Hey hey! We made it through week three!

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  Kara, Togo
Monday, August 25, 2008

Bonjour!  Ca va?  (Hello!  How are you!)  ...ok, well, that's all the French I really know!  Haha! 
 
Oh!  I have uploaded pictures onto two of my previous posts on here!  (just wanted to mention that since I didn't know if it would email you about it!)
 
I hope that none of you have been in the path of the hurricane!  I have been trying to keep up with the news...but downloading stuff is pretty slow here!  We are all still VERY wet over here!  It actually didn't rain for THREE days in a row, but this morning it started raining again!  It was nice while it lasted though!  The rainy season lasts until September or October usually.   Everything is very green and it has only been up to 90 degrees on one day since I got here!  There are not a lot of trees here...well, not a lot compared to Georgia

Designs with wax

.  There are rain trees, whose leaflets resemble ferns, and there are teak wood trees EVERYWHERE!  Other than those...there are a few other trees, but mostly it is just lots of big bushes and grass.  There are several mountains (not mountain chains really...just mountains) around us that are beautiful, especially at sunset!   They are covered with grass and low lying trees and shrubbery and are really beautiful right now because of all the rain!  They just seem to slowly slope up on one side and then there is usually a sharp drop off on the other side.  None of them look that tall, but I know they are.  We were supposed to go hiking this morning, but it is still pouring down rain...hopefully it will not be raining next Monday! 
 
Andrea was taking the guests from Alabama to Cohdani (Koe-donny) on Monday and since we don't have school on Mondays I was able to go with them!  Cohdani is a place that people with disabilities can work.  They dye fabric, make fabric, tie-dye, and use wax to make some amazing patterns!  We got to walk through the work area.  All of the people that work there have some kind of physical or mental disability that prevents them form being able to work at other jobs.  The first room we went into was the drawing room.  You can order special things by bringing them a picture and they will draw it onto the fabric and then dye it however you want!  The next area was where they dye the fabric and then put wax on it in different designs and dye it again...that way you can put the fabric in hot water and melt the wax and you have a pattern in the first color on fabric that is the second color!  It's really amazing!  The rest of the area was where they made other designs.  There were blind men tie-dying some fabric and other people drawing pictures in wax to make tapestries.  I got two panels of fabric to give to the local tailor to make me two skirts

Drawing out the patterns

. 
 
The school week went much smoother than the first.  By Saturday the boys could spell all but ONE of their spelling words!  The words are sight words...like "again" and they have been having a really hard time with most of them all week, but after writing the words every night they finally only missed one on the "test" that we had on Saturday!  I was so excited!  Saturday we also had a luau after school!  In my history class that I teach for the 5th graders the kids had to pick one project that was due Saturday.  One of the girls picked to do a report on Guam and Fiji and the other girl chose to host a luau (we are studying the Pacific islands right now).  It went off very well!  The lady guests were there and the girl missionaries.  We (my class and I) put flowers everywhere and she and her mom got different fruits and such.  We played "limbo" which was also really funny! 
 
The moment of truth came on Sunday...would I get to go to a village church!?!?!?!  Dun dun dun dun!  Well, the answer to that question is....... Nope!  We had found a way around the bridge that was still out from last week, but as we were driving up the road we came upon some of the Christians from that church and they said that they were going to fix the bridge that morning...so no church that morning!  By that time all the other churches around had already started...so we went back to the house!  We went to the Miller's for church that afternoon and then I went to the Emerson's for dinner!  Yum!  There is still no fuel in Kara, so they have to drive to Ghana to get fuel. 
 
I think that I am moving back over to the Miller's on Thursday or Friday...but I'm not sure which day

Monkey at Cohdani

!  Bennett will get into Ghana on Tuesday and Matt will pick him up on Friday when he drops the guests off at the airport.  Bennett will be at the Baptist Guest House (kind of a hotel)...they are not making him stay at the airport until Friday!  :)   Preschool will start sometime next week...I think Bennett is going to shadow Daniel and me for a few days before he really starts teaching on his own. 
 
I do have a few prayer requests this week!  We need fuel for the cars and for the stoves!  The missionaries drive to the further villages and need fuel to do that!  The stoves are hooked up to fuel tanks in the house that they refill, but no fuel is getting through.  That is also hurting the local taxi drivers and restaurants!  Please pray that the area will be able to get fuel easier!  Secondly...and this goes with the first one...please pray that the roads will get cleared up!  Since the roads are so bad, the fuel trucks cannot get through to bring fuel up here and the missionaries need to be able to get to Accra to pick people up and drop them off over the next month or so! 
 
Thank you all so much for your messages!  I'm sorry if I have not responded to all of them!  I really do appreciate them all but the power is a little iffy sometimes...and when the power goes out the internet goes out!  I pray that all of you have a wonderful week!
 
God bless!

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Out my window

Panels of fabric

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