An Amazing Woman!

Me and Yvette

When God placed me and my family in Togo, I knew He would bring some amazing people into my life, and I could not wait to meet them. One of these very special people is a lady named Yvette. If you ever hear me talk about my life in Togo, her name will come up several times in the conversation.

She has a very sad and happy story at the same time. She is a mom of four children and has been raising them for over 13 years all on her own since her husband had abandoned her. Before my family and I arrived in Togo she lived in one small room with three, and sometimes four, of her children. Here in this culture, that’s not too terribly bad; many people do this, but this room was so tiny. She was selling food on the streets to keep her children in school and feed them. She was poor—very, very poor. I was told all of this by another missionary before I met her. The missionary friend told me she thought Yvette would be really good for our family to help out in the house, so I agreed to meet her and talk with her.

When I met her I asked her a few questions but I really felt pressed to ask her how she was doing. Now, I know her past and what she had gone through and what she was currently going through. But despite all of the hardships, after I asked her this question, she put her hands up in the air and said, “I am blessed!  God has blessed me in so many ways.” I knew at that moment that she would be a part of our family. She started helping us in our house immediately, and our friendship started growing.

She has been one of the most caring, giving, loving, and godly women I know here in Africa. Yes, she is human and I know she can do wrong just like me, but I am so thankful that God has placed Yvette in our lives. She has become like another mom to my children; she loves them, cares about them, and prays for them all the time. She is 100% behind us in everything and loves to hear about what God is doing in the villages. Her love and passion for Christ is amazing and I am so encouraged and blessed by her.

I am so thankful Yvette is part of our family and we are apart of hers. As a matter of fact, David, Joshua's best friend here in Togo, is her son. So you could really say we are family.

Many people have asked what she does around the house for me. She mainly does a lot of the time-consuming jobs that I am not able to do because I’m busy  homeschooling and cooking every meal from scratch. We tag team and work a lot together cooking, baking, and cleaning. It gives us ample time to gab and share praises and encourage one another.

I am so thankful for this beautiful lady that God has brought into our lives.

Using five-senses to experience Togo

If I were to describe Togo to you all, it would take quite a while. I wish I could sit down with each of you who is reading this with a cup of coffee and explain everything I see and smell and taste here in Togo. But since I can't, I decided I would try to write for you a five-senses experience of Togo.

Togo is a place where your senses will go wild. I love some of the sounds here in Togo; the sound of someone sweeping around their house, a person pouring corn from one metal basin to another, the sound of the wind blowing through palm trees, children playing soccer outside our gate, children speaking in another language and playing or singing. These are some of my favorite sounds. 

Now smells are another story. I will let you in on a little secret, I am called a "hound dog" by my oldest son, because I have a nose that can smell everything. So where do I start? There are not many smells I like here. Walking through the market is not great for smells, and during parts of the year people burn their fields so there is a lot of yucky smelling smoke coming through the windows. Oh, and my favorite--one day I smelled this horrible smell; I could not figure out where it was coming from until I went outside our gate and I found out what it was. Some guys down the street had killed an animal, and were burning the fur off of it. Oh, the smell was horrible! I later discovered it was a poor cat! But one smell that I do love is a flower that blooms on a tree in our yard which smells like honeysuckle.

There are a few things I love to touch here, my favorite being little children's heads. Baby heads are always so fluffy and soft. I also like to feel material. I love soft things so I am always trying to find some soft material. I also love to hold babies, they always smell nice and are so sweet.

Now for my favorite sense--sight. There are so many wonderful things to see in Togo if you are looking. Togo is not a gorgeous place to live, but it has some nice hills and some great trees. But, the best thing I get to see are the faces, each one unique, each one made by God. Another thing I see beauty in is the cloth all around me. I love all the bright, colorful designs that people often wear.

I would like to paint for you an imaginary picture of what you would see as you walk or drive down the street. Motorcycles are what you see majority of the time, but you will also see women walking while carrying a heavy basin of tomatoes on her head, along with a baby strapped to her back, sleeping soundly amidst all of the noise. Often you will see a woman carrying on her head a large basin of water. I cannot begin to tell you how heavy these are. You will see many people walking; often you will see large amounts of children all dressed the alike coming home from school. People, always people, walking or riding a bike or a motorcycle. Also, the market is a great place to see some amazing things--so many colors and textures.

Taste. Hmmm, let me see, Togo is not really known for its amazing food, although my oldest son would disagree with me on this point. He loves African food. We do have amazing pineapples, mangos, papaya, avocados, and bananas.

There are several different drinks here that I really enjoy, one being Sport Actif (active sport). It is a wonderful citrus drink with no sugar, perfect after a long, hot day. Another drink is called Pamplemousse (grapefruit), which is a sweetened, grapefruit soda. You can always count on seeing pulp at the bottom of the bottle, yumm. Here the Togolese street vendors make a lot of snacks that are fried-bread-like things. One of them we love is a slightly sweetened bread ball called "botoquin."
Another thing I love is plantain chips, crunchy and delicious.

Okay, this will make you laugh. We have ice cream, yes, ice cream, but it's in a small, rectangular, plastic bag. You squeeze it out in your mouth when you eat it. :) There are people who ride around on bikes with coolers attached to them, ringing a bell, and you can buy an ice cream in a bag when ever you want!

Okay, now for the healthy stuff. I can get all kinds of fruits and vegetables here, although it is probably easier to tell you what I can't get here. Somethings I can't get here are broccoli, good cauliflower, and celery. Okay, we can get celery, but they are so tiny, like when you get to the middle of the head of your celery and find those tiny stalks...those are what we have. We get all of your leftovers! :-) It's not great, but you can use it if you need it for soups or stews. I just have a hard time getting peanut butter and raisins to stay on it. :-) We have everything we need here and we are blessed, and so thankful we can eat veggies and wonderful fruits here year-round.

Well, that about sums up experiencing Togo through your senses. I hope you have enjoyed seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and tasting Togo.

I am back!

We are back in Togo, and I have been inspired by my grandmother to continue writing on my blog. So, I will do my best to show you Africa, and the way I live my life through my eyes.
This picture is of me and a good friend from the market, her name is Agara. She is a muslim lady who I have become friends with, she lost her husband a few years ago to diabetes, but she always has a smile on her face and loves to talk about her children. Every time we see each other she hugs me and she shakes my hand. I am blessed to have her as a friend, and I pray that she will see Jesus in me.