“He Loves Me”

As this is a brand new blog about my time in Africa, I thought it only fitting to start with the very reason why I am here; my husband, Elom.

I met Elom just over a year ago, when I travelled to Ghana on holiday with two friends. It was my first trip to Africa and though I was a little sceptical, when I got to the “mother land” I had a blast!

My good friend Rosie has a huge family, who hosted us throughout the entire duration of our 11-day trip. Her family is amazing…and huge! She has many first cousins – one of which is Elom – meaning “He loves me”.

Elom travelled down from Togo to spend time with us and his cousins whilst we were in Ghana. When I first saw him I thought he was cute, but nothing more than that. I had not come to Africa to look for a man and to be honest never ever in my wildest dreams would I have thought of marrying a native African!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, towards the end of the trip, Elom revealed his feelings for me and we agreed to remain in contact when I got back to the UK. We spoke on skype and on the telephone every day and later that year I travelled back to Africa for 6 weeks to get to know him more.

Aside from the most fundamental things that you would look for in a suitable partner (faith, spiritual development, compatibility etc) there was something that caught me about Elom. I saw in him a different spirit.

Elom was by no means born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but fought against many odds to learn a profession in which he had interest and eventually start his own business. He is a skilled tailor, with an eye for detail and a spirit of creativity. Spending time around him, in his own surroundings I could see that he was not a wavering man. He is a man who knows exactly what he wants and (doesn’t want!) – never undecided.

In little things I could see his ambition and non-conformity to situations that would not necessarily work in his favour. This, his sincerity and his trust in a God who can make all things possible were 3 things that I found very attractive in him.

So, here we are just over a year later and we are married.  While we make plans for our future, we are in Togo, West Africa; a world miles apart from my UK life in more ways than one! I have been here a few weeks, but have already had a number of experiences (some good, some not-so pleasant) that I can’t wait to share with you!

I hope you will enjoy reading my posts, but most importantly, I hope you will learn something valuable with each blog and with each experience.

Happy Reading!