6/13/07 through 6/22/07

6/13/07

Today we left Lomé for Kpalimé, our training site. Right before we left we got sheets of paper with information about our host family. Mine made me nervous and I wished that they hadn't handed it out because it seemed as if there were no children in the house and as if it was only a man (a chauffeur) and a woman (a comerciante). It also sort of seemed as though they were mean because they said they wouldn't accept a sick volunteer and no one else's sheet said that. It made me quite nervous, but I tried to give myself a pep talk and tell myself that whatever the situation may be I would try to make the best of it and it would happen like that for a reason and I should learn from it.



It took us about two hours, I think, to get to Kpalime. During the drive I got to see a bit more of Lome as we drove out of the city. We saw some really beautiful wood carvings and beautiful wood furniture as well. Lomé is a very sprawling city, not built up really high, but taking up quite a large area.



Once we got outside the city, the landscape was lush green vegetation, palm trees, baobab trees, grasses, bushes. It is very beautiful. The red dirt sets off the green-ness of the vegetation. I saw some huge termite hills as well. The first part of the ride was fun, everyone was quite lively. Then it seemed as though everyone got a bit tired and I got a little sleepy as well. I was trying not to fall asleep because I wanted to appreciate the scenery - the little villages here and there. Mostly the houses are rectangular, not round, but many of them are made of mud and have thatched roofs of grass.



We arrived in the village of the SED (Small Enterprise Development) volunteers first (20 volunteers out of our group of 35). They received a royal welcome with music - drums, calabash and seed shakers, horns, a dance troupe all dressed the same and painted with little white circles all over their skin - there was a whole crowd waiting to welcome them. We hoped that our welcome would be equally enthusiastic. Our village is a little more remote, about five kilometers up the road (or perhaps a little more). It is right at the base of the highest mountain in Togo - Mount Agou. Our town is called Agou Nyogbo. There are about 6,000 people in the surrounding area I think. It is absolutely gorgeous. I don't think they could have picked a better spot. There were not so many people at our welcome, I think, and they were a bit more reserved at first. It had rained earlier and as we drove down to where we would park the van slid in the mud and the back end cam within a foot of hitting a small child. It was a little scary.



The chief and his entourage of elders and secretaries greeted us first. The chief was dressed in a traditional cloth wrapped around him and over one shoulder over a white shirt. He wore a red felt crown with gold colored decorations. His right hand man dressed in the same way without the white shirt below, greeted us. He gave a speech, the only words of which I understood was Americans and United States. Later it was translated for us that he welcomed us and asked his God to bless us, to help us to learn a lot and stay safe, so that we may return again to the United States. He had a small calabash of a milky liquid that he took a sip of and then poured a small amount on the ground. He spoke some more (I was a little worried that he would hand the calabash to me for a sip as I was standing up front) and then he poured the rest of the milky liquid on the ground. Then an assistant filled a shot glass with a clear liquid from a bottle that said whisky. He took a small sip and then poured it on the ground. Then we went inside. We also had drummers and people singing. There was quite a crowd. We were told to stand up, give a little bow to the chief and then say a word which I can't remember. We were introduced to the chief and all the elders and then the chief made a speech in French. He welcomed us to Agou Nyogbo and said that it was an honor for his canton (like a county I think) to be selected at the training site and that, although the living conditions would be different from what we are used to, he hopes that we will adapt well and learn a lot. Then we introduced ourselves and our host families introduced themselves and we tried to find each other. My host mom's name is Rose, so that was more or less easy. They say the last name first here, so that was a little confusing. My host Dad's name is Prosper I think. They seem very nice and they DO have children. Right away I was introduced to a very smart ten year old girl named Felicité. She is beautiful and super duper smart. Her parents don't speak much French and that became quickly evident and she is already teaching me Ewe. She was teaching me the words for plate, fork, and napkin as we waited for our food to be served. I feel so lucky - she is extremely patient with me, has a good sense of humor, and really, I can't exaggerate how smart she is. She doesn't know how to write Ewe because they don't teach that in school I think, but she is great with French. She was teaching me all sorts of things as we sat there and ate and then waited for our luggage. (Oh, and before eating we danced a while to live music composed of drumming and singing).



It started to pour as soon as we got inside and so many people left (other than our host families who waited with us). I liked the interaction between my host mom, dad and sister from the very start. The host dad is around sixty and seems very nice, kind, smiley, happy and very affectionate towards his daughter. Both let her eat more than they ate. Both seem really proud of her. Around four women from my host mom's family were there as well, including her mother. They helped me carry my luggage when it arrived. One woman put my yellow backpack on her head (it weighs over 30 pounds). I carried my big back pack. It was still drizzling, but we loaded everything onto one of the vans that had brought us to the training site and it took us to our homes. Mine was the third stop, probably only about a ten minute walk from the building where I will have my training.



Before I start describing the house, I want to tell you that Felicité told me that I was pretty and that when she saw me she was very happy. She also told me, and I found this interesting as well as sad, that she finds my color of skin very pretty and when I told her that I found her color of skin very pretty, she said, "but my skin color isn't pretty" and I told her yes it is, that I always wanted to have skin that color.



The house is L-shaped and made of concrete. In the middle there is a courtyard. I don't know what is in the front part of the L - the room was locked, but then there are four rooms - my host mom (and dad ? and Felicité's? room), my room, and two more bed rooms. It is sort of difficult to figure out exactly who lives here and what relation all the other people who are here have to the family. In the back part of the house there is my latrine, my shower, the family's latrine and shower, the kitchen, a storage and dining room and I don't know what else. I still have a lot to figure out, before I can describe everything too you - it is all quite basic, but I do have electricity.



My room is nice, a very adequate size with whitewashed (actually yellow-washed, because the walls are yellow) walls a bare concrete floor, a single bed with a foam mattress, a small table and a larger table. (Oh, and I forgot to tell you that they greeted us with bouquets of wildflowers and my bouquet included a fake flower with a little heart on it that says "I love you" like those fake roses you can buy in Bolivia and in my room, there are more of them in a vase. I also have two trash cans (or maybe one is a pee can for the middle of the night, a broom (and here brooms don't have a long wooden handle, rather they are a bunch of thin sticks each about 1 ½ feet long and tied together at one end), and a dust pan. My room is super clean - no bugs so far. No mosquitoes even - I have screens on my window and doors and a mosquito net on my bed. I have a lock on my door also and a little key for my latrine which is only for me. My latrine is a little scary, I must admit, but I haven't seen theirs and it is probably worse, so I won't complain at all. It is weird that I have a bathroom all to myself and I am supposed to keep it locked. In it there is a big wooden box with a wooden toilet seat that is nailed to the wooden box and a wooden seat cover that comes completely off. I assume they were using the bathroom before I arrived 'cause it is a bit stinky =0) and therefore not completely new, but of course they would have used it. The problems with it are that 1) it doesn't lock from the inside; 2) the door is short and open at the top so that everyone can see when I am in the bathroom and perhaps even when I am sitting on my royal throne (I felt particularly weird because the first time I used it (right before I started to write to you) it was dark outside and I do have electricity in the latrine (which is very nice), but I felt that I would be even more of a show to anyone looking on then. Great. Haven't dared poo yet although I did need to and I didn't know where to brush my teeth, so I did it in the latrine and I didn't wash my hands because my host mom was already in her room, it was dark and I didn't know how.



I think we have running water in the compound because there is a tap, but my shower is just a cement stall (without a roof) and with a little drain so I will be bucket showering starting tomorrow.



I got to the compound around 4 perhaps, I'm not really sure, but right away my host mom peeled two oranges for me - the way you like them peeled. It makes me feel a bit badly because the oranges were just for me and not for the kids (there are more kids than just Felicité). There is a little girl named Fidèle. She is four years old. Then there is another little girl who Felicité told me was also her father's daughter (but she is the same age as Felicité so that is rather confusing to me - unless he has more than one wife, each with her own house, but that would be a little strange because according to Felicité they go to the protestant church on Sunday - she and her mother at least - I have been invited and am planning on going of course). Anyway, the other ten year old little girl is named Comfort. Then there is also a twelve year old boy and a fourteen year old girl who live in the room next to mine.



All afternoon the children taught me words in Ewe which I tried to write down, but my guess was as good as theirs as for how you spell the words. Tomorrow I will ask one of my trainers if they have an Ewe dictionary. I really want to start learning it right away. I think in three months I might be able to have a good base and if I could get myself placed in a town where they speak Ewe, that would be FANTASTIC. So far it is a fun language. Difficult though. Intonation is very important, but how excited would I be if I could learn it. Let me answer that - very very very excited. My French will improve with my Ewe as well because I have to learn the Ewe equivalents for the French. They even have a chalk board in my house in the hallway where they were writing words for me. Everyone gets a huge kick out of it when I try to say something. They are a people who seem to love to laugh. If I say something in Ewe, they laugh loudly and clap their hands. It is great. I love it. I want to learn really badly so I really hope I can get a dictionary right away because I am a very visual learner and I will never learn if I can't write it down and write it over and over again to drum it into my head.



It seems as though Felicité will be my link to her parents. Her mom sends her here to tell me everything.



My mom seems like a very good cook. They fed me spaghetti with vegetables and pieces of chicken in it for dinner and it was very very good. I only ate a bit and luckily, they didn't insist too much that I eat more. I explained that I am not used to eating a lot in the evening. I ate another orange after dinner. Again, it was only me who ate an orange. I feel badly, but I know Peace Corps is paying them for my food. I can't help but be a little glad that I don't understand Ewe yet, so I can't hear the four year old ask why she can't have an orange.



Dinner was a little strange. I ate with the father, mother and Felicité. The four year old little girl and the other ten-year old, who doesn't live in this compound but next door, ate farther away on little stools. We ate in the hallway, at a little table right outside my room. I, of course, have to drink my own water because they do not filter their water. I have three bottles of water for now until I start filtering my own water which I guess I should do tomorrow.



After dinner, I went into my room and started to unpack. Tomorrow will be a new and exciting day where I am sure I will learn lots of things. I am setting my alarm for 6:00 as I would like to shower (I smell a bit bad I think), eat breakfast and I have training starting at 7:30.



6/14/07



Last night I couldn't get to sleep for a very long time because of the strange noises playing on the radio. I don't know exactly why they listen to it, whatever it is. Tonight they are listening to it again. Nevertheless, I slept well last night and I woke up at 5:30 even though my alarm was set for six. I asked my host mom for a bucket of water and then took my bucket bath. I did as you said and crouched down so I could wet myself with less water. It worked very well. My first bucket bath in Togo was a success. It felt good afterwards. I didn't use heated water, and it was a bit cool because we are in the mountains, but it was very refreshing.



Then I had breakfast. I ate breakfast all by myself. My host mom prepared me an omlette and tomatoes and onions on the side. I also had French bread and on the table where I ate there were new cans of: coffee, tea, chocolate powder, powdered milk, mayonnaise, pineapple marmalade, butter, cheese and I can't even remember what else. Everything they thought an American MIGHT want to eat or drink. They are too too nice. I just opened the tea and then ate my breakfast. I sort of wanted chocolate, but Felicite, my host sister seemed to want me to drink the tea, so I did. =0)



They don't think I eat enough. They want me to eat loads and loads of food. =0) Then Felicite walked me to my tech house where we had classes all morning. People shared some funny stories about their host families. One girl had a mouse in her room. Another girl's family made her get on a scale and told her they wanted her to gain three kilos before leaving. Another girl broke her bed. I didn't share any stories. Many of the other trainees are sick with diarrhea, but I feel perfectly fine except that I am a little scared of my latrine and try to go in there as few times as possible. As much as possible, I use the bathroom at my tech house because it is a modern bathroom. It isn't so much that I am scared of the latrine, but the way in which I feel that when I go in there I am in the center of the house and the center of attention.



We did a lot of laughing this morning. The heavy duty training (with homework and group projects and presentations and research projects and everything) starts tomorrow.



I asked the man in charge of language to give me some materials in Ewe. He seemed sort of reluctant. Later I asked someone else and they too seem kind of reluctant to give me materials in Ewe. I can't guarantee that if I put a lot of effort into learning Ewe, that I will get placed in a post where they speak Ewe. Perhaps they will send me to the north where they speak a different language. But I think that it is possible that I could get a post in the South and why not try to learn Ewe while I am being fully immersed? So I am going to try.



Also in the morning we had bike training. Who knew there was so much to learn about bikes. It is actually quite complicated.



For lunch I walked home. I ate lunch with Felicité. I ate rice with vegetables and beef and a tomato-y sauce. It was very good. So far everything my host mom has cooked for me has been excellent. After lunch I gave Felicite some of the colored pencils I brought and we sat outside. She colored while the older children taught me words in Ewe. It is very difficult, especially because the alphabet is somewhat different than the French alphabet, but at least it has been alphabetized, even if it isn't easy to find learning materials. Many of the sounds are hard to make.



At 2:30 I had to go back to the tech center and we had first health specific classes and then language. I think it will be a challenging three months. I was a bit disappointed because I wasn't placed in the highest language group. I was placed in the second to highest language group out of only four groups. Oh well. I think I will progress quickly.



Our classes are in a mix of English and French because some of the other trainees French is very minimal.



After class (I don't write too much about the classes because they weren't very interesting today - you know, it is like the first day of any class, mostly organizational and not much real learning or teaching, so hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more interesting) I went home with a load of books and materials that they have given us - health related and language related. Then I read a bit of my French workbook as Felicité and Fidele. Felicite drew me a house and Fidele a family with lots of children (she is four).



Then I taught them and some other children how to play UNO. They are getting it little by little.



Then we stopped for dinner which was a very good salad with tuna. I saw my host mom washing the lettuce, but I hope I don't get sick from it because I know that lettuce is hard to wash. It was very good though. Then my host mom told me that someone was going to come teach me Ewe. My new "teacher" is a girl, probably in her teens, but it is a bit hard to tell, who knows how to write Ewe. It was great because we started with the alphabet. It took me ages to begin to be able to say the whole thing and we will probably have to start over tomorrow, but we will see. Then we did some simple phrases. It was great because first of all, I think I could really learn with her teaching me. She is very patient and also we had a huge crowd laughing hysterically for most of the two or more hours we sat in front of the chalk board at the end of the hall. They are coming back tomorrow at noon to teach me more and maybe in the evenings too. I hope I have time to do my homework. I also need to make sure they give me some time Saturday afternoon to go to Kpalime to send you these emails.



Anyway, finally, they asked if I was tired and I said yes because I am and was getting to the point where I couldn't concentrate and I think my bed is full of ants. Ok, I guess it is not full of ants, but for some reason it feels a little prickly. Probably my imagination.



6/15/07

absolutely beautiful it is here. Unbelievably beautiful. It is like a tropical mountain setting and the mountains look like they are covered with a jungle like vegetation. The climate is hot, especially in the afternoon, but cooler and less humid than Lome - pretty ideal. The PCV who is here with us now and has been in Togo for two years says that it is the most beautiful place in Togo and that if she could live here she might consider staying for a third year. All that makes me think that I might want to stay in the Plateau region. Also, the Plateau region is more accessible from Ghana and I think they speak Ewe in most of it and then maybe Mimi could visit me too because it isn't too too far from Lome and that would make her very happy and it might be easier for Dad to visit me as well, so . . . I will keep thinking about it and I will have to wait and see what posts are available.



I also wanted to tell you that while a girl was teaching me Ewe, with a crowd of old women and children watching, she told me that certain names in Ewe are given to children born on a certain day. For example, a girl born on Sunday is often called Essi. She asked me what day of the week I was born on and I told her that I didn't know. That I knew my birth DATE, but not the day of the week. Everyone found that unbelievably hilarious. I will have to ask my mom.



Another interesting thing is, as I was walking with Felicité to school we walked through the middle of two people walking in the other direction. Felicité told me that it is bad to walk between two people, that it means that they give you their illnesses and to give the illnesses back to them you have to turn in a circle, so we both turned in a circle. She did it again today in the market place when a similar situation occurred.



Here people hiss at you to get your attention. I have been called yovo a lot. One day, as we were walking, four year old Fidèle yelled across the street at some people for calling me yovo. She said, you don't call people yovo. =0) It was very cute.



This place is full of sounds and smells, but one of the most annoying sound is that of the goats. They make this horrible crying noise like a child screaming.



Today I had an ok day. It was a bit up and down - I was having mood swings and my emotions are a little close to the surface, tempting me to cry at the least provocation.



We had our French class outside, under some trees with a blackboard hung on a tree limb. It is very picturesque if you can imagine four white girls sitting on a bench, outside, under trees in someone's front yard, learning French in the middle of Togo. The big blotch on my morning was that one of the other trainees left. It was very strange. She had been upset yesterday. I didn't talk to her because I felt that there were a lot of people trying to comfort her and that I wasn't needed. It was her front yard that we were sitting in though, for our French class and all of a sudden the Peace Corps' white land cruiser drove up, loaded all her stuff in the car and drove her away without a word. She didn't say good-bye. Only after did we learn that she probably isn't coming back. It made me sad and teary-eyed. I tried to distract myself by playing a game of mancala (it has another name here) with some children.



After English class we went to the Small Enterprise Development training site (the other volunteers who came with us from Washington) to go over the whole schedule for training. I won't know my village for sure until week five and then on week 7 I visit my post for a week. It was nice to see the other volunteers.



For lunch I had my first Togolese food. It is called pate and is sort of like polenta I think. You eat it with your right hand by forming a little ball of pate and then dipping it in whatever sauce you are having. I thought it was pretty good and my host mom and sister were really happy to see me eating with my hands and eating pate. They say I don't eat enough. They encourage me to eat more and more and more. I just stop when I have had enough though and they are very nice about it. They won't let me do anything for myself though. They think that I am totally incapable. When I said I could wash the dishes, Felicité looked at me unbelievingly and giggled as if it were impossible or ridiculous that I wash dishes. Same when I tell her that I am going to wash my OWN clothes.



After lunch we had a bit of a misunderstanding about going to the market. Our task was to go to the market, ask the price of different objects, try to barter and buy some things that we need. I invited Felicité to go to the market with me, which I probably shouldn't have done, but I am feeling conflicted and torn between spending time with my host family and doing other things. Felicité seemed so excited by the fact that I don't have class on Saturday, that we could do things together, and now I am planning to go the Kpalime right after class tomorrow to send email. We already don't have much time to spend with our families because we are in class all morning and all afternoon. So I invited her to come with me, which became a little problematic because there were only and exact number of seats in the van. The coordinator said that she couldn't go which made me feel horribly because she had told me that she was scared that my teachers would send her home and not let her go with me. So I asked the coordinator I could take a taxi and he said no, no, no, and asked the driver if Felicité could come. The driver said yes and I was happy and relieved although distraught because I don't like causing conflict. It turned out to be a bad idea to bring her along anyway. Her father was working at the traffic and parking control booth and so it ended up that he walked with us and helped me buy (and by "helped" I mean him doing all the talking and me just forking over the cash, a pagne (cloth to make pants out of), laundry soap and bleach for my drinking water. Then Felicité and I walked around a little bit, but when I took out the list of things I had to ask about for my French class and tried to write down the prices, Felicité scolded me and said "we don't write in the market". She didn't seem to understand why I would keep walking around if I had nothing else to buy. A little annoyed, I left her with her father and walked around with another girl in my group to do my homework assignment. It was a very hot and tiring experience. I think when I feel more comfortable, I will enjoy the market experience more, but today it was just stressful.



When we got back, I went home and took a shower and then brought my computer down to the tech house. I was going to write to you as it charged, but I was talking to the PCV who is staying at the tech house until tomorrow or Sunday. It was good to talk to her just about random things, mostly me, my family. . . etc, but I was late getting back to my house and my host mom sent Felicité out to find me.



I ate salad for dinner and then had an Ewe lesson. I learned lots but retained rather little (although I wrote it all down so that I can study). The problem is that most of the words are little three letter words and they are so short it is hard to find some way of identifying them with their meaning, but I am still enthusiastic and got lots of laughs and applauses when I sang the song naming the months (there are thirteen months in Ewe).



Like I said, overall, I am doing extremely well, but I have my up and down moments. I am not yet sick and hope that I stay very healthy, but I am also conflicted about family time versus me time versus time spent with other trainees. I feel like the first few weeks with my family are critical and I want to spend lots of time with them and show my appreciation in every way that I can for all that they are doing for me at the same time that I sometimes just feel like I need to get away for a little bit at the same time that I want to do all the things that the other trainees are doing. Like, tonight they were watching a movie at the tech house, but I had an Ewe lesson, which I appreciate and wouldn't trade, but you know how it feels when you want to be able to do everything. Also, the other trainees are going to walk up Mount Agou on Sunday, but I already told Felicité that I would go to church with them, that Sunday I will be home and I also have an oral presentation to prepare for Monday. But it is all ok. My family is great. My training is fun and I am in a beautiful village in Togo living a dream.



6/16/07

Today was not a super exciting day in that I don't have much to tell you. In the morning I had a misunderstanding with my mother because I didn't know that we had not received permission to go to Kpalime on our bicycles so I told her that I was not going to be home for lunch because we were going to Kpalime on our bicycles and she said that she wasn't ok with that, that my professor had said that we weren't going. I didn't know if that meant we weren't going by bicycle or if we weren't going at all. Between her French and my French we don't understand each other very well.



I went to class and we figured it all out. We had French class and then technique class. It was all fine, but since it is Saturday and tomorrow is our only day off I felt anxious to be finished. After class I went home, left my big back pack and took your small one and then went back to the tech house to take the bus with all the other girls to Kpalime. Kpalime is relatively big. It obviously isn't huge, but it probably has everything one would need. Today was one of the big market days so it was quite crowded. At the first internet place they wouldn't allow me to use my usb. That almost made me cry because I couldn't go anywhere by myself and if no one else wanted to come . . . I would be out of luck. But because the service was so slow I was able to convince two girls to go with me. We found another café. It took me 30 minutes just to open my Middlebury email. Gmail wouldn't open at all. It was very frustrating.



We got back to the other café internet just in time to take the Peace Corps van back, so that was great - I didn't spend any money on taxis this time. When we got back we went to one of the girl's "houses" which is actually also a bar so we had a place to sit and just relax a bit - something I needed by that time.



Then I came home, played UNO with Felicité, ate pineapple and dinner (it is amazing how skinny and meatless the chickens here are, but the most amazing thing is how Felicite sucks all the meat off the chicken and practically eats the bones as well. I can't help but feel badly because I feel that I am given food that they don't get very often like meat and fruit.)



6/17/07

I am doing very well. I am missing you all a lot, but trying not to let myself get sad or depressed about it. Today was a pretty good day. We didn't go to church though, which was sort of a bummer because I had planned my day around it, but it is also good because now I know that they don't go to church every week "religiously" and so I won't feel obligated to go every week as well and I can make plans to do other things.



This morning I had taken a shower, eaten breakfast, swept out my room and done laundry all before 7:30 in the morning. Can you believe that? My internal clock wakes me up at 5:30 now (and my bladder as well because I inevitably am about to burst and barely make it to my latrine to pee). I only washed three pieces of clothing, so doing laundry didn't take too long and my host mom helped me and then stood there while I did a little bit =0). Then I played UNO and different card games all morning - it got a little boring. Eventually Felicite and I went for a little walk to her father's house - I guess he doesn't sleep in this house. It is really hard to figure it all out. There are always different people here and I don't know who they are and different people sleep here on different nights. Anyway, I didn't get to see the inside of her father's house because he wasn't there.



Then we came back to the house, I studied French verbs a bit and then we had lunch - it was the peanut sauce! It was very good. It had beef and vegetables and fried tofu in it and it was all very good and I had pineapple for dessert which was super yummy.



After lunch I read a bit of information about HIV/AIDS because a group of four of us have to do a presentation tomorrow. Then Felicite suggested that we walk up the mountain a bit to the mission. I am not sure what religion the mission is exactly, but the climb up there was very nice and I finally got a good vantage point to take some pictures of our town. It was BEAUTIFUL. I can't exaggerate how beautiful it is here. It is lush and green and mountainous. BEAUTIFUL. There are these cool plants and their leaves have red and yellow spots on them. Felicite said that people say that the red is Jesus' blood and the white his soul, but that of course it isn't true. The mission was nice, but even neater was a catholic sanctuary - it was sort of like an outdoor church - all made of stone and cement with a wall around it but no roof and cement benches and an alter with Jesus on the cross and a woman at his feet. It was all overgrown with plants and even had a tree in the middle, but it was neat.



At three I had to meet with my group at the tech center. On the way, I met another girl. We stopped at the bar that is also the house of one of the girls and chatted with a bunch of girls who were already there and then we continued on to the tech center. Just as we arrived, the rain came almost like a wall of rain. We could here the rain hitting the trees on the mountain and see the sheet of rain coming toward us. I had my computer, so I went inside, but two of the girls stood out there to meet the rain.



For the rest of the afternoon we read about HIV/AIDS and prepared our respective sections of the presentation. I am doing treatment - funny because I am the one who knows the least about HIV/AIDS in the group and I got the longest section, but it is good because I don't know much about it and I need to learn. As I was walking home around six, there was a beautiful full double rainbow in the sky - I wished I had my camera, but I didn't. It was perfect because it had just rained and the sun was setting. It was gorgeous. A true wonder of nature I think.



At home I ate dinner and had another Ewe lesson. The girl who is teaching me is starting to seem a bit bored with me. She is only fifteen and I am not exactly sure how she feels about coming here EVERY night. I tried to tell her that I don't mind if she doesn't come every night, but when she left she said see you tomorrow. It is difficult because I can't do anything in the evening because it would be rude to stand my Ewe teacher up (tonight the other girls were planning to share photos from home and perhaps watch a movie).



I can count to ten in Ewe now and once you know one to ten all the other numbers are pretty easy. I think if I had someone who really knew how to teach Ewe as a second (third, fourth, fifth =0) language) I could learn it well because it is both somewhat simple and very complicated all at the same time. I would just latch on to the simple stuff and hope that the rest comes later. Some of the sounds are really difficult to make - like one that is a combination of F and P and another that is a combination of K and P. They just don't come out right. My "teacher," her name is Ese and I don't think she likes it when I call her professeur, but I do it to bug her, laughed at me today (as usual) because when I was asking her to conjugate a couple of verbs for me, the first ones I came up with were eat and sleep. So she said you just like to eat and sleep. They make a lot of noises here, you know, ehs and ohs and ahs and each one has its own special intonation and meaning. I have yet to figure it out, but "eh" means yes.



6/18/07

Today was another good day. All in all I think I am doing very well. Many of the other trainees here are unhappy, but I am happy. I like it here, I like the reason that I am here, I like what I am learning and I like the experience that I am having. The other thing is that I have not been sick and many of them are sick with diarrhea, stomach problems, colds etc. I hope not to get sick, but I suppose eventually I will. Even so, I am trying not to get sick and keep telling myself that I won't. Another girls says she dreads each meal thinking that perhaps that is the meal that will make her sick. I think that that is silly because she will almost make herself sick psychologically.



I am not really going to follow a chronological order today - I am just going to tell you the important things that happened. Like every day of the week we have classes from 7:30 to 12:00 and again from 2:30 to 5:30.



As I sat in English class today I got all these little round dots on my arms. I think they are bites of some sort. They don't itch, but they form round red blotches about the diameter of a piece of chalk. They have almost disappeared now.



I have to try not to be too too cheerful so that I don't bug the other volunteers who seem a bit melancholic and you know, if you're not feeling great, it can be kind of annoying to have someone around who is doing just fine. Everyone likes to commiserate and I have nothing to commiserate about.



Today we had an AIDS talk in the morning. The trainees from the other village came as well, so it was nice to see them again. We will see them again tomorrow and the next day and we are planning to have a game and movie night on Saturday where we go to their tech house and stay the night there in the other village. I hope it will be fun and that my host mom won't be upset about me going. The AIDS talk was given by two volunteers who have each been here for two years already and have extended their service - one for a year and the other one for a couple of months. Togo is in a pretty bad state because there are hardly any international NGOs working here. They all pulled out in 2005 and we can only hope that they will begin coming back after the next elections. Listening to the stories of people living with HIV/AIDS I almost started to cry. I think it is going to be very challenging for me to work with people who are affected by HIV/AIDS. In Togo, as in many other places, people are reluctant to get tested because there is a very negative social stigma against HIV/AIDS and people who test positive are often disowned by their families and shunned socially. In addition, they don't have access to ARVs so HIV is most often a death sentence. People don't know why it is worth getting tested if there is no guarantee of treatment. According to the volunteers who gave the presentation said that often women are more open to testing than men and that a common scenario is that a woman gives birth to a sickly child and eventually gets tested for HIV/AIDS as a result of the child's sickness. Husbands often refuse testing. The society is very polygamous as well, which makes the issue a bit more complicated. Anyway, it was all very interesting; the only downside was that we were presenting the same information again in the afternoon. I thought that very silly, because it would be boring for all of the health trainees to hear the same information twice, but it ended up being ok because there were less people (the Small Enterprise Development trainees weren't there) and we could make it more of a discussion and clarification session than a presentation. It went well.



I love the way it rains here. It rains hard, really hard for a short period of time and then it all clears up. It is so neat because it is just a heavy rain cloud right above us that dumps water on us but you can see that if you walked one hundred meters you would be out of the rain. I am always so tempted to go play in the rain and today I saw two young boys butt naked having a mud fight in the street. I was very tempted to join them, but of course I didn't.



My other big news is that I got moved up to the highest French level. There are only two other students in the class. I don't know if it is a good thing or not. I guess it is good because it means I will be more challenged and although I need a lot of refreshing, the other class was a little boring. I will miss our beautiful outdoor classroom, though. Having class indoors just won't compare I am sure. Also, I am quite intimidated by one of the girls in the advanced class and therefore don't particularly like her. I don't really know why I am intimidated by her or why I don't like her, I just don't. So anyway, that was the big news today and I spent the evening doing some French homework. Tomorrow we will see how it goes.



I didn't have an Ewe lesson today which I am glad of. It was getting to be a little much, plus I had French homework. My homework was to get a recipe from my host mom and write it down. Of course they don't have recipes written down and between the gaps in both our knowledge of French we aren't able to have extensive conversations, so I watched her cook dinner to learn the recipe. Both Felicite and Fidele pulled up stools as well to watch her cook. The kitchen is a dark room (without any artificial light) and it has two clay stoves - a two burner and a one burner - and two little metal stoves to be used with charcoal I think. The only stove I have seen my host mom use is the two burner clay stove and she uses wood as a fuel - these big long sticks that she pushes up as they burn away. Tonight, for dinner, she made like a soup/stew with beef, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, green pepper, garlic, onion, pepper. My host mom crushed the garlic, onion and black pepper corns on a concrete slab using a round stone. She is a super cook. Everything I have eaten so far has been delicious. Today I had a really great couscous for lunch.



Usually my host mom and the two girls eat with me, or at least Felicite eats with me. Sometimes (most often) they don't eat the same thing, but rather pâte (the stuff that is sort of like polenta) and a green leafy sauce that I tried once and found to be quite bitter. That is what I see them eating most often. They usually eat in the room next to the kitchen, where they store a lot of kitchen supplies, but they don't ever have me eat there. My host mom said that there are too many flies there. If we eat together, they come and accompany me in the hallway outside my room. The hallway has windows that open to the courtyard so there is a nice breeze usually.



Tonight only I ate. I always feel badly about the food situation. I feel as though if I leave some meat - it is good because one of them will get to eat the meat. At the same time, I have to eat enough, or my host mom gets a little upset. Not really upset, but a little worried that I didn't like the food and really, truly, honestly, all the food so far has been great. I had mango for the first time today - it was delicious. I could have eaten five mangos =0) but there again, I feel as though if I don't eat it, the girls will be able to and that they often don't have those foods for them. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I don't often see them eating the fruit that I have. Just an orange sometimes, but not very often.



What else? I wanted to tell you about the little four year old - Fidele. She is a character. I wish I could understand all she says, but she speaks mostly Ewe, little French. She talks all the time and has a real attitude that is evident in her tone of voice and the way she walks. Felicite is a little mean to her sometimes, but she seems to hold her own. I really like her a lot and so wish I could talk to her and understand all she says. We spent a while after lunch today drawing with the colored pencils I brought. Fidele must have gone through about eight or more sheets of paper. I have all their drawings on my wall now.



I also washed out my water filter again and on of my formateurs came in the evening to tighten the spout so it wouldn't leak all over the place again. I hope this time my water comes out tasting and smelling better. It has a horribly strong metallic taste and smell that makes it almost undrinkable.



6/19/07

Today was another good day, but I am feeling a bit melancholic. I will start with the most recent things which have left me feeling this way. My Ewe teacher (the fifteen year old girl who is teaching me Ewe - Ese) came again today. I was kind of hoping that she wouldn't come. She doesn't have anything structured to teach me and I don't have time to really study the things she has given me so far. I am learning little by little. I have gotten most of the basic body parts down since yesterday. Still, the Ewe classes are a little boring and we sort of stare at each other trying to think of what to do next. But I am in a bit of a bind because I can't very well tell her not to come anymore. I don't really want her not to come anymore, but I don't want her to come every night either. Today the guy in charge of language gave me a small English-Ewe lexicon (a very very short dictionary - a photocopy - about thirty pages long only. So we read through some of the words with her correcting my pronunciation. She laughs at me a lot, which is ok, I laugh at myself, I have to because some of the sounds are so hard for me to pronounce and some sounds make me think of other things in other languages that make me laugh. One of the sounds, like I think I mentioned yesterday, is the sound of k and p being smushed together. When she says it, it sounds like a hen clucking and I can't help but laugh. I can't seem to get the sound right. I don't know how to make it with my mouth. I hear what she is saying, but I can't replicate it. Anyway, all of this of course draws a crowd, so I have lots of people around me laughing at my attempts. That is fine, I don't mind. I am really not sure WHAT it is exactly that I do mind. I guess it was just the last things that she said. When I said that I was tired, she said that all I do is eat and sleep, I don't do any work, how could I be tired. She likes to say that all I like to do is eat and sleep because those are the first verbs that came to my mind when I asked her to conjugate a couple verbs for me. I think she is teasing, but she says it very seriously. She says she works - she works in the field, she goes to the market etc. and that I do nothing. It is true, no doubt about it that she works harder than me. I think the bad feeling inside is at least partially guilt, because she does work harder than me and her life is much harder than mine, and that guilt makes me feel uncomfortable. Then there were other things that she said. We got talking about my family because seeing the ring on my finger, she asked me if I was married. I said no. She asked why then do I wear a ring. I said because I want people to think that I am married. She said, so you don't want to marry a black man, you should marry a black man. I said, it isn't that I don't want to marry a black man, it is that I already have a boyfriend. I told her I would show her a picture, so I brought out my picture album and showed her all the pictures of my family. Anyway, so as we went through the pictures, I explained that Jason is adopted. First she wanted to know why my mom only had two children and then she wanted to know why, if she could have her own children, my mother adopted. I tried to explain, but it was difficult. Then she was arguing that Jason wasn't really part of the family because he is black and blacks are on one continent and whites on the other. I said that no, that he really is part of the family, just like my other brother. She seemed very skeptical. Then she asked why I have a boyfriend if I don't have a job. According to her I should have a job and money before having a boyfriend. I asked her if boyfriends were only for making families and she said no, for making love as well, which I found interesting. The conversation was getting a bit embarrassing though, because she asked me what I do with you and I said that I talk and she said that she was sure that I did something else as well (insinuating having sex, of course). So the conversation was going in an embarrassing direction and my host mom and little sister were there, so . . . I am not sure how culturally ok it is to talk about these things. Anyway, the whole evening just left me a bit, you know, missing you a lot. Missing people who understand me I guess, but I am going to try to just get over that feeling and be fine. I know she doesn't mean any harm. Oh, and along with saying that all I like to do is eat and sleep, that I have no reason to be tired because I don't do any work, she also told me that I am fat. I told her that I don't like fish and that I eat beef and chicken and she said "that must be why you are fat". I just responded "I guess so" and left it at that. Oh well, at least she is the first Togolese person to tell me that I am fat. My host mom just wants me to eat a lot.



Anyway,



Early this morning I had an embarrassing moment. As I walk down the street, men will often say "good morning (or good afternoon), how are you?" Usually I just automatically respond "good" and don't even look up or pay any other attention to them. I just respond so as not to be completely rude, but I don't want to be overly friendly either. Women, fine, but not with men. So this morning I was walking to my French class and I heard a male voice behind me say "Bon jour, comment ça va?" Without looking up or turning around or slowing my step I responded "ça va merci" and kept walking. The person was catching up to me and I thought to myself "oh no, this one is going to be persistent" and so I braced myself and prepared to be a bit rude and looked up and there was my new French professor. I was so embarrassed. I tried to explain and hope that he understood.



In the morning we had a technical session. The technical session covers everything having to do with our job specifically as health volunteers, so today we were learning about the system of health care in Togo and also about AIDS and a certain Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS that a past Peace Corps volunteer helped start. The session left me feeling a bit intimidated because the volunteers that were talking to us seemed to be doing such important things, things that really make a difference in the lives of many people and I can only hope that I will be able to make a difference as well. I feel unprepared and that I don't have much to offer, but I am trying not to listen too much to those thoughts.



Lunch was great, as always. Vegetables, tofu and rice - a bit like as stir fry. It is interesting because here according to my host mom and to Felicite, they eat pâte (the starch I liken to polenta) every day with a sauce. Now they are having a bit more variety in their diet because sometimes they eat a bit of what I eat. It is interesting though because Fidele, the four year old, won't eat the cabbage, the carrots, the beans or the green peppers. She just eats the rice. She doesn't recognize the other foods. She thought the carrots were papaya. It is just interesting because I wonder if they don't have the money for a variety of food or if it is preference or what.



I learned today that Fidele is actually my host mom's grand-daughter. Fidele's father is Felicité's brother (much older of course). I think I have got it right now, but I can never be sure. Family relationships here are quite confusing. Also, the older boy and girl who were here when I arrived but then suddenly disappeared seem to have gone to a family farm. The girl came back today and said that she will be here until Friday and then she will go back to the farm to work. The boy didn't come back.



In the afternoon we went to the other village for a health session. We got our second rabies shot and then had a talk on Sexually transmitted infections and HIV and sexual assault. The PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) is rather strange. She is a thin woman who looks relatively young but has all grayish white hair. She seems very hippi-ish and she sort of tries to be very cool and down to earth and so first she made us do this "game" where we had to think of all the slang words for arm and then we had to think of all the slang words for penis. It was strange. In her efforts to be hip with our age-group, it sometimes comes off as being inappropriate. Like she said, "some of us wish we were having sex as much as all of you." The whole thing made me a bit uncomfortable as did the relay race that entailed each person in a line putting a condom on fake penises as fast as they could (but correctly). I guess it is good that I get used to it though, because as a health volunteer, I will probably be doing a lot of condom demonstrations. Anyway, it was strange because she was practically assuming that we were all going to have sex with each other. Perhaps some people will, but not all. Anyway, it was a bit strange.



The power has cut out and all the little buggies in my room are attracted to the light of my screen. It is a bit annoying.



After the Health session I came back to our village and I went with Felicite to take the cloth that I bought and my pants to a tailor to make another pair of pants. He is going to charge me 2,000 cFa, $4. I am not sure if that is too expensive or not, but I will get a pair of pants for a total of $8. Kind of expensive I think. I will have to ask tomorrow or the next day if you can barter for services. It is difficult for me to barter, though, when members of my host family are around because I feel as though perhaps I will insult them. This is a small town and everyone knows everyone. I think Felicite told me that the tailor has some relationship to Fidele's (other?) grandmother. I don't know. Anyway . . .



Then I had dinner - a salad and I taught some more kids to play UNO. It is tiring because I have to explain everything and constantly play "referee". I play UNO to spend time with the kids. I would probably prefer to be shut up in my room, but I don't.



The water I filtered last night after cleaning my filter again is much better. It tastes a little like pool water because of the bleach, but no longer like liquid rust.



Oh, and during lunchtime Fidele, Felicite and I, and then another little girl, drew pictures. Fidele seems to be on a personal race to go through as many sheets of paper in as short a period of time as possible. She draws some squiggles and says she is done. Then I started trying to have her draw on both sides of the paper so she draws some squiggles on one side, some more squiggles on the other and wants another sheet of paper. On most of the papers she does exactly the same sort of zig-zagging squiggles. I tried to get her to use more colors, just so that she would spend a little more time on one piece of paper. At this rate, I am going to be out of paper by the end of the week. I will have to come up with something so as to slow the flow.



Anyway, all in all I am doing super duper well. I have nothing to complain about and I am happy, but I miss you all terribly.



6/20/07



This morning we went to the other village and had a joint health session with the SED trainees on stress and alcohol. The alcohol part doesn't really apply to me and I actually don't feel very stressed. I feel really good in a general sense. I am very happy to be here. I love it here. We got finished with the session early so I came home and sat with my host mom as she cooked lunch. She had already made a sauce for me, but I watched her make the sauce for them. It is the sauce I most often see them eating with pâte (sort of like polenta). It is make out of green leaves that she cooks with a bit of water (this is all over a wood fire. We got our gas stoves yesterday, but we haven't used it yet). Then she added some dried little whole fishies, some salt, some onions and hot peppers crushed using a stone and a cement block and some chicken stock (they have Maggi here as well). I was pretty grossed out by the fish, especially after she soaked them in water before putting them in the pot and the water turned black. I tasted a tiny tiny bit of the green stuff, but no fishies. I ate a different sauce with my lunch and it had no fishies in it, just chicken and some tofu (fried soy) and it was very good. I like being able to eat with my hands.



After lunch I played UNO with Felicite for a bit. My Ewe teacher came by. I asked her if I could go out to the market with her one day and she said yes. Then I asked her if I could go to the field with her one day and she said no. I had my feet up on a bench and she touched the under part of my foot and then laughed, I think because they are relatively soft. I call her the mean professor and Felicite laughs. She asked why I thought she was mean and I told her because she makes me sing the months song and count when there are a lot of people around and because she said that all I like to do is sleep and eat. She said that they were just plaisenteries which means that she was just teasing. As I left to go to the tech house early (to charge my computer and work on my blog) she told me that I couldn't go yet because I hadn't taken a shower. I told her that I only shower once a day, in the morning, or twice on exceptional occasions. She and her friend laughed hysterically at that and said that they shower three times as day and that if I don't I will stink. I told her that I won't stink because I use deodorant. They laughed.



In the afternoon we visited a hospital and a dispensaire (a clinic). Some of the girls were really shocked by the poor conditions and they made faces. I felt badly for the people showing us around and felt that the girls should make a bigger effort not to let their reactions show on their faces because the people at these hospitals are doing everything they can with very limited resources. The man in charge of the prefectural hospital for this area is a military doctor. He said that they have all the necessary personnel, but no infrastructure. They don't have sufficient equipment or medicines. For visits they charge only 100 francs, about twenty cents, and there is someone staffing the hospital twenty-four hours a day. They also give seven important vaccines for free - I was pretty impressed by that. We were also taken right into the area where mothers and newborn babies were resting. There was a baby that had been born this morning. The midwife held it up to me and said I could have it. I was a bit taken aback, but responded that no, the baby should stay with its mother (who was, by the way, lying right there). I have never seen such a young baby before. He (she?) was beautiful, tiny and red. The dispensaire (clinic) was actually a bit nicer even then the prefectural hospital. I would have really enjoyed the visits except my stomach was cramping up the whole time. It started to absolutely pour buckets as we left the hospital and drove to the clinic.



Once back at the tech center, we stayed around chatting for a while and then I walked home. I wanted to stop by the tailor's to pick up my pants, so I didn't take advantage of the van that could have gotten me closer to home. It was raining and started raining harder and harder before I got home. The mud here is very gooey and slippery - so I got my feet all muddy. As I neared my house, a young girl (who later told me she was twelve, but looks at least 16) who was walking in the same direction as I wrapped her pagne (big cloth) around us both to protect me from the wind and the rain. Her name is Valerie and she is my host dad's niece from what I understand. It was very nice of her to rescue me like that as I had my computer with me and was getting rather drenched. I got home, changed my clothes and then chatted with Valerie a bit. Her family makes tofu (from soy) and so I asked her if she could teach me sometime. Maybe next Wednesday because we have the afternoon off. She also said that she would braid my hair if I want her to - in little braids. I do want her to, but I am afraid of not being able to get them out and having to cut my hair. I don't want to cut my hair.



Then we played UNO with a couple other teenage girls for a bit. I broke for dinner and they continued playing. After dinner I started to read my French book, but I was getting so sleepy. I just wanted to come write to you and go to bed, but I still haven't really advertised that I have a computer with me and so I always write to you after having brushed my teeth, put on my pijamas and closed the door for the night.



I had another moment today when I felt just so very lucky to be here and reminded myself how lucky I am to be living a dream.





6/21/07



I had another really good day. I feel so lucky, I am so happy here. Everyday I have moments when I think, I am so lucky to be in such a beautiful place having this experience.



I had a great day. The worst part of the day is usually right when I wake up because I have to pee so badly (and poo too) that I am afraid I won't make it. My host mom wakes up between five and five-thirty every morning and before that I can't really go to the bathroom because the door leading to the courtyard (outside) is locked and I have to go across the courtyard to get to the latrine. Last night I woke up at 2:30 in the morning and had to pee and poo. I just tried to tell myself that I could make it until morning and fall back asleep and I did, but barely.



I had a hot cereal for breakfast which was great because I was getting a little tired of the oily omelet I was eating every day. French class was fine. We talked about the American individuality versus the African collectivism. Here there are no homeless people I think and parents are always taken care of by children. We were told that in our villages we will have to have the support of the village elders for our projects or they just will not work.



Then we were supposed to have a bike class, but plans changed and the other group of trainees from the other village came to our village. We got more money and then we had a bit of free time to just walk around. We found a library in our little village, which was impressive to me. There even used to be a little internet café, but it is closed now. Still, I really think someone should reopen it because there will be Peace Corps training in this village off and on for the next two years so if someone opens an internet café, I think they could make a lot of money.



I watched my host mom make lunch. She used the little clay one-burner stove and with charcoal. It was a tomato based sauce with vegetables and tofu over rice and it was very good as is everything that my host mom makes. After lunch I played cards with Felicite and another older girl (fourteen) who lives here - I haven't learned her name yet.



Then I went to the tech center and set up my computer to charge it. We had a little session about our visit to the hospital and clinic yesterday. Here in Togo there is only one doctor for more than ten thousand people. One doctor in the whole prefecture that I think covers eighteen clinics. That is insane, but it is all the money that the government has for healthcare. The staff that we met seemed quite competent and interested in doing a good job, but they don't have much to work with in the way of supplies, infrastructure and funding.



Then we had a garden session. We learned how to choose a garden site, how to make a compost pile and how to mix soil. Then we went down to a little garden that they have begun to prepare for us and that we will work on to learn how to garden. I am so happy about all the new skills I will learn. Maybe next week I will learn how to make tofu. At the garden we filled a lot of little bags with dirt because tomorrow we are going to plant seedlings of a particularly special plant whose leaves are very rich in vitamins.



After the garden session we returned to the tech house and watch one of our fellow trainees (who is a tai kwan do and gesitsu (I don't know how to spell it) teacher show us some moves on another trainee. She is going to teach us some important moves for self defense particularly because we are all women. I think it is a great idea although I wasn't going to volunteer myself because she was throwing the other girl around like a rag doll and she (the girl teaching) isn't big at all.



Then I came home and ate dinner. It was salad, whole wheat bread and chicken. I am always afraid my host mom will be disappointed by how much I have eaten, but I try to just eat as much as I want to because I know that even if I eat a lot she will still want me to eat more. I feel badly about the meat though. The chickens here are very skinny - they have hardly any meat at all. I ate some of the pieces of meat of the chicken (because it was for me) and then gave the rest to Felicité. It is amazing watching her eat chicken. She eats everything and just spits out some pieces of bone that I guess are too hard to chew. It is also kind of sad because, for example, tonight Fidèle walked by Felicité's plate when she wasn't there and grabbed the chicken bone (that had nothing left on it anyway) and started gnawing at it desperately. Then Felicité came back and they got in a fight over the chicken bone. A few minutes later, the whole scene was repeated. It makes me feel so badly.



The light in the hallway and the light in my room have burned out so I did not have an Ewe lesson today and I was not disappointed. I had an informal Ewe lesson. I am perfecting my knowledge of the parts of the body. It was very nice because we all sat outside (all women of various ages, mostly teenagers, my host mom, some around ten year olds and Fidèle). It was just nice. Fun. A lot of laughter. A lot of it at me. They thought it was funny that I said because the lights were out we should all go to bed. I also told my Ewe teacher that I went to the fields today, so I had a right to be tired. She just laughed.



I had a couple of things I wanted to comment on yesterday and forgot so I will write about it now. First, it often sounds as though people here are very angry. They yell a lot with angry voices and then smile. I used to tense up when I heard their agitated tones, but now I am getting used to it. Sometimes I think they are having the worst of fights, but it isn't a fight at all. For example my host mom and my host dad or my host mom and Felicité.



The other thing is that breasts here are definitely not private. Yesterday they were teaching me the word for breasts and when I was reluctant to grab my own breasts as I grab my hair for example when I repeat the word for hair, a twelve year old girl actually reached over and grabbed my breast, showing me where it was - as if I didn't know. I find that, obviously, quite uncomfortable, but I guess I have to get over my own embarrassment and grab my own breasts first or they won't hesitate in doing it for me.





6/22/07

I have had a really good day filled with a lot of exciting new things. The first was that I rode my bike for the first time today. It was a short ride because another girl got sick and we had to go back, but it was really fun. The bikes are super nice and make riding, even up hills, easy and I absolutely love my bicycle seat. At least for that short ride it was extremely comfortable, so so far I am very happy with the purchase. I hope I will bike a lot at my site. Here I don't need to bike because the tech center (where I have most of my classes) is only a short 7 minute walk or so from my house.



After the bike session, we had a session on a really neat plant called moringa. It is a plant that grows quickly in a lot of different conditions and whose leaves are extremely nutritious. It sounds like a plant that could really create an opportunity for development at multiple levels - at the Natural Resource Management level, at the Small Enterprise development level and at the Health level and even at the Gender level. It is the first thing I have learned about that has gotten me really really excited about actually getting to the project phase of my service because I think it is something that I could have a hand in that would really make a difference. If we could get a group of women to grow moringa it could become an income generating activity that would have great nutritional benefits for the community involved. We learned all about the properties of the plant (if you are really interested, you could google it) and then we planted moringa seeds in the bags of dirt that we had prepared yesterday. Whenever I get a moment I will read all the information I have on moringa. It sounds like a great plant that could help a lot with malnutrition. Anyway, I think it can be at least part of the project that I am eventually involved in.



Then I came home for lunch and after lunch I watched my host mom get her hair done. The girl braided her real hair around her head in a spiral and then used the spiraling lines to actually sow strings of fake hair to her scalp. It was a long process, taking about an hour and a half or two hours. Anyway, it was just interesting to see how it was done.



In the afternoon we had a session on protocol and how we have to pay visits to the local authorities in our village and get their approval for all of our projects. Then we worked for a bit on a group project that we will be presenting on Monday. My partner and I working on how one defines the needs of a community and identifies the priorities.



At home again I ate dinner and then sat outside for a very very long time. I don't know why I stay so long. I guess it is just because I want to spend time with my family, but it gets a little tiring because they talk all the time in Ewe.



Did I tell you that I am going to start having real Eve classes? Half of our French class tomorrow is going to be an Ewe class. We will see how it goes. The plan for tomorrow is to go to Kpalime right after class and then come back to our village, pick up our stuff and go to the other village. We are going to have a game night at the other tech house and we are going to all spend the night there. We will come back to our village on Sunday morning. I was nervous about telling my host mom about it, but I think they had discussed it at their weekly meetings and so she wasn't surprised or confused or anything - she just said ok and asked if I would be back for lunch on Sunday.