Ou bien?

Once again, I’m at a roadblock to try to explain this country and my life to those of you without a mental picture…

I’ll start by saying that I’m super happy. The people here are awesome and super nice as are the other volunteers who I get to see every so often.

I’m about to undertake a project called “Vacation Enterprise” to help girls make money during their summer vacation.  I chose to share this because the problem pretty much describes the Girls’ Education and Empowerment program.

PROBLEM: Lack of gender-equity

SUB-PROBLEM: Girls’ don’t get to go to school because of the lack of money (boys are given preference)

ATTEMPT AT SOLUTION #1:  Girls try to start up small businesses and either 1) lose money or 2) work so hard they have no time to study which leads to à drop-out

ATTEMPT AT SOLUTION #2: Find a man to help pay which leads to à pregnancy which leads to drop-out

MY SOLUTION TO BE ATTEMPTED: I will loan 5 girls a nice chunk of change to start businesses over the summer. I’ll teach a money-management class once a week and collect all their profits so at the end we can pay it directly to the school.

Ça va aller. Ou bien? (It will go, or?)

I’ll let you know how it goes.  In the meantime, check out my friend Brandon Jones’s photo albums.  He’s a great photographer and he just opened his Togo albums up for “friends of friends”

Also, here’s a blog post of another PCV that I enjoy: http://alishawilliams.com/uncategorized/2011/03/14/reflections/    

Her whole blog www.alishawilliams.com is actually great.

Lastly, I'm about to try to upload some videos to Facebook :)  

Enjoy!

[insert clever title here]

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 for exactly 6 months, a half year! Crazy.  I’ve been at post in Kpategan for 4 months and this month I’m starting to find my place in the community more and more.

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…)

Some details

So I typed this out a few weeks ago.  A lot of good things have happened since then so look for some updates in the next couple... months. Ha.  I'm happier and happier every day here.

Enjoy my rambling-

Hello friends. I’m sitting here with my laptop charging in the regional capital and I’m going through internet withdrawal but figured I should pre-type my blog post before I pay for internet minutes.  I’m unnerved about who will read/access these mundane details of my Togolese life but I miss people back home a lot and here’s the best/easiest/cheapest way to communicate.

I’m changing my address due to some difficulties. If you sent me something to Lomé or Amlamé I will get it eventually, no worries.  Today I got some cards from my mom and a letter from Moe and a card/letter from Mary K. Thanks peoples.

Jes Scheinpflug

Corps de la Paix

B.P. 3194

Lomé, Togo

West Africa

What else? If you get a call from a strange number, answer it- it’s me.

So yeah, I swore in on 18 Nov 2010. Our whole training class of 29 swore in! 14 from my program (Girls Education & Empowerment) and 15 from NRM (Natural Resource Management).  The other 2 programs that train June-August of every year right before GEE/NRM are SED & CHAP (Small Enterprise Development and Community Health and Prevention)  I live in between a SED Volunteer and a CHAP Volunteer so I see some possible cross-collaboration work in the future. I’m actually going to start working at the infirmary next week helping the mid-wife weigh babies and do some health education… maybe. Plans change.

I’m living in my own house now. It’s tiny in comparison to the large houses I’ve seen of other PCVs but it’s comparable to the other houses in my village.  It’s 2 rooms.  One has my bed and one stores all my stuff and will be for cooking and everything.  Kpategan is about 14k off the national route and is small- maybe 1500 people (somehow all related to my Papa).  On that road 14k away is Glei where there’s the SED Volunteer, Jane, who has lived in Chicago for 17 years. Awesome. Hmm… Kpategan- we have the dispensary, “College” (7^th-10^th grade), Catholic Primary School, Public Primary School, some boutiques, tchuck (locally brewed alcohol) and a tiny market.

I LOVE my family. My Papa is so nice. He’s 60. He is a “retired” farmer even though he works a lot still. He has 10 kids, 3 are dead. The oldest is 42 and the youngest is 21. Mama, who I call Mama Sodabi because she drinks so much sodabi (African moonshine) has 6 kids.  The youngest two, Abla (11) and Kodjo (8), live on the compound. Also Mama’s 21 year-old (Degnibo) and Papa’s 21 year-old (Koffi/Edi) and then a college teacher. And can’t forget little Erik- Papa’s grandson who is either 3 or 5… so cute but such a little shit.  I’m going to post some photos to FB and if someone develops them and mails me them I’ll be indebted to you forever J  My family really wants copies and they took photos of me on like a 1985 camera and got the film developed for me.  I’ll take pics of the pics and try to post to Facebook also.

Travel is something to talk about.  To get to village which should be like MAYBE 2 hours took 8 hours the first time in October and 24+ hours this time because of break downs, fights and drama.  I’ll spare you the details for now. I should’ve known when the door fell off in Lome that it was gonna be a rough ride.

My hair’s looking cute.  JK. I’m growing a tiny little rat tail.  I’m going to shave it again after our in-service training the first week of February. So excited to see everyone again for the first time in a few months.

I’m going through my journal trying to find things to share.  I spend a lot of time alone/as the only English speaker and have thought about shit I thought I forgot about a long time ago.  For Thanksgiving I went to Kat’s house (my neighbor in the opposite direction of Jane) and she made awesome food including guacamole. I stayed in village for Christmas and New Years to integrate with my community and family which was a good decision.  I have the only community donated house in my training and not only do I not pay rent, but they feed me all day long for free. It’s nuts.  My female homologue named Malé washed all my laundry for me for a while but now I found 2 girls in school who do it and I pay their school fees in return.  Good deal for us both.

I go to church a bunch of times.  Papa is the pastor of the Evangelical church and a ton of people go to the Catholic Church.  I dance with all the mamas and blend in oh-so-well.  Religion is an interesting thing.  A lot of people know that the white man brought Christianity here.  Malé has some ideas that the bible says you can’t show your knee or women can’t shave their head, etc… even though every single girl shaves her head.

I’ve had some shocks.  Before I realized how much my Mama drank, we went to this woman’s house to see her 5-day old twins and they drank some sodabi. She thinks that it’s good for her health when it actually makes you crazy and causes blindness (and tastes like nail polish remover)  But that evening, I had gone on a long bike ride, had just eaten a banana and some bread and drank some tchuck. And then Mama’s son shows up to say Papa needs the key to the house that Mama has and she’s gonna get beat.  I’m sitting there just staring at these 5-day old little babies.  Then their older brother (4 years-old or so) was laying there and mama kept trying to show me his penis because he cut it with a knife accidentally but he was crying and mama was drunk and it was a shit-show.  I took a step back and realized I’m sitting in a clay house with a ton of women and children watching them drink their faces off in this little village and realized how awesome my life is.

I’m learning lots of local language. Enough said about that.  I spend a couple hours a week in “French class” on my veranda with my homologue, Claude. It’s coming along.

Spent some time at the public elementary school (comparable to grades 1-6) at the end of their first trimester to hear the test results.  They take a test each trimester, take the average, and find out of the student will pass to the next grade.  Out of like 500 kids, maybe like 50 passed… I think 5 or 6 girls. Yep. There is some work to do.

One day I will post some videos of village because it’s so hard to explain. All-in-all, I’m super happy. I miss people at home a lot more than I thought I would.  Hopefully Facebook would load and I can communicate directly.  Write me letters though- it’s an awesome moral boost.  Du Courage.

People say “du courage” for everything… if you hurt yourself, they hurt you, you slept a lot, you didn’t sleep, you did well, someone died… whatever. Du Courage.



Pigeon & Cock

Ok, I wrote a long post out on my netbook and forgot to save it to my external when I traveled.  Oops.

Everything is so great. Work has began. The holidays were fun. I'm learning a lot. I love my family here.

A little story:
One Sunday morning I went to the Evangelical church where my Papa is the pastor.  After the 3-4 hour mass in the local language I don't speak with minimal translations into a local language I barely understand and some French, we went back to our compound to drink some tchuck (a type of beer my family makes) that took Mama 5 days to make gallons of it.  This old lady who doesn't understand that I don't understand her language is going on and on.  As she's about to leave with some tchuck in a container, I offer to carry it for her since she can barely walk down the crappy road.  I'm walking and my 11 year-old sister, Abla, accompanies me.  This man starts to follow me.  He takes the container and carries it and starts asking for marriage and money and all the typical stuff.  Then he starts whipping juju beads (what? Buddhism in West Africa?) around and screaming like he's possessed.  I sit at the old lady's house with her family and do all my formal introductions and say "hello, how are you? and your family? and your work? etc..." to about 10 people, I get up to leave because this guy is still sitting there and giving me the creeps.

I'm trying to get Abla to tell me if she knows him on 5 minute walk back at a fast speed without the old lady and she starts to run. So I run. So he runs. He's officially chasing us.  We're on my porch and he's screaming and rolling around outside my house in a language I've never heard before. I look to see where Papa is and why he or one of my older brothers isn't coming to my aid.  Turns out Papa has his own issue with a cock. And Koffi and Degnibo (my 21 year-old brothers) are tending to some pigeons.

A community leader found a cock on his property and decided it was his even though Papa cut off it's baby toe and claimed it.  They're both screaming "cock" over and over again and Papa says he is a holy man and refuses to fight, so he can take it but god will punish him.  At the same time, the brothers are killing and boiling the 2 pigeons that I was given to eat for dinner as a New Years present from the president of a development association in my village.

Bon appetit. Right?

(it was actually delicious)

Typed a whole post and it's not on my external anymore.

My address has changed!!!!!!!!!!

Write me and I'll write back all the details of life.

Jes Scheinpflug, PCV
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 3194
Lome, Togo
West Africa

oh yeah...

 it's almost impossible to read private messages on FB.  If you've sent me something, I'm dying to read it but I can't.  Sometimes I can see my wall and sometimes I can check my e-mail.  and by sometimes, I mean maybe once a month.  And that's gonna change now that I'm really in bufu.  So just send me mail :)

I am official

I swore in with the minister of education, all of PC staff, all our host families, our trainers, the US ambassador in Togo (a woman!) and all that stuff.  It was on the news in some big towns that get electricity for the most part.

So where do I start? It’s 6AM, everyone’s been up and going for a couple hours now.  The roosters haven’t shut up for what seems like days.  My days go from like 6:30 when I finally get out of bed until usually 20:00 or so when I climb back in (8PM).  Yes, they use military time here.

So yeah, training is over. I got to Tsévié on September 22 and this week has just been wrapping up stuff.  I tested intermediate mid on my French test and did pretty alright on all my presentations and technical exams.  The most frustrating part (besides the constant heat) is not being able to have conversations with most of the Togolese I interact with on a daily basis.  I’ve been able to have more conversations with my mama as her patience for my French grew, but still.  I lived here for less than 2 months and nobody really got to know me. I’ve also been learning Ikposso, the local language of my village and very little Ewe (Ev-ay), the language spoke around most of the South here.

Enough for frustrations because I’m so excited. I'm in Lomé. We’re official. We're buying some mattresses or lipico or whatever the best bed I can get with my money is.  I haven’t made any big decisions at this point.  

Ok… so my house! I’m living in Kpategan.  (Paht-ay-gan) It’s in the Plateaux Region south of Atakpame, the regional capital.  It’s very tiny.  My homologue is awesome as is the director of the CEG (principal of the school equivalent to our 7^th-10^th grade) They told me I’m the first white person most of them have ever met and that I’m the first white person to ever spend one night in their village, more or less live there for 2+ years.  When I arrived on my 8 hour intense Togolese bush taxi ride that should’ve taken less than 2 hours, I was covered in sand, thirsty and exhausted.  As I stepped out of the car, hundreds of people were singing and dancing to welcome me.  They dressed me in traditional clothing from head to toe and with tons of jewelry (holy hot) and we had a big welcoming ceremony.  The same happened the next morning as I walked back from church.

So there are lots of churches and they’re also building a mosque. I think it’s awesome.  I’m going to hit up all of them in the beginning and search for people to work with and meet everyone.  That’s basically what I’m supposed to do the first 3 months- just meet people.  I might start some projects.  I could list all of the projects I want to start but it’ll be so much better when I can write about them when they’re real.  Something that is real right now though is the Men As Partners (MAP) training.  I told you the director of the CEG is awesome… he went to a big MAP training that two other PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) held the week before I visited my post.  In Kpategan, there’s a monthly meeting where a group of directors get together.  He petitioned for 30-40 minutes each month to do a MAP activity and wants me to collaborate with him.  Luckily, there was a meeting the week I was there and I got to meet all those directors (who yes, are all men) I get to go to my own MAP training in early December (hopefully! Because the girl in charge just got malaria) so I can be officially trained.  I’ve done a couple activities that were totally social work-y.  I also got worked up.  We played 4 corners (agree, disagree, strongly agree, strongly disagree) and some of the statements were “if a woman carries a condom in her purse, she’s easy” and “sex is more important for men than women” and just watching some people’s responses really blew my mind.  Working with Togolese will be interesting.

What else about Kpategan? So they wanted a PCV so bad that this retired man built a house especially for me and is letting me live there for free.  Its 2 rooms with teal walls.  One is for sleeping and the other is for everything else.   I have a slab of concrete behind my house to wash off with my bucket and behind that is a sheltered hole in the ground for doing my business.  It’s actually really nice.  I won’t have electricity but if I ever seriously need anything, I’ll be able to motorcycle, bike or ride to some neighboring volunteer in no time.

Man, there’s so much to say and I haven’t even really explained my view on Togo.  As a GEE (Girls Education and Empowerment) Volunteer or in French L’education et promotion de la fille… I have my work cut out for me.  Women and girls are treated so unfairly it’s hard to actually believe its real life sometimes.  Girls sleep with their teachers because it’s just the way it is.  They either don’t know they can say no or they need 200CFA (that can’t even buy a drink) or a good grade or whatever.  And this is accepted by a lot of people and teachers don’t see anything wrong with it.  Therefore, it is difficult to combat if, as an outsider, I’m questioning norms.  Along those lines, homosexuality doesn’t exist.   Which is super ironic because men hold hands and kiss like it’s nothing.  But people really think it’s some myth and it doesn’t exist.  And lastly, sexual harassment. Mostly every PCV I’ve talked to has been sexually harassed in one way or another (verbally or maybe a minimal amount of touching).  There’s not really rape statistics for PCVs in Togo but we all know how that works. 

Let me stop there and say this: I feel completely safe.  The PC staff here is indescribable.  They’re the most progressive, protective, educated and inspiring people ever.  They’ve set me up in a great place and my homologue, Claude, has set me up in a great position.   We have a safety and security officer and tons of other positions that double and triple check all of our situations (houses, villages, etc.)  If it was perfect, there probably wouldn’t be a need for me to be here.

My computer battery’s gonna die, but let me just say this.   I love fou fou avec sauce d’arachide (fou fou with peanut sauce) My life has changed since I’ve eaten it.  I no longer crave Taco Bell on a daily basis once I found this beige slab of yam pounded to its death.  Yum.

After several attempts to get online...

I am alive, but Facebook security will not let me log in...

I have been journaling like crazy and typing some stuff on my flashdrive once a week but there isn’t a reliable internet connection in this town.  I’m in Tsevie which is close distance-wise from Lome but takes about an hour or so.

I let the other trainees (stagaiares in French; pronounced stah jare) chop off all my hair while we were in Lome (the capital) for those first few days. The next morning I went and got it buzzed off at a barber. It was a nice ease in. We stayed at a hotel called Galion and I had internet connection every night. Before I knew it, I was in a van on the way to Tsevie (Chev-ee-ay) for our welcome ceremony and to meet my mama.

As I walked in to the ceremony under a giant hut-like tent-y thing, there were a bunch of Togolese people dancing and singing to welcome us. It was literally one of the most overwhelming experiences of my life. I never cried happy tears until this day.  As I was trying to stop the water flowing from my eyes as I had this large cheesy smile on my face, I stood up and introduced myself to the crowd for my family to “claim me”. I said “J’mapelle Jessica” and my mama popped up so fast, ran towards me and kissed me so much she basically licked my face.  Everyone was laughing and my mama, “Big Mama”, was the life of the party.  She danced and shouted during the songs.  A few of us thought she was the chief’s wife because she seemed really important.  Nope, she’s just loud. She held me close the whole time and everyone got a kick out of it.  We’re a perfect match.  If you’ve heard my Lil Jon, you know what I mean.

What else? Hmm… In order to receive packages I have to pay 1000 CFA ahead of time.  I left 7000 CFA at the office so I can get 7 packages.  Make them good… hah, but really, there’s absolutely nothing I want or need right now (except for a lifetime supply of toilet paper, which I get here for cheap)

I got my medical kit. I got a phone. Call me via Skype, noblecom.com or whatever international phone thing you can get.  It costs me big bucks to make calls, but it is like 20 something cents a minute for you to call me.  It’s free for me to check voicemail so I’d love for any random messages.  My days are freaking long.  My number is 011-228-991-9023.  I’m 5 hours ahead of Chicago.  I’m out of bed around 6am but awake around 5ish (12-1am Chicago) and go to bed around 20:00 here (3pm Chicago)

Oh, it is definitely worth noting that I put on the movie Date Night on the flight from Paris to Togo and fell asleep right away.  It was my last American attachment but I had no energy for it.  Dang.

The food. It is an experience.  I haven’t tried fou-fou yet, but the cous-cous is alright.  I’m mostly having “eggs”, onions and tomatoes for breakfast, some sort of rice, chicken with a sauce-y thing for lunch, and “noodles” or something for dinner with a bunch of veggies.  I’m also served a banana and like 3 oranges and pineapple with every meal.  My mama thinks I hate the food, but I’m just so full and it is SO HOT. One of the few French phrases I use a lot is “Je suis rasasie” (sp?) meaning I’m full.  Jah swee rah sahz ee ay!! I’m pretty sure my mama called me a liar a few times.

There’s so much to say but it is so hard to put into words.  I’m learning French quickly and going to class all day long.  A typical day is class from 7:30-9:30, break, class 10:00-12:00, lunch, class 2:30-5 or 6.  I have French every day, bike classes and technical classes about girls’ education.  I’ve learned so much about a bike already.  I can unhook the brakes, change a flat tire, remove a whole tire and probably something else.  Our toolkit is intense.

Our tech house/salle tech/where we have our sessions

There are lots of cultural things to note.  One we were told early on is “what are you doing at night that you can’t do during the day?” which means I better get my ass home before it is dark out or my family will be out looking for me (experienced this the first night)

After school or going to the market (marche, pronounced mar-shay) we go to a bar. I’ve tried some local alcohol (chuk (sp?), sodabe (sp?) and some beers like Castel, but mostly just vin rouge- red wine)  It is 800 CFA for a litre of boxed wine and it tastes just like Franzia; I’m still as classy as ever.

What else do you want to know?  I have a book of quotes already going which includes “You have permission now to play with your poo” – Lyn, the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) and “Every fart’s a gamble” – the stage trainers in Philly.

My French teacher, Rolande, is so pretty and hilarious.  Every time I use some form of Spanish instead of French she makes me do the Togo version of the chicken dance or tells me I owe her a Guinness.

The PC bureau in Lome looks like the Dharma Initiative on the island in Lost.

Some man wiped out on his moto (motorcycle) because he was watching all of us white people ride our bikes.

The kids sing the Yovo song just about every time I walk past them.  Yovo means white person.  It goes something like “Yovo, yovo, bon sois, ca va, merci” which is just like the only words I know in French.  It’s annoying because it’s so repetitive and even when I tell them that my name is Jessica and not Yovo, they don’t quite understand.  A lot of the kids also don’t speak French, but their local language- mostly Ewe (pronounced Ev-ay) here.

I was taught how to do my laundry, I’m sure I’ll be sharing details/bitching about that process soon enough.

I got my post today for the next two years. I’ll be in Kpategan. It’s a small village in the Plateaux region. I have some details but I really have no idea what to expect. It is a new post. They want a PC volunteer so bad they built a house especially for me.  It is 1 bedroom/1 main room.  I haven’t seen it yet. I’ll have to travel to get some water from a well outside my compound but current volunteers told me I can find a girl in town who needs help paying for her schooling and pay her to get my water for me.  There are a couple kids there who have gone to the Peace Corps national summer camps here that I can continue to work with.  I’ll probably be doing some MAP training (Men As Partners) and just overall promoting girls to go to/stay in school.  There is a SED volunteer like 12 or 13 kilometers away who is doing some current work that I’m excited to collaborate with.  (SED = Small Enterprise Development…. I think)

Alright, enough rambling.  It’s time for me to pour freezing water over my head and climb into my mosquito net (I LOVE it, seriously) because I have to wake up extra early.  I’m going to observe another classroom tomorrow morning at 6am. 

SHIT - Staying Healthy in Togo

I made it to Togo. There were a few tiny bumps in the road from Philly to Paris and Paris to Togo, but it wouldn't have been true Peace Corps style if it wasn't. I was waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop and me to freak out, but instead a man like 4 rows behind me had a medical emergency.  His partner started screaming and I thought the plane was going down for 5 seconds. My adrenaline was rushing and I stayed up for at least a day straight/had major jet lag.
Since arriving, I've been in trainings all day, adapting to having to take a malaria pill every single day for the next 27 months, freaking myself out that I don't know French, but mostly just super grateful.
I'm so lucky.  We had great meals on our flights, the flight attendant was really nice to us.  We were served wine on both flights. We got to Togo and sat in air conditioning before we went through our own reserved customs and some Peace Corps security men carried ALL of our luggage for us.  Thousands of pounds. We're treated like diplomats.  The regional security officer from Homeland Security talked with us and everything.
Last night we had another great meal, but at a restaurant this time. The country director was there as was the ambassador of Togo and a ton of other important people.  Some current PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) came from all over the country (some are 12 hours away) and they pitched in to get us each 2 drinks. It was a night full of dancing and just the truest sense of fellowship that I have.
The PCVs who are here for our training are really helpful and awesome. I've literally asked at least 100 questions.
I met with my APCD, Rose, today.  I can't remember what it stands for but it's like the assistant program country director or something.  She's in charge of my program, GEE. (Girls Education and Empowerment)
Everything is an acronym. My favorite is SHIT.  Stay healthy in Togo. Enough said.

Also, pictures coming soon. The cutest cat lives at the hotel the other PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) are at and I took about 25 photos of her.  She's my favorite Togolese person so far besides Blondine. 

Please learn the acronyms.
SHIT, PCT, PCV, ACPD have been mentioned.
PCMO is Peace Corps Medical Officer.

I'm writing and journaling like crazy so I'll compose my thoughts when I have more than 10 minutes to be online.  Basically, I'm here. I'm in one piece. I'm more than taken care of and I'm beyond lucky.

Last stateside post

I'm in Philadelphia for a few more hours as I get ready to leave for this much anticipated journey.

I arrived yesterday morning and we had a short "training" in which we talked about our anxieties, aspirations, expectations, etc.  I thought it was going to be boring and annoying but it was refreshing and comforting.

My fellow trainee (I"m officially a trainee and not an invitee/applicant anymore!) said it really well on her blog: "It is so nice to finally meet the people I will be working with for the next 27 months, there was a lot of fun and bonding tonight and we are all made of the same fabric, which is exhilarating to finally be surrounded with people who understand what all this madness is all about. It is a beautiful thing, how fast you can connect with people when you already have so much in common that is inherently understood; plus the camaraderie of the unknown, of the potential hardship we will endure and adjust to together. As our facilitator said, we are now a family within the larger family of the Peace Corps, and will be for a lifetime"

Super cheesy, but the connections I felt with these people is almost supernatural.  There's 29 of us.  Half of us are in the Girls' Education and Empowerment (GEE) program and the other half are Natural Resource Management (NRM) - everything is an acronym.

They gave us each a nice chunk of change for our 1.5 day stay here so we had a good night out in Philly around many discussions, namely how none of us want to pop out babies or get married any time soon.  Surprisingly lots of people are in relationships or just ended really long relationships for this trip.  We had some awesome pizza and beer- the perfect send off.

Talk to you when I talk to you!

Later.

Details

I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update this, especially during training, so I decided to lay out all the details I already have. Doing this might actually help me remember more/keep all the info straight :)

I'll be in Philadelphia for staging (training) the 16th and 17th.
September 17 Depart Philadelphia
September 18 Arrive Paris
September 18 Depart Paris 5 hours later & Arrive Lomé, Togo

There's a welcome reception that night and things like that.

Sunday the 19th through Tuesday the 21st I'll have health sessions, security training, a French Placement test (crap!), given a bike assignment, a diversity session and other detailed trainings. During this time I'll be staying in a hotel.

On Wednesday the 22nd, I'll travel to Tsévié (North of Lomé) while the Natural Resource Management (NRM) volunteers will be in Gbatopé- 6km away from me. I will meet my host family this afternoon.

Training at the PST (Pre-service training) site begins on Thursday the 23rd.

That's what I have for week 2 of training. Considering the French is my #1 worry, I'm pumped there is lots of language time.  I remember how much I loved learning Spanish so I'm hoping for the same. I get so excited when I understand conjugations, irregularties, etc.  The freaking pronunciation of French is so hard though.

Did I mention how pumped I am for the location of my host family?  My friend Melissa shared some language/cultural experiences about her long trip to Ghana. I can't remember too much, but I remember her mentioning Ewe people and the language.  According to Wikipedia, Tsévié is inhabited primarily by Ewe people. Sweeeet.

Also, there's an asterisk that says "* You will eat all meals with host families."  I thought that is worth noting.

Alright, so I get to Lomé the 18th, have arrival retreat to the 22nd and then stay in Tsévié from September 22 to October 23rd at the PST site with my host family.  Then I'll have a site visit to feel out my prospective future site/placement from October 23-30. I'll go back to my PST site for a couple more weeks until November 17th and if all goes well (and I can pass an intermediate-medium level in French by the end of Phase II) then I will be sworn in as a volunteer on November 18 and depart to my post on the 19th.

As I get more and more information, it is becoming more of a reality. Now that I'm even more overweight from constantly stuffing my face the past couple weeks, it is time to get moving.

I haven't even began to pack, but I have a GIANT pile of everything on top of the suitcases. We'll see how this 80 pound limit plays out.

Maybe once my going away party is over on Sunday (and it finally hits me once I see all my friends for the last time) I'll start cracking down.  Until then... Facebook, Yahoo Gin and Tumblr will continue to distract me :)

http://jshine.tumblr.com/

Information for friends/family

Dear Families,

Greetings from the Togo Desk in Washington, D.C. It is with great pleasure that we welcome your family member to the Togo training program. Over the years we have received many questions from Volunteers and family members alike regarding travel plans, sending money, relaying messages and mail, etc. As we are unable to involve ourselves in the personal arrangements of Volunteers, we would like to offer you advice and assistance in advance by providing specific examples of situations and how we suggest they be handled.

1. Irregular Communication. (Please see #3 for the mailing address to Peace Corps' office in Lomé the capital of Togo). The mail service in Togo is not as efficient as the U.S. Postal Service. Thus, it is important to be patient. It can take from three to four weeks for mail coming from Togo to arrive in the United States via the Togolese mail system. From a Volunteer’s post, mail might take up to one to two months to reach the United States depending upon how far the Volunteer is from the capital city, Lomé. Sometimes mail is hand carried to the States by a traveler and mailed through the U.S. postal system. This leg of the trip can take another several weeks as it is also dependent on the frequency of travelers to the U.S.

We suggest that in your first letters, you ask your Volunteer family member to give an estimate of how long it takes for him or her to receive your letters and then try to establish a predictable pattern of how often you will write to each other. Also try numbering your letters so that the Volunteer knows if he or she missed one. Postcards should be sent in envelopes--otherwise they may be found on the wall of the local post office. [PUT POSTCARDS IN ENVELOPES!]

Peace Corps Togo has established “The Lomé Limo” which runs up and down the country monthly, delivers mail, medical supplies, and sometimes volunteers or staff to central sites along the national road.

Volunteers often enjoy telling their “war” stories when they write home. Letters might describe recent illnesses, lack of good food, isolation, etc. While the subject matter is often good reading material, it is often misinterpreted on the home front. Please do not assume that if your family member gets sick that he or she has not been attended to. The city of Lomé has medical and dental facilities, and there is a Peace Corps Medical Officer there as well. Most Volunteers can reach Lomé in less than one day’s time. Many Volunteers also have access to a telephone so that they can call our Medical Office. In the event of a serious illness the Volunteer is sent to Lomé and is cared for by our Medical Unit. If the Volunteer requires medical care that is not available in Togo, he/she will be medically evacuated to South Africa or to the United States. Fortunately, such circumstances are very rare.

If for some reason your communication pattern is broken and you do not hear from your family member for at least one month, you should contact the Office of Special Services (OSS) at Peace Corps in Washington at 1-800-424-8580, extension 1470 (or direct: 202-692-1470). The OSS will then call the Peace Corps Director in Lomé, and ask her to check up on the Volunteer. Also, in the case of an emergency at home (death in the family, sudden illness, etc.), please do not hesitate to call OSS immediately, so that the Volunteer can be informed by a member of Peace Corps/Togo staff.

2. Telephone Calls. The telephone system in Togo has fairly reliable service to the United States. In the interior of the country, where most of our Volunteers are located, the system is less reliable. Most Volunteers have access to a telephone in or nearby their site.

When dialing direct to Togo from the U.S., dial 011 (the international access code) + 228 (the country code) + the number. Volunteers generally set up phone calls with people in the U.S. in advance, and have the distant party call them, which is much less expensive than calling the U.S. from Togo. Many volunteers decide to purchase cellphones once they arrive in Togo, but they may not always have regular reception at their site.

The Togo Desk in Washington, D.C. usually calls the Peace Corps office in Lomé at least once a week. However, these calls are reserved for business only and we cannot relay personal messages over the phone. If you have an urgent message, however, and have exhausted your other means (regarding travel plans, etc.), you can call the Desk, and the message will be relayed.

3. Sending Packages. Parents and Volunteers like to send and receive care packages through the mail. Unfortunately, sending packages can be a frustrating experience for all involved due the high incidence of theft and heavy customs taxes. You may want to send inexpensive items through the mail, but there is no guarantee that these items will arrive. We do not recommend, however, that costly items be sent through the mail. Even though many Volunteers sometimes choose to get local post office boxes, you may always use the following address to send letters and/or packages to your family member:

John Doe, PCV
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 3194
Lomé, Togo
West Africa

It is recommended that packages be sent in padded envelopes if possible, as boxes tend to be taxed more frequently. [SAVE ME MONEY!] Packages can be sent via surface mail (2-3 weeks arrival time) or by ship (4-6 months). The difference in cost can be a factor in deciding which method to utilize. For lightweight but important items (e.g. airline tickets), DHL (an express mail service) does operate in Lomé, but costs are very expensive. If you choose to send items through DHL, you must address the package to the Country Director, s/c Corps de la Paix, 48 Rue de Rossignols, Quartier Kodjoviakopé, Lomé, Togo. The telephone number for the Peace Corps office in Togo is (228) 221-0614, should DHL need this information. If you send the item to the Country Director, no liability can be assumed. For more information about DHL, please call their toll free number, 1-800-CALL-DHL, or visit their web site at www.dhl.com. Please be aware that there is a customs fee for all DHL packages sent to Volunteers. For each DHL package, the Volunteer will be taxed 10,000 CFA (roughly US$20).

Sending airplane tickets and/or cash is not recommended. Certain airlines will allow you to buy a prepaid ticket in the States; they will telex their Lomé office to have the ticket ready. Unfortunately, this system is not always reliable. Many airlines (e.g., KLM, Air France, Ghana Airways, Air Togo) fly into Lomé or Accra, but each has its own policy on pre-paid tickets. Please call the airline of your choice for more information. You could also send tickets via DHL as mentioned previously. However, Peace Corps will assume no liability in the event of a lost/stolen airline ticket.

Trying to send cash or airline tickets is very risky and is discouraged. If your Volunteer family member requests money from you, it is his/her responsibility to arrange receipt of it. Some Volunteers use Western Union, which has an office in Lomé. Volunteers will also be aware of people visiting the States and can request that they call his/her family when they arrive in the States should airline tickets need to be sent back to Togo.

4. E-mail. There is fairly reliable e-mail service in Togo with cyber cafes in most large towns. Connections can be very slow and time consuming as well as costly. E-mail, however, may become the preferred method of communication between you and your family member in Togo. Not all Volunteers have access to e-mail on a daily basis but they should be able to read and send messages at least once a month. As with other means of communication, do not be alarmed if you do not receive daily or weekly messages. Unless in Lomé at the office, Volunteers have to pay for internet time at cyber cafes and this can be a slow or expensive process depending on the connection at the café.

We hope this information is helpful to you during the time your family member is serving as
a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo. We understand how frustrating it is to communicate with your family member overseas and we appreciate your using this information as a guideline. Please feel free to contact us at the Togo Desk in Washington, DC, if you have further questions. You can find our telephone numbers below.


Sincerely,

Ryan Derni
Country Desk Officer
1-800-424-8580, option 2, ext. 2326
(202) 692-2326

Kelly Daly
Country Desk Assistant
1-800-424-8580, option 2, ext. 2326
(202) 692-2366