July 17, 2011-Post Visit

We met our homologues the Friday morning before we left for post visit. A homologue is a person who introduces you to your new community, helps you get settled into you house, and is the first person you will work with (but not the only person). My homologue is named Roger and he works with an NGO in Tandjouare called Code Utile Afrique. I’m still trying to figure out everything that they do, but I know they work with groupements (a group of people work together on a collective project), most specifically with women, and they have a health clinic. I’ll learn more when I return to my post after I swear in, but my French is still very basic so this is all that I was able to figure out for now.

The five of us that will be posted in the Savannes region were put into one rented bush taxi, along with our homologues and all of our stuff (bikes included, it’s amazing how the Togolese are able to stack things on top of the vans–sometimes the load is taller than the van! I’ll try to get a picture and post it). I’m not sure if I’ve described bush taxis before but they’re usually a 12- or 15-passenger van used in place of public transportation. The driver works along with “sidekick” who sits in the seat closest to sliding door with the window open and whose job it is to flag down other passengers along the road going in the same direction. Oftentimes, the vans will be filled way over capacity. However, since PC rented the whole vehicle, they weren’t allowed to pick up anyone else. Lucky me, I got sick the night before we left. It made for a very fun journey up north, one where I really didn’t eat or drink anything for fear of my stomach not agreeing with it.

We left Tsévié at 7:30am and I got dropped off at 10pm. We made a couple stops along the way, once to repair a flat tire. It was really refreshing to see the whole country and pass through many of the towns where other volunteers are posted. I was under the impression that the further north you went, the dryer and less green the scenery got, but it’s rainy season right now so everything is green and it’s absolutely gorgeous. There are a lot of hills in the northern two regions and they’re a mixture of grass, dirt, rocks and trees. Upon being dropped off, I was greeted by about 7 or 8 people and ushered to sit down. I was first offered a drink made with flour and water, which I was told was only tradition and I did not have to actually drink it. Next came dinner, spaghetti with chicken. I love spaghetti and the food looked really good, yet I was still wary about my stomach. I tried to eat as much as I could, but I hardly made a dent in my place. I felt really bad, as I didn’t want to offend anyone. (Later, I found out that they had prepared the food at 4, not knowing when exactly I would arrive and one women told me that she was on the toilet all night after eating it so I felt a little better.)

The place where I got dropped off is called Soukala. It’s a hotel and restaurant located directly off the Route Internationale and is where the director of Code Utile and his wife reside. There’s also a mini museum which is basically a traditional Moba family compound used to teach tourists and modern Togolese about the local people and the way they used to live. It’s a really cool setup and I hope to be able to work with them and help make it an ecotourism site. After dinner, I (along with all of my stuff) was strapped on to a moto and transported to my house.

My house is very cute. There are two rooms in the main building. One will be my living/dining room and the other my bedroom. There’s a traditional styled hut right outside that will be my kitchen, although it’s a little small and the floor is concave so I may build an outside cooking area for when it’s not rainy season. Maybe I’ll build myself a stove...(you can’t find bread in my village, which was a huge disappointment so maybe I’ll just learn how to make my own). I also have a brand new latrine and shower room. The latrine has a western toilet on top so it seems relatively normal, although you don’t have to flush so therefore the bowl gets really dirty… I just know that when I go back to the States I’m going to forget to flush toilets. So there’s no running water. There’s a pump not too far away but I was told I’m not strong enough to carry my own water so I have and 8 year old girl who will fetch it for me. I’m not insulted by that because I’m pretty sure they’re right, although I would like to try carrying the water on my head sometime. I do have electricity, but it’s only for the hours 8am-noon and 3pm-11pm, which is honestly all that I need. There’s no light in the kitchen though so if I wait to long to start cooking I have to use my headlamp, which results in me having to swat away bugs every 10 seconds or so.

I live by myself, which has its pros and cons. Pros: I have more privacy and am free to come and go and do as I please. Cons: I lose out on the social aspect of living with others and learning the local language easily by speaking with them. There’s also some security that comes with living with others, but my neighbors all seem very nice and I’m planning on getting a dog.

So post visit went well. There were many awkward conversations, but that’s to be expected. I met a few of the chiefs (or chefs in French) of the surrounding villages and they were all very nice and welcoming. One gifted me about 15 guinea fowl eggs. They’re as common as chickens are up in the Savannes region. The shells of the eggs were so hard that I had to use my kitchen knife to chop them open. The taste is the same but the yokes are this bright orange color. I made omelettes and I kept thinking that someone put food coloring in my eggs.

Friday morning my homologue took me into Dapaong. It’s tradition for the current PVCs to throw a post visit party for all the newbies. Since Savannes is the furthest region north, we split our journey back down south into two days and got to have two parties! PC provides us with a work station in Dapaong, which is great to have because there are a few beds if you need to stay the night, internet access and a kitchen. Being so isolated from the rest of the country makes the workstation essential because it’s the main meeting point for my cluster of PCVs and it’s great to have a place to work when we come into town. The food at both parties was amazing! First, to have a variety of dishes available to choose from was a luxury, and second, I was really impressed by the food they were able to make with limited resources. Some of the highlights included fudge, apple pie, a Mexican lineup featuring beans, homemade tortillas and an amazing cheese sauce, and milkshakes. The newest volunteers are in charge of planning the next stage’s post party so I’m already thinking of ideas for the new stage that comes in September.