it's incredible how quickly time flies when you're online on slow computers with slow connections and funky keyboards. i'm about out of time, so i think i'm going to leave the rest of the updating for another time. but rest assured that all is well and i keep learning something new every day.
african women's day is at the end of the month. holler.
i'll be holding a peer educator training the second week of august. more on that later.
please keep me and the rest of togo in your thoughts and prayers!
peace, love, and blessings to you all.
Friday, July 25, 2008
may: a mourning, observed - ist - visiting the fam in agou - a visit to ghana
early one morning towards the beginning of may, i headed out to the paved road to wait for a car to go to pagala. as i neared my usual waiting spot, i noticed that half of m'poti's population was gathered on the road already. i inquired as to what the purpose of the crowd was and was told that there had been a moto accident the night before. the guy who had been on it was seriously injured or dead, depending on who i talked to. it always sucks to hear about these sort of things happening (you hear about moto accidents all the time), but it always feels worse when you find out the person is someone more closely acquainted than simply some random person in village. this young man turned out to be the husband of one of my neighbors. when i came back home from pagala and saw my neighbor, i immediately knew he had died since she had shaved off all her hair, something i had previously been told people do when a significant other passes. for the next month and a half or so, i observed other behaiors indicative of her mourning a loss. she didn't do any work, she pretty much hung around the house all day. at ever meal she would place a morsal of whatever we would be eating on the ground,along with a peice of meat. she only wore a certain pagne wrapped around her, and went topless on a regular basis. i missed the funeral since i had been gone the week that he died, but when i came back i went with my neighbor to the house of the guy's family to pay my respects. it was a little awkward for me because i didn't know what the proper thing to say to them was, but they seemed to appreciate the visit.
the week i had been gone in pagala had been for my in-serice training. it was a good opportunity to reinforce our goals in our communities and share ideas on how to reach those goals. it was also great to see people from my training group that i don't get to see on a regular basis and hear how their experiences are going and share ideas.
about a week and a half after ist, i went on a short trip that started out with a visit to my host family in agou. it was a great time. it was a little weird to be back in agou after having been on my own for the preious five months, but that was to be expected. my perspective on things changed in that i realized how educated and economically prosperous agou is in relation to a lot of smaller villages i have visited since having lived there, my own village included. it was also good to be able to better communicate with people, as my french speaking abilities had improved since training (though are still very much in progress, even now). and of course everyone was incredibly welcoming and happy to see us (i went with two other friends) back.
after our short visit, we headed to ghana to pick up a visitor from the states and eat some good food. it was a quick trip but lots of fun. accra is beautiful and i hope to go back. due to lack of time and preparedness, i'm going to leave it at that and tell you that y'all should come see it for yourselves. and stop by for a visit in togo while you're around.
the week i had been gone in pagala had been for my in-serice training. it was a good opportunity to reinforce our goals in our communities and share ideas on how to reach those goals. it was also great to see people from my training group that i don't get to see on a regular basis and hear how their experiences are going and share ideas.
about a week and a half after ist, i went on a short trip that started out with a visit to my host family in agou. it was a great time. it was a little weird to be back in agou after having been on my own for the preious five months, but that was to be expected. my perspective on things changed in that i realized how educated and economically prosperous agou is in relation to a lot of smaller villages i have visited since having lived there, my own village included. it was also good to be able to better communicate with people, as my french speaking abilities had improved since training (though are still very much in progress, even now). and of course everyone was incredibly welcoming and happy to see us (i went with two other friends) back.
after our short visit, we headed to ghana to pick up a visitor from the states and eat some good food. it was a quick trip but lots of fun. accra is beautiful and i hope to go back. due to lack of time and preparedness, i'm going to leave it at that and tell you that y'all should come see it for yourselves. and stop by for a visit in togo while you're around.
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