"Wawa"

  The missionaries have a phrase they like to use here. When things go wrong in a uniquely frustrating but almost humorous way, when you get the run around instead of straight answers, when the horrible roads beat up both you and your cars… they will have often shrug their shoulders, give a little laugh, and say “Wawa” – West Africa Wins Again. Because sometimes it is better to laugh than to cry ;-)

  Such as yesterday. A driver from the hospital in Tsiko came up to get us on Sunday, and the plan was for him to drive down one of the missionary’s cars to try to sell in Lome (the capital), dropping us off in Tsiko on his way. Why did the missionary want to sell his car, you ask? Well, ‘cause it was a dump (and why was it a dump, you ask? Probably ‘cause they have car-eating and man-eating roads here). By the time we pulled out of Mango at 8:45am yesterday (much later than planned), the car had already been to the mechanic because it wouldn’t start, had its battery changed, and had a flat tire changed. Oh yeah, and then it still wouldn’t start at first. And when we got gas on our way out of town, it wouldn’t start again. I joked with Pericot, our driver, that we would have to pray the car to Tsiko. Well, I guess someone wasn’t praying hard enough (kidding!) because less than an hour out of town the car started pouring out black smoke. For a second we all thought the car was on fire as Pericot started pulling us out. Well, it wasn’t. But it definitely wasn’t going any further. Wawa.

  By the way, we were stuck on the side of a little two lane road (I say little, but it’s the main highway in Togo!) that’s riddled with enormous potholes out in the middle of nowhere. It’s 100+ degrees (glad it wasn’t their “hot” season yet, or it would have been 130+!). Thankfully, our driver had a cell phone and could call for help. Also thankfully, we had plenty of water. But we spent the next couple hours toasting by the side of the road. I spread out my “pagne” skirt (the traditional African cloth) under a shrimpy little tree and Evelyn and I sat and read books and sang our ABC’s, as we waited for an unknown amount of time and had no real idea of what was happening and what the plan was. And you can imagine the stares we got from the occasional truckers passing by. What, you don’t normally see a white woman and baby camping out in the African bush by the side of the road? Have you ever been in one of those weird situations when there is absolutely nothing you can do to fix it and you can only sit and wait? Yeah, it was one of those. Wawa.

  Well, eventually help arrived in the form of a mechanic to try to get the car to Mango and a driver +taxi to take us the rest of the way. This guy drives crazy fast so we actually make pretty good time, until we get to the mountain pass. It’s blocked by a traffic jam, caused by a semi towing another broken down semi up the mountain at a rate off approximately 0.25mph. Once we finally start moving again, on our way down we pass truck after truck that is turned over, burned out, or just plain not working. I’m telling you – they have car-eating, man-eating roads here. Wawa.

  The rest of our trip was uneventful. We made it back in record time, exhausted and covered in red dirt (no a/c so the windows were down the whole time). Evelyn did amazingly well, a little whiny at times but that was the worst of it. Our only injury was the thorns I stuck my bare foot on while we were sitting on our pagne under our tree (oops). So that was our trip back, and we learned a few lessons. Such as: if/when we move here, a reliable car is a must! Cell phones are pretty useful too…

  On a more serious note though, we are so thankful for God’s protection in an uncertain situation that could have been much worse than it was. Without that, “Wawa” would be more than just a little joke you say when you are trying to roll with the punches! So that is the story of our adventurous trip back – tomorrow I will write more about our actual time in Mango, which was just what we were hoping it would be.