Well, here it is! My first blog entry! As I write this, I am still in Montana sitting at our computer in our basement. I don't have too much to say right now, I just thought I would give you a little introduction to what I'm going to be doing as well as giving you some idea of what Togo, the country where I will God-willing spend the next two years of my life, is like.

There's Togo to your left. It's a little sliver of a country between Ghana and Benin in western Africa. It's climate is mostly tropical, being a bit drier in the north than it is along the coast. Here are a few statistics:

Official Name: Togolese Republic (Republique togolaise)

Area: 56,785 sq. km

Pop: 5,701,579

Religions: Christian - 29%; Muslim - 20%; indigenous beliefs - 51%

Capital: Lome

Exports: cocoa, coffee, cotton

I will be leaving on June 6th for Washington D.C. where we will be having a preliminary orientation - "staging" it is called - as well as starting the first wonderful round of vaccinations we will be receiving. I'm especially looking forward to my rabies vaccination - no more fear of playing with stray cats! On June 8th my fellow trainees and I will be taking off to Togo to start our 27 months of service. I will be working in small business development (SBD), but my exact job and post in Togo won't be known to me until a couple of weeks into training (training is approximately three months).

I'll try to post on this blog as often as possible, but once I get to my permanent post, it is a possibility that I won't even have electricity or running water, let alone an internet connection. So bear with me, and I will hopefully be posting here again soon!