Just another kid on a football field..

Ok so this one could be either a follow-up or add-on to the previous post.

The only difference being it wasn't 'Just another man in the market' but 'just another kid on the football field.'

To give you another insight into my free time activities while on board the Africa Mercy; on Mondays and Wednesday (providing their in nothing else important happening) a whole lot of us go out and play football (ok soccer for the Americans) at a local field. Sometimes we just play against each other, sometimes against local teams. This last Wednesday, my last football before the summer, the format was slightly different though.

As it had been raining all day, and I mean all day (it is not called the rainy season for nothing), an awful lot of people copped out of football and it ended up just being myself, Elliot (Canadian buddy) and about 9 girls (sorry to generalise ladies). Just as we arrived at the field it stopped raining, we set up small goals with discarded concrete blocks and with a lot of laughter and joking started a small game.

Count.. 1..2..3..4..5..6...7...8..9..10.. and kids arrive.

Really, anywhere we arrive in Togo (especially with any sports stuff) and within 10 seconds local kids will turn up. Sometimes viewing you cautiously from a distance, sometimes standing in the absolute dead centre of the field.

This time we had a special visitors. Bounding across the filed, no hesitation what so ever was Ibrahim. This little man was a patient of us this year all you can see of it is a patch of scar tissue beside the corner of his mouth, his mouth opens but not all the way.

Usually we would keep playing, the kids watching and screaming from the sidelines. But today, smaller teams, smaller goal, less intense; we pulled the kids into the game splitting them into our teams. And we played, laughed, screamed, passed the ball to kids not knowing if they were on our team or the other side.

Honestly the most fun I have had at football in a long time.

One of the most beautiful points of the so called beautiful game coming when Ibrahim, challenging strongly for a ball, fell backwards into a puddle. He stood up, looked around and like any 7 year old starting bawling his eyes out. Standing there on his own, crying, screaming, shorts and back of shirt absolutely soaked. And again it dawned on me, Ibrahim was a normal boy, nothing out of the ordinary any more, not teased or shunned, but an absolutely normal kid. How great to be a part of that. (read the post below for the wider explanation of the train of thought.)

To end the story on a positive, I jogged over, squeezed out his shirt and shorts, brushed of the dirt and counted: 1..2..3..4..5..6...7...8..9..10.. off he goes, the ball being the only thing on his mind again, he sprinted of without a care in the world. How I love kids ;)

Just another man in the market

Sometimes something hit you, something that really makes you stop and think. It stops being a coincidence and starts becoming a life lesson.



Last week I spent my Saturday walking round the market with some friends. This has become one of my favourite pastimes for the weekend. Not only because the way the market is set up, winding through a couple neighbourhoods of streets, but also because I get a chance to see Africa in motion. The 'Mercy Box' can quite quickly becomes that.. a box..

But back to my story..
As we were walking along a man stepped up to us asking: 'Mercy Ship? You are Mercy Ship?'
Firstly being far too small, not made of metal and no where near buoyant enough we were perosnally quite obviously not a mercy ship, but I let the grammatical hiccup slide. Secondly everybody knows we're in town, so anybody trying to sell something or wanting something will use the generic 'Mercy Ship' call signal to get our attention.
But when we stopped and said hello to this guy it turned out to be something a bit more special. He had been one of our patients. In Benin he had had a large goiter removed (huge neck tumor for us laymen). He asked us how we were, how the ship was doing and we responded and asked how he was and what he was doing in Togo. A 2 minute conversation, a handshake (including the snapping of fingers) and he was on his way again.

And as he walked away my eyes were drawn to the insignificant yet still cleary visible scar on his neck, the reminder of where his tumor previously was.

He walked away into the busyness of the market.. nobody took a second look at him.. nobody stopped and stared.. nobody pointed or avoided him..
He was incognito, regular, mundane..

Funny coming from a society where being noticed is such a big deal, yet the biggest gift we could, and did, give this man was the gift of being able to go around unseen.

I gave me a full appreciation again that we don't just fix people, we give them the opportunity to live normal lives. You want 2 hands of the Gospel? Words & works? I would be hard pushed to give you a better example of our calling and our mission.

God bless.

Trans Togo Trek

56 km, 12.5 hours, 3 countries, 2 sore feet and maybe the most physically challenging thing I have ever done :)

So 2 weeks ago Haley (Grade 4/5 teacher) asked if I'd be interested in 'walking across Togo'. Touch the Ghanian border, walk across Togo, touch the Benin border..

Sounded insane, so without a second thought I signed up. And to be very honest the idea is brilliant, how many time do you get the chance to walk across a country. The fact that 1 group from the ship had already tried, and failed, should have been an indicator that it was not going to be easy. But hey.. its just small Togo right?

On the fateful morning 7 walkers and 1 (very important) support driver left the ship at 4.45 on their way to the Ghanian border. Its about 10km form the border to the port, so 3 of the 7 had decided just to walk that part and the other 4 (idiots) decided to carry on.

So it was Haley, Estelle(kindergarten teacher), Kelly (dietician) and myself. Oh and not to forget Murray (head receptionist) driving ahead and stopping with water and snacks along the way.

I feel I can safely say although I knew in my head it would be difficult, it was more so than expected! Estelle stopped just before halfway but the other 3 of us in the group carried on.

I would be quite honest in saying at one point we renamed it the Trans Togo Trudge.. as for an hour just past the 3/4 mark we were just putting 1 foot in front of the other. The distance just seemed to constantly be growing!!!

But through the blisters, pain, heat and exhaustion....

WE MADE IT. WE WALKED ACROSS A SMALL AFRICAN NATION IN 1 DAY!!!!!! All praise to Haley and Kelly for slugging it through with me and Murray an Estelle in the car for making it humanly possible to carry on for that long.

So the lesson we can learn from this:

Next time a Grade 4/5 teacher asked you to do something.. Say no ;)

Walking walking walking

At the marathon mark

Are we there yet..

So I thought Id make use of my shirt collection and start in the Ghanian shirt at their border, swap in the Togo shirt for the middle section, and finish in my Benin shirt as we hit their side, arent I just brilliant!

Done :)