THE MARRIAGE PROPOSAL

NO, I AM NOT ENGAGED. We were told upon arrival that the Togoliese men want us to take them home to the States so they will ask us to marry them. I really didn’t believe that they would come out and ask us to marry them or to take them to the states until it did. Yes, I had encountered how they act when we walk down the street. I had gotten pretty use to ignoring the kissing noises and calling you to come like we would a dog but someone asking me to marry them because they wanted to come to America, no way. But it did. At first I was taken by surprise. I was ordering gelato when this man started talking to me and grabbing my arm. He said he wanted me to take him to meet my mom and dad. At this point, I told him I was married. It helped a little bit.  We had this happen a few times throughout my stay, once while coming into the port by one of the military, once by a government official in Benin while we were trying to cross the border. MY favorite on and probably the funniest was Bruno and our zemi ride. On Thursday we caught Zemis back from the Artisan Village. Bruno drove us with two other drivers and we negotiated a price for the trip back to the ship. From the start Bruno was laughing with his buddies. I said no laughing, this brought about more laughter. I said “ALLE.”  After a little bit Bruno o asked me to take him to my country and marry him. I said right away I was married and my husband would not like it if I brought him home, hoping to stop the quest of getting to America with me but that did not help.  Well, it did not; he asked if my sisters could take him, which I quickly replied they were married with petit enfants. I was thinking he meant my real sisters but he was talking about my friends on the other bikes.  I have never laugh so much in my life on a bike. As we drove he asked me to think about someone to marry him. You are all lucky i did not marry you off in Togo. We continued to drive and would a points pass the other drivers waiting for us to catch up. Each time we passed them I would say “ Alle, Vite” which means go fast.  My friends told me after that I looked like I was having a great time and thought that we might ride off into the sunset together. I was a fun last ZEMI ride