Togo

I have never heard of it. Apparently it’s a country in Africa. On the western coast to be exact neighboring Ghana and Benin. That was as long as I was able to concentrate while reading about it on Wiki.

But it seems that we bought some little girl there a Christmas present. Our church participates in Operation Christmas Child a project run by Samaritans Purse. They have people fill a shoe box with gifts, what ever will fit but they offer some suggestions such as soap, a toothbrush and writing supplies. These things seem so rudimentary to me, it is hard to believe that there are children out there who don’t have the most basic of their needs met. It almost felt insulting to be giving a bar of soap, I mean really, I would be horrified to receive such a well meaning gift. We are so privileged.

We got to choose boy or girl, we went with girl because we have one and I thought we kind of got what they are like. And age we chose two to four again we have one, almost. The other option was whether or not you wanted to know where your box ended up, of course. Although now I want to know so much more. Who is she, what is she like, did she like any of the stuff? I understand it is a largely agricultural society, does her family farm like ours does? Did she really need soap and a toothbrush? I included a little horse statue, do they farm with horses? Should we have sent a toy tractor instead? Click here to read about Togo, and the Christmas presents

Samaritans Purse offers some really cool charities my favorite of which is their agriculture program. They will give a pregnant animal, goat, cow, what ever or even baby chickens to a family. The family then gives the offspring to another needy family and still has the animal to continue breeding for food, milk, eggs or fiber. They supply seeds and training in farming practices. Live stock to farm with such as oxen and donkeys. Agriculture is awesome.