Over the River!

Trip Start Aug 01, 2008

Trip End May 01, 2009

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Flag of Togo Kara, Togo
Saturday, August 9, 2008

Bonjour! I'm sorry it has been so long since I have sent out an update! The wireless at our house was not working and then on Aug. 7 a bridge collapsed and cut the optical cable that was for the cell phones and the wireless internet! We could still call in Kara, but only with land lines. You would be surprised how many people here have cell phones! There are several companies here that sell them and many people in this city of 32,000 people have one!

Daniel and I worked on the school house for most of the first week that we were here. Usually they get the interns to clean the school house out during the summer, but this summer they were too busy, so we got the job! We went through and organized a lot of stuff, relocated a lizard or two, and demolished a few spiders' homes and finally we were pretty much ready for school to start! I am going to be teaching several 3 grade classes, the 5 grade vocabulary class and the 5 grade history class until Benett gets here

Local village

. After he arrives I will be teaching the preschool 4 mornings a week, and a 3 grade class and 5 grade history. We start school on Tuesday!

I don't know if any of you have read about the flooding in West Africa...but if you have don't worry! We should not have anything to worry about. The villages are having a hard time right now, but we are not in a village. Driving is a little difficult and walking to the school is not pleasant...but we make it! Our house is also not close to a river, but we should not have to worry about that! The biggest problem....other than the phones and internet is that the fuel trucks cannot get through because the bridge is gone and everyone here drives motorcycles (they just call them "motos"). There are moto taxis but I have not been brave enough to try that. Some of the guys do, but I don't think I have to get anywhere THAT fast! The missionaries also drive their trucks out to the villages that are pretty far away, but without fuel they cannot get out there and back in a day. BUT we still have electricity, which means we still have fans and since it gets dark so early here that means we don't have to use candles to eat dinner!

Did I mention that the food here is usually spicy? When we stopped at the Togo boarder on our way here from Ghana, the guards at the station gave us some of their food

Mango trees and church

. Thankfully Matt ate a bite first so that we knew what to do! We pulled off pieces of this white, gooey blob made of crushed corn mixed with water and cooked and dipped it in this pot of reddish brown liquid with big green leaves that looked like okra leaves in it. Well, I admit I was a little apprehensive about it, but I couldn't be rude so Daniel and I dug in and well, lets just say that it was...down right AMAZING! The white stuff (cannot remember the name) would have been VERY bland by itself, but the sauce was hot in a grab your throat kind of way with a slight hint of okra! YUM!! I'm afraid that the description might not sound good, and it didn't look good, but it was awesome! This is the second country that I have been in where they cook the leaves and not necessarily the pods!

Thank you all so much for your emails and messages! I really appreciate them all! Well, I hope that I will be able to get updates out again soon! Until then!
God bless!