Thankful
I have so much to be thankful for as I reflect on this past year. I am so grateful for the support system that has been cheering me on since I first started this journey in Togo. I am thankful for the Grace Episcopal Church community, the Hinsdale community, the teacher community from my high school and my family and friends that continue to follow this blog and so readily and happily donated to the grant project I am undertaking. Thank you for your endless emotional and material support. And as much as I am thankful for my cheerleaders back home, I am ever grateful for many of the gifts I have received here in Togo. The following are a few things that have brought me happiness in Togo:
1. The best friend: Christine
Christine is only a few years older than me. She is married with one child and works as a tailor when she isn’t working on her farm. She is my best friend here in Togo, and her son, Eli, at just two years old is--as the community claims and teases--my husband. Christine was reluctant to get to know me based on previous experiences with Peace Corps volunteers, which is why I am so thankful that she allowed me into her heart. We have connected to be more than just acquaintances. We cook together, laugh together, travel together and even farm together. She and Eli are the reasons that make leaving the village difficult. There is no better feeling than being welcomed back to village than seeing the pure joy and surprise on her face that I have returned from a long trip. In her experience many people don’t return after leaving the village. The day will come when I won’t return, and I am thankful that today is not that day yet, so I have many more days to pass with Christine.
1. The best friend: Christine
Christine is only a few years older than me. She is married with one child and works as a tailor when she isn’t working on her farm. She is my best friend here in Togo, and her son, Eli, at just two years old is--as the community claims and teases--my husband. Christine was reluctant to get to know me based on previous experiences with Peace Corps volunteers, which is why I am so thankful that she allowed me into her heart. We have connected to be more than just acquaintances. We cook together, laugh together, travel together and even farm together. She and Eli are the reasons that make leaving the village difficult. There is no better feeling than being welcomed back to village than seeing the pure joy and surprise on her face that I have returned from a long trip. In her experience many people don’t return after leaving the village. The day will come when I won’t return, and I am thankful that today is not that day yet, so I have many more days to pass with Christine.
Christine
Eli
2. The clinic nurse: Dodji
Dodji is a certified government nurse which is the highest level clinic staff can hold when working at a base-level, small clinic. Dodji is married to three women, and Christine is the third. He has four kids, with Eli being the youngest. I feel so lucky to have Dodji as my main work partner. He is my biggest advocate in the community because of his stature as head nurse and his identity as a male. Everyday he is still just as excited and motivated to work with me even though I, as an American, bring cultural and language challenges that require a lot of patience on his behalf. He has been invaluable to me, especially with regards to my work with the community health workers, relentlessly editing my French, sharing new ideas, alleviating challenges, and creating a relationship and workforce that I look forward to every single day. Dodji, I so appreciate your passion to work with me and I am inspired by your work ethic and respect for patients.
2. The clinic nurse: Dodji
Dodji is a certified government nurse which is the highest level clinic staff can hold when working at a base-level, small clinic. Dodji is married to three women, and Christine is the third. He has four kids, with Eli being the youngest. I feel so lucky to have Dodji as my main work partner. He is my biggest advocate in the community because of his stature as head nurse and his identity as a male. Everyday he is still just as excited and motivated to work with me even though I, as an American, bring cultural and language challenges that require a lot of patience on his behalf. He has been invaluable to me, especially with regards to my work with the community health workers, relentlessly editing my French, sharing new ideas, alleviating challenges, and creating a relationship and workforce that I look forward to every single day. Dodji, I so appreciate your passion to work with me and I am inspired by your work ethic and respect for patients.
Dodji
3. The small community that has so effortlessly and unwaveringly welcomed me
I live in a village that is so rural that its name is not recognized on any Google map. I enjoy a small community which hosts about only 1,500 members, a significant decrease from the 18,000 that live in my hometown in the Chicago suburbs. I have come to love this tiny, terrific, Togolese village. I enjoy knowing almost everyone and being known by almost everyone in the community. I am so grateful to have a community which is a magnet pulling me further into it and keeping me from wanting to leave, especially in a country where travel and transportation are my least favorite activities. As a young woman, I am thankful to have a place where I feel safe. I am thankful for this second home away from home.
4. The ever-dreaded and now fully-embraced bucket shower
The bucket shower. The thing that functions just as it sounds--a means of showering by rinsing water over your body with a smaller bucket while the water is held in a larger bucket; a shower that requires more work than just turning a knob and adjusting the temperature; a shower where you have to draw your own water and then force that same cold well water over your body in a climate where sometimes you sweat just from the act of actually showering. I bless my bucket shower, and for that, I am quoting a “Bucket shower blessing” that was written by another volunteer in Togo, Allison Marshall:
But most of all, I am grateful for all of the gifts I have received in a place where there is little to be had and even less to give.
3. The small community that has so effortlessly and unwaveringly welcomed me
I live in a village that is so rural that its name is not recognized on any Google map. I enjoy a small community which hosts about only 1,500 members, a significant decrease from the 18,000 that live in my hometown in the Chicago suburbs. I have come to love this tiny, terrific, Togolese village. I enjoy knowing almost everyone and being known by almost everyone in the community. I am so grateful to have a community which is a magnet pulling me further into it and keeping me from wanting to leave, especially in a country where travel and transportation are my least favorite activities. As a young woman, I am thankful to have a place where I feel safe. I am thankful for this second home away from home.
4. The ever-dreaded and now fully-embraced bucket shower
The bucket shower. The thing that functions just as it sounds--a means of showering by rinsing water over your body with a smaller bucket while the water is held in a larger bucket; a shower that requires more work than just turning a knob and adjusting the temperature; a shower where you have to draw your own water and then force that same cold well water over your body in a climate where sometimes you sweat just from the act of actually showering. I bless my bucket shower, and for that, I am quoting a “Bucket shower blessing” that was written by another volunteer in Togo, Allison Marshall:
“May your bucket showers be a physical cleanse that goes deep into your soul. May your soap be an effervescent eraser of the day’s stress. Let the mosquitoes, spiders, and lizards watching your defenseless body act as cheerleaders for your impending battles. As you watch the grime slide from your legs, be assured that a new tomorrow will come. Pour that water, my friend. Rinse. Release.”The bucket shower gives me that one sense of cleanliness each day where I am constantly surrounded by dirt. I am stinky, and I am just downright dirty. I appreciate my open-air and outdoor bucket shower which allows me to welcome the blue skies in the morning and gaze in awe at the stars at night all while showering.
But most of all, I am grateful for all of the gifts I have received in a place where there is little to be had and even less to give.
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