Independence Day

April 27 is Togo's Independence Day. It was quite the memorable experience. I worked in the morning, but there was much celebrating and dancing on the wards...as well as balloons and flag making. The best idea of the day was from one of our translators who suggested we take the patients to the parade in town. I mean, sounds logical right? After we said, ya..that's a great idea he again replied, "no really, we should ask them if they want to go". Well, apart from finding a large bus, and herding about 50 patients with casts, drains, bandages into town...it sounded like a great idea...:) At least the translator was really trying to help the patients out! In the afternoon there was a large celebration in the dining room for the day workers..complete with food, prayer, and dancing....LOTS of dancing.

(Aissa really was having a blast...I think this picture just caught her off guard:) Oh, and can you see the balloon crown we taped to her head....she was queen Togo in the ward that day. Will have to write a seperate blog just on this precious girl.)

The rest of the day was spent with two of my close friends- Jenn, and Kristen. We met up with some of our day worker friends and they had big plans for us. We checked out the new monument the president had built and opened that day. It was fun listening to them telling the political history of Togo. They are all so proud of their country and really take praying for their country and leaders seriously...something that convicted me about how often I need to be praying for my country and leaders.

The dancing and celebration at the soccer stadium was my favorite. The president even came for this celebration. At one point there were hundreds of dancers doing a choreographed dance on the field, complete with pink and blue flowers. We thought the chinese music they danced to was a nice touch for Independence Day...haha:) The dancing was quite impressive actually. As we left in a huge squashed crowd Kristen leans over to me and laughs, "I think these are the exact crowds we are supposed to avoid". It was pretty crazy as thousands of people exited, but our friends took good care of us.

And of course the evening would not be complete without visiting a couple family homes. Eric (one of the day volunteers) had his sister cook some yummy akume for us. I was pretty proud that one of the Africans started sweating from the spices before us yovos did.

All in all it was a wonderful day!..except for Jenn's really bad burn from the exhaust pipe on the zemi we rode home on...oops. It made a nice tattoo though.