Oh, one more thing...: February 2013

The Back Story

My nephew Ethan just recently broke his femur and had surgery to install a rod in his leg. He was bragging about how many stitches he had received, especially because he trumped Jack's 25 stitches in his scalp from just a few days earlier. Ethan has had more stitches than most of us - me included - but his all came at one time. He's a tough kid. He'll end up with more before he's done. Jack, too!

You can see Jack's scar here, as well as more pictures of Ethan's surgery --> Erin's Blog

Ethan's incision marks. He said there were stitches under there...

4 Stitches

Well Ethan, I've got four more stitches to add to my total, bringing me up to 70.

I got hit on the bridge of the nose with a puck while playing in Woodstock last night. A defenseman on the other team attempted to get rid of the puck as I was pressuring him. His clearing attempt hit me square in the beak. Other than hurting a whole bunch, it bled like crazy. Since it was early in the game I figured I would try to get the bleeding to stop and see how it was. The area behind our bench looked like a grisly crime scene, blood everywhere.

Random hockey picture inserted here

I was able to get the bleeding stopped after a few minutes, and with the help of a couple of teammates, got some gauze and a band-aid on it to keep it from leaking anymore. Of course I finished the game - with a goal and a couple of assists to boot!

Some swelling, some stitches. Black eyes are coming!

I went to the hospital and was actually quite surprised by how quick everything went. An x-ray, 4 stitches and sent on my way in 31/2 hours. I have a fracture of a nasal bone, some swelling - and it hurts when I squint.

I'll take the stitches out in a few days and see how much scarring there is when it's healed up. Certainly won't help my looks much, that's for sure! I'll post another picture if I get good black eyes from this.
Strangely enough, it was this time last year that I received 4 stitches in my lip in another hockey game... This is a bad time of year for me to be playing!!

Photo of last year's cut. Happened 03/01/2012. Coincidence???

All in all it's just another hockey story to tell.

Oh, one more thing...

Ethan, you can win this little "contest". I'm getting too old for this stuff!

What I Learned

I learned that the people of West Africa are very warm and inviting. Nate says it has something to do with 'warm climate, warm hearts'. I'd buy that. People would wave and shake hands just like I was a friend they hadn't met yet! Or maybe because I was a rare white person?

Here is Georgina. She made yummy chocolate chip cookies.

This chatty guy was selling beads, shells and necklaces on the beach in Lome. He wanted 6,000CFA for a necklace. I got it for 2500CFA. He smiled as we shook on the deal!

The food was different but very good. I suffered no adverse gastro-intestinal affect because of it. That was a bonus. Suffering from 'Togo Tummy' is not pleasant.

This is spicy Pima chicken with rice and a side order of two kinds of fresh pineapple - my second helping. SO GOOD! The white pineapple tastes better. Erin can tell the difference with her eyes shut!

Here is the wood container that the women pound their grains and corn in. They also create fu-fu in these things.

I learned that common sense is still alive and well. Not necessarily in Canada, but definitely in Africa. They won't try something unless it makes sense to them. And, if it works for one generation they will likely keep doing it that way until someone shows them a better - and more reliable - way.

Women pounding the fu-fu with big wooden sticks. I wouldn't mess with these girls!

Fishing boats pulled up out of the ocean in the Bay of Benin, just outside Lome.

I discovered how the Togolese love to celebrate a good result of a soccer match by the national team, the Eperviers - translated 'the Sparrow Hawks' - in the African Cup tournament. We were caught in an all-out mob as we were driving home from supper on my last night in Lome. We had jubilant fans hanging off the side and back of our van! We were barely able to keep driving forward as the throbbing mass of loud, boisterous celebrators were crowding the evening streets. They were dancing and singing, banging empty buckets or water jugs, blowing whistles, running all over and generally having a huge street party! Thousands of them! No, really - THOUSANDS!! They were streaming past us on the street and sidewalk, all heading for downtown! This was just for advancing to the semi-finals. The ~~whole city~~ entire country would shut down in a championship victory!

I posted a picture of this guy before. You can see two of the Togo national soccer team jerseys in the picture.

The baobab tree.

A village cemetary. They have a totally different perspective on death there.

I learned that sitting in the hall for French class in high school was not the best way to learn the language. I enjoyed the experience and challenge of speaking with the locals, but it would have been more enjoyable with the language barrier being a little less of an obstacle. Learning Ewe' or Anufo would have been even better. Alas, my skill with languages are such that a couple of words in each was all I could manage.

School kids heading to class in the morning in a beautiful small village near Kpalime.

Flowers blooming on a tree in the yard at the hospital in Tsiko

Would I Go Back?

I would. It was such an interesting and bizarre place to visit. There was always something different to see even going down a familiar path or road. The people were fun to be around. I enjoyed spending time with the Westons, too. It was so good to see them in person and hang out with them all. I hope they know they are fortunate to have this experience. I might be jealous. I have so many stories to tell from 2 weeks in the country. You know they have so many more to tell already!

An 11-passenger Land Rover Series IIa, carrying 15 people plus the load on the roof. This guy had to ride hanging onto the roof rack!

Sunrise in Tsiko

I would have liked to spend more time in Mango working on the new hospital project. It was really good to see an existing project up and running for so many years in Tsiko, seeing how it impacted the local area, both medically and spiritually. Maybe 3 weeks over there would have been better? (Okay, I'd have to have Christine and the boys join me for a trip that long. That's a long time for me to be away from them all! And Erin and Nate would likely be tired of me!)