(I know this is terribly late! I had it written in a kind of short hand and only just got to filling it out. I'm finally working on a new post, which will explain why I'm so behind. It's been a crazy month and a half! -lisa)
4/21/11 (Thu.)
Okay, I need to not turn this account of our first trip into a novel, so here is a more brief account of our time in Togo (it was simpler, so it should be easier to be brief)
Yesterday morning we drove west from Parakou, Benin across the border into Togo, to the city of Kara. There we met Gid. (the Togo National Director) and Mat. (the Burkina-Faso National Coordinator). We only spent about a day and a half in Togo so there wasn’t time to participate in outreaches there, but as a result we did finally get to rest after constantly packing, driving, and doing outreaches. We had a nice relaxed to lunch with them. Jon had goat served in peanut sauce with a big blob of enyams (pounded white yams). It was really good, I tasted it. I was in the mood for something more plain and normal, so I had an omelet.
We then had time to rest at hotel. I read. Jon slept. It was pretty hot though... and it was the lowest quality room we had been in so far, because the room Gid. had reserved for us was no longer available. The President of Togo was having some kind of youth conference, so they took any rooms they wanted regardless of a reservation. The hotel we ended up staying in cost $7/night for our room because it had an A/C unit (which didn’t work), Tom’s room was $5 without A/C, and Jim’s was $3 with no A/C and a shared bathroom. Needless to say, it wasn’t the best of places. It would have been fine if it weren’t for the iffy cleanliness of the bed, and the fact that it was sooo hot and our A/C didn’t work, and we didn’t have a fan in our room. So we had a pretty wrestles night. Slept on top of the covers and prayed that we wouldn’t find lice or bed bugs in the morning! But we made it through, and though I was paranoid and kept feeling itchy for a couple of days it was only my imagination.
So, anywho, before that night, we were able to sit with Gid. and Mat., asking Mat. about his ministry, how we can serve him, etc. It was a good meeting. We are very happy and eager to hear from the team in the field about their ministry with OneHope and to find out their needs. That’s what we’re here for, to serve them and help them as we are able in bringing God’s word to the children in their countries.
For dinner we went to an African restaurant and had guinea hen, enyam, and peanut sauce. It was quite good. (the guinea hens are really pretty when they’re alive. They’re like very big grey quails.)
So, this morning we said goodbye to Matthias, got in car at 6:45, drove about 7 or 8 hours to Lome, on the coast of Benin, right next to Ghana border. Jon and I were jammed in front seat which was really only big enough for 1 ½ people. Tom, Jim, Gid. sat in back. The squished position made for a very looong drive. Some bad roads, not toooo bad though.
We arrived at a mission compound/ bible school around 3pm and finally ate lunch/dinner at 4:30 before spending time talking with Gideon to ask him about his ministry.
It’s about 7:30 now. We’re in our room. I’m all showered, teeth brushed, cooled down in an air conditioned room, ready for bed. Jon is passed out next to me but hasn’t showered or anything yet. He groggily said he would though. Heheh
Tomorrow morning it’s across the border to Ghana where we’ll be picked up by Pastor Elorm! (RD Eng. Speaking West Africa) We’ll be there for over a week, so we won’t have to be packing up our luggage every morning and transporting it back and forth between the car and our rooms! Finally we’ll be in one place longer than two days! Excited about that!
Post Script: I'm not going to write full out about our time in Ghana, but it was pretty simple so I'll just give you a little briefing right now.
Basically, we stayed in Tema, about an hour or two East of Accra (depending on traffic) on the coast. We had a great time with Past Elorm and his team. They took us sight seeing as well, to the rain forest canopies, which are suspension bridges between big tall trees. That was really cool, but unfortunately we didn't see any wild life besides plants and butterflies and mosquitoes. It wasn't very deep in the forest, and the animals are only really around there at night or early morning. But it was still cool. And we went to Cape Coast where there is an old castle which was used during the slave trade to hold and sell slaves before they were shipped to various countries. That was very interesting, and despite it's history, the castle was beautiful. It was bright white, and literally had ocean waves crashing against it on the coast side. And fishing boats lined the beach. Very pretty.
We also went on ferry ride across part of the Volta River with Pastor Elorm and his wife, which was fun. The bad experiences we had there revolved around pizza, which is just not very good there, and they don't seem to get it. But, I guess that's not the worst thing that could have gone wrong! ;)
Then of course we spent time in the office there talking about the ministry and various logistical things, and we went and saw their warehouse where they keep the books and did random box count (counting the books in random boxes to see if the printer was putting the right amount of books in each box. unfortunately for one of the products there was a consistent shortage of 1-5 books... bad printer. *tsk*tsk*). Yup.
So, there is a very brief account of our time in Ghana.
=)
-Lisa
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