To market to market, to buy a fat pig....

Well, not exactly to buy a fat pig, but today we went to market.  Each Monday a certain part of Adeta, the town we are closest to, has open market.  Today I went with two other ladies and the kids.  It was my second time braving the market, and the first time with the kids.  The market is hard to describe.  Sensory overload definitely "fits the bill".  Tons of people...small animals in the road...motos...buses and trucks...tarps on the ground covered with anything you can imagine...horns honking, people shouting, engines revving...dust, stinky fish, and sweat lingering in your nose...yup, sensory overload!

Yet, when you stop to look beyond all that, there are the people.  In the crowds of people today, I saw one person I knew!  What a joy to see a familiar face among all the others, to be able to greet Abigail, and remember her name...that was a joy moment.  I look forward to many more moment like these in the future.

The kids...the kids handled the whole adventure so well.  I was proud of them!  Thank you for your prayers for the kids.  They experience culture shock too, but today they were troopers.  Lizzie was tired, and was clearly ready to fall asleep shortly after we arrived.  "This shouldn't be too bad" I thought,  "after all, women carry their babies and small children on their backs everywhere here, why couldn't I?"  I purchased a brightly colored piece of fabric  from the nearest "market mamma" and proceeded to learn how to carry Lizzie on my back, inside the fabric that we wrapped around my waist, like a good Togolese mamma.

What a show!  I felt like such a spectacle (again) as many people stopped what they had been busily doing in order to watch the Yovo (their term for white person) learn how to carry a baby on her back.  Without too much trouble she was secured on my back; hot and sweaty, relaxed and content.  Within minutes, Lizzie was asleep.  Apparently it is obvious to every single Togolese person that once a child falls asleep while on the mamma's back, the mamma must re-wrap the child with the hands and arms secured inside the fabric, around the mamma's waist.  I have to tell you, that at this point, Lizzie and I were beyond hot and sweaty! It seemed obvious to me that she need to have her arms out so that she could be a little cooler.  Well, each time I turned a corner, and there are so many, people were telling me that she was asleep!  I had to put her arms inside. I really needed to put her arms inside.  No really.  After about 15 corners, I finally relented.  I re-wrapped Lizzie, with her arms tucked safely inside the wrap.  She was safe, I was able to walk in peace, the onlookers were content and greatly amused.

So, we made it home with some new fabric, a bag of peanuts, a bunch of bananas, 3 'donuts', some bread from Abigail, and one coconut.  A successful adventure!
We will sleep well tonight.