This is the long road from to and from Kpalime. On our way back to Lome we got a flat on this long and pulled over on the side of the road.
While we were waiting for Mohammed, on the right above, to go get more air in the spare tire….Bruno, the guy seated in the middle above, decided to take a look around. He sees a path off the road into the woods so he ducks be the brush and finds….
this guy Eric, weaving baskets for sale at the market. Bruno calls us all over to come and look, plus it was much cooler under the shade around Eric’s house.
When I walked in and got a look at what Eric was doing I almost cried. The basket he was making was exactly the same basket that my Gullah/Low Country South Carolinian elders and ancestors make. He smiled with pride and told me that perhaps some of my ancestors are from Togo, I smiled and said back to him “Peut Etre” (Perhaps).
Eric was such a quiet, humble soul…I was honored to meet him and tried to explain to him how much of a blessing it was to run into him on the side of the road that. Seeing him do the same thing the same way my elders and ancestors do and have done was such a confirmation for me.
Some people need or want DNA to tell them where they are from, and while I find that interesting and enticing, I think I would much rather follow the culture and find kinship that way.
If we had not gotten a flat tire, i would have never met Eric. Although it was hot and inconvenient, it was a blessing, one I will never forget and a got a chance to me a potential long lost cousin.