Africa. I wasn’t ready to leave. Yes, the heat, the sweat, the mosquitoes, and the illnesses certainly did not make April, May, and June the most comfortable of months, but all the same, I loved my time in Africa. When I boarded a plane on the 4th of July to take me out of Africa and into Europe, I felt like crying. Yes, coming to Europe was exciting, but I wasn’t ready to leave Africa, a place I’d fallen in love with, a place that was starting to feel like home. What made Africa special? Well, here are 10 things I love about West Africa:
1. Every Sunday morning, church is a celebration. Y’all, Africans really know how to worship! Sunday mornings are full of joy in the Lord, manifested through singing and dancing. What a privilege it was to get to join in these celebrations!
2. The people are very willing to talk about spiritual matters, even if they disagree with you. For the first time in my life I felt free to tell people about how awesome Jesus is! If people disagreed with me, that was fine, I explained what I believed, and why, and listened while they did the same. Religion wasn’t a taboo subject, and I loved getting to discuss God with all sorts of different people.
My team with Shake, a Muslim man we enjoyed talking with one morning.
3. The people we met were very hospitable and excited that we had chosen to visit their homeland. They felt honored that we had chosen to come to them. We were honored to get to know these people and experience a little of their culture.
4. The kids were lots of fun to watch as they ran around in the neighborhoods playing with each other. What was more fun? Getting to play games with those kids myself!
5. While I’m on the subject of children, let me tell you about the babies. Mothers in west Africa tie their babies to their backs with a piece of fabric so that the child just rides along while the mother goes about her daily activities. This was such a sweet sight to see! Even sweeter for me though? Most of the mothers were quite willing to hand over their babies for me to hold while we talked about life and Jesus.
6. Life was much less saturated with technology in West Africa than it is in America. People sat and talked with their neighbors instead of staring at their phones all of the time. Kids played outside instead of being absorbed in screens. It was a beautiful thing to see and be a part of for three months.
7. There were goats everywhere! I miss my dairy goats at home, so it was really great to see goats running around every single day.
The very first goat I saw in Africa: He rode on top of the bus with our packs in Cote d’Ivoire!
8. African clothing is so much fun! Bright colors, bold patterns, and unique designs. The styles were unlike any clothes I’d seen before and I really admired them.
A page from an African fashion magazine. These dresses are very similar to what most women wore to church on Sunday mornings. The men also wore fabulously colorful shirts!
9. Seamstress shops were common place. Most people have their clothes custom made by a local dressmaker. So you can find several small dressmaker’s shops in every community. I enjoyed stopping to watch these people work, though doing so often left me missing my sewing machine at home.
10. Fabric! As a seamstress, I may have a slight obsession with fabric, and West Africa had plenty to offer there. Fabric shops stuffed full of fabulous prints. Vendors walking the streets balancing tall stacks of block-printed cottons on their heads. I left the continent with at least 15 yards of new material, and a pack that weighed a little too much because of it!
So there you have it, all these things, and many more. Some fun, some more serious, it all goes together, making West Africa a joy to visit and a hard place to leave!
