Happy Easter!

Easter weekend when I was younger meant wearing a cute dress my mother had sewn and white dress shoes to church and sitting in the pew with my family listening to a reading of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. This easter weekend was so different and that little girl would have never imagined herself so far from what she had considered her home.

After school Saturday, I enjoyed a lovely dinner with the Miller family and my fellow teachers, with chocolate covered marshmallow bunnies (products of South Africa) for dessert :) That night Bethany and I headed back to the schoolhouse while Jacque went over to the Kennell's house for the night. When we arrived at the schoolhouse we were happy to find that our electricity was working better than ever downstairs with a light on our porch to happily greet us! It was so exciting and we were getting ready to

head upstairs and tackle our task of preparing a cake for our dessert for the potluck on Sunday afternoon. While we mixed away and lighted our gas oven, the electricity went off-- rather normal occurrence so we didn't think much of it and figured it would turn back on by the time we had finished our baking.

Well, as we mixed and baked... and hard boiled some white eggs to dye later.. it still hadn't came back on. So since both of us had wanted to spend a night on the roof before we left, we decided this was a perfect time to try it out! We went to the roof to enjoy the cool for a while after having baked away in our little hot kitchen and decided we should attempt to carry up Bethany's mattress and sleep up there. The experime

nt worked out and with a little bit of thought through maneuvering we managed to lift the mattress up to the roof. We fell asleep watching the stars twinkle, with the moon as our nightlight and with an occasional bird landing on a nearby rail.

We woke up the next morning to the sounds of the birds, the nearby main street and a nearby church service with loud speakers. We woke up early to go out to the village for the all church retreat, which was such a treat! I love to listen to the Kabiye worship and I took some video to remember and share.

After cleaning up a bit, we went to the Easter service at the Kennell's and enjoyed watching a presentation on the porch by all of our KCA students along with their friend Joshua Shanks, who is reading his scripture portion in this photo. The presentation included scripture readings and songs, my favorite probably would have to be He is the King of Kings, in which each child had their own word in the lyrics to hold up at the appropriate times :) So much fun! I could tell the kids really enjoyed that particular one as well.

After the presentation, we had an easter egg hunt around the house... eggs were hiding everywhere from under plants, in trees, around the trampoline, to inside a rain spout. The hunt began with the youngest two, Caleb and Anna, carrying their baskets and searching for the eggs full of treasures before the older and more experienced egg hunting herd was let loose.

After the hunt, Jacque, Bethany and I took some easter roommate pictures together on the tire swing and the trampoline... So hilarious! I don't have the photos on my camera, but I'll share them as soon as I have them. All in all it was a great weekend and I'm ready to take Monday off after all the excitement!

Happy Easter Everyone! I hope you all had a beautiful day full of family, friends and fun :)

Dust

Last night I picked up a wonderful children's book and started reading it. I'd read it when I was younger, but I'd forgotten how wonderfully well written the story is...

I decided I loved this poem out of the book since my life here lately has been effected greatly by the dust of the Harmattan.

Dust and Rain

On Sunday

winds came,

bringing a red dust

like prairie fire,

hot and peppery,

searing the inside of my nose,

the whites of my eyes.

Roaring dust,

turning the day from sunlight to midnight.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse pg 46

After having 2 sick days this last week with ear infections I feel I should add how terrible dust is with your ears and throats... oh yes.. and our floors :( Even right after mopping, our pitiful floors begin to have footprints showing the red color our floors are painted beneath a fine layer of dust.

Living in Togo

Day to day life here has become normal. The other day I was asked about my day and I felt like saying "Oh, just normal. Nothing exciting.." Then I started to think about all that I had done that day. Which included so many things that would not be normal in the states.

In a normal day I wake up to see whether the electricity is on or off, and recently whether the water is on or off. Then I determine what I'll eat for breakfast, either heating up some oatmeal in the microwave or making pancakes on the gas stovetop. After cleaning my dishes and getting dressed I go downstairs to my classroom to teach, which for the most part is rather repetitive each day teaching spelling, math, science... etc. to the kindergartners. Then I go over to teach fourth grade french, then sixth grade french.

After teaching, I usually end up exhausted on the couch watching a movie with Bethany or Jacque or both depending on the day (whether it is an art day or science day or music day). Then there is either an errand to the market with Andrea, or a trip to the tailors to re-explain all of our instructions in french again... and reassure her that yes, those squares cut out of the corners of the pagnes are intentional... and she can still make the items with the remaining fabric :) Or randomly walking to the market, receiving cadeau calabashes, eating "pizza" at a local restaurant and then taking a moto taxi back to our street and racing the neighborhood children to my door. After any assortment of these activities we are whisked off to dine with one of the missionary families most nights, or we fabricate our own fabulous food! Sometimes we even cook in the candlelight due to the lack of electricity.

At the end of the day we now rejoice in relaxing in the refreshing cool air created by the new air conditioner we're blessed to now possess in our bedroom. I sleep on the same wall as the a/c so the old machine with the broken motor would put put put all night and then start booming the wall next to me in the middle of the night, so the new machine is such a great blessing to have, I have been sleeping splendidly and enjoying the cooler temperatures it creates in our abode.

Thinking of going back to the states in 6 weeks seems crazy to me! I can't imagine how much time has gone by, I still am unsure of what to expect when I go back... and after adjusting to the rhythm of life here in Kara, Togo I'm expecting quite a shock when I return to America. There are so many unknowns, where I will work and live, what I will do, and even as the unknowns get answered I feel uncertain as to whether the plans I make are going to work out or whether something unexpected will happen. Perhaps I've been in Africa long enough that I now naturally expect the unexpected.