West Africans

These are a few pictures of West Africans I've taken while I've been here. Enjoy!

Goats are included in this because they might just be West Africa's most common resident.

There's A First Time For Everything

     A couple of Sundays ago was a day of firsts for me. I rode on a "zimmy John" (motorbike/ motorcycle) to get to church. Taking a motorbike instead of a taxi is about half the price. The zimmy John drivers will go places that taxi drivers won't. In this case, Bienvenu told us that the church was in an "unpopular" part of the city where taxis don't like to go, so we had to take motor bikes. I think I saw my life flash before my eyes a couple of times as cars came very close, and we hit several large bumps along the dirt roads. They don't wear helmets here either. I must say though, it was a lot of fun! The zimmy drivers wouldn't take us all the way, so we walked the rest of the way to church. Then we arrived to a church underneath a mango tree. The church does not have a building yet, so they meet under the shade of a mango tree. There were about twenty to twenty-five people at the service. I went to church with another nurse and one of the West African dayworkers, Bienvenu. He is originally from the country of Benin, which is a French speaking country next to Togo. I met him at the beginning of my time here. his story is very interesting. He was a Muslim who came to Christ because he read the Bible to try and refute it. He was part of a Muslim group who were actively against Christians. Now he is absolutely sold out for Jesus! The church members were so kind and welcoming to us. Their children were precious and wanted to hug us and sit on our laps. After church, we went to Bienvenu's house, which was a room with a mattress on the floor. It was very simple. There was an outhouse outside, and the cooking was done over an openfire. Then we went to another church member's house to have lunch. His wife prepared us a traditional West African meal of Akunme and sauce with fish in it. It was really good! Akunme is made of cornmeal flour mixed with hot water and beaten until it forms a kind of "playdough" textured dough. The traditional way to eat it, is to eat with your hands. One takes a piece of the dough and dips it into the sauce. Everyone eats out of the same bowl :) It actually is so fun to eat that way. I love that everything here is about community, even down to how one eats! I also drank pure coconut juice out of the coconut today for the first time, and then ate some of the coconut meat. Random tropical medicine fact: apparently, coconut juice is sterile and full of nutrients. If someone is in the jungle and needs IV fluids, one can use sterile coconut juice. By the way, coconut juice really does not have much flavor, and is not that good, in my opinion. The meat is better when it is drier because otherwise, its kind of slimy.

     During the past two Friday nights, a group of people from the ship have gone to Le Gallion (a French hotel and restaurant) in Lome. There is a live band consisting of mostly West Africans and one Frenchman, that plays there every weekend. They are fantastic. They play a mixture of rock, jazz, blues, and reggae. Last Friday we went there for a going away party for several nurses that were leaving for home. It was a great night of good music and dancing. It was a funny site: a group of Yovos (this is the name Togalese have for white people) dancing! After Le Gallion, we went to a place called La Rumba. Its a salsa place and we had a great time dancing salsa. Who would have thought, salsa dancing in West Africa?! Its interesting the people one meets abroad. We met Lebanese-Italians at Le Gallion, as well as a group from India. Most of these internationals are in Lome because they own businesses here. We also met some peace core workers, and some Germans on vacation. That is why I love to travel because you get to meet and talk to the most interesting people. Well there have been other firsts, but that's all for now :)

Hospital Baptiste Biblique

     This past weekend was spent traveling to Hospital Baptiste Biblique with a couple of friends. I was excited to get to visit this mission hospital in Tsiko, Togo. I knew about it because it is the site where my church at home, College Park Church, sends teams of missionary doctors and medical teams to work. A couple of people from the ship were interested in going, so we met up and traveled together. Tsiko is about three and a half hours north of Lome, and the roads are mostly paved! Although there were many pot holes to be had, paved roads with pot holes are always better than dirt roads with pot holes. As always, our experience trying to get transportation was a challenge! One of the things I will not miss about West Africa is having to take taxis! Laura, one of the nurses who went on the trip, had already lined up a taxi driver to meet us and drive us to Tsiko. That would have been such a geat idea if he would have shown up to take us, but alas...he did not. After some time, we found another driver and after bartering over a fair price, we set off. Fortunately, Laura speaks a little bit of French after living in West Africa for four years. That comes in handy when you are bartering. I should note here that the agreement was that there would only be four passengers (us) in the small taxi the entire way, we would travel straight from Lome to the mission hospital in Tsiko, and we would pay 2,000 CFAs each (approximately $4.00-5.00 each). Laura knew this was the fair price that most other people have paid in the past. We reviewed this aggreement with the driver multiple times before stepping foot into the taxi; he smiled and shook our hands in agreement. We set off and about an hour and a half into our journey, the poor, battered, little taxi began to sputter along. We had several stops along the side of the road while the driver peered under the car hood. It was not looking good. We nicknamed the car the "little engine that could" hoping it would pull through for us. The driver made it to a roadside mechanic. By this time of the day, the sun was at its hottest. We found a bench under a tree and settled ourselves in for a long break. I did get to finally try water out of a plastic bag while waiting for our taxi to be fixed. Because water bottles are more expensive here, many Africans drink water that is in small 500 mL bags. I learned that its safe to drink the water bags that have blue print on them because they are sealed. After what seemed like a very long time, the taxi was fixed and we set off again. Because its West Africa our transportation adventures weren't over yet. As we pulled into Kpalime, the large city before Tsiko, our driver slowed the car down to pull over. We asked him what he was doing, and he stated this is your destination, I am dropping you off (in French of course). When held to account by Laura about our agreement, he stated he never made such an agreement and tried to charge us the full price. Laura told him if he wasn't taking us the rest of the way, we would not pay him the full price. During this entire exchange, hands were flying, voices were raised; to me it appeared that people were angry. Laura told me later that no one was angry, this is just the African way to barter. The driver tries to rip us off, we refuse; everybody smiles and shakes hands at the end. I still have so much to learn about the culture here. Anyways, we found another driver to take us the rest of the way. He tried to go back on our agreed price too, but we stuck to our guns. It was with a huge sigh of relief that we reached the mission hospital compound. The compound sits at the foot of a mountain with jungle surrounding it. Its beautiful and very peaceful, especially after leaving noisy, busy, dusty Lome. The area around the hospital compound is lush and green, with more wildlife then we see in Lome. There are also numerous, gigantic Termite mounds around the area. I learned later that the mission was built in this location because a missionary was told by God to build it in the area with large, brown mounds. When the mission was built in the early-mid 1980s, the missionaries needed to find a location where a well could be drilled. Apparently, termites need water, so if you see termite mounds, there will be a water source present. This is just one of many neat stories where God provided for this mission.

     The mission has very nice guest houses for visiting missionaries where we were able to stay. Saturday morning we woke up early and met a guide who took us hiking behind the mission into the jungle and up the mountain. We left for our hike at 7:30 in the morning and didn't get back to the mission until 11:30. The trail we hiked got narrower and narrower as we progressed. We passed remote huts in the jungle. Our guide pointed out different trees and plants to us. There were banana, plantain, coco, palms, cassava (like yams), and coffee bean plants. The people that live in these jungles live off the land. We saw lots of strange bugs and birds too. Our destination was a beautiful waterfall. Hiking early in the morning was a wise idea because by eleven am it was hot! The girls had to hike in skirts which I must say is not an easy task along steep, slippery trails. The mission requested that we wear skirts out of respect for the locals in the region. Although I wore bug spray, I still had bites on my legs because I didn't have pants to cover them. After our long hike, we came back and took a refreshing swim in the mission's pool. By this time, it was in the high 90s. The sun is so intense here. Some of our other friends from the Mercy Ship came up to meet us that afternoon which was fun. I also got to meet some of the other missionaries at the mission who have been there for more then twenty years. I'm just in Africa for three months; it absolutely amazes me how some of these people have had the perserverance to be here for twenty or more years. I finally got to meet Katie, a physician's assistant from Indianapolis who has been working at this hospital for seven weeks. Nate Irwin had told me about her before I left, so it was cool to meet her. She gave us a tour of the hospital. One of the girls in our group was able to assist in a c section birth later that night.

     Sunday morning we got up early to round with the physicians in the hospital. It was a really neat experience. They took the time to explain everything to us and I really got to see what it would be like to work in a rural African hospital. They use glass jars for IV solution bottles, and go without many times. Their family practice physicians perform many different surgeries because there is no one else specialized there to do them. They have a NICU/ nursery and pediatric ward. They have a large labor and delivery unit too. While we were there, several c sections were performed. Unfortunately, we were told that many times women come to the hospital after they have been in labor for many hours at home and things are not progressing well. By the time they come to the hospital, sometimes its too late. We saw this the last morning we were there, when we were told one of the women in labor was going to have a stillbirth. They already knew that the baby was dead. One thing I have observed here in Africa is how different death is viewed here than at home. I don't mean that there isn't sadness or grief. In fact, the people here wail and are very vocal with their grief. What is different, is that it is much more accepted as a part of life. People don't seem to fight against it like we do at home. The life expectancy here is much lower than at home, and many people die during childhood as well. We see this acceptance of death in the hospital on the Mercy Ship as well. People expect pain too. Because death and pain are issues confronted more frequently here, I wonder if people here have come to accept them as a natural part of life. Whereas in the Western world, we have tried to prevent death and pain as much as possible, so they seem so unnatural. Along with this idea of acceptance of death, comes I've noticed, an increased faith in God among believing Africans. Many of the West Africans here seem to have real, concrete faith that God will provide. Isn't it amazing that those with little have bigger faith.

James 1:9-11 says, "Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits."

I've been thinking about these themes lately quite a bit. God seems to grant unwavering faith to these people who have so little. They also have much less to compete with their faith in Jesus and they see what He does for them and don't attribute it to chance or good luck. How do I draw on this mentality? How do I become more like this when I go back home? Its not about laying a guilt trip on myself. Its about how much do I want Jesus? Am I uncompromising in my desire to put Him above all other distractions at home?

     This trip was a really valuable one. It made me think a lot. I met some really cool people too. The Dekrygers are American missionaries who are working at the mission hospital currently until ABWE finishes building a hospital in Northern Togo. Then the Dekrygers will be moving up north to head up that medical center. Todd Dekryger was a family practice physician from Michigan who left his practice in 2007 and moved his family to Tsiko, Togo to work at the mission hospital. I was able to meet him, his wife, Jennifer, and their four boys over the weekend. I went to church with them on Sunday morning. They truly love the Togalese people and were a great example to me of what long term missionaries should be. I am thankful that I got to meet them and visit this hospital. I hope I take home with me some of what I learned and saw here.

West African Adventures

     Since I have been in Togo, I've been on two overnight trips. They have been great ways to get to know fellow Mercy shippers. These two trips have also shown me more of Togo and her people. Over a week ago, I went to Lake Togo with four girls from the Mercy Ship and three local Togalese guides. We stayed in bungalows overlooking the lake. They were cute, but really basic. Each bungalow had a double bed, a shower, toilet, and fan. Thank goodness for the fan when there was no air conditioning! I slept on a mattress on the floor because I was coming down with a chest cold and the girls were concerned I might get them sick... I tried not to have hard feelings about that, especially since there was an ant colony that had taken up residence next to my mattress. As the ants gradually began to find their way onto my mattress, I decided that I was going to have to move my mattress to the other bungalow where there were less ants to be found!

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am deathly afraid of all things creepy and crawly. I had a difficult time falling asleep that night due to the knowledge that I was on the ground and there was a crack underneath the door wide enough for cockroaches, rats, and who knows what else! Well, after four am, I finally fell alseep, too tired to worry anymore. If anything crawled on me that night, I was not aware, which I guess is good enough for me. We had a fun time on this trip, hanging out by the lake, playing cards, frisbee, and singing. Our West African friends love to sing, so we sang! They love repetitive songs, which is fun for maybe the first 12 hours... After 24 hours, it begins to be, well shall we say, exhausting! By the end of the trip, I decided if I never sang again, it would be fine with me! They randomly would shout out, hallelujah, praise de Lord! Oh they were funny at times. One of them proposed marriage to one of the girls I was with; he told her that they were meant to be together. That night they built a campfire on the beach and we sang and danced around it. It was a memorable night for sure. 

Amy (a pretty cool kiwi) and I

Our group

Our leaky boat before taking off

The boat above was our ride across the lake to our bungalows. We also took one of these to Togoville, a small community on the lake that was originally founded by the Germans before WWI. The boat was fully loaded with our group and another French tourist group. As soon as we all were on board, I noticed several leaks in the boat. It took us almost one hour to cross the lake, and water was steadily trickling in at a good rate from several places. I was a bit worried, but the lake is shallow and I'm a good swimmer so I thought there's no need to worry. We made it safely, but the bottom of our boat was full of water by the end of the boatride. Its funny because I don't think the Africans even noticed.
     There are many random circumstances in which I find myself here in Togo. One such moment was when our group was trying to find accomodations when we first arrived to Lake Togo. We came to a hotel called the White House. It might have once been stately, as it was trying to mimic its more famous namesake. It had old white columns with paint peeling. There were pictures of Obama around the reception desk. The West Africans here all love Obama. Many times when locals find out where I'm from, they will excitedly say, "Obama"!!! I just have to laugh. While we were talking to the receptionist, a short, almost midget, Frenchman approached us. He spoke broken English and informed us he had worked in Vietnam after the war with other Americans after the war. He was a funny little man, red faced and round, but very friendly.
     My favorite memory from this trip was when we passed an elementary school and all the kids came running out to greet us. I think African children might possibly be the most beautiful children. We got to sing and play games with them. We asked permission from their principal first, and he said it was alright. All of the kids swarmed and surrounded me. They wanted to touch my blond hair. After I gave one high five to a little girl, they all wanted one. All of the sudden, I was giving high fives to fifty kids! I read a quote that I think is so true after my experience in West Africa so far. Franz Wisner said,

"The smiles of the children with nothing are just as big, if not bigger, than their affluent counterparts."



  

Learning not to take offence at being hissed at...

     Well a lot has happened since I last wrote. I keep meaning to write an update and then something comes up to distract me. In the past week and a half I began working evening shifts, got sick, went on two overnight trips, and met some very interesting people. Although this experience started off a bit slow, it has gotten very busy. I have been in Africa one month and I now see how quickly this trip will go.
     Ok, well for highlights, I am enjoying working. So far I have taken care of more adults then children. When I get to take care of the kids, its such a treat. They are my favorites for sure. The children here are beautiful! I took care of a sweet little girl who was just under two years of age and she only weighed eleven pounds. She was malnourished due to chronic feeding difficulties as a result of her cleft lip and palate. Her mother was so sweet and thankful that her daughter was able to receive a surgery that will allow her to now receive the nutrition she needs for life. Another patient that sticks out in my mind was a young teenage girl that had abnormalities in her jaw which severely restricted movement. Post surgery, I had to help this girl perform jaw stretching exercises so that her jaw would not return to the state it was in pre-surgery. The goal was to have her perform exercises for five minutes on each side of her jaw each hour. Through the translator, I explained to the patient that she needed to begin her exercises; after 10-15 minutes I came back to check on a different patient in the same ward and I heard a hissing sound. I turned around and the patient's caregiver, her grandmother, a sweet, little, wrinkled woman was hissing at me. This is the normal sound that locals here make when they want to get your attention. Guys hiss at you on the street when they want to say hi, and shop keepers hiss at you when they want you to see their wares. At first, I felt it was really rude until I understood they do not mean it in a rude way. So anyways, I went to see what the woman wanted and with distress she pointed at her granddaughter who still had the stretching objects in her mouth. I realized then that they had not understood my instructions. They had been waiting for me to come take the objects out when I thought they understood to take them out after approximately five minutes. The caregiver seemed upset and frowned deeply at me. I grabbed a translator and apologized and then proceeded to re-explain the instructions. The caregiver and patient both accepted my apology. The old woman told the translator she didn't know what five minutes was, so I let her borrow my watch every hour. I showed her how to watch the second hand go around the face five times. Her face lit up with understanding and she was so diligent after that to make her granddaughter perform her exercises. After that we were fast friends. She taught me how to say your welcome and thank-you in her local dialect. I have realized that these people are a gracious and forgiving people. They are warm and appreciate physical touch.
     Through my interactions with Africans thus far, I am learning that I need to be a learner and observer. I have always had too high of an opinion of myself. Being humble and ready to admit I am wrong seems to go a long way with the people here. In the simple circumstance above, my immediate gut reaction was to be annoyed that the woman hissed at me and was upset with me. Internally, I thought I was not wrong, she just did not follow the instructions I gave her. Thank goodness that the Holy Spirit prods us to act outside of ourselves. If I had not apologized, I would not have had the blessing of getting to know such a sweet woman. I hope that God uses this trip to smooth more of my rough edges. I am realizing everyday how many I have.
    

I'm finally working...

     Well I started working in the hospital on Wednesday. At first it was a bit crazy; first days always are. Everyone has been very helpful though, answering my many questions. I am working on a different ward than I was assigned to because the plastic surgeon has not arrived yet, so we are taking maxillo-facial surgery patients right now. I am working day shifts this week, five in a row (7-3:30). The eight hour shifts are nice because it makes for a shorter day. I do miss working three days a week though. We work with day workers who are from Togo, neighboring Benin, Sierra Leone, and Ghana. They come from far away because Mercy Ships pays them decent wages. They help translate for us, as well as cook and clean. They are very helpful! I took care of two toddlers today that were just adorable. I also have been taking care of adults too, but I love the kids. One of my patients, a man in his thirties, was so annoyed with his NG tube that he just pulled it out. I walked up to him and he motioned to me that he did not want it anymore. I had to explain to him with the use of a translator why he still needed the tube. He listened and I placed another one. I have had to greatly exercise my patience here because often times the translators do not understand what I am trying to say and will translate inaccurately to the patient. Also, because I work with nurses from other countries, sometimes we do not understand one another! Its interesting at times; I try to laugh about it. Anyways, I'm glad to be working. It is why I came! I'll be writing more, but now I need to get to bed. I work early tomorrow morning!

Our Hospital staff!

This is the entire nursing staff of the hospital.

These are the ward nurses. I am on top of the land rover on the right.

The Africa Mercy!