i want to update my blog, but i want to put a ton on energy into it and i dont have the time to right now. AND the internet in tchamba stopped working indefinitely, so i dont know when the next time i will be able to use the internet will be. but im keeping a list of things i want to include and when i get around to it? i will edit this post and replace it with all of the wonderful things i have to say about Togo. until then.

oh also, i want to see how many cities in Togo i can update my blog from. so far i have Kpalimé, Lomé, Tchamba, and right now im in Sokodé. thats 4 cities in 3 regions, hopefully i will be able to hit all 5 regions.

always, sometimes, never

so to help give you a sense of what a slice of life is like in this place, i've compiled a list of things that i see every day, once a week, and things i've yet to see in Togo.

everyday:

• somebody peeing (male of female)
• a naked kid
• a child bathing from a bucket, usually with assistance from at least one other person. family member? who knows.
• somebody breastfeeding
• an entire family on a moto (i've seen as many as 5 people)
• a child - who in the united states would not be trusted with a pair of scissors - with a machete
• somebody carrying something that would otherwise be transported in the back of a pickup truck on their head. including but not limited to: a mattress, a chainsaw, a bench, a large bag (100 pounds) of charcoal

weekly

• somebody pooping (usually only men)
• many goats strapped to the roofrack of a bush taxi
• three or more people on a bike
• rocks in my food
• somebody come within inches of an accident, usually involving a car, moto, bike, or all three
• an todler with an infant strapped to her (always her) back
• a child walking down the middle of the street crying as hard as s/he can with no adults in sight

things i've never seen

• someone wearing a seatbelt
• a working speedometer
• someone with a bike helmet... actually anything safety related
• a dog on a leash
• a trashcan (everything is literally just thrown on the ground)

i can tell that my time here is going to be an eternity within a heartbeat - bigger on the inside than it is on the outside (see Danielwski 2002). Every day here i am going to think things like "it's only noon?! ive been up for hours and hours" or "that happened this morning? i thought that was last week". but at the same time i know i will sometimes thing "oh geeze, it's march already" or "wow. i COS next week. where did the last two years go?". time on a small scale is giong to drag along, but time on a larger scale is going to fly by. i am giong to try to appreciate every second spent here, no matter how lonely, painful, or boring it may be because i know one day i will miss it. it reminds me of the inscription on the clock in the court at King's "days can be long, but life can be short..."

every new begining comes from some other begining's end

...and I am officially done with Peace Corps training. Here I am in Lomé, tomorrow i will be swearing-in and i will be an official PCV. Training was great, but at the same time i am kind of sad to be leaving. my host family was so welcoming and i am really going to miss my host brother François. But i will be nice to live on my own and cook my own food and go wherever i want without having to explain what i'm doing in broken french.

so according to the language evaluations i am no better at french than when i got off the plane. but i know this is not true because i can express myself way better than when i first met my host family. This can only mean that the way in which they measure our progress is flawed in some way.

so much has happened since the last time i was around a computer. first of all, a new restaurant opened up in our training village. a few of us went to the grand opening. they had people dancing and lip-synching and stuff like that. then out of no where they asked all of the peace corps people to come up on stage. they thanked us and said that they appreciated the work that we are doing for Togo and stuff. Before we knew it, we were naming the new restaurant. "Obamania". for real. The guy is not even president yet and they're already naming restraunts after him... in OTHER countries. There is one little caveat to this story though. we didnt just pick this name out of thin air. they gave us two choices and we got to vote on which one we liked better. our choices were the one we picked, or just "Obama"... I think we made the right decision.

Also, since post visit training has been really relaxed. we've done stuff like "soy transformation" which is making tofu from soy beans. we did everything- soaked them, took them to the miller to be milled, boiled the stuff, skimmed stuff off of the top, strained it.... it's a much more complicated process than i thought. we also learned how to make soap and lotion. the purpose of learning this stuff is so we can teach our villagers and they can use this as an income generating activity. so if a girl doesnt have the money to pay for school, during breaks and stuff she can make lotion and sell it at the market.

we also went on a field trip up to the Kara region of Togo. it was a three day trip and we stopped at various places along the way to see some of the projects that previous volunteers have started. we also visited a few NGOs and got to ask them about their work and stuff. It was a great trip, but honestly the best part was kickin out the jams on my ipod and cruising down the route nationale. on top of that, we got to sleep on some real mattresses that were more than a few inches thick and we could actually take hot showers!

i think about everyone all the time, so many things happen here that reminds me of someone at home. i seriously think about you guys many times a day... here are some "for instance"s off the top of my head.

Rich and Sean- you guys have never seen a game of Hoop-n-Stick played until you've seen a togolese kid play. They are amazing at it. although they don't play the colonial version of a wooden hoop, they play the post industrial version which includes a moto tire. i've seen kids sprint up a bumpy hill and make a 90 degree turn to cross a little bridge less than a foot wide over a ditch on the side of the road and through a shop door.... what!?

Nolan- dude, british english makes so much more sense if you look at it from the perspective of french. things like the word torch (the french word for flashlight is torche) and the word queue, and all of those extra "u"s stuck all over the place like colour or flavour. there are many more examples but i just cant think of them right now.

Nicole- you'll never guess what grows all over the place down here. mimosa. i blew everyone's mind (a bit of an over statement) when i touched the leaves and made it close up. the next time i find one around, i'm going to put it in a pot and keep it in my house and raise it in the memory of the one you bought me...rest in peace.

my next post will be from Tchamba. thank you all for commenting on this thing, i love knowing that youre reading this. also, thank you to EVERYONE who has sent me mail. i'm many weeks behind, so the stuff you sent many weeks ago, i should be getting soon. thank you all for your support. i'm out.

Bienvenue a Tchamba

Yesterday was my first day at my post. This week is post visit. Tami, who is the volunteer i am replacing, just left this morning. Now the only two white people in the city are me and Heather who is a CHAP (community health and aids prevention) volunteer.

my opinion of this place? awesome. i am very happy with this small city. my house is georgous and i have a little court yard and a front porch and stuff. i have a huge living room, a huge bedroom, a huge bedroom with a proper shower and a flush toilet, i even have a guest bedroom. how friggen sweet is that? i cannot wait to have visitors, whether they are from the US or from other villages.

Affo is the name of my homologue. his role is to help me get stuff done. if i want to start a club or something, i talk to my boy Affo and he helps sort me out. yesterday he took me all around the city to meet different people such as the gendarmes, the police, the chief etc. This morning, before tami left, she took me to the big school (seriously, its huge) and introduced me to some important people. word is going around the village that i am replacing tami and that she is skipping town back to the US.

i am so friggen excited to start my service. at the end of this week i have to get myself back to the training village, Agou, which is about 4 or 5 hours away for the last 5 weeks of training. honestly, i dont want to. i want to stay here and start making friends around the village and hang out in the bar and go to the school and talk to the kids and chill in my belle maison.

i will take pictures of my house and around town and maybe they will make it to the internet. but it is extremely slow and they may never make it onto the internet. the internet cafe i am in right now is about a 5 minute walk from my house and its pretty cheap, so i will definitely have regular internet access.

also, i talked to nicole on the phone yesterday and she has not recieved the letter that i sent a while ago, nor any letter since then. ive written many letters since ive been here and one might be on its way to you, just be patient. yesterday i got a letter from sarah which she sent on september 9th.

i cant tell myself this enough: this is going to be a 27 month lesson in patience.

also:
"In the Harry Potter universe this is the hometown of the Quidditch team the Tchamba Charmers" -wikipedia... really?
and you can bet that i will be all over this wiki page by the time i leave...

Togo: where everyone's second language is French

whovever said everything is bigger in Texas has never been to Africa. this keyboard is different and really hard to type on...excuse the typos.

first of all; i have had to redefine so many things here. the whole concept of a "household" has been completely thrown out the window. i have people walking through my compound who i have never seen before and my host brother tries to tell me that theyre related to him somehow. i would love to describe my living conditions vividly but alas; this keyboard is killing me.

the biggest adjustment is definitely the language. i'm used to learning things pretty quickly but it feels like i've been here forever already, which makes it feel like i'm learning very slowly. i have good days and bad days. some mornings i wake up and dont feel like going to class, but after i get there, my mood flips right around and i feel great. other days the opposite is true. peaks and valleys. that's what i keep telling myself. today is a valley, but tomorrow will be a peak.

another adjustment is the time. it moves so differently here. some weeks creep by and others are gone before i know it. also, the days feel longer than the weeks sometimes. it's hard to explain.

2 of the GEE volunteers have ETed already. it was kind of a downer as far as the morale of the group goes but weve bounced back since then. one of the two who left was sanjay who was one of my favorite people here, it was great having him around and he will be missed.

please take some time out of your day and send some mail. you have no idea how much one little letter can make my day. send a newspaper or a newsweek or something because is sparse out here. were lucky if we can find a radio station in english with the news.

and i officially know where i will be living for the next two years. the "city" is called Tchamba. it is described as a big village or a very small city. apparently my house is really nice too. the week after next is our post visit so i will be living in Tchamba for that week. if there is internet there, which i heard there is, maybe my next post will be from my there.

some personal shout-outs:

Nicole: i get your skype texts so keep sending them, i reply but i'm assuming im wasting my money and youre not getting them.

Rich: the computers in the internet cafe use ubuntu

sean and nicole: i have been thinking about the sapir-wharf hypothesis a lot lately. how about this, in French, "again", "still", and "yet" are the same word - "encore" which is very frustrating.

Staging

As I was reading about all of the things I should expect from the Peace Corps, details about staging were something I haven't read much about. Staging is a seminar-like event. There are two groups here at the Hotel in Philly. One group is going to Cameroon and the other to Togo. Cameroon group is rolling about 30 deep, and there are 31 of us Togolese volunteers. Within the Togo group are those of us doing Girls' Education and Empowerment and others doing Natural Resource Management. Everyone is about the same age, 23 +/- a year or two, and it seems to be split pretty evenly between men and women. We've played games and did little skits after learning all of the rules of the Peace Corps and learning about what we should expect and how to handle certain situations. I feel like I've really gotten to know a few of the other people... more so than I thought I would. People are literally from all over the country and even the world. Just about all of us have at least traveled to other countries, some people have lived elsewhere for long periods of time.


Tonight most of us are going out to dinner at a restraunt here in center city. Everyone seems to be on the same page and I can tell that we will all support each other through some of the tough experiences we will find ourselves in.

Tomorrow we get to be stuck with needles, eat lunch, and then we get shuttled off to the airport. Tomorrow will be a long day. This may be one of the last times I have both access to the internet and freetime to write in the blog so you may not hear from me for a while.

The Ship's Manifest

Nolan was telling me about when he was doing research for a class on Jamaica during its colonization. He said that he was reading the manifests of the ships that were sailing across the Atlantic and that the settlers brought some of the most ridiculous things with them to the Caribbean. Things such as wool coats and church pews were all included in the manifests. This is a little bit like how I feel right now. I'm packing my bags to journey across the Atlantic and I don't know if what I'm bringing is appropriate. I guess this is as close to feeling like I'm going to settle a new world as anyone ever gets these days. I have no idea if I am over or under-packing. Here is everything that I've packed so far and I shouldn't be be adding too much more to this list. In no particular order:

stuff:
pens, 2 notebooks, envelopes, 3 books of stamps, scotch tape, scissors, journal, 1 combo and 1 key lock, "where there is no doctor" a medical field guide (thanks Nolan), "Moby Dick", 3 bars of soap, 3 sticks of deodorant, 3 toothbrushes, toothpaste, razor and a dozen disposable blades, shaving cream, hand sanitizer, 10 rolls of film, batteries - 10AAA - 16AA, crank flashlight, battery flashlight, book light, twine, clothes pins, seeds (tomato, cucumber, radish, etc..), duct tape, safety pins, sewing kit, 2 Nalgene bottles, french press coffee maker, sunscreen, daily vitamins, bugspray, ibproffin, sunglasses, mess kit, binoculars (not forgetting these like I did going to Scotland), day pack, crank radio, weekly planner, address book, extra watch, stationary (thanks Katelynn), backgammon (thanks Kevin), cameras (35mm and digital), sleeping bag, pillow case, bed sheets, calculator, 4 bandanas, pictures of loved ones, photoalbum/scrapbook (thanks Nicole), international power adaptor, iPod charger (wall and car), tons of bubble gum and blowing bubbles (to give to my host family's kids), a mirror, shampoo, small first aid kit, multi-tool, penknife, koolaid, oldbay seasoning

clothing:
underwear (all of them), socks (all of them), pajama pants, undershirts (6), waterproof trousers, bathing suit, polo shirts (4), button down shirts (4), one tie, waterproof "yacket" (thanks again Nolan), 4 pair of pants (three of which zip off giving me...), 3 pair of shorts, dress shoes, boot-ish type shoes, sandals, light blanket, towel, hoodie

This packing list seems completely reasonable to me now, but in hindsight it may seem somewhat ridiculous. Ideally I should have a use for everything on the list and never have to think "Ah, you know what I should have brought..." I guess I'll let you know when I think to myself "Why did I pack this?". We're down to only 8 days until I leave.

the next chapter

So, I should be leaving for Togo in just over a month. I'll be going with the Peace Corps to work in a Girls' Education and Empowerment program, but if you're reading this, you probably already know that. The reason I'm starting this blog is to document my life while i'm living there. Hopefully, i'll have internet access from time to time, like when (if) i get to travel into lome every once in a while, but i honestly have no idea what to expect.