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| off roading in senegal |
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| rural senegal |
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| the "magician" |
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| harvest time |
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| the burial of the oldest man in Dankpen |
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| northern Togo |
Sunday, October 21, 2012
pictures
Saturday, October 20, 2012
pump parts!
So, red spots update. creeping
eruption. i.e. worms crawling through my
skin. again. but, I got drugs that killed them. I feel like god.
Pump project update! I forgot about this in my last post, but about 6 weeks
ago or so I received all the funding for my half of the project. I used this money as a down payment on our
combined pump parts. D’s half of the
project just got funded today. this is
very happy.
Do you know what 10 grand (USD) looks like in francs CFA? A brick about the size of my head. Kader and I went to Kara to take the money
out of my account and deposit in the account of our pump parts supplier. I was a multi- millionaire, Togo style, for
about 35 minutes. I could have bought a
nice moto, a house, a car, some wives, etc.
At once.
Kader arranged for the pump parts to be shipped up the next weekend. It was exciting to see the piles of piping
and pistons in Kader and Daré’s houses. Now
that we have all the funding, we’ll program our installation dates for each
village.
Richard called me Monday morning. He
sounded terrible. He said that he was in
a moto accident the night before and was calling me from the hospital. It happened Sunday night. he was coming back from a call when a drunk
guy on another moto, without a headlight, or brakes, swerved into him. He woke up in the hospital. He should have been dead. I went to see him on Tuesday and he looked
terrible. He said he was peeing and
coughing blood, had a concussion, and a bad cut on his arm. I went to visit him again yesterday and he
was a lot better. Still peeing blood,
but he looked human again. Luckily
people saw the accident, so the other guy should have to pay for
everything. Hopefully. Its been a rough
year for Richard.
D’s visit the other week coincided with a “magician’s” visit in Nampoch. He did a performance on marche night. It was held in the Nampoch bar owner’s
compound. they hooked up a generator and
strung lights over the place. the “magician”
had two warm up and three main acts. the
first one was pretending to swallow a razor blade. in the second, he cut off pieces of his
tongue. which was actually a tomato
slice. the performance was halted while
they calmed down the home owner who was upset because the “magician” spilled “blood”
in his house. the third act was the “magician”
laying on the ground while a couple volunteers pounded fufu on his chest. the fourth was him laying on the ground while
another volunteer drove a moto over his chest, across boards. the 5th act was him laying on the
ground with a big rock on his chest while a volunteer beat it into pieces with
a hammer. some people, especially the
younger guys, thought this performance was great. D and I enjoyed it for the “I wonder what
crazy “magic” stunt he’s going to try next” factor. it drizzled the whole time.
that didn’t really help my mood. but it was good that D was there. otherwise i would have been wet and wishing she was there the whole time too.
I went up to koulfekou a couple days ago with N’tifoni, Jacques, and Nicco
to do a follow up for our gender equality formation. Koulfekou is in this narrow strip of Dankpen
between the Kara and Oti (one of the Volta branches if you are in Ghana). its really pretty up there. we continued on to a fishing village on the
Oti itself. Koulfekou is Tchossi, which
isnt related to Konkumba. This little fishing village, and its neighbors
in Ghana are Ewé. The people I was with
know a little Tchossi, they definitely don’t know any Ewé. There was one guy in the village who spoke
French cause none of the children go to school apparently, so we talked to him. it was interesting because my friends were
40k from their hometown and could only communicate with fellow Togolese in
French. the fish there was amazing though, and I usually don’t like freshwater
fish here.
On the way back I made N’tifoni stop his moto and climbed up this little
hill that overlooked probably 70k of Togo.
it was amazing.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
3 chief funeral for the oldest man in Dankpen
Im currently in Bina. To see why,
read further.
D’s house is in the
shadow, literally, of the mountain peaks. Storms coming up from the southeast pop over
and wash grey curtains of rain down the northern slopes.
I was walking down to look for soja (deep fried tofu?) this afternoon when
a storm like that passed over in front of me.
it was a little storm, more like one of those rain clouds that followed
Eeyore around in Winnie the Pooh shows than anything else. As I walked, the sun was shining at my back
but I could see it raining just down the mountain from me. The downpour on distant tin roofs sounded
like the roar of a water fall in the near distance.
I have 5 big bites on my abdomen of undeterminable origin. They’ve itched for like 3 days. A couple of them have felt so bad that they
have started weeping. I do not feel for
them.
D and I left my house last Saturday morning about 800. She to return to Bina, me to go to Kara to
work on some stuff. Petit called me
about 1700—“I just called to tell you that N’tido had her baby. It’s a boy.” I told D about it and she was like “what, she
couldn’t have had it the day before?”
I went in to see the baby when I got home.
he was laying on a pile of pagne, sleeping. which I guess is what new
born babies tend to do. I got sort of
teary eyed and proud of N’tido. I asked
her what its name was and she was like “I don’t know, pick something.”
So, the other day, after a couple calabashes and much deliberation, I told her
that its name was Alexandre, but the shortened version was Alix. She was like “hmm, c’est bon” . . . then she went in a drug out an old
calendar to see what I was talking about.
Togolese often name their children after the day they were born. With the advent of christianity, or at least
western names, a lot of Togolese have taken to naming their children after the
saint of the day they were born. there
are calendars everywhere that list the saint’s name with the date. I had to
point out to N’tido that my name doesn’t correspond to the saint for my
birthday. plus, who wants to see a baby
named Bruno? she might have listened to
me.
This new baby has brought out some interesting traditions that I,
heretofore, havent seen yet. Most of
them revolve around this old lady who lives next door. I think she is like a midwife. she came over one evening and disappeared in
the shower with N’tido, to check up on things I assume. Then she’s come over for the past week to
wash the baby. I asked N’tido why she
doesn’t wash the baby herself and she was like “how am I supposed to know how
to do that?”
There is a tree in Togo called a Neem tree. At some point in west Africa’s
misty colonial past, neem trees made their way over from India. They are somewhat analogous in size and shape
to a maple tree, although their leaves are much smaller. I love Neem trees.
They grow quickly—in India there are societies dedicated to removing their
status as “weed” trees—and they give great shade. Another one of Neem’s redeeming
characteristics is that its leaves, and stems/seeds/etc, contain a chemical
compound that insects find noxious. It
smells vaguely like onions to me, but oh well. products with Neem extract in them can be used as insect
repellent. This is good in an area with
endemic malaria.
Last week D and I whipped up a batch of Neem lotion—juice from the leaves,
soap, and oil—for people in Nampoch. The
lotion works as a mosquito repellent as long as the chemical holds up. We had a decent crowd, although I think some
people were more interested in the soap grater I’d made out of a sardine
can. The lotion turned out well, so the other day, in Bikotiba, Saye’s village, we did a Neem lotion sensiblization. D and Saye did all the talking because the
sensiblization was their idea. I just
did stuff like grate soap and fan the charcoal burner so we could boil the
leaves. Our audience was mainly women; they
got a big kick out of me “making the sauce.” But it went pretty well. Powers, the new EAFS Volunteer out in
Bitchabe, was in town shadowing Saye so he helped out a bit too.
I have taken, roughly, 756 tablets of doxycycline since I have been in Togo
the other day I went to the funeral for the oldest man in Dankpen. I didn’t know this at the time, I just knew
that he was an important, old (these are roughly synonymous terms) guy in my
family. And in a lot of others I found
when I got to the funeral. It was in
this little village out in the sticks in the Nampoch canton. Important people, when they die in my area,
rate the presence of a chef du canton. This guy rated 3. I’d never seen so many well-dressed people so
far out in the bush. N’tifoni told me that the guy was like 100 when he died,
which means he was probably in his 80s.
He had an ornate coffin and an actual concrete tomb. A lot of the dancers brought their
traditional Konkumba gear—bows and arrows—and village hunters brought their
shotguns. They started shooting them off into the trees under which people,
like me, were sitting. Kodjo flipped out
and said he saw a woman get killed once from a shotgun that misfired like
that. Other funeral highlights included
a guy wearing a Saddam Hussein shirt and kids who’d obviously never seen a
white person before.
Groups of dancers from a certain cartier, or village, wait on the outskirts
of the dance circle. When there is a
break between songs in the big dance circle, the group enters and dances around
it to their own drums. A group from my
cartier got together and did that, so I joined them. First time ever.
I like Togolese funerals a lot. They
are nothing like funerals in the US. A
fact that I explain to at least one person per funeral. The big counter-rhythmic drumbeats get in
your blood. Dust curling from dancing
feet spirals into the air like laughing spirits.
the songs the dancers sing have this haunting refrain that echoes long after the dance is over. I never feel as in, or as a part of, Africa
as when Im at a funeral.
Going to the latrine at night is a dicey proposition. I’m good for at least one cockroach sitting
on my latrine looking scandalized. Even
Albert, the albino gecko that lives around my toilet seat, doesn’t faze
them. So, the other night, when Tadji
followed me out to the latrine, I kicked the cockroach on the ground for
him. Then laughed my butt off as he
chased it around the compound.
update. i woke up this morning and the red bites on my torso are changing location. sometimes i want to scream.
Friday, September 21, 2012
2 years later
Ive been in Togo for 2 years and some days. Moving on.
well, so much for road construction. the new road bed made it as far as Manga, which is getting nice gutters. then someone didnt pay the road crews, so they dropped their stuff and left about 2 weeks ago. so far they work about one week a month.
the rest of the Kouka road got arranged for yam fete though. its kind of amazing. Boulder hill is gone, so are the 3 Great Lakes, the Pit, the Lake of the Little Mosque (ducks are weeping), the Grand Canyon, and the White Gorges. However, as things go, the Badlands have re-emerged and the Sand Trap reconstituted itself. but still, i made it to Bassar in like 1.5 hours. it didnt feel like i was traveling. almost.
thus begins the exodus of my stage.
Jenn and her replacement, Kevin, came out to Nampoch last weekend for a goodbye party. the mark of good Volunteers isnt the projects that they've done, or the trainings they held, but the lives that they have touched, by the memories that they built up in their communities. I sat on my porch one night last week and listened to Petite, Jacques, and a couple other people talk about how sad they are that Jenn is leaving. Some communities dont care when their Volunteer leaves. People all over west Kara, and throughout Togo, miss Jenn. Thats the mark of a great Volunteer.
So, I went to Senegal for a conference a couple weeks ago with my neighbor/colleague, Saye (Katie). a PC-Togo car drove us to the airport in Cotonu, Benin. Being in a car with diplomatic plates makes border crossings a lot easier. We flew in to Dakar via Cote d'Ivoire, got in at 0030, then left at 6 am to go to the PC-Senegal training center in Thies (pronounced 'chess') to start the conference. We spent 1 day there, then we spent 3 days visiting Master Farmer sites around the country, then came back to Thies to wrap up, and left the following day.
It was a lot of fun. I met PCVs from Guinea, Ghana, Benin, and Senegal. They were a pretty solid bunch. PC-Senegal is so big that a couple people asked me if i was a Senegalese Volunteer. . .
So, what is a Master Farmer? One of the biggest challenges that ag PCVs face is getting people to buy in to the technologies that we promote. The problem is this-- Togolese, and many sub-saharan, farmers, can feed themselves. If they change their techniques based on, say, what an American who has been around for a year tells them to do, and they dont work, people go hungry. There is also the problem that lack of money makes it difficult to affect the real infrastructural improvements that lead to major changes in production, like wells for irrigation.
PC-Senegal's ag programs have identified local farmers who buy into PC-promoted technologies, like grafting, alley cropping, windbreaks, mulching, composting, etc. PC-Senegal sets these farmers up with a fenced in plot (the farmer has to provide this) with a water source, tools, seeds, equipment, etc. The farmer works with area Volunteers to demonstrate different field crop, fruit tree, and gardening technologies. That way, PCVs teach one person, who then spreads the knowledge to his or her community. Language barriers, trust issues, etc cease to be a problem because people can come and see different ways to do stuff as practiced by one of their neighbors.
Its a really good program that will endure long in these communities long after PCVs have left. Its a good meld of resources (the money for the project comes from USAID) and local partners facilitated by PC. Im a firm believer in sustainability, but you have to spend money to make money. A lot of development simply is not possible for rural communities without external funding. Wells and fences dont build themselves, and improved seeds dont spontaneously appear.
Anyway, off of that soap box. I also learned, with great precision, the exact off-road capabilities of a small bus-- much more than you would think, less than what we needed. A Land Rover can pull such a bus out of mud. But it can get stuck too. Much more thoroughly than a bus. I hope to post pics later.
Speaking of gardening, i went out to my garden for the first time in 3 weeks yesterday and found a green pepper the size of my fist. It was the only i have. But, it blew peoples' minds. So much of what I do here is just getting people to see what is possible.
Tadji is getting big. He will sit in anyone's lap and he is a non-discriminatory biter when he gets bored. "Tadji" means "ne mange pas," which means "do not eat"
I got home from Senegal to N'tido sweeping out my house. Which i greatly appreciated. this, however, did not diminish the funky smell in my bedroom. I eventually figured out that N'tilebi had fed him some mice that had eaten this one plant that smells weird, etc etc. Anyway, end result was that I got pissed and spent a day deep-cleaning my house. people thought it was christmas. i threw out my jar collection (un-realized project), my comics collection (funny papers), and a bunch of other stuff. women took the jars to store stuff in and the comics are probably pasted on someone's walls now. There were papers drifting around my compound for 2 days. But i found my ipod cord and some other stuff i forgot i had. its amazing how much stuff i accumulated in a 2 room house in only 2 years. I have so many books that i dont have the shelf space to categorize them.
Little doggie had another litter of pups. a hen just hatched a bunch of chicks and brought them over near the pups. one of them came to see what was up. the hen attached herself to the pup's nose and flipped it over on its back. Little Doggie came running in response to the unearthly howling and chased the hen around the compound. it was great fun.
Jenn, Bry, and a couple other Volunteers did this program in Kara called Take Our Daughters to Work a couple weeks ago. They took girls from villages around Kara for 4 days to show them the University, the radio station, and other jobs in order to encourage them to stay in school. I nominated 3 girls from Nampoch. Adah went. I had the longest conversation with her in the past 2 years about it. She wants to work for the radio now. N'djounbi wants to be a genderme. She'd be a good one i think.
N'tido is super pregnant. she has to wear a pagne wrap cause none of her clothes fit her anymore. speaking of clothes. send me baby clothes for the baby.
the TV at this hotel/bar whatever is playing the obituaries. 33, 41 ,41, and 51. people die too young here.
well, so much for road construction. the new road bed made it as far as Manga, which is getting nice gutters. then someone didnt pay the road crews, so they dropped their stuff and left about 2 weeks ago. so far they work about one week a month.
the rest of the Kouka road got arranged for yam fete though. its kind of amazing. Boulder hill is gone, so are the 3 Great Lakes, the Pit, the Lake of the Little Mosque (ducks are weeping), the Grand Canyon, and the White Gorges. However, as things go, the Badlands have re-emerged and the Sand Trap reconstituted itself. but still, i made it to Bassar in like 1.5 hours. it didnt feel like i was traveling. almost.
thus begins the exodus of my stage.
Jenn and her replacement, Kevin, came out to Nampoch last weekend for a goodbye party. the mark of good Volunteers isnt the projects that they've done, or the trainings they held, but the lives that they have touched, by the memories that they built up in their communities. I sat on my porch one night last week and listened to Petite, Jacques, and a couple other people talk about how sad they are that Jenn is leaving. Some communities dont care when their Volunteer leaves. People all over west Kara, and throughout Togo, miss Jenn. Thats the mark of a great Volunteer.
So, I went to Senegal for a conference a couple weeks ago with my neighbor/colleague, Saye (Katie). a PC-Togo car drove us to the airport in Cotonu, Benin. Being in a car with diplomatic plates makes border crossings a lot easier. We flew in to Dakar via Cote d'Ivoire, got in at 0030, then left at 6 am to go to the PC-Senegal training center in Thies (pronounced 'chess') to start the conference. We spent 1 day there, then we spent 3 days visiting Master Farmer sites around the country, then came back to Thies to wrap up, and left the following day.
It was a lot of fun. I met PCVs from Guinea, Ghana, Benin, and Senegal. They were a pretty solid bunch. PC-Senegal is so big that a couple people asked me if i was a Senegalese Volunteer. . .
So, what is a Master Farmer? One of the biggest challenges that ag PCVs face is getting people to buy in to the technologies that we promote. The problem is this-- Togolese, and many sub-saharan, farmers, can feed themselves. If they change their techniques based on, say, what an American who has been around for a year tells them to do, and they dont work, people go hungry. There is also the problem that lack of money makes it difficult to affect the real infrastructural improvements that lead to major changes in production, like wells for irrigation.
PC-Senegal's ag programs have identified local farmers who buy into PC-promoted technologies, like grafting, alley cropping, windbreaks, mulching, composting, etc. PC-Senegal sets these farmers up with a fenced in plot (the farmer has to provide this) with a water source, tools, seeds, equipment, etc. The farmer works with area Volunteers to demonstrate different field crop, fruit tree, and gardening technologies. That way, PCVs teach one person, who then spreads the knowledge to his or her community. Language barriers, trust issues, etc cease to be a problem because people can come and see different ways to do stuff as practiced by one of their neighbors.
Its a really good program that will endure long in these communities long after PCVs have left. Its a good meld of resources (the money for the project comes from USAID) and local partners facilitated by PC. Im a firm believer in sustainability, but you have to spend money to make money. A lot of development simply is not possible for rural communities without external funding. Wells and fences dont build themselves, and improved seeds dont spontaneously appear.
Anyway, off of that soap box. I also learned, with great precision, the exact off-road capabilities of a small bus-- much more than you would think, less than what we needed. A Land Rover can pull such a bus out of mud. But it can get stuck too. Much more thoroughly than a bus. I hope to post pics later.
Speaking of gardening, i went out to my garden for the first time in 3 weeks yesterday and found a green pepper the size of my fist. It was the only i have. But, it blew peoples' minds. So much of what I do here is just getting people to see what is possible.
Tadji is getting big. He will sit in anyone's lap and he is a non-discriminatory biter when he gets bored. "Tadji" means "ne mange pas," which means "do not eat"
I got home from Senegal to N'tido sweeping out my house. Which i greatly appreciated. this, however, did not diminish the funky smell in my bedroom. I eventually figured out that N'tilebi had fed him some mice that had eaten this one plant that smells weird, etc etc. Anyway, end result was that I got pissed and spent a day deep-cleaning my house. people thought it was christmas. i threw out my jar collection (un-realized project), my comics collection (funny papers), and a bunch of other stuff. women took the jars to store stuff in and the comics are probably pasted on someone's walls now. There were papers drifting around my compound for 2 days. But i found my ipod cord and some other stuff i forgot i had. its amazing how much stuff i accumulated in a 2 room house in only 2 years. I have so many books that i dont have the shelf space to categorize them.
Little doggie had another litter of pups. a hen just hatched a bunch of chicks and brought them over near the pups. one of them came to see what was up. the hen attached herself to the pup's nose and flipped it over on its back. Little Doggie came running in response to the unearthly howling and chased the hen around the compound. it was great fun.
Jenn, Bry, and a couple other Volunteers did this program in Kara called Take Our Daughters to Work a couple weeks ago. They took girls from villages around Kara for 4 days to show them the University, the radio station, and other jobs in order to encourage them to stay in school. I nominated 3 girls from Nampoch. Adah went. I had the longest conversation with her in the past 2 years about it. She wants to work for the radio now. N'djounbi wants to be a genderme. She'd be a good one i think.
N'tido is super pregnant. she has to wear a pagne wrap cause none of her clothes fit her anymore. speaking of clothes. send me baby clothes for the baby.
the TV at this hotel/bar whatever is playing the obituaries. 33, 41 ,41, and 51. people die too young here.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
kickin it in Lome
Here i sit in Lome. In the PC bureau. Its saturday and i am alone in the PCV lounge except for a carpenter repairing stuff and a security guard watching him. the PC likes security.
I cant do a whole lot today. There are a couple demonstrations downtown today, about 1.5k from here. i am staying around the bureau lest i get tear gassed or run afoul of riot police. the opposition has one march planned. after that the 'friends of Faure' are marching to protest that march. or something like that. guess which march is more likely to include tear gas.
i am staying in this one hotel where we PCVs like to stay a lot. its run by a youngish belgian guy. it has wifi of a sort and mostly clean rooms. the downstairs restaurant/bar is really popular among expats. it has cheeseburgers and draft beer. which i can afford maybe once. live music on fridays. excellent people watching, especially if one is interested in prostitutes or old european men with young Togolese escorts.
i walked in last night with a bucket that i had bought for a little project and felt really self conscious. most people who frequent the restaurant look like they pay people to pay someone to use buckets.
yesterday i walked down to the grand marche to look for some stuff. every time i go there, i am amazed by how big it is. its basically downtown Lome, such as it is. i walked through probably 5 blocks worth of pagne/cloth shops.
one thing that i have learned here is the difference between knowing that everything will be ok and accepting that it will. this is usually most applicable to traveling. allow me to demonstrate. i was trying to make it down to Lome at a decent hours on Wednesday. I caught a bush taxi in Sokode that left immediately. the problem was that it left Sokode only half full. So we kept stopping to pick up/drop off people. i knew that we would make it to Lome in decent time, but it was really frustrating because we spent probably an hour and a half changing passengers. I had to force myself to calm down and remember that everything was going to be fine
the fact that the van stunk of burning brakes didnt help a whole lot either
some places along the route national looks like the road runs through a green tunnel because of the grass. its pretty, but it sometimes it makes one feel slightly claustrophobic, especially when there is a overloaded lorry coming from the opposite direction
i miss sidewalks. well, the kind that people are meant to walk on. not the kind that are just an extension of whatever building is behind them.
D told me the other day that she now prefers my iPod to hers. Then she said i should thank her for improving my taste in, and knowledge of, music. the sad thing is that she's right. the punk-heavy library i originally brought to Togo kept me interested for about a month. now she and i have arguments about what Beatles songs are the best and Black Keys' lyrics. I lose but thats ok
I am glad that I am not in the US for the current election nonsense
one redeeming aspect of Lome is the food. however, i've been living on the cheap down here so Ive been eating a lot of spaghetti au gras. Hot peppers and onions count as vegetables, right? there is this little pastry shop a couple blocks from here. they are probably not "great" pastries in the broad scheme of things, but that apple thing tasted really freakin good this morning.
I cant do a whole lot today. There are a couple demonstrations downtown today, about 1.5k from here. i am staying around the bureau lest i get tear gassed or run afoul of riot police. the opposition has one march planned. after that the 'friends of Faure' are marching to protest that march. or something like that. guess which march is more likely to include tear gas.
i am staying in this one hotel where we PCVs like to stay a lot. its run by a youngish belgian guy. it has wifi of a sort and mostly clean rooms. the downstairs restaurant/bar is really popular among expats. it has cheeseburgers and draft beer. which i can afford maybe once. live music on fridays. excellent people watching, especially if one is interested in prostitutes or old european men with young Togolese escorts.
i walked in last night with a bucket that i had bought for a little project and felt really self conscious. most people who frequent the restaurant look like they pay people to pay someone to use buckets.
yesterday i walked down to the grand marche to look for some stuff. every time i go there, i am amazed by how big it is. its basically downtown Lome, such as it is. i walked through probably 5 blocks worth of pagne/cloth shops.
one thing that i have learned here is the difference between knowing that everything will be ok and accepting that it will. this is usually most applicable to traveling. allow me to demonstrate. i was trying to make it down to Lome at a decent hours on Wednesday. I caught a bush taxi in Sokode that left immediately. the problem was that it left Sokode only half full. So we kept stopping to pick up/drop off people. i knew that we would make it to Lome in decent time, but it was really frustrating because we spent probably an hour and a half changing passengers. I had to force myself to calm down and remember that everything was going to be fine
the fact that the van stunk of burning brakes didnt help a whole lot either
some places along the route national looks like the road runs through a green tunnel because of the grass. its pretty, but it sometimes it makes one feel slightly claustrophobic, especially when there is a overloaded lorry coming from the opposite direction
i miss sidewalks. well, the kind that people are meant to walk on. not the kind that are just an extension of whatever building is behind them.
D told me the other day that she now prefers my iPod to hers. Then she said i should thank her for improving my taste in, and knowledge of, music. the sad thing is that she's right. the punk-heavy library i originally brought to Togo kept me interested for about a month. now she and i have arguments about what Beatles songs are the best and Black Keys' lyrics. I lose but thats ok
I am glad that I am not in the US for the current election nonsense
one redeeming aspect of Lome is the food. however, i've been living on the cheap down here so Ive been eating a lot of spaghetti au gras. Hot peppers and onions count as vegetables, right? there is this little pastry shop a couple blocks from here. they are probably not "great" pastries in the broad scheme of things, but that apple thing tasted really freakin good this morning.
Monday, August 27, 2012
The Return to Togo, or A Long Overdue Post
I am back in Togo and I have been busy.
A summation of my life up to this point-- I got off the plane in Ghana Saturday night. Sunday I tried to use my debit card and forgot my PIN. Monday I was teaching 13 new stagiares how to garden in Togo. Two weeks later I was trying to leave the south. 10 hours later I succeeded. Now, two trips to Kara later, I still do not have a new PIN number.
Some things I miss about the States:
drinking fountains
fast wifi
chipotle
my cats
my mom's fried chicken
football
nice roads
washing machines
Some things I do not miss about the States:
A/C
people driving too fast
the news
hot showers
walmart
clothes dryers
I was sitting in a taxi in Lome on the Sunday when we got back to Togo. I looked around at everyone and suddenly felt comfortable again for the first time in 2 weeks. Like everything made sense again. It was weird.
Being a trainer was a lot of fun. The new Environmental Action and Food Security people are great. Smart and motivated. It was good getting to know them and their colleagues in CHAP and EGE. It fascinates me how Peace Corps brings such a diverse group of people together in a common purpose/ goal. The Peace Corps puts some of the best and brightest people the US has to offer with some of the best and brightest people that the world has to offer and lets them go change lives.
After two years I got to update my iPod and my music selection. I did not think too much about this until I was in a bush taxi going north. Then I realized how tired I had gotten of my old music.
My house was about the same as I had left it. Nighan and her last kitten, Tadji (it means "do not eat" in Konkumba), were out in the bush. They came back when I got home. This happened when I went to Kara last week to try and arrange my bank situation. Now my neighbors are convinced that I have some kind of sorcery connection with them.
My garden was in much better shape than when i left it. my gardening protoge has done his job well.
NTido looks like she is about ready to pop. I asked her if she was ready for the baby to come and she was like "no, i dont think I am"
I was so tired from training that I slept for 3 days when I got home. One day during stage I woke up at 615. Stagiares got there at like 715 so I was on. Then one of them asked me to lunch. I got back to the tech house and slept for an hour during their language classes. Then they came back. We hung out after classes were over that day. I could not figure out why I was so tired at the end of the day. Then I realized that I had been talking to people non-stop from 715 to 1830 with the exception of my nap.
The new road to Kouka seems to be progressing. The road bed is mostly built up to Manga. After that though, the remaining 17k to Kouka sucks. Several people I know have been in fairly serious moto accidents. One of my friends has to spend 2 months in a full leg cast.
My stage is about to commence its exodus from Togo. A couple people have already left. I did not go to their COS conference because I am not leaving. There will be a lot of good people leaving Togo in the next month and a half.
I seriously eat my body weight in peanuts a week.
Overall, my trip the US was good. I got to see some people who I have missed a lot. I visited D's family in Detroit for a couple of days. That was really fun. I ate some good food. I saw my family, well most of them. That is always good.
Another football season begins without me . . . .
I had more stuff that I wanted to post but I cannot remember what it was so I will have to post it later.
A summation of my life up to this point-- I got off the plane in Ghana Saturday night. Sunday I tried to use my debit card and forgot my PIN. Monday I was teaching 13 new stagiares how to garden in Togo. Two weeks later I was trying to leave the south. 10 hours later I succeeded. Now, two trips to Kara later, I still do not have a new PIN number.
Some things I miss about the States:
drinking fountains
fast wifi
chipotle
my cats
my mom's fried chicken
football
nice roads
washing machines
Some things I do not miss about the States:
A/C
people driving too fast
the news
hot showers
walmart
clothes dryers
I was sitting in a taxi in Lome on the Sunday when we got back to Togo. I looked around at everyone and suddenly felt comfortable again for the first time in 2 weeks. Like everything made sense again. It was weird.
Being a trainer was a lot of fun. The new Environmental Action and Food Security people are great. Smart and motivated. It was good getting to know them and their colleagues in CHAP and EGE. It fascinates me how Peace Corps brings such a diverse group of people together in a common purpose/ goal. The Peace Corps puts some of the best and brightest people the US has to offer with some of the best and brightest people that the world has to offer and lets them go change lives.
After two years I got to update my iPod and my music selection. I did not think too much about this until I was in a bush taxi going north. Then I realized how tired I had gotten of my old music.
My house was about the same as I had left it. Nighan and her last kitten, Tadji (it means "do not eat" in Konkumba), were out in the bush. They came back when I got home. This happened when I went to Kara last week to try and arrange my bank situation. Now my neighbors are convinced that I have some kind of sorcery connection with them.
My garden was in much better shape than when i left it. my gardening protoge has done his job well.
NTido looks like she is about ready to pop. I asked her if she was ready for the baby to come and she was like "no, i dont think I am"
I was so tired from training that I slept for 3 days when I got home. One day during stage I woke up at 615. Stagiares got there at like 715 so I was on. Then one of them asked me to lunch. I got back to the tech house and slept for an hour during their language classes. Then they came back. We hung out after classes were over that day. I could not figure out why I was so tired at the end of the day. Then I realized that I had been talking to people non-stop from 715 to 1830 with the exception of my nap.
The new road to Kouka seems to be progressing. The road bed is mostly built up to Manga. After that though, the remaining 17k to Kouka sucks. Several people I know have been in fairly serious moto accidents. One of my friends has to spend 2 months in a full leg cast.
My stage is about to commence its exodus from Togo. A couple people have already left. I did not go to their COS conference because I am not leaving. There will be a lot of good people leaving Togo in the next month and a half.
I seriously eat my body weight in peanuts a week.
Overall, my trip the US was good. I got to see some people who I have missed a lot. I visited D's family in Detroit for a couple of days. That was really fun. I ate some good food. I saw my family, well most of them. That is always good.
Another football season begins without me . . . .
I had more stuff that I wanted to post but I cannot remember what it was so I will have to post it later.
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