Thursday, july 16th

Well, we're finally here, in body if not completely in mind. We left home 7:30am Monday, the 13th, arrived in the capitol, Lome, 7pm Tuesday (2pm @ home), spent 2 hours in immigration and customs and went to a guest house for the night. There are no streetlights here and I had forgotten how dark the streets are at night. People stand in the dirt and sell things and I was sure that we would run someone over. We spent Wednesday morning at immigration applying for visas and it was a little disconcerting to leave our passports with their assurance that we'll get them in a week or so. Three bumpy hours later we arrived at the hospital. After supper, Salem was on call and operated most of the night on a child's leg that had been mangled in a motorcycle accident and then on a man with a bowel perforation from typhoid. This morning he did several hernias and has more surgery scheduled this afternoon. In other words, he's happy as a clam. I'm trying to get used to the time change. Last night I grabbed a tube from my overnight kit and started to brush my teeth with Neosporin. I''m awaiting my assignments. In the meantime, I think I'll go take a nap! Keep on praying.