Let’s be honest- updating this blog is more of an assignment than I’d thought it’d be. I really thought that I’d like having a public journal, but I just don’t. I also find it incredibly difficult to really encompass what’s going on here.
Nonetheless, I will still post. Hopefully more about projects I’m starting and work-related stuff, but also with funny little stories or explanations if I can keep myself from rambling/being incoherent.
So yeah, it’s been a while. I talked to my bio-mom today (Volunteers refer to their real/American family as their “bio-fam” because we also talk about our “family” here) and for the first time, I had a lot to talk about my work. I decided it’d be worth it to bust out my netbook and drain my battery this way instead of watching 30 Rock (someone had all the episodes on his external hard drive and for some reason I feel compelled to watch them all).
I just finished reading three stories that Moe wrote for her thesis and it made me realize even more how much I miss home. My mom told me on the phone that I’m different. I asked her how and she said “you don’t have electricity!” But I know I’m different in other ways too. I would be, regardless of Africa . Hey, I’m 23 now J. But it is depressing to think about how I don’t know what’s going on in anyone’s lives. I got on Facebook when I was in Atakpamé and couldn’t even figure out how to creep on people (I’ve been gone too long to have a reference to what’s going on & Facebook changed again)
Anyway, as I write this today (18 March 2011 ), I’m celebrating being in Togo
mars = March in French. Which is important. Because remember… all of this stuff I’m doing is in French. But unless it’s with teachers and students, most of it is getting translated into Ewé or Akposso. Which means that if it’d take me an hour to teach something, it’s going to take more than 2 hours to have my words translated and then everyone else’s responses translated back. What I’m saying is- I’m two or three languages removed: I go from English (sometimes Spanish because there are similarities) to French which goes to Ewé and/or Akposso and then back through the line-up and into my brain. It took me 5 days to figure out what my entonnoir was in English- funnel.
Okay, let me ramble about real things now-
1 mars – Peter, the Peace Corps security officer, visited my house. He told my papa that he needs to finish the fence around my house for privacy, build me a door to the “fence” and put bars on my windows so nobody can easily steal through them. Then we rode in the Peace Corps Land Cruiser 13k to Gléi (AIR-CONDITIONING!!!!!!) so I could be officially introduced to the gendarme (police officer) there, in case of emergency. The guy loved me, of course. Now when I walk through Gléi to visit my closest neighbor, he always insists on buying me a bottle of Coke. I’ll let you all know how that plays out when I finally take him up on the offer.
The car (with air conditioning still blasting!) dropped me back off in village. I ate lunch and then had my first official meeting with les pairs éducateurs (peer educators). The directeur (principal) of the CEG (college/equivalent to grades 7-10 USA) chose 25 students (15 girls and 10 boys). We discussed the role of a peer educator, their goals, their rules and they voted on the bureau (president, vice, treasurer, secretary, advisors, etc.) We also played games. Duh.
2 mars – I ran a club meeting in Gléi for the girls’ club at 14h30 (2:30pm) on gestion du temps (time-management) which continued from my last meeting on good study habits. Afi (the volunteer there, Jane) started this club in October because they got their first female teacher there. She’s a SED (Small Enterprise Development) volunteer and doesn’t usually work in schools. I’m not sure how much I’ll continue with this once she’s gone in August though.
4 mars – Got another Peace Corps visit… my village was so confused with another Land Rover passing through the bush. Aurelia, the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) came to check out the health conditions of my site and discuss my eating habits and how to treat my food and water. She’s awesome. She also helps talk about cultural problems we face and challenges in our work. At 15h00 (3pm), Laura G. (a third year Peace Corps Volunteer Leader-PCVL) came to village and did a sensibilisation on moringa. Moringa is a tree that is called “the miracle tree” and a bunch of other cheesy shit. It can be used lots of ways to help with health and also sold for lots of money. By grinding the leaves and adding them to any Togolese sauce, it is a source of Vitamin A, C, protein, calcium, and all the other stuff that isn’t found in typical foods here.
6 mars – Some volunteers are starting a LQBTQ network for PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) so I attended the first meeting in Atakpamé (the regional capital) I wish I could describe the trip in details. I take a moto 13k to Gléi in sand and crappy road and pay 800CFA of 1000CFA, depending on how much I feel like bargaining in French that day. Then I find a car to go to Atakpamé and can wait anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour to leave. This costs 500 or 600CFA (cars are 1/3 the price of motos) I’ve never taken a moto all the way because PCVs aren’t allowed to ride motorcycles on the main national road. We stop along the way to Atakpamé and pick up whoever else wants to go. There’s usually 8 people in the car (2 in the driver seat, 2 in passenger seat and 4 in back) plus all our stuff on our laps, in the trunk or on top of the car… and sometimes a chicken or two or a child or two or ten on our laps.
7 mars – permagardening in Atakpamé. We have a transit house in Atakpamé for volunteers to do work, use the internet if it is working, take a real shower and sleep. It is pretty nice. We recently added activities each month to do some cross-sector collaboration. Other Peace Corps countries do this officially, but we’re trying to do it on our own for our region of Plateaux. Two NRM (Natural Resource Management) volunteers taught us how to start a garden, compost our garbage, etc.)
8 mars – International Women’s Day – explained the original to the 450 CEG students and teachers at 6h45 after morning flag raising. Afterwards, I went around to each class for a discussion on gender equity and to answer questions. I’ll spare you the details because it’s guaranteed that I’ll ramble too much)
9 mars – liquid soap at 8h00 chez Afi… Jane/Afi taught the apprentices how to make liquid soap and she did a feasibility study to see if they’d make or lose money if they tried to sell it au marché (in the market) I brought an apprentice from my village to get a little trip with her and her baby (Fabrice, the light-skinned baby in my FB photos). She once claimed to be 22 but now admitted to being 32 (there’s age limits on certain official Peace Corps camps that happen in the summer nationwide) In the afternoon we listened to a woman from an ONG (NGO) in Gléi at 15h00. She talked about advancing girls and women, gender equity, role models, etc.
12 mars – soccer match cancelled; trip to Lomé cancelled- students let down. Most of them have never seen an airplane, airport, ocean, etc. so the directeur planned a trip there the same day as a big soccer game for them to get to see their country for the first time. Hopefully the match gets rescheduled so I can go on a Togolese fieldtrip! Instead I cleaned and organized my house. It’s feeling much cozier and it’s making me a lot more comfortable overall here.
13 mars – CDM 15h00, CASE-EK 16h00 & Gerbil’s arrival: Club des mères (mother’s club) starts around 3pm on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. They had attended the moringa sensibilisation and on this day I went to their meeting (it’s focused on illiteracy and they mostly learn basic French or math from a member of the CVD- Community Village Development something) I went with the apprentice (who is called Yawa, like me, because we were born on a Thursday) to share what we listened to and I talked about the origin of International Women’s Day and thanked them for giving birth to all the children J
Gerbil, aka Djibril, aka Andrew came to visit to help do a sensibilisation on VSLs (Village Savings and Loans) He arrived in the middle of the meeting so I left and we went to the CASE-EK (the name of the VSL my village already developed.
14 mars – VSL meeting at 8h00, 14h30 APE, check up on WWEC letters: Andrew shared successes of his VSL (decreased school dropout, early pregnancy, child-trafficking to Nigeria, etc.) In the afternoon at 2:30, I met with the APE (parents’ association) and listened to what they’re planning… I’ll spare those details too) and I found out the two women I nominated for the region-wide Women’s Conference in May have finished their application letters.
15 mars – mom’s birthday, meeting Meg in Atakpamé at 11h00 which turns out to be 13h00… went out to Atakpamé to meet with Meg to plan our Take Back the Night theme when the women arrive to the conference and to talk about what we’re going to teach on our end of GEE (Girls’ Empowerment and Education) So far I am doing “How to mentor girls” and maybe violence in families… Meg is going to discuss scarification and genital mutilation… and I’ll share these details after the conference happens at the end of May. (I’m so excited for this because we have 2 national camps for kids and a national program for men called MAP- Men As Partners and some awesome volunteers finally developed something for women… my favorite population to work with)
16 mars – peer educators 15h00-17h00 – got back from Atakpamé for our meeting. We discussed what values they have as students and children and what skills they think they need to succeed in the future. Based off of what they said, we developed a calendar of events (crap I’m gonna teach them)… more to come later on this too… hopefully. They showed lots of interest to talk about family planned, self-confidence and liquid soap.
17 mars – 10h00 sensibilisation de la violence- I did a giant sensibilisation about child abuse. It seemed very successful. Once I unwind from it and calm down, I’ll share details on this too. It is something rarely discussed and drained lots of my energy doing this in lots of different languages. Camilla, the volunteer in Amlamé came for support which was awesome. I left straight afterwards for Afi’s birthday party in Gléi. She made cupcakes! HOLY CRAP. I’d tell someone to mail me stuff to make cupcakes too, but that’s not even something I’d attempted in America, more or less in a Dutch oven here.
18 mars – today. April’s birthday. I made myself Koliko for lunch (fried yam) and sweated a lot as I wait for it to be a decent hour in America to make an expensive two-minute phone call to April hoping she answers…
Besides that an some 13 year-old getting pregnant for the second time, a 14 year-old trying to get married against her father’s will and some other minute drama… that’s it for now.
I didn’t get a chance to reread what I typed or edit it, so sorry for mistakes!
Le prochain fois…
(The next time…)
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