Monday, April 19, 2010

Danye N' digbe - April 9-11

Top weekend of 2010... happened in a small town called Danye N' digbe, approx 3-4hrs (depends on transportation) from Lome. A group of us headed up to do some paragliding, it was so beautiful! Definitely one of the most beautiful places I've seen in Africa.
Here's Silke, Ruth, and David, we're waiting at the bus station for our transportation.
Our transportation...few creaks, funny noises, many bumps, and a few checks under the hood (I mean the drivers seat, where the motor's located), we made it.
Our hostel we stayed at was in the middle of the countryside. The quietness and sounds of nature were so nice, I'm definitely a country girl at heart! No electricity or running water...just like camping, loved it, and for only $2 USD a night per room.
A local family ran the hostel. This is one of their little babies sleeping peacefully on the porch...till a few seconds after the picture was taken. Then he awoke screaming...too many 'yovos' around, he was freaked out by us. The family laughed.
Our outhouse :)
Silke checking out the outhouse...hot & smelly with flies & bees.
Walking into town for supper
Termite mound
A French gentleman set up a parasailing buisness in Togo, wanting to teach the Togolese people. His cook made supper for us, traditional African food - rice & chicken with sauce.
Christina having a morning 'shower'. The hosts got water from the well, heated it over the fire, and placed it in a steel pail for us. The little plastic bowl is used for a scoop to pour the water over us. Breakfast at the hostel.
Saturday morning we went up the mountain where we hung out all day. It was beautiful! We could see Ghana (village furtherest to the right). We waited on and off all day for proper winds to be able to jump. It was neat to hang out on the mountain, chilling and hanging out with the African kids.
Two paragliding instructors from France were out for a few weeks in Togo and we were priveledged to be able to jump tandum with them. Below is a picture of the lady instructor preparing to jump off the mountain. They would spread out their shoot on the mountain side, wait for proper winds, take a few steps till the shoot was open and ready, then run off the mountain. She then radio'd back to tell us how the winds were...then I got to jump :)
Below should be a clip of me jumping. Hopefully it worked (I can't check it here on the ship).
It was approx 5000 meters in height. It was sooooo beautiful! I loved it!! It brought back memories of Jane (my cousin) & I skydiving (just a few years ago...right Jane?) and how we were speechless, cause it's so great! We were aiming to land in the soccer field in the village.
Getting closer...
The instructor was telling me how when they first jumped, everyone in the village was in awe as they've never seen anything like this before. Now every time she jumps, she sees the children running to the soccer field waiting for her to land.
Here's the kids running out to us after we landed, there must've been around 50. They were screaming and cheering, it was awesome!
The instructor and myself, with some of the kids (and the chute in the backround). The instructor told them my name and they all shouted it...so funny. While we were waiting for our ride, we kicked the soccer ball around with the kids - so fun!
Another one of the jumpers landing.
Silke preparing to jump.
Ruth ready to go.


Hanging out with the kids on the mountain...eating mangos.

They love getting their picture taken :)
Fan Milk...one of the nicest things in Africa. They're all over, which is great! Cold treats - juice, yogurt, icecream.
I wanted to buy a few pineapples before heading home on Sunday, so while we were waiting for our taxi I bought some. Sometimes the French language barrier can be so interesting. I handed her 700 CFA (which is like $1.50 USD) and somehow wound up with 8 pineapples.

She filled this bowl with pineapples for me.
Some random village guy wanting a picture with me and all the pineapples I had just purchased.
So the lady peeled a couple pineapples for us while we waited.

The pineapples continued back on the ship too...in the dinning hall
and of course in smoothies...mango, pineappl, and banana - delicious! The fruit is so sweet, makes for great smoothies!
Cheers to a great weekend!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Miracle at Easter

I love Easter! At home I love the fresh crisp air, snow melting, trees budding, and new life. Although this Easter was different in season, it was still special to celebrate it in Africa. We had a Good Friday morning service remembering Christ's death, stations of the cross, and a bonfire at the beach on Friday night followed by watching 'The Passion of the Christ'. Easter Sunday morning we had a sunrise service out on the deck, a celebration service, and a service on the ward. It's great to have our translators lead the service on the ward - drumming, dancing, and singing. I love it how it can be so loud yet some of the kids still sleep through it. It's great to see the patients come alive with African worship.
Isaiah 53:5 'But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.'

Easter Sunday night we had one of our palliative cancer patients, who has been with us for approximately a month pass away. I had the opportunity to care for him a number of times, thus getting to know him a bit. He was a homeless man, and his family refused to take and care for him even though he was on his deathbed. He was struggling with many things in his life from his past one day opening up and sobbing on my shoulder, saying God's grace was sufficient for us but not for him and for the things he's done. We (through the translator) were able to pray with him and remind him of 2 Corinthians 12:9 'But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.' Our prayer is that he will have found peace before his death. A local pastor came to take him body to bury him and Mercy Ships covered the expenses for the funeral. So sad to see him die without any family, but we tried our best to help him to die with his pain controled, with comfort and dignity.

Two nights after that we had a little malnourished cleft lip/palate baby who wasn't doing so well. He had been experiencing difficulty breathing and was placed on CPAP during the evening but was not doing well. His breathing was fast, labored, & he was using all her chest muscles to breath. His oxygen saturation was dipping between 70-80%, his heart rate was 250-280. The anesthetist was called and the decision was made to intubate the patient. Meds were drawn up and ready to be given when our surgeon (Dr Gary) stopped and said they should pray for the patient. After he finished praying the baby's oxygen saturation went up, heart rate went down, respiratory rate went down and they didn't need to intubate. They actually even took the baby off CPAP and just put him on blow by oxygen. He is still doing well - praise God! Nothing can be explained/rationalized medically by this, it was a miracle.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Passotome, Benin - March 27/28

Weekend off...let's head to Benin. Benin is Togo's neighboring country to the east. Because Togo is such a small country you can get to either border (Ghana/Benin) within the hour. Ruth, Jenny, & I headed out to Passotome, a town of approx 6000 people in Benin, for the weekend.


We successfully made it past the border and to Passotome without knowing much French. We learned, after about half an hour at the border, the magic words are 'Mercy Ships'. Because the ship was in Benin last year most officials know about it and let us through without difficulty after that. The most common forms of transportation are moto taxi (motorbike - 'zemmi jean'), or a car taxi. The car taxi does not consist of seatbelts, and the rule is 3 in front (driver, two people on the passenger seat - in reality one sitting on the gearshift, and 4 in back. These cars are small so you're squished in, with doors locked.

The town of Passotome borders a large lake so fishing is way of life for most of the residents.
'Yovos' means white person, so we hear that term yelled out quite frequently.
This little one was scared of the 'yovos' and started screaming when he saw us. He's still pretty cute though, having a bath in the bowl.
Alot of the fishing boats are tree trunks carved out, pretty neat!
Fishing nets hanging from the trees on the beach.
Voodoo is a common religion practiced in Benin and most other West African countries. I am starting to learn more about this religion, so this is a subjective understanding of it. It is a religion trusting in spirits of different forms of nature (spirits that are 'divine' and govern the earth). The 'creator spirit' is called Mawu, offerings of animals are given to honor this spirit. People also believe in ancestor worship and that the spirits of the dead live side by side in the world of the living. They also create physical statues or dried animal parts called 'fetishes' which they worship believing them to be spiritual. This concept just seems so foreign and hard to believe this still happens today.
Jeremiah 14:22 "Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, O LORD our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this."
Below are a few pictures of some idols we saw.
Our hotel grounds were beautiful. The room for the 3 of us costed 18,000 CFA ($32 USD).
Jenny & Ruth on the beach.
Sunday at 6am we went out on to the lake to learn the different forms of African fishing. They taught us about the different tools they use for catching different fish, crab, etc.
Pictured below is their place for voodoo offerings on the lake. They believed that fish would migrate to this area to breed and would come out of the area multiplied. No one was allowed to fish in this area or they would be cursed and would need to repay the town with many things (food, $, etc). Only at certain times of the year could anyone enter this area to offer sacrifices. Needless to say there were many fishermen out fishing that morning and no one catching many fish. We caught a few really small hand sized fish but I think the lack of regulation might be harming the numbers of fish in the lake.

One of the fishermen casting his net out on the water.
Pulling in his net.
We learned how to cast a fishing net. Here the guide is teaching me how to prepare for the cast.
Ready to cast the net...didn't catch any fish, that tends to be my luck anyways.
Ruth (RN from Germany), myself, and Jenny (RN from Austrailia).
The only way out of the town was with a zemmie jean. This was Jenny's first time ever on a motorbike. She made it out alive and enjoyed it! Here we're stopping for gas.
In the taxi on our way home. It's amazing what they all take in/on their cars. The other day I saw a couch on the top of a car with the driver reaching one hand out of his window to hold the couch while driving with the other hand...only in Africa.