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  Kara, Togo
Sunday, September 7, 2008

Bonsoir! (if that is how you spell it!?) Anywho...Hello!

What a week! We hiked to a waterfall on Monday after one of the kid's birthday party. The Miller family, Daniel, Bennett and I went on the hike. It was so beautiful! It was the first day that I have seen with so much sun! On the way out there we got to drive up into the mountains which are very green but strewn with many rocks. Matt said that "kabyie" (the people group here) means "rock movers (or something like that if I remember correctly)." There were many makeshift terraces where the crops were being grown. Everything is very green and lush from all of the rain that we have been getting. We left the car parked at a school about 15 minutes outside of Kara and about 10 miles from the Benin boarder. We got out of the car to begin our hike and it started sprinkling, but we had already driven out there...so we went anyway

one of my newest students

! We had to walk through the school yard and into many fields. There was millet and corn that made me feel like an ant walking through it because it was so tall and then we came to the first few low dips in the ground (the beginning of the mountains) and there were lots of peanuts planted. There were also many tomato plants planted on the sides of the mountains. We were in the mountains, but as soon as we got to the top of the mountain we could see a vast, flat plain that stretched out into the horizons. We hiked along for about 10-15 minutes and then realized that we had missed out turn down to the waterfall. The waterfall was down in a valley between the mountain we were on and the one next to it. We could see the waterfall, but it was much too steep to just go straight down! About the time we realized this we looked across the plain and saw a massive rain cloud coming at us! It was moving very quickly but it was SO heavy! We waited for the rain to stop and then started down. Daniel, Bennett and I had Asher (4 years old)(the next day my arm was sore from hanging on to him! :) and we all reached the bottom safely. The waterfall was beautiful! The pool beneath it was only about knee deep because of all the runoff from the farming that is done on the sides of the mountains, but it was very pretty! We put our stuff down on a ledge and Daniel and I climbed up the waterfall. I had walked across a little pool and turned around to talk to Daniel. I only stood there for about a minute but when I started back across I thought the water was higher. Well, I just assumed that I crossed back over at a different spot. When we were about to climb back down Andrea yelled and told us to go around on dry ground....we assumed she just didn't want us to kill ourselves....little did we know! When we started around the corner I saw Bennett way down stream and assumed he was exploring. We got to the bottom of the waterfall about another minute later and found out that the water had risen about 3 feet in the 3-4 minutes that we were at the top of the waterfall

my other new student

! Well, we were working on getting the kids across the now swiftly running water when Andrea said that our bags had started to float away! Daniel realized that one of my chacos (sandals) had floated away along with my (really my mom's...sorry mom) hat! Bennett was trying to chase it down but to no avail! Matt told some of the local kids that if they found it and left it at the school that we would pay them. Thankfully Andrea had brought her chacos and was wearing another pair of shoes so I was able to wear her shoes to get back to the car. My camera had been acting up that day but when my bag started floating...well, lets just say that someone needs to invent a waterproof digital camera! Ugh! We all got back home safely...minus one shoe, but at least no one was hurt! When we got home I found out that my room in the guest house was also flooded...so a lot of my stuff was well watered! I had to leave to go to the Reeve's house for dinner but Mana (the house helped) and her oldest son were amazing and mopped it out for me! I have been able to find some shoes and I'm still looking for a camera that the group that is coming to visit in three weeks can bring! In all, I figure that if the worst thing that happens is that I loose some stuff then nothing really bad happened! No one was hurt, my floor needed to be mopped anyway, and I now appreciate dry things a lot more!

As for the rest of my week...Bennett shadowed Daniel and me on Tuesday and Wednesday so that he could get the hang of things before we had him start teaching. I feel like an old pro having someone shadow me! :) I will admit that for any rocky moments that I might have had teaching third grade...I really miss them! But, I'm sure Bennett will get the hang of things and everything will be good! We waited to start preschool until Bennett got here, so the first day of preschool was Thursday

look at them working so hard!

. The preschool room is in a small building outside of the main building, but in the same compound. I have two boys in there too! They are good and funny to watch them at school since I have lived with both of their families! Thursday it rained all day so we had inside PE. It was kind of hard to go from teaching third grade to teaching kids that only know their letters...kind of, but I have taught that age at church...it has just been a while! I taught them how to write the first letter of their first names on the first day (wow...that's a lot of firsts!). They did a good job but "A" and "G" are not easy to write! Diagonal lines and curved lines take a lot of practice! Preschool ends at noon and then I teach third grade vocabulary and then fifth grade history. Saturdays are very strange because we don't have preschool! I don't have anything until 11:15 when I teach the fifth grade vocab class (they only have that class on Sat.)! I slept in until 8:00! It was amazing! I feel like a total bum since Daniel and Bennett still have to get up and teach, BUT I did get to go to the market with Andrea today and I got the guys some groceries.

I had not had time to go to the market until then so I was really excited! We drove into town and went to the tailor's first because Andrea had some things she needed done and I had some material I had bought and want to have made into a skirt

here comes the rain

. He has a large compound with many apprentices. Andrea told me that he is very good to the people that apprentice under him. When they finish with their time there he gives them a sewing machine (foot powered because electricity is so iffy here). He had me measured and then Andrea and I headed off to the market. We had to go to a store to break some 10,000 CFA bills because no one in the market has the money to give you change for bills that big but that is what the ATM gives you when you get money! (The exchange rate is $1 USD to about 450 something CFA (said like "sea fa (fa like father)") We had to wait for the power to come back on to check out and then we headed into the market. The market here is very big and the bottom floor is very dimly lit from holes in the ceiling that go all the way from the top floor to the bottom to let in sun light. It takes up an entire square and on the outside it just looks like many shops along a block, but if you look up you will see a second story! It looks like a large parking garage surrounded by shops from the outside. We went in through an ally and were in the random stuff section which has kitchen stuff, tools and cloth. There are so many different cloths here! Some are crazy, some are pretty, some are hilarious (like the ones with cell phones, chickens or fuel pump nozzles drawn on them) and some are just down right ugly...but they are always fun to look at! We were looking for seed packets for us to use up at the school. It took us a while, but we finally found a guy selling lettuce in the open air part of the market that was able to locate some for us

and now it's gone

. Andrea was nice enough to take me upstairs to see what was up there. Saturdays are not big market days so there were not many people up there. Tuesdays and Fridays are usually the biggest days. The food stuff is on the first floor and everything else is upstairs. We went back down another side and walked through the meat section...I don't want to know how they eat some of that stuff and if I have already eaten it, well, I'm glad I didn't know it at the time! :) We also walked through the fetish section where you can buy pelts, animal sculls, animal...lots of other things and stuff for traditional medicine. We ran by Freedous (a grocery store that I am pretty sure I just murdered the spelling of!) and then she dropped me off at the school house.

Her daughter made "pavlova" which is a dessert from New Zealand. It was AMAZING! If you have never had it you need to find the recipe and make it! We are studying New Zealand in my fifth grade history class and she decided to make that for her project for the week (like we had the amazing luau a few weeks ago). I definitely like teaching history! :) After school we walked home. Matt and Andrea had gone to a baptism in one of the villages where eight people were baptized! After they got back we went out to eat! There is an Italian guy that has just opened an Italian restaurant here and the team had eaten there a while back, so we got to try out the pizza

when we arrived the waterfall looed like this

! Oh my goodness! It was amazing! It was MUCH better then the pizza I had in Italy! I know this is going to sound weird, but on a part of one of them he out artichoke...it was AMAZING! SO good! I really don't only travel for the food because if I only went places for the food I might never leave home BUT food is a major side benefit! :)

I forgot to mention that I got a care package on Thursday! Thanks everyone involved! I really appreciate it! :) The food is great and the letter is very welcome!

I hope that you are all braving the hurricanes! We are still without fuel...please keep praying about that! I appreciate all of your messages and prayers! I cannot tell you how much they mean to me! I know I say that every week...but it is still true! I pray that God continues to bless you all!

P.S. Sorry this message was so long...but I could not decide what to leave out!

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down the valley to the plain	me with Anna Marie	some kids that followed us	after the rain!

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