It’s Like This World Never Sleeps

To begin, I know I am way past due on my blog writing… but in my defense I did begin writing only to lose my computer to a tragic accident on my way up to Northern Togo. So, I will try to remember and reflect back on everything that has happened in the last ten weeks. Wow and saying that… “Ten weeks,” I can hardly believe I have been here for that long, at the same time somehow ten weeks has felt like ten months. The sense of time here is really bizarre and I haven’t quite adjusted to it yet, days go by really slowly but months seem to pass quickly. It scares me in a sense because I have yet to be able to wrap my mind around living here for two years; it still seems daunting in a way. I wonder how I am going to find projects and things to do in my village for two years, at the same time I can see two years slipping by before I am able to accomplish enough, whether it be relationships, personal growth, or the impact I am supposed to make in my community. But, before I get into all of that I will try to re-cap the last few months of my life here for you.
Where to start, the first few weeks seem like a blur (something out of a movie). Being shuttled around in out private Peace Corps land rovers and having our every move planned and monitored. Sitting in a circle the first night at an “upscale” hotel, being handed a pill, told to take it without any questions asked or explanations given seems... so well for lack of better words government oriented (Don’t worry it was only our first dose of anti-malarials.) Going straight from little America (Peace Corps Bureau) to living with my host family in Gbatope was quite the transition; battling cultural barriers, struggling to perfect my French, trying to grasp basic greetings in three local languages, learning how to squat over a latrine when business calls, rejecting marriage proposals, combating illness and heat rash; a while trying to maintain some sense of sanity and normalcy… all seems like a part of life now (C’est la vie). At first I couldn’t understand why I was putting myself through some of these things, but little by little I came to realize that the good outweighs the bad… by nearly 100 lbs!
I am not going to lie, life here is tough, more than I ever could have imagined. Togo in one of two Peace Corps hardship countries remaining, we even get paid a little extra because of it. When walking and driving around the country it becomes very apparent why it is in fact a “hardship post.” Despite my past experiences in Africa, I am shocked here about how different life can be in each place. I am so taken back at times thinking about how two countries in the same world can have such immense levels of development (again for lack of a better term.) It makes it really difficult to believe that we are actually one world… yet at other times when you get down to the concept of humanity I am reminded how we are part of the same world. I could go off on a rant about that concept itself, but I’ll spare you all for now. So like I said life here is tough, but I never thought it was going to be easy, and what would the experience be if it was? Yet, when you break everything down piece by piece and really reflect on it, it is not that difficult at all (for Peace Corps volunteers) I have all my basic needs here met; food, water, roof over my head, enough money live more comfortably than the majority of Togolese people, I have excellent access to health care, a cell phone, a work station to retreat to whenever I need a mental health day, invaluable language lessons, technical training on subjects I could have only dreamed about learning before-all while getting to live this exciting and new life. I mean what more could I ask for, especially with the state of things in the rest of the world right now? So ten weeks in- I couldn’t be happier with my decision to be here.
The last nine weeks at my training site in Gbatope have been amazing, emotional, informative, frustrating, exhilarating, and HOT- definitely one of the hardest things about being here, my intolerance for heat and humidity. The persistent wetness you feel from sweat pouring out of every gland is not the most pleasant experience. I am so happy that I am posted up North where humidity doesn’t exist, let’s see how I feel in a few months when hot season hits and it gets up to one hundred and twenty degrees in the shade! So if anybody wants to come rescue me in the middle of February thru May, or somehow send me care packages full of snow, ice, and popsicles it would be greatly appreciated!!! Hopefully I won’t be too hot, laying spread eagle while fanning myself and crying that I won’t be able to put some of my new skills to use. Speaking of skills, wow, thinking of everything I have learned so far blows my mind! My official title here is… Environmental Action and Food Security volunteer (EAFS). Our goals in a nutshell; are to promote environmental awareness with a focus on women and youth, enhance sustainable agricultural production, and increase the amount and quality of food for all people at all times. As a program we define food security, ideally,” as a basic human right that guarantees equal access to nutritious and safe food while promoting cultural, environmental, and economic sustainability.” Thus, during training we focused on learning new skills, concepts, and techniques which can be put into practice to help these goals on a small scale. Some of my favorites classes were; mushroom cultivation, improved cook stoves, animal husbandry, container gardening, companion planting, and Moringa (an amazing tree that gives nitrogen to the soil (Nitrogen fixing tree), and also has amazing nutritional benefits. I think back to a few months ago sitting in my room in Eugene researching classes on such subjects, considering paying thousands of dollars for courses, weighing the pros and cons of the Peace Corps and being very reluctant to join- and here I am now having learned all of these things in only nine weeks and being the one who was paid to do so. How lucky am I? Not to mention all of the other skills I learned outside of technical class.
I now know how to repair almost every part on a bike, how to carry things on my head, how to silent scream at small children/ adults who yell Yovo at me (Yovo:white person/cunning dog), how to make tofu and soy milk and various other food items, how to do laundry by hand, how to filter water through many different methods, how to sit for hours on end starring out random animals, objects, and children all while still be entertained and let’s not forget the most important skill- how to live for seven weeks with a bacterial intestinal infection (with only a very smelly latrine to run to). I pretty much feel like superman after these last ten weeks and am pretty sure I could do most anything! But to be a bit more serious I have learned so many invaluable things from my host family in Gbatope. I have been exposed to what is a beautiful culture in one sense and a sad one in another. The way that Togolese foster relationships with everyone in a community, and everyone is considered part of each other’s families is something we greatly lack in our culture, additionally the ability for a culture to be so giving while having so little has really opened my eyes up to the beauty of humanity at its roots. “If there is enough for one here there is enough for all,” what my host family told me every day, and I witnessed them feed strangers and even enemies when asked. At the same time I have been exposed to many things that break my heart, and I am trying to not become desensitized in a way where I become a harder person, but learn how to acknowledge that things are different and often there is nothing I can do to change them. My last few days at my host family’s house in Gbtaope were difficult, I got really close to my host sister, a fifteen year old girl who was actually my families niece. She had lost both of her own parents to illness and worked for my host family in exchange for living with them and getting her school fees paid for. I have never seen more of hard working child, who was also wise beyond her years. I don’t want to get to into the story to protect her privacy, but she ended up leaving a few days before I was about to move to post. I was unable to say goodbye, and find out where she was before I left. It was a difficult time for me because I wish I would have done more to be her friend, her ally, instead of being too consumed with my own life and too concerned about stepping on people’s feet or disrespecting the culture to be her advocate. I suppose you live and you learn and can only try harder and be better the next time around, and inevitably there will always be a next time around, especially in a country where women’s and children’s rights are almost non-existent in the majority of the country.
To wrap things up, I swore in a week ago and am now an official volunteer! I left for post the day after our swear-in party and got to Takpapeni (my village) and was left to fly with my own wings, only to discover that my latrine was not completed (aka- no bathroom), my shower was still at stomach height, thus the whole village can gawk while I take my bucket showers (in a shower that the children use as their bathroom), and my kitchen still has massive holes, a wasp nest, and one window the size of a small notebook. C’est la vie. Thus for the first few days at post it was like pulling teeth to try to get anything accomplished, and so far after a week the only thing done is half of my shower has been built higher….so it is a work in progress. Other then housing issues I spent the first four days at post reading, taking lots of naps, coloring with children, and trying to bleach the mud white washed walls of my hut (not a good idea, now it looks like someone shat all over the place…oh joy). Despite all of this, I love Takpapeni it is a wonderful and welcoming village, and I have the nicest host family. I live with the family of one of the village nurse (Michelle) and his wife, they have two or three kids haven’t quite figured it out yet… a baby girl about 9 months old named Vero who is terrified of me and screams every time she sees me, a four year old little girl name Christaian who is slowly warming up to me, and then an older girl about ten years old who works a lot not sure if she is their daughter. Also, Michelle’s sister lives in the compound. She has a two-year old boy named Kossi, who has the biggest belly and is always naked except for the occasional blue oversized soccer sock he wears on one foot. He refuses to look at me and when he catches me look at him he grins with a deadly adorable smile and hides his face. Then there Michelle’s mother, who is a phenomenal woman about 75 years old- the way this women can climb up a 15 foot grain storage container jump inside and disappear then crawl back out with a 20lb sac of grain is something out of this world. All and all minus all of the hut frustration I have a pretty amazing village, complete with an entourage of wonderful children that follow me around everywhere. I can’t wait to see what is to come, the work I will do with my homologue, the friendships I will make, the amount of books I will read, and how good I will get at combating boredom… so far my method is starring at burning candles from 6 pm when it gets dark (no electricity) to 8 pm when I climb under my mosquito net only to sweat myself to sleep. Although, I can’t complain because when I can handle the massive amounts of insects the stars in a village with no lights are something out of a dream!
Well, hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving, I must admit mine was pretty bomb. We transported three live turkeys from Lome up north to Dapaong (my regional capital) and enjoyed the freshest most free range turkey I will ever have the opportunity to eat (although one flew off the roof on the way and died.. so that one was a little less fresh). Wonderful parents sent amazing care packages full of pumpkin pie cake mix, stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, cornbread and more! So I had a pretty American thanksgiving! Enjoy the rest of holiday season; I will try to be better about blog writing, but it is difficult without a personal computer. Miss you all and if you feel inclined to send care packages I will put some ideas below of things kids in my village, me, and other volunteers would enjoy!
My address:
PCV Manda Draper
Corps de la Paix
BP102
Mango, Togo West Africa
Small puzzles
Water color
pencils
Coloring books
paints/paint brushes
Stickers
Soccer balls
Fun games
Candy
Chocolate
Crackers/ goodies
Tuna packets (in water)
Nuts (unsalted)
Bars (cliif bars, power
bars, lara bars)
Anything that tastes good
Anything slightly ndulgent (things that we can’t get here)
Movies
Tv shows on thumb drives
Good music
Newspaper articles
Nat. geographic magazine
Batteries
Cool stickers for my moto helmet and bike
Calendars
World maps/ maps of anything
cool stuff to put on my walls
Bubbles
Any good books
Dog toys, dog treats,
Cleaning supplies
Wet ones
Seeds (vegetables, fruit, flower)
Candles
Tea
Good coffee/french press
Star chart
flax seeds
pretty earrings
head bands/hair things
peanut butter
almond butter (not in glass)
pictures of
things in America to show village
pictures of family and friends
any good articles on gardening/ tree planting/ agriculture/ chicken raising
Quinoa
FUN/YUMMY/COOl SURPRISES