I want to thank everyone who has contributed to the completion of the "first" library in Adjengre, Togo. I especially want to thank all my friends, family and Peace Corps admin that supported me throughout the project.

Just a quick recap: There is an existing library already in Adjengre adjacent to the Cultural Center (a big concrete room where they occasionally hold town meeting). It is the size of a closest and has about 10-20 old, useless books. I really wanted to renovate that library because the location of the library would have been ideal as it is in the exact center of town and therefore easier to access by everyone. However in the ended I decided to build it in the high school because of the following reasons:Cost: It is the size of a large closet, literally, so the cost of renovating was very, very high. I would have basically had to build a whole new building.Sustainability: The library is never open because there is no librarian just someone who works at the Cultural Center sometimes. I have never seen it open when I have been walking by and when I did want to see the library I had to wait an hour till someone found the guy who had the key. I would then have to pay for someone to be the librarian and that would be impossible to have it be sustainable.Most impact: Sadly, the people who are going to make the most use of out of the library are teachers and students. There is not a culture of reading or searching for information here. All these issues were solved if I constructed it at the high schoolCost: The school gave me a room and all I had to do is block up the windows, build furniture and buy books. A lot, yes, but I didn't have to construct a new building.Sustainability: The school has set up a committee of students and teachers to manage it without me having to direct them. Teachers and students worked tirelessly everyday to set it up, bring the furniture from the carpenter, etc. Each student who wants a library card pays 200CFA per year (about 30 cents). They collect all the money and are saving it in order to buy new books, replace lights, etc. It is open almost all day, every day. Most impact: There are already 114 students who have signed up for a library card and more every week. The teachers are starting to incorporate the library's resources into their courses.You have to understand that students don't even have school books, let alone access to the internet and therefore a library, for the majority, is their only access to books and information.

Here is a photo album I put together chronicling the creation of the library!

Building a Library

Thank you!

The library has been funded! Thank you all so much for donating to the construction of the first library in Adjengré, Togo. It would have been impossible without your help. We are very excited to start really setting up the library. As of now, as you can see from one of my previous posts, we have one table and chair and two bookcases. I will be building more furniture, however first it is necessary to make the room into a good environment for books and possibly computers. We will start this coming May, sealing up the part where the roof joins the walls, making the windows able to be closed if there is a sudden rainstorm, reinforcing the doors, etc. There is a lot to do, but I am confident, barring any major unseen problems, that we should be able to complete the library by the end of the year. Thank you again and I will keep you all updated on the progress!

For those interested in helping me build the first library in the West African village, Adjengré located in the country, Togo where I am currently living and working as a PeaceCorps Volunteer please visit the PeaceCorps website here: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=693-363. In addition to achieving that warm, fuzzy feeling that you are helping out an impoverished West African village; for each person who donates we will put your name and the state you live in on the wall of the library so your good deed will be immortalized for all time. If you would like something else on the plaque just email me at: pspjhp@gmail.com. Thank you!!

Well the library has officially opened! There is still a lot to be done, but we have started! As one says in French, petit à petit, little by little.

The Togolese people I am working with on the project have decided to name the library, "Enlightenment," in English. I am in the process of building a library, which I know most people who are reading my blog already know about, located at the local high school here in Adjengré. Since it is the first library in Adjengré, the decision to put it in the high school (which is comprised of some 800 students and is not centrally located) was a difficult decision, but ultimately I was convinced by the following facts.

Less expensive – The school is giving me a huge classroom located between the director's and the teacher's office to be turned into a library. This removes the cost entirely of renting or building a room which for a well constructed building would raise the price for the project to well over $10,000.

Sustainable – Currently we are in the process of creating a committee made up of students and teachers which will oversee the running of the library. Otherwise I would have to be paying for a librarian and if the pay would stop for some reason so would the library.

Culture of Learning – I live in a farming community, which is predominately what towns are in Togo except, maybe, the largest cities in the country. Reading is simply not something that is done here. People will watch TV and play soccer, but nobody reads magazines, or newspapers or really anything unless you are a teacher or student. So while the library is open to the public it will be used primarily by students. Also, my belief and my hope is that by starting this library it will create an environment of researching and reading for the students that is lacking now. At first it will be used for class assignments and then as the hidden vaults of knowledge open, and their contents are revealed, the students will open these vaults not out of necessity, but simply for the pleasure of finding an answer to a question or for the pleasure of enjoying a good story…I might have stated that slightly dramatically, but the fact still remains that someone has to plant the seed and no one else seems to be doing it.

There are currently around 70 students who have registered for library cards. Each library card costs 200cfa (.40 cents-ish) for 1 years of membership. The money will be used for repairing books and hopefully, the purchase of more books. There are currently 2 bookshelves, 1 chair and 1 small table which I have paid for in advance just to get the library started until hopefully, the donations arrive. Below are some pictures of the process.

 Note: 3rd Photo titled "Organizing" - the man on the left wearing a blue fleece has helped me immensely. His name is Kodzo Tégbé, or Jean-Claude for short. He is an English teacher whom I have been working very closely with on a variety of projects. He is completely obsessed with the English language and speaks almost perfect English, but has never left Togo. He is a major driving force behind this library and has been working tirelessly during his off hours at the school, setting the library up and organizing a committee to run it. Understandably, projects that have such a high involvement on a community level tend to be the most easily sustainable.

 Carpenter October 26th, 2010

Moving InOctober 26th, 2010

OrganizingDecember 15th, 2010

The library as of December 15th, 2010

The stamp we had made in Sokodé (a big city 30min - 1 hour north of me) for the library.

It reads:

BIBLIOTHEQUE

LY ADJEB.P. 03ADJENGRE

<<ENLIGHTENMENT>>

 It means, in English:

LIBRARY

HIGHSCHOOL ADJENGREB.P. 03ADJENGRE

"ENGLIGHTENMENT"

 

I really enjoyed my time in America. I was able to see a lot of friends because they had come home for the holidays as well as a lot of my family and my extended family. I was able to travel to Arizona and spend Christmas with my family there, then for New Years I celebrated with a few college friends in Washington D.C. and between Arizona and D.C. I hung out with other close friends. I had a lot of fun. Still, it was pretty bizarre coming to America. The country that people in Togo talk about in a way that makes it seem like the promised land.

So immediately when I got off the plane I noticed how clean everything was. There were no black plastic bags littering the ground where I walked. Anyway, here is a list of some of the things I found strange after living and working for a year and a half in an impoverished West African country:

General cleanliness of…well everything…the roads, stores, me

How expensive everything was…for a dollar one can eat a really good lunch here in Togo

There were no pot holes in the roads

Even in the late evening there were people walking around and stores and restaurants were still open

Faucets…and how when you turn it on there is hot and cold water

Very hot showers

Really just running water

The internet was so fast

Everyone was talking on their phone

No one commented on whiteness

Not including my friends and family, people passing by were pretty unfriendly

Bartenders, waiters and waitresses were very friendly

Speaking in English

Outlets didn't spark when I plugged something in

Etc…

It was weird the things I found weird. I never expected I would appreciate outlets that didn't spark or being able to drink water straight from the tap. I also didn't know how much I missed Adjengré and my house. I realized that I really have made this my home. I am missing my friends and family and fast internet of course, but it is good to be back.

This is an interesting moment for me. I seem to be feeling a number of emotions now that I'll be in less than 48 hours. It is quite strange for me that I will be in the US…it is hard to explain but America here is considered the promised land, paradise and even though I know this to be a falsehood fabricated by the film industry and believed by Togolese who watch the films and soap operas religiously the simple fact that there a paved roads and cheese burgers makes it hard for me to argue that it is in fact not paradise.

The flight is not quite 12 hours…which is pretty amazing I think. I will be coming from 80-90 degree weather into...winter. I also forgot to pack socks for my shoes…so I might be arriving in sandals…it might get a little painful. I will be leaving around 10am in the morning my time and if there are no delays arrive around 5:00pm New York time. Anyway I better get going. In a couple hours I'm leaving to go to Ghana and get a hotel room so that I'll be able to get to my flight the next morning. I'll see everyone soon!

I wanted to just write a quick note to thank everyone who donated to the Pump and Well PeaceCorps Partnership Project. I really appreciate it! We have already started on the first phase of the project which is repairing the pumps in Tittigbé. That should be completed within the month and Trent, the volunteer posted in Tittigbé, is in charge of this. The next phase will be the construction of the well in Atonko, however I won't be starting construction till the height of dry season which is in the month of February 2011. The reason behind this is that during rainy season one can find water pretty much anywhere below the surface, but during dry season this proves difficult. Therefore, one wants to ensure that the well will be full at all times of the year and so everyone builds their wells and pumps during dry season.

I will make sure to provide updates on the status of the project with pictures of its progress.

Thanks again! I really appreciate and I confident that this project will do a lot of good for many, many people in Togo.

Update: I wrote this blog a few weeks ago, but had some trouble uploading. All the pumps in Tittigbé have been repaired! Trent documented all of this so when I get back from America I will upload pictures.

Since I have been here for a year and a little more I feel it makes sense to recap my 14 months living in Adjengré. Here are some general stats about Adjengré which I know is scattered throughout my blog entries, but I think a cohesive review of my town would be helpful for people reading my blog.

Adjengré in Kabyé, the local language here means "portion de fiable" translated as "weak portion." The story is that the original Kabyés from Kara (a huge city about 2 and half hours north of me) sent all their weak members to Adjengré. Not the best name, but I think I can deal with it.

The quartier (section of town or district) that I live in means "behind the forest" in Kabyé. It is about a 5-10 minute walk from the highway which makes it really nice when I travel. The town is located in the Centrale Region in pretty much the exact center of the country. It is 5-6 hour taxi ride from Lomé, the capital of Togo and located on the ocean and beside the Ghanaian border.

There are around 8,000 people here and ethnically most are Kaybé, but a few are Kotokoli. Kaybés are Christian and Kotokolis are Muslim. The Kaybé speak Kabyé as their local language and the Kotokoli speak Kotokoli, however because it is a pretty big city and because it is on the only paved highway pretty much everyone in my town speaks French as well. Both languages are very different, but everyone here at the very least can understand both Kotokoli and Kabyé. Both Kaybés and Kotokolis are located in the Centrale Region, in the South it is Ewé and in the North

Most people here have electricity, but only the Bon Compte Hotel has running water. There are pumps and wells scattered throughout the village which is where I get my water from.

Every Sunday there is a big market in the town. People come from all over to sell stuff. It is then that I can find certain things that might be prove difficult to come by during the week, but to be honest, in Adjengré, I can find pretty much whatever I want during the week. However, if I lived in a small village off the highway it would be extremely difficult and I would await the weekly market with undisguised excitement.

 The recap of my projects of 2010 (and most of will be continuing until I end my service):

Assisting teaching at the highschool

Working with the English Club at the highschool

Summer Vacation course teaching English by teaching about HIV/AIDS prevention

Raising rabbits as an income generating activity as well as helping with good nutrition

Teaching daily computer classes to both kids and adults

Repairing 4 pumps in Tittigbé with the PeaceCorps volunteer who is posted there, 30 minutes away from me

The construction of a well in Atonko, a village located 1hour and 30minutes off the highway and only accessible by motorcycle

Library at the local highschool which incidentally will be the first real library in Adjengré

Cookbook for Togolese to teach both good nutrition and different ways to use the ingredients they already have easy access to

Business classes for 5 groups of girls where each group are somewhat established businesses involved in different income-generating activities

Creating and organizing a government sanctioned non-profit organization with my counterpart which will be involved in educating girls about various health subjects

Creating a mostly self-sustaining garden in Timbeayo, a small village 45 minutes away from me by motorcycle, and practicing generally sustainable farming techniques such as composting and creating a seed-bank so the village won't have to buy as many seeds

Securing funding for projects is not an easy task. PeaceCorps, itself, does not fund any of our projects. However, they do give us a few options where we can find funding for our projects. There is SPA Health Fund: Small Project Assistance that is funded by US AID/West Africa. This is for projects involving some aspect of health, such as teaching about condom use. The next is PeaceCorps Partnership which involves posting the project online and having friends and family donate to help you complete it. This option allows the people who donate to write on their tax forms the amount given as a charitable donation. There is another called FOT: Friends of Togo. According to the FOT the overview of the program is, "Friends of Togo (FOT) is a non-profit charitable organization. One of its purposes is to provide financial assistance for small-scale development projects, giving its members an opportunity to maintain their ties with Togo. Funds are derived from donations, subscriptions and fundraising events." Finally there is the Ambassador's Special Self-Help Fund. "In 1964 an experimental and modest self-help program began in Togo to assist communities with development projects. This program soon grew to cover the entire continent and become one of the most visible and successful assistance programs in Africa. The Ambassador's Self-Help Program is a grass-roots assistance program that allows U.S. Embassy of Togo to provide financial assistance to small, community-based development projects."

A month ago I submitted a proposal for SPA funding and a week later I was notified that they accepted my proposal and will fund my project for the amount I asked for. It will be my first funded project. The project is an English Immersion Summer Class that also educates the students on health topics from nutrition to correct condom use. Health education is severely lacking and this project will be a good learning experience. The Summer Class will run from July through August for 2 hours, 3 times a week. I will be teaching one class and the other class will be taught by a very talented local English teacher called, Jean-Claude. I'm really looking forward to it. I will let everyone know how it goes.

Day 11: May 04, 2010

In the morning we woke up and immediately headed to the American Embassy to get Lorena's temporary passport. As she filled out the paperwork Matt and I waited in the lobby. It was very nice, everything was extremely air-conditioned and there was a flat-paneled TV screen showing CNN. However, it was a little depressing as well. There was a steady stream of Ghanaians who had applied for visas to the United States and were being interviewed by the Americans working there behind the glass. I heard three or four Ghanaians, answer a few questions and then told that based on the interview today you are not eligible for entry in to the United States of America. Then when they would question to why, were they denied entry, they were told to again that they were denied and to apply again if they want in 6 months. Of course the money the Ghanaians had to pay for the application and the process are not refunded. However, I have heard a statistic of something like 50% of the people for whom visas to the USA have been granted, continue to stay illegally in the United States. I need to verify this statistic, but if it's true then they have some reason to be overly critical of applications.

After the Embassy we headed to the Food Court in Osu which advertised buy 1 pizza and get another for free. After we went Gelato to get some ice cream and then headed back to the hotel to rest. In the afternoon we went back to the American Embassy and Lorena got her temporary passport, however there wasn't enough time to go to the Togolese Embassy so we went to get smoothies at the place in Osu fittingly named, Smoothy's. It was there that we met up with Sam and Annie, two fellow SED Togo PeaceCorps Volunteers from my stage. They had just come over the border from Lomé and were on their way, after a couple days in Ghana, to Egypt and Morocco.

We stopped at a bar after the smoothie place, the headed back to New Haven Hotel and walked down the street to Champs located in the Paloma Hotel. Lorena really wanted some Mexican food even if it was going to be Ghanaian Tex-Mex. The food wasn't that great, but it was fun nonetheless.

Day 12: May 05, 2010

We went to Sunshine 2 Go in Osu with Sam and being that it was our last day went all out. I had coffee, a full breakfast and a chocolate milkshake. Next Matt, Lorena and I went to the Togolese Embassy. There are some pictures on the Ghana Trip website. She got her visa for Togo, so she would able to enter the country and then we went to eat lunch at the Food Court in Osu again. It was delicious as always. Before we left we went to KOALA, the fancy supermarket and I bought a couple things. Then, at about 3 or 4pm we went to the taxi station to take a taxi to the border.

It was a great trip, but it saddened me. Why isn't Togo like this? Why isn't Lomé like Accra? Togo has so much potential.

Day 8 – 9: May 01 - 02, 2010

It took about 2 hours from leaving the hotel, 'You 84' to get to The Green Turtle. We first took a Tro-Tro (Ghanaian version of a bush-taxi, but where you don't feel like a sardine) to Agona junction was 80p per person then GH¢1 to check all our bags. We also gave GH¢1 to the guy who helped us find the Tro-Tro in Takoradi. Then from there it was 60p per person in a shared taxi to another place where we rented the same taxi for GH¢10 to take us direct to Green Turtle Lodge. What struck me at first was how many white people there were. It was bizarre for me, however the great view, pristine beach and delicious food made me love Green Turtle. We met a lot of cool people as well and even other PeaceCorps volunteers from Ghana and Niger.

Day 10: May 03, 2010

Luckily we had enough money to pay for the hotel because the total came out to be GH¢298.80 and collectively, even counting the change, we had GH¢310. In order to depart from Green Turutle Lodge you have 2 options, (1) Rent a taxi to Agona Junction where one can take a Tro-Tro to Takoradi and from there take a nice bus. (2) walk 10 minutes, along the beach to the closest beach town and take a Tro-Tro from there to Agona Junction. We chose the latter option due to our financial situation. Matt and I started walking to the town at around 11:30am and the Tro-Tro arrive around 12:30pm. The Tro-Tro took us and stopped at Green Turtle to pick up Lorena and the others who were going the same day. It cost GH¢1.20 to go to Agona junction then 80p to Takoradi.

In Takoradi Matt and I went immediately to an ATM and withdrew enough cash to cover us and Lorena. We got to the Takoradi bus station at 3:30pm and paid GH¢7.50 for a 4pm ticket to Accra. While we waited we got fried rice and chicken to eat for GH¢3. I bought a red apple for 60p and a green apple 70p. They were from South Africa, the woman showed me the box after I inquired about their origin thinking that maybe there were orchards in Ghana, they had everything else here. The bus actually left on time, at 4pm. There were only a few people on this huge air-conditioned bus so we all had a lot of room to stretch out. We arrived in Accra around 8pm and went straight to New Haven Hotel. We got one room for 3 people for GH¢55.

After we dropped off our stuff we went out to eat sushi at Monsoon's in Osu. It was delicious. It had been so long since I had eaten sushi and this was well worth it. It was extremely delicious and I even got to speak to the owner. He talked a lot so it was easy to press him about the details of his business. He left New Zealand, where he was born, over 20 years ago and has been traveling and working around Africa. He's been in Ghana for the past 7 some years and he started the restaurant soon after he arrived there. He said the secret to good sushi is having quick turnover, so that the fish is fresh. All the fish he uses, except salmon and a couple others he gets fresh that day from the ports.

We stopped at the Gelato place for some ice cream and then headed back to New Haven.

Day 5 – April 28, 2010

The day started off very well. We were able to get on a direct bus from Kumasi to Cape Coast. This time the bus wasn't as nice as the one we took from Accra to Kumasi and the interior reminded me of an American public school, but it was loads better then a Togolese bush taxi. The trip took about 4 hours and the bus's last stop was within walking distance of our hotel, Oasis Guest House.

It was a nice hotel on the beach with an outdoor bar and restaurant. We got a bungalow type room with a view of the ocean. I believe it cost a little more than 30GH¢ a night. Lorena and I just dropped of our luggage and then headed out to see the Cape Coast Slave Castle, which was at most a 10 minute walk from the hotel. Matt decided to grab something to eat and rest in the room. The Cape Coast Slave Castle was worth seeing. The guided tour that we took was good as well as the museum. For more information on the Cape Coast Slave Castle go here www.website.com.

On our way back Lorena and I stopped at some of the shops selling a variety of handmade crafts. I bought a bag made out of strips of different of pagne so it looks very colorful, but it is still something that I would use in The States. I will take a picture of it at some point. Lorena bought a hat made the same way they made my bag. She's going to try to have the people she works with in Lama-Tessi try and recreate it or at the very least inspire them.

We were famished so once we got back to the hotel we went straight to the restaurant to get something to eat. An hour later, Matt met us and we all spent the rest of the day eating, drinking, talking and watching the waves. Therefore we didn't realize how quickly time passes and it was around 11pm when we paid and started back to our bungalow. The restaurant was right next our room, so it took us only 30 seconds or so to realize that all our stuff had been stolen out of our room.

The lights were on and the door was open. Pieces of the doorframe were on the ground with the remnants of some of the lock mechanism. We just stopped and stared for a moment then went to try and find one of the owners. The blond-haired owner came, surveyed the scene, than called the shaved-head owner. Lorena and the two owners, along with some of the workers at the hotel went out to see if the thieves left any of the bags. They came back not more than 10 minutes later carrying our bags. Apparently, the thieves had tried to roll my rolling bag through the sand on the beach so Lorena and the others followed the tracks and found various bags and items they had discarded along the way. Most of our things were found, but everything was thoroughly soaked. Lorena, was the one who lost the most, 2 passports (one PeaceCorps, one regular), $150 American dollars, an iPod and a digital camera. In the end I only lost my iPod and Matt was fortunate enough to come out of this with all of his belongings. In one of the bags, the robbers had taken, there was a small zipper bag of mine that had my passport, money and various other important items, but luckily when I got my bookbag back I found it undisturbed. Matt had the same thing happen to him and the robbers left his valuables untouched. Also, this was a little bizarre, I had my camera in an open case hanging on the arm of a chair in the room and the thieves totally missed it. I was very lucky. Also all the books that I bought in Accra I kept in the plastic bags that the sellers gave me, so they came out of the incident unscathed.

They repaired the door that night and so I slept in the room while the owners found Matt and Lorena another room.

 Day 6 – April 29, 2010

The hotel was pretty nice about everything. They let us stay in the rooms and washed all our clothes for free. Granted, it was their hotel and lack of security was the reason why we robbed, but it was still nice. The next morning we woke up early and headed straight to the Cape Coast police station without breakfast. When we arrived we were led first into the waiting area for Lorena to fill out a report on what happened, then we were all led into another room which looked like something out of an action movie. There we all filled out separate police reports and were questioned by the officer there on what happened. Next he said he wanted to see the scene of the crime and he refused to walk the two minutes to the hotel so the owner was forced to pay for a cab for him. At the hotel he looked at our room for a few moments as we walked him through what happened. Next we showed him how we followed the tracks in the sand. The blond-haired owner asked if the policeman wanted to follow the tracks and see where they had found our abandoned luggage, the policeman said he didn't need to. Really it was because he would have to dirty his painfully shiny black shoes. Then the policeman said he wanted to see my rolling bag. We took him to the place outside where it was drying in the sun. He told me to take a picture of my bag as he carefully moved it around with a stick he had found on the ground, clearly he wanted to preserve the criminals' prints on the bag. Actually I think he may have watched a little too many detective shows. At this moment, I pointed out that I didn't understand how he was going to get the pictures from me after I took them. He didn't respond for a second then repeated that I had to take a few pictures, I hesitated but the blond-haired owner said that I should just go ahead and take the picture regardless of the ridiculousness of the policeman's request. So I did.

The next few hours we spent at the hotel, eating and talking while we waited for the police to give us their police report. We needed the police report for Lorena to be able to get a new passport. They said that we would get it at 2pm, but we ended up having to go back to the police station at 2pm to talk to another person, the "Crime Officer." After walking up a flight of stairs we entered his office and you could see one who was benefiting quite nicely from the corrupt legal system. We walk in and the guy is dressed in a nice shirt, nice pants and fancy shoes. He was watching a soccer game on a TV set up on the wall while listening to music from an expensive Panasonic sound system that was plugged into a nice laptop. Also connected besides the laptop was a scanner and a separate hp printer of some sort. He motioned for us to sit down and continued watching the soccer game for a few minutes before muting it and turning off the music. Then he leaned back in his leather chair, put the tips of his fingers together in front of his lips and asked, in a voice of doubt, if we spoke English. We responded, "yes." Then, thinking himself amusing he asked if we spoke French, we responded in unison, "Oui." He was somewhat nonplused after that, he hadn't expected us to be able to speak French. He asked us where we were from, and we said America and he continued to be a little bewildered. Then he asked if we lived in some Francophone country and we told him we lived in Togo. The reason being that the French we speak is not France French it is Togolese French therefore it could be compared to speaking Ghanaian English instead of American or British English.

So we continued speaking in French with him because he said it was easier for him. Really I think that he just was showing off to his inferiors. It is interesting here how people who are in positions of power are absolutely terrified of their subordinates and feel the necessity of constantly reinforcing their superiority in a variety of ways. In addition to this show of his remarkable intelligence he had book besides his laptop, very clearly displayed, that was titled, "48 Ways to Power." He was like some type of caricature. The conversation eventually changed into English as no one else except us could speak and understand French. Blond-haired owner was there with us and after arguing with the "Crime Officer," for some time I came to learn that here, in Ghana and probably all 3rd world countries, one is guilty until proven innocent. At this point in my life I thought that things like that wouldn't surprise me, but it did. Especially since I've written papers in school on the subject, travelled to Myanmar and also having lived in Togo for nearly a year (haven't yet dealt with the Gendarmes though and really have no interest in it). However, this time being that the degree of separation between myself and a malfunctioning legal system was practically zero, "guilty until proven innocent," really struck me as being completely barbaric, archaic and illogical.

In the end the "Crime Officer," said that now because it was 5 minutes to 5pm we had to wait till tomorrow to get our report. His reasoning was that in order to get the report we had to go somewhere else and pay 5 GH¢ to get a receipt that said that we paid for the police report and because we couldn't get there before it closed at 5pm we had to wait. We were annoyed. We went back to the hotel, ate, drank, played some pool and went to bed.

Day 7 – April 30, 2010

After breakfast we headed to the police station naively thinking that it would take more than a couple of hours now that we had the receipt for the police report. Earlier that morning the shaved-head owner of the hotel went out and paid the 5 GH¢ for the receipt of the police report for us. We stayed there all day, sitting and waiting till 4:43:54pm, the policeman who "had taken our statements and investigated the scene of the crime" gave Lorena the final police report. 15 minutes earlier she had been given the police report, but she noticed her name was spelled in a variety of creative ways. Matt and I's favorite spelling was "Loranda" and much to Lorena's chagrin for the remaining days of our trip we called her Loranda. After we got the police report we headed out immediately and arrived a few hours later in Takoradi. We stayed at 'You 84' a pretty nice hotel that had A/C, hot water and clean sheets however from the construction going on outside you wouldn't even think it was a hotel. That evening we took a taxi to a seafood restaurant I believe was called Captain Hook's. Afterwards we went back to the hotel to sleep.

Day 3 – April 26, 2010

We woke up and set out to find a breakfast place called, Le Petit Paris, that in a travel guide had claimed to have a nice ambience while offering a delicious array of French baked confections. Who could ask for anything more? According to the map, it was only about a 15 minute walk away, right off the main road, so we decided to walk. It is strange, the things that I never thought I'd find strange, such as, relatively intact sidewalks. Yes, one can claim that in Lomé as well as a handful of other cities in Togo there are such things, but I find sidewalks in Togo convey to the user only the vaguest sense of what a proper sidewalk should look and feel like. However, the walk was pleasant enough.

Even after asking for directions after we couldn't locate it we ended up settling for a stand that sold some croissants and similar creations. Therefore, we decided to walk back to the main road to get a taxi and head to Osu to try out at place that sold smoothies, appropriately named, Smoothy. I got an orange-banana smoothie and it was delicious. Next, we walked to Koala, a grocery store I had heard so much about from other volunteers. It exceeded my expectations when I came across the free samples of freshly baked cookies, cakes and other such baked goods. Afterwards we headed back to the New Haven Hotel to collect our things, and then took a taxi for 3 cedis to the bus station. The bus to Kumasi was 9 cedis per person and 1 cedi for each persons' luggage.

It was a pleasant 4 hour journey; the bus was air-conditioned, everyone had their own plush seat to themselves and Matt and I were able to purchase 2 spring rolls each when we stopped at a rest stop halfway through our journey. That was another thing I found odd, they actually had rest stops in Ghana. By the time we found out how delicious the spring rolls were, the bus had pulled out and was on its way. Tragic. We arrived in Kumasi as night was settling in, but even though everything was shrouded in darkness we were impressed with the city. There were streetlights, to say the least, as well as large sculptures at a number of intersections, nicely paved roads and colonial architecture. Granted Kumasi is the second largest city in Ghana, apart from Accra, but it was impressive nonetheless.

Upon nearing the last stop I really found out how nice Ghanaians are. I had a hint of their thoughtfulness on the ride down. Matt and I befriended a Ghanaian who was sitting on the opposite side of the aisle. He was very nice. He assured us, before either Matt or I had even thought about questioning the integrity of his country's infrastructure, that the bumpy road would soon give way to a well paved highway. 30 minutes or so into the voyage he was totally right. His stop was a few stops before ours, in Kumasi, so we parted company then. As more and more people filtered out of the bus at their desired stops Lorena, Matt and I were left alone. Then the bus driver asked us where our hostel was. Surprised, but gratefully we told him that we are planning to the Presbyterian Hostel. He drove us to the front gate, bid us safe journey and left.

We ended up not staying at the Hostel because it was all filled up for the night, but we met a woman from Holland who was trying to get a room there as well. She is in Ghana doing some health volunteering in a small village somewhat close to Kumasi. We asked the reception for another place to stay close by and they suggested Guestline Lodge so we all headed there. It is a nice place and the guy who owns it is extremely nice as well. We checked in to a room that was big enough to put down another mattress. After we dropped off our stuff we headed downstairs to go out and get a bite to eat.

Originally we were going to a different restaurant, but the girl from Holland told us that the Café that is run by the guy who owns Guestline was really good. The owner said he was going there anyway, so we all hopped in his car drove down there together. It was a nice Café and we dined well. After we all just headed back to the hotel to sleep the night away.

Day 4 – April 27, 2010

The next day we got up and headed to New Queen's Restaurant. In the guidebook it claimed that it was ripe for people watching. On the way to the restaurant Matt and I stopped a woman with a plastic container full of spring rolls on her head to get some snacks for the road. Not more than 8 minutes later we arrived at the restaurant and finding it to be on the third floor asked till we found the steps that led to it. We chose a table on the balcony overlooking Kumasi and we weren't disappointed, there were plenty of people to watch. It was particularly enjoyable when, at one point, there was a sudden, unexpected downpour of rain. The food wasn't exceptionally delicious, but wasn't very expensive either. However, the interaction with the waitress made it memorable. It went something like this:

Lorena: "Hello"Waitress: "Hi"Lorena: "I would like a Spanish Omelet" Lorena points to the item on the menu.Waitress: "We don't have that."Lorena: "Ok…well what do you have"Waitress: "We have eggs, onions and tomatoes"Lorena: "Isn't that what's in a Spanish Omelets?"Waitress: "No we don't have that."Lorena: "What's in a Spanish Omelet?"Waitress: "Eggs, onions and tomatoes"Lorena: "Ok well I would like a Spanish Omelet then."Waitress: "No we don't have that"Lorena: "…But you have eggs, onions and tomatoes right?"Waitress: "Yes."Lorena: "…then I would like an omelet with onions and tomatoes."Waitress: "Ok."

After breakfast we took a taxi to the Nationale Cultural Center. It was a nice place and there was a plethora of shops and workshops on could visit. Then in the center of the Center there was small museum explaining the history of the Ashanti people. There is still an Ashanti King, to this day, who still holds some sway over the government when there are matters that concern Kumasi and its surrounding villages. More information on the subject can be found here: www.website.com.

Afterwards we headed to the marché which is the largest in Ghana and one of the largest in Africa. It was indeed quite large with stairs winding paths through a variety of vendors. Another interesting part of the marché was the abandoned railway track that ran through the section used clothes sellers. We came across it accidentally and thought that if we followed it we would finally free ourselves from the tangle of colors, movement and voices that was making us exhausted.

Once outside we located a taxi and made our way to Moti Mahal, an Indian Restaurant that received rave review in our tour guide. However, when we finally tracked it down, it had moved to Top Martin's Complex which housed an array of fancy stores, the restaurant was closed and wouldn't open again for a few hours. So we killed time by using the internet, which was unbelievably fast in comparison with the speed in Togo, and after headed back to the hotel to regroup. In the evening we returned to the Indian restaurant and it was totally worth the wait. I can confidently say that I have eaten some truly excellent Indian food throughout my life, but the Indian food I had at Moti Mahal was some of the best I have ever tasted. It could be because I haven't eaten Indian food for quite some time, but I think that it was truly delicious. Also the people who run the place and cook the food are Indian so it is vrai (true in English) Indian food.

It was late by the time we finished and while we were waiting to hail a taxi a man in an old pickup truck stopped and offered us a ride to wherever we want to go. We looked at each other and looked at the guy, then got in. He was very nice and he dropped us off at a restaurant/bar we wanted to try called Vienna City Pub. It was an ok place. We were harassed by the bouncer outside, somewhat, for wearing sandals and he wanted us to give him a "gift" for entry, but after explaining to him very clearly that we would rather leave then give him anything he let us in. Although, in a last-ditch effort to try to glean something from us, he tried to persuade me to hand over the takeaway we got from the Indian restaurant, but we ignored him and walked in.

After a beer we headed back to the hotel because we had a long day of travel ahead of us. The next destination was Cape Coast.

Day 2 – April 25, 2010

    What is this Asian influence that has permeated the very fabric of Ghanaian culture? Spring rolls and fried rice! At every turn one can find a woman selling spring rolls or another woman selling fried rice with choice of a piece of chicken and/or pasta salad on the side. I came to this startling discovery as we stopped a FanMilk cart outside the New Haven Hotel on our way down to the Paloma to eat some breakfast. While we bought Strawberry FanYogo, a flavor that isn't found in Togo, I saw on the top of the cart a couple of wooden shelves with what looked like some type of fried roll. I bought one for .20 cedis and once I bit into it I realized it tasted like a poor man's Americanized Chinese restaurant's spring roll. The strange thing is that besides the couple of expensive Chinese restaurants (word on the street they taste like an Americanized Chinese restaurant) in Lomé you can't find them anywhere in Togo.

    Breakfast at the Paloma was a pleasant experience. I had an omelet, bacon, toast with real butter, and baked beans. From there we headed to the Accra Shopping Mall I had heard so much about. It seems a little ridiculous to be so excited to be going to a mall, especially one that was nice, but nothing that deviated very much from the American mall norm. However, when I got there it was pretty awesome especially since there was a movie theater in the mall. We bought tickets to Clash of the Titans and then went exploring the mall at our own leisure. I headed upstairs to a book fair that had been going on a few days and was ending that day. I thought I might find some materials for my library and the English course I'll be teaching in the summer. It was small. A mix between a couple publishing companies selling their books and a couple people selling new looking used book. I bought quite a few and by the time I was finished it was time for the movie. The movie theater was so cold that it was almost painful, but I liked it. It had been so long since I had been that cold, but it didn't matter because the seats were comfortable and I had popcorn. I also bought a ice cream bar as well.

    The movie was pretty terrible. I enjoyed the special effects and I like ancient mythology, but the movie fell short. Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching a movie in a movie theater immensely. Afterwards, we headed to the food court and I ordered a chicken sandwich. Then I went out to check out the brand new Apple store to see if they could repair my iPod, but turned out they don't do repairs there. We headed next to the beach, being that Accra is on the coast, and stopped at the hotel, Labadi, to have something to drink before we headed out to walk on the beach. There was a problem, however when we tried to go out on the beach there was a guard and he said that being we were not staying in the hotel we would have pay something exorbitant, like 20 cedis apiece, to simply go on the beach. We tried to explain all we wanted to do is stand on the beach, but he wouldn't hear it. So disgruntled we left and walked down a ways and tried to enter by another route, but there we had to pay 10 cedies apiece. Lorena and Matt W tried to reason and coax the guards there to let us in for free, but to no avail so we headed to get some ice cream.

    This time at the gelato place I got a donut along with 3 scoops of ice cream. By the end of that "meal" we were all pretty full so we decided to walk a little ways in the direction of our hotel to let our food settle. However, during our stroll I caught sight of Papaye. I had heard that Papaye is supposed to have the best chicken in Accra and possibly even Ghana. It is packed at all hours of the day with people downstairs getting food to go or upstairs, sitting in a booth for a quick bite. It was pretty delicious chicken. I enjoyed it, but nothing that different from Chicken Republic. A side note, Chicken Republic's slogan is, if I remember right, "Extraordinary chicken for extraordinary people."

    We headed back to the hotel after that to call it a night because the next morning Matt Whalen, Lorena and I would head to Kumasi. Kumasi is the second biggest city in Ghana after Accra and 4-5 hours North. Matt Hix was just going to stay another night in Accra then voyage back to Togo because he had some things he had to finish up.

Ok, well the trip to Ghana didn’t turn out exactly how we planned it, but I will come to that. Day 1 – April 24, 2010: Arrival The four of us, Lorena, Matt Hix, Matt Whalen and I set off from the PeaceCorps office in Lomé at 10am in a taxi headed for the Ghana border. I was under the impression that it was a lot farther away, but it actually only took a couple of minutes. If I didn’t have some heavy bags I could have probably walked there in 30 minutes. A few weeks before, April 12th, I had come to Lomé to buy a multiple-entry visa to Ghana for 60,000 cfa which is about $120. It was pretty expensive, but will allow me entry into Ghana for the duration of my PeaceCorps service. Otherwise each time I would have to travel to the Ghanaian Embassy and get a one-time entry visa for 20,000 cfa. We crossed the border with little difficulty and while fending off an ample amount, but not an overabundance, of a variety of hawkers preying on tourists we located a small bus that was going to go to Accra. Each of us paid 6.5 cedis ($4.65) and we were on our way. The difference between taxis in Ghana and taxis in Togo is that Ghanaians seem to understand that one should only have the number of passengers a vehicle has been made for because, well, for a myriad of reasons ranging from safety to comfort. Therefore, it was a relatively pleasant 4 hour ride. It is interesting, after 10 minutes on the road you could already see the difference between Togo and Ghana. Everything looked a little tidier and I realized as I traveled further into Ghana discarded water sachets and plastic refuse that mars the landscape of Togo gradually vanished into lush surroundings. In addition an hour or so on the road, the normal Togo Route Nationale type road gives way to a stretch of unblemished pavement which ran for the rest of our journey to Accra. When we arrived in Accra the sky was already getting cloudy and the air felt heavy with the impending rain so we quickly got into a taxi and headed to our prearranged lodging, Joska Lodge. When I say prearranged, I had heard that it was good place to stay by a volunteer I mean on the taxi to Accra I found it in a West Africa travel guidebook that Matt Whalen had brought along and because of its close proximity to a number of delicious sounding restaurants I thought it was a good place in which to be based. However they only had expensive rooms left, so we decided to try the place where Matt Whalen stayed at before. The rain was just starting to come down hard so on the fly we decided to scratch the hotel for now and head to Tip Top Chinese restaurant and wait for the rain to stop. It turned out to be a great choice. Afterwards we headed to the New Haven Hotel. There turned out to be two rooms available and each of which had both air conditioning, a fan, a small fridge and a television. Then a few steps down the hall were two showers with hot water and two flush toilets…pretty wild stuff. Each room cost 40 cedis ($27). Once we had showered and donned our apparel we took a taxi back to the Chinese restaurant to start our exploration of Osu. Osu (pronounced oh – sue) is a section of Accra where the majority of Western and Eastern restaurants are located. In addition there are computer stores, an upscale supermarket, a free-trade store called Global Mammas (www.globalmammas.com), expensive liquor stores, etc. In the first taxi we had taken into Osu we saw a brightly lit, fancy looking place where it claimed it sold gelato. So we set out in search of it. We were not disappointed. It was delicious, with flavors ranging from the mundane to the exotic. They even had donuts. After I had polished off 3 scoops of ice cream, each of which was of a different flavor and costing a total of 7.50 cedis ($5.50), a few of us, Matt Hix and I were feeling a little peckish after we left the ice cream shop and so we decided to try a chicken sandwich at the Chicken Republic which was a few doors down. Matt Whalen got a few pieces of fried chicken and Matt Hix and I split a sandwich 5.50 cedis ($4). It turned out to be so good that we decided to split another. The place felt and looked just like a fast food joint in the states, it even had air-conditioning. It was a little bizarre and with everybody speaking English it seemed even more abnormal to us. We left the Chicken Republic in search of something to wash down the immense amount of food we had consumed within a few hours. We found “Hemingway,” illuminated in a pink light radiating from its name in neon above the door. When we walked in we saw 3 or so roulette tables and a number of slot machines that took up most of the room. The rest of the space was taken up by the bar and a couple of round tables where one could presumably sit. It was definitely a step down from Tip Top Chinese Restaurant, however it was an interesting establishment with orangey pink chandeliers hanging above us that looked to me like they belonged in a brothel from the 1800s. In addition they maintained the illusion of a much larger space with walls of mirrors surrounding us as we sat and drank. We didn’t spend much time in there. The drinks were overpriced and the atmosphere didn’t seem to encourage such activities so we took a cab from Osu back to our hotel. The New Haven Hotel is located down the street from a relatively expensive one, called the Paloma Hotel where I have heard rooms cost about $75 a night. In the Paloma there are three restaurants, one called Champs, which is an American Sportsbar, another one which the name escapes me, and an outdoor restaurant. We attempted to get into Champs, but there was a mandatory open bar that night which was 20 cedis, so we decided to relax at the outdoor restaurant. I ordered the local Star beer and then seeing that there was a freezer with different ice creams, I chose one and ordered it. Surprisingly, beer and ice cream don’t go very well together, but I stayed the course and finished them. Then we left and walked back to the hotel. Ok, now I assume that as one reads this they are becoming more and more disgusted with the amount of food and ice cream that I ate. This of course continued for the rest of the trip and when Matt Hix departed for Lomé, Matt Whalen and I picked up the slack, much to Lorena’s bemusement. However, in my defense, besides this being vacation, for the past 11 months I haven’t had either ice cream or chicken sandwich. The bizarre thing is that in The States, while I did like my ice cream, I never cared too much for fast food chicken sandwiches. I liked them, but never would go out of my way to find them. Interesting the things Togo does to you.

Well it has been quite some time since I have written a blog and the amount of stuff I have to share is somewhat daunting, but I will do my best. I left off right before my parents came to visit. They arrived at night and I greeted them at the airport in my full complét, the one I wore for swear-in. I was expecting more of a surprised reaction to the violently clashing colors I had on, but I assume they were so overjoyed to see me that it surpassed their disgust with what I was wearing. After I had a brief argument with two random Togolese men, who out of the goodness of their hearts I’m sure, decided that my parents and I wanted them to help carry our bags. Then afterwards they asked for a small gift of some sort. Despite my better judgment I offered them 50cfa each, however they thought it too little and when I wouldn’t give them anymore they walked away rather than pocketing the change. It became very apparent again to me at that point the chasm of difference separating a small town like Adjengré and a big city such as Lomé. Besides 50cfa being a sufficient tip, people in Adjengré help you without any thought of a monetary return for their services. Before my parent’s arrival I had gone around to the various hotels in Lomé and investigated their suitability. I came to the conclusion that The Mercure Hotel on the beach road was the best choice. It worked out very well for them and I profited as well from their decision to stay there. It was nice to take a warm shower and sleep in air conditioning. For the next few days we toured Lomé which encompassed seeing the PeaceCorps office, visiting my host family who has a house in Lomé, going to a Tchouk stand and visiting the National Museum, among other things. After a few days we headed up to Adjengré. My host brother was able to take us in the family’s car which made the journey to Adjengré significantly more pleasurable. On route to Adjengré we stopped for a bite to eat and for my parents to meet Jane, a SED volunteer in my stage who grew up around where my parents live now. In Adjengré my parents stayed at the Bon Compte Hotel. It costs around $20 a night and is definitely one of the nicer hotels in Togo, meaning that it has electricity and running water. Over the next few days they met my neighbors and various friends around my village. We also went to an impoverished rural school which supported a number of the surrounding villages. Nayo assisted us as we gave out school supplies to the top students as both a reward for the students doing so well and an incentive for the others. After Adjengré we went up to Kara and met up with some of my fellow PeaceCorps Volunteers there. It was a lot of fun. Then, luckily, we were able to take a PeaceCorps car from Kara all the way back down to Lomé. The journey lasted 8 hours. My parents left for America a few days after we arrived in Lomé. I stayed a few days longer in the capital, before heading back to Adjengré. Since my parent’s departure I have been involved in numerous activities. February all the new SED volunteers were required to head down to Pagala for 3 days of something called IST: In-Service Training. How it works is each SED volunteer takes their homologue with them to the PeaceCorps Center in Pagala. PeaceCorps pays for the transport to the PeaceCorps Center and the food and lodging there. Apparently the PeaceCorps Center in Pagala was where staging took place in 1980s. Instead of going to Tsevie or another location to live with a host family, PeaceCorps would house us, feed us and teach us at this PeaceCorps Center. It is a little bizarre. It is one of a plethora of relics of a once prosperous Togo scattered throughout the country. Once I put up pictures you will see. While beneficial to volunteers, IST seemed to be most beneficial to our homologues. Afterwards many volunteers commented on how their homologues seemed energized by the conference and were finding more ways to help the volunteers they were assigned to. However, the volunteers benefited as well. A lot of ideas were thrown around and collaborations on projects discussed. One such collaboration which came out of IST is a project with a volunteer in Kpalimé involving connecting PeaceCorps Volunteers together over the internet. There seems to be a great disconnect between volunteers and even a greater one between new volunteers and volunteers who have already been in country for a year. There needs to be somehow to share the information, and that is something I’m working on now. In addition to all this, in IST we learned about Perma-gardening which is a way in which you set up a garden to yield the most produce in the smallest space. It is a lot of work at first, but afterwards the extra work pays off. In March I continued working on building the library in Adjengré. Right now the books are temporarily being housed in Nayo’s living room. He is acting as librarian, forcing everyone to sign in and out. Only two days after we opened it the first person came in to use, so that was pretty exciting. From then on there has been a stream of students coming in to read and study in their free time. They all seem particularly partial to the “The History of the United States,” book in French I received when I visited the library of the American Embassy. When I visited the library at the American Embassy I discussed with them what I wanted to accomplish with my library and they assisted me with some material they give away for free. In addition to the library I continued the English Club and even taught a few classes in English when I found the time to do so. Towards the end of March a sudden rain started and continued for a number of days. This is hot season and so raining for that long is both uncommon and detrimental to the crops. At one point it even hailed, which was something I never thought I would see in Togo. The storm did a number on my fence as well, destroying it so it looked like a small tornado came through. There were a number of similar casualties. My neighbor’s paillote (pronounced pie – oat is a gazebo type thing made out of straw and wood) collapsed. Also a house of another neighbor, right behind my fence, fell in upon itself and one of the roofs on the little hospital a few minutes walk from my place, was ripped off. April commenced with my birthday and the ending of an era, my early twenties, but as well as the beginning of a new dawn, my mid-twenties. My birthday was a lot of fun. I went to my Sotouboua to celebrate it there. I received presents, was cooked food by Kara and baked a kind of cookie cake by Meg and Jonathan. All in all in was an exceptional birthday. From then until now I have been working on a proposal to teach traditional healers about nutrition, the signs and symptoms of malnutrition and how one can achieve better nutrition by just using the leaves of the Moringa tree. In addition I am planning to start up a kind of Summer School for kids who want to learn English. This would be for 2 months, 3 hours a day of total immersion English class. I have an outline of a proposal for the Summer Class which I will finish up when I get back from my trip to Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. Today I am leaving at 10:30am my time and heading straight to Accra by taxi. It should take about 3 hours. I will be traveling with Lorena, Matt Whalen and Matt Hix who are all from my stage and all SED volunteers. The plan is to spend a few nights in Accra then head North to Kumasi, then head back down to the South of Ghana. Afterwards we will head to Cote d’Ivoire and spend a few nights in Abidjan with family members of a host family Matt Whalen stayed with in France. In total we are traveling for 12 days. This is my first time out of Togo so it should be an interesting experience.

History of Blue Moons: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091230-blue-moon-new-years-eve.html

As I sit here, writing my blog before I upload it in Lomé, my neighbor Koffi, has brought a locksmith to copy my key. A couple Sunday afternoons ago I arrived at my front door after having some excellent Indian food prepared by Nikhil’s parents. Nikhil is the CHAP volunteer who lives in Sotouboua, the town 12km South of me. Upon getting to my front door and realizing that I had no key and having no other copy I was forced to turn right around and travel back to Sotouboua where I was greeted with another tasty Indian meal. I told Koffi, so Monday morning he arrived at my door at an early hour while I was slipping between dreams about joining a dance troop and the reality of people passing outside my bedroom window speaking in Kabye. It took a few hours for Koffi to return with the locksmith who by hand had made a rough copy of my key. The locksmith then spent a few hours trying to file the new key into a shape that my lock would accept. It ended up not working so he had to go back to his shop and make an entirely new one. Here are some pictures of him filing down the key and attempting to fit it into the lock. I didn’t go to his shop so I’m not sure what went on there. So what have I been up to if I haven’t been diligently chronicling my thrilling adventures in Togo? Well I have actually been starting to do work here in the Adjengré. There is an English club at the local school which is in need of direction. It is fun working with these students because they choose to be in this club and sacrifice a longer lunch period for the chance. The members clearly show love for the language, but also I believe they realize its potential for the doors it opens ranging from the financial to the academic. One of the advisors for the club is also my French tutor, Jean-Claude and we have been discussing possible activities for the members to participate in. One such idea for an activity is a correspondence with students in the states either over email or through hand-written letters. I also plan on having a few weeks of Cinema Studies class in which we would watch movies, always in English, and discuss them after, also in English. Besides the English club, each Friday I take my guitar to the orphanage here and play for the kids. The previous volunteer in Adjengré, Sam, had helped get some crops started for them in order to bring in some extra money. They also have goats, chicken and turkeys there. So a project that I am beginning to work on is preparing a dietary program for the animals which will be heavy on the Moringa. It has been proven that Moringa is not only beneficial for humans but is great for raising animals. Also the animals just naturally like it. It is pretty interesting, the neighbor’s goats who besides frequenting the plastic chairs under my paillote (outside gazebo type structure. A mini version of what was in the Tech House in Tsévié), will stretch up till only his/her back feet are on the ground to eat all the Moringa leaves within reach or will search the ground sucking up fallen leaves like some type of weird vacuum cleaner. I am still working on the proposal for the Moringa project. The project, as of now, will involve Lorena and I traveling around to 19 villages surrounding Adjengré and teaching the people there about the wonders of Moringa. In addition the teaching/training sessions besides explaining about the general nutritional benefits of Moringa, we will also discuss that being Moringa is so high in nutrients it is especially helpful to people with HIV/AIDS. The proposal is to be submitted to PeaceCorps so that hopefully I can receive some funding for the project. I have also talked with representatives from PSI (www.psi.org an international NGO involved in safe sex practices to try and curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, among many other health related things) for obtaining t-shirts, caps, etc. The villages, in there way, will offer some of the labor and whatever else then can. Another project that I am still working on is the Audio English library. I have not forgotten about that. I have not only found a place, but discussed the project with my APCD who really thinks that it has a lot of potential. The only obstacle is maintaining the library is when I’m gone, but I have some ideas on that front and when it comes closer to that date those problems will be assuaged. Before I end this entry let me just update everyone on what I did for Christmas. Well Christmas Eve isn’t that special here. Christmas Day is when people celebrate, however apparently, Christmas is generally more for the kids here and not so much for the adults. The big fête is really January 1st and that fête continues for a week or more. So the previous night I visited Lorena in Lama-Tessi because Olga the CHAP volunteer in my stage who is placed in Gapé-Nyassivé (which is about an hour west of Tsévié) was heading up with Lorena Christmas Eve morning to Dapong. Dapong is about the same distance to Lomé, but North, not South. There was a big Christmas party there with many volunteers, but I decided that since I will be spending New Years in Lomé I thought it would be nice to celebrate it here, in village. Also I wanted to experience what Christmas was like in Adjengré. So I headed up with Lorena and Olga the next morning, but got out at Sokodé to get some flour, sugar, bread, vegetables and fruit. They continued their journey up to Dapong and reached the city around 7pm. I completed my shopping in the marché then headed to a place in Sokodé volunteer dub, the brochette place. They make excellent sandwiches with brochette meat (either goat, sheep or chicken) cooked with onions, tomatoes and a little pimonte (the hot pepper here) all for 500cfa (about a $1). The brochette place is right outside a bar and so I sat on the veranda and bought one for me and one for Nayo. While I was waiting for the sandwiches Jacques, the fou (crazy guy) who sometimes passes by the brochette place stopped for second to say hello. That day he was pretty lucid. He’s nice and a really smart guy who speaks perfect English. Tony, the volunteer who recently ended his service and until a month ago was my closest neighbor in Babadé, located about 4km North of Adjengré, always used to have Jacques sit down with him and had long conversations with him and I have been continuing this practice. However, today I was just trying to get back to Adjengré so I didn’t have time to really sit and talk. Jacques saw I was reading “A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man,” and took out a slip of paper and pen and motioned for me to write something from the book on there. So I took the paper and wrote down a sentence I had just read and liked, in the book, “dawn glimmer before the wanderer and show him strange fields and hills and faces.” He took the piece of paper back, read it, nodded to himself and then looked up and thanked me briefly. Then he bowed his head and walked off talking to himself and reading again what I had quoted. When I arrived in Adjengré I stopped at Nayo’s house and hungout with him for awhile, eating the sandwiches I had bought. Nayo cut down some oranges from the orange tree that’s growing by his house. He knows by now how I like fresh fruit and when I come over I always have a choice between fresh oranges or fresh coconuts from the trees just growing wild around the house. Tough life. I headed home after a little while and relaxed, cleaned and listened to Christmas music. The next morning, Christmas Day, Nayo came over in the morning and started helping me prepare. Since Nayo doesn’t have any family in Adjengré, they are all in Lomé, we had Christmas together. When he came over he also brought some Sodabi. Drinking Sodabi is an important part of culture here for fêtes so while we were preparing the food we partook in sampling some of that moonshine. Before we started preparing everything we went over to Jean-Claude’s house in the morning and ate some Fufu and chicken and drank some ginger Sodabi. Then we left and went back to my house to prepare the food. The menu was, Asparagus soup (the can I got from the Mudricks and saved it from Thanksgiving so I could enjoy it with fewer people), pintade (guinea fowl and which I bought live from the neighbors next door) over steamed vegetables with some of those turkey gravy packets I still had from Thanksgiving. Then for dessert I had planned for scones, oatmeal cookies and banana bread. Nayo killed, cleaned, dismembered and cooked the pintade while I started baking. It was fun and everything turned out pretty well. The scones turned out excellent and Nayo and my neighbors really liked them. I will upload the pictures tomorrow. The cookies I thought weren’t bad, but not great, however everyone else liked them. I think it was because of a combination of lacking baking soda, having only old chocolate bars and using margarine, not butter. Also I needed backing soda for the banana bread so I ended up not baking that either. Otherwise everything was a great success. I made the Asparagus soup with Peak powdered milk which turned out well because Peak mixed with water is surprisingly quite delicious. After dinner and dessert Nayo and I watched the Christmas movies which had the option for them to be dubbed in French. Let me tell you, it is quite a strange experience watching Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” speaking in rapid French. However, I enjoyed it all the same. Christmas was good.

Here is the link to my pictures during Post Visit: Click Here for Pictures! This was written when I was in Adjengré and finished in Tsévié. Also I'm sorry for not posting more pictures. Once I get to my site, Adjengré, I will have a faster and more reliable internet connection and that is when I'll upload more pictures and even the movies I've taken here. Here goes: so here I am in Adjengré and I like it. I will be here until Saturday and then return to Tsévié for five more weeks of training. After which I will head back to Adjengré for the remainder of my two years of service. Sam, the volunteer who I will be replacing was evacuated from Kenya in 2008 and placed at this site. He is staying in Adjengré till November 28 because that is when he will complete his 27 months of service. I am glad that we are overlapping our service. On my way from Tsévié to Adjengré Sam texted me asking if I liked to eat cat…I responded with something like, "I’m sorry, but I’m really trying to quit". The Ethnic group in Adjengré is predominately Kabiye with some Kotokoli people. Talking with Sam I found that Kabiye people will eat cat, dog and even apparently baboon because I saw my homologue’s neighbor roasting a huge baboon which his neighbor had killed with a rock because it was eating their crops. However, they eat those “pets” mainly during fetes and apparently my arrival in Adjengré was fete worthy.

Another point of interest that I feel I should share was the journey from Tsévié to Adjengré. It took about 4 hours on the only two lane highway in Togo which everyone refers to as the “Route Nationale” which is the French word for “highway”. The Route Nationale runs the length of Togo and is really the only way to transport people and goods around the country. I believe there is also a train of some sort, but it is in disrepair and hardly used. Since PeaceCorps chartered vans it was quicker than if we took a “Bush Taxi” which is a Togo style taxi. Here is a quick explanation of the various modes of transportation available to the traveler. There are really only two ways to travel around the country one is by renting a car or driver and the other is by taxi. There are three types of taxis in Togo; a motorcycle, a four-door car, and a van. The “motos” are usually for short trips or places where it is impossible for a car to go down. The four-door car and the van are crammed with as many people as there is space and then some. In a four-door there is usually 8 people including the driver. The driver and a passenger in the driver’s seat, two people in the passenger seat and four in the back. It gets a little tight. The cars I believe are usually used for medium trips maybe an hour or two whereas the vans are generally used for longer trips. The vans and cars have similar accommodations, but usually the vans have bigger and heavier items strapped to the top.

One more thing before I continue my story. Let me just preface the next paragraph with an observation of the Togolese people. Every day, as I walk to and from school, I am in constant awe of their ridiculously white teeth. I have never seen so many people with a smile like Regis Philbin. Part of the reason is that no one here drinks coffee. Some people drink tea but not many. Also even though the soda here is a lot sweeter than in The States, they don’t drink much of it either. However, I believe the whiteness is due mainly to the stripped branches that I see people always chewing on. These branches have fluoride and other chemicals that naturally whiten the teeth.

So I rode down to Adjengré with my homologue Nayo, Matt (who incidentally is taller than me by a few inches), Liza, Virginia and all their homologues in the van. For those wondering what a homologue is PeaceCorps assigns each volunteer a person (homologue) who is from the town you will be working in. A homologue’s job is to introduce you to people in the village and show you around. As I got into the van I decided on the seat right behind the driver because that would allow for some extra leg room. Unfortunately I hadn’t counted on the fact that the driver would be chewing those sticks I had mentioned in the previous paragraph for the entire ride. Also this van is normally a Bush Taxi and just temporarily rented by the PeaceCorps so the only air conditioning is the open window. The first hour passed without incident, but as the stick started to really break down in his mouth he had to start spitting it out the window. I believe everyone can guess what happened next. The first time my mouth wasn’t open, the second time it was. Also during our journey we ran over a rooster, but just kept on going. I guess he never made it to the other side.

Adjengré was the first stop so everyone got to see my house and take pictures of me in front of it. It is of normal size, but has a big yard where I intend to start a garden. Here are some pictures of the house and yard: Click Here. Since Sam is pretty low maintenance there isn’t much on the walls or even furniture for that matter which actually suits me just fine. I will get to be able to have the local carpenters make me whatever I want. Sam and Nayo introduced me to many people during my stay including the Chief and the people who work for him, the local police (called the Gendarmes), the post office, various Microfinance organizations, etc. I also met my future French tutor, Jean-Claude. He is really a great guy and has so much energy. Sam is working with him now and one project that I will be helping him with, hopefully right off the bat, will be an English club in the school where he teaches. I also suggested a long-term project to him and he sounded very interested. The project would be to create some type of English language teaching tapes because first and foremost there is a major problem finding English teachers. Also the quality of English spoken is usually not very good so having a native speaker “teaching” would be highly advantageous. Other possible projects that Sam and I discussed my eventual involvement with is bee-keeping and teaching people about the wonders of the Meringue tree which I have many of bordering my yard.

So far my days here have followed this schedule. I wake up at 530-6am. Bucket shower at 630am. At 715ish Sam and I ride down to a small café where I have an egg, tomato and onion sandwich. If anybody is wondering, yes it is delicious. Afterwards we stop at Nayo’s house. Then my activities have varied from French lessons to meeting people. Then Sam and I end the day watching a French game show at the Bon Compte hotel restaurant bar about 2 minutes from the house. Then I head to bed around 10pm.

Monday, July 21 followed this schedule, but got a little exciting around 3am Tuesday morning. I woke up from a combination of the sound of a storm hitting the tin roof and my body suggesting that I should take a pee. When I came back inside after doing my business I turned on the light in my room. To the left of the door a large insect was following the crevice formed from when the wall meets the floor. As it made its way around my room I thought this is a large weird looking beetle. So I moved in closer for a better look and I realized it wasn’t a beetle it was a large black scorpion. It was then, as I stood there barefoot and in my boxers that the power went out and the scorpion and I were plunged into darkness together. At that point I said to myself…”Really Togo?”

After I imagined various scenarios involving the scorpion going rogue and attacking me I made my way carefully to my bed to look for my new cell phone with the built in flashlight. When I found the phone I switched on the flashlight and pretty quickly found the sucker. It hadn’t diverted far from the direction I had last seen it going. I kept him in the spotlight and grabbed a shoe I had lying around. With shoe in hand I stealthy made my way towards him and brought my shoe down as he raised his stinger. Here is a picture of it: Click Here. Sam had never seen a scorpion in this house or even in Togo before. I feel lucky.

The next few days passed without incident. I was able to meet the other current volunteers who live close to me and will be leaving around the same time Sam is leaving. Also I met up with Lorena, a fellow SED who is in my stage, in her town in Lama-Tessi which is about 20km away or a 20 minute taxi ride. The people who she will be working with threw a fete for her and I in Lama-Tessi. I believe we will be working on many projects together. Her first project, as of now, looks like she will be working with a really talented artist and teach him book-keeping among other business related things. I saw his artwork and I am definitely going to buy a lot of it for my house.

Friday I went south to Atakpame with Lorena to experience the PeaceCorps Transit House there. PeaceCorps will be removing this Transit House at the end of this year because of budget issues. Transit Houses are big houses to be used by PeaceCorps volunteers who are traveling from place to place within the country. There is a guard on duty 24 hours, a kitchen, multiple beds, showers, bathrooms, etc. You have to pay a little bit each night you stay at the Transit House but a lot less then if you stayed at a hotel and safer. Only the Atakpame Transit House is left, but there used to be a total of four in the country. The Atakpame Transit House was really cool. Atakpame is a pretty big city and about 20 minutes from Agbo where Sam M. (the Sam in my SED stage) will be living. Lorena and I stayed the night. It was really fun. We met a lot of older volunteers and the people from my Stage who are posted relatively close to Atakpame stopped by so it was fun to hear how they enjoyed Post Visit.

The next morning Lorena and I headed north to Nikhil’s house which is about 12km south of Adjengré. One could say that it was an interesting journey. About 15 minutes before we arrived at Nikhil’s house the old woman I had been sitting next to in the back seat got out. This was a four-door car so there were four of us crammed into the back seat. Happy with the extra room I started to move over, but stopped because I noticed some bits of food particles on the seat. As I started to brush it off the seat I noticed that a small bit of orange color on my shirt, close to my pocket. When I pulled on my shirt I noticed more and more orange stuff. The realization of what it was and that some was actually on the inside of my shirt finally hit me and I gagged. Unbeknownst to me the woman had thrown up in her hand and as she got out of the car had secretly rubbed it on my shirt. I have witnesses who can attest to the fact that there was actually a hand print on my shirt.

The reason for this trip was because the current volunteers in the Centrale Region (or in other words my “cluster” which means the volunteers in the same region as your site. My site is Adjengré which is in the Centrale Region) were throwing a party for all the people in my Stage who are posted in the Centrale Region. Also my fellow stageers around Kara came down for the party. It was really fun. Nikhil made Indian food for all of us and I was able to meet all the volunteers who I will be living close too in Adjengré.

The next morning, Sunday, July 26, my fellow stageers and I, who were at Nikhil’s, took a taxi back to Tsévié.

Well I am finally a Peace Corps volunteer. Since I submitted my application in December of 2007, it has taken me almost 2 years, but it has been well worth it. I have moved into my house in Adjengré and I still am getting used to general house maintenance in Togo. Various roommates who I knew not of have kindly salued me (note: 'salued' is a franglais' word that has seeped into my everyday speech which is pronounced sal-you-aid and it is inspired from the French verb saluer meaning, to greet) or have alerted me to their presence in the twilight hours by some times softy scratching and scrabbling in the shadowy corners of the ceiling or other nights, galloping heavily above, adding their noise to the deafening cacophony of the nighttime insects. Oh and I mean a deafening cacophony. However, apart from battling a few termites and (during the evening hours) avoiding the roaches in the latrine that seem to be planning some kind of assault either upon my personage or my house, I have had minimal contact with undesirables. Though I must admit there were some tense moments like when I noticed the overabundance of spiders who stowed away in the nooks and crannies of the loot Lorena and I had plundered from a volunteer’s house in Sokodé had ended her service but was not being replaced.

Through that expedition into Sokodé I was able to obtain quite a lot of furniture. Click here for some pictures of the adventure. It involved having to louer (pronounced lou-a meaning, to rent) a van to go to the ex-volunteer’s house, load everything into and on top of the van and then drop some off at Lorena’s house in Lama-Tessi then 20 minutes away at my house in Adjengré. The driver and his apprentice helped bring the items into the house. Essentially it was a moving van Togo style, which in our case meant that there were actually parts of the vehicle literally stitched together with thin wire and places in the floor where you could see the road sliding beneath you. Every day is an experience, wholly unique, but with undercurrents of familiarity whether you have been here one day or 4 months as I have.

In the morning I have French lessons with a really cool teacher named Jean-Claude with whom I am reading Le Petit Prince. After I tackle the pronunciation and general reading comprehension of each chapter we discuss the complex philosophy obscured by the expectation that it is only a children’s book. Once finished with that book we are moving onto another by the same author with a similar feel. I am glad Sam introduced me to him. It is difficult in Togo to find people who are interested in such things. I believe that is due in large part to the lack of the availability of books here. I will keep everyone posted, but a potential project that I see on the horizon is helping the library here in Adjengré. It is an exaggeration when I use the term library as it is composed of two small book shelves loosely stacked with worn out, old books faded by the sun. It is kind of sad.

I observed the Bibliothèque two days ago when I attended my first meeting at the cultural arts center. The meeting was half in the local language and half in French. The traditional drum makers of Adjengré are worried because the knowledge of how to construct drums will disappear when they themselves do. This subject was expounded upon and the community expressed the fear that the Togolese culture is rapidly vanishing because the youth are emulating the United States and other western countries. This is totally true. If you watch any music videos here all of the rappers copy the attitude and clothing of the rappers in America. One can even see it in the bush taxis here. Every taxi may or may not have a Togolese flag, but almost always has an American flag. The meeting concluded with nothing much being resolved, but at least the drum makers and community have come to realize that there needs to be some change.

Besides learning of their cultural crisis I was pleasantly surprised to find myself sitting at a really well made, large table at the cultural arts center. For some time I have been in need of such a table and soon after the meeting Nayo, my homologue, and I went to the menuisier (carpenter) and ordered a table and two chairs to be made to the exact specifications of what is in the cultural arts center. The menuisier started the price 30,000 but Nayo was able to lower the price to 27,000 CFA which is about $60. If it turns out ok I intend to buy another table and 2 chairs. One table will be used for preparing food and the other as a work desk. I will upload pictures of the menuisier, his shop and the outcome. He said that it would be finished in two weeks. We shall see.

It was a great idea for me to bring my guitar and I would suggest anyone who is going to Africa to bring an instrument. Music here is so essential. I know I have mentioned this in a previous post, but the longer I am here the more that becomes apparent. The level at which people embrace music here leads me to connect with quite a few people based at first entirely on the fact that they either want to learn or hear my guitar playing. Just a few weeks ago, through my homologue Nayo, I found a musician who built a recording studio in his home. It is actually pretty good and he has a lot of quality equipment. He was incredibly nice and wants to start recording music with me as soon as possible. In addition, my neighbors next door really want to learn how to play the guitar and even the kids come over to watch me play.

I am on the threshold of being sworn-in as an official PeaceCorps (Corps de la Paix) volunteer in exactly 5 days, on August 20, 2009. So Monday, August 10 I picked out some pagne (pronounced pawn-yah in Togo) at the local marché (market) here in Tsévié. Oh and before I continue, I’ll let you in on a little turbulence I encountered just now, during my search for the correct spelling of “pagne.” I thought that I had the spelling right, but just wanted to make sure so I looked up the word in my trusty Larousse Français-Anglais/English-French Dictionary. The spelling turned out to be correct, but the translation into English wasn’t what I had expected. It turns out that the only English translation the dictionary had for “pagne” was “loincloth.” I flashed back to the many conversations I have had with my friends in which we exchanged descriptions of the colors and the designs on our pagne in extra loud voices so we could be heard over the growl of a moto or a crowd of people. However in consultation with the older volunteers via text messaging and also talking with my host sister I found out that yes, at least in Togo, “pagne” is the correct spelling for the yards of colorful printed fabric that is sold at the marchés in this country. So just to make it clear, when I refer to pagne in this post and all posts hitherto and after this post I am not referring to a loincloth. Well, unless stated otherwise. I am also curious about the kinds of visitors who will accidently stumble upon my blog now that I have written, “pagne,” so many times. After I picked out the awesome pagne I had it made into a complet (meaning “suit” in French and pronounced com-play) by a tailor who Sam and I had met at an earlier date. Here are some pictures of it. I will add a link here when I get to Lome and have a better internet connection but for now you can see my complet in the link to all my Togo pics on the right hand side. I just picked it up yesterday. Why did I have this incredible complet made you ask? For PeaceCorps swear-in. Yes I will wear it proudly in front of chiefs, politicians, the US ambassador to Togo, PeaceCorps employees, fellow volunteers, all the host families and theoretically the entire population of Togo being that it will be televised live. All in all about 200 people should be at my swear-in. Every one of us will have to go on stage and speak very briefly in the local language (not French) that is spoken at our post. I will be saying my name, the name of my post, the state and country I come from, and the work I will do in Adjengré in Kabyé. If anyone wants to know what my speech should sound like e-mail me. I recorded my Kabyé instructor, Faustin, on my computer reading my speech out loud so I could practice it in my free time. In addition PeaceCorps also picked one person from each local language class to give a longer introductory speech before the people whose post is in that language region. Liza, a fellow SED volunteer, will be giving the longer Kabyé speech. Up to this point I haven’t really given an account of my thoughts and feelings towards the role of PeaceCorps and my placement here in Togo. So first, I have not as of yet, become disillusioned with what I had originally perceived PeaceCorps to be before I saw it firsthand. I cannot claim to have experienced PeaceCorps, because I am still in training and haven’t started any projects. I believe that the organization does do great things where the government is, for lack of a better word, “lax.” However, what I have come to understand is that the most profitable aspect of PeaceCorps is not whether the project was “successful” because success is such a subjective term, but instead it is first and foremost cultural exchange and the dispersion of knowledge we possess. One can read about life in Togo, but it is an echo of the reality here. Almost every day opens a new door or illuminates a facet of Togolese culture that I never knew existed. This cultural integration and cultural exchange can be hastened by sharing the knowledge and skills that we might perceive as basic. For example, how one searches for information on the internet, if you have a business how to write down your expenses or even just how to turn on a computer. These are the kinds of skills that at least my generation takes for granted. So overall, despite some of its bureaucratic tendencies because it does have to answer to Washington, PeaceCorps so far, is a great organization. From what I have seen and from what I hear it is not money that is needed, but people willing to work for sustainable change. The impact can be far greater and highly sustainable if the project is, if not created which would be optimal, fully supported by the local people. So in regard to Togo, I will be honest. I had never wanted to be placed in Africa, let alone Togo. When PeaceCorps asked for the top three regions I would like to placed in I wrote down, 1. Asia Region, 2. Central/Eastern Europe and 3. Central/South America. That being said, I love it here. I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. One thing that I especially like about Togo is the amount of music and dancing. Music is a fundamental component of life here. My host brother and/or his friends will suddenly break into song and nobody bats an eye. It is just what people do here. Funerals would put any birthday party in the states to shame. There is non-stop singing and dancing all through the night and into the later hours of the morning. I have knowledge of this from personal experience. When I had visited to Atakpamé during my post visit I slept over that night at the Transit House. It turned out that there was a huge funeral going on right outside the house. The music consisted of religious hymns and traditional African music being played at a high volume from huge speakers. Also everyone seems happy even though life is so hard. Exchanging pleasantries with complete strangers such as, “Bonjour” or “Bonsoir” or “Comment ça vas” is encouraged and embraced. I feel the understanding of what is really important in life and how fragile life is seeps even into their humor. For example, my host family will laugh at me as they watch me put in my contacts or even just shave, but there is no maliciousness behind the laughter. Just today a friend, Akéve, who Sam and I met within the first few weeks of coming to Tsévié was talking with Sam and I. As Sam and I parted ways from him we did the usual handshake then finger snap and he said, “Justin” and then started laughing for no reason. Sam gets the same from his host brother. I will be over at Sam’s house and his host brother will walk into the room say “Sam,” then pause, look at Sam and then start chuckling to himself. However there are irritations and injustices I experience every day. It starts with the treatment of women here. Women are expected to cook and clean wherever they are. For example, there was a haricot (bean) festival in Tsévié all last weekend and my host brother had his friends and their girlfriends over for a few days. The girlfriends cooked and cleaned the entire weekend Togo style meaning everything by hand, absolutely nothing automated. People don’t use vacuums they use these short brooms made from dried palm tree leaves and every morning someone sweeps the entire front yard. All the food is prepared by first lighting wood charcoal and waiting awhile till the charcoal reaches a certain temperature and then cooking on it. Yet in this culture the women are the ones who handle the money for the family. Besides that though, the woman’s role is to be a good wife to her husband. However, this does seem to be changing a little and there seems to be an increase in the acceptance of independent women. There are many things that make this culture difficult to live in. Life here is both difficult to understand and accept. You can see the sadness and the happiness etched into every face and feel the effort it takes just to live here when you shake their hands. Already I am beginning to understand life here, but I can never accept that this is just how life is. There are fundamental rights that I believe are inalienable, but which are totally and utterly denied to the people of Togo. Civil liberties and human rights which one unconsciously takes for granted.

I am sorry that this post is so late. The combination of at first simply adjusting to the lifestyle in Togo and then the extremely busy schedule volunteers have coupled with the internet café always seeming to be down when I am free is the reason for the tardiness. So let me start at the beginning. My parents drove me to the Hampton Inn on Race Street in Philadelphia in the morning of Thursday, June 4th, 2009. Our PeaceCorps group (referred to as Stage here) is made up of 13 people in CHAP (Community Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention) and 12 people SED (Small Enterprise Development) a total of 25 volunteers. There are 2 guys in CHAP and 6 guys in SED. The day in Philadelphia involved general paperwork and activities to get to know each other. The next day, June 5th, we left for Paris. The flight went well. However our layover in the Paris airport was a little rough because everyone was so jet-lagged. We finally arrived in Lomé (pronounced low-may) the capital of Togo at some point in the evening of June 6th. At that point everyone was deliriously exhausted. PeaceCorps immediately took us to a hotel called Mamy’s. Originally, I believe it was some type of bed and breakfast, but has since been turned into a PeaceCorps’ hotel for the new volunteers. However, four volunteers couldn’t fit into Mamy’s, so we were put up in the Hotel de Galeon for the next few days. Hotel de Galeon was pretty nice. I stayed with Ben, a CHAP volunteer and Sam and Madhav took another room on the same floor. The hotel rooms were big, we had our own bathroom with shower. Also free wireless internet! The hotel is located about 3 blocks from the water whereas Mamy’s more like 6 or 7 blocks. Over the course of the next four days we had health sessions teaching us about the health risks in Togo, emphasizing if we don’t take our malaria medicine we will get “administerly separated” aka sent home. We also received short presentations by both PeaceCorps staff and some current volunteers about Togolese culture. After the pre-service training (PST…they are all about acronyms here) orientation in Lomé, the volunteers who were part of CHAP headed to Gbatopé (pronounced baa-tope-ee) to meet their host families who they will live with for about 10 weeks. The SED people, who I am a part of, headed to Tsévié (pronounced ch-vee-a). It took about an hour from Lome to Tsévié. Tsévié is a pretty big city by Togolese standards. The population is around 50,000 and there are two big market days, Mondays and Friday when people from all around come to sell their wares. When the SED group made it to the Tsévié the van’s first stop was the PeaceCorps house in Tsévié which serves as our school and general center and hitherto will be referred to as the “Tech House.” The whole place is surrounded by white walls and a large main gate. When you get inside the compound you see a very nice one story white house with a big porch and terrace. It is very nice. To the left there is a small wall that separates the house from the big, thatched roof gazebo type structure. The big gazebo is where we have our general SED session, such as business training, business culture training, presentations by current SED volunteers, etc. As soon as we got out of the van and walked to the gazebo we saw all our families sitting on one side of gazebo and empty seats on the other side. Also as we neared the gazebo all the families started clapping until the last person sat down. It was very nice. Before the meeting our families all the volunteers were given the names of our own family on a small strip of paper and from what I saw our families had the same thing. Once everyone was seated our PeaceCorps trainers (hitherto referred as formateurs) said, “find your family.” Everyone stood up and with papers in hand started calling out the name on the slip of paper. I found my family pretty easily. My family name is Afatachao (pronounced Ah-fatch-ow) and it turns out that my host father’s name is Justin. So my host father’s full name is Justin Afatachao and my host mother, Denise Afatachao. They are both retired school teachers. Then they each hugged me and said, “Welcome!” Next Justin turned to me and said, “We are your African family now. This is your African Mother and I am your African Father.” I felt immediately accepted. Then the African music started from a stereo someone had set up and laughing and dancing ensued. After the fun and festivities which lasted probably at most an hour everyone piled into the PeaceCorps vans including the families. The luggage was strapped to the top of the van and off all of us went to our respective houses.Some pictures of the Tech House, my host family's courtyard and all Togo pictures can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35809411@N07/sets/72157621329829291/

I will post more pictures hopefully next week when I should have a better connection.

My host family stay is half over. I have lived with them for about 5 weeks and I have 5 more weeks to go. So this post should bring everyone up-to-date with my life here in Tsévié. First, I do have electricity, not running water so every morning I take a bucket shower. This is where I get the water from: Click Here. The well is refilled by a rainwater collecting system that my family installed. When it rains the water runs off the roof into gutters that funnel the water down into the well. Here is a picture of it: Click Here. So bucket showers are actually surprisingly great. If you find the water is too cold you can always heat it up, but I find that it’s nice to have a cool shower here.

My day goes like this. I wake up at 6am and take a shower. Then my family, actually my host sister is the only one living at the house with me now, boils water with citronelle (not sure how that is spelled but it is called “fever grass” in the states) and I mix in coffee, cocoa and milk. For breakfast she either makes me a couple eggs or I will get cheese and freshly baked French bread that they picked up that morning. All of it is really very delicious. Then I head to school around 710am. It takes me about 10 minutes to walk to the Tech House and pretty much every time a small child sees me they call out “Yovo!” (pronounced yoo-vo meaning light-skinned in Evé, the local language in the south of Togo) at least 10+ times a day. Also at least a couple times they break into song,

Yovo, Yovo bonsoir

ça va bien?

Merci!!

They have also been known to call me “Le Giante” on occasion.

730am is when classes start and it could be either language class or technical (business class) or maybe we might head to Gbatopé to have a one of the health workers present something to us. Then we have a 30 minute break at 930am. At 10am we could have any combination of any of those classes mentioned before for another two hours. 12pm we break for lunch and everyone heads back to their respective houses to eat. We have two hours to eat, but it isn’t as leisurely as you would think. Usually during that time I wash clothes (by hand) or clean out my room or study. At 230pm classes start again and run till around 5ish. Afterwards there might be tutoring for an hour. It gets dark around 615pm and it isn’t safe to really walk around at night so we all try to make it home before dark.

However, this next week will be a bit different. It is “Post Visit” week! Saturday morning around 6am I will head to my post, Adjengré, where I will be living and working for two years. It is located in the exact center of Togo and on the main highway. I am looking forward to it. In my house in Adjengré I won’t have running water, but I will have electricity. I will be replacing a former SED volunteer, Sam, who has lived there for two years. He is actually going to staying in town a few extra months when I’ll be at post to finish up his work there, but he will be living in a different house. I will let you all know how it goes.

I'm not writing this from Madagascar instead I'm writing this from Wilmington, Delaware. Why? The reason really comes down to a charismatic, young and good-looking former DJ-ing ex-Mayor and his persistent desire to become president.

Now I'm not saying that the current president, Marc Ravalomanana is without fault. He has done things that are questionable. For example, "there was outcry in the national assembly in September 2000 when he ordered over 100 inhabited houses, deemed too ugly, to be bulldozed in his clean up operation." "Today his sprawling empire TIKO, the largest non foreign owned company in Madagascar, has a monopoly on all dairy and oil products sold on the island." In addition the president recently spent $60 million on a presidential plane when there is widespread unemployment and people make at most a couple dollars a day.

Yet it remains true, that despite some poor decisions that Ravalomanana has made, Madagascar has improved during his presidency. Particularly in the form of ending corruption, particularly in the government , according to a former PeaceCorps volunteer who was serving in Madagascar, "there are posters all over aimed at deterring bribery." Also BBC has a good article in which they interview a Malagasy woman and she explains the different ways in which Ravalomanana has improved the country: 'Fear a Civil War'.

Still I believe, and the majority of Malagasy seem to agree with me, that this revolution is ridiculous, terrible and criminal. Here are a few reasons why:

A) The ex-Mayor, Andry Rajoelina is 34 and is constitutionally to young to become president by 6 years.

B) Most Malagasy did not want this revolt despite what Rajoelina has insisted, see Madagascar Views on Power Struggle and Madagascar: What Went Wrong?. In addition I remember reading an article at the start of this turmoil reporting that the people have repeatedly stated that they might not agree with exactly all of Ravalomanana's decisions, but that they want to work this out democratically with elections.

C) "This is no clash of policies; it is a clash of personalities." Quoted from a recent BBC Article illuminating the difference between the president and the ex-mayor.

D) Presidential elections were set to be held in 2 years. At that time Marc Ravalomanana cannot be legally re-elected because, just like in the US, presidency is limited to a maximum of two, four-year terms.

E) " 'The 7 February tragedy have left many questioning the motives behind leading a crowd of protesters to march on a presidential building guarded by armed soldiers. 'There was only ever going to be two outcomes,' said Solofo, an eyewitness of the day's events. 'Bloodshed or storming the palace.' " This quote pertains to the February 7, 2009 when Rajeolina told a group of (from what I've gathered) over 200 of his protesters to walk towards the presidential palace.

Timeline of the Events in Madagascar: Click here

Ultimately, it is a good thing that PeaceCorps did not end up sending us to Madagascar. The recent events in the country support this decision. In addition civil war is in the air. One cannot expect the president's supporters to simply roll over and let Rajoelina come into power. However even though there is escalating turmoil in Madagascar and our group would have definitely been evacuated within a week, Peace Corps pulls out of Madagascar, if we had boarded that plane, it all does little to ease the disappointment of not volunteering, living in and experiencing Madagascar for over two years.

I had spent months readying myself and learning all about the country and its people. Then with nervous excitement and anticipation I went to Philadelphia for orientation only to learn a few hours after I got there that we would not be leaving the next day for Madagascar. I think Nick, my roommate for when I was in Philadelphia, explains how we all felt in Philly the best. He wrote it all up in a blog post: Click here.

Despite it all, I have officially accepted my re-assignment. I will be heading to Togo in West Africa and I am excited to go. It lies between Ghana and Benin on the coast and I will be in the same program as I would have been in, in Madagascar, Small Enterprise Development. I will explain more about Togo and what exactly I'll be doing that in the next post.

Now I'll leave you with a quote from an article I found on the BBC website. People who are living the crisis now in Madagascar have been sending in their views on the situation there to BBC.

"I would like to highlight here one essential fact: what Rajoelina pretends to say is not what Malagasy people think. Maybe we don't agree with some of Ravalomanana's policies these last two years, but we are still convinced he is the only man able to bring progress both social and economical to Madagascar. He is still the president of the nation, he represents order and authority. International opinion is misled by lies and manipulation from Rajoelina's allies. A popular referendum would at once discredited his pretended popular legitimacy. Now I'm afraid this is just the beginning of the chaos in Madagascar again. Rajoelina is just a pawn, once Ravalomanana is evicted, there will be a serious dispute on war treasures and power. What about us?

Leila, Antananarivo " ~ Madagascar views on Power Struggle

In my first post I wanted to give everyone who is reading this and specifically those who are applying or want to apply to the PeaceCorps, an idea of how long it takes to be invited. The two things I learned about the process is have patience, but also keep bothering them.

December 1, 2007 - Submitted the Online Application and applied for Business Development in the Asia Region or Central/Eastern Region I had started the application few months before that

December 18, 2007 - Received a call and email from my PeaceCorps MidAtlantic Recruiter who was a former PeaceCorps Volunteer and taught English in Thailand.

February 26, 2008 - Had an interview with my Recruiter at 8am in the Marriott at University of Delaware.

Wasn't able to meet with him after the Christmas holiday because of the study abroad in January.

March 3, 2008 - Nominated by my Recruiter for Business Development in the Asia Region and set to leave mid to late January of 2009.

April 9, 2008 - Sent in my Medical Forms.

April 21, 2008 - PeaceCorps notified me that they received all my medical forms.

May 31, 2008 - Received a letter from the PeaceCorps saying that my medical forms were incomplete. I needed a particular booster.

June 6, 2008 - Passed my Medical Evaluation.

August 4, 2008 - Contacted my Placement Officer (PO) because I hadn't heard anything from the PeaceCorps since I had passed my Medical. He responded saying that he or a member of his staff will contact me in 2 - 3 weeks, however if I don't hear anything contact him.

September 3, 2008 - Sent another email to my PO because I hadn't heard anything and a staff member contacted me for an updated University Transcript.

October 16, 2008 - My PO called me and told me that my top two choices, Asia and Eastern/Central Europe were filled up, instead he offered me Guinea in West Africa. He told me I had to decide within 24 hours and if I would accept I would be leaving December 1st.

October 17, 2008 - Decided to turn down Guinea.

October 23, 2008 - The PO called again and offered me a French speaking country in Sub-Sahara Africa where I would be working in Small Enterprise Development. If I chose to accept the placement, I would be leaving the beginning of February. I researched the possible PeaceCorps departures in the beginning of February on http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/Timeline and found out that it's Madagascar.

October 24, 2008 - Accepted the Madagascar post in Small Enterprise Development.

October 31, 2008 - Received the PeaceCorps Madagascar Invitation Kit in the mail.

Well, I'm set now to depart March 9th which is a few weeks later then what was originally planned. All the turmoil that is occurring in Madagascar is the reason for my delayed departure. The toolbar to the right lists the most recent news for Madagascar from Google News so you can get an understanding of the situation there. Here's a little bit about my assignment and what I plan on doing over there.

Program: Small Enterprise Development

Job Title: Small Business Advisor

Pre-Service Training: I will be staying with a host-family in a town about an hour outside the capital, Anatanarivo. For three months, seven days a week I will be taught by PeaceCorps volunteers. Training will include six components, language (most likely Malagasy, the native language), technical, cross-culture, admin, personal health and safety.

Living Conditions: Assuming that I successfully complete my training I will be relocated somewhere on the island. Either my community will build me a house or they will identify one for me to rent. Most likely I'll have no running water and limited electricity.

Job Description: My primary duties will be to assist in the expansion of microfinance instutions that support income-generating activities, work with potential entreupeneurs to develop their own skills, work with NGOs, etc. Most volunteers take up secondary projects such as teaching English or working with youth groups.