We're here and we're settling and things are good.
Here's what's been going on since we left Canada last week...
We left London on Monday morning after a very difficult good-bye. It was hard. Really hard. We took at bus to the Toronto airport and from there flew to Paris, then from Paris to Niger, then Niger to Togo. Amazingly, our trip was completely uneventful. Everything was smooth sailing, even all 18 of our bags and rubbermaid totes made it. We were very grateful - and still are.
We arrived in Lome as very weary travellers but were greeted at the airport by our dear friend and co-worker, Anna. She and Parico, our Togolese driver, helped us get all our stuff into the van and took us to the Southern Baptist Seminary compound to stay in their guest house. Sweet Anna had pizza and chips and cold drinks waiting for us when we arrived.
The next morning we began our shopping in Lome. This is the capital of Togo and has an abundance of stores and shops. Here is where we can get the most variety of groceries, housewares, tools etc. From toilet paper to chicken, we purchased a lot of supplies.
The next day we began the long trek north to Mango. We left at 6:45 am and arrived in Mango to have dinner at the guest house about 6:30 pm. It was long. Did I mention that it was a long trip??
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| Nolan was so tired he fell asleep on a bag of pineapples |
And so here we are. In Mango. In the exact same house we moved into when we arrived in 2012. Crazy.
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| Here's our house in town. Just freshly painted white on the outside. We'll see how long it stays white. |
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| This is our freshly painted yellow kitchen. See the two water filtration bucket systems on the right side of the counter. |
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| The brown path directly at the bottom of this photo is our "road". And those trees are our view across the street to Odile's house. |
We tried to start unpacking rubbermaid totes on Friday but were anxious to see the hospital and see our friends, so we did a little unpacking and then went over to be greeted by Dr. Kelly. She gave us the grand tour of the Hospital of Hope. It was awesome. It is absolutely amazing to see that place as a fully functioning hospital. SO much went into building it. So many people shedding blood, sweat and tears to make it real. And here it stands.
We had some lovely reunions with friends. It was hysterical to watch as a Togolese worker looked at us, then recognized us and then started laughing and clapping. There were a lot of hugs and greetings that morning.
Jack and Teddy started school on Monday at the MK school on the hospital compound. I'll get some photos of that later. Nate also started work on Monday and dug holes in the sizzling sun for most of the day. I think it was 41 degrees on Monday. So nasty. But he's incredible and he did it. (I would have been curled up in a shady corner crying!)
Nolan and Kylie started school with me on Monday - here's what our little homeschool set up looks like. For now, we're just at the kitchen table but hoping to get a couple of desks built for them eventually.
Lastly, here's a photo that should drive you to your knees in prayer. Nolan bought his motorcycle.
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| Somebody is happy. Somebody's mom is praying hard for safety! |
That's it, my friends. It's almost lunch time here and Nate will be home from the job site to eat, so I'd better get lunch prepped. Keep praying for us. We need it!