Sparky's Togo Pictures

They stopped at a gas station on the way from Accra, Ghana, to Togo and this was a market across the street.

The hospital waiting room.

A lady giving her baby a bath outside the hospital.

The market the ladies went to early in the week is at the end of this street.

This man made shovels.

This lady sold machetes.

This lizard jumped and made all the ladies scream. Then the local kids laughed and pointed at them!

Where they stayed.

The missionary family's pet monkey.

And scorpion!

These are mangos. Sparky knows I love them, so she thought I'd love seeing them. I did!

This is the lady who made her special dress (which I will share on Friday) while wearing her baby.

Don't you just love the iron?!

Fixing a flat — see how they are lifting the car.

A beautiful view.

They allowed Sparky some time off from the kitchen to work with the children. She adored it, and she adored the children. Notice some of them are also wearing the smaller children.

These are the four ladies (girls?) that were on the trip.

The new maternity wing.

A termite hill.

The only reason Sparky wanted to come home was because she missed us.

She wants to go back next year for a month.

We think she's found her country.

WFMW — Travel Tip

I'm too lazy to go back in my archives and search for the other button, but WFMW is actually being hosted by Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer for the next two weeks while Kristen is in Kenya with Compassion.

Which is on the tail end of Sparky getting back from Togo.

Which brings me to my WFMW tip.

Pack your carry-on like you will never see your checked luggage!

Especially if you are going overseas.

Sparky's checked suitcase did not make it to Togo.

Mr. Churchmember's checked suitcase did not make it back to New York.

Amidst canceled flights from New York to Detroit, the airline booking Sparky on a separate flight than Mr. Churchmember and Mrs. Missionary (with a plane and terminal change at Dulles in only 50 minutes, which they did not let her do and made the airline put her on the same flight as them), Mrs. Missionary said to the counter person in New York,

"This is the only bag we have left to check. One didn't make it to Ghana, one didn't make it back from Ghana (they drive from Ghana into Togo). Do you think you can get this one to Detroit?"

We packed one of Sparky's towels, all her washclothes, her passport copy, all her undies, all her t-shirts, three of her skirts, two of her blouses, her fitted sheet, her light blanket, feminine personal items, half her soap products, her extra sunscreen, and all her socks in her carry-on.

She had one sunscreen, her hat, all her medicines (prescription and over-the-counter), her compact (the only make-up she wears), a small bottle of contact solution and a case, an extra pair of contacts, hand sanitizer, sunglasses, snacks, a journal, and her Bible in a backpack as her personal item that she put under the seat.

People asked her who packed her carry-on because they were impressed that she could function well with what she had. Mr. Churchmember's wife had given me the advice to do it that way or I wouldn't have had a clue. We were all impressed at the maturity shown by a 16-year-old who was missing a suitcase.

Which still hasn't shown up.

Africa pictures coming in a little while!

Menu Plan Monday — March 1

Sparky's coming home today, Sparky's coming home today (sung to the little playground ditty).

Although I still haven't heard from her as of Sunday night. Her flight from Ghana took off late (they drive from Togo into Ghana and fly for 12 hours), so they only arrived in New York two hours ago. I think they are still making their declarations and clearing customs. They are staying in New York overnight.

Monday — Taco Bell, because Sparky thinks it's the best place in the world.

Tuesday — Chicken Spaghetti.

Wednesday — Italian Baked Chicken Breasts and Butternut Soup (both from Taste of Home Healthy Cooking)

Thursday — Taco Salad (I froze the leftover taco meat last week)

Friday — Nachos (with the other half of the taco meat)

Saturday — Eat out since we ate in all week, and I'm not counting Monday since it was special.

Sunday — Wild Rice Salad (another Taste of Home recipe that I can't link to since it's in my magazine and the web page is subscriber only). I'm going to make it on Saturday and then we can eat it chilled on Sunday. I plan to have some macaroni and cheese in the trusty blue box handy for a couple of my kiddos since this is a new recipe. It's a little bit of a risky one for me.

While I was typing this I got a text from Sparky that she is in New York. I'm waiting for her to get to the hotel so she can call me. Woo hoo!

Visit The Organizing Junkie for hundreds of recipe and menu-planning ideas.

A Thing for Grandma Moses' Art

Did you read my Show and Tell post about The Whole Hole Picture?

Well, if not, here is the picture. A Grandma Moses' print I found at one of the local Salvation Army stores.

You'll have to go back and read the post though to hear about the reframing transformation and the hole it's covering.

It got me thinking back then that there might be more prints out there. So I checked out ebay and found a set of eight prints. Let's just say I got them for practically nothing.

When they came, the overall prints were the same size, but the images were varying sizes depending on how they had shrunk them to maintain their proportion. That made going to the store and just picking out a ready-made mat and frame and doing it myself more difficult.

Which basically means impossible.

Good thing the stores have killer sales sometimes on framing. I picked two of my favorites that were close to the same image size and had them framed. Here they are:

They share the same room with "The Hole Picture" Grandma Moses' print and also my Grandma Moses' cross-stitch, which is across the room.

Visit Cindy at My Romantic Home every week for Show and Tell Friday.

Theme Thursday — Bottle

The age old question:

Who's better?

Jeannie (with her bottle)

or Samantha?

See more Theme Thursday participants and their take on the theme here.

Sparky's Africa Update

We took Sparky to the Detroit airport Saturday morning at 7 a.m.

Her flight left for JFK at 10 a.m.

She arrived at JFK right before noon. She was meeting the rest of the team and they were leaving about 4 p.m. and arriving in Ghana at about 3 a.m. our time (11 hour flight).

With the five hour time difference, it was 8 a.m. in the morning there already.

Then there was about a five or six hour bus drive into Togo, counting the border crossing.

See Sparky's suitcase in the forefront of this picture:

It's getting checked in at Detroit. It made it to Ghana. It appears someone stole it off the cart because it didn't make it on the bus to Togo.

We are fortunate that we were told to pack her carry-on suitcase as if her checked bag might not get there, so she has enough clothing to get her by. The ladies are also going to try and get her things washed, which they don't usually do. We also hadn't hidden any of her money or put the copy of her passport in there, so that was good. It was mostly packed with stuffed animals and specific foods the missionaries requested, plus the other half of her skirts and blouses (all her t-shirts were in her carry-on). The bus driver was going back to the airport to see if it could be located.

I know all this because Sparky called me today! She had called on Sunday as soon as she got to Togo. The call was $5 a minute so she basically just said she got there and was safe. We were thankful to know that.

But today she was calling from a computer that was two cents a minute. It was a pretty decent connection too. We talked for about twenty minutes and she is having the time of her life!

Back when I first mentioned that Sparky was going to Togo I had said that no one from our church was going. You might remember that the people sitting at our table the night all this transpired were a lady and her daughter (husband and other three children not present) and then Mr. and Mrs. Missionary.

Well, the husband that was not present decided to sign up for the trip. He had to go on the waiting list, but then a spot opened up. It's the closest thing to having her dad go with her since he's not.

Here the three of them are before they left Detroit, Mr. Churchmember, Sparky, and Mrs. Missionary.

Sparky decided on the way to the airport that they were going to be her adopted parents for the week. She told me on the phone today that she has three moms there! They even had to protect her in the market on Monday.

Caboose had a rough first day and night. He's doing better now. Of course, I'm letting him sleep in my bed since Hubby's gone, so that could be a big contributing factor. Oh, well.

I Blame It On The Snow

Or Hubby who passed on the used snow blower at the garage sale last summer.

I was totally out of my migraine preventive, and I wore my pajama pants to the local pharmacy last night to pick up my refill.

That was after I had spent two hours in the driveway with Buddy shoveling, after Chatty had done what she could.

I was wearing my pj pants over my jeans to stay warm. We'd had about nine inches of snow, after Hubby, our big snow shoveling muscles, had left for Texas.

We found out at church Sunday night that a storm was coming. The worst was supposed to be coming through about the time on Monday morning when I would be driving the one hour to the airport and one hour back home from dropping off Hubby.

We decided it would be safest to use hotel points and have Hubby stay at a hotel close to the airport with a shuttle. It was definitely a good choice (we still only have one vehicle), except that I was driving home at 1 a.m. Monday morning.

The good thing about going to the pharmacy last night was that it was already 8:30 p.m. and there was no one else there. Good thing since I was clomping through wearing Hubby's snow boots too.

I was quite the vision. My sore muscles are still reminding me of it today.