Valentine's Day

My friend, who I call my small brother, invited me to his Valentine’s Day lunch with his Togolese friends. He prepared La Pot and soup/sauce. I have fed Theiry many many times over the past few months. He is this young guy about 20 years old, I would guess, who is from a village and he speaks English (small small). Theiry is also a soccer player and plays in Ghana on a team and here in Togo in the off season. I think he plays almost every day. He always has a smile on his face and he has a big heart. It is always fun to be around him. As a side note he checked on me almost every day when I was so sick for January and part of February. He has been a really nice friend to have around.

I brought Fanta to his lunch and he loved it. In Togo you never bring anything when you go to someone’s house. The host is expected to feed you and offer you drinks and anything else they have or even go and buy for you. Holidays can be killer for poor people.

At the beginning of lunch they asked me to pray. I was honored and so it was clearly a special day more than just being the day of love. Most of the people at the table hadn’t spoken to a white person, let alone ate La Pot with one. There were many comments and lots of laughing at the beginning of the meal. Seven of us sat around the smallest table dipping our fingers into the acumay and then into the sauce and then into our mouths. I know that this is a major violation of cleanliness codes in America, but talk about living in community. I loved every moment of it! I will confess that the acumay was especially hot this afternoon and burned my finger tips to the point of barely being able to touch the food without saying “ooo hot hot hot” and laughing. Theiry, my small brother, was so kind to make small balls of acumay and set them on the side of the dish for me to have so they wouldn’t be as hot. This is after he had blown on his own hands and licked his own fingers. I was grateful and ate well because of his thoughtfulness. We had a great time. After the dishes had been scraped clean and refilled again I was presented with some of the large chunks of the dried fish. Again the thoughtfulness was so sweet and I ate up. Throughout the entire meal I was happy we all prayed before we ate. I know this is the reason I don’t get sick when I eat with my Togolese friends.

After the meal was over Thiery and his friends began singing and clapping and it was beautiful. Talk about rejoicing after eating a good meal and being with friends. It was hysterical when he put my name into an Eway song and everyone joined in. Apparently it was a borderline love song but basically he sang Nina is the girl I will always remember. I not only took pictures but I have a few videos of them singing. I later showed him and told him that he has his own music video like on T.V. He loved it.

By far this was the best Valentine’s Day I have ever had.