Posting less than a month after my last? Who am I???

Core value honesty, my phone has alerted me that I’m low on storage and I need to rid myself of some of the photos on my phone, so why not share pictures from my trip back to America?

I have to say, I was very nervous to go back stateside. I had honestly just gotten in the groove of doing whatever it is I do every day, and was worried that returning back to comfort meant that it would be 1000x harder to return back to Lomé. We returned *technically* for a wedding, but really turned the trip into a shopping haul for all things that we missed and wanted for our home in Africa. We took two large check-in bags, two carry-on rollers, ultimately fitting most of what we needed inside our “personal items”. Every other bag was completely empty in order to stock up on some things we knew wouldn’t ship through the mail to us! *I’m looking at you Franks Red Hot Sauce* And what a trip it was!

Okay honestly, I don’t know what is happening with the iPhone picture quality these days after editing (Even just cropping the photo) but it is driving me NUTS.

Liquid IV, Curtains, Beeswax wrap, a kitchen scale, Sour Patch Kids, kosher salt, heavy cream, onion powder, animal treats, canned pumpkin, “pop tarts”, paint, decor, and buffalo sauce to last us awhile. And it came in at exactly 100lbs between our checked luggage.

What it’s like to leave Lomé:

At the time (guidance for entering America has since been updated), we needed a Covid test no earlier than 3 days before our flight. Our flight was Tuesday afternoon, so we went Sunday morning to the airport where they do the testing. Here, they test in the throat! It’s definitely a different experience than all of 2020 and most of 2021 in America getting tested through the nose, but once you’ve gotten used to a particular way of testing, a new one can throw you for a loop!

We got to the airport two and a half hours early, since neither of us really knew what to expect. Our flight was on Ethiopian Airlines, direct from Lomé to Newark, a whopping 12 hours in the air. Just a reminder, I HATE flying….nevertheless, 12 hours later, we landed in Newark, and had a two hour layover between our flight from Newark to Richmond, Virginia. Getting through customs was interesting…Online it said that we needed proof of vaccination, but the customs officer just asked for our passports. A five minute conversation about what we were doing in West Africa, and we were on our way! We collected our bags (which were definitely still empty) and rechecked them into United making a stop for a sub sandwich and a Pepsi!

Okay, I wrote “Pop” but realized that it’s very midwestern of me, and wrote “Soda” and then realized that it’s so uncomfortable to write that…so then obviously wrote “Pepsi” but then realized that the south says “Coke” and here I am, now asking you what word you use to describe refillable, carbonated beverages… ***also, those don’t exist here in Togo***

By the time we landed in Richmond and got to our Airbnb, it was 5am in Togo, and we were TIRED. We needed to be up by 9am EST for our Covid boosters, so we were hoping that our jet lag wouldn’t be too bad…but…. we were up and ready by 6am EST, so some Starbucks it was! And then it was 8am before we knew it, so we did the only natural thing when no one else is really awake, and went to Target.

And honestly, it was weirder than I had imagined.

H even started to get a headache from all the bright lights. I got both over and underwhelmed at everything inside, it was like we almost had never left, although at the time it had been 4 months since we stepped foot into a Target or any real developed place. We went to so many places over the two days that were really free for us before the wedding, and it included Ikea, Trader Joes, Costco (like 3 times), Target (again), the mall for last minute wedding clothes. Speaking of which, I’d like to elaborate on this point about the clothes because at the time our belongings had yet to arrive to Lomé which included jackets, some cold weather clothes, and my more formal dresses. So ultimately I had to order items online to get to me, which take in addition to the time it takes the company to ship it, then it get to where our mail comes from, roughly two weeks to get to us in Lomé. I misread the size chart for a dress, and it was way too long for my 5′ tall frame, so I tried to have it hemmed, but lost in translation and metric vs imperial, it got cut to a mini dress, and so I needed to run by Madewell and Anthropologie to try and find something last minute. Oh the trials of living abroad!

We tried to get as many comforts of familiar food as we could, and still missed so many.

Ultimately, the whole trip was a really weird sensation of being so close to being “home,” but so far away from family or a city that either of us were really familiar with. It wasn’t Chicago, Atlanta, Memphis, DC, or anywhere else that we love to be, particularly with family.

I would’ve loved to have packed them in our suitcases and bring them back with us, but I guess virtual communication will have to do.

So instead, we (really me) enjoyed the chilly autumn weather and did our best to enjoy Richmond.

Here are the photos I took of our trip!

If you’re curious about my last meal:

Queso and chips, Panda Express, and my beloved Jarritos, just a mess of airport food that I cannot get in Africa.

But probably the happiest camper, was none other than Stitch, who is pretty boozy for a dog and loves his loot from our trip.

I hope everyone is out there staying safe and hopefully found some sort of joy during the holiday.

I have home content lined up for 2022, as the “Vid” as I call it, is ramping up here. I’d love to get a sense of what you’d like to see, or how you’re holding up in general. Send a message, we’ll get through this.

Happy New Year, and I’ll check back in 2022 🙂

Best,

Carrie