Togo Memory #4: Exercise and Friendship Walks

Over the years I have walked  between 6 and 7:30 am at a fast pace with my little hand weights  2 to 3 times a week.  There have been seasons that have kept me from my walking, but overall its been a habit for exercise, stress relief, time with friends, and personal worship that I will always treasure.  There have been seasons where I’ve walked by myself with headphones in my ears and praising God, or spending time in silent prayer.  But the greater part of my walking times have been with friends.  I walked for a few years on Monday mornings with Jane and sometimes Tracey or other teachers that might join us near Jane’s house.  I walked “my path” which wound back by the river and over through to the Borne Fonden road and then circled back around to our old house (and now I just cut back down to where our “new house” is) with many friends through the years:  Tracey, Christy Dolinger, Regan Peek, Rachel Phillips,  different girl interns, and this year with Bethany Cannon.  Many good conversations, hearing God’s truth spoken to me, and speaking it to others.

Rainy season walks have been full of jumping over mud puddles, pushing aside over-grown cornstalks and swatting at bugs.  Dry season walks have included walking with material over our mouths when the dust was really bad, wearing sweat bands during really hot and sweaty years, and even starting out walks with sweatshirts during December and January because of the cool mornings.  Always there are the challenges of avoiding feces, (usually animal but sometimes human), avoiding too long of a stare at the men who walk out onto the road in the mornings with their bath towels around their waists to relieve themselves on the road, dodging goats along the path by the rocks, and moving quickly out of the way of on-coming motorcycles or bicycles.   I enjoy the smell of bean cakes (kakayesi) frying  along the road, greeting some of the elderly people that I’ve seen for years along my route, and the view of the mountains behind SIL that I see when I turn left off the river path and start up the gentle hill on the wider road.  During the rainy season when there’s a lot of humidity in the air the mountains sometimes appear like a holograph, zooming in and out before my eyes in the distance.  They’re surreal and beautiful.

I will miss my morning walks along familiar paths where I have witnessed God’s beauty about me and in the friends I have walked with.  Early morning walks have been just another one of the many graces He has showered upon me during the past 10 years in Togo.

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