Togo Recap

As a general surgeon, a bread a butter surgery that I do almost every day is a hernia repair.  A hernia is a hole in the muscle layer of your abdominal wall allowing intestine to "herniate" through the hole.  It's not an emergency, as long as you can push the intestine back in.  People all over the world get hernias, including the US and Togo.  When I see someone in the US, they usually say that the hernia has been bothering them for a few months to a year.  The hernias are usually small, and they have plenty of prescription narcotic pain medications to help them recover from surgery.  In Togo, the patients usually say they have been dealing with the hernia for as long as they can remember, the hernias are BIG, and after surgery they get only Motrin and Tylenol.   Same problem, two different worlds, same treatment.  In many parts of Africa, the problem is that you can't find anyone to do the surgery.

While in Togo, I was able to fix plenty of hernias.  Some other great cases included taking out a thyroid cancer that had gotten so big it eroded through the skin (first time I had ever seen that), and taking out the esophagus of a 3 year old that drank lye. In order for him to be able to eat again, we used his stomach to make a new esophagus. (I can't take all the credit, as there was a visiting chest surgeon also at Togo and I helped him with the surgery.)

Although providing surgical care took some of the burden off of the full time missionaries, we went to Togo also to examine the ministry and see if it is a place we could serve long term.  God was faithful as we couldn't have been there at a better time.  Many meetings, dinners, and conversations allowed us to get a good handle of everything that is going on at the hospital and ministry in South Togo.

Now that we are home (and freezing our butts off) Erin and I still have a little more information to gather before we make some decisions.  As we decide our future location of ministry, please pray that we would have an equal measure of wisdom and faith.  Pray that the decisions we make would not be rooted in fear, selfishness, or pride.

If anyone wants more details, we are happy to share, but all the details would take pages and pages of blog space.  Updates to come in due time!!

Ivey in front of an old abandon termite mound 

Operating Room, taking out an esophagus that is scarred shut from lye ingestion.

A happy patient taking his first drink in months. 

OR - Team Togo South.  

Part of the Togo South crew.  Amazing people we were glad to meet.  

A few days in...

Hello all!
We are a few days into our stay in Togo now. We have pretty much adjusted to the time change, though my kids don't ever want breakfast which must be a result of their bodies thinking it is the middle of the night, because if you know my kids, you know they NEVER miss a meal. They don't even ask for snacks!
The boys are loving "Africa life": no shoes, lots of time outside, trees to climb, space to run, warm weather. We are staying in a room in the guest house which is one large room and a bathroom. More than adequate for two weeks, but all of us in one room does have it's challenges: no privacy, sitting in the dark while everyone goes to sleep, everyone waking up with the first person. But luckily we can be outside a lot.
We attended a local African church on Sunday morning. It was reminiscent of our Kenyan church experience except that it was in French and Ewe, the local language. (pronounced ev-ay)  Our kids endured the 3 hour service pretty well, with no out loud whining, only pained looks my way everytime they pointed to their watch to say "how much longer" and I just strugged my shoulders. I am always amazed at how well the African children sit during long church services.
Eric started at the hospital on Monday and has been learning the ropes here. I started doing homeschool with the boys on Monday and have no hair left (from pulling it out) and we may come home with less children. That will give you an idea of how that's going... I don't know how you awesome homeschool mamas do it. Ivey managed to dump all our malaria meds out (twice), get into food, steal the boys papers, whine to be picked up, dial who-knows-who on the telephone and dig in the trash all while we were trying to "learn".  But we will press on. Tomorrow we get a break from school (hallelujah) because there are Team meetings all day and I am going to help with all the kids. (cue all of us leaping for joy).
Cole, Cooper and I got to go to the local town's market day yesterday. It is about a 5 minute drive away and it reminded me of Bomet's market day (the town we lived near in Kenya). I got some beautiful fabrics (one of the things Togo is known for), bananas and some Togolese "ice cream". Cooper was a bit overwhelmed by the experience and Cole almost got run over by a motorbike while crossing the street. No joke, it grazed his foot. It wasn't even Cole's fault, the man seemed to come right at him. Thanking God for His mercy there!
You may be wondering how AJ got bit by a monkey. One of the missionary families has a pet monkey named Jeff and my kids are enamored with it. I think Jeff was just done with all the "attention" and Alex got too close at the wrong time. He's fine, didn't even break the skin but he has a nice big bruise. He is my most "African" child, chopping down bamboo trees with a mini sword, making forts and climbing termite mounds.
More to come!

Africa feet

The room we are staying in 

Jeff and his owner, Paton

We're in Togo!

We've arrived! 

I should say that our travels went pretty smoothly, if you look at it from an outsiders perspective, but man, traveling internationally for 30 some hours with 5 kids and 3 flights and a 3 hour car ride is exhausting!!! 

All went pretty well overall. There were TV's with movies at every seat (to my children's relief), lots of Sprite, bad airplane food, very little sleep, a squirmy 2 year old and one we-NEARLY-missed-the-flight-to-Togo-from-Paris-literally-slid-in-the-door-and-they-closed-it moment. We thought we had to get our baggage and re-check it so we spent 3 hours standing in lines and running around to find out that we didn't and now we are going to miss our flight. Eric even got to answer an "is there a doctor on the plane?" call. Never a dull moment, I tell ya. But we made it. 

We spent the night in Lome last night and God provided an honest to goodness miracle. We all slept almost the whole night, even with that awful time change. I am seriously thanking Him for that! We'll see how tonight goes, but Ivey didn't get a nap today so here's hoping everyone sleeps all night! 

Our first day involved meeting some of the missionaries, getting settled into our room (one big room with 8 beds), eating lunch and dinner at the guest house, Tucker getting locked into two bathrooms, Alex getting bit by a monkey (WHO is surprised??! Anyone? Nope, us either) and 10 very dirty little feet. Will try to update more soon. Headed to bed tonight! 

Wait, you still have a blog?

Happy New Year!

Yeah, so it's been a long time since we dusted off the old blog. But here were are, with news to share. We have now been back in the States for approx 18 months. Our hope when we left Kenya was that we would be home for 2 years and then head back to Africa. The problem was, we never quite knew where the Lord was directing us.
So, through a series of events, we find ourselves headed to Togo, West Africa for 3 weeks in January.  We are going to visit a hospital run by ABWE and see if it is a good fit for our family.  If so, we would make steps toward serving there long term.  We are taking the whole family...for better or worse!  Fortunately, the schools have been great about us taking the boys out of school for 3 weeks and we really feel it is most beneficial if we all go and check out this field.
So, we leave Wednesday! Yep, we realized that we haven't really communicated to people that we were going, as every time we mentioned "leaving next week for Africa", we were met with blank stares. 😉
So we are asking that you would pray for us:
1. For good travels with 5 kids, one of whom is crazy and never sits still.
2. For humble spirits and good attitudes from all of us as we head into a new and unfamiliar place.
3. For health while we are there.
4. For clear direction from the Lord about our future.
5. For us to be a blessing to the missionaries and nationals that we come into contact with!
Thanks!

I know you will be waiting with bated breath to hear more.....

The Traveling Mitchell 7