I would like for you to meet my friend, D.
D is one of the most passionate people I’ve ever met.
She lives in one of the poorest countries in the world. But she doesn’t look at the corruption and poverty around her and say “This is just how it is.”
No. She looks at all of that and says “This must change.”
And then, she does something about it.
I’ve seen her dig crumpled bills out of her wallet to pay for a little girl’s school fees. Becase D saw that child’s tears, and was moved to action. She can never be content just being sad by something. She is, quite literally, moved by injustice.
When I visited D‘s country, her smile was the thing that helped me get through the day. It was the thing that pulled me out of the door of the hotel without the aid of coffee. It gave me a burst of energy as we trudged through hot, dusty streets. And it was the thing that helped me keep moving when I felt so burdened, so overwhelmed by poverty that I just wanted to lay down and quit trying.
Because she sees this stuff every day.
Yet, she still smiles.
I only got to spend a week with D. But she changed my life.
The day I left, she stood with me at the airport. She smiled, and hugged me.
She told me she already missed me.
And I cried. I cried because I knew it was unlikely that I’d ever see her again. Even writing this post, my stomach hurts. Because I miss her.
I miss her smile.
I miss her passion.
But I will always carry a piece of her in my heart.
My heart that will never be the same.
Because of D.
Oh, I loved reading about D! Did you know that she’s actually not from Togo, but is Ghanaian? One thing I remember about her is that she was so excited, while in the Springs, to buy her kids a Spiderman and Dora the Explorer lunchbox. Not because that’s so interesting in and of itself, but it shows that she’s just an ordinary woman taking care of two kids who care about what type of lunch bag they bring to school, and yet she is also this other woman–so hands on in this other completely different world.