Our time in Togo

We came to this country because we are part of what God is doing in the world through the Anastasis. But our roles are very much support roles on the Anastasis. Our lives revolve around the ship and the community of people on the ship, rather than the local community we find ourselves in at any particular time. It has been the same in Togo. Our weeks are spent on the ship, and although I (David) do see Togolese patients in our ship hospital the majority of my time is taken up with the health issues of the ship and the crew.

But we are here and it is hard not to be excited by a new country and all its sights and sounds. We came into Togo from the sea, and our first impressions were of a grimy looking dock crowded with people and trucks and shipping containers. Beyond the docks we could see the beaches in the west, stretching toward the Ghanaian border which is scarcely 15km away. This same scene greets us daily when we go up to promenade deck. There is a rusting wreck on the beach barely 500m away, strangely appropriate for West Africa. Through our portholes every morning we see the tugboats of the Lome harbour, and there is usually a container ship docked on the neighbouirng wharf, its cranes busy loading or unloading. It is a busy harbour, with a big turnover of ships, some barely staying 24 hours. By contrast, the Anastasis has become part of the scenery, a big white symbol of God's love for the less privileged, tied to the land we have come to serve.

Togo has no natural harbours. Originally there was only a featureless beach here, until the breakwaters were built to form a barrier from the waters of the Gulf of Guinea. While we have been here there has been a huge Dutch dredger deepening the harbour, a periodic necessity in this port.

Beyond the port is the city of Lome, hot and hustling. It seems bigger and more developed than Freetown, but the population can't be that much different. We have only caught glimpses of the city on trips to some place or other. There are lots of restaurants and some big hotels. One of the biggest hotels, the Serekawa, is barely 1km from the docks and has become a favorite haunt for Anastasis crew. It has an Olympic size pool and outrageously expensive food, but it is like an oasis in the desert for us westerners who long for quiet and serenity, which is so hard to find in a West African city.

We have had only a few trips out since we have been here. Once we spent a day out at Lake Togo, eastward toward the Benin border. It is a small lake, but big enough to make for a pleasant change in an otherwise monotonous landscape. The sandy shores of the lake are lined by palms, and there is a nice little hotel with a lovely swimming pool on the southern beaches - Hotel de Lac. The children are always happy if there is a pool so our outings gravitate toward such places. Not very adventurous, perhaps, but a good break for us off the ship.

Another time we drove three hours up country to a village beyond Kpalime, near the Ghanaian border. There is a Baptist hosptital there called the Hopital Biblique Baptiste. One of our doctors has been working there and we drove him up after Easter. The hospital is set at the foot of some high hills. The landscape is beautiful there, with hills and forests of palms and teak. It was a welcome change from the flaat monotony around Lome.

The Anastasis screening was held in our first week here at the stadium, a relatively new structure on the outskirts of Lome. As usual there were thousands of people lined up along the fence and on the first day there was almost a riot as the crowds crushed forwards against the gates. The police were there with batons and helmets. Screening is always a traumatic experience, especially for those of our crew who are there for the first time. There is the confrontation with deforming disease and with poverty and desperation which most westerners have seen only on television. It is always an exhausting few days, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Since screening the outreach has been fairly routine. Gulf War 2 came and went, with heightened security everywhere, including on our "American" ship, as many believe us to be. Elections are scheduled for May and there is anxiety as I write that there may be violence and bloodshed as there was in the last election here in Togo.

Many of our people have taken the opportunity to see a bit more of West Africa while we are here. Ghana is just a taxi ride away and Benin is not much further in the opposite direction. The more adventurous took their days off over Easter to head north toward Burkina Faso, and some are even planning trips to Mali, and the famed town of Timbuktu, once a huge and fabulously wealthy city, but now just a small community on the edge of the Sahara. But for our family life revolves mostly around the ship and the port of Lome and the Sarakawa Hotel and a little beach restaurant called the Lome Rivage which is just on the other side of the harbour breakwater. There is a pizzeria called Greenfields where there is a playroom and movies are projected on a big white wall. It has become a favourite place to eat too. Its rare to find a restaurant where the kids have as much enjoyment as the adults.

This is the third visit of the Anastasis to Togo, the previous ones being in December 1990 for 2 months, and in November 1995 for 4 months. This visit will be about 3 and a half months by the time we leave, bringing the total time spent in this country over the last 13 years to 9 and 1/2 months. Each time we have done the same combination of work - medical, dental, relief and development and outreach. Youth with a Mission is one of the biggest missionary organisations in this country and on this visit as previously there has been much crossover of staff and activity between them and us. This time we have tried to build stronger links with local health services and to establish closer links with other Christian health providers - for example the Association of Baptists for World Evangelisation (ABWE) runs the hospital near Kpalime that we visited. We have had a doctor working there for some weeks and we have taken some referrals for surgery from there. The AoG missions groups in this country have also been very welcoming and eager to partner with us in whatever way possible. Many of the Community Development projects have been run in association with YWAM bases. We have also tried to establish closer links with orthopedic services in Lome to help with longer term followup of some our orthopedic cases.

There is a small church very close to the docks which grew out of the last visit of the Anastasis to Togo in 1995. The pastor there, whose name is James, has been working on the ship on this visit as he did on previous visits. But he continues to preach faithfully every weekend, to his growing congregation. Many crew members from the ship have been going there.

Sometimes we feel vaguely guilty that we are not more involved in the Lome community, but there is a limit to our energy levels and it takes all we have just to make and maintain relationships in the rapidly changing community of the Anastasis. We must content ourselves with the knowledge that we are supporting those of our community who are on the front lines, meeting, working with, caring for, building relationships with, and sharing the knowledge of Jesus with the people of this little country on the coast of West Africa.

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