It was bound to happen . . .

Ever since Micah was a month old, I have combed, straightened, and/or braided her hair every day, without fail, for over twelve years!  There were a few breaks here and there when we left her braids in for a few days, but mostly it's been she and I until yesterday when I taught her how to straighten her hair!  Now, she only did the front, but she did a good job!  To those of you with "white" hair, that probably seems a bit delayed.  But my girl has "black" hair and she can make a 'fro with the best of them!  I plan on a minimum of an hour to get through her hair after a wash - whether it's combed, braided or straightened because that girl has hair!  And yesterday, she did a great job on it.  Way to go, Micah!  

You're not in America any more!

In just a few days we'll be in Togo - and we have a lot to prepare for!  Did you know that . . .

-Greetings include a handshake and verbal "Hello" in French (Bonjour), Ewe (Woezo-lo!), Kabiye (Alafia-we) or another tribal language.  
 -Togolese carry everything on their heads - one banana, a fully-assembled ceiling fan, up to 300 eggs, firewood, a big basket of chickens, or a 5- gallon pan of water.

-You are expected to bargain for everything you purchase at market. You should offer about one-half of the first price quoted by the vendor.

-Togolese houses are made of concrete or of mud or brick with straw roofs.

-Soccer is Togo's favorite sport. People go wild during World Cup competition.

  
-Togo's traditional religions stress fetishism and idolatry. Ancestor worship is common, along with the worship of snakes, trees, rainbows, fire, etc. Fetishes are used as protection against evil spirits and against other men. (A fetish is an object that is considered holy or as having some special power.)

-Fresh fruits and vegetables are available in abundance, along with meats, fish, dairy products, pasta, and nuts-- plenty to maintain a balanced diet.

-Togolese eat lots of starchy foods--rice or fufu (boiled, pounded cassava root) with spicy tomato sauce and sometimes fish or meat.

-Worn-out tires are recycled into sandals, toys or fuel for smoking meat (love that burnt-rubber flavor!)

 -It is disrespectful to give or receive things with your left hand. Always use the right hand.

 -Eye Contact -  Interesting to know, when an elderly person is talking to a young one, it’s disrespectful to look into the persons eyes. The eyes are lowered. 

-Again, if someone older than you is carrying heavy stuff, as a sign of respect you should take it from them immediately. Don’t leave them carrying it.

            

-Crossing your legs when you sit or talking to someone with your hands in your pockets is considered condescending.

-Togo is hot and humid most of the year and the temperature seldom drops below 70 F.

-During Fall and Winter months harmattan winds bring dirt and sand from the Sahara Desert.

-During Spring and Summer months is the rainy season.

Arrested!

Last night, just as we were sitting down for supper, the doorbell rang.  Sam went to answer it and found a CIA officer at the door.  He said he was there to arrest both Matt and his best friend Corey (a frequent diner at our house) for sending threatening notes and trying to skip the country.  We weren't sure what was going on, but he cuffed the boys and was taking them in for questioning.  As they passed the garage, they saw our friend Kim standing there laughing!  Oh, yeah - they were pranked! 

"Officer Lee" looked pretty convincing

Handcuffed!

Last summer the boys had gone to Kim's house for a baking lesson.  She'd sent them home with the goodies in a bunch of her good dishes.  Well, those two nasty boys sent her a thank you with a ransom note included - "Send us chocolate mousse and we will return your dishes."  It's taken Kim almost ten months to nail 'em, but she got them good last night!  Corey doesn't like spiders and Matt doesn't care for mice - look at what they got!

Pretty sure they came out the winners!

Edoudard Eyessi

Since birth, Edouard Eyessi suffered from a troubling hernia condition. Any kind of exertion, even speaking loudly, caused sharp pain. The swelling, which increased as Edouard grew older, was extremely uncomfortable. Most worrying of all, was the concern that Edouard would not be able to father children when the time came for him to marry.

Doctors told Edouard’s parents that nothing could be done for their child until he was six years old. “Waiting all of that time while watching how difficult it was for Edouard to play like the other boys his age was so difficult,” his mother, Eugenie, explains.
When Edouard’s parents brought him back to the hospital just after his sixth birthday, the doctors shared a distressing prognosis. Given what they knew, the only operation they could perform on Edouard would likely take away his ability to father children. Eugenie and Edouard’s father, Athanaz, made an immediate, but heart-breaking, decision. They would help Edouard manage his condition rather than risk robbing him of his ability to have a family of his own.

During his boyhood years, Edouard greatly missed playing football or any of the physical games so popular with his friends. Also, he wasn’t able to help out much around home. He could not carry anything heavy, and frequently pain and swelling kept him off of his feet.

On his good days, Edouard helped others in a very special way. Eugenie’s pride for her son’s talent bursts forth as she says, “Our Edouard has an amazing healing touch. One of our elders had a leg that ached ferociously for a long time. No one could help ease the throbbing at all. Then Edouard tried. He used his hands to massage her muscles and joints. Right away the pain left her leg.”

Edouard continued to provide his massage therapy to family and friends – including his father, who works very long hours as the Headmaster of the Lomé Public School. “All day and on most evenings, I am involved in meetings. There are many problems I need to help solve, and, of course, the tension builds up in all of my muscles. Edouard is wonderfully gifted in helping my muscles to relax and removing the knots in my neck and shoulders with this knowing hands,” his father explains.

Players on the local football team have also called upon Edouard’s physical therapy talents. Mr. Wilson Adjei, one of Edouard’s teachers and a football player himself, made arrangements for Edouard to volunteer his services. “Even though Edouard has no formal training, he has an awesome natural ability. Our team members are much stronger and more pain-free thanks to Edouard’s manipulations and massage therapies,” he remarks.

At age sixteen, Edouard Eyessi, while practicing his massage technique in front of the family television, heard an announcement about Mercy Ships coming to Togo to provide free medical care. Edouard’s family immediately agreed that he must go the patient screening. Edouard describes his first never-to-be-forgotten day with Mercy Ships: “Mr. Adjei accompanied me to Kegue Stadium, and we arrived at 4:00 a.m. By the end of the morning, I had been accepted for a second examination at the hospital ship itself. I did not sleep at all that night as I kept praying that my healing had been found.”

Edouard’s prayers were indeed answered. Within weeks, Edouard was onboard the Africa Mercy, the world’s largest nongovernmental hospital ship, having his free, life-changing hernia operation.

Edouard’s surgeon was Dr. Nabil Gayed, a general surgeon from the United States. Dr. Nabil, a first-time Mercy Ships volunteer, was delighted with the outcome of Edouard’s surgery. “In the developed world, hernias at birth are dealt with swiftly before they become a problem. I would never see a hernia more than five centimeters. Here, with no access to surgical treatment, hernias grow to the size of footballs. This is a serious stand-alone medical issue. So many boys and men are broken by painful and swollen hernias. They suffer major bowel and reproductive problems that devastate their already challenged work and social lives. I am blessed to help change that picture, especially for a young man like Edouard with his entire future ahead of him,” comments Dr. Nabil.

Before his full discharge from Dr. Nabil’s excellent care, Edouard received a special bonus. Chris Webb, a kinesiology specialist, spoke at length with Edouard about his own career path, answering many questions. Chris encouraged Edouard to work hard to complete his studies and get good grades, now that he is physically restored. Joanne Gates, a Mercy Ships physiotherapist, then walked Edouard through two actual examinations she was conducting. Edouard was rapt with attention. “This is the field I want to work in. To be able to see the work of such an expert is so thrilling! This is the second Mercy Ships day I will always remember,” declares Edouard.

When Edouard returned home to complete his recovery, the Eyessi household was beyond words. Eugenie describes the reaction of her husband in a voice trembling with joy: “Athanaz wept at the sight of our Edouard, who was now free of the terrible pain and limitations of the hernia that had plagued him for so many years. We thought we must be dreaming – but, thanks to Mercy Ships, we were having a dream come true.”

Written by Joanne Thibault
Edited by Nancy Predaina
Photographs by Debra Bell

In Just Ten Nights . . .

Matt and I will be moving into a cabin very similar to this.  Pretty sure we won't have the rose petals or the beds together, but this will give you an idea of what our new home away from home will look like!  (Stolen from Murray's blog - he and Candace live just a few doors away!) (:

AFI

Some stories need to be told, maybe to open our eyes to a different reality or maybe to show us what an amazing ministry we will soon be part of or maybe just to show us that God is still in the business of miracles.  This is Afi's story.  The pictures are hard to look at - at first.  Don't let that stop you from reading on . . .

Afi's Release from Shackles

“Every moment of my life is difficult to survive. I struggle greatly, and I struggle alone,” Afi says with tear-filled eyes that testify to the pain she has suffered for the last four years. As she speaks of the suffering she has endured, she takes a rag to wipe the tears streaming down her scarred face and recounts her story with courage and grace.

Afi suffers from a disorder called epilepsy. She can suddenly have seizures that force her body into debilitating tremors. One day in 2008, Afi was cooking over a fire with her one-month-old son strapped to her back. Suddenly, she felt ill and thought she needed to sit down. Before she had time to react, her body went into a seizure, forcing her to fall face-first into the fire. She lay there in the fire, seizing helplessly. Luckily, her infant son was not harmed, but the damage to Afi was brutal. She suffered severe burns on her face, neck, hands, and legs.

Afi tried to go to a hospital to get medical help, but the hospital turned her away because she had no one to take care of her son. As her wounds began to heal, her skin started to contract, pulling her face down and her shoulder upwards. The injuries became her shackles over the next four years. Afi’s husband left her because he could not stand to look at her. Riddled with guilt, he ended up committing suicide, leaving Afi to be the sole parent to their three children.

People believed that Afi’s deformity was the result of a curse. She was no longer able to sell fruit in the market because people were too afraid of her. She was forced into a life of isolation, with only her children to help her. The village would no longer allow Afi to walk through the center, touch anything, or be near anybody. When children caught a glimpse of Afi's face, they ran away in fear. She had to hide in her home. If she wanted to go anywhere, she had to sneak around the outskirts of town.

Recently, she went to the hospital again, desperately seeking help. Catching a glimpse of a TV, she heard that Mercy Ships was coming to Togo, West Africa. Afi wrote down the dates. Leaving her children with her father-in-law, Afi tried to get to the port. Relentlessly, she made three trips to the port gates, each time being turned away by the local security. Finally, she was allowed through and examined by Mercy Ships crew.

It was a wonderful day when she was given her appointment card. “I know now that things are going to be better. I can tell my life will move in that direction,” Afi says as she spends her days on her hospital bed onboard the Africa Mercy. Afi’s surgery will release the contracted skin, allowing her neck and shoulder to move again. Her eyelids and lips will be released and repaired. She will receive function and movement again – release from the shackles, the injuries that have held her captive.

She has already had a taste of how much better her life will be. Mercy Ships crew are not afraid of her, and they look her in the eyes. This is the start of a new life, with new hope and a new future. She smiles through her tears saying, “Thank you for everything, and thank you to everybody. I now see a new life coming my way. I pray God will help me each step of the way.”

Every person deserves the right to look human.

It pays to have friends . . .

Last week, we heard from our friend, Jodie, that we will be in Cabin 4314.  We weren't sure if that meant we had a two berth or a couples cabin.  Today, we heard from our friend (and boss!), Shelly - it's a couples cabin!  It has two single beds in it that can be put together or pulled apart (Matt and I will do the apart!) as well as it's own bathroom, kitchen sink and counter, and if we're really lucky, a fridge and a microwave!  That's not a given.  However, we do have dishes!  Shelly said if we don't mind random, she went down to the Boutique (like Goodwill, without a price!) and nabbed us a couple of plates, some bowls, some silverware and some Tupperware.  Random sounds wonderful!