In earlier posts I discussed my favorite little guy, Dieu-Donné, the very close runner-up, Gilbert. They both like to come lean on my lap, and they will shove away whoever tries to join them. One day, they were there together. I kept reminding them to be nice to each other, so they started pretend-fighting. It was very cute, so I decided to take their picture. Sam, who has an uncanny ability to spot the very best toy in the pile and get to it first every single day, is also quite good at noticing a camera. He came up to join the picture. (he's in the center) I was not feeling mean enough to send him away. Hence, the title of this post and the picture that accompanies it.
Chris in Togo
Monday, May 30, 2022
An Anti-climactic Last Day
My kitchen, part 2
Just to report that I have finally got the kitchen cabinets returned to their position on the wall! That was one of Saturday's accomplishments.
In the early weeks of my residence in this house, I arrived home one afternoon to find that the upper kitchen cabinets had fallen off the wall. I was grateful that nothing was broken and that the fall occurred when I was out. I am sure it made a horrendous noise.
Sunday, May 29, 2022
An Interesting Day
Wednesday, May 25, was not quite the usual Wednesday, which made it a very interesting day overall.
The day began as usual, but the doorbell rang a bit before 6:30 a.m. I wasn't quite dressed, so hollered, "J'arrive!" as I grabbed my t-shirt to put on and my purse with the front door keys. I thought that it was probably the guy from the Internet service or one of his employees. I recently found out that the 5 to 10 young men sitting in front of my house were, indeed, using my WiFi. I'm not sure how they got the password, but I have been calling the service office to get help to change it. Unfortunately, it was not Sharif or one of his employees, but a woman who looked quite surprised to see me. She said she was looking for a lady. I asked, "What lady?" and she replied one who sold oil. I told her that I didn't know, so she left.
Ten minutes after she left, the doorbell rang again. It was
a man who had driven up on a motorcycle. He said he was looking for his sister.
I asked if she had been here a few minutes ago and, receiving an affirmative
response, sent him off in her direction.
Later, while I was at breakfast, it occurred to me that
perhaps the woman was looking for Dela. She sells all sorts of things, and I
thought I remembered oil being one of them. I asked Dela if she thought the
woman was looking for her, but she denied it. She doesn’t sell oil, just oil
drums. So it is a mystery. Truth be told, I wondered at the time, if it were
some sort of scam or effort to get into my house. My recent WiFi discovery has
rendered me suspicious of everyone!
At school I found a very small class . . . and no teacher!
Since I arrived before 8:00, when the day officially begins, I was not
surprised that Tata was not in the classroom. But time kept moving and she
still didn’t come. The children began to get restless, but they eventually
amused themselves by taking turns counting the bâtonnets—the little sticks used
in math class. When they completed that activity, I pointed to the letters and
numbers on the board that they know and asked individuals to identify them.
After an hour of them being seated, I decided to let them
move a bit, so we left the classroom to review the observations of modes of
transport that they had been doing in the past two or three weeks. We walked
over to my car. Actually, we “flew,” at the suggestion of Eliakim, sticking out
our arms and pretending to be airplanes. They had remembered the car vocabulary
fairly well. Once we had gone through all the words, we “flew” to a motorcycle
and reviewed that vocabulary. Final stop in our voyage: a bicycle so that we
could go over those words. Then we returned home--the classroom.
During our flights around the school yard, I caught a
glimpse of Tata in one of the elementary school classrooms and then understood
her absence. The lower grades (1-5, I think; maybe just 1-4) are taking exams
this week and she was helping with that. Solving the mystery did little to
reduce my anxiety, though. Time for snack was approaching, but I didn’t think
the children had paid for it yet. I asked them and collected money from two of
the twelve who had come that day. Two more of them said that their older
siblings had their money. Usually there are at least ten students who buy their
morning snack at school. When the young man came to find out how many meals to
bring, I did not know what to answer. Fortunately, I saw the teacher walking
toward the room, so I asked him to wait until she got there. She straightened
everything out and gave him an accurate count.
After snack is normally play time, and on Wednesdays I
usually leave to go to the middle school for French class. Tata told me to go;
she said she would send some older girls to watch the kids for the rest of the
morning.
The next interesting part of the day occurred when I stopped
by the house to see if anybody needed a ride to prayer meeting. It starts at
5:00, but the family likes to go early, so I leave my house at 4:30. As I got
out of my car to go into Hammer’s compound, I encountered some of our
elementary school girls on their way home from their last exam. We stopped and
talked a bit. They told me that the exams had gone well and that they had done
good work. It was a good moment: one of those in which I feel a part of the
community here.
Only Sena was still at home to need a ride, but we passed
one of the girls from church as she was walking, so stopped to pick her up as
well. When we got to the compound, we found Ruth (another church and school
girl) standing by the mango tree throwing things at it. She confessed that she
had been trying to bring down some mangos by throwing her shoes at them, and
now one of her shoes was stuck in the tree. She and Sena used a long bamboo
pole to try to dislodge the shoe. I even helped, thinking that my height would
bring the pole closer to the shoe. Finally, Sena just climbed the tree and
shook the branches where the shoe was. Eventually it fell down.
Shortly afterward Tabitha arrived. She heard the story of
the shoe, I think, and, when Yaovi and Meda arrived, called their attention to
the mangos that Ruth had been trying to harvest. Yaovi got the pole and
dislodged a few of them. They were quickly picked up by Ruth, Ema, and Meda.
The pictures in this post are of that mango gathering. You can only see the
pole—it’s to the left of the photo—and not Yaovi. But you can see the others
watching and waiting to catch the falling mangos.
I thought it was a perfect ending to a most interesting day.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
It Brought Tears to My Eyes
Tata does a good job at talking to the children about the
Lord. We sing “Stand Up And Shout It,” my contribution to their religious education, frequently. We sometimes have prayer time
for sick classmates. She also will remind them that to be a friend of Jesus
means acting in a way that He would like. Most recently she has reminded them
that they need to thank God for the food that they eat. She taught them a song:
Merci, Seigneur
Merci pour ce repas
Merci, Seigneur
Alleluia, Amen!
The children (most of them,
anyway) close their eyes and hold their right hand over their meal as they
sing. Some of them will add a final word to the song: “Mangez!” (Eat!) So,
although they have learned the prayer, some of them may not have their hearts
truly in it as they sing.
Last week (Friday, May 20),
Dieu-donné had to wait a few minutes for his sister to bring his morning snack.
The others had already sung/prayed and begun eating. His sister finally arrived
(I, of course, was getting indignant at the thought that one of the little ones
had to wait, so it seemed like a long time!) and delivered the plate to him.
Donné took the bowl and returned to his chair. He closed his eyes, held his
hand in the air and sang the prayer song. It brought tears to my eyes!
Lord, may those little ones
remember the lessons that Tata gives them about You and Your love for them. May
the words which they sing now stick with them and take on their full meaning as
they get older.
A Missed Photo Op
One of the interesting things about the culture here is the
here-and -now way of life. Please note, this is based on my observations and
experience, which is not extensive. And remember that I spend more time with
school children than with grown-ups! Let me explain what I mean by that. When
Dela and I give our English classes to the elementary school, we meet outside.
The children bring their school benches from the classroom to the area under
the mango trees, where it is cool. Despite the fact that they have performed
that action every week, they never seem to remember how to arrange the benches.
Every week, we have them create two rows, with two or three benches facing
forward and another one or two on each side perpendicular to the middle ones,
so that it is somewhat of a U shape. They have to be told every time where to put the benches. I have
heard that adults tend to call a repairman when something breaks rather than do
the preventative maintenance; they buy only a few cellphone or electric credits
at a time or buy the cheapest version of an item, such as a toilet seat (see my early post, "Joy in the Little Things"), knowing that they will have to replace it soon. Part of that is economics, of course. However, from hearing Hammer talk, the idea of putting money aside for the future has to be taught frequently.
Last week (Thursday, May 19) I witnessed another example of living in the moment.
Workers are at the mission compound to repair or replace the roof. One might
expect a roofer to have a ladder to take to any jobsite. Perhaps this one does
but it isn’t tall enough. For whatever reason, before work on the roof began,
the workers built a ladder.
I was able to watch a bit, because the kindergarteners were
observing my car. This is the third mode of transportation they have talked
about in the past couple of weeks. First they observed a bicycle. They looked
at it while Tata told them what the parts were in French. They even learned a little poem that names
some of those parts. A few days later, they observed a motorcycle. And yesterday
it was my car. I have to say I have learned some new vocabulary. I wouldn’t
have known what to call the muffler on a motorcycle.
Since I always park by the church, we were close to the
ladder building process. It was only yesterday evening that I realized that I
missed an opportunity for some good pictures. Today I saw the ladder in action
and was able to take a picture. You get to see the finished product below. So
sorry I missed the opportunity for an interesting shot yesterday!
Saturday, May 14, 2022
My Kitchen
As I have mentioned previously, I take breakfast and lunch at Dela's house, so I don't do much in the way of cooking. This weekend is quite young, and I've already cooked twice! By cooking, this time anyway, I mean heating up something to eat.
I took an almost instant dislike to my kitchen. It did not present itself well during my first visit to the house. There was evidence of mice visitors; the countertop was broken on one corner; and under the sink was a breeding spot for mildew: you can feel the moist heat immediately upon opening the door. After living here for four and half months now, I am still not enamored of the room, but I do tolerate it better. After all, I have to go in there at least once a day to get cold water.
Two Buddies and a Photo-bomber
In earlier posts I discussed my favorite little guy, Dieu-Donné, the very close runner-up, Gilbert. They both like to come lean on my lap, ...
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I live almost directly in line with Hammer's house, but two streets away, so I like to walk there sometimes. Going by car, the route tha...
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Some of the little boys I know and have come to love. My heart goes out to them! Perhaps another topic for which I should apologize, but i...
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Tata does a good job at talking to the children about the Lord. We sing “Stand Up And Shout It,” my contribution to their religious educat...