To Togo...Here We Go!

So we had a day off from school because it was the end of the quarter. We should have been using the time to finalize grades and prepare for parent/teacher conferences. But what did we do instead? Traveled to another country for the day!

My day started out leaving my house just before 5am. I walked down the street to "Christian Center" which is the name of the "tro-tro stop" in our area. A tro-tro is an old van with 12 to 15 seats or so. It is the cheapest way to travel in Ghana. We found a tro-tro heading for the Accra station where we would be able to catch another tro-tro to the border between Ghana and Togo. After asking many people for the location of the proper tro-tro and a scolding from a driver I didn't greet properly before I asked for directions, we made it to a tro-tro to the town of Aflou. The we proceeded to wait for an hour and a half until our tro-tro filled up. There are no schedules, tro-tros just come and go as they fill up with travelers. Don't be in a hurry to get anywhere in Ghana! Two other teachers and I (Christy and Josiah) were finally on our way to getting one more stamp in our passports! After 4 hours of sitting in an old van, we finally made it to the boarder town. We passed the time with good conversation and MANY laughs! Mentioning every so often that we must be getting closer because we were seeing more motorcycles (a common way to travel around in Togo).

If you imagine immigration in the US, that is nothing like the picture before us at the border. Some police around, but no real tough security. We walked through a passageway feeling like cattle where we were not so warmly greeted by Togolese immigration personnel. Christy tried to be friendly and remembering as much French as possible, tried to communicate in their own language. We were told that the laws have changed and we were supposed to obtain a visa for Togo at the embassy in Accra. We panicked a little considering we traveled 4 hours to get Togo only to be told we had to return to Accra. Christy kept trying to communicate in French and I stupidly kept trying to interrupt in English. The man kept saying we had to pay a lot of money but he refused to tell us how much money! We assumed he was trying to get a bribe so we tried to haggle a smaller price and that did not make him very happy at all! Finally after quite some time and a painfully slow process of watching the man stamp passports and write information down and walking across the street and back to get another signature, we were finally welcomed into Togo!

Once we finally made it through, we looked at each other and wondered what we were actually going to do in Togo! So we walked along the beach near all the vendors selling bread and fish just like in Ghana. After walking for 20 minutes or so we decided to go swimming! There was no one in the water, but as soon as we started swimming, so did several others! White people sure draw in crowds. Several boys swam alongside us and several men talked with us on the beach as we rested from the rough waves. The water was amazing! The undertow was VERY strong. It was quite the workout trying to stay above water!

After a while, we decided that it was about time to head back to Ghana. A fun adventure! The only spoiler to the day was that my camera and phone were stolen right as we were packing up to leave the beach. It was startling how fast it happened. So alas, I have no pictures to share with you of the adventure. At least my passport wasn't stolen! Praise God!

Getting back into Ghana was a snap and it was nice to greet the friendly faces of Ghana once again! Then God blessed us again with an almost full tro-tro so we wouldn't have to wait for hours for it to fill up again! Josiah, Christy, and I took the last three seats! Soaked, sandy, and sunburned, we started our journey home to Accra. There were MANY police check points on the way back. They were always interested in saying a word or two to the Oburoni (white people). At one point, we all had to get out and show our passports. Then the tro-tro started going up the road and we thought we had been left behind! We started running after the tro-tro trying to get their attention when we found out the tro-tro was just moving up the road to wait for all the passengers. The ladies on the tro-tro had quite a laugh when they saw that we thought we were being left behind! Back on the tro-tro we ate some bread and prayed for safe travels back to the city.

Quite the adventure! No better way to spend a day off school!

Water...

So often in Ghana I see children or women walking down the street carrying water. Just another normal day in Ghana. People always walking to fetch water. I never really thought about it much. How difficult it must be to do this day in and day out. How time consuming this chore must be. I go back to my house and turn on the tap without even thinking how lucky I am. Then about once or twice a year, for some reason we run out of water. The pipes aren't flowing and our tank runs dry. All of a sudden, CRISIS!!! I can't do laundry...I can't do the dishes (oh wait, I don't cook so I don't really have that many dishes to do!)...I can't wash my face...Brushing my teeth is now a chore...another "shower" using a bottle of water?!...My toilet won't flush!...I forget how important water is and how I take it for granted when I have it. We often lose power here in Ghana, but that is nothing compared to losing water. Hopefully I can remember the next time we don't have power that at lease we still have water, even if the pressure is low because our pump won't be able to turn on!

The other day I was reminded about the importance of praise. How I need to be intentional in offering praise to God in all things. Even in the little things, I should be thanking God for working in my life. I find myself being selfish WAY too often. If I focus on praising God for who He is and what He has done, then my focus won't be on me quite as often. My prayer is that my focus would switch to Him more frequently...