This is a detriment to anyone's mental health |
On that same field visit, I faced a room of around 20 seniors who had been abandoned by their families for having outlived their usefulness. At the end of my scattered speech about strength, catharsis, and encouragement in togetherness (all translated into Maashi and possibly stalagmites, capitalism, and encephalopathy in Togo), and much ululation and clapping, I prepared to leave and wondered who was supposed to be treating whom. At the door, I was halted by a decrepit old woman with her feet wrapped in square blocks of what looked like dinner napkins. After speaking forcefully to my translator, she turned to me, grasped my hand with unexpected strength, and made a speech that ended with pointing firmly at her cheekbone. As I have been eating deep-fried sweet bread for quite some time now, I decided she must be calling me out on my skincare routine. I opened my mouth to answer in Swahili--
“She’s thanking you for coming.
And she’s telling you she’s blind.”