It really has been a long time since I've last checked in, and life here in Togo has really changed a lot for me. From October to January, I continued with my HIV/AIDS and sex ed class at my local middle school. In December, ten students used the information they learned in class to prepare and perform a skit debunking HIV myths and encouraging people to get tested and support people infected or affected by HIV. It took place during half time of the final match in the inter-class soccer tournament I organized with other teachers from the school. This is the first time I've ever really been in any sort of teaching position, and these classes really were a blast. For one hour a week, the students had the opportunity to learn about things that aren't typically addressed at school - HIV, STD's, how to use a condom, early pregnancy. Each week, we played games and held discussions about how and why there are so many misconceptions about these things here, and everyone (especially the young girls) had the opportunity to bring up issues of concern and ask questions in a completely safe environment. I also continued working with women in my neighborhood to learn income generating activities like making liquid soap and lotion. Most of these activities are cheap and simple and help families (especially women and young girls) earn a little money to pay school fees, buy school supplies, or just help support the family.

My host family and neighbors making lotion

I also (finally) completed the second phase as my Men As Partners (MAP) training of teachers in the Maritime region. We had a LOT of logistical issues (the biggest one, caused by a delay in receiving funding, was deciding one day in advance that we HAD to carry out the training the next day or not at all), but ultimately all 40 teachers attended and enjoyed the three-day training. Sessions were facilitated by trainers that attended the Training of Trainers (TOT) in September, so I got to sit back and run logistics, advise and give feedback. A group of new volunteers also attended, and we got a quick visit by our Country Director, who showed her support and encouraged all the participants to apply this methodologie in their schools. The teachers participated in a practice exercise, where they were split into groups and facilitated sessions themselves for students at the local middle school. All in all, 40 participants taught ten different sessions affecting over 300 students, just during the training itself. Right now, my counterparts and I are preparing to visit all 23 schools to perform follow-up and evaluation activities with the teachers and their students. Overall, organizing this training has been the most challenging project I've worked on so far, but I've also learned a lot and continue to learn a lot from my Togolese counterparts while working on it.

Group of trainers and participants from my Tsevie MAP Training

After all of this, in January it was decided that I would change posts in order to continue working on follow-up for the MAP training, pursue other activities with the Inspectors of Education, and continue the work of a previous volunteer, focusing on apprentices. Although leaving my village was sad, and there are many things I will miss (mostly Grandmama's bear hugs, eating too much fufu, and playing UNO with my host family), I am extremely excited to be working on bigger projects in the city. Most notable, I will be working with apprentices, which are a huge underserved population of young Togolese boys and girls. Even though "Girls Education and Empowerment" sounds like it 1) only focuses on girls and 2) only focuses on formal education, the program is very broad and also aims to provide both girls and boys that do not attend school with the same knowledge and motivation they need to succeed as their "educated" peers. Here in Togo, many students drop out of school completely after troiseme (equivalent to 10th grade), especially if they do not pass the BEPC (the mandatory exam for admission into lycee - high school). Some of them find jobs, some stay at home or sell things, and some pursue apprenticeships in larger towns and cities. During an apprenticeship, girls and boys choose a trade (most common for girls - tailors and hairdressers, for boys - carpentry, mechanic), pay a fee, and spend a certain amount of time working for a business owner learning the skills neccessary to pass an exam. Once they pass this exam, they are certified to start their own business. Unfortunately for them, most apprentices don't receive the same level of education or opportunity as students, especially in what Peace Corps calls "Life Skills". I think it's safe to say that most Peace Corps Volunteers all over the world have participated in Life Skills activities - through clubs, classes, camps, other other youth activities. These life skills are those that we learn as we grow up - communication skills, forming healthy relationships, self confidence, decision making, etc - but many youth in Togo don't really learn. The volunteer I've replaced in my new post previously worked in training business owners and teaching apprentices life skills classes as a supplement to their business and technical training. With my arrival, we've been planning on expanding these classes to include Men As Partners concepts, which moreso address issues of gender and behavior modification, and are more discussion-driven. So overall, big changes and a lot of work going on, and only 9 and a half months left!

September was a busy month here in the wonderful world of Togo. Summer vacation has finally ended, and we are all transitioning from the drag days of summer and perhaps still recovering from post-camp exhaustion as new projects roll in with the beginning of the school year. The cool season has ended, and it has again started to climb into the mid-90s with 100% humidity down south, with little relief from the daily rainstorms. The last month had me attending mid-service conference, carrying out my first real training, and celebrating both my 24th birthday and my one-year anniversary of being in Togo. It is really crazy to think that so much time has already passed, and yet it has gone by so quickly. After struggling for most of my service to find tangible work, regain my footing after my med-evac, and really just find my place here in Togo, I feel as though I am just now starting my service. In many ways, that is to be expected – they tell us that the life of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is a series of ups and downs, figuring out how to work around the realities of being in Togo, and learning how the realities of Togo work around you. As much as I have been learning and adapting to a new culture, new lifestyle, new everything, I have been learning just as much about myself. It is at this point now, halfway through, that I really understand how I need to carry myself in order to find, pursue, and carry out the work that I really want to do here.

In the first week in September, I collaborated with the Office of Education Inspections (think- superintendents for all of the secondary schools for my entire region), to carry out a Training of Trainers on Men as Partners. What in the world is “Men as Partners”, you ask? You thought I was a Girls Education volunteer, didn’t you? Well, it just so turns out that incorporating men and boys in the empowerment of women is not only a good idea, but absolutely necessary for the promotion of women’s rights and gender equity in Togo. In order to really empower women, we need to engage men in understanding how their behaviors and decisions affect women – especially in regards to gender equity, and the reproductive health of both men and women. The Men as Partners program was started by an American NGO called EngenderedHealth, as a behavior-change training module targeting men to take responsibility for the role they play in the transmission and spread of HIV/AIDS. Togo is the first Peace Corps country in West Africa to incorporate the program into Peace Corps projects.

The training took place in Tsevie, the regional capital for the Maritime region, with 7 Inspectors and 13 school directors participating, and the Chief Inspector, the Inspector of Physical Science, myself and 2 other PCVs facilitating. The 2-day training was a bare-bones introduction to the concept of Men as Partners, with sessions geared towards opening up the floor to conversations that are not typically held here in Togo. Sessions focused on examining our attitudes about gender, identifying risky situations, and discussing how we feel about certain gender issues and why people often feel the way they do. The program does not really teach behavior change, but guides participants towards reaching their own conclusions. We will be carrying out a second phase training of 40 teachers at the end of October, with 3 of the participants facilitating and with the understanding that these teachers will implement the MAP program in weekly HIV/AIDs classes at the middle school level. This is my first funded project, which is an interesting experience in itself, and this was also my first time facilitating sessions in French for adults, so the first phase was a wonderful learning experience. I’m really excited about the second phase, especially two teachers from my village’s middle school will be attending.

Aside from the MAP training, my homologue and I have been hard at work carrying out our women’s clubs. We now have five groups in five different villages, talking about women’s rights and gender equity, good business practices, Moringa, and teaching them income-generating activities. I am starting to reach out to other Volunteers in my region to make guest appearances and help me out with certain sessions. This is so far my favorite activity that I’ve done in my village, because it is the first time that most of these women have ever had the opportunity to speak their minds about sensitive cultural issues such as the status of women in Togo. The groups are so popular, actually, that most of the women’s husbands have started crashing the group and participating- even helping to explain difficult concepts. The women have been so appreciative and so giving of their time, and I can tell that they generally appreciate that I come visit them every week and give them the opportunity to learn those things they’ve never been able to in the past. I have also agreed to start teaching classes on HIV/AIDS, Life Skills, and Men as Partners concepts in my local middle school. This is really exciting to me, because I had tried all of last academic year to get something going in the school without any luck, and I really enjoy spending time with the teenagers in my village.

Day to day life has become easier now that I have been here for a year, and I have made myself a nice little home in my village and in Tsevie (what I am now calling my OTHER “chez moi”), so that I have a great network of counterparts, friends and second families. But, still, my heart belongs to these little darling Bocovi children that I spend so many of my days with:

Camp ESPOIR 2010

My biggest project so far in Togo has been coordinating this year's Camp ESPOIR for the Maritime region. Every year, PCVs throughout Togo collaborate with host-country NGOs on a week-long summer camp for children that are infected with HIV/AIDS or have lost family members to the disease. The primary purpose of camp is to provide children with a week of fun, as they rarely get the opportunity to spend time with other children who lead similar lives. During the week they get to play sports, have a talent show, attend a carnival and scavenger hunt. They also attend educational sessions on good communication, gender equity, sexual health, HIV/AIDS and learn how to conduct a feasibility study and participate in income-generating activities. This year's camp was themed "Marquons les buts dans le monde" (can be translated as "scoring goals in the world") to tie in with the world cup. Each cabin was assigned a country, and the kids had to give cultural presentations about the country they represented.

In addition to being coordinator, I also got to act as a counselour for the group of youngest boys with another PCV named Beckah and a Togolese trainer. Although they were a handful, the experience was absolutely amazing and incredibly heartwarming. The week passed just like an ordinary summer camp, and I never once thought to myself that these children were any different because of their health status. On the third night, we had a candlelight vigil where children were allowed to share testimonies of their experiences. It was one of the most emotionally difficult moments of my service, but it was such a great opportunity for the kids to relate to one another and understand that there are other people that lead lives like theirs. I think that they really appreciate the opportunity to come to camp and meet one another, and just forget the day to day challenges of living with HIV. Hopefully these children will take back all of the things they learned at camp and share them with their families, classmates, and other children they know from their organizations.

The whole experience was especially heartwarming for me because, as an only child from a relatively small family, I have always been intimidated of children. I've always found them hard to relate to. But here in Togo, I surprised myself in my ability to not only have real conversations with children, but to do so in another language without anything getting lost in translation. I was able to dance and sing and motivate them along with the rest of the PCV counselours and Togolese trainers and I am even still suffering from the post-camp hangover of songs, dances, and call and response games. Overall, camp was just a wonderful, life-changing experience for so many people involved and I'm glad to have participated in it this year.

In village, I have started two women's clubs for the purpose of promoting my work as a GEE volunteer. We have already started in my village with talking about women's rights and gender equity, and will later be leading sessions on family planning, moringa, and income generating activities. I have been attending the group's literacy classes three times a week, which has really gotten them motivated to both come to class and stay for my sessions afterwards. My homologue and I are in the process of starting similar groups in the neighboring villages, and are working on developing a training for peer educators that can lead the sessions in local language.

This is a time right now of many changes, as some of my closest friends are COSing (closing their service) and a new group is swearing-in this week. In September, a new group of GEE and NRM Volunteers will arrive, marking our one-year in country point. The school year is starting in mid-September and more, new work opportunities will be coming up.

Ah... Bon!

As usual with my updates, much time has passed. When we last left off, I was one foot out the door back to the USA being "medically evacuated". After one long week of waiting in Lome, I was off to my home away from home, Washington DC. Health is a top priority when you're in Peace Corps, and when something scary happens to you in an underdeveloped country, chances are you will have to travel for treatment/analysis. In my case, I was shipped off to DC to undergo analysis for what the medical staff here feared might have been a seizure. After two weeks of terrifying MRI machines, getting wires glued to my scalp, and hearing my own blood pulse through my veins, I was given a clean bill of health and it was concluded that the petit mal seizure I experienced would probably not happen again and I was cleared to come back to Togo. So, after a week and a half more of waiting for a flight back (darn that Icelandic volcano!), I returned to Togo five pounds heavier with a suitcase full of crossword puzzle books, snacks, nail polish and new clothes.

Since coming back, almost a month ago, I have been very busy, without completely meaning to be. While I was away, I missed a couple trainings related to my position on the GAD committee and about a month's worth of planning for Camp ESPOIR, so on the work end I have been playing a lot of catch up. I am still having trouble starting GEE work in my village, thanks to the ending of the school year, my homologue's church committments, and repeated health issues and outside work obligations on my end. I am hoping that in the upcoming weeks, when we are all a little more free, things will go smoother.

Another big change that has happened in Togo since I went away - I was first excited, then annoyed, that the rainy season has finally started in the Maritime region. Rainy season has its perks and its downfalls. The most positive thing about rainy season is that the rains have cooled the temperature down significantly, especially at night, making it bearable to sleep indoors. It also brings a bounty of delicious fruits and vegetables, my favorite being avocadoes and mangoes, at ridiculously cheap prices (imagine paying 25 cents in Super Stop and Shop for a mango the size of your head!). But, with the rainy season also comes mosquitoes (to be expected) and of course, tons of rain (also to be expected!). Rain in Togo is nothing like any rain I experienced in the states, with the exception of the 15 minute daily downpours I got stuck in during my time in the Tobacco Root mountains of Montana. When it rains in Togo, it pours, and the whole village stands still. Meetings are cancelled, fields are left unplowed, and the roads... well, the roads are just impassable. I had the unfortunate experience the other day of getting caught in a rainstorm while riding a moto back to my village. The road between my regional capital is a 35k long dirt (half sand, half portruding rock) road that takes anywhere between 45 minutes and two hours to travel. During the rain, this road becomes a river of mud and water rushing at high velocity downhill to collect into lakes at the bottom of every hill. I have learned my lesson when travelling home - always get there by four.

It has been a little while since my last update, but I will try to bring everyone back up to speed on how life is going in Togo.

If you have ever met a PCV, or RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer), you may have noticed that this person is a) cynical and b) tough. This is because all of those kitchy Peace Corps marketing schemes (think: "Toughest job you'll ever love") are kind of right. I try to keep a positive attitude about the "bad" things that happen here in Togo, and take everything with a very large grain of salt called "patience", but the truth is that this is no cake walk. It seems that there are challenges to be found here in even the simplest of life's tasks.

Et chez vous?

The house has been in pretty good shape, minus another incident where my mouse has had babies under my mattress.

I have really felt much more integrated and accepted in my community after having a friend from the US come visit. Showing him around the village and seeing how excited he was, and how excited my village was to meet him really resparked my love for my village. The people are just great and welcoming, and ultimately they are the ones that make the experience for me. I have been spending most of my nights chasing my host sisters around the village, threatening with "ki-nee ki-nee" (tickling) and then staying up with them for dinner and dancing until we are all too tired to move.

Et la travail?

One of the major components of a PCV's work in village is having one or more homologues that are familiar and respected in your community, and knowledgeable (or maybe just familiar) about the work that you are there to do. If you do not have reliable and motivated homologues, or a motivated community, your work will be very difficult. Unfortunately, I have been riding the latter boat during my time in village and all of my challenges have seemed to stem from this issue. As a result, I'm very sad to say that I cannot report on anything groundbreaking that I have done work-wise. But I have (I hope) made significant progress on identifying new homologues and opportunities for work in my surrounding area. Ideas that have been thrown out include a literacy project (Only about 30-40% of women in Togo are literate, and the women in my village do not speak French, making it very difficult to work with them), a teacher training on life skills, and the creation of a gender equity committee. I've also started working on some national projects with other PCVs, including the Gender and Development (GAD) committee, where I will be the Training Manager and working on promoting the Men as Partners (a training program aimed at men and boys to help them think about how their behaviors affect women, and their communities, hopefully motivating them to improve their behaviors), a regional co-coordinator for Camp ESPOIR (for children affected or infected by HIV/AIDS), and a counselour for Camp UNITE (for students and apprentices, focused on Life Skills).

Et la sante?

I have been relatively healthy, still, despite another skin related issue (this time a fungus on my shoulders, fun!). But unfortunately, I had an incident that I will not describe here this past weekend, and I will be leaving today for Washington, DC to do testing and analysis. This puts me on "MedEvac" status, which means that I need to have my medical issue addressed using facilities that are just not available in Togo. If everything checks out fine, I will return to Togo to finish out my service. I am pretty positive that I will come back, and I am very excited to. Things were just starting to fall into place and I can't wait to come back to get started on them all.

I am not giving out ANY apologies! When someone moves to Africa, and gets dropped off in the middle of nowhere, it is a little difficult to update. But, I am here now, to share a little bit of my first two months in my village.

Et chez vous?

I have an interesting living situation here, instead of sharing a compound with a family, I am actually sharing a house. Our living quarters are seperated by a single door, and I am always chasing a throng of children (and recently, baby goats) off my porch. That is what I find strangest about my home - that I do not have the typical 8-foot tall compound walls, I am continually on display - but I have a porch and what you can easily classify as a front yard. They are both eerily American - I am quickly becoming the cranky porch lady, collecting strewn toys from neighborhood kids (and, ok, sometimes chasing them away), and my yard is dying of thirst yet overgrown with weeds. But, I am hoping during the rainy season I can enlist the help of my local NRM volunteer to start my garden.

I have also been ridding my house of creatures. So far, the scoreboard stands:

Lizards vs. Becky - Victor: Becky

They are easy to chase, but one pooped on my pillow the first day I was here.

Spiders vs. Becky - Victor: Becky (in overtime)

They are large and in charge, but no match for a large wooden spoon. But never, EVER, squish one carrying an egg sac full of spider babies.

Ants vs. Becky - Victor: Ants (in coup d'etat fashion)

Even my host brother squealed at their takeover of my latrine.

Mice vs. Becky - Victor: Mice (via forfeit)

They fall from the ceiling, jump out of cupboards, and build nests in my stove burners. This is chez eux, and I am just a guest here.

Et la sante?

As of yet, I am still amoeba and parasite-free, and have experienced zero net weight change. I am healthy as a PCV can be, albeit continually battling skin infections- which means, I am healthy as a PCV can be. Now that I have been out on my own, I have been able to return to a pretty decent veggie lifestyle - trips to Lome and its various meaty/cheesy establishments notwithstanding.

Et la travaille?

I have been slowly but surely easin in to working in my village. Right now I am focusing on training the peer educators in our secondary school, and preparing to teach Life Skills at some yet to be determined time. Working in the school has already shown its challenges, my french level and my being a woman are the two most prominent. But with the aide of a few very strong and motivated students, I think I will gain their respect soon enough. Yesterday, at one of our meetings, I was saved again by Adzo, who reminded me that I am a PCV, and thus all sessions MUST end in a song. It got easier after that.

In the community, I have become infamous for running in the mornings. Whenever I go to the market, there is always someone from a neighbouring town that recognizes me. I have also attracted some followers, most recently our (surprisingly fit) chief and his two sons, and the occasional child or football player. I was especially inspired to continue this, when my chief thanked me for being a good example to the rest of the community. If I am taking measures to better my health, then naturally, the rest will follow. Starting with the chief!

My homologue and I are trying to form a committee for GEE projects with community members, and I recently go to hear the women speak (for the first time) about what they really want to do. I am thinking that this may include a literacy program and a Village Savings and Loan group.

And with all that, Togo is just fine. New Year's Eve brought my first lunar eclipse, and the Harmatton winds have been making the weather bareable for the last month. Nightly visits from my host family (6 children, ages 2 to 12 and the absolutely adorable Grand-mama) have alleviated some of the loneliness and increased the amount of Ewe vocabulary in my head. I am slowly getting a a grasp of the language, although at least once a day you can hear me say "I am going to the fields" when I mean "I am going for a walk", or explain that I am not going home, but rather I am going to bread. Ah, ca va aller, I suppose.

That is all I have for now, until next time.

So long, and thanks for all the yams!

- Becky

On December 2, 2009, I officially swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The thought of it all hadn’t hit me yet, that all I had been working for and towards for the three years before I came here, that all that I have already done since I arrived, that only now can I call myself a PCV. I have had a couple of what I call (excuse my English, sorry Mom) “holy shit I’m in Africa” moments so far, and it kind of all came to a head this week. There is this video clip, in one of those Peace Corps videos I’ve must’ve seen a hundred times, where Chris Matthews is explaining the feelings he had when he began his service in Swaziland. I think he said something like “Coming to Africa was like landing on the other side of the moon”. I had been patiently awaiting that moment, that sudden spark in my head where it all feels real, and not a daydream or rush of emotions I can’t quite sort through. I had that moment when the Peace Corps SUV dropped me off at my house, the last of 5 stops on bumpy roads in a vehicle filled to the brim with mattresses and buckets and new Peace Corps Volunteers. The driver, whom we have all come to know and love, helped me unload my stuff and left with a pleasant “Donc, a tout alors!” My moment came over the course of five minutes, when rats came running out of my bedframe and the lizards soon after. I was completely alone, just me and the vermin, and it all began.

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. I spent my last nights in homestay cooking “American” meals for my family. I don’t think that the peanut butter pancakes went over too well (I, on the other hand, enjoyed them very much), but I did win them over with an award-winning hot-dog pineapple pizza, New Haven style, fresh out of the dutch oven. We then spent three days in Lome, prepping for swearing in, getting flu shots, going to the bank and basically running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get everything we needed for going to post. Highlights included gazing in awe as the driver piled 9 mattresses on top of the Peace Corps SUV, falafel and coke out of a can, and ending the night of swear in listening to an amazing band at a jazz club playing, seemingly, just for us.

So far in village, I have just been relaxing and getting my house in order, and slowly but surely making it known to the community that I am back and I’m here to stay. I’ve also been learning (very quickly) the art of keeping up a good house. When you don’t have electricity, and it’s too hot to do anything 75% of the day, you learn to maximize your time. I’ve found out that if I do not get up at 5:30 with the roosters, then I will never get around to all the sweeping, laundry, dishwashing, and cooking I want to do during the morning.

Yesterday, I completely took the day off. After a 4:30 am run, during which I passed by a funeral, I came back to the house, fixed my bike, and just rested. Yesterday afternoon was the coldest I’ve ever been in Togo. Since it is harmatton, the air is very dry and the winds are very cool. But yesterday, a thunderstorm passed through, and I sat on my porch just taking it all in. I had goosebumps for the first time, and it seemed like everyone – all the playing children, all the singing mothers, and all the hungry goats just disappeared for two hours while the clouds overtook the sky, everything rumbled, and the roads were again full with puddles. I hoped for a repeat today, as the clouds again covered the sky, but I was disappointed. This might be the last rain until March.

When I haven’t been napping or writing or plowing through “Anna Karenia”, this week I have been spending a lot of time talking with a girl that lives in my village who continually inspires and motivates me. She is a peer educator at the middle school, and attended Camp UNITE last summer and was really close to the volunteer that I am replacing. Tonight, after a long walk through the village (which served as an intense lesson in Ewe salutations) with her and my homologue (whom I also absolutely adore), we sat on my porch until nightfall talking about all the things she wants to see changed in the community. I had heard all of these things before during stage, but it felt so much more real to hear it coming from her. I got sad of course, but I also realized the potential that this girl has to really make a difference here and I am excited and anxious to start working with her and the other students.

I hope to have more interesting things to write about in the future, when I actually start my work, but for now I’m just soaking it all in and working on my integration. It all seems so new, yet still so oddly familiar and comfortable. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here right now.

Until next time! Miagadogo!

November 24, 2009

I know that it’s been a while without any updates – stage has been super busy the last month, with post visit (description in the entry before this one), and our field trip last week. This, coupled with little time, money, and reliable internet connections, is my fallback excuse for falling out of touch. But alas, here is a little something to tide you over, at least until the real fun (a.k.a. my two years of service) begins.

At the time I’m writing this, we have exactly one week left in homestay. Ten weeks have FLOWN by, and it’s hard to believe that we are only days away from our final language test, saying goodbye to our host families, swearing in, and moving to post. The thought of it is hard to describe – I am thinking back to the first few weeks where I was struggling through simple conversations about food and sleep/wake cycles and couldn’t tell you the difference between soja and moringa, and relating it to now where I’m teaching my host mother how to make pancakes one night and lotion another. I’m not saying I’m completely ready to head off on my own, but I feel pretty confident that things will be just fine once I get there. And if not, well, “du courage”.

Last week, we all went on a field trip up north to see different types of projects that GEE volunteers are currently doing. The car ride up there was a mixed bag – it was my first time outside of Maritime region, so I continually had my mind blown over how beautiful Togo really is. In Maritime, the scenery is gorgeous but limited to fields of tall grasses and the biggest trees I’ve ever seen. The farther north you travel, however, the more beautiful it gets – the mountains and rolling hills were everywhere and I could not stop seeking out exposed rock on mountainsides and trying to figure out what geologic events took place here thousands of years ago. The only downfall of this backdrop was the haze from the burning of the fields, an event than signifies the beginning of the dry season (harmatton). The roads, also, were just miserable, so at certain points I was a little crabby from some awful cocktail of elevation sickness and carsickness. All in all, though, we got to see a lot of different projects – working with NGOs, Camp UNITE, a Village Savings & Loans group, a Vacation Enterprise program and garden. We even got to round the whole trip out by relaxing at the pool and eating pizza (yes, pizza).

I’m trying to recollect everything we have learned in the past ten weeks, and it’s really making my head spin. Outside of learning two languages, we have also learned a handful of AGRs (income-generating activities) – soja (soy), moringa, gardening, improved cookstove construction, liquid soap, enriched porridge, lotion and pomade – English teaching techniques, facilitated two life skills classes, and met a lot of community representatives that work in schools, with apprentices, and with NGOs. There really are so many options for things to do at post for GEE projects, so I am pretty happy that my work options are not just limited to teaching in the local schools.

I’ve been patiently awaiting care packages and letters – many thanks to those that have already sent things, I’m sure I’ll receive them soon. For anyone that has a few extra bucks to spare and would like to make my life here a little bit easier, I could really use some of the following things: citronella and/or scented candles (I got over 50 mosquito bites during post visit due to faulty screens, and no where to hang my mosquito net, and my bedroom is located about 5 feet away from the latrine), spices for cooking, seeds (veggies!), good old american style deodorant, your favorite paperback novels, MIX TAPES (I don’t have electricity, so I can’t charge my iPod, but I do have a battery-operated tape player), and a flea collar (I want to get a dog and/or a cat to help with the insect/lizard/children problems at my future abode). But I’d be satisfied just to hear from you, the address is on this blog page somewhere.

In case anyone is desperate for a weather update here – it’s hot. Hotter than it was when we arrived, and the humidity hasn’t phased at all. The trip up north was a tease, why would they bring me somewhere where I need long sleeves and can wear my hair DOWN in the mornings, just to bring me back to the sauna that is Tsevie? Word is that it is only going to get worse from here on out, so fingers crossed that I become habitué sooner than later in village.

That’s all for now, folks – the next time I update I will be a real-life Peace Corps Volunteer, hopefully starting on some good projects and making a home for myself in the bush.

Until then, Miagadogo!

November 10, 2009

Week 8 is kicking off to a great start, as we’re all still unwinding from our exciting week at our posts, and riding high with confidence in our newfound language skills. I spent all of last week in village on my own, and although the first couple of days were scary (terrifying, mortifying, and I may have had an extensive conversation with myself about the pros and cons of ET-ing), I fell absolutely head over heels in love with the place. I’m posted in a very small village (they told me 2000, my estimation is 1000 people) in the Maritime region. This means that the future holds for me a lot of great and not so great things. Positives include the close proximity to my training village (access to internet, keeping in touch with my host family) and to Lome (supermarkets, i.e. cheese, chocolate, Pringles and an assortment of other foodstuffs I continually crave), absolutely GORGEOUS fields and trees everywhere, an avocado tree in my front yard, and a community that is very familiar with Peace Corps and welcomed me with open arms. Negatives include the lack of electricity, cell phone reception and running water, a porch that is currently a warzone between the children of the village and the current Volunteer, and general inaccessibility to the luxuries of life (bread, Fan Milk). But, with a little discuté-ing with the village carpenters and moto drivers, I should be able to fix the place up and get to and from the nearest town relatively easily.

When I pulled into my village at 10:30 am that Saturday, I was kind of overwhelmed. The current Volunteer did a great job of making sure everyone knew I was coming, so after he left for the week I was well taken care of. That Sunday, they played the drums for me and I had my second opportunity to show off my dance moves in front of somewhere between 100 and 300 people. I knew that I was officially part of the community when they all commented that my dance moves were great (Tu as bien dancé!) – so I guess I owe many thanks to the friends that would drag me out dancing in DC, who knew that “getting low” would be an important integration skill? I spent the rest of the week visiting schools, meeting chiefs, and just introducing myself around the area. I think this amounted to somewhere around 8 or 9 schools, 8 or 9 chiefs, the gendarmerie, the farmers and parents of the village, and the local catholic mission where there are two Americans currently doing volunteer work. I also held my first girls club meeting, which to be fair, my homologue primarily facilitated while I practiced my French in my head. I think that this will be an interesting activity, and very very challenging, with my limited French speaking and comprehension skills and his, you know, being their much older male teacher. But several school directors, teachers and parents have really stressed to me how much the village needs a female role model, and someone to work specifically on teaching life skills and talking about reproductive health. So, I think that this, coupled with the time I will spend teaching in the schools, will keep me pretty occupied during my time at post.

All in all, the whole experience was surreal. They plucked us out of stage, where we were all a bit wobbly, dropped us in (in some cases) the middle of nowhere to fend for ourselves and we all did great. Personally, I feel like the last week really helped me build up my confidence, especially with speaking French and project planning. The night that I returned from post, I sat down with my host family for about two hours and just talked in (surprisingly) comprehensive French about everything that had happened to me. Our relationship has changed so much in the few days since then, as I’m able to understand them and express myself to them a lot more. It seems like now, just as I am really getting comfortable and opening up, it’s almost time to leave for Lome and swear in, and then off to post for two years!

I haven’t taken any pictures yet, which I know is a shame – I’ll try to get out and take some and put them up before the end of stage, but I can’t make any promises. I had my first visit to the couturriere this week, so if nothing else I can take some photos of me in my new Togolese outfits.

The next few weeks of stage are pretty busy, this week we’ve learned how to make liquid soup, construct improved cook stoves, and make soy milk and cheese, on top of the three or four other technique sessions we’ve had. We also had a fete with our host families, in which we performed skits (GEE’s was about holidays, my host mother’s explanation of my role in the Valentines Day skit was “Becky liked a boy, but he liked someone else, so she cried. She cried a lot. Then she danced”), danced a bit, and watched our host moms perform a skit. It was fun, but I have been exhausted all week so I had to retire early. Next week we’re taking a road trip to visit Volunteers up north, and after that only one week until we leave for Lome.

Donc, all is well here in Togo. The rainy season is coming to rapid close, and “la chalour” has arrived in full swing. We are all sweating profusely, perhaps more now that we had been when we first arrived. I hope that it is miserably cold back in the states, although I can no longer possibly imagine what that must feel like.

Miagadogo!

24-10-2009

Today, it is cold in Togo. I’m sitting under my mosquito net in the middle of the day and I am actually shivering. Many thanks to the rain gods for blessing us with such a pleasant break from the beating sun and humidity we’ve been experiencing ever since we got here. Also, it has been one month and one week already for us here in Togo! The time has flown by so quickly, half of the time it feels like we’ve been here forever and half of the time it feels like we just got here.

I slept outside last night for the first time, and it was something all together spectacular. It was a total 180 from the feelings I experienced when I walked off the plane in Lome last month. The air was cool and clear, and the stars were so close I swear I could have grabbed them if I had only tried. Despite the usual morning cacophony of funeral drums, roosters, goats and children, I was able to sleep in to a pleasant 5:30 am and enjoy thus far my first full weekend free of training!

There hasn’t been much to report about the last few weeks. We received our site assignments last week, and we depart for a one-week long post visit next week. I’m in a small village not too far from our training site, where I’ll be replacing a Volunteer who will be COSing in the next month. It looks like I will probably be working as a teacher just to start out, but there seems to be a wide variety of opportunities for projects there. I’m excited to finally see the place I’ll be spending my time in for the next two (ahh!) years. Other than that, I started learning Ewe this week and it’s brought me a lot closer to my host family. We’ve also presented two life skills sessions to soixieme (equivalent to 7th grade) year classes. My group had a class size of about 80 children, which was a bit intimidating at first but they were pretty attentive and manageable the first week. The second week their teacher wasn’t present, and it was raining (they couldn’t hear us nor us them over the rain pounding on the tin roof), so the students were a bit more distracted. We taught about peer pressure and reactions to peer pressure, which I thought was an appropriate topic and the kids all seemed to understand pretty well. They enjoyed our skits and the song we taught them at the end of class that we learned from one of our Volunteer trainers. We’ve been doing a little bit of gardening as well, and a lot of policy and safety and security sessions.

Life has gotten pretty comfortable here, and it’s weird to think that this will no longer be my home in 5 weeks! I’m soaking up as much as I can of the fruits, vegetables, cookies, Fan Milk, electricity and running water as I can because I won’t have much of that where I’m heading next. I’ll be sending out a plea for arts & crafts materials and books soon so that I have something to amuse myself with after dark (assuming I don’t go to bed at 7:30 every night like I do now!).

That’s all for now, really, nothing overly exciting has been happening – but anything that can break us from training mode is worth smiling about. Yesterday, for instance, I saw a monkey riding on top of a taxi-brousse. Yepp, still in Africa.

10 October 2009

I had bad luck with the internet café last weekend, so I’ll be posting two entries at once – scroll down for a little background info of the happenings of weeks 1 and 2 at homestay.

So, I guess that I have been here officially for three weeks now, and it really does feel like it’s been months. This week has been really busy, and next week is shaping up to be pretty similar. I’ve been having about four hours of language class every day, which has been mostly review until now, and things are moving pretty rapidly. I have definitely made some progress in my speaking and pronunciation (each day a little closer to being able to roll my r’s), but I’ve got a lot of studying to do before I reach that intermediate-mid requirement they keep scaring us with.

Outside of language, we spent most of this week learning how to teach life skills. What is “life skills”, you ask? The term “life skills” is an umbrella term for those personal skills one needs to grow into a successful and satisfied person. Lessons are directed mostly at, but not exclusive to, children and teenagers at a time where they are most susceptible to falling off the path to (my own words) a “better life”. These include topics like dealing with peer pressure, building self confidence, making good decisions, avoiding HIV/AIDS, etc. I really enjoyed these sessions because I feel like this is something I can do and do well, as well as something I can feel comfortable doing within the Togolese school system. Starting with our stage, GEE volunteers are required to spend their first three months at post teaching in the schools – either English classes or life skills classes. The fact that “life skills” is an option really comforts me and I’m leaning pretty far in that direction for what I want to use as my way “in” to my community at the beginning of my service.

The other big event of the week (outside of the Togo-Cameroon football game), was our site description session. Our APCD got us all riled up (really, she brought cookies and soda, and the volunteer trainer baked cookies and brownies – it was our first time having refined sugar in about two weeks) for site selection. We’ll be having interviews on Monday, and should know where we’ll be living for the next two years on Tuesday. The morale of the group really changed once we found this out, and I think everyone now has a rejuvenated sense of excitement and confidence. I have a top five list of places I would like to go – with primary project options of working with a mentorship program, teaching life skills, and coordinating groups of peer educators. I also really want to work on environment or gardening side projects – especially now that we’ve had a crash course in preparing garden beds, and knowing that all of our sites are pretty close to the NRM (natural resource management) group that came in with us.

Everything is still going pretty great – only minor sicknesses abound and the occasional mosquito bite. I’m continually surprised at just how much I can sweat – it has been especially warm this week, as it’s been raining almost daily, and I’m developing quite the tan despite spending most of my day sitting under a paillot (gazebo with a straw roof, where we have most of our sessions). I’ve also made really good friends with the dog that lives at our tech house, who I’m pretty sure gave me fleas (not a joke), and I’m hoping that there may be a possibility of adopting (kidnapping) her after the end of training.

Overall, things are going quickly but I guess not quickly enough. I’ve found a newfound sense of excitement and confidence about the weeks to come before site visit and swearing in. I’ve got a lot of hard work to do in the next two months, and even more after that. I can’t wait!

Please do feel free to email and send letters. Right now I don’t have any cravings for anything specifically American (I just got my hands on a jar of French nutella, and it is nothing short of heavenly) outside of news and nail polish. Did Obama really win the Nobel Peace Price?

A tout alors!

3 October 2009

I have officially been in Togo for two weeks now, although it already feels like I have been here for months. Right now we are entering the “summer camp” phase, where after two weeks of training we are now just finishing up the introductions and revving up to dive headfirst into the nitty gritty for the next 9 weeks.

I have been at homestay for about a week and a half now, where I have been living with a host family and attending language and technical training sessions during the day. When we arrived in our village, still tired from the first few days of constantly reintroducing ourselves and being vaccininated, I finally felt like I had arrived in Africa. The van came to a hush as we pulled off of the rue nationale, trying to locate the sounds of drumming and singing that seemed to be spilling out into the streets. The Peace Corps staff present grabbed all of our belongings off of us and funneled us into a courtyard where we were met by a hundred people singing, dancing, clapping, hugging, kissing, and pulling us to join in the celebration. My back and shoulders were sore (from dancing) for three days afterwards, but it was an absolute blast.

My host family experience so far has been absolutely wonderful. I am living with a small family – a mother and daughter (age 14) that live here primarily, although we are visited regularly by the grandmother and there are always a handful of people popping in and out to visit. This week, my host mother’s father made a trip out from Lome just to meet me and get to know me a little bit better. I am very comfortable here, despite the challenges. The challenges, really, about living with a host family can be boiled down to two things: language and food. The running joke here has been something along the lines of, “who’s got two thumbs, speaks limited French, and was dropped in the middle of a foreign country? this guy”. Although we have a little trouble communicating, for the most part the message gets across (most often through poorly formed French sentences on my part, sometimes by my host mother giving up and slipping into English).

And the food – oh, what can I say about the food? So far, everything has been pretty great. But anyone that joins Peace Corps expecting to lose weight in the first two months is an outright fool. I thought I had it easy when I arrived at homestay and my host mother let me choose my own portion size, but about a week in she too joined the rest of the families in piling more food on my plate. This is not necessarily a bad thing – I have been gladly accepting seconds and thirds of avocado and yam salad, and macaroni with palm oil and fish. I have also been dabbling into eating “pot” – pounded maize, or cassava – with spinach sauce or fish sauce, and the other night helped my host mother prepare foufou (pounded yams) and sauce. So far, I think I have been eating an average of 4 to 5 oranges and/or bananas a day, and fish for every meal except breakfast. My host mother has been feeding me promises of peanut butter, but I think I am now obliged to finish all of my food at every meal before she follows through.

The training program has just now really started to get underway. We typically attend sessions from 7:30 am to 12:00 pm, with a pause for repo (lunch and nap time) until 2:30, where we continue sessions until 5:30. In a typical day, we will have 2-4 hours of language instruction, and 2-4 hours of technical training. On some days, we will have bike maintenance training or health sessions as well. So far, I have learned how to ride a bike properly (changing gears!), remove and replace the tires, and repair a flat. I have also learned that riding for 10k after not being on a bike for over ten years will make you sore for over a week (in many places). I’ve been experiencing various levels of elation and frustration in regards to language training – my primary problems so far in language acquisition have been due to my awful short term memory and my lack of confidence in my answers. I’m trying to tackle both through intense repetition and trying to converse more with my host family. I did have a great success, though, when I got lost in my village en route to language class and had to use my French communication skills to find my way home. For the sake of my reputation, let’s say that it was my French skills that got me to the right place – and not the Peace Corps van that was sent out to find me. Technical training so far has been a mélange of background information about the Togolese school system and cross-cultural communication techniques. We have observed a couple classes and have been informed that some of us will actually be assigned as English teachers during our first few months of service. I have some strong feelings about this that I hope will change once we are further along in our training and I have a better understanding of how this supports the goals of the GEE project.

All in all, Togo has been great to me so far. The sun sits a little higher in the sky here, or it may just seem higher as the palm trees don’t reach as far as the elms and oaks in Connecticut (and certainly not as high as the buildings in DC). The sand is a dull red, from which my feet and clothes are already stained, and the streets are full of smiling children and families of goats, chickens, sheep, cats and dogs. The mosquitoes bite a little bit harder here, but I can gladly say that I am not reacting to the bites as poorly as I was back home. I’ve been sleeping well, although I will get occasionally woken up by the petite mangoes falling on our tin roof, and the roosters crowing at 4:00am on the dot every day and not stopping until sundown. I also live next door to a church, which is actually pretty soothing, and I can fall asleep to the sounds of hymns sung in perfect harmony in a mix of French and English. I can always tell when another stagiere is passing by my compound, because the almost silence of the day is broken by a massive eruption of “Yovo! Yovo! Bon soir! Ca va bien? Merci!”. I am wondering if this is taught to children as they exit the womb, because every boy and girl that knows how to use their voice knows the words to this song. It has not gotten annoying yet – especially because I have been riding my bike a lot and am usually out of earshot pretty quickly. Yovo, for those not in the know, is the ewe word for “stranger/foreigner”, which is more often than not in reference to a white person.

So, I think that covers everything – bugs, food, French, coping with unwanted attention, embarrassing moment #1… Overall, I am happy here and I feel comfortable and calm for the first time in many years. The other night my host mother said to me, “You are Togolese now”. Although I found it pre-emptive, I guess I can start thinking about things that way now. Everything that happened before I came here seems to be in a distant and forgotten past, and I am living in the present for the first time in a long time. This, this “now”, is what I make of it, each day and each moment at a time. What more can someone ask for, without getting lost in the details of it all?

Greetings from Togo!

After about 32 hours in Philadelphia, and 24 hours of travelling, my group arrived in Lome on Saturday night for a small retreat. So far we have been attending sessions about basic health and nutrition (RPCV friends will be happy to hear that today we learned all about diarrhea, MIF kits, and how important it is to take your malaria medication!), eating delicious (and vegetarian-friendly!) Togolese food, and getting immunizations. So far, I have been stuck 5 times with needles, with minimal bruising and only mild nausea.

I don't have too much to share as of yet, my group is great, and Togo is wonderful. The weather is cool at night and breezy, warm and sunny in the afternoons, and I am growing more comfortable in these new surroundings as the days pass. Tomorrow, we depart for our training villages where we will begin homestay (where we live with a host family for 11 weeks of training) and officially begin Pre-Service Training (PST). There are a few currently serving Volunteers that are super helpful in helping us adjust and grow accustomed to living in Togo.

I have a cell phone! I don't know which way is the easiest to call - Skype has never been my thing, and I won't receive a text if you send it, but you can always try if you have a pressing need to call me: 011-288-745-9368. I will also be sending out letters in the next few weeks to people, so keep an eye out, and feel free (please!!!) email me.

Until next time!

- Becky

Predictably, the most plaguing thought passing through my mind the last few days has been "I wish I had more time!". The second most plaguing though passing through my mind the last few days has been "dummy, you've had two years!". I suppose that there was never enough time to really do everything I wanted to do, but I did do everything I HAD to do - so fingers crossed that I will not be met by creditors at the airport in 2011, and that I will lose the extra 10 or 15 pounds I've gained from jumping back on the meat train.

It is only about 6 hours until I leave for Philadelphia, PA where I will join my group for two days. After our orientation to Peace Corps (I will try not to fall asleep... or be too much of a pain :) ), and yellow fever vaccination, we'll travel together to Togo via Paris on Friday night. Saturday we land in Togo for a week of training before departing for our training villages and homestay. I have surpassed the feelings of nervousness, anxiety, "ok i am REALLY freaking out now", and am now ready to start this adventure, more ready than I ever thought I would be at this point. How exciting it all is!

I have received many messages from friends in the past few weeks, and I have to thank everyone once again for all the support they've provided me through all of this. It is great to hear such kind and inspirational words from all over - I can't count the times now that RPCV friends have brought tears to my eyes with such simple and warmhearted words of advice. I've heard many people tell me to "go forth and do great things" - I will, I most assuredly will, and I hope that everyone here does, too. We have so many opportunities to give more of ourselves to those that need it here, and I hope that everyone I've met continues to do great things, and strives to do bigger and better things in the time to come.

What exactly will I be doing in Togo? Well, to be honest - outside of my "Volunteer Assignment Description" - I do not really know what to expect, and this is where the 11 weeks of training makes perfect sense. I do know that I will be a Girls Education and Empowerment Volunteer, working on community development projects. These projects will combine formal and nonformal education, and collaboration with community members and other agencies to promote girls' education and the development of life skills for these girls to become participatory members of their communities. Through what means, and what specific projects I will be working on, will be determined in the months to come.

So, here I am, bags all packed (I am actually nervous that I did not pack enough!), ticket printed out, paperwork complete and stomach still aching from multiple last meals. I worry about the little things - where will my dog sleep tomorrow night? Will my final paycheck ever get deposited? Did I fill out my power of attorney form correctly? What did I forget?! Ah, but those feelings too shall pass because there are bigger things to come. I'm not one of those saps that sticks quotes all over the place, BUT, here's a quote from "On the Road" (Jack Kerouac) that I especially relate to right now:

"What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? — it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies."

Upward and onward.

Until next time,

- Becky

Well, here we are, officially in "crunch time" as it is now less than one month until I leave to start my 27 month commitment as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo. Despite how much my life has revolved around Peace Corps for the last three years, I am still going through that strange mix of anxiety, excitement, pride, and fear that when combined make me wonder if I am going to throw up pretty much every second of the day. The application process for Peace Corps can take anywhere from six months to two years, and follows the timeline of:

1. Application, resume, 3 references

2. Interview with recruiter that assesses you based on skills, cultural sensitivity, emotional maturity

3. Nomination (at this time the recruiter chooses the program they think you are most suited for, but do not tell you which country or project)

4. Legal, Medical and Dental clearances (by far the longest and most expensive part of the process)

5. Placement and Invitation (your file is thoroughly screened and vetted to find an appropriate match for you)

6. Staging (Pre-Departure Orientation, stateside)

All of this before you even step foot on the plane! I started my application in October of 2007, and a couple thousand dollars in medical bills, 2 failed attempts to apply to the Masters International program, 9 months on defferal, 2 years vegetarianism/9 months veganism down the drain, and 4 wisdom teeth later, I have accepted my invitation to be a Girls Education and Empowerment Volunteer in Togo, leaving in September 2009.

By far the toughest part of the whole application process for me was working at Peace Corps HQ in Washington, DC, where I was asked on a daily basis for almost 3 years when I was going overseas. Luckily, Peace Corps is the best place to work ever so I didn't let this get me down. If anything it humbled me, realizing that no matter how many connections you have in the building - if you don't clear medical, you gotta wait. Not to mention the insane amount of time and energy everyone working there puts into supporting the Peace Corps mission and its Volunteers, which I hope no one in the field ever takes for granted.

I join the rest of my group - 33 other GEE and NRM (National Resource Management - PC LOVES acronyms, so get used to it), on September 17th in Philadelphia, where we'll go through an incredibly short Staging, get vaccinations, and then leave for Lome, Togo on the 18th. But until then, I still have to finish work, move back in with my parents, say goodbyes and tie up all my finances, turn 23, practice 20 more hours of Rosetta Stone French and try to pack 80 lbs worth of "necessities" into 2 duffel bags. You'd think after 2 years in the pipeline I would have done some sort of preperation for this moment!

Until then!

- Becky