December 29, 2008 at 4:00 pm (Uncategorized)
It’s the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and we are still unpacking and organizing our house. I’m not spending any time doing language lessons or going to the clinic because of holidays and moving so my world is feeling a little small at this time. The holidays are a nice break, but a nice break always makes it feel good to get back to routine.
Mark and I are making bookshelves for our living room and I am excited to organize our books on them. For the last two years I have been buying books, packing them in boxes and taping them up so I would be sure to have plenty of good reading material here. When we lived here before it was a little tough to come by good literature sometimes. I’m currently reading The Kite Runner, which is excellent so far. It has been packed away for quite sometime and I have been anxious to dig into it. Therefore I ask a question that always interests me: What are you reading?
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December 28, 2008 at 8:53 am (Uncategorized)
I received an email from some friends of ours (Marcus and Diane Reese) who live and work in Papua New Guinea, and they were describing how they celebrated Christmas. Not only did I find it interesting, but I realized that it’s actually worth posting about since people aren’t really sure of what kind of stuff we do over here for holidays.
Christmas Eve was a lot of fun the morning started with Christmas baking. Grace Hangen made a delicious pumpkin pie, and I made a salad and two (very mediocre) pecan pies. We then took our goods to the Reeves to have a delicious feast with their family. In the evening our team gathered together and travelled around Kara to bring Christmas cheer to our fellow expatriates in the form of carolling! It was a lot of fun and actually seemed to appreciated by the recipients. At the last house we were offered candy canes which made me happy.
After carolling the team came back to our house for hot chocolate and to watch and participate in the Disney Christmas sing along video (which has been a long time Christmas Eve tradition for the Beach family.) Mark was definitely the most spirited singer- and hands down the most entertaining. Maybe I can post some video as evidence.
After we got the girls to bed the guys (Mark, Jim, and Matt Hangen) went out to assemble the girls’ present from us and my parents. The guys put together a trampoline while Grace and I constructed a scavenger hunt of clues to lead them to it.
On Christmas morning we woke up and enjoyed our stocking gifts until everyone was up and drinking coffee. Then we opened our presents. The present time ended with the scavenger hunt and the girls discovering their new trampoline. After presents the girls played and men relaxed while I retreated to the kitchen for four hours of meal preparation (do not read martyr into that statement, I quite enjoyed it.) Our Christmas dinner was roast with carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh greens beans, salad, homemade rolls, and for dessert we had cream cheese pound cake and frosted sugar cookies.
The rest of the day was visiting, relaxing, and phone calls home to family. All in all we had a typical Christmas here, with the sad exception that my time cooking was spent alone instead of with my beloved mother and sisters!
On a side note, I love that my nine year old uses words like “specify” in her everyday conversations. Is she my kid or what?
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December 27, 2008 at 5:08 pm (Uncategorized)
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December 21, 2008 at 5:00 pm (Uncategorized)
…and I would do anything for Becky!! 
Four things I did today:
1. Watched Michal perform a hybrid of The Nutcracker and The Silver Slippers (complete with intermission and costume changes.)
2. Drank coffee and talked to my husband and brother in law.
3. Wrapped Christmas presents.
4. Unpacked! (hooray!)
Four things on my to-do list:
1. Make breakfast for dinner (Sunday night tradition!)
2. Write my nephew, Jeremy.
3. Practice piano and dulcimer.
4. Continue unpacking.
Four of my guiltiest pleasures: (I prefer to take out the guilt word and just say some of my pleasures that exist simply for the sake of my enjoyment of them. I’m thinking this can bring glory to God, too, if I’m seeking to glorify Him by enjoying some of the things He’s made for me)(that was Becky’s input but some of mine really are guilty and are denoted by *)
1. Shirking duties in the middle of the day so I can read.
2. Occasionally perusing a tabloid.*
3. Drinking as much coffee as I want in the morning.
4. Staying in my pajamas all day.
Four random facts about me:
1. I find families who keep refrigerators that are too full and have old food in them endearing.
2. I listened to a Olivia Newton John’s Greatest Hits CD and sang along this morning.
3. If I could do anything well it would be to dance beautifully (either ballet or Irish dance.)
4. As I alluded to earlier, I’m relearning to play piano and teaching myself to play the dulcimer.
And since I am supposed to tag 4 others, I pick:
1. Paula
2. Diana
3. Maddie
4. Michal
5. (I’m breaking the rules) Mark
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December 21, 2008 at 4:21 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Africa, Christmas tree
This year is proving to be a very Kabiye holiday season. Yesterday we had a lunch party to decorate our Christmas tree and invited Sitsope (our girls’ babysitter,) Essowe (my language teacher,) and Essowe’s two daughters and Ann and Grace. None of them had ever participated in this American tradition, and all were excited about it. They do celebrate Christmas here but mostly they just take the day off and spend it with family and have a big meal. All of the decor and gifts and such are not really a part of their traditions, but they find those things pretty exciting.
It was a lot of fun to watch the kids, and they were so enthusiastic that I hardly had to do anything. Afterward we had hot chocolate and let the kids play. Grace (who is 5 years old) particularly liked the little singing and dancing Christmas tree that my Grandmother Lois had given my grils a few years back. She kept starting teh songs and dancing along- it was pretty sweet to watch.
When we were planning our move here we contemplated what to bring, and it seemed a little excessive to bring all of our Christmas stuff. On the other hand, being able to maintain and enjoy some of our traditions is an important part of blending who we are as Americans with the ways in which we are trying to adapt to living in Africa. Having Kabiye friends who help me learn and understand Kabiye ways of doing things, but also enjoy learning about and partaking in our lives is such a blessing. It always makes me feel like these friendships are truly a two way street, not just me trying to reach out the Kabiye people. I thank God that he has given me such sweet and close relationships here in Africa.
As a side note, I didn’t blog about our Thanksgiving, but we spent it feasting (African style) with Kabiye friends as well. It was a good opportunity to express our thanks for all they had done to help us acclimate to life here and have a sort of “simulation” of the first Thanksgiving.
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December 18, 2008 at 7:17 pm (missions, Africa, Togo, poverty, God, Jesus, HIV/AIDS)
Tags: Africa, AIDS, ARVs, orphans
I typed this up to share the story of one of the little boys I’ve gotten to know at the clinic, and thought I’d post it. The clinic is having a really hard time with funds currently and doesn’t have enough medications to go around. This story takes a tough fact like that and shows the real tragedy behind it.
“This one is a miracle of God!” That was introduction I was given to three year old Kevin as we visited the homes to check on the welfare of families who have taken in orphans. Kevin lost his mother, father, sister, brother, and nephew to AIDS in a span of three months in 2007.
Early that year a woman and her 11 year old son came into town to AED to be tested for HIV. She was sick and emaciated, and the hospital recommended that she be tested. While at AED, the Psychologist also suggested that her son be tested as he appeared to be in poor health as well. The tests came back positive, so Kapitaine (the head of the Orphan and Other Vulnerable Children) went to the family home. Once there he found that this woman had a teenaged daughter who was expecting and a young son of only two years. Everyone in the family was very sick and malnourished. They proceeded to test the young son and found he also is HIV positive, but the teenaged daughter refused to be tested.
The family was slated to start Anti-Retroviral Therapy, but supplies were limited and so they were unable to begin. The mother had become so ill that she was no longer able to walk and had to be hospitalized. The father also soon had to be hospitalized which left the two sons with no one to care for them as the sister was pregnant and in poor health.
AED approached a woman named Assiki and asked her to take in the two boys. Soon thereafter the mother died, a month later their sister gave birth and died along with her child on the same day that their father died. Within a month of that the older brother was hospitalized and died. Kevin was the sole member of his family left, and he was sick and malnourished. Through the loving care of Assiki and his new “brothers and sisters”, along with the help of AED, Kevin is now healthy and strong and receiving ARVs (anti-retrovirals.)
Kevin is shown here with the seven other HIV positive children that Assiki has taken in. Assiki is one woman with limited resources, but relies on God to provide for her needs and for the needs of these children. Please give thanks to God for Assiki and her selfless ministry to these children. Pray for God’s continued sustenance of this family, and for his peace, comfort and joy to be present in their home despite the tragedies each of them has lived through. Praise God that his spirit gives strength daily to Assiki and her children, and pray for AED as they continue and struggle to make ends meet so that they might serve the forgotten and hopeless here in Togo.
Picture: back row: Gentille (15 years,) Happy (13 years,) Alice (14 years,)
Front row: Sadate (10 years,) Bernadette (18 years,) Kevin (3 years,) Tante (19 years,) Bienvenue (12 years)
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December 16, 2008 at 7:19 pm (Uncategorized)
It’s been almost two months since Ben died, and since I’ve been here in Africa it’s been a little bit easier to push aside the painful thoughts of how precious he as and how much I miss him. There has been so much going on and so many other things to focus on it has made avoidance easy, and probably necessary. But there is a list of about eight songs that immediately bring him to mind and one of those (My Sweet Melissa by the Allman Bros.) has come up on the random shuffle of Mark’s iPod three times today. We just fast forward through it but each time I have had to push down the hurt, and this time I can’t. When this pain comes there is no soothing it, it runs so deep and it feels so merciless. It is such a sharp pain and even though I know that it may dull with time, it will never completely dissipate because we will never get Ben back again. We will never get to create new memories with him or hear him laugh or see him be silly or receive his sweet affections. You know how each person has their own individual way of pouring out their love and respect for you, Ben really did and I will miss that. Ben was consistent in telling us that he thought highly of us, and that he really respected our faith, our marriage, and how we are raising our kids. I felt like he admired us and that means so much. In the end, I just keep thinking that I hope he died knowing how much we loved him and how I always believed he would overcome the shadows that hung over his life and would live in the glory that God has placed within him. I guess that’s what we all saw in him, that beautiful person that was within him and that made us long to be around him no matter what he did.
I have a fear that all of the things that I believe, the things that comforted me after he died, that I told my dad and that I spoke of at his funeral, that maybe those things aren’t true- that maybe I just want to believe them because they make me feel better. I don’t really think that but there is a part of me, that old heritage of fundamentalism that says that God does not have grace for someone who lived as he did. But the truth is that I receive that comfort through prayer and scripture, I didn’t just make it up. I’m not one to comfort myself with things that aren’t of God, because what comfort is a pack of lies? Anyway, each time I let myself feel this pain I am left to take the next breath, and then the next, and beg for mercy and God’s presence in the lives of those of us who are left behind. I pray especially for my sister, Julie and my nephew Jeremy, and my parents. I pray because I know that that only Christ and his mercy and his deep suffering can keep us from drowning in this suffering, and he knows pain deeper than this. It was he who planted this love for Ben within our hearts, and he who can heal us.
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