I had been looking forward to my lecture trip to Lomé, Togo, for months. Now, finally belted into my Air France seat and on my way to Africa for the very first time, I wasn’t feeling well at all. I hadn’t slept much the night before and was dealing with general flu symptoms, so I tried to take a good nap as the plane took off.
Although I wore my noise-blocking headset for the next few hours, my sleep was frequently interrupted by the muffled sounds of conversation around me. I don’t think I have ever been on a flight with so many happy people. The plane was full of Togolese, all of whom seemed to know one another and were returning home for the Christmas holidays, talking, laughing, and passing plump, contented babies around from seat to seat. The man sitting next to me appeared to be somewhat of a celebrity. Many of the passengers recognized him and stopped by to chat. In between their conversations I noticed my seatmate intently reading from the books of Psalms and Proverbs, and from the New Testament.
A few hours into the Paris-Lomé flight, I still felt poorly. I pulled off my headset for the first time since the flight began in order to engage a bit with what was going on around me. Before the earphones ever touched my lap, my seatmate asked, “Is this your first visit to Togo?” And the conversation began.
