Togo! I wear scrubs now... ;-)

We are here! We are now docked in Lome, Togo. We've been here for about two weeks now. I already love it. The feel here is lighter than in Benin. I don't know that I noticed it as much when we were there, but now being here, It seems like there was just a more oppressive feel there. Anyway things are going great, and the hospital is about to start their first day of surgery on Thursday. Because of elections here about to happen here on the 28th, we've had to do our screening differently than normal. They have set up various locations where people come to be screened as potential patients.

I have officially started in my position as dental sterilizer! The first few days here we couldn't do anything because of procedures and all. Then the first monday we went out to the clinic for the first time, to start setting up. It was SOO exciting. Yesterday was our first day of screening for patients. It went really well. And now today was our first day of actually seeing patients, and my first official day of sterilizing. :) It went well. Gado, my assistant, a day volunteer from Togo, is great and we have a lot of fun together. She is a fast learner and we're learning together. ;-D

Here are some pictures. I'll tell about other stories in the picture descriptions...

So the first day Gini, our Dental coordinator went out to see the clinic with Dag, our Team leader and head dentist, They just got done talking about how they would need benches for the patients to sit on while they wait to be seen; a minute later they saw a man walking by carrying two benches! They stopped him and asked if he could make 15 benches for us just like the ones he had. He took the order right then, and here is a picture of our lovely benches now! Isn't it amazing how God provides!
Bugs...there are quite a few of them running around our clinic, especially in the bathrooms. Yuck!

So I am now a ship driver. Type of vehicle: Land Rover, Manual. My first time driving in Africa (and for about 8 months period!) This is pretty much what I drove... except mine was not a truck bed. The back was filled to the roof, and I had about 15 chairs strapped to the rack up top, and 4 passangers. It went surprisingly well! Haha :-D

What? I was just focused....And just SLightly nervous. But I used it constructively! ;-p Nobody died. It's actually kinda fun dodging potholes and motorcycles and squeezing past big trucks. No way to fall asleep! That's for sure. And every trip to work is like an obstacle course! It's great!

I think I'll be bored when I go back to driving in the states. ;-p lol

So we had to get the generators and compressors up to the 3rd floor...generator number 1...of 4!

compressor number 1 of 2. Man those things are heavy!!!

Team on the second floor where the pully was rigged. We got them up that far and then the guys carried them up the stairs inside to the 3rd floor. Don't know how they did it. (there was nowhere to rig the pully on the 3rd floor.)

Lunch time! yay!

I was so thankful to have Rosean the previous Sterilizer come one day to help me set up my room!

That's where we eat lunch...and leave our stuff.

Excitement! Everything is ready!

This is my sterilization room! Isn't it beautiful!

Screening on Monday. The security guard told us people started coming at 2:00 in the morning! We ended up screening about 300 people. We screen every Monday and Thursday. We check to see who is the worst and give them an appointment card for a certain day. When we run out of appointment slots, they can come back for the next screening day. We try to see about 50 people per day.

It's been good so far, I'm excited for the rest of the time. :)