Halfway There

I am at the halfway mark now, as my flight leaves way too early on Sunday morning; the first of August. This week has been awesome. I know the blogs have been little morose, but I love it here. If I could have some friends here, I would want to stay for months. I just need people to speak English with. But on Tuesday afternoon, there was not much work to be done, so I spent the entire day playing with a little boy and girl, sibllings. The boy was around two, the girl around six, and they were the funniest pair ever, especially the boy. He would walk up to me, dancing to his own music that consisted of the words, "eh" and "yovo," faintly remenisentof the classic "go shawty" tune. And then on Thursday night, my sisters and I went down to a bar with some of their friends, which was good, seeing as how my coke (first one since I have been here, a full liter of deliciousness) probably doubled my calorie content for the day, one that consisted of the usual bread and tea for breakfast, then peas and onions for lunch, and rice for dinner. So the coke helped. If the scale at the hospital is correct, then I have lost about seven pounds already, which is a little much. But anyway, going to the bar was awesome. It was on the second story, open air, and had a great view of the city and all the goings on at night. I realized I havent really described the city at all yet, so I am going to do my best.

There is not any city to which I can accurately compare, but the closest I can think of is Athens, in that in the main part of the city (around the Acropolis and Hadrians arch in Athens), it is very very packed in and crowded, full of shops and homes alike. Also, it is sprawled out on three main hills, like Athens, although much much smaller. The homes around here are very small, usually of a room or two made of wood or concrete. Then outside the main part lies the "residential" are, which is where I live. It is still pretty crowded, but all the houses are walled in so the walls are connecting, but there is a little more room inside the wall. The houses are a little bigger here. There is a small stream that runs through the main part that is used for their water, but it is full of trash and truly disgusting. The whole city is not very big, about the size of the Binghampton area in Memphis, maybe a tad bigger, (I can walk anywhere I need to go), yet it has a population of 600000. What the stink. I guessed about 75000. I was very wrong. The city is also very full of goats, chickens, and lizards. They are everywhere, just wandering around. The roosters crow all night and morning, and nothing is scarier than a goat baahing at you as you walk by without noticing it's head out of the bushes. The market here is very different from the one in Zambia. Here it is all clothes, cigs, food, and neccesities, as opposed to the handcarved cool african stuff. So don't expect any cool gifts, as you wont be getting them. There just arent any. Unles you want a fine young goat.

Three new volunteers are coming this weekend, tzo girls from Switzerland and a girl from Italy; so that will be cool. Hopefully they speak English. They are working in an orphanage here, and I might try to join them on the last week, since I feel like I would be ablt to do more helping kids there. We'll see. At the very least, they will bring the Yovo count from two to five (I heard there is an older French woman here. That is how rare we are; they have a yovo count. The American embassy brags that Togo has had two Americans this year. I am one.)

On a more personal level , I read a quote that reads "religion is what you do with your solitude;" I thought that was awesome. It is not about our showy self righteousness and prideful legalism, is about our delight in the Lord. We should not sin not because of the consequences, but because of the cost it puts on God (read anything by Keller and he will explain this so much better); But iHave oodles of solitude here, so that is solething I have been thinking about. And on a similar note, I read Job yesterday, and verse five of chapter twelve says, "Men at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping." Too often, we tell ourselves that those who live in desolate conditions have somehow earned their conditions to make ourselves feel better about not helping like we should. But Christians are called to empathy, no matter the pasts of those who are in need. The Psalms continually talk about how the righteous do not just "not sin," but give freely and generously to those in need. That has been a calling of mine on this trip. Sure, a lot of the poverty here could be easily avoided if the people cancelled their cell phones and bought food, but that does not mean I should not be called to serve. Thoughts?

Anyway, I will try to come back soon and write a little about the culture here. It's pretty awesome. Final comment- someone here has FINALLY heard of Memphis. When he askedwhere I was from, I said Memphis, and he said, "like africa..." Because this was all in French, I thought I misunderstood, and he said, "full of black!" I laughed uncontrollably. Whatup Mtown!

TIA
Michael

trivia- on tuesday I was squirted by three types of body fluid in the span of five minutes. Who can guess them?