Beetle-Mania Hits Tsiko!

A baby praying mantis on a petal

Departures

Several short term medical people have left over the past week. Jonny Five Bells left after 7 weeks, and that stinks for me (and the rest of the family, too).  also, Dr. Greg and his son, Isaac have left for home after putting in three packed weeks of surgeries! Dr. John and his family have also recently departed after two weeks here, too. Now we have a few less people here. A fact of life at this hospital is that people come and go regularly. It has been mentioned here before, but comes up time and time again.

Isaac and Dr Greg, plus most of Dr John's family on the
waterfall hike. 

Dr Greg and Expedit, the tour guide, enjoying the refreshing
pool

Jonny Five Bells acting as an animal porter
for Dr John's wife.

Without Jonathan around I'll be taking fewer hikes up the mountain - since it's not as much fun to do it alone. I mean, I can talk to myself and carry on a reasonable conversation but it's not the same as suffering with someone else at a ridiculous hour of the morning!

We thank all of our short term helpers for the great work they put in here to keep things running smoothly. They jump in with both feet, work hard and then go home for a rest! Blessings on every last one of them!

The Toothless Wonder

We were at the Ward's for dinner the other night. As a party trick, Hudson pulled out a loose tooth. The poor kid has now got a huge gap across the top of his mouth. Five teeth are missing from his smile; three on the top and two on the bottom. He talks with a bit of a lisp now because he can't form some sounds properly without teeth there! However, he can suck in a spaghetti noodle through that gap in record time. Tonight at dinner he stuck kernels of corn in his mouth to look like replacement teeth!

It won't be long before he has big buck-teeth growing in the holes left by baby teeth, but for now he looks like a hockey player - missing teeth and all.

Canada Day

We celebrated Canada Day here on the compound. We have Dr. Kiong, Dr. Ken and his wife Terry (dual citizens, actually) as short term help, and the five of us all as a calming Canadian influence here amid a bunch of Americans. We had a big pizza party at the dining hall for everyone. The Americans even suggested that 'O Canada' be sung. We pulled out the old hymn books and everyone sang both verses of the anthem. It didn't sound too bad, either. Well, maybe a little bit bad...

Fourth Of July

Not to be outdone, the American celebration was a holiday for all of the ex-pats on the compound. Lunch was barbecued by yours truly and Logan, and burgers and hotdogs, salads and desserts were enjoyed by all. There were some games and socializing, and then dinner again at the dining hall.

The cooks!
(Not shown are the
Togolese kitchen staff who really
did all of the work!)

Some of the ladies at a mid-afternoon baby shower.

Kiong showing how to do it.

Slowly... slowly... eyes forward...

A few years ago they set off celebratory fireworks... once – but it scared the local people for miles around thinking that bombs were going off. And the Gendarmes paid a visit thinking there was an uprising beginning. So... no fireworks. Still, we were well fed - and weenies, marshmallows and s'mores around the little campfire at the end of the evening was a nice time.  It reminded us of camping at home.

Young Jasper didn't quite grasp the objective of the game.

Organization

As well as doing some training, working with patients, attending C-section deliveries and other tasks, Christine has been organizing much of the anesthesia and airway equipment in the OR storage room.  It was a mess, with no one really looking after it.  She's turned it from this...

into this....

My 'younger but more mature' sister
would be so pleased.

 

Beetle Mania!

Not the British Invasion Beatle-mania, some fifty-five years late!  This time of year seems to be when the rhinoceros beetle does it's breeding. We have a large collection of them at our house, and you can't help but almost trip over them in the mornings around the hospital and shop. They are big and clumsy. The males look fierce with their large front horns / pinchers, but they seem docile. Tonight as I type this, there is one bouncing off the fluorescent light and roof of our porch. It has hit the window a couple of times and that's fairly loud! Like a stone being thrown at a window.

The boys have had fun learning about them and their behaviour. That's an added bonus of living in a lush environment. We get to see some pretty strange (and usually large-sized) bugs and insects.

Actually, Sunday night just after church we were called to come to Judy and Sharon's duplex to see a big scorpion. They had spotted it in their yard while walking home from our church service and asked us to come down and see it. I had three boys hot on my heels as I headed out the door!

That's my hand under the bowl.  I wasn't going to try
to pick it up!

It's around 6" or 7" long.

We found them in the front yard with flashlights trained on a spot in the ground. Sure enough, a large black scorpion was slowly moving across the lawn. I brought a large plastic bowl, so I was able to scoop it up. I showed a few people who were still hanging around the guest house dining hall. We got a lot of pictures of it before it met an untimely demise by way of direct impact from a bamboo walking stick. No point in having more of those around than necessary.

A big, nasty, aggressive beetle going after
a rhino beetle.  

Here it is up close.  It's got big mandibles.  (That's a fancy
word for chompers.)

A big dragonfly I caught outside our porch one night.

And something pretty after all of those bugs!  A palette cleanser, of sorts.

Halfway Home

Just this past week we reached the half-way point of our time here in West Africa. To us, it is amazing that we have got to this point so quickly. We know it will all go by very fast, but it has been such a good experience overall to this point.

We have learned a lot about living in a very different culture. Shopping, preparing meals, working with limited resources both in the hospital and in maintenance, driving, language barriers... And we still smile and laugh about it. I guess we haven't quite got to the point where things annoy us!

Buying produce from 'The Veggie Lady'...

... or in the markets

We need to thank so many people for the encouragement, support and prayers to get us out here. Truly we couldn't no, wouldn't have done it without you. To know we have so many at home that care about us and what we feel called to do at this time, it's quite amazing. With people that care enough to financially partner with us while we are working at this hospital is humbling. We never asked for support but people stepped up and offered it. Thank you for that sacrifice. Know that we are doing our best to give good results for your contributions.

In the end, we could not get here, live here and be useful without the prayer support of so many. Our home church, Stoney Creek in London and the Ross family's church at Open Bible in LaSalle have been great supporters. Keep it up, please! And to so many who faithfully keep us in your prayers, again... thank you so much. It means a lot to know that you have our backs in this. A couple of messages sent home and we know within a couple of days a whole network of people will be interceding on our behalf. We thank God for all of you.

We've made it half-way. Keep us in your prayers continually.

From The Cutting Room Floor...

More snippets of life from our little corner of Togo.  

Cute little seed pods on a bush

Mmmm.  Orange popsicle without the stick.  Just rip a corner
off the bag and eat.

Pressure gauge on the autoclave machine.  It's important to have
sterile equipment in a hospital.  We fixed it.

A view of the Kpalime market.

The boys had fun disassembling a bunch of broken
and / or obsolete medical equipment.

No paint shaker, so you mix it by hand.  This will be white soon...

This is one where you have to look closely.  This is the front of a very tiny shop.  They have a light, but it's running across the top of the entrance and wedged against the metal roof.
And the red numbers - they're the phone numbers of the proprietors, in case you want to buy something and they are closed or away from the shop.

The intricate wiring layout, and a spare bulb - just in case.

Mama, showing the boys how it's done.  She's slowly turning
Togolese on us...

I think this is a tortoise shell beetle.  Judy said there were about
13 varieties of this cute little bug, if I recall correctly.

Nature's camouflage!