Here Today, Gone Togo

After a 2 year hiatus the Destiny MAPS building team is headed back to Africa but not to our usual country of Tanzania. This year we are off to Lome, Togo located on the west coast of the continent, sandwiched (pun intended) between Ghana and Benin, just west of Nigeria.

We will be staying, and working, at a Bible college in Lome. There are 12 of us this year. Most of us are from Destiny church in Rocklin. Others are from Calvary Auburn and Yuba City. The team will share 2 guest houses on campus that appear to be very comfortable. The weather forecast is for lows near 79 and highs just above 90. Humidity is in the 70 - 90% range.

Project: We will be working on an existing multi-purpose building that will undergo a major retrofit. It is currently a single story cement block structure with wooden trusses and sheet metal roof. When retrofit is complete, this will be a 3-story building. We are the first team to work on this so our portion of the project will be the demo phase. This includes removing (and preserving) all existing electrical and plumbing fixtures. Removing the A/C system including ducting and tearing off the roof sheeting and trusses. We will then begin digging foundations and formaing for the structural columns that will support the additional floors.

This is quite a departure from building projects we have been involved with on previous trips. Check out our Tanzania 2011 blog on details from that trip. We are very excited to explore a new country and meet new missionary friends who are working very hard in preparation of our arrival this weekend. We are told there is some level of internet access. We don't know how reliable it will be so we can't promise regular updates. Our intention is to make daily entries so keep your fingers crossed. Thank you for reading and following us. we look forward to sharing this exciting adventure with our family and friends back home in the US. God Bless, Scott & Greg.