And Charity Suffereth Long...

So... Matilde hasn't come in like 2 weeks which forced me to do my own laundry. Be thankful for laundry machines. They are an amazing invention, one that has allowed America to progress in amazing ways. I am convinced that America is as advanced as it is because of the fact that we don't waste so much time hand washing laundry!

Hello World!

Well, here I am... back and better than ever. Well... or the same as ever. Maybe with more gray hairs and more acne because I've been using shampoo as shaving cream for the past week, but that's okay! I'm here and that's what counts.

This week was a pretty up and down week to be honest with you all. Transfers were this week (first since last month) and, well... nobody in our apartment was hit with transfers. I was absolutely positive that I was leaving this sector, but it just didn't happen. However, because I wasn't moved out of here, that means that I will be in this sector for quite some time. Why do I say that? Because I will probably "kill" my companion (who goes home on my birthday!) and, with 21 new missionaries coming in October... the chances are that I will probably be training... meaning, unless I have visa problems, I will be in Nyekonakpoe/Kodjoviakope for a very, very long time. 

So that's really the only big news for the week. That and I'm wearing white ankle socks with my missionary attire for the day because I washed all my socks today. I'll be honest, I do look fashionable but I don't think I'll be doing this any time soon back home.

On my interesting-foods-that-I-ate-this-week front, I have a new one to add to the list! Sugar cane! I've known about sugar cane for a while, but I have been waiting for the right opportunity to try it. Which really just means that I've been waiting for somebody to buy some for me. Thankfully, our ami Viviane (who has come to Church a few times) was just chatting with us and stopped a lady selling it on top of her head.

Sugar Cane Lady cutting sugar cane.

Just to give you a heads up, before I knew that it was actually sugar cane they were selling, I thought these women were just selling firewood on top of their head because it really does just look like kindling. But, what they do is they chop off all the bark stuff and cut it up into little pieces. 

My wood sugar cube!

As you can imagine, I was excited to eat it because it's (1) an exotic food and (2) SUGAR. Who doesn't love sugar!?! So I popped in the first piece and well... it basically tastes like eating pure sugar. It is surprisingly watery and juicy. I was enjoying it for the first 10 seconds but then it just turned into splintery wood... I was under the impression that it just dissolved in your mouth like candy, but I guess wood doesn't have the tendency to do that... so after chewing it for like a minute wondering whether to swallow or just spit out the rest on the ground, because it was getting gross just chewing on wood. Tasted a lot like toothpick actually. I ended up following my comp and spitting it on the ground right next to me and making a little pile.

What happens to my wood sugar cube, times 10! You would think those wood scraps came from a wood shop or something! Nope! Just my mouth! 

So yeah, it's pretty good! Except... after your 10th cube... you get kinda sick of it. I got so sick of it that for the rest of the afternoon I could not eat anything sweet, even my water that I put juice packs in! Everything was too sweet for me. However, it was good and I won't refuse it if anyone buys it for me but it's just a little too sweet for me after a while! But, if I had to describe fresh sugar cane in four words, I would say sweet watery flavored wood. Yup, that about describes it.

Hmmm... let's see what else. This week I went on my 3rd split to Tokoin (my old apartment) and was comps with Elder Kabedeh for a day. He is really awesome! He is actually from Liberia (only missionary to represent Liberia in the mission). His English is... well, I was surprised to hear that they speak English in Liberia. During our whole split we spoke French the entire time, so that should give you an idea of my understanding of his English. 

Still, it was great to see their sector because I already know a lot of people from there. Most of them still remembered me too! We ended up teaching tons of people and I had a lot of fun with him... but the most rewarding thing was at the end of the night, we were at the Tokoin branch building where I ran into Samuel, one of my recent converts from Wuiti. Turns out he's doing strong in the Church and he's getting married! Elder Jenkins (who replaced me in Wuiti) and I connected the dots and we figured out that they are actually teaching his fiancé right now! How cool is that?! I'm super happy for him! 

To tell you the truth though, for all the lack of success I'm having in my sector, I'm happy to see that a lot of the things I did back in Wuiti are producing good fruits! For one, Attiogbe is now having his family take the missionary lessons (he even got to baptize his daughter last week himself which I thought was so awesome!). Samuel had his mother baptized and now his fiancé will soon follow. Alex, the son of the branch president of Wuiti, has been going on splits with Elder Jenkins and his comp very frequently too. So even though success isn't coming quickly to the sector I'm working in right now, I'm thankful that through my efforts the old branch that I was in is continuing to grow. 

Hopefully the same will happen to Nyekonakpoe. The sector is still tough but things are getting better. We do get amis to come to Church and we do have some people progressing  We don't find many people to teach throughout the week, but I know that this little group here is getting stronger... slowly but surely. In our weekly meeting with the Group Leader, we asked him if there was anything we could do for the group as a whole. The only thing that he asked was that we would stay for a little while so that we could help get this group turned into a branch... turns out his wish was our President's command because we will be here for a while! 

I am happy though... you can ask Elder Haggard, but I may or may not have gone through the five stages of mourning after hearing that I wasn't moved out. I've finally hit the acceptance stage and I'm happy that I'm still out here in this little nook between Ghana and Togo. Sure it's tough, but life's not fair, right Sur? I could complain, but I won't! Just gotta keep working hard and hoping that something happens because of the work and effort that I put into this area! 

Thanks for all the love and support you guys are sending me! Don't worry about me though... I'm still fighting! Hope you all have a wonderful week and don't forget to send me a postcard or something!


Love,

Elder Hawkins

P.S. Scripture of the week: Moroni 7:45. 

Note from the Fro: He really was in good spirits this week. Despite having to do his own laundry by hand and staying in his sector for a bit longer.  I'm glad he gets to visit his old sector every once in awhile!  He got our postcards that we sent from the beach back in August, which made him happy. And I also find it interesting he chose this scripture this week.  Obviously it's a very apt reminder for him (and us!) each day, but also interesting because out of ALL the scripture mastery scriptures this year, yesterday I chose THIS one to teach! Great minds.

Ocean Breezes and a Marching Band?

Here's a picture of the Togo missionaries for you. I'm in the back right side on the aisle. And you know how you said the zones in Philly are huge? The picture of all the Togo missionaries? That's all 3 zones in Togo! About 50 missionaries in all!

Yo, yo, yo greetings from Kod-jo!

Well, I finally moved myself down to the beach! Figured I could use a nice little vacation haha... although it's not really a vacation because of the sector but I'll talk about that later.

Me and my dear washing machine... parting, one last goodbye. You were a great little water spinner... she was faithful and a great friend. She will be greatly missed. But don't worry! I pay someone 1000 francs (errr... 2 dollars) every week to wash all my clothes, so it's actually a pretty sweet deal and is way better than that washing machine! Yay helpful African women!

Things are going good, as always. I feel like I write the same things in every letter... maybe I should start copy and pasting to see if anybody really is paying attention! Haha!

Kodjoviakope is one nice apartment. It's pretty new with really nice sea breezes that keep the apartment nice and cool. However, the place was an absolute MESS when I got there... before I even unpacked my bags I cleaned up the whole bathroom that was covered in black dust and grime, wiped off the inch of dust from my desk, and then swept and mopped our room. People who know me well know that I'm not the cleanest, most organized person in the world so you can tell that this means business! The next morning I cleaned the gross kitchen too (still not done with that either). My goal is to win the cleaning check coming up this week... which I've never done before but Elder Haggard is on my side so watch out Elder and Sister Leavitt, we're gonna win our $10 this month! (it's really sad that $10 is enough to push one to win a cleaning check... but hey, that's a whole Calzone we're talking here!)

The north end of my sector is a really dirty lake... looks really nice but apparently it's infested with crocodiles? Some member told me that but I'm not really sure that's true.

The view of the beach from my apartment! (okay, the zoom feature might have cheated a little bit because it's actually a lot farther away)

The sector is pretty rough though. The people in this area have been in a group (too small to be a branch) for years now and things don't look like they're getting better anytime soon. We have some really great strong members who have great testimonies, but a lot of them have flaked out due to the leadership here in our group. It's going to take a lot of fasting and prayer to get this sector up to shape but I'm not scared to take on the challenge. We did a little bit of OVB (knocking on doors) and found a guy who could really progress, but you can never be sure with a cold contact like that (ie somebody who's not a contact from the member of the church). 

The sector is much different from my old sector too (not only in terms of the people and branch!) It's much flatter than my old sector (that's not saying much though since my old sector was pretty flat) and there are a lot more paved streets. We have some members who live on the Togo/Ghana border too so I've officially seen Ghana up close. The fence that seperates the countries is... well... not quite like the USA/Mexican border. You can easily get into the country if you wanted too... there are tons of gaps in the fence where people just walk freely in and out of the country. We actually do have some amis who live in Ghana and every so often they'll come across the border and take lessons from the missionaries over here. It's against mission rules to go into Ghana, so we can't go over there and teach... but if I paid the right people... it would be pretty easy! Fro, you know I'm JKin'. 

So I guess this is how they deter people from the Ghanian border? By putting a huge mound of trash by the border?! Well, it works because nobody was even close to it when I took my picture! Maybe the US should do that with the Mexican border?! My Tucson cousins should write their congressmen or something!

 

So last Friday, I was sitting in my room reading when all of a sudden I hear this marching band coming down the street. I'm thinking... what the?!? Why in the world would there be a marching band coming down the street here... in TOGO?! I run outside and go on the roof... and it was actually a funeral procession! Pretty crazy right! There was just this crowd of people with a car in the middle... but in the front of everyting was first, a guy carrying a big picture of the lady who died, then these people waving what handkerchiefs around and dancing, and then a cool New Orleans style brass band playing all sorts of cool music. Speaking of New Orleans, it really reminded me of a New Orleans funeral procession. I even remarked to Elder Ngandu it's cool to see how a tradition that started all the way back here in Africa still holds with the people in New Orleans (who, of course, have ancestors that come from this part of West Africa). The music wasn't as Jazzy as it is in NO, but it was still fun to watch them. They even played God Be With You 'till We Meet Again! 

Start of the funeral procession. Note HUGE swarm of people. Judging by the way people were dressed (suits and nice dresses), the fact that the woman who died was being burried in a tomb, and by the fact they had a freaking band playing for them... this was a very, very expensive funeral! Even by American standards I would say. Just goes to show that there is money out here but the disparity between the rich and the poor is great and very, very far apart.

 The band! I really got to missing my drumline days hearing that basser going by... played some pretty good music though and apparently this happens every once in a while so I'll get to see it again hopefully.

The band in their cool suits and cool African hand made undercoat things (I really have no idea what the thing under the suit coat is called but they're hand made and VERY expensive). 

The procession totally caught me off gaurd though. I had no idea there was actually a cemetery right across the street from us... stupidly enough, I thought it was some kind of Tomb store because it's just this big plot of land filled with tombs... people not being too rich over here, I really didn't connect the fact that they were actually all filled with dead people! Hmmmm. 

Alright, well got to get going now. Sorry for the shortish email this week but I'm gonna try to send some good pictures for all of you too! Pray for me, my comp, and my new sector this week because we will surely need help from all you guys. Thanks for all the love and support!

All the best and much love,

Elder Hawkins

Tokoin apartment (Elder Shearer, Mukenga, Owusu, and me). Gonna miss all those guys, cuz we had some good memories over there. I even gave Elder Owusu my Flyers beanie because he needed some way to remember his Freakin' Philadelphian! He was pretty sad to see me go and I was pretty bummed too. We spent 4 months together which is a really long time! Love that guy like a brother... I really do. 

Note from the Fro: He seemed to be in good spirits this week despite the hard work he has ahead of him in his new sector.  His new companion finishes his mission on July 12, so they won't be together long.  But he does want to finish with a bang, so hopefully he'll be motivated to work!  He said he got to meet Elder Jenkins for a bit when they dropped off Elder Haggard.  And of Elder Haggard, he says this: I also got a new American elder in my apartment (Elder Haggard). It's really made me put my whole mission in retrospect because it feels like forever ago that I started my mission out here in Togo... now I'm showing him the ropes! Crazy to think that was me only 5 months ago. It's funny though because the things I've become so habituated with are things he asks me questions about (like where to buy stuff, how to spend money, how to manage time and manage your perspective here on the mission). I will say that it's helped me realize how far my French has come... I can understand people here almost perfectly now (well, not perfectly but it's much easier) and I'm having many more opportunities to speak now that I'm with a French speaking comp (though his French is... well... interesting.) However, before I get all confident, God gave me a reality check today when I got to talking with some French elders... still have a tough time understanding the French but ca va aller! One step at a time, right?!

Yes. Ca va aller!  Ca va aller!

I told him to GET TO WORK!  I know he will. :)

On My Way to Kodjoviakope!

I'll be going from Wuiti (A) to Kodjoviakope (B)! 

Hello World!

I had a pretty good week this week. A bit sad that I have to say goodbye to all these people in Wuiti, but I'm happy that I'll finally be a part of my first transfer! I will now be going to Kodjoviakope (say it like Kodjo via Kope with the e at the end like "ay"). It's right next to the beach and the Ghanian border, so that will be pretty cool.

However, it wil be a very tough sector to work in as it's still just a group (meaning only about 20 people show up to Church every week) and it's been like that for years now. The only thing the other missionaries tell me when they hear I'm going to Kodjo is "Bonne Chance"... meaning "Good luck (with that!)" So yeah, heading into the desert of the mission on Wednesday. The nice thing is that it happens to be the smallest sector of the mission so it won't be tons of walking and it's also the most built up part of the city. It will be an interesting change of pace for me, that's for sure. 

Okay, enough with this silly transfer business. The highlight of my week was definitely from today... going to the VOODOO MARKET! Now we're finally talking about some cool African culture here.

We went with Frere Francois, a return missionary who came back to Togo and married a Togolaise. He's French, but he knows everything about Togo since he's lived here for years now. He was our tour guide so that we wouldn't get ripped off like crazy... which is how touristy places tend to be like. 

Monkey skulls!

As we pulled up to the place, I instantly knew we were there because of all the crazy dead animal skulls and stuff. First thought through my head? This is AWESOME! I got pretty excited. We had to pay 5000 francs each to get in (10 bucks) which is 3000 more than other missionaries had paid a few weeks before. Fr Francois tried to talk them down the best he could, even spoke some Ewe to them, but we couldn't budge em. It's not too big of a deal because they gave us a card that allows us to come back whenever we want for free, whether it be next monday or in 10 years! 

After we paid, they took us around the whole market (which was empty aside from us and the vendors). They explained to us how they dry out the animals (which they never kill, but only take if they died naturally in the wild). They also talked to us about how they use them in sacrifices and in order to make charms and what not. It's pretty interesting stuff actually. 

Animal sacrifice alter for the "God of Fire"!

Porcupine needles!

Then, our tour guide took us into a "sacred room" with a Voodoo priest who only speaks Fon (Beninois language), so our tour guide translated for us. He should us several blessed trinkets we could get... one of my favorites was this little wooden stick that had a wire wrapped around it and at the end of the wire was a little piece of wood. It's supposed to be a Voodoo phone... meaning you talk into it and ask for protection during your journey. Then you put the little piece of wood at the end of the wire into the bigger stick... like you're plugging it up almost. Then, it's supposed to give you good luck all the way through your trip. 

I ended up buying a necklace from him and then having it blessed for me. It's this little bag thingy that has "over 41 special spices and herbs" in it and then two sea shells sewn on top of the little bag. It's supposed to give me good luck and good health wherever I go. It was funny because in order to bless it, I had to say my name into it three times, then the priest said some random stuff and shook a maracca (best way I can describe it), then to end the blessing, I had to say "I recieve this between my two hands" and then it was blessed! Boom! Voodoo POWER!

Of course, after it was blessed, we had to negotiate the price. They wanted me to pay freaking 18,000 CFA for it (over 30 dollars) for it. Fr Francois just laughed when we heard the price and I finally said I would only pay 2000 CFA for it (around 4 dollars) and they accepted the price, but they WERE NOT happy about it! I didn't even want to pay 2000 for it but I was afraid I was going to offend them or worse, that they would curse me with bad voodoo black magic! 

After that, they let us loose to do what ever we wanted. I took A TON of pictures (91 total) so I'll be sure to send as much as I can. To give you an idea of what there is, there's pretty much every animal you can think of over there. Dead dogs, cats, birds, geckos, lizards, owls, vultures, buffalo, hippos, frogs, bats, porcupines, chameleons, snakes, cows, sheep... EVERYTHING! They import a lot of stuff from all over West Africa. It was pretty cool to see it all... and best of all, TOUCH it all!

 

Left is python skin and right is crocodile skin. Crocodile skin is surprisingly heavy.

Elder Shearer with monkey claws!

Dog heads! (gross)

Cool animal skin! Tons of different kinds throughout the market to make tamtam drums

Cheetah head (I don't think it's a cheetah actually but I don't remember the animals name and I'm in a time crunch!)

Croc head!

That's a freakin' vertebrae to an elephant! Holy crap!

That's it's freaking leg bone!!!! It's extremely, extremely heavy! Like over 50 pounds or something!

Hippo mouth!

Errr...Gross bat

Overall, we spent over three hours in the market just admiring all the stuff and taking tons of pictures. I also was able to touch and play with a live chameleon! The guy brought it out of the bag, and at first it was all brown (like the bag!) and curled up. Then as we started playing with it, it started to change into a really cool green! And it's eyes are so cool! They're not aligned so it can move one eye in a completely different direction than the other. Also, did not realize that chameleons had claws... made it a bit difficult to get off my head!

Chameleon on my head!

I also got the chance to handle a boa constrictor... or at least I think it was. That was pretty freaky, but he was a nice little guy. He even got scared, which was cool to see because the snake basically coiled up into this ball with its head at the very center of it. Pretty neat... and it felt pretty cool too... first time I had ever handled a snake before!

Crazy snake in my hand!

Alright, well I should probably get going so I can upload most of the pictures I took from the day! 

Before I go, just want to ask everybody to pray for obedience for me! With this new sector, it's going to be really, really tough since there are no investigators and the church is so small. I know that through obedience to commandments, the Lord blesses his children... so this week, I will put my faith of that principle to the test... well, I'll be focusing more on it this week than I usually do!

Thanks to everybody for all the support, love, emails and prayers. It's much appreciated and I hope that everyone has a fantastic week. Take it easy everybody!

Much love,

Elder Hawkins

Note from the Fro: Whew!  Did you make it through all the pictures?  Ick, kinda gross.  Think it's so funny that his first thought was AWESOME!  Boys will be boys. I did love the chameleon, however.  I think he should bring that one home!  I do like that some weeks we see the spiritual giant and others....well, we see the boy. :) In chatting with him I asked if any other Americans will be in his new apartment.  He said: There will be a new American in the apartment. His name is Elder Haggard.. so that will be interesting... first time I'll be the oldest American in the apt! He's a little worried about his new comp as he only has a month left and hopes he's not too "trunky" (ready to go home!). I think that's why we'll be praying for obedience!  He's also a little bummed that he's leaving the 3 baptisms behind that he had set up for this week.  But says that he'll be even closer to Akif's and the Citimart, plus have a view of the beach.  Always looking on that bright side!  

P.S. Let's hope he's not wearing that weird voodoo amulet....