Yikpa-Au Village

At the end of March I made a trip back to my home country Togo after almost seven years in the US. A hot air hit me in the face when I first got off the airplane in Accra and I knew on the spot that I was back home. Although it could have been also because of the air condition on the plane. My uncle and my older brother were there to meet me. We drove to my uncle’s house and had some good Akple with crab sauce there. Then we drove to Lome, Togo going through Keta and other small towns. Lovely scenery! We arrived in Lome where most members of my family were waiting for me in my older brother’s house. They covered me with hugs and baby powder. We were happy to see each other after so long. We couldn’t wipe out the smile off our faces. Then we had a great bowl of fufu. I spent about a week and a half in Lome. While in Lome I visited many people and many people visited me. We went back to the University where I spent 3 long years trying to study in hard conditions.Then we were off to Kpalime where I grew up and went to High school. There were more family and friends to see there. A friend first took me to his brother’s house the night we got to Kpalime. We had a great meal there and enjoyed their company. I was excited to see my nephews and nieces that I haven’t seen before and those that grew up so much that I couldn’t recognize any longer. I really enjoyed their company. Since it was the Holy week, I did attend the stations of the Cross done the Togolese way which I missed a lot while in the US. We went back to my High School. I was happy to see some of my High school teachers. I was really happy to see one of my primary school teachers who came to visit me. He said he just had to see me when he heard I was back. I was honored that he remembered me that well. The we were off to Yikpa my native village (that’s the name of this blog). My friend Jurgen and his family came to pick us up at Adeta and drove us to Yikpa. The landscape is beautiful. We celebrated Easter in Yikpa with a lot of people who also came back for the event as Easter has become a time for the Yikpatos (people from Yikpa) who lived outside of Yikpa to come back home. It was a lot of fun. Easter Monday was the best as we climbed the mountains to go to the beautiful waterfall of Agumatsatodzi. Breathtaking!! We took a shower in the water there and after that I was cold as hell. It was raining before we left the house but we just had to go so we were all wet before we got to the waterfall. But we just had to take a shower in the falling water. Fortunately there were two bonfires made nearby where we went to warm up after. The rest of my trip just went by fast since I had to get to Accra for my flight back to the US. Overall it was incomparable fun and good for my spirit.
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