I hope this finds you feeling
happy and
blessed as
this beautiful new year settles in! I know I sure do, considering I had many
amazing experiences in 2012. Recently, I finally got around to printing the
nearly 600 photos I took during my time in Africa last summer. I could not help
but smile and relive the memories as I flipped through the photos of joyful
children. Seeing the photos and knowing this was an experience that would not
have been possible without
YOU
inspired me to document my experience.
The
adventure began in New York. We spent about 2 days at retreat house in Staten
Island preparing for our mission and getting to know each other a little better
before leaving for Togo, Africa. We
took-off energized and anxious for our nearly 14 hour plane ride to Lome, Togo,
with a quick layover in Paris. We arrived exhausted, but so anxious that it
didn’t matter. After we got our luggage, we met up with Fr. William Ryan, a
priest from Arlington, Virginia who has been serving the people in Togo for the
past 6 years, and whom we stayed with during our time in Africa. Fr. Ryan
brought with him about 5 very excited Africans from the village we were headed
to. They were so eager to help us with our luggage and very adamant about not
letting us carry anything – Gentlemen to say the least!
Since
it was nearly midnight when we arrived, we spent the first night at a
convent/retreat house in Lome (the capitol of Togo). We slept two to a room,
which consisted of a simple bed and mattress with mosquito nets, a shower,
which was basically a spigot in the wall, and a sink. I remember not sleeping
at all that night because of a mixture of being excited to be there, and from
the ticking fan on the ceiling (Yes! There was electricity). The plan was to wake up at 6 the next
morning, go to mass, then breakfast, then hit the road! The village we would be
spending the next month at was about a two hour drive away on a dirt road, far
in both distance and in similarity from the “city” where we had just spent the
night.
After
packing up the Mercedes (Ha! We spent the entire month traveling from village
to village sitting on rice bags in the bed of a giant military sized Mercedes with
a white canopy as a roof) we began our bumpy, dusty journey to the village of
Atchanve (aht-chon-vay), totally underestimating the excitement that was about
to occur.
On
the nearly two hour drive to Atchanve we stopped at a few villages along the way
because EVERYONE had heard about our
coming and had prepared some sort of welcome ceremony, whether it was dancing,
singing, or gift giving (usually mangos, bananas, coconuts, and occasionally a
chicken!)
If the dozens of
children running out of the fields and chasing after us didn’t give it away, or
the loud chanting of people ahead of us, maybe it was the large crowd of
singing and dancing Africans that made it clear; we were home! Little did we know, the next hour or so following our
arrival may have been one of the most
exciting moments of our lives. I have never felt so much love and excitement in all my life. We
were swarmed with hundreds of people all trying to hold our hands, our pants
pockets, our sleeves…basically anything they could get a hold of! People were
throwing confetti and flowers, singing, and dancing as they paraded us through
the village to the rectory. There was a welcoming ceremony complete with
dancing, speeches, and drinks (Fanta and then mint syrup diluted in water). As a group, I cannot imagine a scenario in
which we would have felt more welcome! Women were handing us their babies to
hold and people were pulling us in to dance with them. Everyone wanted to shake
our hands and let us know how thrilled they were that we were there. We were
the first group of Yovo’s (white people!) to have ever been to
their village! Besides Fr. Ryan, we were the first white people some of the
villagers had ever seen…crazy,
right?!
After
the overwhelming welcome, we were
shown to our accommodations, the rectory for the men, and the convent for the
women. Both buildings were completed
within the past 6 years by Fr. Ryan, and are surprisingly American! We had bathrooms, showers, and beds, and were
all surprised by the comforts
available to us. The
food was likewise a surprise, as we had many different soups, stews, and
breads, and enjoyed them all.
After settling into
our rooms, we were given a tour of Atchanvé, and got to see all of the works
Fr. Ryan has been working on in the past 6 years. We saw the water tower Fr. Ryan had built
with money from donations, providing clean water for several villages, which
also happens to be the largest water tower in all of Togo. This allowed for us
to drink the water in the village without any risks of getting sick…a relief to
say the least! We also toured the bakery, palm oil plant productions, solar
panels, and schools. The work Fr. Ryan
has done here to improve their quality
of life and provide economic opportunities for the villagers are amazing.
All of which have been made possible by people like YOU who have donated and prayed and simply wanted to help.
We
learned quickly that walking solo through the village was simply impossible due
to the overwhelmingly (in a good way) amounts of children who would swarm us,
grab our hands, and literally climb up us! How exhilarating it was to provide overwhelming amounts of excitement
to the children just for being there! We couldn’t help but feel a little
famous.
The
first weekend there, we took an overnight trip into the mountains several hours
north, to visit a German Priest who has been in Togo for 37 years. He showed us churches in the area, took us to
a nearby Benedictine monastery, and took us up the mountain for spectacular
views of the Togo and Ghanaian country sides.
It was a great trip, and allowed us to see a good deal of the country
and hear some great stories.
On Sunday, we attended Mass in a chapel in Atchanve. It was quite the celebration, lasting nearly three hours, complete with plenty of singing and dancing. There was an additional party and celebration after Mass, where we were able to join in and learn some of their dances. It started off with us joining them in a circle and watching them share cultural dances in the center, but quickly lead to them pulling us in and making us attempt at imitating their dances in front of everyone….slightly embarrassing but incredible amounts of fun! We learned not to judge or make fun of each other’s dancing abilities because we knew that our time to shine would soon come and that we would look just as silly!
At
this point in our journey, Atchanve was truly becoming home to us. We followed
the routine every morning of getting up around 6:30 am, attending mass, then
breakfast, and then a holy hour in the chapel before starting whatever work was
to be done
that day in the village. Each day it was something different. Some days we
helped fix roads in Atchanve by loading up the big truck with rocks we
collected by hand a little ways from the village and dumping them in the holes.
We also helped clear space for where they are planning to build latrines and
another space for where they plan on building a market place where they can
sell and trade hand-made and home grown goods with other villages.
Clearing
the space for a market was a fun experience because we used machetes to chop
away at a highly vegetated area. The Africans found this hilarious because we
were not nearly as efficient as they were at accomplishing this task. At no
point during the mission did we do any physical labor FOR the Africans alone,
but instead, we would do labor WITH the Africans, always working alongside
them. Multiple times, they proved their
incredible sense of community and working together to accomplish tasks. Their
culture is extremely driven
to work together as a team and creating efficiency, while it seems that our
culture tends to be more focused on individualism with
a “my-way-or-the-highway” mindset.
An
unexpected event that quickly became a usual occurrence was what I can only
describe as the Yovo Travelling Circus. Every couple of years, Fr. Ryan uses
some of the donated money to buy a “splurge item” for fun in the village. The
first year he bought a popcorn machine. This was a big hit for the Africans, as
they had never seen anything like it. The next year he bought an inflatable
screen and a projector to have the occasional movie night in the village. His
most recent splurge item was a…..wait for it….bounce house!
Oh the excitement!
There are simply no words! Part of our mission became to travel around to the
neighboring villages and share these luxuries with them. As if a group of 15
white people in a giant truck wasn’t a big enough scene in itself! When we
would do this, we would start the event
by playing a game of soccer against their village’s team. We learned quickly
not only how seriously they take their soccer games, but also how extremely
talented of soccer players they are! It was a joke how much skill they had on
us. It definitely made for a fun game! After the soccer game we would set up
the bounce house and the popcorn machine. The children lined up, we let about
eight kids jump at a time, and then gave them a handful of popcorn after their
bouncy experience. The first group to jump was always the most entertaining to
watch because at first they were not really sure what to do…and then they’d go
wild! At the end of the night, we would set up the projector and screen and
show part of the movie “Jesus of Nazareth”. We would stop the movie about half
way through and a couple of us would share with the village our personal
testimonies (with the help of a translator) and the importance of having a
relationship with our Savior! Every village we visited never failed to provide
us with a warm welcome and leave us with incredible memories.
The
most memorable visit to one of the villages was when we went to a village that
has never been introduced to Christianity and
is active in pagan traditions. One of the huts in their village was a shrine full of statues
of their pagan gods where they would pray and make offerings. We visited on a
rainy day to celebrate Mass and teach them about Christianity. We knew God’s hand was at work when their pagan shrine collapsed seconds before
Mass began. First of all, their huts aren’t flimsy, little buildings. They are
sturdy, solid structures made to last years. What are the chances of one, which
happened to be a pagan shrine, collapsing when Christians were visiting the
village for the first time, moments before Celebrating Mass and distributing
the Holy Eucharist?!?! Call it a coincidence or maybe just crazy timing if you
must, but I know that it was certainly an act of God!
Other
regular things that we spent our time doing was putting on skits to teach the
children about the Faith, helping to clear land for latrines at the local
Catholic school, helping clear the graveyard of overgrowth during the weekly
town cleanup, hauling more gravel to repair the road leading to the convent, and
helping the Sisters and Fr. Ryan sort through donations and supplies at the
convent and rectory. We would also organize soccer games with the smaller
children, and attempt at learning how to speak words, prayers, and phrases in
Ewe (ay-vay), the native language they mostly commonly speak. We visited the
sick and brought them Holy Communion, witnessed the baptism of many children, helped
the villagers harvest casaba and tiger nuts in the fields, and perhaps one of
my favorite things, said rosaries in the chapel with the children in three
different languages! We would say the first decade in English, and then they
would say one in French, and then one in
Ewe. It was beautiful to hear so many little voices saying the same thing we
were, only in a different language.
Speaking
of language, we thought this was going to be a huge barrier while we were
there. Although two people in our group could speak fluent French, we had no
idea how we were going to be able to teach them about God’s love if they couldn’t
understand us. Quite possibly one of the most amazing things about the trip was
realizing the truth behind the phrase (supposedly said by St. Francis of
Assisi) “Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words”. We were
amazed at how little of conversation needed to occur in order for us to share
God’s love. And of course this is true!
God's Love in UNIVERSAL!
Packing up and leaving Atchanve was difficult knowing that I
will most likely never see the people I met ever again. As we drove away, the
children and adults were running after us and waving. One little boy whom I had
spent a great deal of time with actually decided to stay in his home instead of
saying goodbye because he was mad that we were leaving! I don’t know if we left
a greater impact on them or them on us, regardless, I will always remember and
pray for the people in Atchanve.
And
I will say again and probably not that last time, THANK YOU! Know that I am
constantly praying for YOU as well. Please continue in your generous ways and
never underestimate the POWER of God’s LOVE! Don’t get caught up in the
business of this first world country. Rejoice in simplicity and realize that
the only thing you NEED is God’s never-ending love. The people in the tiny
villages of Africa literally own no material goods, but they are the most joyful, appreciative, and giving people I have ever met. Free yourself of dependency on material goods and become only dependent on Christ and the sacraments!
May the Love of Christ always be with you and overflow onto
others!
