realized today that I kind of miss walking to school every morning.  The Emerson's left for furlough today, so I moved over here on Wednesday night.  I had gotten to where I recognized a few people that I would pass.  All I can confidently say in French or Kabyie is "good morning" so that is what I say, but there was an older lady that figured out that I didn't know any more Kabyie than that and every morning she would say good morning and then start talking to me and then laugh really hard.  I have no idea what she kept saying (it was different every day)!  The Kennell's is nice because the room that I am in is in the house (instead of the guest house) and has great airflow! Two of the walls are lined with windows!  Yay!  They also have wireless!  I have a praise for this week (not that I don't always have things to be thankful for)!  These past two weeks I have had the opportunity to hang out with a girl, Lisa, who is a little older than I am.  She is from North Carolina, grew up on a small farm and is single!  We have a lot in common!  Lisa is here as a nurse, working here and north of here.  It has been really nice to get to talk to someone who is sort of in the same boat I am in!  ...not that I don't love everyone on the team, it's just different!  Please keep the Emerson's in your prayers as they travel over the next two months!  The Kennell's are going to be traveling to Lome' on Sunday so please pray that they will have a great, safe trip!  Keep everyone in your prayers...we all have needs that are not known by all!God bless you all!  I hope that you have a wonderfully blessed week!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1235149980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1235149980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1235149980/tpod.html Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:19:12 -0500 Teaching in Togo

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Kara, Togo

Bonjour!  I hope that all of you had a great Valentine's Day!    It RAINED here!  It was great and has cooled off a lot of the heat!  I also hope that none of you have been affected by all the lay-offs.  Please keep all of the families that are now out of work in your prayers.  All things work together for good for those that love the Lord, but sometimes the "why's" are not easy to deal with. This past week has been possibly the most relaxing that I have had in a long time!   All of the Mom's and myself were able to take a four day trip to Lome' for a much appreciated break!    It is crazy what a few days break can do to help you deal with life!  Other than a slight sunburn, the whole trip was wonderful.  We found a great Indian restaurant and our hotel was on the beach with AC in the rooms!!   The dad's and Daniel and Bennett held down the fort here in Kara while we were gone.  Matt Miller, Daniel and Bennett were nice enough to fill in for me at school.   We got back on Friday afternoon.  Matt and Brett Emerson have been going out to teach at a new village that is about 2 hours drive away from here.  They are very optimistic about the work there.  There are many people in that village that are related to people in some of the villages that already have churches established in them.  The people said that they were very impressed that the guys knew and taught in Kabyie (the local language).  Please keep that work in your prayers.  Matt and Brett have been invited to teach in one of the houses and every time they have gone out many people have come to listen.  Dave Reeves and Mark Kennell are working on drilling wells in one of the local villages.  He is working very hard to train a team of Kabyie guys to be able to drill on their own, but it has not been an easy task.  The way that he drills is easily reproduced here.  Many groups come in with big machines and drill huge wells that do great things, but then when they break are not easily fixed because they are so complex.  Dave has learned how to drill wells that are made by using tools that you can buy here and can also be repaired without too much trouble.  He has been trying to train a team of guys to do the drilling in the different villages, but getting the guys to keep coming or to work together has not been an easy thing to manage.  They have put in one well in the village where they are currently working.  That well is the only one that still has water in it on a regular basis.  Please pray for Dave, Mark, the guys they are trying to train and for the work that they are trying to do. I cannot believe that I only have 10 weeks left here!  (I'm only counting because I have to know how much work the kids have to do between now and the end)  We had a great Valentine's Day party at school on Saturday.   All of the parents came up to the school with the preschoolers and after playing a few games the kids got to open their sacks.  I think that the last V-Day party I was at was my 3rd grade year (the last year I was not homeschooled) and I had forgotten what a big deal it is to kids!  Becky made big, heart shaped cookies with all of the kids names on them.  The kids had made cards for everyone in the school and for Caden Emerson (he is 3 years old).  I got a rose from a guy!  Now granted he is only about 3 feet tall and cannot pronounce his "R's" very well, but it was a great flower!  :)  That night we (the adults...I'm one of those now! :) had a great bonfire at the Reeves house.  We sang many songs, made s'mores and played a fun game.  The dust has come back in, but it has not cooled off very well yet!  I am about to tell you a story that you are more than welcome to laugh about hysterically...  I got back to my room on Saturday night after the bonfire and walked into my bathroom.  As I shut the door I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.  I looked at the door that was not more than 2 ffet in front of me only to see a HUGE cockroach!!  It was 2 inches long!!  I don't know how many of you know this about me but I HATE , I mean LOATH, big roaches!  I...UGH!...they are just so fast and bleh!  Well, anyway, it kept flying at my head and it would not leave!  I sprayed it with bug spray, but those things just don't die!  I just could not make myself get close enough to smash it!  It went from the toilet room to the hall to the shower room to the hall to the shower room flying half the time and running really fast the rest of the time.  I thought about just figuring out how to close it up...but I could not stay out of the shower room forever!  So I ended up spraying it really well with bug spray and setting the trash can on top of it...after trying to kill it for about 30 min that is...  It is still there by the way...as of Sunday afternoon.  Feel free to laugh!  :) Please pray for the work that Matt and Brett are doing in Chamba (the village), the work that Dave and Mark are doing with the wells, the Hangen's as they move into their house, all of the guys have gone on a campout trip until Monday night so please keep them in your prayers as they travel and please pray that we teachers as we are trying to do a good job here and figure out what to do after we leave here!   Gob bless!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1233866940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1233866940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1233866940/tpod.html Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:54:51 -0500 Teaching in Togo

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Kara, Togo

Hello from the hot side of the world!  I hope that none of you have to deal with the ice storms that I have heard about!  If any of you do happen to have excess cold and feel like sending it to this side of the world we will GLADLY accept it!  The dust has cleared up in the last few days which means that it has heated back up to about 95* a day!     I am at the Emerson's house until March 4th.  It has been fun getting to know a new families routine and getting to make a new one for myself!  People keep asking me what my day looks like...so I am going to act like I am a writer and describe it for you!   We will start with my room...  My room is in the de pondance (my spelling in French may be worse than my spelling in English, in English is means "guest house") outside of the Emerson's house, but still in the same compound.  It is one story high, but you can walk up an outside stairway to sit on the roof and look out to the low mountain to the north, the outskirts of Kara to the west and the rest of Kara to the east and south.  As you walk through the door way into the guest house the door says "welcome" (but not in English of course).  There is a small hallway that runs parallel to the outside doorway and across the hall is a toilet room with a shower room right next to it.  The showers here are usually either a small room with only a shower head in it or there is just a shower head in the bathroom with the sink, toilet and a drain under the shower head.  At the left end of the hall there is a door that leads to one bedroom with a mural of two women pounding millet and on the right end of the hall is my room!  In my small room I have two windows, a bed and a wonderful closet!  The mural in my room, a common scene from the dirt road outside, is of two women with babies strapped to their backs balancing pots on their heads as they walk down their own road on my wall.  The floors in this room may be my favorite part as they are a reddish brown tile and I think that they are beautiful.  I have a small, round table in my hall that has a blue and white checkered cloth on it to keep my fall leaves and pumpkin man from having to sit on the floor.   As for my day...I leave the house at 7:30 to walk to the five blocks to school.   As I walk out of the compound I can see the mountain, now covered in dead brush, off to the right.  The road slopes down out of sight on my right, but I turn left towards a local school yard where some kids are practicing soccer.  As I reach the school yard I turn left again down another dusty, trash lined road that leads past some hair salons where the local women sit and talk, homes surrounded by dead brush and small stands that sell a random assortment of things.  The kids that I pass usually chant "anzi" ("white person") and then say "bye bye."  Moto taxis (small motorcycles) are constantly passing me.  Some motos are carrying people, some are carrying bags of all kinds of things, and some are carrying people who are carrying HUGE bags of things!  I walk past many people on their way to school or work and most of them say good morning in French or Kabyie.  If I need bread for lunch I walk on up to the main road but otherwise I would take the back way.  The main road runs through town and is the only paved road on this end of town.  You can buy bread for 100 CFA or 200 CFA (it is priced by size).  There is salt bread and sugar bread but I like the salt bread better!  The rest of my walk goes past a soccer field, Ernesto's Omelet Bar (he makes amazing omelets!) and a small market.   It takes me about 15 min to walk to school and it is never boring!  I never know when a donkey might decide that the road is really his...or some kids might start singing to me (anzi! Anzi!)...or, well, anything might happen!  :D   Hopefully this has answered some of those questions!  I pray that you all have a wonderful day!   Prayer Requests and Praises: A major praise: Matt Hangen is doing better, still coughing, but no longer in the hospital!  Another praise: Daniel is all well again!  Prayer requests: Nicole Kennell had TWO wisdom teeth removed last Saturday...you can imagine how great she feels!; The Hangens have found a house and are hoping to move in next week barring any issues!; (not here in Africa, but a prayer request none the less... My Grandpa had a root canal today; Dave Reeves had a root canal on Saturday; .  Please keep all of these in your prayers along with each other!   God bless!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1232981880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1232981880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1232981880/tpod.html Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:29:06 -0500 Teaching in Togo

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Kara, Togo

Good Monday morning!  I hope that you are all looking forward to a wonderful week!  I know that I should have done this long ago, but this year I have a new goal that tops my zillion other goals!  I am trying to read through the Bible in a year!  I have attempted it before...but I never get very far before I let other things, like sleeping a few more minutes in the morning or watching some movie that I have seen before get in the way.  I am reading it chronologically which is really fun because my history major mind works like that!  I realize that it is only the end of January, but so far I have kept up!  I don't know if you are doing the same thing, but if not you can always read the Bible...even if you don't start on January 1!  ;-)  I have found several little stories that I don't remember hearing before!  I tell you all of this because I am trying really hard to make reading the Bible a habit and I was hoping that maybe if you are doing to same thing (or want to start) then we can help each other keep on track!   School has been going pretty well.  The kids have been VERY wound up this week!  Not bad necessarily, but EXTREMELY active!  The preschoolers are starting to make words like hat, bat, cat, dad, etc.  They are trying to sound out everything and the most exciting part comes when they try to make words...that conversation usually goes something like this:  Asher/Gabe, "Miss Bekah!  What does this say?!"...Miss Bekah, "Well, nothing Asher/Gabe" (I'm afraid that "Captusx" does not say anything that I know of!  :)...Asher/Gabe, "But Miss Bekah can you sounds it out?"...So I sound it out and then they proceed to ask me what that means...  I'm afraid that communication breaks down somewhere!  Haha!  Bible is also an exciting class in preschool because they usually remember the idea of the story, but I'm afraid that the details elude them!  We were learning about Moses crossing the Red Sea, but apparently there is another version that I didn't know about!  I asked them to tell me what we talked about the day before and apparently Moses crossed the "Green Sea" to get away from the "German soldiers!"  :D  I don't even know where they would have heard about "German soldiers!"  The third graders have been working hard learning their sight words and have all mastered January list!  I started giving them old words and they actually remember most of them!  I am really proud of them!  I think I have learned how to spell almost as much as they have!  Haha!  They have also started a "research paper" this past week.  I know...I'm the mean teacher.  In history they are learning about the founding of America, so I got them to pick a founding father and every day I get them to find two more facts about their person.  It seems to be going really well, but they did kind of flip out when I told them what they were actually doing!  Have no fear...I'm not going to make them write a 15 page paper!  I would not want to do that to them...or myself!  ;)  The fifth graders are learning about India in history now...which is a lot of fun!  I have been kind of amazed at how much I remember from my "Asian History" class at HU!  Thanks Dr. Harris! :)  They are going to learn about four famous places in India and they have the option of making a video "Tour Guide" of the places!  I hope they do a video...I am pretty sure they would have a lot of fun, but it's not mandatory so we shall see! I am living at the Emerson's house now.  They don't have any kids old enough to go to school, so I walk to school every day.  It only took me three days to figure out the right road to go down to go the back way!  Kara is actually laid out in a grid pattern...so that made me missing the right road not such a bad thing...I just took the scenic route!  :)  It's actually kind of nice to get a nice 15 min walk in and then get there about 15 min before the kids do and get a few last min things together!  Not that I didn't love living with the Millers and Reeves, this is just another different set up!  It's kind of fun to move ever few months!  I am able to get to know all the families and I get to see what missionaries do on a day to day basis since I will get to live with all of them before I leave!  I will move to the Kennell's house on March 4 because the Emerson's are going back the states on furlough.  I don't know how many of you heard about this, but the Hangens (the newest missionary couple) spent five days in the hospital about five hours away from here because Matt Hangen was having breathing problems.  I think the final diagnosis was "bacterial pneumonia...or bronchitis," but either way it was not good.  He is back in Kara now and on the mend, but please keep him and Grace in your prayers.  They were able to rent a house here in town and were starting to paint, but paint fumes and lung problems don't mix well!  The Kennell's (the family that moved here in November) are moved into their house for the most part now.  A major praise for them is that their supporting churches were able to provide enough money for them to buy a truck!  That is such a blessing for them!  Mark brought it up on Saturday.The Togo Christian ladies hosted a women's retreat this past weekend.  I think it was the first thing like this that the ladies have organized and it went very well!  There were about forty women that came.  The ladies that did not live at the host village slept in the church building.  Becky Reeves stayed there the whole time and the rest of us went out when we could.  They are hoping to do this every year. Harmaton (the dust winds from the Sahara) are in full swing here!  It is SO dry here!  Everything dries in no time, but the dust means that everyone's feet look nasty!  It doesn't matter what you do...dust gets everywhere!  A few days ago I could not even see the BIG hill that is very near the Emerson's house!  It has not been that bad again, but the wind has been blowing today.  It has been cold in the mornings...and by cold I mean upper 50's to mid-60's, but that is pretty cold when all of the air flow comes from outside and not from AC or heaters! I hope that you all have a splendid week!  Please keep in your prayers: Matt and Grace Hangen as he recovers; The Kennell's as they continue to get settled and get into a groove; The Emerson's as they get ready for furlough and for all of us that we remain healthy!  Thanks so much for the messages!   God bless!PS.  I have uploaded pictures from the safari to my last blog post!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1232142780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1232142780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1232142780/tpod.html Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:58:15 -0500 Teaching in Togo

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Pendjari Park, Benin

Hey!Sorry I have been so awful about not updating this thing!  This post is for last week!       I hope you all have been having a splendid beginning of a new year!  I hear that somewhere in the world it a really cold...and it was really cold here this morning!  It was around 65* and I was really cold!  It is well into the Harmaton (dust blowing from the Sahara) and everything is VERY dry and VERY dusty!  The team is getting over the random ailments that seem to have attacked a lot of people here...strep throat, stomach virus and cold things.  ugh!  Thankfully I have managed to avoid all of the sickness so far!    I did find out yesterday that I will be home on May 1st.  That is about two weeks earlier than I origionaly thought, but that is how it has worked out.      Since I last wrote we have gotten back into school full swing!  The preschoolers are starting to learn to read as of this week and they are really excited!  We have been working on numbers and "padrens" (aka patterns :).  The third graders have been working very hard on their sight words this month.  Andrew (Andrea Miller's brother) is here and has been pushing the kids to learn their words!  It's been great!  We are working on writing papers that have an introduction, body and conclusion...but they are not very excited about that!   The fifth graders are learning about South East Asia now and they have been doing very well about getting their projects in.  Now, I know that all of you want more exciting school updates...BUT I just have to tell you about the excitement earlier this week!     Sunday morning we (the Reeves, Millers and all three of us teachers) left to go to Benin!  Benin is the country just to the east of Togo.)  Why would we go there you might ask?  Well...because in Benin there is an amazing place called "Pendjari National Wildlife Park!"  It was awesome!We left early Sunday morning and got there a little before dark so we went to a look out point that is beside a small lake.  There were five hippos in the lake!  Three were huge and then there were two little ones.  There were also LOTS of crocodiles!  As we were leaving a bunch of baboons got up into the lookout point and so no one else to go up there!...they tend to get a little dangerous...  After we dropped our stuff at the hotel in the park we drove around and saw some amazing birds and one massive elephant!  The Millers stayed with the hotel huts, but the Reeves and the three of us teachers camped beside the hotel.  It was SO cold in the mornings, but it was a ton of fun to get up at 4:30 and go drive around with Matt, Andrew (Matt's brother-in-law.  I went to Harding with him), Asher and Aidan!  We saw a jackal, sybit (a big cat), some Roan antelope, and lots of Cobb...like deer.  They were all so beautiful, but we were hoping to see a lion!  Once it got light Aidan and Asher decided that they were warm enough to ride on top of the car...riiiiiiiiight.  Them riding on top meant that Andrew and I had to go up so that the boys didn't fall off.  It was so cold that the boys quickly decided that they did not want to be on top...but we were already moving...  We came around one corner and right in front of us was a big mama elephant with her baby!  I think we were all a little surprised!  She was not very happy and I was hoping she would chase us...but she didn't....oh well, better luck next time!  We drove around all day with no lions in sight and then as we were about the go back...... we came up on the Reeves car.  They were all over it looking in front of them and when we got beside them what would be laying in the road?!  A BIG lioness!!  Dave said that they were driving down the road and saw some cobb off to the left and something walking down the road at them.  They couldn't tell what it was until she got closer and they realized that it was a lion!!  She walked over to the side of the road and lay down...watching the cobb.  The cobb ran off because of the car, but she just walked to the middle of the road and plopped down right there!  She wasn't even 100 feet in front of the car!  She didn't move when we got there...just kept staring at us!  All of the sudden she jumped up and ran at US!!  ....come to find out she was running at the cobb behind us...but she did run right at the car and just ran right past us!!  She stalked on by and then we out of sight!  The next morning (Tuesday) we went out early and saw a big family of elephants!  It was a lot of fun!  Then we left the park and went to a HUGE waterfall!  I don't know if you have ever seen the real "Jungle Book," but the water fall in there is what it looked like!  It was amazing!  We swam across the big pool to the waterfall and the ledge that you can jump off of!  It was really really really cold...but once you go numb it's not so bad!  ;-)  I hope that you all have a marvelous weekend!  I am going to do my best to get another post update as soon as I can!  I'll also be adding pics asap!God bless!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1231016040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1231016040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1231016040/tpod.html Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:13:18 -0500 Teaching in Togo

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Kara, Togo

Hello all and one!  I hope that you all had a wonderfully blessed holiday season!  I'm sorry I didn't get a post up when I got home!  I'm afraid I was not home long enough to want to do anything but spend time with my family!  I'm so glad I got to see some of you while I was there...if  I didn't get to see you I'm very sorry!   Hopefully I will be able to remedy that in May!  All of my family is doing well and we had a great time while I was home!   I feel refreshed and ready to finish out the year!  Now, after flying for 15 hours, sitting in the Amsterdam airport for 6 hours, spending the night in Ghana and driving for 12 hours....I am back in Kara!  The drive was not supposed to be that long...usually it is only 8 hours, but we lost...more obliterated...two belts on the vehicle in which we were riding within about 10 minutes of each other!!   The first was the AC belt...well, we could live without that...so we kept going and not very long after we here that same sound...just bigger!  Well, that one was one of the two VERY important belts in the car (I'm afraid I'm not very technically inclined ;)!  We could have kept going, but we were afraid the other one would go out and the car was still running at this point but would not be if the other one did break!  We spend a little more than an hour trying to find the right belts because they just have a ton of belts hanging up and you just have to search!  Thankfully Matt H. is a mechanic so he was able to get it fixed!  THEN...Ghana had elections recently for their president and today they announced it!  It must have come across the radio as we started back on the road because every city and town between there and the border had LOTS of people in the roads celebrating!  It was crazy!  It took a very long time to drive through the zillions of people that were in the road everywhere...but it was interesting to see!  We are planning on getting back into school on Tuesday so please pray that all of that goes smoothly!  I pray that all of you will be safe as you travel and finish up the holiday season!God bless!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1229356020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1229356020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mgibb05/2/1229356020/tpod.html Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:25:32 -0500 Teaching in Togo

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Fort Valley, Georgia, United States

Hello all!I hope that you have all had a wonderful past two weeks!  We have all been busy with school stuff and getting ready for all three of us teachers to be gone for Christmas!  That's right...I'm getting to go home for Christmas (Lord willing)!  Surprise!  :)  I'll be home from Dec. 17th (I fly into ATL at 2 PM) - Jan 1.  I didn't plan on this, but I was able to find a very cheap ticket after Thanksgiving that was the same schedule as the guys!  We will be leaving in the morning (the 16th) at 6 AM for Accra, Ghana and then fly out that night.  I have a layover in Amsterdam and then on to ATL!  Please keep us in your prayers!  We have an 8-10 hour drive and one border crossing!  I hope to see a lot of you while I am home!  I don't know if we will make it back for church on Wednesday night, but I will be there on Sunday!God bless!PS...Anna and Jacob DO NOT KNOW THAT I AM COMING!!!  PLEASE DO NOT SAY ANYTHING TO THEM ABOUT IT!!!!!!!  Thanks!
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