field trip to kara

a fellow trainee, anna, wrote an update for her blog after our field trip about two weeks ago and i thought it was funny so i asked her if i could just steal it from her. i made a few changes, but here it is...

Three Day Fieldtrip Up Country: Sept 18 – 20th, 2007
Or: "How To…" According to Me

How To Drive in Togo
While theoretically one drives on the right hand side of the road, in reality one drives on which ever side is more practical, which ends up being more often than not the left hand side, employed often but not exclusively for the purpose of avoiding potholes, circumventing mud, or passing other vehicles. This last in particular requires a certain technique, particularly on bad or curvy roads (although this does not automatically rule out risky maneuvers). You must drive very closely behind the vehicle in front of you, then tentatively drift into the left hand side in order to catch a glimpse of the road ahead to see what else is approaching. (Although again, no what matter is approaching, this may or may not have any bearings on your next steps. Driving is like a wild chicken mating dance, full of bluster and bravado.) You then either pass the car -- honking madly to alert drivers, pedestrians, bikers, and goats – or swerve back onto your side of the road. An example of when you would return to your side of the road would be when you see two huge trucks passing each other and coming straight towards you as they struggle for dominion of the road. Actually, you might want to consider pulling over until they decide to return to their side of the road…. Anything less than these two dinosaurs battling it out is fair game, though. Don’t forget to laugh at any Yovo’s who are making smart comments in the backseat, or are whimpering into their hands. Be ready to brake at any sign of a living creature scampering across the road (we missed a child, but hit a dog, and possible a duck – see How To Be An Animal Lover In Togo).
If you are not a scaredy-cat Yovo, you may choose to ride on the outside of an eighteen-wheeler, hanging from its back gate (photos to prove it) or on top of a bush taxi, or perhaps four to a motocycle. You may also choose to tie your goat on the top of a bush tax, or stuff your cow in the trunk of the car.
(NB: Peace Corps drivers are the best drivers and we love our drivers! They have been specially selected and they would never pull any dangerous stunts. )

How To Travel Like a PCT
Show up to meeting place with varying sizes of hiking backpacks and additional day packs to take in the van. Toss backpack up to van driver to be lashed onto the roof. Ask driver if you can ride on top to see his reaction. (Note: Only do this with a PC driver. Any other driver would say yes.) In your daypack, carry toilet paper, water, iPod or other entertainment device, hand sanitizer, and camera. (If you’re me, you will also carry sunscreen, bug repellant, book, extra camera batteries, and extra snacks, but you risk mocking from your comrades.) Take your place in the van or range rover. In the van, natural air conditioning is provided because the air rushing through the open windows is both strong and refreshing. Try and stay hydrated throughout your trip, although too much hydration has its disadvantages, and you can pass away much of your time deciding whether to continue to hold your bladder or whether you really want to be the person who has had to ask three times already to use the bathroom. But you better not hold it too long, because requests for bathroom stops require their own procedure and can take a few more miles/kilometers to complete The driver has a mysterious criteria, unknown to us mere PCTs, for which bushes are appropriate to use as toilets and which are not. However, ideally there will be a small goat path leading off the main road, with some handy trees or uneven ground a few feet into the bush. If you are me, and you are not on a trail, you stomp your feet loudly and wave your arms while yelling "Pas de serpents! Pas de serpents!" (Translation : Shoo snakes ! ) before continuing. (If you are not me, you may join in the chorus of: "You have to go again?!?")
When you stop for lunch or dinner, bear in mind there are really no rules in Togo. Thus, it is perfectly acceptable to go into a restaurant and pull out your packed sandwich from home and your bottled water. (However, as there are some great drinks, such as Cocktail de Fruits or LionKiller – sparkling lemonade – I encourage you to buy a drink and save the water for the road.) Always consider bringing your own food or having an arrangement with a restaurant to prepare the food ahead of the time, as food service can take two hours to materialize. Do not turn up your nose, however, at yummy snacks available either in gas station shops or on the side of the road (collectively, we purchased multiple pineapples, breads, beignets which are made from beans but are sort of like doughnuts, beans and rice, and a million packs of FanMilk. FanMilk is our obsession, and is sort of like icecream in a bag. It deserves its own blog post so more to come later about FanMilk.)

How To Be An Animal Lover In Togo / or, an Overheard Dialogue
Daniel: "Look! A duckling! It’s hurt! I think we might have hit it with the van when we pulled into the village and maneuvered our way through pebbly alleys. I knew taking a mini-van off-roading was a splendid idea."
Anna: "You should kill it now. Put it out of its misery."
Daniel: "I think its leg is broken. I’m going to make a splint out of floss and twigs."
PCVs: "Put the duckling down. We can’t take it into the school where we’re going to observe a Life Skills class."
Daniel: "I’m going to put it here under the tree. Oh look there’s a frog. They can be friends."
Anna: "Do not get attached like the baby goat. "
Daniel: "It was love at first sight. It snuggled right into my chest when I picked it up."

How To Be A Beautiful Country / Make A Roadtrip Pleasant
For a small country, Togo packs a big punch… From the mid-South, starting in Agou, the paved road is "paved", in glaring quotation marks that hang meaningfully in the air. Driving on the left hand side of the road, while surprising for the first few hours but soon becoming frighteningly normal, affords us the opportunity to get a close up view of the foliage (which itself changes from South to North). Palm trees, termite mounds, green grasses, and the hills and mountains rising above us. If you look carefully, you can see the white marks in the hillside which mark waterfalls, sprung from the caverns hiding in the rocky hills.
The hills themselves change too. In the South, they are bumps hiding under green quilts, villages nestled in between the folds. In the North, near Kara, the mountains appear again - absent after a perilous climb through the mountains to get to Atakpame, then the hills dropping away to reveal lush savannahs, watered by the rainy season and rumored to turn brown in a few months. But near Kara the mountains appear again, different from their southern cousins, these ones rocky and scruffy and somehow rather plucky-seeming. There are two paved roads, one of which runs through Kara, but to reach Sara-Kabou (Kassie’s village) we turn off the Route Nationale and pass through the red dust road passing the circular houses with thatched roofs or the children who look up from their activities and chase after the cars. (Substantially less romantic than it sounds.)
I feel like God, who looked upon the Earth and decided It Was Good. Except substantially less graceful.

How To Sing The Yovo Song
Note that this is only cute when you are four years old. A note on pronunciation : Yovo is with emphasis on the second syllable, which always makes its speaker sound vaguely surprised.

" Yovo! Yovo !
Bon soir! Ca va ?
Donnez-mois vint-cinq francs… "

[Yovo ! Yovo ! Good evening, how are you? Give me 25 francs…"
PS In the North " anasara " is the same as " yovo ". Yovo means white person, but it’s applied to strangers in general. Even our Togolese formateurs have been called Yovo, if they are hanging out with Peace Corps people or maybe they are lighter skinned than the local people. African-Americans and Asian-Americans also get called Yovos. (Conversely, yovos also get called chinois…)

How To … Visit Many Different Places…
From Agou, we drove north-east along the paved road that runs from Kpalimé to Atakpamé (where we stopped for lunch). This road takes us straight through the heart of the Plateaux region, and along the left hand side of the country, where there are many hills and mountains and long grasses and foreign trees and waterfalls in the mountain sides. We passed through all the towns that are directly on the road, including Adeta which is where the training site was held last year. We stopped at Amlamé where a current PCV works with an NGO (and met her dog, which was a rare cute bundle of fur and was excited to see more people that would pay it attention). We received yummy bissap juice (it reminded me of that ice tea that comes in the dragon cans … what’s it called) and kolico made from breadfruit and dipped in tomato paste. Yummy. After Amlamé we drove up a winding mountain, passing an overturned eighteen wheeler on the way. We stopped in Atakpamé for lunch where we got to sit on the restaurant’s terrace. Atakpamé is the regional capital of Plateaux. This is also where the two paved roads merge into one (the other one comes straight from Lomé), and which we continued to drive upon due north, smack dab in the middle of the country. It was fun riding in the car and seeing the turnoffs for the stagiares’ new posts. Later we passed through Sokodé, the capital of the Centrale region, and finally arrived in Kara. Our hotel was really nice (by Togo standards) and we took advantage of the pool a few times. Before Kara, we had picked up another PCV who would hang out with us for the week (I have forgotten to say that every week during PST a current PCV stays with us at the tech house). We got to see her house (with lovely sunflowers in her garden) which was two rooms and very homey seeming. This is also the village where Daniel finally got a chance to hold a petit chevre – baby goat – and fell in love. They are so cute. =) In Kara we went out to restaurants and had the chance to have Western food. We met many other current Volunteers in Kara. We also went to the maison de passage in Kara, all regional capitals have maisons de passage where PCVs can go to spend the night or exchange books or hang out etc. We also got the chance to use the internet which is when the last update was sent in. The next day we went to a COS-ing volunteer’s village. It turned out to be so beautiful and welcoming. It was surrounded by the rocky, scruffy mountains and has a huge mango tree under whose shade we sat. The house was great (two rooms not including a little entryway where the couches etc are; a yard with the shower and latrine and a space for gardening). We came back to Kara for lunch, and then we went to Bafilo, a town on the main road. There we visited AED, an organization where PCVs work, which is an organization for Togolese living with AIDS and nearly everyone who works there is also HIV positive. We were received with beautiful songs, and quite possibly the most beautiful child I have seen, less than three years old, who also is HIV positive. After Bafilo we went back to Kara. The next day, Saturday, some of us had the most delicious breakfast at the hotel (and was worth the price – croissants and coffee and fruit and hard boiled eggs…) and then we got on the road around 10am. We got back to Agou around 5:30pm, after several stops to use the bushes, tired but excited from the fun times we’d had and the beautiful and diverse things we’d seen and discovered about Togo.

getting posted !

15 Oct 07
It’s week four and I already know where I’ll working the next two years! So here’s how the process of finding out went… about two weeks ago, we got a list of the villages where the posts are, but we didn’t have any information about them other than where they are located on the map and what current volunteers have told us about those regions. You would think that no one could possibly have a strong preference for any particular post based on such limited information, but there was one post that immediately stood out to me. And the more I talked about this post, the more I felt attracted to it. I was really trying not to think too much about it, since I wanted to be excited for whatever post I would end up with and not limit myself. But then last week the project director gave us a presentation with more specific information about each site and went through each one. I tried my best to keep an open mind and be as unbiased as possible, but I just happened to pay the best attention when she talked about this particular site and was even more excited about it by the end of it. After the presentation and after talking some more with a couple volunteers, I went into my interview with the director almost certain I was going to get that site. And, voila, so it was.

Information about the site: It’s called M’poti. It’s located in southern centrale. It has a population of about 2,000. It has a paved road, which makes me happy since that makes getting around a lot easier. I won’t have electricity (sadly) or running water after all, but I’ll survive. I’ll be living in a compound with a woman and her kids-- this just means that they live right next to me, but I’ll be doing my own thing. I’ll have two rooms , a cooking area, and my own latrine and shower. I think this is going to be a great set up. I’m really happy I’ll be living alongside a family. The other great thing is that I have been able to hang out with two other current volunteers that are in the same area and who I will be seeing fairly frequently. They are super great… except during a soccer game this past week, one of them kicked a soccer ball in my face and the other one just about took me out when he slid to kick the ball. But they also bought me a drink at the bar, so it’s all good.

an african hiking experience

I went hiking my third weekend for about 5 hours. There were some amazingly beautiful views, but it was a little long and I got attacked by some humongous, African black ants. Luckily I had good moral support by the people I was with. Along the hike we also saw a crab. Who would have thought I would see a crab on the trail in the middle of an African jungle? I’m hoping to do a lot more hiking and biking while I’m here.

cultural experiences

The first weekend here, I went to a soiree where I got to dance (not nearly as well as everyone here. Oh my word everyone and their grandma—literally—dance soooo well) and watch a bunch of performances. There was one in particular that was really… interesting. Ask me about it sometime. I went to a funeral service the second weekend which was cool to see, although I was super tired and didn’t understand what they were saying since it was all in ewe. Interesting cultural difference—there was a lot of singing and dancing and the “service” lasts all night long. My host dad and I went for the first 2.5 hours. Right before I left, we watched two comedians and a circus type performer do their acts. Let me remind you I’m talking about a funeral service here. Well, I guess it was more of a memorial service? I’m not entirely sure. My host sister told me it was for a chauffeur that died about a month ago. What happens is that if someone dies and the family can’t afford to put on the funeral they wait to bury them until they have the money to do it. It’s been an interesting.

oh la la, le francais

My French is coming along. I have good and bad days. Current volunteers have been really encouraging, so I think I’ll be alright. I have to keep reminding myself that getting fluent in a different language doesn’t happen in just a few weeks. Go figure.

the living situation

My room chez ma famille is relatively large. I like it just fine except for the spiders and insects that like to hang on the walls and the few bed bugs I suspect I’m sharing a bed with. Can’t complain though. The outhouse, or latrine, hasn’t been terrible to use—it’s very clean considering it’s an outhouse. As far as showers go, I’ve actually enjoyed taking bucket showers. Except for one time when I took one at night and a fatty preying mantis decided to come in and hang out, which I did not appreciate at all.

il faut manger!

My meals here have been yum so far. I’ve eaten a lot (and I mean A LOT) of bread, rice, and pasta, along with different kinds of sauces (mostly tomato based), vegetables (mostly green beans and cabbage), and fruit (mostly oranges, bananas, and pineapple). My favorite meal has been rice with peanut sauce. Yum yum. I absolutely love carbs but I don’t think I’m exerting the energy I should be to justify eating them so often. Plus their portions are huge. I need to make a habit of running in the mornings. I’ve gone a couple times and it’s been nice but I just have to get up so dang early to do it. As far as cooking goes, I’m just a little worried about having to cook for myself. Though the PC gives us a good amount of equipment, one of them is not a microwave. Which I guess is fine since I don’t think I’d be able to find lean pockets or garden burgers at the marche anyways. I think the food I miss the most right now is cheese. I’ve only had it once and it just isn’t the same.

geography, weather, and bugs

A little bit about Togo geography… the closest region along the coast is Maritime, north of it is the plateau region, then centrale, then kara, then savane. Agou Akoumawou is in the plateau region—which I thought meant would provide us with less humidity than Lome, proportionate to the heat, but unfortunately that is not the case. It feels way hotter and just as humid, less the cool ocean breeze. And there’s a lot more bugs. Particularly spiders. C’est dommage. I've come to accept the fact that I'm going to permanently itch for the next two years.

faire-ing la conaissance de ma famille hôte

Getting to meet my host famille was amazing. When we got to Agou Akoumawou, we were greeted with music and dancing, and food. During the dancing part, there was a young man who was super animated and all over the dancing. He turned out to be my host brother in an extended kind of way which has been way cool. His name is George (funny thing… I thought his name was Josh until pretty recently when I saw his name written. I feel bad for calling him a name not his own, but in my defense, he looks way more like a Josh than a George, plus even now it still sounds like people call him Josh) He’s 23 years old. I saw George and Francoise (my host sister who is 16) a lot at the beginning but now I just see them every once in a while which is too bad. It took me a little bit (as in just a few days ago) to figure out the family situation because I initially thought that they were my host mom and dad’s kids but it turns out George is their nephew and Francoise is just a family friend who both live in different houses. Figuring out family relations has been somewhat difficult for a lot of us. In my compound is my host mom and dad with their two little boys (7 and 4yrs old) and a little girl (3 months), as well as a Peace Corps secretary named Monsieur Jean. My family has been tres super. They have been very patient with me as I try to practice my French and have been great about teaching my a little of the local language, ewe. Anyone I try to speak ewe with around here gets a kick out of me trying. I am going to start learning it in a more formal setting next week since I will be using ewe at my post (more about this later).

lomé-tion orienta-tion

Orientation in Lome was fabulous for the most part. It was a little tiring at times and I definitely did not like living out of suit cases, especially since me and personal organization don’t get along too well sometimes, but I was able to sneak in a few naps and did not end up losing anything. At least not anything I’ve noticed so far. Lome is a very beautiful city although, similar to Mexico, it has its fair share of crazy drivers and pollution. Other notable differences from the US are that the houses are cement based and there aren’t many paved streets. I wish I could upload des photos, but I think that’s going to have to wait till later. Lome has a fairly active night life. We arrived on a Saturday night and the streets were hoppin’ with people. I went out twice with PCVs and other PCTs to a couple different bars. It was fun. The best part was getting to talk to and getting to know some great people.

and don’t call me shirley!

The airplane rides were wonderful considering we got here safe and sound. Sleeping was a little bit of a challenge, especially on the first plane, but in retrospect, it was great getting to talk to fellow PCTs (PC Trainees) and playing around with the monitor each seat had. The monitors had games, movies, TV shows, news casts, cartoons, music, etc. Another really chouette chose that happened was that on our flight from NY to Paris, there was a lady sitting a few seats away from me who had been a PCV in the 70s. Get this—in Togo! She was as excited and surprised that she was in a plane full of future Togo PCVs as we were to meet her. It was a good sign.
I feel like I should make a quick note about the actual planes we were on since I know some of you ;) really like planes. Ummm… they were big and amazing. Who wouldn’t be amazed by a huge chunk of metal that can fly, right?! I wish I could say more about them, but that’s really all I know.

finally updating

Hello! It’s been amazing getting to experience the culture here in Togo, I feel like I’ve already learned so much in the short amount of time I’ve been here. I’m really looking forward to the next two years. This whole Girl’s Education and Empowerment thing is pretty sweet.

Getting connected to the internet is harder than I thought it was going to be so I’ve been in Togo for almost a month and I’m just now able to post an update. Alors, there’s a whole lot I would love to share with everyone. The last (and first) time I was able to get online about a week ago, I wasn’t able to figure out how to post what I had written before my time on the computer was up. I have been using a friend’s computer to type updates which means I have a lot to post, so for the sake of organization I am going to break it up and do a series of posts.