American Thanksgiving

As you well know, last Thursday was American Thanksgiving.  And since we are surrounded by Americans we had the lovely privilege of celebrating with yet another big party.  It was a fantastic day. And I took a lot of photos to share with you.

The Drakes (Adam and Faith) hosted us all at their home.  I think with all of us on the TNT, there are 25 people right now.  Adam and Faith decorated their house and it looked lovely.  Here are Jody, Faith and Janice getting all the food on the table.  They wanted me to tell you that the three of them prepared all of this food themselves, but as you can tell by their faces, they knew it was a bold-faced lie.

We had turkey with all the fixings.  The team that was just here from Indiana (shout out to College Park -- we love you guys!) brought us TWO REAL turkeys.  They packed them as their "carry-on" in a cooler that was duct-taped shut and the two birds arrived solidly frozen.  The funny part is, the Togo team left it up to the two Canadians on the team to actually cook the birds.  That was risky.

In the next two photos, you have can see a taste test going on.  Janice and I made home-made gravy from the turkey drippings and some kind soul brought us two jars of Williams-Sonoma gravy mix. We decided to put Williams-Sonoma to the test.  Most of us had two little mounds of mashed potatoes on our plates so that we could taste test which gravy was better....

I'll have you know that BOTH were good, but really, you can't beat homemade gravy from freshly roasted turkey.  Yum!

Here's the table spread with food.  Those are Emily's famous stuffing balls.

Yes, we have a lot to be thankful for.  And one of those things is that we have team-members who can COOK!

And here's Nate's plate.  It's beautiful.  AND it's international.  The turkey is from the USA, the cranberry sauce is from Ghana, the potatoes are from Canada, the green beans are from Lome, the stuffing balls are from right here in Mango, the buns are fresh from Janice's kitchen and the corn casserole is from Faith's kitchen but I don't know where the corn is from.  Probably NOT Togo.

The adult table!

The kid table!  (Yes, John and Nate are at the kid table.)

John couldn't make it past lunch without a little nap. 

We hung out at the Drakes all day.  We all know that the best part of turkey dinner is making turkey sandwiches later in the day!  (Adam calls them Big Nasties).  So here's the gang eating our SECOND meal at the Drakes, and watching a football game.  Like a real, American football game.

Our fearless team leader ready to scarf a deviled egg.

Adam and Faith brought a projector and so we could all watch the game on a large screen.  Just like home (except it was about 100 degrees inside and out!)

It was a fantastic day!  And in keeping with American traditions, we decided to decorate for Christmas  the next morning.  This turned out to be a happy-sad event.  The kids and I dragged out our HUGE collection of Christmas decorations and it took us all of six minutes to get it displayed.  

Now you can see what our place looks like for Christmas.

We changed the wreath.

Put out a Christmas candle on a red-green-and white table cloth on our coffee table.

Here's a close up of our favourite scented candle for Christmas, this photo is for my sister.  While we were decorating, I lit this candle and put on the Christmas music.  Next thing I know the house smelled of Christmas at home.  Then right after that, the music was off and the candle was blown out.  I asked who did it.  Kylie.  She said it was too much to have the smell and sound of Christmas -- too much for her little heart!  It made her miss home, so we continued decorating in the heat of Africa without music or scent.

I think this is the first time I've decorated for Christmas and 

1. it's taken me six minutes to complete the job

2. I've been in a full sweat after the six minutes.  It was hot!

Our little african basket of north american candy canes.  The two cultures collide!

My mom sent me this cute tree.  It's on our dining room table with a lovely red, green and black plaid table cloth that I got in Kara.

And here's our African carved nativity set.  I got this at a boutique right here.  It's pretty cute.  The angel is a bit scary but other than that, we like it.

Tinsel garland on the white board and windows...

We have so much to be thankful for!  What a great time of year to remember to be grateful.  And what do we have to be thankful for???

1.  Neighbours who show up with a NEW BABY!  Here's Odile with her brand-new daughter, Ixosir (pronounced Ex-O-say).

2.  Cute puppies that are growing. (And that will sleep beside you while you do science homework)

 3.  A beautiful country to experience and enjoy.

And much much more....

Road Trip for Two.

Last Sunday, Nate and I skipped church and took off north of Mango for a little road trip.

Here we are on the bike. I took this photo to prove to my friends Alyson and Dr. Laura that YES, WE WORE HELMETS!!  

Look how smooth the road is.  

There are lots of tiny villages along the road side, here's one of a bunch of mud huts and a woman carrying her stuff on her head.  An every day African sight.

We drove north for about an hour, towards the village of Dapong.  On the way back, we met up with some locals.

(These pics are for Steve Bloomfield.  Check out these crazy cattle.)

Getting closer and they just kept coming...

I realize this isn't a great shot, but that's our mirror and look how close the cow's back side is to us!

They just kept on coming, seemed like hundreds.

We totally blew by these guys.

And also this poor guy with his bundle of sticks.  See ya later!

And here we are in real life.  The gas station attendant was willing to take our photo.

  

And for those of you who noticed.  Yes, this is a different bike that we are riding.  Nate felt the need, yes, NEED to upgrade.  This is a nasty green beast that rides a LOT smoother and of course, faster. 

It was a fun morning.  Even though we almost ran out of gas.

Fulani Trip #3

Sorry it's taken me an entire week to get another post up about our Fulani adventures!  Yes, we did go back to the refugee camp and yes, the men went out to the village of Mogu to work on their houses.  There are a lot of photos in this blog post because I really want to share this experience. I wish all of you could have been there.  It was pretty awesome.  Turns out the Fulani were preparing to leave to head back to their villages.  We had thought about waiting to buy all the supplies and take them out the following week, but we didn't.  And now we know why.  We were so thankful that we went to market on Thursday and bought 100 cans of powdered milk, 126 panyes, and 1000 lbs of corn.  If we'd waited, we would have totally missed them

On Friday morning, the work team from Indiana, and Anna, Emily, the kids, me, and the Drake family packed up our vehicles with powdered milk, candy, toys, panyes, and corn.

Here's a photo of three of the men from Indiana sitting on 3 of the massive bags of corn. Each bag was about 200 lbs, I think.  This team was so thrilled to be able to be a part of helping at the refugee camp.  They had hoped, before they left, that they would be able to be involved, so they came prepared with candy and gifts to give it out.

Because we told them we were coming, and because word gets around (as we all know now), this visit was a bit more formal at the beginning.  I found that kind of disappointing.  Our "watermelon visit" was so enjoyable because we sort of "popped by" to see them and bring gifts and there was no formality or seriousness about it.  But this time, word got out.  When we first arrived, they were all waiting, standing.  Then we began with all the greetings and speeches. It didn't take long and then we got busy.

As the people gathered, I saw the woman with "my" baby, she walked toward me and just handed me her little girl again.  Oh, that baby was so sweet.  And the other mom gave Emily "her" Fulani baby.  (That's how Em and I refer to them anyhow.)

                       

Andy, from Indiana, brought candy bags that he and his six kids had prepared back home in hopes that he would have a chance to give them out.  So here's Andy starting to hand out little ziplocs of candy.  The Fulani are so peaceful, the kids did not rush him, they just waited until he or someone else came along with a treat bag.

And here's our sweet Anna, just diving right in, talking to her Fulani lady friends.  When she would translate what they were saying, some of the stuff was super funny.  They were teasing each other and laughing, which just made it more....real.  These women are just like us.

While the speeches were going on, I put my sunglasses on a little girl who was standing beside me.  She didn't say a word, but smiled and put her arm around me, and I put mine around hers.  As soon as I gave her the glasses, she got a whole new attitude.  It was so funny.  Here she is.  And I did NOT ask her to stand this way.  But this is the way she stood for the rest of the time (until one of the pompiers (firemen) took the glasses away.  Bah.)

And this is my little buddy and me.  This is how we hung out the rest of the morning.

After handing out the candy, we gave each child a toy.  The Drakes had brought some toys, so they allowed my kids and their kids to hand out the gifts.  Here's one little girl with her loot:  candy and a pink stuffed bunny.

I'm not too sure how to tell you about this fellow.  When the toys were being handed out, this guy jumped in there and got this white stuff bear.  He carried it like a baby over his shoulder the rest of the time, hugging it and kissing it.  Strange.  But he was smiling from ear to ear, he was so thrilled with his gift.

Next we handed out a panye to each woman.  These women love colourful clothes, so we gave some pretty bright fabrics. I didn't get any photos, because I was busy handing them out.  Then came the handout of the milk.  I love this photo below.  You can see Joyce, in pink, handing the canned milk to one very happy customer.  Behind him, in the crazy hat, is Solomon, the mediator-kind-of-guy.  He was so organized.  He had a list of every person in the camp, and he just called up each family to come and receive their milk.  You can see his little clipboard in his hands and the guy beside him marking it off on the sheet.

We so appreciated the organization.  It would have been AWFUL if it had been a typical African kind of handout. We would've been mobbed for sure.  But this was lovely.  And quite jovial.

Finally, the corn.  Here is a beautiful Fulani woman taking her six bowls of corn from the bag.  Solomon told each family to go to their tent and get their sacks or bowls.  They all returned and waited in line as he marked them on his sheet and they each took the same amount of corn, except for the bigger families, who got more.

And the rest of us just played with the kids and visited.  I love some of these shots.

Teddy and Celeste pretty much chased ducks the entire time.  Here they are trying to figure out which way the ducks went.

Noles and a new little buddy.

And more little buddies.  These boys couldn't figure out how to open the package on their candy, so he was helping them out.

Kylie made a friend with Lucas, the gendarme.  I'm not supposed to take photos of them, but I did.  

Here's Jack and Teddy with Oceane and Celeste, sitting in the van on the corn bags.

And finally, a visit from the Prefect.  This guy is in charge of our entire region of Togo and he got wind of what we were doing.  So he came, with his armed guard and a TV crew guy to give his thanks to the ABWE mission and what they were doing.  More formalities.  But it is really good for us to be in good standing with this fine fellow.

And so that concluded our visit with the Fulani. Here's a final picture of them gathering to see us off.  The beauty of this whole refugee camp experience is that it has opened the doors for us to befriend the Fulani people.  Already when we see them in market or in town, they wave and smile at us.  Before this, they were so reserved and weren't so nearly open and friendly.  This whole experience has helped make huge inroads into their tribe.

Then, this past Monday, the men from the Indiana team, plus Nate, John, Jim, Adam and Anna, went out to the village of Mogu to help with the rebuilding.  This is was a good day but a tough one.

Here's the inside of one of the homes.  The black on the walls is from the fires the attackers lit to burn them out of their homes. They also slashed holes in the roof with machetes to try to get to them.  It must have been terrifying.

Here's Nate and Bob on top of the roof, removing the old slashed up steel.  A Fulani man watches.

And on goes the new steel!  It was smokin' hot that day.  These guys worked for hours on tin roofs in the baking sun.  It was quite the job.

And Jim and Nate working on another roof.

This is where they were living before the roof was finished.  The poor little boy lying on the wood plank would NOT move or speak all day long.  They tried to talk to him, but the locals said that he was traumatized.  No kidding.  Poor little guy. All in all, it was a very good day and they got three roofs on three houses.  Which is really just a drop in the bucket.  But the families were very grateful.  And I think it really impacted the missionary men to see them in their village, houses burned, nothing left.  Please keep praying for this people group.