Hot - And Soon To Be Hotter!

The weather in Togo is currently hot, with a chance of more heat - and possibly a dose of humidity if you live in the southern portion.  In the north, just more heat added to what is already there.  (The day I posted this it was 44C in Mango...)  It will remain like this for another month or so before the rains begin again.  Then come the bugs...

Four cousins and an aunt show their dusty feet.  This is
why foot-washing was a special event in Bible times!

After a New Year's celebration of fireworks on the hospital compound put on by a couple of 13 year old boys, we have settled into the hot and dusty dry season.  Lots has been going on, but we were split between two locations for a month.

Fireworks exploding in the moon!

Teenaged boys, fireworks...  What an awesome combination. 
At least the bucket was the only thing to sustain damage!

Christine was up in the north of Togo in the city of Mango teaching at the Togolese nursing school of the Hopital d'Esperance (Hospital Of Hope), the sister hospital to our home at HBB in the south.  She spent time in the hospital and teaching the boys some home-school programs, too.  She was extremely busy!  Christine will be teaching the same course here in the south school in late February and March.

Boys and dirtbikes.

There were a couple of rough patches while the family was in Mango, when Logan and Hudson contracted malaria.  They were knocked down for a few days each but are back to their 'normal' selves now.  A month is a long time to be separated, so I made the trip up to surprise them after three weeks.  It was a quick visit but lots of fun.

I think she was happy to see me.  The surprise worked.

While they were north, I was by myself working away down in the south.  The house was very quiet and stayed quite clean!  Fortunately, some of the other families on the compound showed compassion and invited me over for a meal and some social interaction.  I appreciated the hospitality greatly!

In January we had a team from our home church, Stoney Creek Baptist Church, stop by on their way homeward after they spent a couple of weeks working at the Hospital Of Hope.  It was so nice to have a bunch of familiar faces show up and spend some time.  We appreciated some of the stuff they brought for us, the work they were able to accomplish at HOH, and the chance to spend some time chatting.  Their sacrifice, generosity and hard work was a blessing.  Their collective sense of humour and volume was recognized wherever they were!

Not really a 'selfie' guy, but when you solve the water tower
problem, you have to show some love.  (Old Man Schinkel,
Brent and I on top of the tower.)

Farewell at the airport!

Burn For You

We experience a 'burning season' during the dry months.  Farmers burn stubble and brush from their fields to prepare for new crops.  You can hear the crackling and popping around the mountains as fields are ablaze.  Normally there isn't any risk to us as the burns are small and relatively contained.  However, one windy day things changed.  The fire right outside the wall of the compound was whipped over the wall into a corner of our property.  Normally no one is down in that area during the day but this day one of the ladies was in her house and heard some crackling rather close to her house compared to the normal distant sounds.  She looked out the window to find a large section of grass and brush on fire.  I received the call and we had guys take off with buckets, shovels and rakes to the nearest house and garden hose.  We were able to put out the fire with no damage to any property, just burnt grass and a lot less leaves to rake.  Thank God that was all to report!

(Pro tip:  Do not try to put out fires while wearing sandals unless prepared to move quickly!)

Some of the burned and charred brush with the nearest house
in the background.

The fires at night create some really dramatic
scenes in the surrounding mountains

 

Hope Radio

Our friends at Hope Radio in Mango hoisted the last sections of their new antenna tower into place while we were there.  Adam and Faith Drake, along with Adam's mom and dad, the Justison family and the Lethers family are looking forward to initial broadcast testing and getting material ready to put out on the FM airwaves in northern Togo and surrounding countries.  It will be exciting to see the scope of this new tool to reach people with health education, some news and the message of Jesus Christ.  

Two guys, 90m in the sky, attaching the
last sections of the tower.

Lots of support to keep this tower in
it's place.

In one of the studios at the station

The First Flight

While the radio station is big news up in the north, the plane is making some noise of its own in the south.  Just this week, final stamps and signatures were received from the Director General of Aviation in Togo to permit the plane to take off and land.  after being assembled, tested and checked over, the first flight was an event for the community.  Lots of people stopped by to watch the plane fire up, take a short rip down the runway and disappear into the sky!  This was the culmination of more than ten years of work for a couple of families down here.  What a joy and relief this moment must have been for them!

Ryan (the taller one) and Joe, the two pilots for this first flight.

Taxiing out onto the runway

Airborne....  Awesome!

A fly-by for everyone to see the plane in action

And back on the ground - safe and sound. 
A successful first flight!

Other Happenings...

A team of nursing students from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia invaded HBB for three weeks.  It's always fun to have groups of college kids come, but these guys and girls were loads of fun and had great attitudes.  I think we would welcome them all back any time!

While preparing the roads and drainage around the compound for the impending rainy season, Doctor Fred became Farmer Fred as he helped out on one of his days off.  A change of pace from the hospital for him, and some welcome help for me!

One of the guys who works on the little farm on the hospital compound in Mango was building a small coop for some guineafowl.  Using traditional clay bricks and rolls of grass for the roof, he would have it ready to fill in a couple of days time.

The braided pattern keeps the grass in place and makes for a
mostly watertight roof. 

Someone had a birthday in January!

Logan was able to capture a couple of birds - digitally.  He has been trying to get a good picture of 'this black and red bird with a weird beak' and the Abyssinian Roller.  While in Mango he was successful!  The red bird is a Bearded Barbet, the other is the Roller.

Lastly, here is a really huge baobab tree.  There are lots of big ones, but this one is massive.  It had several bee hives dripping with honey inside its' limbs.  Three lovely ladies posed beside it for a sense of scale.  I doubt 20 people could reach around that trunk.

As always, we are in need of medical professionals here.  If you can spare two weeks or a month - or longer - please contact us.  We would love to have you come and help us out.  At the same time, you could witness firsthand what working at a Christian mission hospital in West Africa is all about.

Feel free to contact us at Penny Missions for more information, or if you just want to send a quick note.  Most of the time we have reasonable internet (barring any political protests or another power outage) so we try to reply to everyone who sends a note.

Merry Christmas, from Togo

'Tis The Season

Although temperatures are still in the mid-30's (Celsius) most days, and it doesn't feel at all festive here (except for a few fake Christmas trees in houses around the compound - looking peculiarly out of place in this environment), we want to wish you a very Merry Christmas.  This is a time for family and friends.  We will be missing many of ours through the coming weeks of celebration. 

The kids on the compound put on a lovely Christmas program for all of the doctors and missionaries last week in the pavilion outside the Guest House.  They sang their way through the Christmas story.  A lot of hard work by the kids and teachers paid off!

Jessica and the kids

This was 'unscripted dialogue' between
these two young kids

The three shepherds striking a pose.

Although in North America you get inundated with the commercialized side of the season, here in Togo we get none of that.  There's not much mention of Christmas at all, really.  The churches are announcing Christmas services and events.  There aren't any malls to shop at, so there's no advertising.  There are no glittering lights at night.  Singing carols with sweat running down your back is not what we normally experience, either.  We don't listen to any local radio, so we have no idea if there is Christmas music being played or not.  (One thing we did have is eggnog... Dr. Seth made a batch of West African eggnog.)  It's too hot to have anyone dressed up in a big red suit with a fake beard!  A sleigh would be useless around here, our Santa would need a good Land Rover 4x4 and all terrain tires!  This is probably closer to the scenes in Bethlehem than what were used to at home.

However, the real reason for the Christmas season is not lost on us.  The birth of Christ is a hugely significant event in the life of Christians around the world.  We trust that you will be able to celebrate this most important aspect of Christmas just as much as the treats, parties, presents and mistletoe. 

More Goodbyes

While the Guest House here is a revolving door of incoming and outgoing short term staff, some of our long term folks have a chance to head home for well-deserved breaks, family occasions or work back in the US or Canada.  John and Betty left last week for a six-month stay in the US.  It will be nice for them to spend Christmas with family, but this will end up being more work than vacation as they are loading up a container to ship back to Togo.  It will be filled with supplies and equipment for the maintenance department, as well as some medical equipment and housing supplies appliances.  

Before they departed, some of the gardeners and maintenance guys sang for them.  They finished with 'Silent Night', although it was 7:30am.  Check out the video of it below. 

Note:  you might need to turn your sound up a wee bit.

With John (and Betty) now gone, that leaves a large hole in the maintenance department.  I will be helping lead the department while John is away.  My goal is to return the property to him in a similar condition in which he left it.  No small task, but with some prayer and some hard work we'll get there.

(And of course, two hours after they departed the x-ray table broke.  I now know a whole lot more about the locking system of an x-ray table than I did a couple of days before.  And the table works.  No emergency phone call to the airport was required!)

Hospital Care

Christine has been in the hospital assisting the doctors with a couple of difficult cases recently.  Below is a picture of her working on a little 2-year-old girl who was seizing due to cerebral malaria. After a couple of days she was doing well and was released.   Another 10-year-old girl did not have such a positive outcome.  With many complications from cerebral malaria, bad pneumonia leading to bilateral pneumothoraces (yeah, I know what that means) requiring chest tubes, this was not an easy case.  Sadly, the girl passed away after six days, despite huge efforts from all of the staff.   There are some cases that are destined to end in defeat.  

Christine was also very thankful to have had a couple of donated CPAP machines on hand.  Just last night, as she sat down to have supper, the phone rang and she was asked to come to the hospital to assist again.  The new equipment was put into service and the patient was in much better condition because of it!  Know that the generosity of people back home is making a difference in the lives of people here.  Thank you.

A Few Quick Things To Share...

One of the fun things I get to do, working at a small hospital in West Africa, is provide some interesting assistance to the doctors and surgeons.  A couple of weeks ago Dr. Yamena needed a splint and came over to the wood shop in a hurry.  I cut a couple of pieces of plywood and made them smooth enough not to irritate the patient.

The splint just peeking out of the wrap.

Dr. Briggs came to the metal shop to ask me to cut a few pieces of surgical steel rod.  We made some bends in the rod, smoothed some edges and voila... something close to Rush Rods.  They're rods inserted surgically into fractured bones to stabilize and aid healing. 

Dr. Briggs grinding off some sharp edges...

Adding a 'shepherd's hook' bend to the rod...

And the finished product in action!

In a previous blog post I mentioned the differences in vehicle inspections and obtaining insurance.  I still need to tell the story about getting a bank account, but that needs more space.

Getting a couple of cylinders of medical oxygen and a smaller cylinder of acetylene was a fun experience too, however! 

The local Air Liquide is not quite as safe, secure, well stocked, comprehensive (yes, that's the word I'm looking for) as what I was used to in Canada. 
First, the entire operation - reception, accounting, warehousing, shipping, etc. was the same 10' x 10' concrete box - with a window, a fluorescent light that was not turned on, and a door.  With one employee... receptionist (kind of, we had to call him from his home), accountant (that John corrected on his invoice, twice.) warehousing and shipping (he watched as Mensavi and I loaded the cylinders). 
Second, storing some highly flammable gases in a confined room is probably not going to pass MOL inspection guidelines at home.  Not by a long shot.

John and Mensavi in the accounting department.

Beside the door - must be shipping and receiving!!

And once again, Merry Christmas -from all of us to all of you.  May you truly celebrate the birth of our King and Saviour.

Our Togo Christmas tree.

Something's In The Air

Show and Tell

Keenan and Logan are in the afternoon session of school in the one room schoolhouse, grades 4 – 8 included. They have weekly 'show and tell' still. It doesn't take very long with only six students.

Avery is one of the girls. She had the chance to do her show and tell second, after Logan showed his folding pocket knife first. Well, she had a little pocket knife of her own that she wanted to show everyone. It was a turquoise colour and 'small and cute and girly', as Logan described it. Once she had finished, it was time for the other boys to go. Not to be outdone, Avery's older brother Paton showed off his knife, followed by Keenan who also decided to show a knife, just to keep the theme going. Six kids in the class - and a total of seven knives were present...

School in Togo is definitely a bit different.

No 'small and cute and girly' knives in this picture!

My 'show and tell' is to show the cool skies God paints at night,
and I am able to capture them like this.

Dinner Guests

Last year, when we were here, we enjoyed hosting people for dinner at our house. We were often the recipients of such blessing, hearing the stories and experiences of the different medical and missionary staff that came to eat with us. We had the chance to host our fist dinner already. Dr. Josh, Dr. Brett and Dr. Yamena all came for 'make your own pizza' night. (We chose this meal so we couldn't be blamed if they didn't like theirs!) Josh and Brett are family medicine doctors, and Yamena is a surgeon. They're all great people to spend time with.

We had a great time getting to know the three of them better, as well as giving them a break from another meal in the Guest House setting. We hope to continue this as it has become a bit of a tradition here.

(Best wishes for the upcoming marriage proposal, Josh!)

Family Reunion!!

We were able to celebrate American Thanksgiving with my sister and her family. They are working in the northern part of Togo at another mission hospital, the Hospital Of Hope, in Mango.

First hugs after a year apart!

They all made the drive down for a quick weekend visit. It was so good to hang out with them all. Our boys were so glad to see their cousins as it had been a year since we had been together. What a fun reunion! We ate, played and hung out together. Nate and I were able to do some work, too.

It was a bit surreal to be sitting around a bunch of tables eating turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie in a West African country with family. Surreal, but we loved it! We're making plans for a chance to get together after Christmas with them, too.

     [UPDATE: Knives are no longer permitted in school, as they became a distraction. In our Sunday church announcement time, the teacher requested a pencil sharpener as the electric one they have is a bit temperamental. A couple of boys - who shall remain unnamed - suggested knives as a way to sharpen the pencils...]

Harmatan Is Here!

Harmatan is a unique weather phenomenon in Togo and a large portion of West Africa. The winter winds from the north blow sand and dust from the Sahara Desert high into the air and then across the countries to the south and west. The air becomes filled with very fine dust which settles in or on everything. It's like fog - without the moisture. The one blessing is that the dust blocks the sun's intensity and lowers the temperatures a little bit overall.

The view on December 10, 2017, with the harmatan
effect.

The same view from last July, just cloudy.

We had two days with heavy rain showers, which the locals say was the last rain that ushers in the harmatan. The lush green mountains behind the hospital compound became obscured in the dust. Any flat surface in the house, hospital or outside got coated with a fine layer of it, too. 'Clean freaks' would have a nightmare here at this time of year.  

The Plane, The Plane!!

It arrived! After years of being without an aircraft, it has been delivered! What an awesome moment, when the aviation guys cracked open the doors of the container! 

Breaking the seal on the door

Our first look inside!

 We began unloading airplane parts out of a smoking hot container. Outside it was 96 degrees F, inside the big tin can it was only hotter!  Wings, ailerons, other control surfaces, and the fuselage all came off and were safely stored in the hangar in preparation for re-assembly.

A customs official was on hand to inspect items coming off
the container

My view, pushing the fuselage out the doors.

The final parts rolled off and we had time for a couple of pictures with the plane, still soaked and sweaty.

Derek, Ryan, Jason and John.  Sweaty, tired, but glad to
see the plane in the hangar.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Here are just a few pictures of some things we've seen around here.

A termite queen that some of our workers
dug out of the ground.  Gross!

Hitching a ride on one of the compound's roads

Finishing the roof on the drive shed.

A classic old Rover on the side of the road

Logan sporting a new outfit for church.