Trip to Togo

We got back from Lome late last night. Our trip went really well. The best thing about Togo is the vegetation! Burkina Faso is sooooo dry -- when we arrived in Lome, we loved seeing the palm trees along the road from the airport to the Baptist Conference Center:


And there was grass at the center! In Ouagadougou, the guest house yard is dirt so we have been grass deprived for the last few weeks. Here’s a pavilion where we all sat and chatted when we weren’t in meetings:


During the conference we both got a chance to meet with our supervisors and find out more about our job responsibilities. It feels good to have a better knowledge of how we’ll be spending our time once we move to Abidjan – too bad we have to wait two more months before we get out of language study and can actually start!

Some of the most meaningful times occurred during our prayer sessions, when we spent about an hour each day praying for the work in the region. By the time the week was over, we had prayed for every IMB missionary in West Africa.

When we weren’t in meetings we had fun spending time with the other missionaries and MKs (missionary kids) at the center. We spent a lot of time watching the African Cup of Nations (a soccer tournament), and one night we had a karaoke party. Here’s Deron, Aaron (a journeyman [aka two year missionary] from Senegal) and Robbie (an MK from Burkina Faso) picking out some music for us:

(Sidenote: as MKs on the mission field, we used to call the adult missionaries “uncle” and “aunt.” Now that we’re the adult missionaries, the MKs here, like Robbie, call us “Uncle Deron” and “Aunt Mary Beth.” It's weird! I guess it will take awhile to get used to the role reversal.)

On Saturday we didn’t have meetings so we went shopping. We found a lot of groceries that are difficult to find in Ouagadougou, including vanilla flavoring, soy sauce, and baking chocolate. Chocolate chips are not available here, so we have to cut up chocolate bars into little squares. The bars are so expensive in Ouaga that I’ve been a little chocolate deprived. In Togo it’s still pretty pricey, but more reasonable than Ouaga, so we bought two packages with five bars each. That should last us awhile!

Tomorrow we start back to French class, and we will begin having afternoon classes two times a week. Things are about to get intense!