August 27 -- Let's Get Wet -- Lomé

I trust you also are having a beautiful Saturday morning.  It is about 9:30 AM here in Lomé, Togo.  Ken has gone with some of the local brothers to visit a village not far from here.  The four of them are having fun and enjoying each other.  In America we would call this a male bonding experience or some such thing.  In the Kingdom of God, it is simply how brothers are.  I am sitting in the hotel dining room.  I chuckle to myself a bit every time I call this a hotel dining room.  When I think that phrase I think of a grand, elegant place with white table cloths and polished silver featuring uniformed waiters and fine cuisine.  In fact this is more like large second floor porch.  It has a series of pillars separating 10 windows each about 6 feet square going around the curved wall that forms 2 1/2 sides of the room.  The windows each have imitation leather flaps hanging in them to fend off the hot African sun.  This morning several of those flaps are folded up and held by clothes pins to permit the breezes to pass through.  In the only corner of the room there is a small bar like counter that I have never seen in use.  The furnishings of the area are 8 wooden tables each about 30 by 42 inches and about 30 sturdy simple straight back wooden chairs.  We have pulled 3 of the tables together to form an area where the local brothers can sit and chat with us.

So far in the entire time we have been here we have only once seen any one else use the dining room.  We think that it was the owner of the hotel talking with a business associate.  We are not sure. There is a lovely gracious young mother, Viviane, who comes and cooks for us.  We specify the time and the menu for each meal that we eat.  She prepares the food simply and seasons every dish perfectly.  We mostly have vegetable omelets for breakfast.  She would serve them with fresh baguettes but Ken and I are trying to eat fewer carbohydrates in the morning.  When we did try the baguettes they were wonderful and fresh.  For a couple days Viviane convinced us to try sausage instead of omelets.  She served it with croissants and pain au chocolate.  Although delicious it was hard on my figure so we went back to omelets.  Both Ken and I need to eat breakfast because the antibiotics we take to prevent malaria (and food poisoning coincidently) tend to upset an empty stomach.  

Our lunches most frequently are salads.  We make an exception and ask for a larger meal when we know local brothers will be eating with us.  Perhaps the best meal we have had so far was one evening when Viviane prepared turkey for us with fries and vegetables.  Sadly, the next day we were told that there is an out break of Avian Flu in the area and thus we should not eat and turkey or chicken for the rest of our time here.  That is a shame.  My mouth still waters when I think of that turkey the way Viviane fixed it.  Our other dinners have been chicken (no more of that) and fish.  The fish is one I cannot identify but it has an excellent flavor and lots of omega  fatty acids I am sure.

We have been told the ocean port here in Lomé is the deepest water port in West Africa.  It has been well developed.  It serves the entire region.  I am sure it would become even more profitable if the country would develope railroads to carry freight north to Mali and Burkina Faso and east and west to serve the coastal countries.  Sadly such infra-structure development has not yet taken place. 

Togo is a fascinating country of contrasts, as I look out the window behind me I see a very large (almost palatial) home.  It is surrounded, almost visually hidden, by small tinned roofed homes typical of poverty zones.  And yet, scattered among all of that are tall beautiful coconut palms waving in the breeze.

The people of Togo are a gracious, gentle, hospitable people.

Today we are scheduled to attend an ocean side time of baptizing believers.  I will leave you now and go for that soon.

His, thus Yours,

  Stuart