I will try to give you a few glimpses into life here in
Togo!!!
It is a tropical area, so with the rainy season, everything
is beautiful and green. The compound is
in a valley, but at the base of a mountain.
We often go for walks up the mountain road behind the hospital which
looks out over the valley – this was especially beautiful at sunrise!!!!
The hospital is on a large compound that is walled in. On one half of the compound there is the
hospital building, clinic buildings, an administrative building, and a small
building for the nursing school. There
is also a shelter area for patients and families to stay while waiting to
travel home, or waiting for frequent clinic visits like daily dressing changes. This is a unique area as there are only a few
private rooms and the rest is common areas where they are able to sleep or have
fires to cook over so they can eat. The
other half of the compound has about 8 houses, a small school building, the
guest house kitchen and rooms, a pool, and a basketball court.
I live in a 4 bedroom house with 3 other single missionaries. We are able to share life together, cook
together, and enjoy fun movie or game nights every once in a while. There are two amazing things
about living on this compound: clean drinking water, and a generator. The water here on the compound is clean and
drinkable straight from the tap. The
electricity goes off frequently, however, all you do is count to about 5 and
then the generator kicks in and the electricity for the hospital and all the
houses on the compound turns back on! Only one time it has not worked, but that is very very uncommon!!!
Without that, life here would be much more difficult!!!
Cooking is basically all from scratch, and food mostly comes
from the market, a roadside stand, or picked fresh from the tree. On the compound there are mango, orange,
lemon, avocado, and grapefruit trees, so we just help ourselves to fresh
fruits!!! We have ladies who come once a week to help clean and cook - they make us some wonderful African dishes!!!
I’ve not lacked for any good food while here. Some examples of the meals we have made are:
pizza, parmesan crusted tilapia, granola and yogurt (both homemade) with fresh
fruits, cinnamon rolls, avocado tacos with homemade tortillas, avocado smoothies,
peanut soup and a number of other African dishes, and we have even had
chocolate chip cookies!!! Peanut butter sandwiches are amazing since they are
made with homemade bread and homemade peanut butter!!! The best might have been the chocolate torte
that was made for me on my birthday!!!
The roads through the village that I’m living in are paved,
but there are huge potholes in the roads which makes for very bumpy rides. Walking through the village or town is never
an uneventful experience as all the children yell “Yova” (which is their term
for a white person) and excitedly smile and wave. Try as I might, I will never be able to blend
in here =) Watching for cars and motos
swerving to avoid potholes can also makes you pay extra attention while walking
down the road!
Getting clothes here consists of going to market and
choosing from hundreds of brightly colored fabrics. Then choosing a design and going to a
seamstress to have it made. A piece of
cloth here is called a panya, and can be used for basically everything!!! I’m working on list of all the uses for
panyas!!!!
Life here for me does not seem that much different than life in the states. Life for the Togolese however is very very difficult and yet they are amazingly resourceful!!! I have a lot to learn from them!!!
