So I have big news: Djobo is going to Arusha, Tanzania for an international savings groups summit! He received a scholarship covering the $350 registration fee, his flight, housing, meals, etc. from the MasterCard Foundation of Canada. You can read more information about the summit HERE.
Other than that, projects are picking up and heating up! I have a big wad of cash sitting in my bedroom waiting to begin my latrine project, but have to wait until Djobo comes back from Tanzania to start.
I’m working on a project called Education des Patrons pour l’Amelioration de leur Travail (EPAT) because Togolese people love long, drawn out names with acronyms. I’ve talked about in previous posts, but it’s a six part series on basic business skills – SWOT analysis/feasibility study; strategic planning; marketing; accounting; financing options for business expansion; and technology. The artisans pay a small fee (about $1) to participate in all 6 classes. This helps me the cover cost of photocopies, transportation for teachers, certificates, and a celebration party. Certificates are a really important part of Togolese culture. Instead of resumes, they have a book full of all the certificates they received through completing specific work or trainings.
I’m hoping to start a Women’s Health Club in Pagala. The idea started when I volunteer told me about her idea to teach village women about nutrition and give them cooking classes/recipes on cooking 6 fully balanced meals. From there, I want to teach them about sexual health, importance of an active lifestyle (we’ll do running/pilates together), hygiene, gender equality, volunteerism, malaria, importance of going to the hospital NOT a traditional healer, diarrhea, and options in the fields like natural pesticides and composting.
Organization is underway for the 2012 Centrale Region Women’s Wellness and Empowerment Conference! It was done last year by an amazing team of PCVs in the Plateaux Region and they are expanding it to be nationwide this year. Two other girls and I are organizing it for our region and can’t wait to get the conference underway. It will be March 15-18 in Sokode. The subjects we definitely want to touch on include family planning, budgeting, nutrition, etc. More information to come!
As always, continuing the work with my Village Savings and Loans groups. I currently have 7 groups and just met with 2-4 possible new groups! I’m also going to pick up my work with the microfinance, URCLEC, because I haven’t been there much lately. School is starting back October 3, and along with that comes Peer Educators, English Club, and possibly a couple of new girls’ clubs.
As I said, staying busy! Just got back from Ghana with my boyfriend. We had an amazing time eating all kinds of food we haven’t had in a year! We ate Thai, Chinese, Italian, Sushi, Indian, and even KFC fried chicken. We discovered a cool little bar right on the ocean, got dressed up for happy hour cocktails, and went to the mall. It felt like real life.
I’ll leave you with a Togo story: It’s been pretty chilly lately since it’s rainy season, so I like to heat up shower before my bucket showers. I hadn’t washed my hair in a couple of days so I filled up my bucket to the brim in preparation for a long, warm “shower.” Earlier that day, I had bombed my latrine with insecticide because of this awful cockroach problem I’d been dealing with. As I dipped my hair into my bucket I hear the cat outside the shower door getting a little frisky. I figured he was just playing with a lizard as usual. He wasn’t. He was batting around a huge, flying cockroach who scurried right into my shower to escape John Galt’s killer claws. I flipped out a little, pulled myself together, ran out of the shower naked, grabbed my broom and repeatedly slammed it down on the cockroach until I was sure it was dead. I swept it away and continued my peaceful shower. I’ve come so far!
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
26 August 2011
Take Our Daughters to Work Week was a success for the most part. My favorite moments included: the girls seeing computers for the first time and playing games to learn to use the mouse and keyboard. The girls visiting the hospital and my 2 girls from Pagala telling me that they want to become doctors. My session on feasibility studies and AGRs which I did by myself in French! Playing games and singing songs with the girls. Listening to a song the girls made up for us on the last day – it brought tears to my eyes.
Unfortunately, I’ve been fighting a cold for two weeks now. I think it’s finally starting to go away. This week, the week after Take Our Daughters to Work, I have been too lethargic to do a whole lot. I’ve read two awesome books though – Empire Falls and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Next week is our Mid-Service Conference in Pagala and after that, I’m heading down to Atakpame for a few days and then to Accra, Ghana with Lyle to celebrate making it a year in Togo! I’m really looking forward to a break before starting my big latrine project, closing out the Take Our Daughters to Work project, and starting the 6-six business skills series. Volunteers always say their second year is better and infinitely more productive that their first, and I’m already finding that to be true.
Unfortunately, I’ve been fighting a cold for two weeks now. I think it’s finally starting to go away. This week, the week after Take Our Daughters to Work, I have been too lethargic to do a whole lot. I’ve read two awesome books though – Empire Falls and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Next week is our Mid-Service Conference in Pagala and after that, I’m heading down to Atakpame for a few days and then to Accra, Ghana with Lyle to celebrate making it a year in Togo! I’m really looking forward to a break before starting my big latrine project, closing out the Take Our Daughters to Work project, and starting the 6-six business skills series. Volunteers always say their second year is better and infinitely more productive that their first, and I’m already finding that to be true.
Friday, August 12, 2011
11 August 2011
I realized that I don’t have a ton of continuity between my blog posts. To update you on all the things I already talked about:
Post Visit party was awesome, lots of delicious food and dancing at Plasir’s, Pagala’s famous bar. The soccer tournament went well, I actually played … and then couldn’t move for two days afterwards because I was so sore. The volunteer team lost in the first round 4-8, but that’s better than last year’s volunteer team who lost 1-8. Pagala’s Togolese team won the tournament and the “grand prix” of 10,000 francs! That’s about $25. Everything else I mentioned from earlier posts went well, even though halfway through pommade de neem, I was convinced it was going to be a huge failure. It wasn’t.
Next week is Take Our Daughters to Work week in my region. Two other girls and I are organizing it along with three incredible Togolese counterparts. It’s for girls aged 13-15 to come to a big city (Sotoboua), meet successful Togolese women, learn general lifeskills, and gain encouragement to stay in school. I’m getting really excited about it!
Next week is also camp Joie, the camp for handicapped children, in Pagala. I’m really bummed I won’t be here. I read some of the letters the kids wrote, and they sound awesome. I hope the camp will really change their lives.
The library the volunteer before me built is having major cashflow issues. I’m trying to figure out what to do about this without just giving them a bunch of money. Unfortunately, giving them money (or rather, stuff like a photocopy machine and solar panel) is seeming like the only viable/sustainable option right now.
My next big project idea is a six-week business skills series for artisans in my canton (like seamstresses, carpenters, mechanics, masons, and hairdressers). I plan to do questionnaires beforehand and individual follow-up after the series. I also want it to be completely self-funded (this is the most exciting part to me!). We’ll see if people go for it or not. People don’t like to pay for things like this and they’re used to an NGO culture who pays them to go to things like this. On vera!
I can’t believe I’m finally down to less than a year. It’s still a really long time, but one of my best volunteer friends and I realized that if we have one thing per month to look forward to, then that’s only 12 more things. Totally doable.
Post Visit party was awesome, lots of delicious food and dancing at Plasir’s, Pagala’s famous bar. The soccer tournament went well, I actually played … and then couldn’t move for two days afterwards because I was so sore. The volunteer team lost in the first round 4-8, but that’s better than last year’s volunteer team who lost 1-8. Pagala’s Togolese team won the tournament and the “grand prix” of 10,000 francs! That’s about $25. Everything else I mentioned from earlier posts went well, even though halfway through pommade de neem, I was convinced it was going to be a huge failure. It wasn’t.
Next week is Take Our Daughters to Work week in my region. Two other girls and I are organizing it along with three incredible Togolese counterparts. It’s for girls aged 13-15 to come to a big city (Sotoboua), meet successful Togolese women, learn general lifeskills, and gain encouragement to stay in school. I’m getting really excited about it!
Next week is also camp Joie, the camp for handicapped children, in Pagala. I’m really bummed I won’t be here. I read some of the letters the kids wrote, and they sound awesome. I hope the camp will really change their lives.
The library the volunteer before me built is having major cashflow issues. I’m trying to figure out what to do about this without just giving them a bunch of money. Unfortunately, giving them money (or rather, stuff like a photocopy machine and solar panel) is seeming like the only viable/sustainable option right now.
My next big project idea is a six-week business skills series for artisans in my canton (like seamstresses, carpenters, mechanics, masons, and hairdressers). I plan to do questionnaires beforehand and individual follow-up after the series. I also want it to be completely self-funded (this is the most exciting part to me!). We’ll see if people go for it or not. People don’t like to pay for things like this and they’re used to an NGO culture who pays them to go to things like this. On vera!
I can’t believe I’m finally down to less than a year. It’s still a really long time, but one of my best volunteer friends and I realized that if we have one thing per month to look forward to, then that’s only 12 more things. Totally doable.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
2 August 2011
Typical Day in Togo … Take Today for Example
6am : The sun is shining in my windows. I want to sleep but the sun is too bright and I really have to go pee (even though I hate my latrine, especially first thing in the morning).
7am: Finally out of bed, making breakfast – an egg sandwich with spreadable cheese (Laughing Cow) , mayonnaise, and some spices. If this sounds gross, move to Togo. You’ll be surprised how your tastes change.
7:30am: eating breakfast, while working on a SPA (Small Project Assistance) proposal for “Amenons Nos Filles au Travail” (or Take Our Daughters to Work).
8:00am: doing dishes and cleaning up the house to leave for the day. Also, making a list of things to do. Leave for my seamstress’ shop, take a back road with my bike and get covered in mud from the knees down on my way there. On the way, a woman calls out to me from her house to come wash my feet and shoes at her house.
8:30am: arrive at my first “to do” of the day, my seamstress. I pay her a little bit of money each month to teach me how to sew. She isn’t there and neither are her apprentices, her shop is closed. I call her and she says she is in her field and she’ll be there tomorrow. I explain that I’m too busy to work with her this month, but hope to continue next month.
8:45am: Arrive at the one place to photocopy things in Pagala and they’re closed. There are two phone numbers on the sign. I try both and both neither work. I vow to make these photocopies tomorrow. Receive a call from my boss letting me know that a new volunteer will be shadowing me in the next few months.
9:00am: look for the president of a women’s farming group. I received some moringa seeds she wanted and wanted to set a meeting with her group to figure out the next step. I asked around her neighborhood and no one knew where she lived. Sigh, another set-back.
9:15: Go to ICAT, the agriculture leader in Pagala, to meet with a guy about a workshop on STIs and HIV/AIDS that he wants to do in our canton. He gave me a really inflated budget (typical Togolese) so we discussed how we can cut off about 2/3 of it.
10:30: pretty tired, return to my house to chill and talk to Lyle on the phone for a bit. Feed the dog (I’m dog-sitting or another volunteer) and start soaking beans for my dinner later that night.
11:30: Go to the Pagala training center where Camp Scientifilles (girls science camp) is going on and watch them discuss Ecology and watched a biogas demonstration where a volunteer showed how to make gas from pig manure.
12:30: eat lunch at the center with other volunteers, then go get a drink at a bar across the street before sessions start again.
3:00: go to a Village Savings and Loan group. No one is there so I walk to a local beer stand and find the members drinking there. I remind them that the meeting started 10 minutes ago, but they convince me to have a drink first.
3:30: a little tipsy, we restart our Savings and Loan group from the year before. We had just finished in June. They changed the pay-in to be more than the year before so everyone is saving a little more now. Before I left, they gave me a tshirt and headscarf they made for the club and we planned on having a little party around the 15th of August. Buy “l’huile rouge” or red oil, a locally made oil, from the club president to have with my beans tonight.
4:30: Stop by the shop of a handicapped tailor to let him know that three of the kids he nominated were selected for Camp Joie (or Camp Joy, a new camp for the outcast handicapped youth of Togo). I gave him letters to give to the kids and met a guy who gave me a Kabye name, Sika.
4:45: stopped by the post office to send two letters and received two letters from America!
5:00: stopped at a woman’s house to buy bread for tomorrow’s breakfast; she makes it fresh everyday, but I can only buy a little bit at a time because with no preservatives, it goes bad in 2-3 days.
5:15: return home, put my bike inside and walk to my neighbor’s house. She sells tchouk, the locally brewed beer, every Tuesday. She was out of fermented, so I drank the sugary non-fermented, tchouk. While drinking, I read my letters from America and had a conversation with some guy about sewing and selling clothes in America and corn-based ethanol to power cars. He was shocked that we would use corn for anything other than eating.
5:45: finally home for the day. Start boiling water for my bucket shower and start boiling my beans for dinner. Watch the nightly descent of the bats from the neighbor’s roof into the dusk. Take my shower. I may not have every mentioned how much spider webs are a part of my daily life. They are everywhere and I run into them daily. It’s annoying, but I don’t freak out anymore.
6:45: smell something burning and realize that it’s my beans. I manage to salvage the beans that aren’t touching the pot and add some gari (dried and ground cassava) and red oil with fried onions for dinner. Save half of the beans for a meal tomorrow.
7:00: receive a message from one of the science camp organizers asking if I can bring sewing needles over. I’m already in my pajamas, but call up a moto driver I know to come to my house and bring her the needles.
7:40: writing this blog post while a bug continuously flied into my computer screen. I must have flicked it away 10 times by now but it keeps coming back. Reflect on the days events and thank my lucky stars that no matter how many times I tell people I’m fasting with them for Ramadan, I don’t actually have to. Although, I am making a point to only eat in my house for the next month and not eat in public.
7:45: if this bug comes one more time, I’m going to freak out. Going to read and go to bed!
PS - Friday makes my one year anniversary at post!
6am : The sun is shining in my windows. I want to sleep but the sun is too bright and I really have to go pee (even though I hate my latrine, especially first thing in the morning).
7am: Finally out of bed, making breakfast – an egg sandwich with spreadable cheese (Laughing Cow) , mayonnaise, and some spices. If this sounds gross, move to Togo. You’ll be surprised how your tastes change.
7:30am: eating breakfast, while working on a SPA (Small Project Assistance) proposal for “Amenons Nos Filles au Travail” (or Take Our Daughters to Work).
8:00am: doing dishes and cleaning up the house to leave for the day. Also, making a list of things to do. Leave for my seamstress’ shop, take a back road with my bike and get covered in mud from the knees down on my way there. On the way, a woman calls out to me from her house to come wash my feet and shoes at her house.
8:30am: arrive at my first “to do” of the day, my seamstress. I pay her a little bit of money each month to teach me how to sew. She isn’t there and neither are her apprentices, her shop is closed. I call her and she says she is in her field and she’ll be there tomorrow. I explain that I’m too busy to work with her this month, but hope to continue next month.
8:45am: Arrive at the one place to photocopy things in Pagala and they’re closed. There are two phone numbers on the sign. I try both and both neither work. I vow to make these photocopies tomorrow. Receive a call from my boss letting me know that a new volunteer will be shadowing me in the next few months.
9:00am: look for the president of a women’s farming group. I received some moringa seeds she wanted and wanted to set a meeting with her group to figure out the next step. I asked around her neighborhood and no one knew where she lived. Sigh, another set-back.
9:15: Go to ICAT, the agriculture leader in Pagala, to meet with a guy about a workshop on STIs and HIV/AIDS that he wants to do in our canton. He gave me a really inflated budget (typical Togolese) so we discussed how we can cut off about 2/3 of it.
10:30: pretty tired, return to my house to chill and talk to Lyle on the phone for a bit. Feed the dog (I’m dog-sitting or another volunteer) and start soaking beans for my dinner later that night.
11:30: Go to the Pagala training center where Camp Scientifilles (girls science camp) is going on and watch them discuss Ecology and watched a biogas demonstration where a volunteer showed how to make gas from pig manure.
12:30: eat lunch at the center with other volunteers, then go get a drink at a bar across the street before sessions start again.
3:00: go to a Village Savings and Loan group. No one is there so I walk to a local beer stand and find the members drinking there. I remind them that the meeting started 10 minutes ago, but they convince me to have a drink first.
3:30: a little tipsy, we restart our Savings and Loan group from the year before. We had just finished in June. They changed the pay-in to be more than the year before so everyone is saving a little more now. Before I left, they gave me a tshirt and headscarf they made for the club and we planned on having a little party around the 15th of August. Buy “l’huile rouge” or red oil, a locally made oil, from the club president to have with my beans tonight.
4:30: Stop by the shop of a handicapped tailor to let him know that three of the kids he nominated were selected for Camp Joie (or Camp Joy, a new camp for the outcast handicapped youth of Togo). I gave him letters to give to the kids and met a guy who gave me a Kabye name, Sika.
4:45: stopped by the post office to send two letters and received two letters from America!
5:00: stopped at a woman’s house to buy bread for tomorrow’s breakfast; she makes it fresh everyday, but I can only buy a little bit at a time because with no preservatives, it goes bad in 2-3 days.
5:15: return home, put my bike inside and walk to my neighbor’s house. She sells tchouk, the locally brewed beer, every Tuesday. She was out of fermented, so I drank the sugary non-fermented, tchouk. While drinking, I read my letters from America and had a conversation with some guy about sewing and selling clothes in America and corn-based ethanol to power cars. He was shocked that we would use corn for anything other than eating.
5:45: finally home for the day. Start boiling water for my bucket shower and start boiling my beans for dinner. Watch the nightly descent of the bats from the neighbor’s roof into the dusk. Take my shower. I may not have every mentioned how much spider webs are a part of my daily life. They are everywhere and I run into them daily. It’s annoying, but I don’t freak out anymore.
6:45: smell something burning and realize that it’s my beans. I manage to salvage the beans that aren’t touching the pot and add some gari (dried and ground cassava) and red oil with fried onions for dinner. Save half of the beans for a meal tomorrow.
7:00: receive a message from one of the science camp organizers asking if I can bring sewing needles over. I’m already in my pajamas, but call up a moto driver I know to come to my house and bring her the needles.
7:40: writing this blog post while a bug continuously flied into my computer screen. I must have flicked it away 10 times by now but it keeps coming back. Reflect on the days events and thank my lucky stars that no matter how many times I tell people I’m fasting with them for Ramadan, I don’t actually have to. Although, I am making a point to only eat in my house for the next month and not eat in public.
7:45: if this bug comes one more time, I’m going to freak out. Going to read and go to bed!
PS - Friday makes my one year anniversary at post!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
12 July 2011
Well, things are heating up! Not literally, the weather is actually cooling off because of raining season. But work is getting busy.
July 4th went well, but we didn’t play games. Unless you count Settlers of Catan.
Now preparing for things ahead. This week: met with a groupment to discuss growing moringa. A groupment is a group, usually comprised of women, who combine their money to buy land, crops, fertilizer, etc; grow and work together in the fields; and split the profits. Moringa is a hardy tree originally from India which Peace Corps pushes as a great alternative to multi-vitamins. The leaves are full of vitamins and, when dried and ground into a powder, can be added to food to save the lives of malnourished children and add a much-needed vitamin boost to the typical Togolese diet. The groupment and I are going to start teaching Pagala about the benefits of moringa and they are going to plant a few trees to try out. Next year, if all goes well, they want to plant a whole field of moringa and sell the leaves and the powder in the market.
My apprentice club is going well. We went from 7 girls too shy to talk to about 50 apprentices from all trades who are lively and motivated. We’ve talked about everything from their apprentice exam to condoms to marketing. I look forward to going every week and they have come so far already!
My club des meres (Mother’s Club) and I are going to be making pommade de neem on Thursday morning and preparing for our first Nettoyage du Village. Pommade de neem is a lotion people can use to prevent mosquito bites which is really important right now during rainy season and malaria season. Nettoyage du Village is going to be a village clean-up every Sunday after the Saturday market. Pagala’s market is the 5th largest market in Togo (not bad for a little village without electricity, huh?) and after the people come, they leave behind a huge mess! The club des meres and I are going out to the market, armed with brooms to clean the market and burn the trash. This is also in preparation for our big celebration the next day – African Women’s Day!
Friday is Pagala cluster’s traditional welcome party to welcome our newest cluster member – Lauren! Saturday is our regional post visit party and I spent the morning planning our somewhat American menu.
Sunday is a soccer tournament to promote clean water. The volunteers have a team and we’re playing against a team from Pagala, Waragni, and Tchere-bou. We’ll be bringing in the other village teams in bush taxis and motos, serving them lunch, and promoting water purification, hand-washing, and using pump water instead of river water. After a big party, it will be interesting to see how the volunteer team fairs, ha.
I’ll try to keep updating on the reg. Only 13 more months!
July 4th went well, but we didn’t play games. Unless you count Settlers of Catan.
Now preparing for things ahead. This week: met with a groupment to discuss growing moringa. A groupment is a group, usually comprised of women, who combine their money to buy land, crops, fertilizer, etc; grow and work together in the fields; and split the profits. Moringa is a hardy tree originally from India which Peace Corps pushes as a great alternative to multi-vitamins. The leaves are full of vitamins and, when dried and ground into a powder, can be added to food to save the lives of malnourished children and add a much-needed vitamin boost to the typical Togolese diet. The groupment and I are going to start teaching Pagala about the benefits of moringa and they are going to plant a few trees to try out. Next year, if all goes well, they want to plant a whole field of moringa and sell the leaves and the powder in the market.
My apprentice club is going well. We went from 7 girls too shy to talk to about 50 apprentices from all trades who are lively and motivated. We’ve talked about everything from their apprentice exam to condoms to marketing. I look forward to going every week and they have come so far already!
My club des meres (Mother’s Club) and I are going to be making pommade de neem on Thursday morning and preparing for our first Nettoyage du Village. Pommade de neem is a lotion people can use to prevent mosquito bites which is really important right now during rainy season and malaria season. Nettoyage du Village is going to be a village clean-up every Sunday after the Saturday market. Pagala’s market is the 5th largest market in Togo (not bad for a little village without electricity, huh?) and after the people come, they leave behind a huge mess! The club des meres and I are going out to the market, armed with brooms to clean the market and burn the trash. This is also in preparation for our big celebration the next day – African Women’s Day!
Friday is Pagala cluster’s traditional welcome party to welcome our newest cluster member – Lauren! Saturday is our regional post visit party and I spent the morning planning our somewhat American menu.
Sunday is a soccer tournament to promote clean water. The volunteers have a team and we’re playing against a team from Pagala, Waragni, and Tchere-bou. We’ll be bringing in the other village teams in bush taxis and motos, serving them lunch, and promoting water purification, hand-washing, and using pump water instead of river water. After a big party, it will be interesting to see how the volunteer team fairs, ha.
I’ll try to keep updating on the reg. Only 13 more months!
Saturday, July 2, 2011
2 July 2011
2 July 2011
So I’m sorry that I’ve fallen off the face of the Earth. Actually, I was in Switzerland which is a much more connected place than Togo, but was too busy eating cheese and drinking fabulous wine to post on my Peace Corps blog.
So training went well. On June 3rd, I welcomed 23 clean, bright-eyed Americans to the Lome Airport. They were so excited to be here and full of questions! Me and two other trainers hung out with the new trainees for a few days in Lome and taught them about how to filter our water, the importance of taking malaria medicine, and how to use a latrine. I then went up to Tsevie with them where they met their host families and began the first leg of their service in Togo – training. They definitely started freaking out after the first couple nights and the training manager took me aside to say, “go get them drinks and talk it out!” Everyone is still here and I think they’re getting the hang of things.
After my week of training, it was off to Switzerland with my boyfriend and his family. We stayed in a beautiful chalet in a village called Leysin. We had a view of the Alps and the city and were a two minute walk from a bakery, so we had fresh breads and pastries every morning! We also ate a lot of traditional Swiss meals such as raclette and fondu. We visited lots of friends and lots of friends visited us! We also hiked around Leysin, explored Gruyere, and swam in Lake Geneva. Overall, a perfect, and much needed, vacation.
Welcome back to Togo where taxi drivers try to overcharge you and people yell “yovo” when you walk by. Did I miss this? Not really. It’s been a tough adjustment back, but luckily, I have several projects going on so I’m keeping busy.
We stayed in Lome for a day to help us adjust back and then went to Atakpame for a couple of days to see other volunteers. A few times, I almost had breakdowns.
Example 1 – went to a “nice” restaurant for brunch for a volunteer’s birthday. We were so excited to get pizza and the waiter tells us there’s no ham. Ok, no big deal, cheese pizza is great too! Oh wait, there’s no cheese? There’s no beef? What do you have? Rice, spaghetti, and cous cous. Breakdown number one.
Example 2 – make it back to Pagala and have a girl do all of my laundry. She hangs it all on the line and leaves. A few hours later ... CRASH!! The entire clothing line fell down and all of my wet, clean clothes went right into the dirt. Breakdown number two.
I’m keeping Cousteau, my boyfriend’s dog, for a few weeks and he’s so much fun! I miss having a dog, so I’m looking into getting another volunteer’s dog when he finishes his service in November/December.
Upcoming events:
July 4th, duh! Always the hostess, I just couldn’t let July 4th pass without at least a little party. So we’re grilling out hot dogs with the traditional sides of pasta salad, potato salad, etc. And for dessert, brownies and s’mores! We’re also going to do some American games, so I’ll take pictures.
July 16th – post visit party. The new volunteers are visiting their posts for a week, so we throw them a little party every year to welcome them to the region. The Centralers voted that Pagala was hosting this year, so we’re going all out. Roasting a pig in the ground and having a good ol’ Southern barbeque.
July 24th – training, again. I’ll be heading back to Tsevie to spend another week with the trainees before they swear-in and become real volunteers!
One of the only things that made coming back to Togo bearable was having packages and letters waiting for me at the post office. Thanks you guys, I could never make it here without you!
So I’m sorry that I’ve fallen off the face of the Earth. Actually, I was in Switzerland which is a much more connected place than Togo, but was too busy eating cheese and drinking fabulous wine to post on my Peace Corps blog.
So training went well. On June 3rd, I welcomed 23 clean, bright-eyed Americans to the Lome Airport. They were so excited to be here and full of questions! Me and two other trainers hung out with the new trainees for a few days in Lome and taught them about how to filter our water, the importance of taking malaria medicine, and how to use a latrine. I then went up to Tsevie with them where they met their host families and began the first leg of their service in Togo – training. They definitely started freaking out after the first couple nights and the training manager took me aside to say, “go get them drinks and talk it out!” Everyone is still here and I think they’re getting the hang of things.
After my week of training, it was off to Switzerland with my boyfriend and his family. We stayed in a beautiful chalet in a village called Leysin. We had a view of the Alps and the city and were a two minute walk from a bakery, so we had fresh breads and pastries every morning! We also ate a lot of traditional Swiss meals such as raclette and fondu. We visited lots of friends and lots of friends visited us! We also hiked around Leysin, explored Gruyere, and swam in Lake Geneva. Overall, a perfect, and much needed, vacation.
Welcome back to Togo where taxi drivers try to overcharge you and people yell “yovo” when you walk by. Did I miss this? Not really. It’s been a tough adjustment back, but luckily, I have several projects going on so I’m keeping busy.
We stayed in Lome for a day to help us adjust back and then went to Atakpame for a couple of days to see other volunteers. A few times, I almost had breakdowns.
Example 1 – went to a “nice” restaurant for brunch for a volunteer’s birthday. We were so excited to get pizza and the waiter tells us there’s no ham. Ok, no big deal, cheese pizza is great too! Oh wait, there’s no cheese? There’s no beef? What do you have? Rice, spaghetti, and cous cous. Breakdown number one.
Example 2 – make it back to Pagala and have a girl do all of my laundry. She hangs it all on the line and leaves. A few hours later ... CRASH!! The entire clothing line fell down and all of my wet, clean clothes went right into the dirt. Breakdown number two.
I’m keeping Cousteau, my boyfriend’s dog, for a few weeks and he’s so much fun! I miss having a dog, so I’m looking into getting another volunteer’s dog when he finishes his service in November/December.
Upcoming events:
July 4th, duh! Always the hostess, I just couldn’t let July 4th pass without at least a little party. So we’re grilling out hot dogs with the traditional sides of pasta salad, potato salad, etc. And for dessert, brownies and s’mores! We’re also going to do some American games, so I’ll take pictures.
July 16th – post visit party. The new volunteers are visiting their posts for a week, so we throw them a little party every year to welcome them to the region. The Centralers voted that Pagala was hosting this year, so we’re going all out. Roasting a pig in the ground and having a good ol’ Southern barbeque.
July 24th – training, again. I’ll be heading back to Tsevie to spend another week with the trainees before they swear-in and become real volunteers!
One of the only things that made coming back to Togo bearable was having packages and letters waiting for me at the post office. Thanks you guys, I could never make it here without you!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Camp Joie
Wanted to also put in a plug for an amazing project some volunteers from my training group are doing! They're trying to raise money from back home for a camp for handicapped Togolese children. Check it out here: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=693-373
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