sorry for the mistakes ... lovin the french keyboard
a-freak-a
is hot. all the time.
we landed in ghana nearly two weeks ago and after spending one night we took a really long trek over the border to togo. i have never sweat so much in my life sitting in a bus with all our gear, backpacks, guitars. we hand passports back and forth at the togo/ghana border trying to get across while our eyes drink in the extreme poverty. its really hard to imagine a solution when looking at this. the skills we have seem like they will be a drop in the bucket and we arent even there yet.
after much negotiation, we are finally able to cross the border and continue our journey to our new home in noepe, togo. despite hitting every single bump in the country i fall asleep and only wake up when we reach the base. we unload our stinky selves, our gear and our wailing three year old, Ezekial, whose done pretty good so far, after all he is such verbalizing the frustration and heat we are all experiencing
the people are very shy but beautiful. speaking only french and the local language of ewe communication is a struggle. once again its like a never ending game of mad gab/charades. we have two french speakers on our team however which helps. the base is very remote and a long drive from the capital city Lome' ..travelling in Togo is so expensive, thus our lack of communication so far.
There is the village of Noepe not far from us, and many small villages surrounding the base which are the homes to the little kids we are quickly falling in love with.
Due to transportation/absolutly everything being so expensive here in Africa we have been limited to what we can do so far. this is probaby the hardest thing, seeing so much need and crazy setups (i.e lets keep the chickens out of the kitchen eh?) and feeling so helpless. We are still determined however and spend many hours tossing back and forth ideas on how we can kick off some projects.
christmas. eve.
we squeeze into andy and amys house (our leaders) to swap gifts, laugh, eat chocolate and candy canes, lollies and biscuits. we crank some christmas tunes and unwrap presents (the best wrapped definatly go to lindsay who wrapped up her gift to Joseph in banana leaves) and scramble over the one phone and fistful of phone minutes to try and call our familys.
tonight is hot and the fans are going at full steam but i feel so blessed.
christmas day.
after a regulqar breakfast of hot water for coffee (lets not even start counting the ti,es ive burnt my hands when ive been on kitchen duty with massive pots of boiling water over an open flame) bananas, pinapple, boiled eggs, bread and jam and some AWFUL christmas carol renditions we start putting pieces of chalk, pencils, lollies, colouring pages into small plastic bags for the 100+ kids who will be joining us shortly for songs and games and possibly the only meal they will eat that day.
they arrive with plates and smiles and the funniest christmas ive yet to experience begins. we play and laugh with the kids but several times throughout the day i find myself wiping my tears mixed with sweat on my shoulders for while this is so rewarding, i held several kids today so malnurished they can barely stay awake and I am grieved and inspired with the need to do so much more. this is what we need that drives us to push through homesickness.
this week we will begin work in the closest village to establish the water filters.
Our health care team are in high demand and have already dealt with several cases of malaria, fevers, infected wounds.
we might complain about missin home, the heat, getting tangled in our mosquito nets that turn our beds into saunas...the food (the fruit is amazing but if i never eat the randomest pasta combo again ill be ok) ...we might squeel in the freeeeezing cold showers and whinge about sore arms from wringing out our laundry but we all know we are blessed and for the most part very healthy.
some days my prayers feel hollow and i ask God often what the heck we are doing here ... i know there is a reason and on good days its easier to have faith that something can change.
as i mentioned earlier we have very limited access to the internet (hopefully weekly from now on but thats not certain) but i still love hearing from you guys. i want to be able to write back to your individual emails but i wont always be able too.
if you want to pray for anything pray for
- continued health
- effectiveness and the available resources to do so
- homesickness .. a lot of us struggle with this
- ways for our `good ideas` to turn into `great things we actually accomplished`
i miss you guys A LOT and hope you all had amazing Christmas ..hot or white
enjoy all the new years celebrations, my brothers will be jealous to hear were off to buy a STACK of fireworks from the street to ring in 2°11 in West Africa. yewwww.
Love,
Dani
p.s hopefully in the future i can show you all some photos ..not exactly the quickest internet:
is hot. all the time.
we landed in ghana nearly two weeks ago and after spending one night we took a really long trek over the border to togo. i have never sweat so much in my life sitting in a bus with all our gear, backpacks, guitars. we hand passports back and forth at the togo/ghana border trying to get across while our eyes drink in the extreme poverty. its really hard to imagine a solution when looking at this. the skills we have seem like they will be a drop in the bucket and we arent even there yet.
after much negotiation, we are finally able to cross the border and continue our journey to our new home in noepe, togo. despite hitting every single bump in the country i fall asleep and only wake up when we reach the base. we unload our stinky selves, our gear and our wailing three year old, Ezekial, whose done pretty good so far, after all he is such verbalizing the frustration and heat we are all experiencing
the people are very shy but beautiful. speaking only french and the local language of ewe communication is a struggle. once again its like a never ending game of mad gab/charades. we have two french speakers on our team however which helps. the base is very remote and a long drive from the capital city Lome' ..travelling in Togo is so expensive, thus our lack of communication so far.
There is the village of Noepe not far from us, and many small villages surrounding the base which are the homes to the little kids we are quickly falling in love with.
Due to transportation/absolutly everything being so expensive here in Africa we have been limited to what we can do so far. this is probaby the hardest thing, seeing so much need and crazy setups (i.e lets keep the chickens out of the kitchen eh?) and feeling so helpless. We are still determined however and spend many hours tossing back and forth ideas on how we can kick off some projects.
christmas. eve.
we squeeze into andy and amys house (our leaders) to swap gifts, laugh, eat chocolate and candy canes, lollies and biscuits. we crank some christmas tunes and unwrap presents (the best wrapped definatly go to lindsay who wrapped up her gift to Joseph in banana leaves) and scramble over the one phone and fistful of phone minutes to try and call our familys.
tonight is hot and the fans are going at full steam but i feel so blessed.
christmas day.
after a regulqar breakfast of hot water for coffee (lets not even start counting the ti,es ive burnt my hands when ive been on kitchen duty with massive pots of boiling water over an open flame) bananas, pinapple, boiled eggs, bread and jam and some AWFUL christmas carol renditions we start putting pieces of chalk, pencils, lollies, colouring pages into small plastic bags for the 100+ kids who will be joining us shortly for songs and games and possibly the only meal they will eat that day.
they arrive with plates and smiles and the funniest christmas ive yet to experience begins. we play and laugh with the kids but several times throughout the day i find myself wiping my tears mixed with sweat on my shoulders for while this is so rewarding, i held several kids today so malnurished they can barely stay awake and I am grieved and inspired with the need to do so much more. this is what we need that drives us to push through homesickness.
this week we will begin work in the closest village to establish the water filters.
Our health care team are in high demand and have already dealt with several cases of malaria, fevers, infected wounds.
we might complain about missin home, the heat, getting tangled in our mosquito nets that turn our beds into saunas...the food (the fruit is amazing but if i never eat the randomest pasta combo again ill be ok) ...we might squeel in the freeeeezing cold showers and whinge about sore arms from wringing out our laundry but we all know we are blessed and for the most part very healthy.
some days my prayers feel hollow and i ask God often what the heck we are doing here ... i know there is a reason and on good days its easier to have faith that something can change.
as i mentioned earlier we have very limited access to the internet (hopefully weekly from now on but thats not certain) but i still love hearing from you guys. i want to be able to write back to your individual emails but i wont always be able too.
if you want to pray for anything pray for
- continued health
- effectiveness and the available resources to do so
- homesickness .. a lot of us struggle with this
- ways for our `good ideas` to turn into `great things we actually accomplished`
i miss you guys A LOT and hope you all had amazing Christmas ..hot or white
enjoy all the new years celebrations, my brothers will be jealous to hear were off to buy a STACK of fireworks from the street to ring in 2°11 in West Africa. yewwww.
Love,
Dani
p.s hopefully in the future i can show you all some photos ..not exactly the quickest internet:
Dani! Thank you for the update. Great to hear from you. I understand the stress in your heart. Praying for you dear one.
ReplyDelete-Lindsay, photogenX :)
thanks for the update Dani!! you're a gifted writer. can't wait to hang out with you guys next week. It'll be a big change from the -10ºc we have in norway at the moment. see you soon!!
ReplyDelete