Hello Everyone,
Welcome to my blog where I will hopefully be posting stories and pictures from my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV).
For those of you who do not know, I received my assignment a week ago: I will be collaborating with the Community Health Expansion and AIDS Prevention (CHAP) Project in Togo. Directly quoting my information package: "the purpose of the CHAP project is to assist the Ministry of Health and other partners in the development and expansion of Community Health, mainly in the following domains: the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the fight against malaria, and infant growth monitoring and nutritional education. The CHAP project focuses on public health education on four main health development programs: 1) child growth monitoring and nutrition education for mothers; 2) family planning: childbirth spacing, and sexual education for young people; 3) the fight against malaria; and 4) the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections."
My Orientation takes place on June 5-7, 2007, and my in-country Pre-Service Training will last from June 8 through August 23, 2007. I am very excited about my assignment, but as I sit in my crowded apartment in Montevideo, Uruguay, the fact that I will be in Togo in less than four months seems rather unbelievable. In my great expanses of free-time (I am on vacation, you know, in a beautiful beach-side city where it happens to be summer... I know, you're all jealous) I have been reading the blogs of other PCVs who have served in Togo in the last five years. From what I gather, Togo seems to be an all-in-all nice place to serve; some common gripes, however, are: 1) the way in which Togolese children chant "yovo" (white person) at you everywhere you go; 2) the way in which many Togolese have come to associate white people with money; 3) the patriarchal society which leads to the treatment of women as a commodity to be bought and sold, a treatment which female PCVs do not necessarily escape; 4) the unreliable, uncomfortable, and often dangerous transportation system which, from what I understand, requires enormous amounts of patience (something I do not have, but expect to develop); 5) feelings of frustration at not really every being able to fully integrate (once a yovo, always a yovo) and at the cultural, political and historical factors that prevent PCVs "really making a difference." Reading these accounts helps me to prepare myself a little for what the future holds in store for me and they have provided me with a few additions (and subtractions) to my packing list.
Other than that, I am writing this post mostly to learn how to "blog" while I still have high-speed internet at home. Next week, Jorge and I are moving to a bigger apartment where we won't resubscribe to our internet service because the "new" (it is really a much older building) apartment is only one block from his University where he has free internet access (free like everything else in this world is "free" - i.e. - included in the cost). Anyway, in an effort to pinch some pennies and defray the costs of moving we have decided that we can do without the luxury of internet at home and so I am using it as much as possible now. . . I have chosen to create a blog as my primary means of communication with with friends and family so that I won't flood your inboxes as many of you might remember I did when in Bolivia. This way, you can tap into my blog whenever you feel for a news update. Hopefully it will also allow me to post pictures . . . that will be the next thing that I will try to figure out. Maybe I will post a picture that highlights the wintergreen gum color that the previous tenant painted the walls of our new apartment =0) disgusting, I know. Ok, thats it for now. . . let's see how this looks on my page.
