Thursday, August 20, 2009

More Wedding Pics

Pierre and Rachel kneeling for communion during the ceremony.
Sarah, Brad, and I with a friend from village. It's after the ceremony and we're outside the church. Asher attended the wedding as well! This was NOT planned and Nathan and I felt like embarrassed parents. We tried to no avail to get him to leave. So we just let him be and he stayed calm. Rachel was actually excited to hear he had been there. I guess he is part of the family!








Pierre and Rachel's Wedding

Here's a video of the processional into the church...fun, huh?

Cooking Experiment

Sarah is baking...biscuits! This is the first time I've tried a Dutch oven. I was nervous but it turned out great! Maybe Sarah was my goodluck charm ;-)Our Dutch oven. The tin foil pans sat on top of the empty tomato paste cans to cook the biscuits.The final product. They were YUMMY!





Coming and Leaving

Well, our third set of visitors have come and are soon to be leaving.
Sarah and Brad have spent the last few days in village and we're
currently in Lome. Their flight leaves tonight. We had a long car
ride yesterday but ended it with Lebanese hamburgers..it even came
with an egg on top! Afterwards, we took showers and went to bed! I
am up earlier than them this morning so am catching up on my email.

As for Sarah and Brad, they have been great sports - eating foufou,
using our latrine, constantly reapplying bug spray, riding
motorcycles, and tolerating Asher's hesitant feelings of having guests
in the house. They got a taste of market - and the local beer - and
were guests at Pierre and Rachel's wedding (pics to come!). They
happily wore Togolese clothes and hiked through puddles and mud to the
reception. Most importantly, we had a great time together. I learned
I am more like my sister than I thought possible - we like to nap,
don't put too much emphasis on cleanliness and organization, and love
to bake (pictures of our "experiment" coming..). Plus Brad and Nathan
realized they too have much in common - love to hike and camp, will
eat large quantities of whatever food is served, and a desire for
future log cabins and vegetable gardens of their own. Everyone felt
relaxed (lots of book reading!) and had fun teasing each other (lots
of time for talking!). I'll be sad to see them go, but am glad they
were able to share this experience with us. They are two more people
who will now understand why chocolate and mac and cheese are such
prized commodities!

As for the "work" front, I have been chosen to be a trainer for the
incoming GEE volunteers. I wrote a letter of interest to the director
and was chosen as 1 out of 5 trainers. I will have a week of training
myself and then will ultimately spend a week with the trainees (who
arrive the 3rd week in Sept). I will lead sessions and be generally
helpful (ie explaining how to buy stamps, encouraging their French
learning, and buying them ice cream - Remember when I was in training
and had no money?! It's almost be a year!). Nathan is hoping to be
picked as a trainer for NRM and will hear next week. Keep your
fingers crossed!

Well, signing off again. We're going to the big Lome market today to
look for Brad a Togolese soccer jersey...I'm also going to buy some
dog food! Maybe pizza for dinner tonight?! Look for a posting from
Sarah soon - and pictures! Thanks as always for the love, support,
and prayers!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Camp Songs

We walked through town where camp is to invite locals to come and view the skits the boys wrote and performed. We paraded through the streets singing and chanting. And actually got quite a few people to come back to camp for the show. It was lots of fun!

Science Camp

Making bleach with electricity! Takara, the teacher from Pessare, is standing behind the man leaning down...He has a blue shirt on. My program director, Rose.


Camp Kitchen

Making "pate" or corn paste for dinner...Look like a camp kitchen in America?! Plucking chickens! Yummy!