i knew that it had been a while since i last posted anything, but i didn't realize it had been over three months... where has the time gone? lots has happened, here are some general highlights from the past few months:
february
i spent most of february trying to figure out how life in my village is going to work out for the rest of my service. i've faced challenges that i've had a hard time putting into perspective and figuring out how to overcome. as with any hardship, it's both a pain in the ass and a blessing in disguise. i've learned so much about my own limits and capabilities, which can be drepressing and enlightening at the same time. it's also made me realize just how incredibly blessed i am when it comes to the friends i've made among other volunteers. the support and encouragement they've offered me-- and continue to offer-- is beyond anything i could have asked for. who ever said God is dead?
my birthday and little vacation to burkina faso at the end of the month and beginning of march came at a great time. turning 23 proved to not be life-changing, just a good excuse to soak up some positive attention, eat some good food, and indulge in other innocent pleasures. the trip to ouagadougou for the film festival was simply wonderful for many reasons; i loved seeing the difference between the more lush green, humid south that i'm used to and the flat, dry north that i hadn't spent much time in before. the difference in culture was just as interesting as the scenery, although because i stuck to mostly interacting with my travel buddies and doing touristy things i can't rightly draw too many conclusions. the food was delicious. i loved browsing the artisan markets, despite the few times i wanted to punch the guys that were practically pulling money out of my pockets to buy something or another. the films themselves weren't too bad. i successfully stayed awake for at least two of the six(ish) films we watched-- i learned i'm not too keen on the low-budget, independent, sometimes artsy films. at least not the ones i sat through. my favorite (and one i stayed awake through) was an amusing film from burkina that served as an ego-boost since i felt like i actually know french since i understood just about all of it. the films where frenchy french was used made me feel like i don't know a lick of the language, which is not a good feeling considering i've been living in a francophone country for over a year and a half. i try to avoid having to deal with frenchy french at all costs. and overall the actual traveling presented no complications, which is always a relief.
the rest of my time in march was mostly focused on a teacher training i organized for the 21 of the month. i had 11 school directors and teachers from my and two close by villages come to mpoti and follow a day-long training, covering topics such as gender equity and how to promote young girls' education, sexual harrassment (which is a very present and frustrating problem among teachers and students, to varying degrees and almost entirely among male teachers and femal students) and how to be a "model teacher," how to creat and manage a club, positive reinforcement and alternatives to punishment, how to go about doing a community project... among a few others. there were a few things that could have gone a little better, but overall i'd say the training was a big success. at least in terms of peaking interest in teachers and directors and get them talking about topics that really need to be put out in the open. it's surprising how long problems can go on without getting addressed at all.
i took another trip at the end of march that went through the first week in april; my third time crossing over to ghana. this time i spent about 3 days in accra and about 3 days at cape coast. God apparently really looks over me when i take these trips because this one was another success. A- for sure. just when things seemed to be taking a turn for the bad (me losing my glasses, for example...), things would turn around for the better (or i'd realize i need to learn to do a better search of my bag when i can't find something...). i haven't gotten the chance to post pictures from my trip, i feel like they would tell a much better story of the trip than i can right now due to my obvious lack of articulation abilities. stay tuned.
my easter celebration this year consisted of a nearly hour-long tag team (with kristina) recount of the easter story for my friend ashley and a volunteer-family dinner outing in atakpame. it was a good time and i'm sure God was pleased with the communal love flowing among us friends. after easter, the rest of april went by with random... adventures?... leading me up to this past week. i'd be happy to elaborate on those experiences but would rather it be in person. needless to say, i'm happy to see that hot season has come and gone and june is only a hop, skip, and a step away.
one thing is for sure: even though i fail to recognize it most of the time, God has been and continues to be good. the past 19+ months have changed me in ways i could not have anticipated and i am grateful for every experience i've had, be it for better or worse. as i approach a transition period, i am constantly reminded that i can't take the Now for granted. it's just so easy to do sometimes. i truly appreciate all your continued thoughts and prayers. i'll try my best to not let 3 more months go by before i post again.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
vermin
i sometimes get to the point of finding rodents, insects, or any small thing that scurries, crawls, or slithers repulsive. but then i try to remind myself that they, too, are God's creation and serve an important purpose in their being. no matter how gross they may be. i recently read the book the prodigal summer by barbara kingsolver which got me rethinking my stance on these creatures. finding bugs beautiful may be something i never succeed in doing, but i'm trying my best to change the way i look at them so i can appreciate our co-existence. that being said, there's still no way i'll be giving up my insecticide anytime soon. it, too, was created for a very important reason.
i was staying at emily's house in pagala a few months ago and had a series of encounters that would merit the night as the Night of Vermin. i'll start with the latrine. cockroaches and scorpions rendered it out of order for the night. we didn't care if the scorpions were dead. the live cockroaches were enough, there's just something about them. then there were lizards falling out of nowhere and crawling over emily's hand, moths flying out of the flour container, and... the worst part: a half spider, half frog, half monster in the shower. i was about to take a shower when i spotted the little devil. he just stared at me with an evil look in his eyes, daring me to enter the large closet sized room. i did the only reasonable thing to do in that kind of situation and called emily over to get rid of it. she finally succeeded at getting it to jump out of the shower with this huge squeegy thing she has. i spent a good 20 minutes slowly and carefully inspecting the small room to make sure it didn't decide to hide somewher so it could jump out and attack me later on. the bug ended up being cleo's breakfast the next morning.
one of the biggest reasons why i thank the good Lord for my mosquito net is for my mental reassurance that i won't wake up in the middle of the night with a mouse in my bed or crickets on my head (both things that i've heard happen to other people). well, there are no mosquito nets on the beds in atakpamé, as well as a handful of mice living in the house. one day i was staying at the house and something woke me up slightly, then i really woke up when i felt cold, little mice feet crawl over my leg. it was a pretty disgusting feeling. i tried to be brave about it and tell myself it was no big deal. needless to say, I was not able to go back to sleep.
i was coming back home from the ceg in m'poti one afternoon when i noticed a group of people gathered around some bush with big sticks. they had lit the bush on fire and looked like they were waiting for something to come out. when the snake finally slithered out, everyone batted at it with their sticks with no luck since no one wanted to get too close. i stayed as far away as possible and nervously watched it disappear into another patch of bush. i hadn't seen a snake in my village before and the 5 or 6 foot mass that i watched slither right in front of me was enough to give me the heebie geebies.
i was getting ready to turn in one night and closed the door that connects my two rooms (something i did back when cleo still lived with me). when i realized i had forgotten something in the other room, i opened the door and when i did, a something fell from out of nowhere right in front of me. at first i thought it might be a lizard. but then i focused and realized it was something black and red with antennas and about 50 pair of feet along its approximately 6 to 12 inches of length. shock, panic, and disgust kept me from thinking quickly and all i could manage to do was spotlight it with my flashlight and watch it scurry across the room. i didn't even pick up my broom. i was yelling at cleo to kill the damn thing but she looked just as confused as i was and barely betted at it. once it was out of sight behind a bag, i tried to think of my options. try to kill it and sweep it out or leave it and deal with it the next day when i could ask a neighbor to come and do it for me. i chose the latter option. i got what i needed, closed the door, and stuffed something on the bottom crack between the door and the floor, just for good measure. the next morning when i had tanti come and do a search of the whole room, it had disappeared. i figured it had either 1. got hunted down, killed, and eaten by cleo, 2. found its way out of my house, or 3. found a hiding place and is waiting for the opportune time to come out again and scare me. now why did God have to go and create such a creepy looking thing? that's my question.
i was staying at emily's house in pagala a few months ago and had a series of encounters that would merit the night as the Night of Vermin. i'll start with the latrine. cockroaches and scorpions rendered it out of order for the night. we didn't care if the scorpions were dead. the live cockroaches were enough, there's just something about them. then there were lizards falling out of nowhere and crawling over emily's hand, moths flying out of the flour container, and... the worst part: a half spider, half frog, half monster in the shower. i was about to take a shower when i spotted the little devil. he just stared at me with an evil look in his eyes, daring me to enter the large closet sized room. i did the only reasonable thing to do in that kind of situation and called emily over to get rid of it. she finally succeeded at getting it to jump out of the shower with this huge squeegy thing she has. i spent a good 20 minutes slowly and carefully inspecting the small room to make sure it didn't decide to hide somewher so it could jump out and attack me later on. the bug ended up being cleo's breakfast the next morning.
one of the biggest reasons why i thank the good Lord for my mosquito net is for my mental reassurance that i won't wake up in the middle of the night with a mouse in my bed or crickets on my head (both things that i've heard happen to other people). well, there are no mosquito nets on the beds in atakpamé, as well as a handful of mice living in the house. one day i was staying at the house and something woke me up slightly, then i really woke up when i felt cold, little mice feet crawl over my leg. it was a pretty disgusting feeling. i tried to be brave about it and tell myself it was no big deal. needless to say, I was not able to go back to sleep.
i was coming back home from the ceg in m'poti one afternoon when i noticed a group of people gathered around some bush with big sticks. they had lit the bush on fire and looked like they were waiting for something to come out. when the snake finally slithered out, everyone batted at it with their sticks with no luck since no one wanted to get too close. i stayed as far away as possible and nervously watched it disappear into another patch of bush. i hadn't seen a snake in my village before and the 5 or 6 foot mass that i watched slither right in front of me was enough to give me the heebie geebies.
i was getting ready to turn in one night and closed the door that connects my two rooms (something i did back when cleo still lived with me). when i realized i had forgotten something in the other room, i opened the door and when i did, a something fell from out of nowhere right in front of me. at first i thought it might be a lizard. but then i focused and realized it was something black and red with antennas and about 50 pair of feet along its approximately 6 to 12 inches of length. shock, panic, and disgust kept me from thinking quickly and all i could manage to do was spotlight it with my flashlight and watch it scurry across the room. i didn't even pick up my broom. i was yelling at cleo to kill the damn thing but she looked just as confused as i was and barely betted at it. once it was out of sight behind a bag, i tried to think of my options. try to kill it and sweep it out or leave it and deal with it the next day when i could ask a neighbor to come and do it for me. i chose the latter option. i got what i needed, closed the door, and stuffed something on the bottom crack between the door and the floor, just for good measure. the next morning when i had tanti come and do a search of the whole room, it had disappeared. i figured it had either 1. got hunted down, killed, and eaten by cleo, 2. found its way out of my house, or 3. found a hiding place and is waiting for the opportune time to come out again and scare me. now why did God have to go and create such a creepy looking thing? that's my question.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Bush Taxi Laughs and Frustrations
My main mode of transportation around this country is in bush taxis. They're really not that bad and actually really amusing when you step back and think about it. If a 5 seater car or hatchback has less than 7 people in it, it feels like you're traveling first class. When they hold more than 10 people you begin to just pray that your leg won't fall off after being asleep for over an hour. 12 people is impressive, though no less painful. Women dress up to travel in bush taxis. Most Peace Corps Volutneers dress down. Chauffeurs will turn the vent button, push some wires together, then honk the horn to start the car. Keys are optional. Space is shared with all kinds of living beings, from humans to goats, to chickens, to sheep... there really are not restrictions. This is the life of a bush taxi. Like I said, they're really not that bad. Sometimes I even find them to be therapeutic in a weird kind of way.
One of my favorite bush taxi stories recently happened in December. Here is the scene: Me and Emily are sharing the passenger seat, I'm on the door side, Emily is dodging the shift stick. A boy of about 5 is sitting next to Emily, sharing the driver's seat. Right in front of all of us on the dash is a plastic hand with STOP written on the palm. The scene unfolds.
Emily (pointing to the hand and looking at the little boy): STOP
Little Boy (looking back and forth between the hand and Emily): STOP
Emily: do you want to learn english? ok. Repeat after me (lifts one finger up). One (repeats two or three times emphasizing finger).
Little Boy: Won
Emily continues the process (won, doo, free, fo, fyve, seex, sven, ate, nein, tin).
Emily: you're cute
Little boy: you're cute (with surprisingly good pronounciation)
Emily and I crack up
Emily: No. You're cute.
Little Boy: no. you're cute.
Me (still cracking up with Emily): you should tell him that he's beautiful.
Emily to Little Boy: You're beautiful.
Little Boy: You're bute-i-fo
We could not get enough of this little guy. This bush taxi ride was definitely too short. It wasn't until we were laughing about this later that we realized we should have asked the little boy if he had lost weight.
Another recent time that I just couldn't stop laughing. Me, Jocelyn, Nori, and Emily were all in a bush taxi coming back to Pagala from Atakpame. About halfway there, the driver pulls over and tells us that one of the guys in the car was feeling a little car sick so he had to go do his business for just a second. We get going eventually but realize that the guy who had been feeling sick is not in the car. He had gotten into the trunk. We tell the driver that he shouldn't put him in the trunk just because he was sick (maybe he was afraid he's get sick in the car we thought). The driver told us it was the guy's idea to get into the trunk. What if something's wrong and he can't communicate? We kept on proding. Then (this is when we all started cracking up) he yells the guy's name and get's a muffled response from him. See, he's fine, he says. I don't know about you, but getting in the trunk of a car that is already filled with other people's luggage is exactly where I would want to be if I was feeling carsick...
This story on the frustrating side of the spectrum. Me and a group of six other people were on our way to Atakpame from Lome, which was perfect in terms of traveling because we could fill a 5 placer and get going vite, vite. So we catch a car and get going right away as planned. We're about half an hour out of Lome when we stop at a checkpoint and the driver gets out. These stops (as random as they are) happen on a regular basis so we didn't think much of it until a guy gets in the driver's seat who was not the driver. Where you going, he asks us. Atakpame, we answer. Where is our driver, was the logical question that followed. Long story short the guy told us that the driver did not have the right documents and this guy was confiscating the vehicle. But could not just let us out to find a different car going north. We had to get out at the station in Lome. So we ended up driving back to where we had started and ended up waiting an extra hour and a half so that a 12 placer vehicle could fill up. It's this kind of thing that's less therapeutic and a little more stressful.
One of my favorite bush taxi stories recently happened in December. Here is the scene: Me and Emily are sharing the passenger seat, I'm on the door side, Emily is dodging the shift stick. A boy of about 5 is sitting next to Emily, sharing the driver's seat. Right in front of all of us on the dash is a plastic hand with STOP written on the palm. The scene unfolds.
Emily (pointing to the hand and looking at the little boy): STOP
Little Boy (looking back and forth between the hand and Emily): STOP
Emily: do you want to learn english? ok. Repeat after me (lifts one finger up). One (repeats two or three times emphasizing finger).
Little Boy: Won
Emily continues the process (won, doo, free, fo, fyve, seex, sven, ate, nein, tin).
Emily: you're cute
Little boy: you're cute (with surprisingly good pronounciation)
Emily and I crack up
Emily: No. You're cute.
Little Boy: no. you're cute.
Me (still cracking up with Emily): you should tell him that he's beautiful.
Emily to Little Boy: You're beautiful.
Little Boy: You're bute-i-fo
We could not get enough of this little guy. This bush taxi ride was definitely too short. It wasn't until we were laughing about this later that we realized we should have asked the little boy if he had lost weight.
Another recent time that I just couldn't stop laughing. Me, Jocelyn, Nori, and Emily were all in a bush taxi coming back to Pagala from Atakpame. About halfway there, the driver pulls over and tells us that one of the guys in the car was feeling a little car sick so he had to go do his business for just a second. We get going eventually but realize that the guy who had been feeling sick is not in the car. He had gotten into the trunk. We tell the driver that he shouldn't put him in the trunk just because he was sick (maybe he was afraid he's get sick in the car we thought). The driver told us it was the guy's idea to get into the trunk. What if something's wrong and he can't communicate? We kept on proding. Then (this is when we all started cracking up) he yells the guy's name and get's a muffled response from him. See, he's fine, he says. I don't know about you, but getting in the trunk of a car that is already filled with other people's luggage is exactly where I would want to be if I was feeling carsick...
This story on the frustrating side of the spectrum. Me and a group of six other people were on our way to Atakpame from Lome, which was perfect in terms of traveling because we could fill a 5 placer and get going vite, vite. So we catch a car and get going right away as planned. We're about half an hour out of Lome when we stop at a checkpoint and the driver gets out. These stops (as random as they are) happen on a regular basis so we didn't think much of it until a guy gets in the driver's seat who was not the driver. Where you going, he asks us. Atakpame, we answer. Where is our driver, was the logical question that followed. Long story short the guy told us that the driver did not have the right documents and this guy was confiscating the vehicle. But could not just let us out to find a different car going north. We had to get out at the station in Lome. So we ended up driving back to where we had started and ended up waiting an extra hour and a half so that a 12 placer vehicle could fill up. It's this kind of thing that's less therapeutic and a little more stressful.
A True Story
One day I started noticing that there were a lot of primary school students not in school. Normally when I see a few kids out and ask them what the deal is, it usually turns out to be a manual labor day so they don't have class. This time I was noticing way too many kids out of school for that to be the reason. So I ask around and first get told that someone wants to kill a teacher. Hmmm. I wasn't sure what to think of that. Then I ask some other kid and they tell me it's because of sorcery. Hmmm. Trying to get an explanation I understand a little better, I ask Tanti what the deal is. Whenever Tanti tries to explain something to me I get maybe about 60 percent of what she's telling me so even now I'm still a little unclear of exactly what was going on. But here is the general gist of it.
A teacher went to school one morning and saw that someone had left a pile of human poop in his classroom. Odd, right? Well, turns out another teacher finds the same thing and this situation reminds them of something similar that happened the last school year. Last school year there was a teacher that came to school, found a pile of human poop in his classroom, and asked a student to clean it out. The kid does. Soon after the kid gets really sick and the teacher ends up dying from bee stings while out in the fields working. People's explanation was that someone did socery through the pile of poop and because it was in that certain teacher's classroom and because the kid cleaned it out, they died and got sick. Back to this year. So the teachers remember the incident and refuse to do anything with the poop in their class rooms, as does everyone else. They cancel all classes indefinitely. Classes were cancelled for close to two weeks. They were having prayer groups going to the school and who knows what else as an attempt to deal with it. Out of nowhere classes are back in session and everything is back to normal. I asked some people to see what they did to fix it and they just shrugged and said the sorcerers cleared out the classrooms and everything was fine now. Weird.
A teacher went to school one morning and saw that someone had left a pile of human poop in his classroom. Odd, right? Well, turns out another teacher finds the same thing and this situation reminds them of something similar that happened the last school year. Last school year there was a teacher that came to school, found a pile of human poop in his classroom, and asked a student to clean it out. The kid does. Soon after the kid gets really sick and the teacher ends up dying from bee stings while out in the fields working. People's explanation was that someone did socery through the pile of poop and because it was in that certain teacher's classroom and because the kid cleaned it out, they died and got sick. Back to this year. So the teachers remember the incident and refuse to do anything with the poop in their class rooms, as does everyone else. They cancel all classes indefinitely. Classes were cancelled for close to two weeks. They were having prayer groups going to the school and who knows what else as an attempt to deal with it. Out of nowhere classes are back in session and everything is back to normal. I asked some people to see what they did to fix it and they just shrugged and said the sorcerers cleared out the classrooms and everything was fine now. Weird.
The Tragic Story of Kitten Cleo
I've been battling mice in my house off and on for the past year. Before I had my mom send me mouse traps in the mail, a simple (i thought) solution would be to get a cute little kitty cat that would grow up to be a gentle but skilled mouse killing machine. Even though I've never been much of a cat person, I'm even less of a mouse person so I thought it would be a good trade off. I mentioned to one of my neighbors that I was interested in a child of the feline type and by the end of the month I had baby cleo in my house. Cute no? (I just figured out how to add pictures to blog posts. ps check out all the new pictures i spent forever uploading!)
The full story as to how I came to own Cleo specifically is one of betrayal and heartache, so I'd rather not get into the details, I'll just leave it at that. Me and Cleo got off to a pretty good start. She was a little scared of me for a while, but I didn't hold a grudge against her for it, particularly because I thought she was a boy for a few days so I figure we were even. She eventually warmed up towards me. A little too quickly and a little too much, in fact. And this is where our problems started. Whenever we were in my house she just had to be within 0-1 inches of me. Even after I tried having a civilized conversation with her about how I need my personal space also, she just didn't get the point. I sat on the couch to read, she wanted to look into my eyes. I am cooking a meal, she needs to figure out how to get on my shoulders. I'm packing my bags, she needs to figure out what it takes to make me lose my mind. That kind of thing. When we were in Atakpame it got a little better because she could stay outside and I could stay inside and we were both entertained enough with one thing or another. I think the only reason she lasted about two months as my pet rather than two days was because I could lock her into my kitchen room and get things done in peace in my bedroom.
My first attempt to fix this little, furry, and only sometimes cute, problem was to make an offer to Emily. Emily had gotten Wrigley exactly one day after I got Cleo and Cleo and Wrigs got along well. So I asked Emily how she felt about taking over legal guardianship of her. I even offered to pay child support. She considered it for about 5 minutes. I kept on trying to convice her to take Cleo, and when I realized my attempts were going no where, I started asking other PCVs. One of my new clustermates said sure. But not till January. I thought I could handle that. I thought. You just get a breaking point though.
So one day me and Alicia are on our way back to village and I am bringing Cleo back from Emily's house. I'm not really thinking Cleo is being cute in any way, shape, or form this day. I stop to buy her some dinner and the little girls at the stand take an interest in Cleo. I (half-jokingly) ask one of them if they want her. Cadeau. The little girl looks nervous as I hand her the carrying case. I only took her back because Alicia reminded me that they might end up eating Cleo for dinner. Then we came across a nice Peace Corps Training Center guard who happened to mention how beautiful Cleo is and how great it is that I have her since she'll keep mice out of the house. I like this guy and I made a nice gesture and offered to give him the cat. He was so excited about my offer and he is such a nice guy that I felt no remorse on my taxi ride back up to village that day. In fact, just last week I was at home peacefully reading on my couch and I took a moment to appreciate my Cleo-free house.
let the updating begin
finally. i'm in lome, at a computer with little distractions for at least a good two or three hours. perfect opportunity to update. it's been kind of a stressful couple of days here in lome, but good in their own way. it's kind of crazy how quickly things change. one minute you think you could possibly living in this place and turns out you'll be staying in That place. but then once that happens you've got to do your best to make the situation worth while. that's where i'm at in so many words. i will say this-- despite the sucky situation i've been dealing with the past 48 hours it's been amazing to see the incredible support i have with friends here. i just love people. enough of this jibber jabber. on with the stories!
Friday, December 12, 2008
i hate computers right now
i have been meaning to update my blog for a while. i got one post up and typed the next one. it was nice and long and it got earased. i'm too frustrated to retype it or anything else right now. but it's just to inform everyone that i have a lot i'd like to share and will do so next time i'm not about to throw a computer out on the road to get run over by a bush taxi, goat, and maybe even a donkey. and i wanted to wish everyone a merry christmas and happy new year. cheers.
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