Togo--post 10

Yet another week has flown by. This week had a different emphasis than the previous weeks. Since work on the airplane was finished, we were able to spend more time with people. On Monday, we went again to the cuisine and taught the story of creation. We have been doing this with a translator Komi. Komi speaks Awe, Kabiya, French, and English and he wants to learn German! I believe him to be the next David Livingston.

I spent a lot of time this week with Dorcas. Dorcas' father had an ASL book and a sign dictionary that he let me borrow. This has been extremely helpful in helping me to remember sentence structure and certain signs. Unfortunately, I've had to make some signs up. The sign language dictionary does not have a sign for machete or fufu. We will be going to Lome on Thursday and Friday of this week and while we are there we will stop by the school for the deaf and see what we can learn there about how they teach the deaf here.

On Friday, Ryan helped Komi in his field. Remember that the tools here are on much shorter poles because the people bend half way to do most things on the ground. In other words, they bend half way to sweep, hoe, rake, etc. Ryan left again this morning to help Komi again.

Saturday we went to a wedding. Imagine going to a wedding that lasted for 3 1/2 hours! It takes, no joke, like 10 minutes for the groom to get down the isle and a little bit less time for the bride. There were 5 choirs, each having their own gifts of song to offer, and two different sermons. To top that off, everything Americans do at the reception, like cutting the cake and giving the gifts are also done as a part of the marriage ceremony. Oh, and pictures with the family and guests are done as part of the ceremony. So yes, it was a good cultural experience, but I'm thinking I don't plan to go to any more for a long time. Oh, the whole time we sat on hard wood benches. You should have been there. The guests treat a wedding a little bit more like a pep rally. Really, there is so much whooping and hollering. I guess everyone displays their emotions differently.

My, my! I gotta go eat breakfast. I'll tell more later

Occasionally, you have one of those days that boost you and you realize again why you do what you do. I am energized again by what the Lord is doing in the family of Dorcas and now Jaqui as well. I'm afraid though that they are going to tear my heart out when we leave. Already, the thought kills me.

Today, was such a stark contrast from our first day with Dorcas only a week and a half ago. On our first day she ran to hide and screamed. Today, she sat on my lap and cuddled with me. As I said before, all of the mothers carry their children on their backs using about a two yard piece of fabric called a panya. I have found that the children are always content there and it seems as if to comfort them. Today, Dorcas came behind me and put her hands up to indicate that she wanted to be on my back. I put her up sort of piggy-back style and then her mother ran into the other room to get a panya for me. Abra, Dorcas mother, showed me how to secure her on my back, and I walked around with her a little bit pointing to things and showing her the signs. I took her off my back once, but then she clung to me pretty fiercely and kept crawling around to my back again. I tied her back on (by myself this time) and we went walking around some more. Before I knew it, it was time to leave. I untied Dorcas from my back and let her down. She did not in the slightest bit think this was cool. She acted like it was time for a nap. I see many children sleeping on their mothers' backs, so I assume she thought she was going to get to sleep on my back. All this to say, Dorcas has begun to open up little by little and even form a bond. She signs sometimes when we're not expecting it, so it's a nice treat to see that she's catching on.

Jaqui, another little deaf girl, has been coming too. She is a little bit easier to teach, though I'm afraid she copies what we do more than understands what we are trying to teach her. However, today I could tell that she was getting some concepts. Last week we taught Dorcas "sleep"and "wake up." Today she was signing it to us and we played a little peek-a-boo game with it (we have it on video). We also showed her "shut the door" and "close the door." A little hearing neighbor girl was not pleased with the whole close-the-door thing because it made the room very dark, and blocked the door from us so that we could not close it anymore. However, Jackie wanted to show us that she knew what we were talking about so she ran into the other room, pointed to the door, and signed it for us. Improvement is always an encouragement. Jackie gets to ride in the car for us for a little bit when we are finished with a lesson. Today, when it was time for her to get out of the car, she got very angry (which is not like her) and made it very difficult both physically and emotionally to get her out. Believe me, if I could drive her around in a car all day, I would. As a matter of fact, I would keep her if I could.

Dorcas and Jackie are the reason I want to be in Togo. Who else will open up the doors of communication for these precious little ones?