hot season is coming . . .

The other night the wind did not pick up like it usually does. Instead the heat stayed in, near the ground—this creeping ooze that filled the compound and all the corners of the house. There was nowhere to go to get away from it. It was mostly calm, so the air was like this blanket that pressed against your face wherever you went. The next day, D bought a fan cause she has electricity. Hot season is coming.

I was going down to Bassar the other day. We got to one point on the Kouka-Kabou road where I did not recognize where I was, it was so different. Bulldozers are pushing back the brush and preparing the new roadway after logging crews cut out the useful lumber. Then people pick through the roadway for every burnable scrap of wood.

Speaking of traveling, this is the best time of year to ride in bush taxis, at least up here. The roads are turning to sand and powder, so a lot of the holes and ruts are somewhat smoothed out. Motoing is a lot harder cause motos don’t do well in sand.

I had a nice bush taxi ride down to Bassar the other day. The road was wasn’t too terrible, and the car left on time. We didn’t have too many stops, except for one flat tire. I got the front passenger’s seat. The guy sitting next to me kept dozing off and bouncing off of me but that was ok. When we got to where they are working on the road he kept saying “c’est bon, c’est tres bon.” I didn’t really care though because I love sitting in the front, and the seat was good. I don’t care how its allegedly not safe. Most of the bush taxis in Togo are Mazda or Toyota vans that have the engines under the driver instead of in the front of the vehicle, so a head-on collision is theoretically more dangerous in one of them. However, I’ve seen way more bush taxis that have rolled over and burned than have gotten in a head-on. I prefer to be able to get out of the car quickly, instead of being crammed in the middle of 20 other people in the event of an accident.

My wish list includes Clif Bars too

Its kind of interesting how much stuff has changed here just in the past year or so. My favorite egg sammie guy just rebuilt his little café—its really nice now. A couple new storefronts have opened up in Kouka. Double and triple kit phones that play mp3s are more common—despite the fact they are all chinese knock-offs. MP3 headsets entered the scene about a year ago and a lot of people have them now.

Speaking of buying things, it’s the new year, so Nigerian moto salesmen have been through. Now a lot of the zed drivers have new motos, which they will resell again next year when they are worn out.

And speaking of Nigeria, current war/strike there is creating a problem here because that’s where Togo gets most of its gasoline. The gas stations in Kabou, Kouka, and Bassar are either out of gas or are hoarding it. There is a thriving illegal gasoline trade here—little stalls along the road that sell liter bottles of gas are ubiquitous. They are getting rich because, since they stockpile gas, they are the only source of it now. Gas used to be 500-600 CFA/liter in the station and at the stand. Now its up to 600 at the station, and 800-1 mille at the stands. Traveling just got a lot more expensive.

I saw the most hilarious thing the other night. Nighan was out and the kittens were asleep on my lit picot. I was watching something in bed when I heard this crash and snarling from the other room. I got my flashlight pointed at the door in time to see both kittens charge into my room side by side, growling and hissing. They each had one end of a mouse that Nighan brought in. The kittens ran under my bed where one of them eventually won out, and then I got to listen to kitty jaws crunching a mouse. I didn’t mind though, I was too busy laughing.

I sort of like TIME Magazine's Person of the Year for this year-- the Protester. It is cliche, but summarizes the year's most important development. I, however, take issue with the obituary section. Yes I love Steve Jobs-inspired/developed products and will keep buying them. Yes, the man was a genius. But, compared to the rest of the people who died this year, why the hell does he rate the first mention, like he was the most important? Buried back in the section is the obituary for Sargeant Shriver, the guy who founded the Peace Corps, among other things. Who has more of an impact-- someone who developed stuff that people want to spend money on or someone who created an organization that helps the world? Would you rather have an iPod or clean water? Someone's importance should not be related to how much money they made in their lifetimes, but, sadly, it is. Jobs did a lot, but no one in Nampoch knows what the hell a Macbook is . . . .

The price of progress is

a lot of trees. Crews have started working on the road between Kouka and Kabou-- my current link to civilization. When its done, it will go from a partially washed out, rutted, dirt road that is barely passable in the rainy season to a 2 lane blacktop that will be one of the nicest roads in Togo. All of this is hard on the teak forests that surround parts of it though. It will also be hard on my friend Jen's village, Manga, because the road will completely change the village. And Kouka too. But it will take me like an hour to get to Bassar when the road is finished, instead of the current two, or an hour and a half to get to Kara, instead of the current 2.5 . . . crazy.

My insatiable curiosity is, i have decided, no longer good for my mental health in some respects. A couple months ago, when we were doing the technical visits for our pump project, i saw a long, thin, silver snake cross the road in front of our motos. My driver freaked and swerved, but the snake was fast and long gone. i thought it was pretty, and i also thought that the likelihood of me running into every venomous snake in west Africa was pretty low, so i didn't think much of it. Then, a couple weeks ago in Lome, i was looking up another snake that i've seen around here a couple of times because i was really curious as to what it was . . . i stumbled across a picture of a black mamba. they are long, thin, and silver. . . .

The Kouka girl's football team came out to Nampoch last friday for a match. they won. 2-0. on penalty kicks. like anything else is new. but it was fun. A bunch of my Volunteer friends, Abs (Abby), D (Danielle), Siya (Katie) and Bry (Bryanna), came out to do a condom demonstration and a talk on family planning after the match. they did a really good job. I had to go back and add their real names in parentheses . . . .

Ningan is awesome. her kittens are imps from hell. she's been bringing back mice at night for them. whichever one gets to the mouse first runs into my room with it and growls for a half hour to keep the other 2 away. since the mice are about half the size of the kittens, i have to lay there and listen to them chew on it for an hour . . .

in other cat news, the other two haven't showed up yet most likely never will now.

My wish list, in case anyone wants to get stars in their crown or blessings in the hereafter or to have a chicken sacrificed in his or her honor and sends me a package:

seasoned salt/pepper

beef jerky

instant mashed potatoes

instant anything that just needs water added . . .

crystal light

AA batteries

snacks- of the instant kind that i can eat instantly

salami

cheese (Velveeta?)

cigars (thanks Annabelle)

cheesy anything

oreos

granola bars (thanks Bry)

trail mix

chex mix

tuna packets

crackers

cheetos

ok, i think i am done now . . . I've been craving snack foods for the past week

People in village are starting to finish up their harvests. this means that huge cotton trucks go up and down my road as they collect the cotton harvests from small villages. Nampoch is deserted most days, but people are starting to be around more as they begin hot season 'repo'.

its still cold at nights. which means i get to sleep under a sheet. i walked out the other morning in my shorts. N'tido was huddled over the fire wrapped in a pagne and wearing a sweat shirt. i asked her if she was cold, she looked at me like i was crazy. it probably only gets down to like 65 maybe, but i can't tell. a thermometer in Kara last weekend said that it was 40 C. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and jeans and felt fine . . .

its still really dusty. some days, the air is white. if i squint and tilt my head just right, i can briefly imagine that i looking at blowing snow. . . .

ho ho ho its a new year . . .

Merry 2012. I forgot today that it was not 2010 anymore.

New Years was fun. Togolese know how to celebrate the new year. It is, however, not a good holiday for Togolese poultry, or other livestock. Togolese start feting on the 31st and they do not stop until at least the 2nd. The holiday coincides with a lot of the harvests, and it is not religion specific, so it is really popular. Of course, I had one Assembly of God friend try to tell me that it is really a Christian holiday that no one else understands, but whatever.

My friend Christine came to visit me over the New Years. She got into Lomé on the 28th; we got up to Nampoch on the 30th. It took her the same amount of travel time, or maybe even less, to get from the US to Togo as it took me to get from Nampoch to Lomé. Anyway, it was a lot of fun showing her Nampoch and feting together and stuff. She flew out yesterday.

It was kind of interesting seeing how Peace Corps is reflected off of someone who is not a Volunteer. I found myself having to adjust my vocabulary cause most Americans do not habitually speak in acronyms. I take a lot of stuff for granted, like the instinctive response to “ça vas?” or laughing at ridiculous zed drivers, or being one of 25 people in a 15-seat van for 8 hours straight.

The highlight of New Years was popping a bottle of champaign at 1700h with my host family on the 31st. Specifically it was N’tilabi going "oOh” when the cork got 10 meters of altitude over his head.

Cat update: I am down to 3. It does not look like Nigarmi or Mullet, Jen’s cat that I am babysitting while she is in the States, survived New Years. They have not been seen for a week and the consensus is that they were probably on someone’s menu. To say that I am really pissed about this would be an understatement; the public nature of this forum, however, limits what I can say on this matter. The matter is being investigated.

In the vein of sad things, Jacqui and I went out to Dimori, my friend Sangbo’s village, today to get some of his stuff and to tell the community what happened to him. That was one of the harder things I’ve done in a while. It is hard enough for communities when their Volunteer finishes his or her service. But many times, like in the case of Sangbo, Volunteers leave without warning and people in village have no idea what happened to them. Jacqui and I went with a couple people to the local school where Sangbo did a lot of work and told the students what happened. They were pretty sad about it.

It kind of goes to show that you should never take anyone, or any relationship, for granted. Life can change in a heartbeat and bonds can be severed by unforeseen events that are out of your control. It is not a concept that life in the United States prepares people for. We are conditioned to plan, to think that no problem is insurmountable, to think that there is some kind of magic cure or surgery or drug that will fix any problem. We do not have holes in our lives that are left by people except by death, which is usually foreseen in some sense. Anything other than this is a tragedy that we can numb away through media, electronics, drugs, or by drowning ourselves in the endless noise that characterizes western life. But most people do not have the luxury of such temporary amnesia. What is there when the only thing you can do is wake up the next day clutching the previous day’s sorrow? You mourn, adapt, and go on.

The best laid plans of mice, men, and Peace Corps Volunteers . . .