Updates

So I’m a little behind on updating this blog… (like two months!) I’ve been moving around quite a bit lately and then whenever I had time to write a post it just felt so daunting since there was so much to write about. I apologize and promise to (try to) not let it happen again. I also apologize on my letter and email writing back habits, which unfortunately have also not been too great…

I’m going to try to give some quick updates on what’s been going on in my life. I’ll start with Christmas since that was the first big event that happened after my last post.

Christmas in Togo

I was a little worried about the holiday season as it was the first time I would not be with family and I’m surrounded by an environment that I’d only been a part of for a few months. It actually wasn’t as hard/awkward/sad as I thought it may be. Now, California is not known for it’s cold temperature but my house at Christmas time is usually pretty cold (with frost as proof) since it’s in a canyon so having Christmas when it was 90° didn’t exactly feel real. Add that to the setting and it seemed (almost) like any other day in Togo.

We (Savanners who did not go home for the holidays) threw a Christmas party in Dapaong. Lots of PVCs made the trek up north and we had a great time together. I got to meet a lot of people from the newest stage that swore in in November. We’ve really got a great group here in Togo. There was a minor problem with the hotel people were originally going to stay at (two girls sharing a room were told they must pay 6,000cfa a night when a guy and girl sharing the same room would only have to pay 4,000cfa because the guy would obviously be paying for the girl and it wouldn’t be fair to make him pay the full 6,000cfa) so the house was a little crowded… It made Christmas feel cozy though.

We had a huge Mexican feast on Christmas Eve, followed by a white elephant exchange. I received a pagne (which I made into a dress, see below) and a carved wooden calabash (half-spear shaped bowl used to drink tchakpa-the local drink). Christmas day, we were invited to APCD Paul’s house (EAFS director) and fed extremely well. The food just kept coming and coming and I was surprised that they had enough food for everyone. There were maybe three or four different types of meat and fish. I ate rabbit for the first time. We were also served taro and it was delicious. Nothing really exciting happened but it was just a nice Christmas spent with some great new friends.

(Shout out to everyone that sent Christmas cards/packages and called. Really meant a lot to me so thank you!)

Camp Nadjundi

Fellow Savanner Heidi held a winter session mini camp for some sixième students in her village. She invited other PCVs to come help and I volunteered because it sounded like a great event and I was interested to see how it went. She had set up a couple people to be formateurs and teach several different topics at the camp. They had a meeting a couple days before it started and the formateurs asked about getting a per diem for their time. Heidi was a little thrown off guard by this because they had written the budget for the camp together and had never included per diem in the proposal. She told them she would not be giving anyone money which, unfortunately, resulted in the formateurs not participating in the camp.

Playing red rover. 

Immediately, more PCVs offered to come and help at the camp. I was unexpectedly chosen to present a session on goal setting, which thankfully was co-led with one of her jeune leaders (older students chosen to help with the camp due to their enthusiasm and knowledge). Honestly, the jeune leaders were the saviors of the camp (along with Heidi who is always awesome). They volunteered to lead or co-lead almost every session, sang songs in between sessions and organized games during breaks. It was great to see them step up to the challenge and I think they might have gained more from the camp than the students who the camp was for. Overall, it was another PC Togo lesson in how as hard as you try you can never be fully prepared but that things will work out well in the end.

New Years

I was fortunate to spend New Years with two awesome Savanners Aaron and Sam in Aaron’s village called Timbu. He’s part of the newest group of PCVs and it was the furthest north I’ve gone in Togo. New Years is pretty big here. Every woman gets a new outfit made and it was awesome seeing everyone dressed in their “Sunday bests”. Most of the celebration is on New Years Day, which is an interesting contrast to our traditional NYE festivities. I didn’t even stay up to watch our phone clocks strike 00:00 L

Aaron had informed some people in his village that Sam and I were coming and they wanted to have a party. Somehow this party turned into us making fried chicken (or as they called it, American style chicken) for about 8 other people. We were initially informed that they would be bringing food to accompany the chicken for dinner but there was lost communication somewhere and it ended up just being our chicken with some rice we had thankfully decided to make as well.

Our making the chicken was on the condition that they would kill, clean and gut it for us so we would only have to cook it. They got the first two done but missed the last step. I’ve never actually cut up a chicken before so I kind of winged it (hehe) and cut off the legs and head with no problem but then had some difficulty with the body. Togolese knives are not known for being sharp so you have to sort of whack at it. After about 5 minutes of me trying Aaron comes over to take a whack at it and quickly decides to bring them over to his local meat stand man and have him do it for us. While this was all going on, Aaron and I (Sam was sick and she played DJ from inside on the floor) took turns cleaning and sifting through the rice for rocks. The proper way to do it is similar to how you pan for gold but with 3 giant bowl of rice that took about 3 hours to do. Aaron was in charge of cooking the chicken so that left me with the rice. He’s a new post so he’s still in the process of getting stuff for his house. Alas, he had one pot and one frying pan. The chicken won the pot and that meant I got to cook rice in a pan, which took foreeeever.

The Togolese seemed to like the chicken but you can never tell for sure. They ate a little bit of the rice but since we had not prepared a sauce to go along with it (because we were under the impression that THEY were bringing that) they confessed that they could not eat too much. Overall though, it seemed like a success and I know I finished dinner with a big belly full of meat.

Prepping for Benin

Sam and I decided to take our first vacation in Togo together and go to Benin. She wanted to see animals in the North and I wanted to do beaches in the South, but we compromised with animals (OK she won but I don’t like to admit that). In order for this to happen though, we needed to get visas. So, we trekked down to Lomé.

Without knowing exactly where the Benin Embassy was, we chose the route of hopping in a car and just telling the driver where to take us. After asking him if he knew where it was, he said yes and asked if we knew too. Now, here’s the problem with being white in Africa. If you don’t know where you are going, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you will be ripped off so Sam replies that we do and says it’s la bas, over there, and points in the direction opposite of the beach. We settle on a price and hop in the car. As I’ve come to find out, however, Togolese are famous for saying they know where some place is and then stopping every so often to ask for directions. Apparently though, no Benin Embassy even exists in Togo and our driver took us to some Benin governed area and tried to leave us there. A man holding a machine gun informs us that we cannot be there and the car must turn around. The driver asks the man with the gun where we can go to get visas and he informs us that “Togo and Benin are brothers and you do not need a visa to visit family”. Yeah, maybe you don’t but we kind of stand out a little more than you and might have some difficulties visiting our “brother”.

After calling several PCVs to see if they know where it is, I decide to call a PC staff member. (While on the phone, the driver continues to ask people in the cars next to us if they know where the embassy is, even though at this point we know it’s a consulate and not an embassy that we’re looking for). Come to find out, the consulate is a 5-minute walk from the PC Bureau and not a 2,000cfa taxi ride away. Good to know. The actual getting the visa part went smoothly and we picked up our passports the very next day.

In other Benin news, my dad works with a guy who is originally from Benin. I never met him before coming to Togo but he went back to Benin for the holidays and promised my dad that he would meet up with me. He had emailed me in the beginning of December asking where in Togo I was. Being that I had not heard from him come January, I thought being in Savannes (a 9+hour journey for him) had changed his mind. Knowing that I was going to be in Lomé (a 13hr bus ride for me!), I emailed him and asked if he had time to meet up. The 2-hour journey was a lot easier for him to make and we were able to meet up, have some lunch, and talk about the differences between West Africa and the US. It was a very interesting conversation and great to hear someone’s perspective on things who understands life in both worlds.

Puppy Training

Achu update. He is getting bigger every day, despite me not feeding him so he’ll stay small forever (joking). My aunt sent doggy treats so I’ve been using those to teach him “sit”, “stay”, “down” and “shake”. He’s a smart little boy and has no trouble at all commanding when treats are involved, but we’re still working on situations when there’s no reward…

Despite having a couple chew toys, his favorite (besides my hand) seems to be my mosquito net. It’s cushy so it’s great for him to bite into, plus it also doubles as a humping toy!

In other dog news, I’ve yet to read it but there’s apparently a recent National Geographic article that talks about how Togo has the “Original Dog” and all other dogs in the world originated from it just like humans are believed to have initially inhabited Africa. Togo really only has one breed of dog that comes in a few different colors with the occasional extra fury tail or shaggy-haired pup. On animal vaccination cards, vets write “local breed” as the breed of dog.

Oh, Hi Mouse

So I’ve had a mouse problem since November. It’s just one mouse, but it’s amazing how much one little mouse can do. My friend Rebekah named him Mickey after she slept over one night and experienced the mouse/ants/spiders/cockroaches that I have to deal with every night. I’ve woken up to the mouse crawling over me (accidentally left some food next to me on the bed… oops!) and also a cockroach–both equally unpleasant. I have one shoe that I designate as my insect killing utensil and sleep with it by my side.

Mickey likes to live in my closet. Theoretically he shouldn’t be able to get in there but the cabinet thing was made really poorly and the wood has started to warp. Occasionally, I’ll pull out a shirt and he comes scrambling out with it causing me to scream and Achu to be put on high alert. He’s eaten through a canvas bag that I had hanging on the wall to get to food that was left inside of it. He ate through a pagne I left covering my bed one weekend to keep the dust off in order to get to a can of nuts, which he tried to eat through but I’m guessing the plastic lid may have gotten him sick because he stopped before eaten through the lid. He scurries around at night making loud noises and keeping me up. He also chews on my closet, which makes the biggest noise of all and is right at the foot of my bed.

PDM and Breaking News

Mid January, my stage reunited for PDM, which is a week of training for you and your homologue. The two main topics we discussed were behavior change and permagardening (a garden designed to grow things all year round, but requires a lot of water and isn’t feasible for most areas in Northern Togo), both of which were very interesting but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to apply either to my work here. Here are some pictures though that show us hard at work!

On the last day, Admin gathered every volunteer present at the Pagala training center. We were all a little confused as to what was happening. Carolina, the PC Togo Director broke the news to us that we will be phasing out the SED program, i.e. my program. This means that the new stage that was supposed to come in June (1 year after my arrival) is temporarily suspended and the new CHAP volunteers will be combined with the incoming EAFS/GEE stage. The tentative date for them to come is July. What does this mean for me? Well, not too much. My fellow SEDers and I will continue to do work as we normally would but we will not be replaced at the end of our service (there is the possibility that another sector could replace us, but I don’t see that happening for me). Thus, it is more important than ever for us to focus on sustaining our projects now so that they’ll continue once we leave. The thing I am saddest about though is that I won’t get to help train the incoming stage, at least not in the same capacity that I would if it were a group of SED stagiaires coming in. The older PVCs really helped me adjust to Togo during my first few months in country and I was looking forward to doing the same for the next group.

Why SED? Well, PC, just like most government programs, is getting budget cuts across the board. A higher up person came to Togo last fall to investigate the state of our programs and he decided that SED was the program to close in order to allow more resources for the remaining three sectors. It’s feels like a light slap in the face to know that the work I’m doing here is seen as more expendable than the others, but I do believe that the three remaining programs (CHAP, EAFS and GEE) work in areas that must be strengthened before we can address small business development. If you have any more questions about the reasoning behind this and/or its effects, please let me know.

New Phone

I brought an old, unlocked phone with me when I first came to Togo. I had gotten it back in 2007 so it had already had a good life and I didn’t expect it to last my whole two years here. Well, it finally died. One day it just wouldn’t turn on anymore. This meant I got to get a new phone! I chose one that has a double kit, a phone where you can insert two sim cards. Still have my old number but I now also have another number (on the Moov network, which has better rates both in Togo and for calling/texting the States). If you text me and I respond with a different number, this is why. Feel free to use both, as they both reach the same phone and I don’t believe it makes a difference on your end.

WWEC Updates

Preparations for the 2^nd annual Women’s Wellness and Empowerment Conference are well underway. The Savannes/Kara conference is on March 8^th (also International Women’s Day) so were hurriedly trying to get everything in order. Lydia, fellow SEDer, and I will be presenting four sessions for our sector, which are how to do a feasibility study using moringa juice, family planning and budgeting, the importance of saving, and how to save. There’s still a lot of work to be done in the next couple of week, but I’m really excited for it. I nominated a woman from Tandjoaré. She’s 25, married, with two little boys (aged 3 and 9 months) and she sells beignets at the local primary school. She along with two other women have been my companions on marché day. They take me around to all of the best tchakpa stands and teach me words in Moba. I thought the conference would teach her a lot and that she would return to village and pass on what she learned to other women. I’ll be sure to update you all after the event and let you know how it goes.

Filming

Back in November, a youth peer educators group from Bogou (a village neighboring Tandjoaré) and I submitted a script about HIV/AIDS prevention for a film contest that another PCV organized. I found out in January that they had been selected (along with two other groups in country) to film their script. Jeremy came in the beginning of February and it was a lot of fun. I think the kids really enjoyed it and learned a lot since it was the first time they had acted while being filmed. There were simple things we had to remind them about, such as speaking loud, not having their back to the camera, etc. Once he edits the film, I’ll show the kids the final project and hopefully it’s going to air on a Togolese TV station.

As we were wrapping up the day, something happened though that reminded me that I am a foreigner and, despite my attempts to integrate, I will always be viewed as an outsider. The president of the peer educators group is a local primary teacher and worked extensively with the previous volunteer in Bogou. She introduced me to him and he’s been a great friend to me here. We had walked to Bogou, but since the return trip was uphill and it was almost dark, we planned to moto back. Normally, I ride my bike between the two villages so I had no idea how much the trip should cost. Every price in Togo is negotiable, but as foreigners we often end up paying more than Togolese either because we don’t know what price we have to haggle them down to or because of the color of our skin. This is a continuous problem, especially when taking moto-taxis, made worse recently by the laxation of the oil subsidy in Nigeria which cause gas prices in most of West Africa to skyrocket.

I asked this guy, my friend, how much the trip should be and he said I would have to discuss it with the moto driver. Getting ripped off on moto rides is the thing about Togo that pissed me off the most and can easily put me in a bad mood. I asked the driver how much he wanted He replied “700 cfa”. I gasped and made a face that said “you must be kidding me” and the driver laughed, as they typically do. I offered 500 and he refused saying 600. I felt uncomfortable with this price, as the trip was less than 4km and he wouldn’t be using gas on the way back since it’s downhill. In Dapaong, I once paid 500 cfa to go to a village 12-15km away so I knew the price was steep. Moto drivers in Bogou are limited though and I didn’t have much bargaining power so I agreed to 600. The driver left, as we weren’t quite finished filming yet, and I turned to my friend and asked what he thought. He said “I normally only pay 400”. I was furious! How could he stand by me and watch as I got ripped off? I trusted him as a friend to protect me from something like that. I asked why he didn’t say anything and his response was that I was white and therefore had to pay a higher price and if he had tried to help lower the price at all it would have been since as disrespectful to the driver because it would be cheating him out of gaining a little extra money. This made me even angrier because a bond that I thought I had formed with this man was just proven to be illusory, and it made me question the relationships that I have made with other Togolese.

To top off the day, when we got back to my house, Jeremy realized that his headlamp and iPod had been stolen. Realizing that the chances of getting it back were slim but knowing that thievery is not tolerated in Togolese culture, we called the same guy who hadn’t helped us with the moto to ask if he would help us find the stuff. He called back the next day with news that everything had been found. Three sons of the Muslim leader were the culprits, and while it was great that Jeremy got his stuff back, I wonder how hard of a beating the boy got.

Some Togo Life Changes

This is a really long post so I’m going to end it with one last topic. Work in Tandjoaré has been slow to progress so I requested a transfer to another site. I don’t want to get into the details on this blog as to why, but feel free to email me if you want to know more. My request was approved last Thursday and I moved into my new house in Dapaong on Monday. I wanted to stay in the Savannes region and in an area that speaks Moba, since that is the culture that I have come to know and feel comfortable in.

I’ve moved up in the world for living conditions as I now have running water, electricity all day, a spare bedroom (for when you all come to visit me!), and a giant living room I need to furnish. I share a compound with a very nice, large family. There’s the husband, his three wives and their 12 children. Achu’s adjusting well to being a “city dog” and I’m enjoying supplementing my diet with a lot more fruits and vegetables.

My new homologue is a woman named Rachel who is a seamstress but specializes in making things such as bags, cushions, wallets, etc. I’m still learning about all that she does and will be sure to post about it as I know more. I will also be working with several women’s groups, some local schools, a women’s weavers group and hopefully be helping develop a tourism directory for the region. Sam, my new site-mate, and I are working with a local elementary school to paint a world map on the side of a building in their school. It’s a project many PCVs all over the world do and it address a topic–geography–that both she and I feel everyone should be knowledgeable about. When a grown Togolese man asks you where in Europe is America, you know there’s a problem.

That’s all for now. I’m going to make a big effort to post again soon. If you have any questions about anything, post them in the comments below or email me. I love reading the comments because then I know people are actually reading my blog. J

Placard for a barber in Dapaong.