Elizabeth Bailey is devoting the next two years of her life to work with the indigenous people of Togo in West Africa.
Comic tales lighten Africa duties
BILL HUTCHENS; The News Tribune
Tacoma's Barbara Vernon could hardly be more proud of her granddaughter, Elizabeth Bailey, 22.
Bailey, a Wilson High School and Western Washington University graduate, is devoting the next two years of her life to work with the indigenous people of Togo in West Africa.
"She's always been a helper," Vernon said. "She would go off on her summer vacations with a church group and paint houses. She put herself through college as a caregiver for a paraplegic person. Now, here she is at 22 in Togo, of all places."
Early in college, Bailey decided she wanted to join the Peace Corps after graduation. She now works with a Togolese clinic providing HIV/AIDS education and writes home with poignant and often amusing stories, Vernon said.
Bailey, who majored in creative writing at Western, keeps her stateside friends and family entertained with colorful missives. The nature of her work - providing education about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases - sometimes requires a delicate touch in interpersonal communications.
"Some of the stuff she tells us is absolutely hilarious," Vernon said. Some locals are unabashed and very forward, she said. Nearly every day, her single granddaughter gets marriage proposals.
In one e-mail, Bailey wrote:
"Last Wednesday in Badou (where I went to get my mail), a man (twentysomething) followed me about two kilometers asking for my address, my name, friendship, and hand in marriage. I told him I was already married (usually gets people off your back), to which he replied he wanted to be my second husband."
She said that was a "pretty progressive view of things" since, although some Togolese are OK with polygamy, the accepted practice is for men to have multiple wives - not the other way around.
"So you can imagine the shock I encountered earlier in the week," she continued, "when I explained to some members of the soccer team that I had four husbands in the states - one to sweep, one to cook, one to watch/have the children and the other to wash the clothes."
She later confessed to them that she was teasing.
For Bailey and her relatives, service is all in the family.
Bailey had been on mission trips with several youth groups and participated in Paint Tacoma Beautiful and Habitat for Humanity.
Her sister, Erin, 19, also did service projects. She recently joined the Army and is a crew chief for a Blackhawk helicopter in Korea.
Their mother, Kathryn Vernon, said she is considering a stint with the Peace Corps when she retires from her air traffic controller job at SeaTac in about 10 years.
Grandma Vernon, who served in the Air Force in the early 1950s, said she's proud of her family. Elizabeth is just one focal point.
"While a lot of kids her age are just playing around with their lives, she's doing something meaningful," Vernon said.
Are you a proud grandma? Call Bill Hutchens at 253-941-9636, or send him e-mail at bill.hutchens@mail.tribnet.com.
