I knew something had changed when I found myself dancing my heart out to “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus. I’m not sure how to explain it. It wasn’t the calabashes of palm wine or shots of sodabi that made me so happy and willing to dance like a fool in the middle of a Togolese night club. It was being amongst Americans, and feeling a sense of connectedness to each other and to something that so often feels so far away…home. No matter your political viewpoint or thoughts about the US, being abroad for a substantial amount of time under difficult conditions really ignites a sense of patriotism in you that you may not even know you had – even for silly, commercial pop songs. Working as a Volunteer with Peace Corps, I’ve never been so proud to say that I am an American. Never had I been so excited when I by chance saw CNN playing in English on a random channel in the capital. Never had I cried so much getting my first letter from home: the weight of the envelope, the American Flag stamp, the crispness of the papers. I can’t smell, but I imagined the papers wafting off scents of my mom’s cooking, the first cool breezes in Gainesville in “Autumn” (briefly in November and between January to March) and other memories back home all came rushing back.

Simultaneously when I went home briefly for two weeks last year after over a year in Peace Corps, never had I felt so homesick for a place I barely knew – Togo. When I came back, crossing the border from Ghana over to Togo, I felt so comfortable and at ease again, getting in a taxi, winding through the dirt roads of the capital speaking French. Despite all of its differences and the difficulties I’ve faced, Togo has become my home too. I’ve made a life for myself here. I have a house that’s four times bigger than my last apartment in college. I have (somewhat of) a yard, a dog as a best friend, a bank account, an awesome backyard view of the plateau mountains, a cell phone, a failed garden, an office, electricity bills, neighbors and friends that have become my surrogate family… I’ve only known them for two years at the most, but some of my best friends are my counterparts that I’ve worked with and other Peace Corps Volunteers that have gone through this experience with me.

There is so much that I will miss about life here in my village and in Togo. Even though my work can be challenging and frustrating most of the time, the projects I’ve done have also been some of the most rewarding. I’ll miss trying to speak in Akposso, my village’s main local language. Even though I only really know by heart basic greetings, I’ll miss the old ladies in village with toothless smiles that cry out and laugh with their whole bodies and think I’m fluent in Akposso when I properly say “Have a good day!”. I’ll miss taking Max with me everywhere and everyone calling him my ambassador, his fluffy, fox-like tail bouncing around while pouncing ahead of me to announce my arrival to work at the NGO, to the market, to the store, to my neighbors’ houses, to the post office. I’ll miss the camaraderie and connectedness that exists between PCVs, even those that barely know each other or who in the US probably wouldn’t even hang out or cross paths. I’ll miss knowing where all my food comes from/who grew it and making most of my own meals (I will not miss doing the dishes by hand in a bucket with no running water several times a day though!).

I will miss the pure bliss of the novelty of air conditioning and hot, running water. I will miss the custom of the respectful, double-handed wave greeting. I will miss the village crier who walks around neighborhoods with a cowbell at night screaming AhhhhGO and announcing the latest news of an upcoming party or funeral, ending it with more cowbell banging similar to that of the lady from the movie Grease who does the morning announcements tinking away on various notes for a few seconds too long. I will miss the custom of spilling a little of every drink out at the beginning of any drinking session on the ground for your ancestors. I’ll miss taking motos down my “road” to village through the mountains. I’ll miss the deliciousness of straight-from-the-ground/tree-fresh pineapple, avocados, mangoes and other fruits.

This all being said, there are quite a few things that I’m ready to leave behind (rude and harassing taxi drivers, being yovo-ed, people’s expectations for money, amoebas, malaria, work frustrations and feeling like I can’t do enough to help, traveling on awful roads…I could go on awhile here). Mostly, I am just ready for the next “stage” of my life. Ready for my COS trip with Brett to Namibia and Cape Town (woohoo!), ready to start grad school for nursing next summer (hopefully I’ll get accepted), ready to eat a variety of delicious, easily accessible food, and just ready to see my family.

One of my best friends named Tanti recently had the opportunity to go to the US for three weeks to learn about “the spirit of volunteerism” in America. She had an awesome time visiting D.C., Seattle, San Antonio, and Chicago, meeting other people from around the world, and participating in volunteer service opportunities side by side with Americans. “It was SO wonderful,” she told me and yet despite her longing to return again one day, when she arrived back in the Togo “airport” she couldn’t help but “cry and smile and feel relief because [she] was home”. It’s that sense of home and familiarity and comfort that simultaneously I’m so sad to leave and so happy to get back to.

This may sound trite but my experiences here as a Volunteer really have deepened my belief in humanitarianism. Despite our supposed and real differences and the lines we create between us, at the end of the day we are all human. We all want to be in good health, to be successful and fulfilled, to provide for our families, to be in peace, and to have a sense of home (I’m lucky that I feel that I now have two). I’m sure I’ll be in the US soon, alone in the middle of the club, dancing my heart out like a weirdo to Toofan and Shakira’s Waka Waka World Cup song that have become the background music to my life here, happy to be in the US again, but missing my life in Togo all the same.

Once again, it’s been forever since I’ve written here! Sorry for lack of updates. It’s hard to rehash the same news sometimes after telling people in my village, telling other PCVs, writing it in my journal, writing it in at least 5 letters, and emailing it. But here’s the latest:

I’ve been having a really good past few weeks or so. Just overall feeling optimistic, productive and content! March 8 was International Women’s Day which I’d been planning events for since January. Overall it went pretty well. Some people I’ve been collaborating with kinda let me down, but others pulled through. We ended up celebrating the day in a couple of ways, neither of which needed funding (a consistent barrier I’ve run into in motivating people to work with me).

On the 8th, I displayed my latest edition of our village’s Community Board with relevant information on Women’s rights, Numbers of local women’s social workers to contact if in need of help or advice, and pictures/biographies of example women role models from our community. I also went around to the elementary, middle and high schools and spoke briefly to different classes about International Women’s Day and women’s contributions to different fields during the course of history, such as government, sciences, mathematics, and literature.

On the 9th, we celebrated by organizing a soccer match between two girls’ elementary school teams in my village, EPP Centrale and EPP Marché. All the kids, girls and boys, from each school came to see the match, as well as some of the older students in middle and high school, random community members, parents and others who happened to be passing by. The two school directors and I gave short speeches to support the girls in their efforts in school and to encourage them to act as peer educators in the community, sharing what they’ve learned with others.

After the speeches, we did a few Akposso dances, took photos of the teams, and played the match. The girls seemed to have so much fun getting a chance to play, and all the others there to watch loved cheering their school’s team on. I wanted the girls of my mentoring center to present sketches during halftime, but their usual Mentor/session leader wasn’t there and despite my reassurance, they felt it was disrespectful to do it without her presence. EPP Centrale Girls ended up winning 4-3 during penalty kicks. They apparently heard the crowd’s cheering from half the village away! We gave out prizes of new soccer balls for each team, little bags of peanut m&ms (thanks to a recent package from my mom!), and copies of the new edition of Leve Toi Jeune Fille, the national youth magazine that I work on. It was awesome and I’m really glad it came together (though much of it was organized 3 hours beforehand). It was one of the few times that I’ve been able to pull people together into a semi-big event without money involved. So it felt nice, and the girls had such a fun time and were proud, which is what they deserve and all that I wanted for the day. So, I was happy!

The next day, Brett came down to hang out in my village for a couple of days, which is always really fun. He and I are going strong and I feel really awesome about our relationship, more than ever before. I’m in love :)

Sunday to Tuesday morning I went down to the capital 4 hours from my village to do some work. I was able to send out the latest articles for the LTJF magazine to the layout editor, and I also got to pick up the funding that came in for our regional Peace Corps partnership project!! Thanks to everyone again who donated! I’m excited it’s finally in; we have a little over a week until the conference starts! Lots to do, but I think it’ll go well.

Wednesday I went to a training in my village that I was invited to by the President of our Mother’s Club. I had no idea what it was about, but really wanted to go and support them. I’ve been planning on working with them to start something of a Big Sister/Little Sister program in my village where we work together to talk to young women about healthy pregnancies and sexual health. Our schedules always seem to conflict somewhat, but I finally had an opportunity to go and meet everyone. I showed up to find that the training was being led by Mme. Akou, a midwife in a nearby village, former participant of my MAP Project training in December, and woman role model for the upcoming issue of the LTJF magazine I work on! She is super awesome and it was cool to see and work with her again.

The training turns out to be run by the local chapter of Red Cross in Togo for our region who has organized two day formations with all of the mother’s clubs of villages in our region throughout the month of March to talk about Women’s Rights and Empowerment. It made me feel good to know that local organizations are doing projects like this, and hopeful that such ideas will continue in the future, with or without me/other volunteers around. Yay for sustainability!

So I spent the whole day with them Wednesday, sitting under the shade tree in a circle of benches with 40 women, interjecting here and there in broken Akposso on-the-spot speeches about women’s leadership, being proud of their activism in the community, and letting them know I was there help with questions and advice. They loved my efforts in Akposso (my village’s local language), which always wins me points and gives me an “in” to working with people. Again, it felt nice to be a part of something simple, but organized and effective that was important, relevant and impactful to women in my community.

Thursday I woke up and took a moto about an hour and a half off of my main road to Kpategan, the village of another Peace Corps Volunteer named Jes. She invited me to help her do a community talk about the effects of violence against kids (a very common practice here). A good cross-sector of her community showed up, summoned by her village’s President of the CVD (Village Development Committee) and sat in a giant circle under a shade tree to listen to what we had to say. Again, it felt so refreshing to be a part of something like this. It wasn’t a big funded project idea that takes forever to plan and never gets done. It was just simple and impactful and felt awesome to participate in.

That kind of thing just doesn’t happen in my village, at least not often. I’m a little jealous of it, in fact. But I guess that’s the difference between a village like Jes’ who’s hosting their first ever PC volunteer or foreigner for that matter and a village like mine that has had PCVs for the past 10 consecutive years, although you may expect it to be the opposite. I think it has to do with the fact of my village’s size compared to hers as well and the fact that mine is our prefecture’s capital. People can sometimes have a know-it-all-already attitude.

It felt nice to be a part of though, and I hope to get to go to her village and other’s like it nearby more often during the rest of my service. I’m happy though with the projects that I do have in the works. I think our Take Our Daughters to Work week will be a little hectic, but inspiring and helpful, and I’m excited to start participating more with my village’s Mother’s Club. I recently found out I get the chance to help out with the 1st annual Women’s Wellness and Empowerment Conference being organized for our region as well. I’m also working on an “Awesome Women of Togo” project that hopefully will be…well, awesome. And of course there is our last issue of Leve Toi Jeune Fille magazine, which I love working on.

So overall, feeling pretty good. I had several moments today (sitting under shade trees, speaking to a whole community in broken French and local language, riding a moto through winding dirt roads in the mountains, playing with Max, taking a rainwater bucket bath) where I stopped and realized how much I love my life here. I love these days.

One of the aspects of myself that I like the most is that I always want everyone to get along and work together. It’s a trait that I try to use frequently in the different projects that I’m working on here in Togo as well. In fact, that’s pretty much my job description: getting different people and resources in the community to come and work together for the common good and development of the community as a whole.

At times, it has proven to be harder than I thought. Especially because I find most Togolese to be very frank and direct. If you are white, you’re called whitey (even light-skinned Togolese), if you’re fat, they call you fat, if you are old, people refer to you as ‘the old one’. It’s not normally ever said in a demeaning way, just matter-of-factly. But at least in my village, some seem to hold on to the stereotypes that these traits entail. Even whole neighborhoods or villages have certain stereotypes placed upon them, much in the way that Americans always say “southerners are so…” or “people from New York are so…”

So one of the things I’ve always tried to do in my community is to say, “okay, yea you are Togolese and I’m American, you are a boy, she is a girl, you are from zongo neighborhood, you are from iko neighborhood, sure, whatever, but let’s all still work together for x,y,z.” I gave a speech last year for International Women’s Day along those lines. This year, I’m working on a World Map Project along side with my little brother’s class at Littlewood that gets kids together to draw and paint a giant but accurate map of the world. In the process, they learn team-work, self-confidence, learn about new cultures as well as math and geography skills. It will be neat for each school to share photos and updates on their world maps throughout the process, uniting kids from half way across the world.

I’ve finally purchased all the materials and am excited to get started on it in my village. Next to the map I’m going to paint a giant slogan saying “Ensemble, Tous est Possible!” (Together, everything is possible!). Many people in the community seem to doubt that kids, especially girls could ever do something along these lines, but we’ll show them!

Here’s to building the self confidence and knowledge of a little girl, one brushstroke of a country at a time.

A year ago today I first met in Philadelphia all the people with whom I would be a Togo Peace Corps Volunteer. We had staging and talked about all the things we were excited about (learning new languages, helping people, trying new foods, making friends, planting gardens, empowering girls...) and things we were scared of (being far away from home, snakes, giant spiders, being isolated, getting sick...). I watched the first episode of season 5 of the office that night, had my last meal of yummy chinese food, watermelon and chocolate milk, and passed out in a comfortable hotel bed with too many pillows, a giant comforter and the quiet humming of the AC in the background, scared out of my mind and wondering exactly what it was I was doing with my life.

A year later, I'm sitting here in my village in the mountains,sweating in my favorite pagne dress, sitting next to my best friend and dog Max,trying to type a blog about all of the accomplishments and failures of the last year on a quite sporadic wireless internet connection. I was just telling my mom the other day of how extremely content and proud with my life and myself I am. There is so much still that I need to work on (personally and professionally) but I am loving the challenge. Keep in mind that you happened to have caught me on a "good" day. There are a lot of challenges and days of doubt and I still have that constant longing to see family and friends, for that AC and cold sweet tea and disponibility of oh so bad for you fast food,etc; all the comforts of the life I was once used to. But there is nothing I would trade for the friendships and awesome moments that I've made and have had here. As trite as it is to say, seeing as it is the Peace Corps motto, my service so far really has been the hardest job i'll ever love.

If any of you new trainees are in Philadelphia tonight reading this...get excited!!

Unless you have a host family and you eat every meal with them each day, volunteers generally get really good at cooking. I’ve definitely cooked more here than ever before. After almost 10 months (!), I’m still not a big fan of pate or fufu (the two main dishes made here). I can eat them occasionally, and they really are pretty good, especially with peanut or sesame sauce, but I’m definitely not an everyday yam eater. I feel like I’ve become pretty good at making my own food, especially the following:

Chocolate chip pancakes (extra chocolate for me, thank you)

Tomato Cream Pasta

Banana Cake

French Fries

Sweet Tea

Hot chocolate

Hashed Browns

Guacamole

Pasta Salad

Vegetable Pot Pie

Beans and rice

Spaghetti Bolognaise

Brownies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Breads and desserts are hard, since I only have a dutch oven, but we have a toaster oven at the volunteer house in my regional capital that I frequently make veggie pot pies and brownies in...yum. My favorite feast that I eat actually almost everyday for at least one meal is Rice with Veggies and Peanut Sauce. It is amazing and I can’t imagine ever getting tired of it! Here is the recipe for a serving of one Camilla (but could feed two people):

Measure 1 cup of uncooked rice and add it to two cups of boiling water. Stir, reduce heat to low, and cover with lid for ~ 20 minutes.

In the meantime, chop up ½ - 1 onion (depending on the size) and add to skillet heated with a tablespoon of vegetable oil.

Cook onion until tender, then add chopped up, bite-size pieces of eggplant. (The eggplants here are small, roughly the size of a golf ball, and pretty bitter. I add about half a cup of water and place a lid on the skillet, letting the eggplant steam cook for about 5 minutes to get rid of the bitterness).

Next, add ~ 8 T of peanut butter and enough water to get the desired consistency and peanut-butteryness.

Add carrots sliced width-wise, pieces of tofu and a handful of cashews (along with whatever else veggies are desired or accessible).

Stir in ~1/2 T of vinegar, ~1 T of sugar and ~1 tsp of crushed piment, or to taste.

Mix well, let simmer for 3 – 5 minutes, add on top of cooked rice and EAT!

-Hungry Cami

I think it’s so true now how people say dogs are a lot like their owners. Though there are some differences (ie. dog/human, great sense of smell/no sense of smell, likes eating insects/does not like eating insects), here is what Max and I have in common! :

We’re loyal

We love to cuddle

We’re small and cute

We just want to make people happy

We love being around people

We don’t like being woken up abruptly/we love sleeping

We love moto rides

We make little singing noises when we yawn

We’re sweet but defensive/protective when we have to be

We do not function well in the AM

We both have a variety of nicknames (Cami, Camilla Thrilla, Camilla Bean,

Camillionaire, Cameroon, Miss Bear, Cammers; Maxy, Maxmillian,

Maximus, Maxwell, Mister Max, Mad Max, Monster Max, Max the Hunter)

We like back scratches (well…he likes belly scratches)

He looks like a fox, I am a fox :p

We like to travel

We try to be friends with everybody (he thinks every moving thing is a

possible friend, even the neighborhood bully dog, the goats with giant

horns that ram into him when he goes up to play and motos that almost run

him over in the road)

We like sleeping while it’s raining outside

We do not like loud camion trucks

We are awesome!

-Miss Bear and Mister Max

The past couple months have been full of long summer days. Things have died down a little bit after the school year and after my week as a camp counselor for Camp Unité ended. I’ve had people come visit Amlamé and I’ve visited a few other villages. I took a trip to Benin and spent two days with awesome friends on the beaches of Grand Popo.

When we got back to Lomé after the trip, it was the first day of the World Cup. Being here for the games has been amazing. In the states I had a few people who would follow matches with me, but here the games are playing on every radio and tv, on every corner, in every quartier (neighborhood), in every village and it’s awesome to experience. Everyone is excited. It’s understood that everything stops at 2pm when the games start. Everyone is pretty depressed today that Ghana lost last night though.

It was fun rooting for the US team while being here! Every win was that much more exciting for us volunteers. The BBC commentators on the radio after the win against Algeria played an interview with Landon Donovan who said something along the lines of “We’re so happy to have won and we know how excited our fans are back in America.” And we chimed in “In Africa too!” I know the odds were only 60:1 of us winning, and I told all my friends here that I was rooting for an African team to win this year, but losing to Ghana still was pretty depressing. It is weird how in being a volunteer here, the littlest comment, gesture, or event can make a day awesome or can make it horrible.

For example, the other day when I got back to village after having a long weekend, I went to the post office to see if a package my mom had sent a month ago to my P.O. box had finally arrived there. I open my box and I have a little blue slip that says there is a package waiting inside. I share my box with other volunteers in my area, so I was extra excited to see that the slip said it was for me! Once I was inside, I waited in line for awhile and when I finally got to the front, the woman who runs everything at our post office tells me there was a mistake and that even though I did have a package it was somewhere else in country because the drivers had dropped off the wrong one. Bummer. But she tells me there is a big package in EMS (The in country mail system that Peace Corps uses. If any of us get mail at the Lome address, or if Peace Corps or other volunteers want to send us updates or newsletters, they use this system). I’m the contact volunteer for our cluster area so all the mail comes to me in big packages first for us and I get to sort it out. I go around the counter, hoping for even one letter or one measly PC note. But, I open up the EMS package and every single letter, padded envelope and Peace Corps update are for other volunteers. I wanted to start bawling.

After going back to the NGO to work for awhile, I rounded the corner off the main road to go back home and a crowd of kids were there waiting to say hi, jumping up and down, waving and screaming “Eidi! Eidi!” (my Akposso name). I had the biggest smile on my face and it instantly made my day better. I feel like there are small things that can make or break your day back in the states, but somehow here it feels so much more intense. They warned us of this in several Peace Corps manuals, but even though it happens all the time, it still surprises me.

Anyway, I’m here in Atakpamé working on some projects I want to start back in village and waiting to get my old phone number renewed onto a new phone (my old phone fell out of my pocket I think on the way up when I was on a moto with Max). Once I’m back in village, I’m going to mainly work on the prenatal health campaign. I think I’m going to try and start a group first with the sage femme (midwife) and nurses in my village to help train a group of women as volunteer community health workers. It should help ease the burden of existing CHWs (I think my village currently has 5 for a population of 9000+) in a way that is sustainable and cost-effective. Eventually, I hope it will create a network of support for the women in my community that will encourage them to seek out care for a variety of health issues, but most importantly prenatal and infant health care.

Overall, I’m doing really well and am still really excited and happy being here. Everyday, it’s hard battling people’s perceptions of me as a woman, as white, as an American, as a PC volunteer, as not married and having no kids, as liberal, etc., but generally I’m really glad to be here and I feel that I’m doing a lot of work and am figuring out a lot about myself. Come visit me! If not, at least write more!

-Camilla and Maxmillian

Worn a seatbelt

Used a microwave or dishwasher

Eaten sushi

Eaten burrito brothers

Eaten...a lot of good things

Seen my family :(

Been in the US

Driven a vehicle

Been in AC (not often anyway)

...

Been to three different countries (Togo, Ghana, Benin)

Received the cutest puppy ever!

Spoken more french than english on a daily basis

Been told my freckles were thought to be mosquito bites

Hiked a mountain

Been a camp counselor

Sent my poop through the togo mail system. twice. (being sick sucks)

Been sold alcohol by an 8 year old

Organized a field trip

Made awesome friends

Ridden tons of motos

Received a tapette tan line

Broken up several dog vs. goat fights (Max thinks the goats are other puppies)

Began learning two new languages

Hey everybody. Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I'm in Lome right now because I've been fighting off some sort of flu sickness/they don't know quite what for the past week (don't worry though), but I felt well enough to write up something today.

I've been busy with a lot of official Peace Corps meetings and such lately. After your first three months at post as a new volunteer, everyone from your training group meets back up for a week long "In Service Training and Project Design and Management" Meeting. We all came with someone we work with in village and learned how to design projects, find funding if it's needed, and learned more in depth about ideas we could do to help promote the overall goals of our Girls' Education Program. It was kind of a long week but I came back feeling motivated and I had more concrete ideas of what my community needed and what I could do. I have a really busy rest of the year,but I'm excited!

In May, I'll be taking the kids in my JAM mentoring program on an educative field trip to our regional capital. Then I'll be going to a "training of trainers" to be a camp counselor for Camp Unite (www.unitefoundation.org/newdesign/pdf/Camp_UNITE_Handout.pdf). I'm really excited! I just found out I'll be working with girl apprentices and I think it will be really rewarding.

In June back at post I'm going to start a few projects with different people in my community. My homologue and our NGO are going to start a literacy program with women in my village. I'm also going to work with a coworker and a local microfinance group with a few girls on a vacation enterprise project so that they can earn money for the next school year during the summer. Both would be ongoing summer-long projects. The literacy program could go on for my whole service even! June is also the month of exams, and I've been working already with a few girls so far on studying for the English portion. I plan on continuing to help and encourage them, it can be really stressful for them. The BAC exam here is kind of like the SAT, except you have to pass it to graduate highschool. It can be really difficult, so I hope I can help at least a little.

In July, I'm helping an organisation in a neighboring village run a local week-long camp similar to the style of Camp Unite (see above). Not everyone gets to go to camp unite every year, so the village has decided to create it's own mini-version. I've been helping to organize it since January, and will get to help be a counselor again for one week in July.

In August I'll be planning for the new school year to start. I'll be restarting everything for the JAM program (Training mentors, finding participants, choosing subjects and themes, finding resources/materials, funding, etc.) I also want to teach a health class next year at the elementary school in my village using the "child to child" approach (http://www.child-to-child.org/about/index.html) that I'm really excited about, but will also involve a bit of planning.

There's even more! But I'll leave it at that for now. Before all of this starts, I'm taking a weekend trip to Ghana with Brett that I think will be awesome. There are nice beaches and burger restaurants and sushi and movie theaters and malls and smoothies!! It will be amazing! We are leaving on Friday (hopefully I feel better!) so I'll be sure to update with pictures and news when I get back.

Whatever virus it is that I have, it might be the worst I've ever felt and I had a rough week thinking about how I was possibly going to do it all. Then I thought about this one day I was feeling kinda down in my village. As I was walking to the NGO for work, I saw an older lady walking towards me on the path laughing and talking with some friends sitting on their porches. She had her head turned until just as I was a few steps away from her and when she saw me she looked sort of suprised. It seemed like she was trying to remember how to say "bonsoir" so I smiled and said "Eza" which is good afternoon/evening in Akposso (one of the local languages in my village). You would've sworn she was the happiest woman alive. She was jumping up and down smiling, saying back to her friends how much Akposso I knew. She had this whole conversation with me in Akposso and I followed what I could, but finally I just said "have a good day" in akposso and she squealed again. I could still hear her as I walked away telling her friends how amazing it was. It made me feel like a million bucks. I need a mini version of her I can have with me 24/7!

Hey everybody! Hope you all are doing well. I thought Id write one last time before I go on standfast, which starts tomorrow. I came up to atakpame for the day to do last minute shopping and banking stuff, and decided to do internet too. Elections for the Presidency in Togo are on Thursday so starting tomorrow all the volunteers go on standfast for two weeks, where we stay low in our villages and dont travel much. Dont really expect anything crazy to happen, but there has been lots of campaigning and such and its just better for us to lay low. I dont want people in my village to think im there for politics or that im for one side or another. its not related to my work at all really and I dont want it to affect my work later on. Its been really interesting hearing and seeing some of the rallies and marches and campaigns in my area that have passed through and its exciting seeing everyone in village speaking up. STill though, I prefer to kind of hide it out in my house while it all goes on, and Im already ready for it to just be over.

Things are going really well though. Ive started thinking of my own projects I could do in village, other than just helping out with the ones my NGO has started. International Womens Day is coming up March 8th and Im helping my NGO organize events for that. We are going to do it March 10th if all goes well with elections. Theyre planning a big march through the village with all the womens groups we have, w are going to invite the prefet (kinda equivalent of a mayor) and other higher up people, have speeches about womens rights and gender equality, etc ( I think im going to give another speech too in Ewe) and the kids from my mentoring program are going to present a few sketches (theater) about the importance of girls education and womens rights, etc. Its gonna be pretty awesome, Im excited.

Im also starting a community board in my village that will be like a "visual sensibilisation" open to everyone in town. Each month there will be a different theme and for my first month Im going to do it in honor of Intl Womens Day as well. Im going to post the list of womens rights in Togo, information about "what is gender equality", pictures and short histories of some of the woman role models in our community, an activity of reflection to think about, appreciate and thank women for all that they do in our community, and im also going to have a folder attached with several copies of a local french newsletter that is edited by PCVs ( i myself might become one of the next editors!) that is written by and for students (specifically girls) called Leve Toi Jeune Fille (Stand up, Young girls!) that talks about the importance of staying in school, how to recognize and deal with sexual harrassment, gender equality issues, etc. Its going to be awesome and Im really excited to start working on it. One of the things Im doing today in my regional capital is to try to find a bulletin board type thing I can do all of this on.

Im going to start other health related projects too. One of the bigger ones I want to tackle with another PCV friend of mine here is to start a text messaging health information line program. Other pcvs have started similar things in other countries. There is a huge lack of information concerning health issues here, especially sexual health questions. Even if information is there, its often concerning specific things that can be embarrassing or shy to talk about, or may have certain stigmas attached to it. Often people, especially young Togolese, then do not seek out certain information. Women and young girls are disproportionately affected by this too, in that there is a lot of stigma attached to medical issues and they often have less access to reliable information. Almost everyone has a cell phone, or atleast one member of the family does and texting is the easiest, cheapest and most frequently used means of communicating here. So starting a text messaging system where anyone could ask health questions anonymously and get a reliable answer would help so many people here. Its a huge project and my friends and I interested in doing it are still in the research phase of trying to figure it all out. Eventually though maybe we could get Togos cell phone company involved and maybe the governments Ministry of Health too. PCVS in Namibia did this project and were able to get the text messaging system up and running for free by collaborating with the phone service providers, etc. After doing more research and looking into statistics, etc., hopefully we will be able to get something up and running too.

Theres so much to talk about but not a lot of time! Overall I am really happy here and constantly think about how in the world I could ever explain life here and how happy I am. Its definitely hard, every day in one way or another, but I love it. If I could bring all of you here and experience this with me, I would! I hope everyone back home is doing well though! If anyone needs to call, try calling before March 3rd. I probably wont have cell phone reception for awhile because they shut things down a bit during elections, so if you cant get through dont freak out, its normal. Try getting the calls in before though!! Miss you all and love you guys too. Granddad, I hope youre feeling better and that you recover fast. I think about all of you everyday. Enjoy all the variety of foods, the closeness of family and friends, the ease of public transportation, the chocolate milk availability, and air conditioning for me!!

Camilla

5am: Wake up to sunlight, goats bleeting and my neighbors sweeping, but usually fall back asleep

6:30-7:00am: Wake up with Max staring at me with an “I’m ready to play already!” face

7:00am: Put on a sweater (it’s cool in the mornings!), let Max outside, brush teeth, boil water

7:15am: Make Choco Milk (It’s like ovaltine/hot chocolate that you can buy at any boutique – it’s my morning coffee!), and either sit on my porch with Max or do a crossword or two (but I finished my last crossword yesterday…see updated wish list!)

7:45am: Shower, get dressed, feed Max breakfast

8:15am: Head down to my NGO for work (some days I get to work from home! Bonus)

8:20-11:45am: Work on surveys, project ideas, reports, or scholarship distributions

11:45am: Head down to the post office before it closes for the midday break to check for my EMS to look for letters from home/send letters home

12pm-2:15pm: Midday “repos” with Max at the house. Feed max lunch, practice new tricks, play hours of spider solitaire on my computer, eat lunch (usually rice and beans/sauce or leftovers from the night before…because I have a fridge!!)

2:20- 5:30pm: Head back to the NGO for more work (see previous post for description of all the different projects and ideas I’m working on)

5:30pm: Stop at the boutique store to buy stuff for dinner (pasta, fresh veggies, etc)

6:00pm: Play with Max, water my herb garden, watch the sunset, do a crossword puzzle or a game or two on my computer

6:30pm: Start making dinner, eat, take out scraps for my compost pile, avoid doing dishes

7:30pm: Write letters home, read books (so far I’ve read Away From Home by Lillian Carter, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, and Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris – all really great), just hang out, etc.

8:30pm: Take a shower (especially washing the feet)

9:00pm: Curl up in bed with Max, reading some more and falling asleep!

Hey everybody. Hope everything is going well back home. Im in Lome right now at the Peace Corps Med Unit, but no worries. Its been nice having hot baths and tons of food! I wasn't even planning on coming down originally, I just wanted to rest up at home, but it turns out coming down was a great idea. Not only because it's good to stay healthy, but I realized I could pick up all my packages that they couldn't send through EMS. I had FOUR waiting for me today and it was awesome! You have no idea how happy getting packages makes me (and the other PCVs too). I have enough chocolate, ramen noodles and taco bell mild sauce to last me the next two years!! haha.

Thanks mom for the letter update and all of the candy and food. Your packages are always great :) I also got the second package from Alex and I have enough kit kats and reeses to last me forever!! So awesome. Thanks to Margery and the family too for sending me the package! Max is the most spoiled dog in country and will be very very happy when I get back to him(he's staying in my regional capital right now). I haven't had a chance to listen to the cd yet, but I'm sure its awesome so thanks for that too, it was sweet to send one. I havent seen the movie yet, so that'll be nice and I love the office! Ill have to make a taco dinner and have a movie night :) I also got the package from Dad, Cheryl and Jake, thanks!! I loved all of the candy and cards, it was perfect! Ive already done three crosswords too, hah. Thanks to everybody :)

Everything else is going well. I'm staying really busy at post with work at the NGO, there are always projects to work on.It's nice though and I'm glad that I have lots to do already. I haven't really figured out yet my own project ideas exactly, but I'm still getting a chance to help a lot and that makes me happy. I'm becoming really good friends with a woman that's a coworker at my NGO and also the co-director of my mentoring program (JAM: Jeunesse pour un Avenir Meilleure = Youth for a better future). She is a really great person, extremely motivated, passionate, intelligent, honest, always supportive and has been an awesome friend for me so far in village. She's the kind of person I already know that I'll be friends with forever.

I got new packages today! Thanks to mom for all the AWESOME food, Ive already made the pasta mix, one of the rice mixes and one of the potatoes today!! haha. I also loved the pictures of Connor, they made me so happy. Hes grown up since I left already! And your dog is so cute and so much bigger than I thought when you said "puppy." Thanks also to Grandma for the fudge, cards and treats for max, he loves them! I also got the package from Alex full of toys and treats for max too (heùs in dog heaven right now). Just letters make my day, so packages are awesome everytime. Im so spoiled, its lovely.

Thanks everybody!

Happy New Year to everyone from Togo! Max and I are doing well. I have some allergies bothering me right now and I feel like I’m tired all the time, but all in all things are good. Mom, my official counterpart and his family loved your host family card (I translated it into French) and the calendar. He’s going to write you back a letter that I’ll send with my letter some time this week. Togolese really appreciate notes, invitations, and letters (like me!) so they were really, really happy to have one from the states.

Not too much is new since my last post. Max gets bigger everyday. I can no longer type normally on my laptop, because I’m used to the French Keyboard layout at the internet cafes. Life in my house is good and not as lonely now that Max is around. Brett sent him a mini Togo flag that he wears as a cape sometimes, hehe. He loves to play, eat and sleep.

It kind of feels like early fall in Florida here at my house. It’s pretty hot and humid during the day, but at night it cools down a lot and there is a nice 70 degree-ish breeze. I have several trees lining the fence in my yard, whose leaves are mostly green, but the yellow older ones are scattered all over my grass in the yard. Max loves playing in them and I like hearing the crunch of them when he runs across them (or when he does a belly flop dive into a pile chasing an imaginary bug).I’ve been reading a lot and playing a lot of minesweeper and spider solitaire on my laptop when I have time. I’m staying busy at the NGO with a lot of projects and ideas, but I make time too for down time (I have to, to stay sane). On the to-do list for work:

· Find a way to make my mentoring program work better for the middle and high school students(maybe a monthly camp-like formation instead of a weekly event)

· Collect materials and enlist guest speakers for this months’ mentoring program sessions (on Nutrition, Health and HIV/AIDS)

· Figure out a end of the year education excursion day trip for the students in the program (including where, when, duration, who we will visit, funding, lodging, how many students out of the ~200 to bring, etc)

· Write up a program proposal for the mentoring program to find funding for it for the following school year

· Help sort and deliver materials and help with health formations with the Ambassador’s Girl’s Scholarship Program

· Go over 300 surveys from the high school students on how they feel they could better succeed at school, write a results report and give a formation to the teachers and high school officials about the results (maybe having a training of teacher formation later on)

· Help with baby weighings and health sensibilisations at the health clinic and hospital

· Plan a “Model Couple” formation for my post and surrounding villages (sensibilisation for young couples about the importance of family planning, budgeting, education, gender equity, communication, etc.)

· Help a neighboring NRM (agriculture and natural resource management) PCV in a village about 20k away with a sensibilisation on how to make soy milk (yes I know how! And I can make my own tofu too!)

And this is just official work! There is a lot more that I want to do eventually, and lots I want to do personally (around my house and such, ex. Plant a small garden). I love living at my house though. Taking bucket baths and doing my own laundry, cooking and baking in a dutch oven – it’s all great! I will be a master chef when I get home, I’m sure. One of the most delicious things I’ve made so far is banana cake (see the blog – Banana Cake Recipe). The only thing I don’t like is doing dishes. I usually cook all my meals everyday (sometimes I’ll get rice and beans, soja (tofu) or other street food) so a lot of dishes add up, especially if you don’t clean them after cooking every meal. Usually I’m good at at least soaking them, but sometimes not and it’s just a pain. I am investing in the best dishwasher available when I get back home, haha.

I also don’t like bucket flushing my toilet. My whole house was set up to have running water but it was never hooked up. Most families here at my post don’t have running water (most families in Togo for that matter). But I have a real toilet, with water inside. I can’t flush it though, but I just have to flush it down with a bucket of water. It’s such a waste of water though, and it always takes so much more than necessary. I would much rather have a latrine I think. I’ve invented a system that’s working pretty well though. Whenever I take a bucket shower, I do it over an empty bucket that collects all the dirty water, then I use that to flush my toilet later when I need it. I also use my leftover laundry water. Sounds gross, but it works and it saves me a lot of water which is especially helpful over the dry season (Nov-March ish). I don’t have a pump in my yard, but there is one near the NGO that I work at and I help a girl carry it up a couple times a month. Sometimes she brings some from a nearby river too. When you have very little water, you instantly become aware of how much you use everyday. I now think my ten minute hot showers I took in the states are crazy (though I did take one in the med unit when I was sick during stage and it felt glorious)!

Like I said before though, not much new to report on. I may attempt to cut my own hair soon (probably a good three inches off) if I summon up the courage to do so. I’ve heard from many people that I have packages on the way! I counted them up and I think there are at least 7 on their way for christmas and my birthday! Getting mail is especially slow right now though, so I’m not sure when I’ll get anything, but thanks in advance to everyone who sent something! Please continue to send letters too (they’re only ~ 98 cents) and they always make my day when I get them. Hope everyone is doing well!

Love always,

Camilla and Max

Banana Cake Recipe:

Ingredients:

· 3 eggs

· 2 cups of sugar

· 1 cup of oil

· 1 tsp salt

· 1 tsp baking soda

· ¼ tsp baking powder

· 1 tbsp cinnamon

· 1 tbsp vanilla

· 2 cups of mashed bananas (about 4 or 5 small bananas)

· 3 cups of flour

· ¾ cup nuts, raisins, etc (optional)

Recipe:

Mix the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla in a bowl until well blended.

Add the salt, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder and mix well.

Add the mashed bananas and stir (add nuts too if you choose).

Continue to stir the mixture while slowly adding the flour (about ½ cup at a time).

Pour the batter into a greased and floured pan, and then tap a few times on the counter to get the air bubbles out. Then, bake!

*Note: I’ve never made this in a real oven so I have no idea how long to bake it for...my guess would be about 20 minutes though. If you want to go real PCV life style, try it in a Dutch oven (for me, takes a little over an hour)! My Dutch oven is just a big pot with an empty, cleaned out tuna can at the bottom that I can put baking pans on top off. When you heat the pot on the stove or fire with a lid, the inside gets hot and your food will cook, but it won’t burn since it’s not touching the bottom. Awesome! Bon appetit!

It’s been a little over two weeks since getting to post and so far things are going pretty well. I didn’t really do much at first, other than adjust, cook a lot/figure out my gas stove and set up things in my house/unpack. Laura, the girl I’ve replaced, also left me seasons 1, 2 and 4 of Lost, and although I’ve seen all those episodes at least twice, I watched a lot of them again my first week. Oh, the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer, yea?

The director of the NGO that I work with at post was in the capital for my first week here, and so a lot of people at the NGO took off time too, which is why I also had so much free time. I went the first couple days anyway just to say hi to whomever was there, but there wasn’t much for me to do. There has been a GEE volunteer at my post for the past at least 6 years, so the NGO knows the Peace Corps well and knows that there is always an adjustment period, so they were really adamant with me from the beginning to just take it slow anyway. I ended up getting sick my first Wednesday of being here (I think just a slight cold/allergies) so it was nice to be able to just sit around and think and read and watch tv shows for awhile :)

Wednesday is the day, however, of my mentoring program classes, so I did do some work that first week. Only 2 of the 4 groups met though, because the middle and high school students had compositions to do. I got to observe the apprentices group, and even teach a little bit! Since school is so expensive here, many girls and boys at a pretty young age often “choose” to opt out and take up an apprenticeship/trade instead. It also costs money, but it’s often not as much, and not as much all at once. There are many great apprenticeships, but often it’s this group of apprentices that miss out the most on important information since they dont have access to formal education. That’s why we focus on them in our mentoring program too.

Anyways, so that week they were finishing their discussion on HIV/AIDS and how to counteract stigmatization and discrimination against those who are living with it. I got to play a game of sorts with them that helped to explain how HIV affects the immune system and our health. And I did it all by myself, and in french! The session went really well, the mentors for that group are amazing and dynamic and make the class fun and engaging, so I was happy to be part of it.

The days after that was when I felt the worst, so I just stayed at home and finished a book, played minesweeper on my laptop and did crosswords. I also learned how to cook on a gas stove by candlelight, tried on my motorcycle helmet (think power ranger/storm trooper), killed several giant evil hairy fanged spiders that I swear are out to get me, set up a system to save more water during my bucket showers (especially important during this dry season) and watched the sunset behind the mountains that I can see from my patio.

Saturday, I needed to get out of my house and be around people. I still felt sick and really tired, and I hadn’t been able to sleep really well. Especially Friday night. I really wanted to be around other PCVs for awhile after I found out about a family issue, and I needed some time away to think about things. I felt bad about leaving after not having been there that long but I needed some time. So I went to the PCV house in Atakpame for a few days. It was nice to speak a lot of english for awhile and be able to talk to friends about things. I really like my coworkers at post and I know I will become great friends with them by the end of my service, but I needed a kind of support that I couldn’t get yet from them. Being around other PCVs who understand what I’m going through just felt nice and is what I needed.

I was worried that going back to post the following Wednesday wouldn’t go well. I thought it was an omen when I didnt sleep well the night before and I felt nauseous (not helped at all by my awful seesawing rollercoaster swaying road back to my post). But actually getting there (after a little nap) I felt great and was happy to be back, so much so that it was surprising to me. I loved being in my own house, able to sleep in my own comfy bad, with my view of the mountains and my own food. It also helped that I went to check my mail when I got back and I had received the package from my mom full of wrapped presents for christmas as well as a packet of hilarious and heartwarming letters from the 5th grade students that I write to in Gainesville about my time in Togo (thanks Bridget!). I spent all day Thursday at home too, but not in a sick I have nothing to do feeling way. I unpacked the rest of my bags, organized my house, cleaned my kitchen, baked a cake, did some laundry, and wrote back to the kids. It was a very productive day, which made me happy. I also made my own homemade fries out of just potatoes, peanut oil and salt and I swear they were the best french fries I’ve had in my life.

I had a meeting Friday about a scholarship program that went much longer than I had anticipated (we skipped breakfast and lunch). Overall the meeting went well, but I didn’t know much about the program beforehand and didnt feel like I could really contribute anything valuable to our discussions. I also didn’t feel like talking, because of being irritable from not eating. And although I feel like I understand French really well now, it’s exhausting speaking and thinking in two (sometimes three!) languages.

I was pretty tired afterwards, but then got a call from my homologue who said to come look at a puppy he had found (I mentioned to him I was thinking about getting a puppy during my post visit week). It was getting dark out (peak hours of mosquitoes) so I took my doxy (malaria meds) without eating beforehand, which is the first time I had done that (usually I take it right after lunch), and it really does make you sick (dont do it). Apart from getting sick on the side of the road in front of like 10 people, I had a great night because I ended up loving the puppy and got to take him home immediately! I’ve decided to name him Max, but still haven’t decided on a local name for him. I’m thinking akpala, which means lucky or good luck in ewe. In any case, he is adorable and I love him. He’s 2 months old and is mostly brown with a brownish black face and a white belly and feet. He has giant floppy rabbit ears and a tail that curls over. He likes to follow me everywhere, but after a few days of getting used to me, is also growing into the adventurous, mischievous dog that puppies are known to be. He says hello to everyone back in the states, and that also he would appreciate scooby snacks, flea shampoo and any toys that you would like to send him. In return, he will send you cute puppy thoughts.

There’s more to write, but I’m out of time for now. Until then, happy christmas and new years from togo!

Love, Camilla and Max

December 3rd 2009

Our ceremony Thursday was wonderful! It feels good to have made it through training and to finally be a pcV!! Wednesday and Thursday were spent doing a lot of banking and shopping and official PC paperwork. I also got my flu and swine flu shots (no worries mom!). I was pretty worried about giving my speech. We all had to give a speech in local language in front of all of our host families, PCV trainers and teachers, Togolese officials, and the US Ambassador. AND it will be aired on TV here in Togo. My speech was the longer speech in Ewe towards the end of the ceremony. I thought I had practiced it a lot, but the language is hard in that a lot of words are tonal and depend on the inflection of your voice. It also didn’t help that that night, people were telling me left and right that I had to get it right because it was a really important speech.

So...like I said, I was pretty nervous. I gave my speech right after Brett did his and I thought I would choke up or something in front of everyone. But! I went up there and just did it...and it was AWESOME. After almost every sentence the crowd would cheer and clap really loud and so that made me happy. I was laughing, they were laughing and it all went by pretty fast. Afterwards, everyone told me that I rocked it and Brett said “They loved it!.” So I went from insanely nervous to ecstatic. I was one of the last people to give my speech and just afterwards, we all had to raise our right hands as the US Ambassador led us through the swearing in speech (A few sentences saying that we are proud and ready to begin our service for two years in Togo with the Peace Corps). She ended it by saying “Congrats...you are all now officially PCVs!!!” I haven’t felt so happy in awhile. I hugged Steph and Brett and Lacey and everyone and you could tell we were all so relieved and truly happy to have made it there. It felt great. This is our last day all together and I’m sad about leaving everyone tomorrow, but I’m glad training ended on such an amazing time.

More soon!

Camilla, PCV!!

My post visit to Amlamé last week was amazing! I only have three minutes left on my internet time to write about it, but in general, i have an awesome house in the mountains (!!), really amazing coworkers at the NGO ill be working at and a very motivated community. longer update to follow in a couple days! All of the GEE volunteers are taking a field trip tomorrow to different sites all around togo to see what different volunteers and communities are doing. well be visiting amlame too which will be fun and ill get to show off how awesome my site is with everyone. woohoo!!

hope everyone is doing well back in the US!

I have sooo much to write about! (Just as a disclaimer though, im writing on a french keyboard which is much different than our own so excuse the misspelled words and bad grammar!) The past five weeks in tsévié have been awesome. Ive met so many amazing people so far. Our training group gets along so well too and I feel like Ive made so many good friends already. I am meeting my homologue with whom Ill be working for the next two years tomorrow and then ill be leaving saturday to visit my post for the week!

My post is in Amlame which is in southwestern Plateau region in Togo ( the region second furthest south). My house is in the mountains (!!!!!) and there apparently are tons of papayas, mangoes, avocados, pineapples, etc around. Ill have my own little garden at my house too that im going to start soon after i get there, and i apparently also have electricity and a fridge in my house (what!?!). Im so exited for post!! Everyone has been telling me that my two homologues that Ill be working with are amazing and really motivated so im really excited about that too. My main job will be working with an NGO in amlame which has collaborqted on a PC GEE project recently of a mentoring center which ill be the co-director of. Ill post much more about amlame when i get back from post visit though!

So here is a typical day in the life of a GEE PST:

530am: wake up with the sunlight, take a bucket shower (which are amazing midday also to cool off)

630am: eat breakfqst: usually i have a cup of hot chocolate, bread with peanut butter, and sometimes an omelette

715am: meet up with stephanie (my bff) to walk to class, discuss rasputin returns (our future b-rated horror film about evil roosters who wake you up at all hours of the night...tagline: coo coo lachoo!), practice french, and try to desuade the singing of the yovo song

730am: feed milu (our awesomely not ferocious tech house guard dog) and start first session of the day at the tech house: either a technical session, french class, local language class (for me its ewe), or a health/security/cultural session

930am: thirty min break to take nap under the paillote, or life story time, or fanmilk (delicious cold icecream/milkshake like treats)

10am:start of second session (one of the others above)

12pm: head home for lunch and afternoon repos, or street food/tchouk/nap under the paillote

230pm: start of third session of the day (see above) or on certain wednesdays, head to the local middle school to teach an hour long class in the afternoons (sixieme f is the best class!)

430pm: end of class, beginning of afternoon tchouk/buvette time and hanging out with the other PCTS

6pm: walk/bike home with the sunset in the background and the yovo song at its highest frequency

630pm: dinner/watching tv with the host family. My favorite meal is rice with tofu and peanut sauce, but i also love the pasta dinners i sometimes get, fufu or pate with tomato sauce, and colico. tv shows include: the news, football (soccer) matches, french dubbed versions of family matters, samurai jack (and other random cartoons), brazilian soap operas and my name is earl, haha

730pm: homework, write letters home

830pm to 9: pass out

theres much more to say and add but im out of time at the internet cafe. will write more after post visit!! miss everybody and hope you are all doing well!

camilla

I am having such an amazing time so far here in Togo. I already talked with a few of the other volunteers on Day 1.5 about how we could already tell that there is no way to possibly explain what everything is like here that would do it justice. You can read all about it and look at hundreds of pictures, but it is nothing at all like being here.

Tonight is our last night in Lome and I think we are all going to go out one last time. Tomorrow we move to a small city called Tsevie (pronounced Chay-vee-ay) to meet our host families and we are all a little bit anxious about that. There is so much to write and try to tell but we are all going over to our hotel for dinner. I will say that the food so far has been amazing. I definitely did not need to bring more than half of the extra food that I packed.

I have so much to say but have to go. I'm really busy the next couple of days but will try to update more when I can!

So we all made it to Paris! We are exhausted, but in one piece. We only got about an hour or two of sleep on the plane so we are all taking naps for our four hour layover between Paris and leaving for Lome in Togo. I accidently left my usb cord for my camera at home, so I have to wait until that gets to me before I can upload any of my photos. Be on the lookout!

Next update = Togo!!

I'm leaving to head off to Philadelphia then to Togo in 6 hours! (Gotta get some sleep). Thanks to everybody for everything the past couple of weeks. I have the awesomest friends and family. I'll try to update soon!

Love always,

Camilla

I found a great article written by Nicolas Kristof this week:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=all#

This makes me even more excited for starting to volunteer with the Peace Corps working in Girls Education and Empowerment. I couldn't possibly explain how excited and eager I am to start.

On another note, thanks to everybody in the family for everything the past couple weeks since my graduation! I really do appreciate everyone's support.

More soon!

Camilla

The Peace Corps recommended that I share the following letter with all my family and friends:

Dear Families,

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

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

We suggest that in your first letters, you ask your Volunteer family member to give an estimate of how long it takes for him or her to receive your letters and then try to establish a predictable pattern of how often you will write to each other. Also try numbering your letters so that the Volunteer knows if he or she missed one. Postcards should be sent in envelopes--otherwise they may be found on the wall of the local post office. (I have heard that writing AirMail on the envelope can help expedite the process. The average cost of sending a letter through basic USPS First Class Mail International is approximately $1.76 US).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PCT Camilla Pearson

Corps de la Paix

B.P. 3194

Lomé, Togo

West Africa

It is recommended that packages be sent in padded envelopes if possible, as boxes tend to be taxed more frequently.(If a box package is sent, the cheapest option seems to be a $12.95 flat rate box). Packages can be sent via surface mail (2-3 weeks arrival time) or by ship (4-6 months). The difference in cost can be a factor in deciding which method to utilize. For lightweight but important items (e.g. airline tickets), DHL (an express mail service) does operate in Lomé, but costs are very expensive. If you choose to send items through DHL, you must address the package to the Country Director, s/c Corps de la Paix, 48 Rue de Rossignols, Quartier Kodjoviakopé, Lomé, Togo. The telephone number for the Peace Corps office in Togo is (228) 221-0614, should DHL need this information. If you send the item to the Country Director, no liability can be assumed. For more information about DHL, please call their toll free number, 1-800-CALL-DHL, or visit their web site at www.dhl.com. Please be aware that there is a customs fee for all DHL packages sent to Volunteers. For each DHL package, the Volunteer will be taxed 10,000 CFA (roughly US$20).

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

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

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

We hope this information is helpful to you during the time your family member is serving as

a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo. We understand how frustrating it is to communicate with your family member overseas and we appreciate your using this information as a guideline. Please feel free to contact us at the Togo Desk in Washington, DC, if you have further questions. Our phone number is (800) 424-8580, ext. 2326/2307, or locally at (202) 692-2326/2307.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Brown, Country Desk Officer

Ryan Derni, Country Desk Assistant

Tout le monde me demande souvent "Qu'est-ce que le titre 'Un Haricot en Afrique' signifie?". Laisse-moi expliquer: Quand j'étais petite, quelques mes tantes et cousins et des autres dans ma famille ont commencé à m'appeler "camilla bean" parce que ce surnom a sonné comme "vanilla bean". Ensuite, le surnom a transformé à simplement "bean". Il est resté avec moi depuis maintenant. Et encore, je pense qu'un haricot symbolise la capacité d'agrandir et rendre, que je vais faire sûrement avec mon travail dans le Corps de la Paix au Togo!

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Everyone often asks me "What is the title 'A Bean in Africa' supposed to mean?" Explanation: When I was a kid, a few of my aunts and cousins and then my family started calling me Camilla Bean because it sounded like Vanilla Bean. Then my nickname just became Bean and it stuck until today. Plus, I think a bean symbolizes how much capability I have to grow and give back, which I will surely do while doing work with the Peace Corps in Togo!

After months of waiting, I finally received my invitation on Tuesday to serve in Togo with the Peace Corps in thier Girl's Education and Empowerment Project leaving in September! I let it sink in for a couple of days and then officially called and accepted today! I'm really excited! I think it's such a simple, effective and great project to do. In Togo, less than a third of all its women have completed secondary education. I think a project like this one is challenging but absolutely important and impactful.

I have so much to do in preparation for leaving! I'm already brainstorming ideas and thinking about connections and networking options for all the things I could possibly do. I'm graduating next Saturday, trying to spend time with all my family and friends, not to mention starting on my extensive packing list! I have no idea what to expect and am a little nervous, but I have also never been more excited in my life.

More soon!

So I finished my last class at UF on Friday! I don't officially graduate until August, so I'm spending the rest of the summer in Gainesville with family and friends and getting ready to leave with the Peace Corps in September. I still am not sure exactly where I'm going other than a french-speaking country in Africa (Togo, Benin, Senegal, etc.) but hopefully I'll find out soon. Until then, I'm just trying to get things in order, starting to pack up my apartment, volunteering around Gainesville, etc.

Everything about Peace Corps still seems really surreal at this point. Maybe it will be a little less so when I get my invitation...

For now I'm trying to soak up my time here. I moved all the time as a kid and I seemed to almost crave that change of scenery and pace. Now that I've been here for eight years on more stable terms, it seems a little weird to leave, and weird that everyone I know here is leaving too. I'm so excited for serving in Peace Corps though. And the one truth about Gainesville I can take some solice in is that everyone always seems to find their way back here. :)