Coworker backstory.

The other week I was in the main dining room at my resthome job having my staff meal, and the one dining hall worker from Togo was going around cleaning tables.

So, I asked her what was happy and new in her life, and she couldn't think of anything because her life was the same as always, she said, so I mentioned how I had seen a very nice section of a big park in the city that I hadn't seen before, when I had met up to socialize with a friend the day before.

And, I described to her where that was, and she was like, "Oh, I know that," since had taken her kids to a site nearby when they were little, and then had gone and walked in the park afterwards.

I then asked about her children.  She has five, two of which are under 18, and the one who's in high school is in a high school that you have to test into.

"Congratulations," I was like, "That's hard to do, there's so much competition."

"Thank you," she was like.

She then said that all her children are smart, but you can't tell from her, because she moved here as an adult and speaks poorly.

"What do your parents do for work in Togo?", I was like.

She then said that they have a shop and a farm outside of the capital Lome, and I soon found out from talking with her that their farm is actually so big, that they have people work there for them, and that they have trucks that go back and forth and take produce into the city, from the more-rural area outside of the city where their farm is set up.

I quizzed her about foods, too, and they grow stuff like corn, yams, okra, and tomatoes, and the animals there include chickens, cows, and goats.

She couldn't remember the word "cows" at first, and she just kept looking a tad confused and trying out stuff like "coh" and "cah" until I could break in and prompt her.

"Thank you," she was like.