Sometimes…

Africa was great.  I am not going to go into too much detail. 

6-5

Woke up early to get the cable needed for the trip, picked up Desiree and went to church.  Had to get a new bag because mine had a hole in it.  The ride to the airport was uneventful.  We flew United Airlines down to Chicago.  It took longer to board than the flight was.  Had a long layover in Chicago, ate some lunch there.  We got in line for the Air France flight and the man said our carry-ons were too big.  I had already checked 2 bags at Detroit.  I would be charged for this if they made me check it, so I explained this to the lady checking in my ticket and she said just take it.  There’s nothing she can do if they don’t let me board the plane, they also said, sir you don’t have a visa, and I told them I would be getting one in Togo.  They accepted this and I was in.  We all got past the security checkpoint of the international terminal after a guard commented on the cable he saw in my bag on the screen, I told him what it was and asked if he wanted to look at it, he said no, it’s fine… there was no restaurant past security.  So, Ron stayed with our bags while we all went to eat because Ron didn’t want to go through security again, because of his pacemaker.  Marrion came out and got some food for him and went back.  After a long wait, and a change of gates, we finally boarded our flight.  The plane was nice, all the seats had their own screen.  All of our seats were assigned to us.  I sat by Renee, she is very nice.  She told me one of the flight attendants on the flight was very dreamy.  So, when I saw him, I inhaled and exhaled loudly and waved my hand in front of my face.  She thought this was hilarious and from then on, any time he walked past while we were awake, we would both do this.  It was a great time.  A meal was served on the flight, and I watched Failure to Launch on my screen.  It was a funny movie.  The food was very tasty.  Words cannot describe how interesting the flavors were.  I had some type of food, can’t remember what.  Brie is a very interesting tasting cheese, kinda gouda (bad joke) But seriously, I liked it but it makes your fingers stinky.  After this, and several more sighs as the flight attendant whom my partner in flight thought was dreamy walked by… sleep ensued. 

6-6

Before I knew it, they were waking us up for breakfast.  I didn’t want breakfast, I wanted more than 2 hours of sleep.   But I ate anyway, to appease the flight attendants.  For breakfast, they served us a yogurt, and a small danish.  No complaints, except for the very little sleep.  This brings me up to (3 hrs on Sunday morning, 2 hrs Sunday night [nap], 3 hrs Monday morning, 2-3 hrs Monday night[Tuesday morning] )  10-11 hrs total in the past 72 hrs.  Anyway, we landed in Paris, France, and I did not take pictures out the window because I did not have one.  I was in the middle row.  After deplaning, we went to our next gate for our departure flight.  Out of security, and then through it again, another comment was made about my cable.  But it passed through security.  No inspection and no complications praise the Lord.  We took the layover opportunity in Paris to take some time to freshen up, and some of us chose to take some time to sleep as well.  After a ‘short’ layover in Paris, we boarded the plane, and waited for what seemed like forever before taking off for our final destination, Togo, Lomé.  I sat next to a lovely lady who was originally from Togo and now lives in DC.  Talked to her, ate a meal, watched a movie with Queen Latifah in it called Last Holiday.  Then we arrived in Togo.  I submitted my passport to get a visa.  While that was in progress, we got our luggage.  Then I went back and waited for my visa, finally got it, and then went out where we met Randy Tarr (a wild and crazy guy).  Loaded up the baggage and were on our way to WAAST.  On arrival, the power was out.  So we went to Randy’s house on campus and hung out there for a few minutes and then the power was back on.  So, then we had a little snackage, and then went back to our dormitory and got ready for and went to bed. 

6-7

This morning, we got up and prepared to visit schools.  We visited 5 schools total.  The purpose of us visiting the schools was to pass out the “Book of Hope” to lots of children, all of them from different age ranges.  It was very cool, to see them so excited over receiving a little book.  You can barely get that out of kids in America giving them a new iPod or something.  There’s a special greeting that they will give each other if they are really good friends.  After you shake hands, they’ll kind of slide their hand out and hang on to the middle finger and snap it.  One of these very young kids did this with me, it was so cool.  Such a great experience.  After arriving back at WAAST, I went with Randy and Pastor Cal to the worksite to see what we’d be doing, we got to meet some of the workers there too.  After that, we walked by Bernie Smith’s house to see if he was there so I could talk to him about the computers.  He wasn’t home but his pets were, he has a pet monkey named squeaky.  A pet dog who loves to bark, and tons of birds.  I’ll have to get pictures of them.  Anyway, while we were playing with squeaky, Bernie came up to us, and I got to talk to him about the computers.  We ran in to Curtis on our way in, and he came along to see what me and Bernie were talking about being an IT guy himself.  So, after we discussed what needed to be done, we went back to the dorm to get ready for the service.

The service was very confusing. The first guy talking had an interpreter for him because he was speaking French, and the locals have their own language too.  So, that went on for a while.  The music was in French or the local language, not sure which.  After that, they introduced pastor Cal.  He had an interpreter interpret into the local language.  After his sermon.  He had about 50 people come forward for salvation, and then another local preacher came up and started talking in the local language encouraging more people to come, he finally got about 50 more people to come forward.  The team was sitting on stage and they asked us to go behind those that came forward and pray with them.  After this, we went back on stage, and shortly after, they walked us next door to a man’s house who hosted us and served us drinks and a snack.  After spending some time fellowshipping with him, we left and came back to WAAST and went to bed.

6-8

Today was the first work day.  We sun-lotion-ed up, bug-sprayed up, gloved up, hats and sunglasses and set out.  The locals were already working.  We had cement mixers there and started by loading those up.  The pouring process was a long and daunting one.  I somehow managed to injure my leg, merely a flesh wound.  Oh, and here’s a tip, if you’re going to be sweating, don’t put bug spray on; it will make your skin burn like crazy.  We broke for lunch at about 11:45 because from 11:30 to 1:30 is when it is hottest out.  A local man stopped by with some of his iron work.  I picked out a candle holder for 3500₣ or $7.  Once we came back to the worksite, it started cooling off.  We were still pouring and everything.  I got to carry a bag of cement on my head.  Not the smartest thing in the world to do. It was 50kg (110+lbs).  After another 2 hrs of work, we had to start getting ready for the evening service.  This service we sang “Lord I lift Your name on high” The crowd loved it, Desiree led us in it.  They wanted us to sing some more, so Pastor Cal had Desiree sing something else, she sang “Amazing Grace” She did a wonderful job on it.  Then pastor Cal preached, and did his own altar call this time.  After a few more altar calls for different things, we left stage and went to the same man’s house again.  Fellowshipped there, and then came home.  My stomach was bugging me this night. Couldn’t really sleep much.

6-9

Woke up and felt awful.  I went out to the breakfast table and ate half a pancake which was very good, but couldn’t eat anymore.  I went back to bed, I was feeling achy and was cold.  I told Sanvi this and he said that’s not good.  I had taken some Tylenol and went to sleep.  Pastor Cal and Randy came in to check on me and told me they were praying for me.  I woke up about noon and was feeling slightly better.  I was really sweaty from being in the room with out AC and under my blanket.  After lunch, I helped Bernie wire up his house and helped him with a few issues he was having with his computers, started feeling bad again (drugs were wearing off)  Went by the worksite and helped bring some stuff in and then went to bed, slept until 9 or so and was woken by Curtis snoring.  I came out to sleep on the couch but half the team was still out here.  They asked me how I was feeling, I felt better, I asked Cephas (our meal provider) to heat some of dinner up for me, it was Chicken Curry with rice, very good.  I ate that, then attempted to go back to sleep with my ear-plugs in.  I woke up several times during the night.

6-10

Woke up, and had a splitting headache and my back was sore.  I took some Tylenol with breakfast and headed out to the worksite.  After working until 10 we took a half hour break, I came back here and configured the wireless router and then hooked it up, checked my e-mail on it, and then came in for lunch.  Got some of my money exchanged for some local currency.  Hung out here, went back to check my e-mail.  The team went to town to go shopping, I could not because my head was throbbing again.  I wanted to go though, but when I realized this, they were already gone.  During my rush out the door, my middle finger got smashed in the screen door, there’s a nice purple mark under my fingernail.  I cleaned up and got ready to go out to eat with the group, we went to a local pizzeria and had some pizza there, it was very tasty.  After that, we came home and I played a game with Ron called Farkle.  After that, I went to bed.

6-11

Woke up, and went to the service with pastor Cal.  I video taped his sermon.  After this we went to sanvi’s father’s house.  He had authentic African drummers and dancers there.  We also had a large banquet there.  It was very good.

6-12

Went to the work site.  Worked until noon.  Then I helped Bernie with the computers.

6-13

The crew finished up at the worksite.  I finished up with the computers.

Then we prepared to leave.

hey guys, just a quick update about africa, I’m back, obviously, but I wanted to let you guys know that it went well and I will be updating very soon.

Later
Chris

Hey all of my infamous fans.  I am writing this to tell you all that I am leaving for Africa for about 8 days.  I will not be writing during this time.  I am setting up a network for a School of Theology over there.  Check back in a week and I may have some links to pics up.

Enjoy
Chris