Momma Said There Would Be Days Like This....

Disclaimer:  This post is a bit on the lighter side and includes much "bathroom talk" so if you're not into that and don't want to know the intimate details of our lives, don't read on.

This past weekend, Emily and I planned to head to Lome, the capital of Togo.  This was a trip with a three-fold purpose: to take a work team back so they could catch a flight home, to pick up the ABWE Project Office Director from the airport, and to get groceries.  Mostly, I wanted to buy groceries.

The plan was that we would leave early Thursday morning, head south with the team, drop them off in Tsiko so they could head home,  stay overnight, grocery shop all day Friday, pick up Bill from the airport, and then head home early Saturday morning.  It was a good plan and were so excited to head to a REAL grocery store and eat at REAL restaurants, and stay at a hotel with AIR CONDITIONING!!

The problem was that I wasn't feeling so well a couple of days before we left.  I had what we like to call "Togo Tummy."  The day before we left I started on a medication for "traveler's diarrhea" hoping that it would take care of my little problem.
(For those of you who are already shaking your heads at me because of previous stories similar to this, all I can say is "I know.  I should've known better.")

I told Emily that I had a little problem but she convinced me that everything would be a-okay, so I hopped in the van early Thursday morning with high hopes of a successful weekend of shopping in the big city.  Alas, it was not to be.

In our big hospital van was me, Emily and the six men we were taking south.  Now remember, a trip to Lome is about a 10 hour drive.  In Africa.  On terrible roads.  With NO service centres.   Thankfully, however there is a lot of long grass on the sides of the roads.  Sadly, within the first two hours of our trip, Emily had to pull over FIVE times for me.  I had to run out, hide in the long grass (which is super freaky when you're talking long grass in Africa ~ snakes, bugs, scorpions are all readily available here!), do my business, adjust my skirt and head back to the van, where I then picked out of my skirt the grass and seed pods that were attached to me.  It was awful.  By the time we arrived in Kara, to the first real bathroom on the trip, I was thinking Nate should just come and get me. But Em is a very convincing woman and she talked me into getting back into the van, because really, at that point, what did I have to lose?

It was about another hour or so down the road when I required stops number six and seven.  And by that point, Emily and I were laughing so hard at what was transpiring that we just figured it would make a really good blog post when I got home.  (IF I got home....)

After that, things settled down a little and we made it to Tsiko, where we dropped the men off, and stayed the night.  Thankfully there is a doc who lives there and he gave me some hard-core-amoeba-killing medication for me to start asap.  The problem with this medication is that it makes a horrible metal taste in your mouth from the moment you pop the first pills.  So for the rest of the trip, not only was I afraid to eat ANYTHING, but anything I did put in my mouth tasted like I had been chewing on a rusty pop can.

When we finally arrived in Lome on Friday morning, we were told that it just so happened to be Tabaski, a Muslim holiday that celebrates when Abraham offered up his son Ishmael (????) and that all the stores would be closed.  UNBELIEVABLE!  Just at this point in time, the song "Momma Said There Would Be Days Like This" came on, and Emily and I started to laugh so hard.

We decided that our mothers never told us there would be days that we would have to drive 10 hours in Africa just to get groceries while stopping numerous times on the side of the road to poop, only to arrive in the city to find out that the traffic was horrible because it was a Muslim holiday and that all the stores would be closed.  I am sure my mother never said a word about this.

BUT...all was not lost because GOD IS GRACIOUS!  We were able, through a series of events, to find out that a couple of stores were open until one o'clock.  So we headed right over and shopped for FOOD!  Real wonderful glorious food!

Look what they have in Lome:

I didn't buy any Ben and Jerry's but I SO wanted to!  First of all, I decided against eating for the weekend for several reasons and second, it would never have made the trip north, even in our super duper coolers.

Here's our first two carts!  By the time we were done we had five of these babies loaded down:

Here's Emily with a half loaf of "Harry's American White Bread."  This little loaf can be yours for the low, low price of $11 US:

And here's my grocery bill!  Good thing that's in CFA's or Nate would have been a tad upset!

 We left the grocery store and headed to our hotel, crashed for a couple of hours and then picked Bill up from the airport.  We had a nice dinner with him and then went back to the hotel, where we settled in for the night.  We got up early this morning and Emily bravely drove the 10 hours back north.  It is such an exhausting trip!  But it's over.  And the pantry is stocked.  And I am feeling MUCH better.

Refugee Camp

On Monday morning, we met at Emily's house to finish making the care packages for the Fulani refugees.  We put together 50 bags with spaghetti noodles, tomato paste, tea, canned milk, sugar, cookies, candy, a bar of soap and laundry soap.  

Here's Kylie adding the tea, cookies and candy:

And the boys putting the spaghetti and tomato paste in:

Oh, and don't forget the sugar cubes.

We loaded the bags into the hospital van and headed off to the refugee camp.  We kept track of the distance and turns out the refugee camp is exactly three and a half km from the hospital!

We went to the camp and word had spread that we were coming.  The chief was there to greet us (and he spoke a little English as well as French and Fulfulde.)  The mayor of Mango was also there.  He didn't want to miss out on the action.  The firefighters of another town (Kara) were also there to act as protection for the Fulani.

Typically, whenever we've tried to hand out gifts to the locals, we've been mobbed.  But the Fulani are a very different people group, very reserved and calm.  The chief asked them all the return to their tents so that we could walk to each tent and deliver the bags of goodies.  Before we were able to deliver them, the chief and his helper went through a bag and wrote down exactly what was in the bag (they even counted the sugar cubes!).

Then we counted how many tents were in each row and our little delegation (the chief, the mayor, two other men (we don't know who they are), several firefighters, me, the kids, Anna and Emily) walked down the rows of tents, greeting each family and handing them a bag.

Here's Jack handing a bag to a Fulani mom:

Ethan's turn!  You can see the firefighter in the photo with the blue uniform.  The chief is the guy on the right.

The people were very grateful, but you could tell they were just plain sad.  They are a quiet and reserved people anyhow, but it was so sad to look into their tents and see nothing.  Just the tarp on the bottom of the tent.  The government had given some pots for cooking and rice.  The chief and the mayor were trying to figure out if they could get a latrine built and how to deal with the garbage as well.  There are a lot of logistics when 400 people move into an empty field.

Here are the firefighters carrying the bags down a row of tents:

Nolan's turn now.  You can see a "gendarme" on the left in the blue camo. The mayor is the next guy in the pic with the colourful shirt on, right beside Nolan.

Here's Anna with a Fulani woman.  She didn't want us to take a picture of her face.  Anna spoke Fulfulde with the people and they were absolutely shocked that she could speak their language. 

 It was awesome!

After we finished handing out the bags, we all walked back to the van and the people gathered around. Anna spoke to the mayor in French and he then translated her words to another language so that the people could understand.  She spoke of our concern for them, our desire to help, and the fact that we love them because God loves them.  She asked permission for us to return again.  The whole thing felt very serious and ceremonial as the languages were translated.  Then Anna pulled out three books, for two tribal elders and the chief.  It was the Gospels translated into a language that she is certain they will be able to read. (I think Aramaic.)  Before she handed them out, she spoke of the sweetness of these books and then she kissed them.  Each of the three men took them with real seriousness.  It was really really cool.

Here's a photo of the mayor (in the middle) with two of the tribal elders.

And then we gave the last few bags to the firefighters and police officers that were on site. Turns out we had exactly the number of bags we needed for the people!
 How cool is that? (and certainly NOT coincidence)

And then we left, with hopes of returning soon.

And we went home, to our lovely home, and had a nice lunch, and sat on our chairs and ate at our table and I thought to myself, this single thought:

Have I ever done something this important, ever?

Really, have I?  In my 36 years of life, have I ever done something like this?  I know that there have been very important and wonderful days in my life, like the day I married Nate, and the five days I delivered our five babies.  But in all my life, have I ever done anything so real before?  In the next breath however, I realize that giving these poor, homeless people a bag of food is so SO insignificant.  How does it help, really?  A meal or two?  In light of the losses they have suffered, what is a bag of noodles and sauce? So in my head, there is a bit of debate.  How can I be the same person after this?  

The fact is I better not be the same person.  West Africa...what are you doing to me??

Good News, Bad News

Let's start with the good news:

After the whole "break in" thing, we had a little miracle!  A couple of days after, Nate was working in the shop with his two buddies, Bawa and Fusini.  Bawa speaks a little English, pretty good French and great Anufo.  Fusini speaks only Anufo.  Anyhow, Bawa came up to Nate and said, "Fusini cannot understand you.  He doesn't get how after a man has stolen from you, how you can be so happy and joke around!  Why don't you want to kill this man?"

What an opportunity!  So Nate carefully explained to Bawa about grace.  And God.  And His love.  And our faith!  And Bawa carefully translated it to Fusini!  And that, my friends, is so amazing.  What an answer to prayer!!

It so reminded me of the verse in Genesis, in the story of Joseph, that what "man intended for harm, God intended for good."

Neither of these guys could understand how or why Nate could still exist in joy and peace when something so bad had happened to him (in their eyes).  They told him that if it had happened to them, they would have killed the guy.  For real.  And they wouldn't have been charged because the man stole from them and that would be justice.  So please keep praying for these two men!


Now for the not-so-good:

This week has been a whirlwind of activity.  There have been so many little things that have happened that have been ordained by God, that I can't take time to tell you all of them.  So you'll have to trust me on that.  BUT, this morning, when I got up, I got a text from Emily that she and Anna had just found out that there was a group of refugees right in our town -- just arrived this past week.

The Fulani tribe are a nomadic, cattle herding people group that live all over West Africa.  And no other tribe likes them.  At. All.   Think of them as the gypsies of Africa.  If the Fulani are around (and because they're nomadic, they do get around) and there's any funny business, they get the blame.  Fulani people are very private, very suspicious, and therefore, not overly friendly.

Recently, this particular group of Fulani people were in the area of Gomgom.  The people of Gomgom wanted to send a message that the Fulani's were not welcome there, so they murdered one of the Fulani tribesmen.  Then set their houses on fire, stole their cattle and started some small inter-tribal warfare, just about an hour from here.  The Fulani people were forced to flee, being chased by the other tribe and murdered as they fled.  Children were lost.  Families separated.  People killed.

This is not 100 years ago.  This was last week.  And the Fulani people have now set up a refugee camp, literally, in our own backyard.  I'm talking a real refugee camp.  We just found out about them last night, so Anna, Emily and I went out this afternoon.

Here's what it looked like as we pulled up, rows of tents:

There were about 30 tents set up, and we found out, more arriving tomorrow:

We peeked in the tents and there was NOTHING in them!  These people ran with the clothes on their backs and nothing else.  Here's one momma with her babe:

We chatted with the guy who was acting as chief, as the chief was away at purification ceremony for the body of the guy who was originally murdered.  We wanted to find out how we could help and how many people we were dealing with.  Turns out, there are about 400 people in this particular camp and about 1000 others in another one about an hour away.  I didn't take pics while we were on the actual camp grounds because, well, it seemed mean.  Anna speaks a little Fulfulde, which is the language of the Fulani, so she greeted a lady in the normal fashion (how is your family, how is your house etc.) and the poor woman just shook her head and said she had no house, she had nothing left. It was very sad.


We stayed for about 20 minutes, after talking to the guardian, just trying to greet the people and smile at them.

Here's a pic of a bunch of kids as we were ready to get in the van:

We left the refugee camp feeling sad. It was so surreal.  It was EXACTLY like it looks on tv.  Tents, people, the smell of humans and canvas.  Kids just sitting around. Adults attempting to scrape some kind of life and work from a patch of ground.  Sadness. Loss. And as we prepared to leave, we looked around to figure out where exactly we were and realized that from our location right there at the camp, we could see the hospital.  Our hospital.  These people are literally in our own back yard and in such dire need.

So, what do girls do when they feel sad??  They go shopping!  We decided that we would make up a care package for each of the 50 tents or so that the families were living in.  So, we went to the store owned by Solomon and Awa, a Fulani couple who have left the nomadic lifestyle and become shopkeepers.

Here's a very stoic Solomon behind the counter of his store with our order of canned milk, tea, sugar, tomato paste, spaghetti, laundry soap, body soap, cookies and candy.  We purchased it all and then Anna and Emily put together care packages with all the stuff that we plan to hand out tomorrow morning at 9 am.

And this is Larry, Solomon's worker.  He really wanted me to take his photo too, so I did, just to humour him.  He's a total poser!

Please pray for us as we head out there tomorrow.  We have such a great opportunity to share the love of Jesus with this people group.  God has placed them right outside our door and we are so thankful that we found out about them living right outside the hospital compound.  We're just praying that God would show us how best to reach them, especially since Anna is the only missionary on our team that speaks their language.

The kids are coming with us tomorrow to hand out the care packages too.  Pray that their hearts would understand the deep needs of the Fulani and that this would be an opportunity for them to learn and grow as they see people in such desperate need.  I hope I can take photos tomorrow as we hand out the food etc.  If I do, I'll be sure to share them!

Never a Dull Moment...

This morning, this was the devotional that Nate and I read, from the book "Jesus Calling" (I love this book!):

"Be prepared to suffer for Me, in My Name. All suffering has meaning in My kingdom.....Bearing your circumstances bravely -- even thanking Me for them, --is one of the highest forms of praise....do not try to hide from problems.  Instead, accept adversity in My name, offering it up to Me for My purposes."

We should have known that something was coming today when we read this.

Because today, we were robbed.

This morning we went to church and planned to take some new missionaries to market after church, to help them buy some stuff.  So after church, we quickly came home, dropped the kids off, and Nate and I took off to market.

When we got home, the kids were upset.  They suspected that someone had robbed us but they weren't sure.  When we dropped them off we just handed them the keys.  The kids unlocked the gate to the yard, went in the front porch, and found that the front door was wide open.  They thought that was odd and then realized that the puppies weren't roaming the yard, the way we had left them before we left for church.  Then they found the puppies locked up in the back porch.  (I don't think the puppies can lock doors.)

They didn't think anything of it until they went outside with the puppies and found Nate's watch and Ethan's good jack-knife in the grass.  Then they started to get worried.

We were about an hour at the market and when we came home, they told us what they had found.  The computers were here, the ipods were here, the cameras were here, so we weren't sure they really took anything, until I went into our bedroom.  One of the drawers of our dresser was open and a bunch of American money was coming out the top (I had placed it in there when we moved in.)  We had hidden a bunch of francs (in bills) in Nate's travel shaving kit -- and they found that.  So, although we don't have an exact number, we think they took about about 500,000 francs -- which is about $1000.

We called Adam, who is the guy to call in situations like this because his French is perfect and he knows everybody in town and within a few minutes, he had spoken to the mayor and showed up at our door with a "gendarme" (sort of like military personnel) and the chief of police.  They did a thorough investigation and told us they thought they might be able to find the "perps." (I've always wanted to use that word....)

Now this is where the story turns funny.  Word spreads like wild fire in Mango and before we knew it, a local guy, Esau, who has "connections" (his uncle is an imam here) was at our door to help.  He made some phone calls and then went around talking to our neighbours while Adam and Nate talked with the police.  A few minutes later,  Esau gets a phone call.  A buddy of his in market noticed someone purchasing items with large bills (of francs) when typically, this person wouldn't have access to large bills.  This friend was going to hunt down this suspicious fellow.  Everyone knows everyone's business in this town!

A little while later, Adam gets another phone call.  Another buddy of his has heard the news, and he wants to take Adam and Nate to meet a buddy of his ~ who is a bounty hunter.  (You can't make this stuff up, people!)  So Nate and Adam head over to meet the bounty hunter, who promises that he can find the guy (or guys) who did this to us and have them by morning!

Don't worry, the story gets better.

THEN the Bounty Hunter pulled out a bunch of sea shells and threw them on a mat on the ground and started reading them and told Nate and Adam that he "saw" that it was two guys that did this ~ in the sea shells.  Adam and Nate realize the Bounty Hunter is also (wait for it!) the Witch Doctor!  Adam and Nate are like "whoa, whoa, whoa...we don't do that stuff" and the Bounty Hunter starts to cry!!  He is so ashamed of the guy who stole from us that he is overwhelmed with emotion!

Nate and Adam left the crying Witch Doctor/Bounty Hunter and met the rest of us at the pool for a swim.  After we came home, we had neighbours drop by to hear the tale and tell us how very sorry they were that someone has done this to us.  They were so embarrassed that it happened!  But it gave us an awesome opportunity to tell them that GOD IS GOOD.  Because He is - and here's living proof:

THE KIDS WALKED INTO THE HOUSE WITHOUT US.

WE WERE NOT HOME FOR ANOTHER HOUR.

THE THIEF HAD ETHAN'S KNIFE.

That's why.

And all that was taken was money. It's just money.  Money is replaceable.

So...really, life in Mango, this sleepy village a-way off in northern Togo, is NEVER dull.

Praise God for His grace in our lives.

(And if there is a guy, hog-tied on my front porch tomorrow morning, I'll let you know!)

What a Week!

It's been a few days since I've posted because we've been without internet for a little while.  In the meantime, much has happened around here.  I'll give you the updates on a day by day basis.  So come with me, back in time....

Last Wednesday (which would've been October 4th):

Here in Mango there is a very special family, the Nogbedzi's.  They have a really cool ministry here with orphans and a sewing school.  Mr. Nogbedzi teaches high school aged kids to sew (really well) on a three-year apprentice program.  These kids are considered orphans, meaning one or both of their parents are gone.  Mr. Nogbedzi and his wife have these kids move into their home, or homes in the village, and educate them as tailors and seamstresses for three years. In the meantime, they teach them about Jesus and show God's love in super tangible ways -- things like food, a bed, love, clothes and skills.  Can you get more tangible than that?

Mr. Nogbedzi has a big heart for these kids and anytime you walk into his "compound", there are a gazillion kids there, sewing, playing, and hanging out.  I've been there several times to have clothes made for the kids.

Every Wednesday night, there is a Bible study that the sewing students attend -- some go willingly, others, not so much.  But last Wednesday, Peter Maybury, a missionary on our team, taught the Bible study and really explained how the kids need Jesus.  AND NINE OF THEM CAME TO KNOW HIM PERSONALLY!  Nine!  It was incredible.

These kids are young but they have lived through what I can never understand.  And when they are done their three year apprenticeship, they go home to their own villages so that they can start a business there with their newly acquired skills.  AND they go home to village that is, in all probability, not happy that these kids have accepted Jesus.   When these teens accepted Christ, they knew perfectly well that they will probably be persecuted and cast out by their own families.  That's a risk I cannot even begin to understand.

Please pray for these nine students.  And please pray for the Nogbedzi family.  This family hosts our little church at their house on Sunday mornings.  Their landlord is not happy that they do this, because he is devout Muslim.  So he wants them out.  Mr.  Nogbedzi has begun (and almost completed) construction on a new facility for his family, the students and the sewing school.  But he needs a little more money to finish it.  I wish I'd have taken photos of his new place because it's a very simple but great set-up for his family and their ministry.  If you feel like you'd like to give to his ministry with orphans, just email me and we can set something up.  I think to complete his place, he needs about $3500.  That's it.

Last Saturday:

On Saturday morning, Emily and Kevin Hall hosted the kick-off party to Thanksgiving weekend!  We had a lovely brunch at their house in the morning and then hung out til about 2 pm.  Here's me and my beautiful Thanksgiving breakfast -- giving it the big "thumbs up":

After that, we went home and prepared our place for dinner for a group of men coming to see the hospital.  But not just any men, my friends.  We had the President of ABWE (our mission), the Regional Director of Africa (for ABWE) and two surgeons who are checking out the hospital on a scouting trip to possibly move here.


We had a lovely dinner with these men (who were so kind and gracious) and then our entire team came over for a meeting and prayer time.  The Pres (his name is Al) was kind enough to share some thought on Psalm 107 and it was so great.   Here's Al and one of the surgeons (Tom):

Last Sunday:
We went to church at Nogbedzi's in the morning and then met up with a new white guy.  (The Sunday before, Nate and I were in a little store and this new white guy walks in.  We know EVERY white person in Mango, so to have a new one was quite exciting.  We invited him to come over for dinner and he seemed quite happy to do so.) So "Matt from Georgia" came over for lunch and we had this great time with him.  Matt is with the Peace Corp and he lives out in a teensy village (in a old abandoned convent -- creepy!) to help the locals with agriculture.  He bikes into our town once or twice a week for food, internet and to charge his cell phone.  When he walked in our house and saw that I was making pizza, and then saw cold pop (with ice cubes) he looked at me, wide-eyed, and said, "Are we having pizza??  I'm totally think I'm going to cry!!"  We enjoyed getting to know this 22-year-old guy who is here for 2 years, helping the locals with their crops and farms.   This guy lives hard-core.  He has no electricity and walks about a mile for his water.  And here we were, in our comfy house, eating pizza and pop and having ice cream for dessert.  It sure made us think that we are not "roughing it" hardly at all.

Last Monday:

Canadian Thanksgiving!!  And the Halls hosted a beautiful meal at lunch time with chicken (no turkeys here), mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, green bean casserole, home made buns, gravy and pumpkin pie! It was absolutely fabulous!!  Here we all are at Kevin and Emily's enjoying our home-cooked meal:

After we rolled home with full bellies, we celebrated Kylie's 10th birthday at home with supper and french silk pie for dessert.  We forgot birthday candles, so she blew out the one candle we brought with us and we gave her a couple of gifts.

Also, on Monday morning, Al "the President", gave the morning devotions to the workers on the construction site.  Nate was so thrilled because Al totally laid it down for these guys.  And they listened so intently.  Al shared his heart and basically told them that Jesus is the answer.  It was awesome!

Since then there has been more excitement and activity, but that's a few days catch-up on what's been going on around here.  I know this is long...but one more story:

This week we bought Nolan a bike.  A lovely Togolese man helped us get a good deal on it (because if they see me coming, the price goes UP!).  He brought it to the work site on Thanksgiving Monday so that Nolan could check it out.   Noles was so excited he decided to ride it home.

I drove the rest of the kids home and Nate came later on his moto.  But no Nolan.  Turns out, he got into the centre of town and couldn't remember at all how to get home.  He looked around and saw all these locals looking at him, and I'm sure they could tell something was wrong.  As he was riding around, he recognized a guy who works on site.  In his broken french, he tried to tell them that he was lost and if they could get him to the "big tree that fell down in the storm" (he said that part in english which probably created further confusion), he could get home.  The man from the work site took about 20 minutes to get himself ready to bring Nolan home (all the locals know where we live...not sure how, but the do) and Nolan was getting antsy to get going because it was getting dark.  What took this guy so long was that he was gathering people to help him.  So once they were ready to go, Nolan was escorted home by about 20 Togolese people -- all on bikes.  The poor kid.  He was so embarrassed.

By the next day, the entire village knew what had happened and when I would go around in town, they would ask me if he had been lost and if he was alright.  I decided to bake some muffins for the kind fellow who brought him home and he was very grateful!  So were we!

Mish Mash

So, here's another post of just "stuff" -- life here in Africa:


This is Madame Adzo.  Her name is pronounced Ad-joe.  In the Anufo language, "z's" are "j's".  She came over the other day to show me how to make REAL HOMEMADE CROISSANTS.  Living in a country that was run by French people can come in really handy sometimes!  So here she is with them ready to go in the oven:

And this is what we ate later that day!  She made some regular ol' croissants and then we made some chocolate ones!  Suffering in Africa!

This next series of photos is to show you that puppies and long skirts are not a good combination:

And here we are, suffering for the Lord, in the pool.  THIS POOL IS GOD'S GRACE IN WATER-LIKE FORM.  I do not know what we would do without this pool, honestly.  It is so awesome, in the crazy heat here, to be able to jump in and feel refreshed.  Never have I been this hot.  Today I was at market buying some fabric and I'm standing in this little hole-in-the-wall shop and I'm drenched in sweat.  I can feel it running down my back as I stand there.  We left the shop, went home, grabbed our bathing suits and enjoyed, I mean, truly with hearts of gratitude, enjoyed the pool!

Here's the main man off to work -- on his "moto."  Seriously, the guy rides trails in Africa to get to work every day.  HE LOVES IT HERE!

A couple more of the puppies, because well........they are puppies!!

The other day I can hear this voice saying "Hey Mom, I'm an African lady.  Hey MOM, I'm an African lady!"  I peek around the corner into the living room and this is what I see:

This is my sweet, SWEET friend, Anna.  She arrived on a moto-taxi at our house and I had to take a picture.  Someday I will blog just on Anna.  She is one the toughest, bravest, most-in-love-with-Jesus, people that I know.

Everybody's doing it.  Here's Adam with his two girls, going through market on their moto.  We've seen up to five people on a moto here.   We've seen moto's carried on top of motos.  We've seen a guy carrying a double mattress on a moto.  We've seen goats on motos. We've seen a moto with about 10 bicycles on the back.  Motos are serious business here.

This is just a random shot of my neighbourhood as we walked to market one day.  These are their actual homes, my friends.  Just shacks made of grasses and sticks.

Tonight at supper, Nate was trying to give me directions to a place in town.  These are the words, verbatim, from his mouth.  Once he had spoken them I started to laugh, and said, "Only in Africa."  So here they are:

"So, go down our road and turn right at the egg lady.  When you come to the corner where that guys sits with his pants that show his butt crack, turn left.  Keep going past the little barber shop, til you get the the street where the tractor is parked.  Then turn right at the house with the big log out front."

This is a true story.  There are NO street names here.  This is how I find my way to our African version of Home Depot.  But that's another post.