Hot & Humid Day in Lome

Walking off the tarmac at Lome.

2 hours Sac to Salt lake, 9 1/2 hours Salt Lake to Paris, 6 hours Paris to Togo. We left at 1:40pm Friday and arrived in Togo at 11:30 Saturday morning California time, 7:30 pm Saturday in Togo. We had very little sleep while flying so we arrived very tired. Weather is hot and humid. We spent two hours in immigration getting our visas and luggage. We heard it may be difficult getting our bags through and may have to bribe the guards. All 12 of us went through at once, we overloaded the one guard scanning bags and went through faster than he could check us so no bribes were needed. We met our host outside baggage claim and loaded up two vans and headed to the campus where we are staying, about a 30 minute drive. It was dark so we couldn't see much. We divided the group into two dorms. The cook prepared a light meal of lentil soup and beef stew. It was the best meal we ever had (after traveling nearly 24 hours). Waiting for visas.

Our rooms are a bit warm but we do have small a/c units. It isn't much but were are grateful for them. The rooms are clean and comfortable but there is a bar right outside the campus walls that played very loud techno music until 3:30 in the morning. How do we know it was 3:30am ... because we were awake! Ear plugs were a necessity. Sunday morning we went to church at 8, here on campus. It was a beautiful 3 hour service. They sure know how to praise the Lord!

We all enjoyed mingling with the 1000 strong congregation. Lots of colorful photos were taken.

After church we took a short walk out of the security of our walled campus to explore the immediate area. The streets of Lome are bustling with cars and motorcycles. Motorcycles have a 30:1 advantage. Our host missionaries, Mark and Vicky held a nice lunch for us at their campus based home complete with homemade lasagna and garlic bread. So far we have eaten very well , almost too well. This is very atypical for us. After lunch we had a few hours on our own. Four of us decided to head out to find the Ghana border which appeared to be only a few hundred yards away. After a 10 minute walk through busy streets and roadside markets, we crossed the main highway, walked down a dirt path and stumbled upon 4 armed guards holding automatic rifles and drinking beer. They were blocking the path with two logs on the ground, it was the border entry for Ghana. They were slightly unfriendly but allowed us to walk up a berm and peer into Ghana. The view was jungle and didn't look much different than Togo. Ghana crossing:

We also caught a cab to the coast, about 3 miles away. We had a nice evening social time with 6 missionary couples who are based here. It was a nice way to end the day. We explored the job-site. There has been some confusion and difficulty getting the engineering plans solidified.we are supposed to start breaking up concrete and digging footings for columns that will support three additional floors but we don't have specs or locations for them. We are starting work at 6am to get some time in under cooler weather and before breakfast. We will have an update tomorrow and how the job is progressing.