Today I woke up at 5:30am in preparation to leave from our middle school at 7:00am. Of course I didn’t get out of bed until a little past 6:00am. Do I have to poo? If I don’t poo, will I poo my pants en route? What can I wear to most easily facilitate my needs and to combat this intense heat?
Today is our “Amenons nos ScientiFilles au Travail” (a version Take Our Daughters to Work but with girls who want to work in the science domain) We chose the top 3 girls from each of our 6 classes to go into Atakpamé (the regional capital) and see female role models and all the options they have for their future. How many professional women do we have in our village? Just about zero. Here’s their chance to see a better reality for a Togolese woman. With a small fund of 100.000 ($200) from Togo’s GAD (Gender and Development) committee, we’re able to pay our transportation, small meals and the dorm to sleep for one night.
Arrive at school at 6:45am. I’m ready, I’m ready (Insert SpongeBob voice) The driver was told to arrive at 7am. It’s 7:05. I’m already complaining (of course, tu me connais- non?) “If he said he’s going to get here at 7 we’d pay him 30.000f and he arrives at 7:30, then we will pay something different. It’s conditional. IF he arrives at 7, it’s 30 thousand.” They laugh. “This is Africa.” Like I haven’t heard that before (every day, multiple times). Awesome. “I could have slept later. I’m tired. Why’d you tell me 7 if he’s not here?” They’re looking at me and trying to figure out what to say to shut me up. “If you tell the driver this, he’ll just leave us because he knows our village is isolated and that he can do whatever he wants because we have no other options but him and he knows it.” This is true. CRAP.
Now there are all these men arriving on their motorcycles. It’s cultural week in our area. There are students racing on their bikes from Gléi and they want to be at the finish line. Of course they all know who I am. They begin questioning me, “When are you going to visit us?” “Can you send me to Pagala?” “Why did you pick that teacher? He’s not good. I already have a club. Why didn’t you pick me?”
HAVE I EVER MET YOU BEFORE? NO. HOW COULD I HAVE PICKED YOU? “Can you pick me now?”
NO. IT’S ALREADY DONE. (INNER THOUGHTS: AND I DO THINGS ON TIME LIKE THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DONE!)
It’s now 7:30. Nothing ever happens on time. Why did I think this would be different? My science counterpart shows up on his motorcycle with the sauce for the meals (lunch and dinner) that we will be eating together today. He unloads it in the principal’s office and is ready to leave to park his moto at his house in Gléi (13 kilometers away… 13 kilometers closer to where we’re going)
The teachers are all telling me that they received the instructions on how to run our Vacation Enterprise (see blog from last year) because I refuse to do it again without their help. I had talked to them last month and told them if they’re interested to give me their name. Three gave me their name. The three I always work with. So I printed 6 copies. Three for them, one for the principal, one of the parent-teacher association and one for the community development committee. I’m approached. “And me? Where is mine? I didn’t get one with my name on it.” YOU NEVER EXPRESSED INTEREST. “And what about going to Pagala? Can I have the application?” I OFFERED THIS OPPORTUNITY TO YOU 4 WEEKS AGO AND NEVER ONCE DID YOU EXPRESS INTEREST IN THIS EITHER. IT’S ALREADY SENT. “Everyone is motivated. Me too, I am motivated. (INNER THOUGHT: THAT’S NICE)
We finally get a hold of the driver. He says, “J’arrive”. (I’m coming). SWEET. Does this mean he’s close or does this means he’s about to leave his house that’s an hour away? Who knows? Why ask questions? I get on the motorcycle with Monsieur ATSAVI (science guy) because like I said, “I’m ready, I’m ready!” As we’re about to arrive to Gléi, we see a car. There’s hope! It’s him! They’re coming…
Let’s take a look at our planned schedule:
DATE | HEURE | ACTIVITES |
29 March 2012 | 06H30 | The girls arrive to school |
07H30 | We leave | |
08H00 | Advice from female French teacher at Gléi’s high school | |
08H40 | Advice from the assistant principal (woman) at Datcha’s high school | |
09H30 | Meet with the DRE (some formality within the education system) |
This was great. The women gave great advice and shared personal stories of how they got to where they are without selling themselves short (or selling their body) and all the bonne choses (good things) like that. Before leaving Datcha, however, a girl realizes she lost her wallet. Oh please no. She left it in Gléi. She just realized it now. There were a whole lot of little kids watching us and it’s long gone. I call Amivi. She calls back. This girl’s lifesaving is in this wallet. It’s found. Obstacle number 2 for the day is overcome without a big problem but a few tears. The DRE dragged on and they only spent 15 minutes thanking each other back and forth, but there was one woman (out of 33) who works there who told us “du courage” (with courage). Sweet.
Alright, it’s only 11:05 right now. I’m already ready for lunch. What’s next?
10H00 | Put down our bags at the dorm |
10H40 | Visit the inspection (another formality) |
11H20 | Visit the Commissariat |
11H50 | Visit the Gendarmerie |
12H00 | Lunch |
CRAP.
The car drops us off at the door- Notre Dame d’Afrique (NDA). I have two volunteer friends waiting for us. They tried to get the key to the dorm but the man refused to give it to them, asking questions like “have you paid?” The answer is, no- I haven’t paid because we haven’t stayed yet. After me telling him that we’ve already reserved the dorm with his boss, the principal (a woman!), he tells me “oh, she’s sick.” Ok, that sucks… but that has nothing to do with him giving me the key to the dorm that I have had rented for a month. I think he noticed that I was about to make a scene so he looked for the guard to find me the key… (They have no idea where it is… half the problem)
They let us into the conference room. The big conference room that costs 20.000f a day. The conference room that I explicitly refused to rent because it’s 20% of our budget and we’re already over our small budget. I make this really clear. We leave all of our things in there anyway and head out for the commissariat. Forget the inspection for now. Turns out the big reason we need to go there is because this trip was never authorized by my principal’s boss and he needed to pick up the piece of paper with authorization. We get to the commissariat. A man on a bike passes with FanMilk (fake icecream and COLD things) and I succumb to buy a slightly overpriced (equivalent of a dollar) bottle of FanDango (read: Sunny-D) The girls are now wasting their money on it too. Whatever, it’s hot. The boss isn’t here so we’re not allowed to talk to the woman who works there because he’s not there to present her. At this point I’m pacified with my FanDango, so we continue.
We get to the Gendarmerie. Nobody is really ready for us. We’re just standing around. We spot a woman who works there in uniform. We’re just waiting… we spot a second… and a third! We go sit down where they will speak with us… there’s 4 of them! Holy crap. I literally make a noise of surprise and everyone looks at me. One of them talks for a few minutes about the life of a female gendarme. She is a gendarme but also a mother and wife who prepares meals for her family. “Do you get paid” The boss answers for them. “What obstacles have you had to overcome?” The boss answers for them… wow, this is a perfect example of a capable, strong woman that we’re trying to show these girls. I learned some things though and the girls really seemed to enjoy themselves (which is seriously all that matters at the end of the day and at the end of all this ranting). Turns out (GET THIS!) that until 2005, it was forbidden that women in Togo can be gendarmes… so we are really coming a long way. And then after a small question-answer session they give each of us (18 girls, 1 boy, 3 teachers, me and 2 other volunteers) each our own can of pop (soda). This is more expensive that our budget to eat for the day! I drank an apple drink J
We get back to NDA to eat. We eat in the big conference room because they haven’t yet found the key. The commissariat calls- they’re ready for us now. TOO LATE. They can’t top 4 gendarmes AND free pop anyway.
As we’re eating the girls are trying to get undressed to rest (a normal day has lunch at noon and rest until 2:30) It’s now about 1pm. We eat. At 1:35pm as they’re trying to nap I’m making them move to leave and walk to our workstation/transit house to have our first “causerie” (chat).
14H00 | Causerie - Talk about how to overcome obstacles |
15H30 | Visit a cyber café |
16H30 | Causerie - Talk about women’s rights and sexual harassment |
17H30 | Return to NDA |
18H00 | Dinner |
A first year volunteer, Jenny aka Fatima, did a session about girls overcoming obstacles in their lives. She asked them really deep questions about “is trying something new a good or bad thing?”, what it feels like to fail, have they ever been nervous to try something new?, etc. It really got their wheels turning. One girl asked, “If you fail a lot of times, can you still try again?” and a few girls raised their hand with a strong “YES!”
We’re on time! (Notice its volunteers in charge right now) We head up the hill to the cyber. Connor, a SED (Small Enterprise Development) volunteer is ready to go to show these young girls how to log-in and use a computer for the first time.
Reality check! Most of these girls have never left their village more or less been somewhere with electricity. Now they’re in their regional capital. With a small group of white people. Using computers.
There are 7 computers for 18 girls and 1 boy. (FYI, yes- this cost was forgotten in our budget) We get them all logged in after they understand that the mouse can direct them to do what they want. They each take a minute to click “Microsoft Word”. They each attempt to type their name. Eventually they start typing things like “I am capable” and “I like science” and “science gives me the power to do what I want” and “thank you for choosing me”. It was a special moment. We get them on Wikipedia and they’re searching “chicken” and little things like that. If nothing else, I know this moment was a huge success and the girls were sooo content.
Then we returned down the hill for the women’s/girl’s rights and sexual harassment session. This is a whole blog entry within itself but I’m so so so so so SO lucky to have awesome counterparts who did this session so well (one man and one woman- Georges and Mimi) The girls were participating and asking lots of questions. I was so happy. I let it run until 18:00.
Here’s where things get awesome (read: bad) We’re leaving the transit house to head back and I want to stop to buy toilet paper and soap. The store is closed. Half the girls walked off one day. (This is why they didn’t want to approve our trip- they think it’s just for the girls to go “promenade”) I don’t see the principal either. Whatever… I want to buy the stuff we need, including water to drink, and head back on a moto because my LEGS HURT SOO BAD. I finally find TP and soap. I get a moto, no problem (SURPRISED!) He doesn’t try to make me pay more than I want. I go to try to enter the dorm area and there’s a group of young boys blocking the door. I say in Ewe (local language) “AGOOO!” (pardon!) and they don’t move. One touches my shoulder “Don’t touch me!” I’m telling them to let me in and not touch me. Another touches me. I tell them that my girls are arriving soon and if they touch anyone of them, I will hit them myself (corporal punishment= another day, another blog). They laugh and touch me again! Didn’t I just come from a session about sexual harassment? I can’t believe it. An adult comes out to ask me who I am and what I’m doing. I give him a very general answer and ask “pardon, who are you?” He’s here with a giant group of kids and turns out he rented the big conference room that I refused to rent. They’re playing really loud music. He thinks I’m trying to get in on his party. He’s telling me to pardon his boys, they’re bandits. I tell him just because they’re bandits, I don’t pardon things that aren’t acceptable. I’m literally fighting to let my girls enter one by one. I get up to the room, convinced my legs are going to fall off.
I’m showing the girls how to use a toilet and a shower. Unreal. I want to sleep. I have no appetite. My sweat has been dripping and burning my eyes all day long… I’m exhausted. THERE’S NO RUNNING WATER ANYMORE. The girls want to shower and aren’t used to working like that and I can tell they’re about to crash before even eating. I’m so livid about these boys and that my principal knows their principal so there’s no hard feelings and I feel alone. And there’s no water. And my legs hurt. And it’s been a long day and I think “all these girls are going to remember is this moment”
I send 2 of the teachers to buy water to drink. We’re planning the next day. It’s super jam packed.
30 March 2012 | 06H30 | Breakfast |
07H00 | Causerie - Talk about importance of women working in science (testimony from volunteer) | |
08H30 | Visit hospital | |
09H30 | Visit Red Cross | |
10H15 | Visit NGO Plan Togo | |
10H45 | Return to NDA | |
11H30 | Advice and testimonial | |
12H00 | Closing and departure |
THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL. It’s going to take us at LEAST 30 minutes just to walk to the Red Cross and more or less wait and wait and wait for someone to realize we’re there and then come to talk to us and go through all the formalities of welcoming us and thanking us and welcoming us and us thanking them and them thanking us…. You get the picture, non?
Whatever, can I just shower and sleep? Nope. The sauce isn’t hot. The principal’s son who lives in Atakpamé brings a charcoal thing to boil it. We don’t have anything to put it in to boil. After me saying 5x that we can go to the transit house to boil it, they finally say- ok, let’s do that. It’s 7:45. We finish 8:30pm. Text that I sent to Christy: “The sauce needed to be chauffed so I came to the house with my counterpart’s hot son to chauf giant marmites for 45 minutes. Did they think it’d be magically hot? I’m gonna shower and eat whatever fancy garlic chicken potato thing Connor’s making before going back and cockblocking/sleeping in the doorway of the dorm”
Without going into much more detail, I’m still here… a volunteer is making some fancy chicken, potato, garlic dinner and I’m waiting for it (and a shower!) and typing this blog to let go of all this negative energy but also share with you lovely people what is going on in my life.
Apologies in advance for the day I get back to America and force you to suffer through lots of stories that you have no frame of reference to (or interest in)
Questions?
1 comment:
I have a question...when do you come home =)
-<3 dipshit or was i asshole?
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