8/11/07 through 8/20/07

8/11/07 and 8/12/07

I got another virus on my memory stick from plugging it into the computers at the internet café. The printer at the internet café was out of ink and so I plugged my memory stick into the computer to save Jorge’s emails on it =0(. Now I have another virus on my computer and I think that perhaps my memory stick is ruined. Norton antivirus said that it was unable to repair the archive. I am doing a virus check now and I will see what I can do, but I am afraid to do further damage.

Aside from the virus that I am discovering now, yesterday was a good internet day. I was able to send several emails in an hour which compared to last Saturday is fantastic. Once I was finished on the internet, I tried to call my mom several times, just to see if my cell phone would work to call my house seeing as it doesn’t work to call your cell phone. It didn’t work the first few times, but then it surprised me by working. I was so excited to talk to my mom that I was almost trembling – I think both of us were so surprised to hear the other that we were rendered speechless. We had barely gotten over the “how are you’s” when I ran out of credit. I don’t know how long we spoke, but it was less than two minutes and it ate through $1000 cFA of credit (approx. $2.00). Needless to say, I won’t be calling home too often, but it is nice to know that it works in case I need to call home sometime and it was wonderful just to hear my mom’s voice for a minute.

Then I waited for one of my friends to finish sending her emails and we went to meet some other friends at FanMilk (yummy!! FanMilk!!). Together we walked through the market. I bought two different pieces of cloth and enough of each to make a full outfit (called a complet) – three pagnes worth (each pagne is perhaps 1 and 2/3 meter long and a meter wide). The first one that I bought I intended to give to my host mother as a gift, but then I second-guessed my choice, afraid that it was too toned down for an African woman’s tastes (it has triangular patterns on it in a reddish brown, navy blue and white – I found it striking). I then bought the second pagne (both of the same quality, for the same amount of money) which is a bit more colorful (plum, turquoise, greenish brown). I liked both of them for myself and so when I got home I pulled them both out and asked my host mom to choose the one she wanted and that I would keep the other one. She chose the one that I had first chosen for her and then told me that the second one was very good for me. So it worked out well. She seemed very happy with the gift which, of course, made me happy.

In the evening I spent a long time sitting in the kitchen with my host mom and her sister in law (who has been staying here this week). We laughed a lot because they were eating my leftover salad and they were saying that it wasn’t very good, that perhaps with some sardines it would be good. My host mom said that I don’t like sardines and I piped in that for me it is “doux” without the sardines (“doux” literally means sweet, but it is used for all foods that taste good to an individual, not necessarily only sugary foods). They said that for Africans, a meal has to have a starch like fufu, pâte, rice, or couscous for it to really be considered a meal. They like things that sit heavily in the stomach. I joked with them and said that even if they didn’t think it tasted good at least they could know that the salad is good for them. I like that I am beginning to be able to get the gist of conversations in Ewe, even if I don’t understand all the words. It is easier when I am with my host-family because often the context is familiar and so I can fill in the blanks. Like when I hear “sardines” and see smirking looks in my direction, I know what they are talking about. Or I know from watching her gnaw on bones and fight with Fidele over pieces of fish, that Felicite loves meat and so when my host mom said that if she bought half a kilo of meat and put it in front of Felicite, she would eat it all, I understood what she said without really understanding all the words.

My host mom said that she was going to kill a pig and prepare and dry some of the meat for me to take to post. That will be interesting. She is so thoughtful.

Last night we played UNO for a bit and then I went to bed, I was exhausted. Sometimes I read before going to bed and sometimes, when I am really tired, I just look at my little picture album and then go to bed.

This morning I got up, took a shower, ate breakfast and then we went to the seamstress. My host mom picked a really simple outfit to get made – I think she was trying to pick the one that would be the cheapest to have made (they have these charts with all these African models in outfits and you can pick styles and mix and match tops and bottoms). I asked her if she didn’t prefer a more fancy, detailed one, but she said no. I hope she likes the result. Then I tried to explain what I wanted. I am sure my Dad, Mom, and Leigh Ann and anyone else who has ever gone shopping with me will be groaning and rolling their eyes as they read this, because I always know exactly what I want and nothing else will do. Today wasn’t any different. I like the style of several of my host moms tops that she lent me for the fashion show. The material is bunched up and sort of ruffled and it is called “paillote” (it sounds like the same word as the grass roofed gazebos, but I don’t know if it is the same word). I said that I wanted a top that was partially ruffled like that over the chest and sleeves, but that was then fitted around the waist (my host mom’s tops are very loose and look a bit like maternity clothes). For the outfit that I described, the seamstress told me it would cost 7,000 cFA ($14). You’re probably thinking that that isn’t too expensive, but really it is (my host mom’s outfit is going to cost 3,000 cFA and even that is expensive for a complet, I think, but I couldn’t argue about it because my host mom had chosen the seamstress and I didn’t want to make her feel badly). After all that discussion about exactly what I wanted my complet to look like, I told the seamstress that I would pay for my host mom’s complet, but that I would take my material home with me and think about it for a couple of days. My host mom didn’t seem very happy with my decision, but because we have communication difficulties, I couldn’t tell if she thought the seamstress was charging me too much or not.

After I did my laundry, I went over and asked one of my friend’s host moms how much a complet with doubling (they line the inside with a solid color) and paillote should cost and she said 6,000 or 7,000 cFA, so I guess the seamstress wasn’t trying to rip me off too too much. Even so, later in the morning as I was playing a memory game with Felicite and her cousin, the seamstress came to the house and talked to my host mom and they looked at my host mom’s shirt, the one that I like a lot, and she had me put it on and I explained exactly how I wanted my shirt and she told me that she would do it for me for 5,000 cFA, last price. She had bargained herself down 2,000 cFA and so I accepted. I hope it turns out well. It only takes two pagne to make a complet – the third one is often used to make a head scarf and an extra cloth that is either draped over the shoulder or wrapped around the waist. I told the seamstress that I want my third pagne left in tact – and I am planning to have another pair of three-quarter length pants made with it so that I have several outfit options. I will get the pants made by the tailor that I have been going to for all my skirts and my other pair of pants because I like his work, he knows me, and I know what he charges and that it is more or less fair.

I think I was able to eliminate all the viruses from both my computer and my memory stick, so that is good.

In the afternoon, I went to one of the other trainees houses to escape the yelling in my own house. Felicite and Fidele fight often (like most siblings – they technically aren’t siblings, but they might as well be) and it was only about the fifteenth time that Felicite had made Fidele cry (not a difficult feat). Then my host mom goes off and yells at them both. I agreed to go with my friend on what I thought would be a short excursion to see a garden and it ended up being a two hour hike on a narrow footpath through really tall grass (that my imagination told me was home to lots of snakes). I wasn’t particularly content (it wasn’t exactly how I had wanted to spend the bulk of my afternoon and the garden wasn’t anything special) and then it started to rain and I got a thorn in my foot. I know, I know, poor me =0).

The evening was much better, though, because I watched a movie at the tech house and ate crepes that another of the trainees had made for us. It was yummy.

8/13/07

This morning I had a particularly draining interaction during my French class. We got into a discussion about colonization and one of my Togolese formateurs (language trainer) said that he thinks that it is important to remember the good things that resulted from colonization and he named alphabetization of local languages and the end of human sacrifices as an example. I don’t know why I reacted so strongly to what he was saying, I understand that colonialism should not be used as the “scape-goat” for all of Africa’s present problems (that isn’t really constructive or productive), but nonetheless is marks a substantial chunk of Africa’s recent history and shouldn’t be sugar coated either. I think he just wanted to note that there were some positive outcomes of colonialism, but I felt like he was essentially saying that colonialism brought Africa out of “barbarism” and into the “civilized” world and it really bothered me. Then another of the trainees, who was a history major in college, said that the history of the world is a history of successive conquest and colonization, which I understand, but I don’t think that makes it a mute point. Then we got into a discussion of gender roles which essentially turned into a man-bashing session that I just stayed out of entirely because I was drained from the previous discussion and didn’t have the energy to defend men to a room full of women.

For the rest of the morning, we had time to prepare for our final projects. My group is teaching anyone who shows up to our formation tomorrow how to make enriched porridge. I am not sure how well it is going to go . . .

This afternoon two of the groups did their final projects. One was an AIDS Sensibilization and the other was supposed to be a Health Club, but because school is not in session right now, the first club meeting was a no show and so the girls decided to have a one day carnival with games for the kids. Unfortunately it started to pour just as everyone was arriving and so we had to play the games with the kids on the porch instead of in the yard. That put a damper on things because the space wasn’t large enough and also because we had to try to keep the kids more or less quiet for the AIDS sensibilization that was going on inside. All considered, though, it went pretty well. I don’t know how the sensibilization went because I was outside helping with the kids, but we did a banana relay race and then distributed free toothbrushes and did a teeth brushing demonstration and then we had all the kids brush their teeth right then and there. After that we waited for the adults to be finished and we played a relay race that involved tying a “baby” (a pillow) on your back and running to a line and back. It was fun and funny, but people cheated by holding the pillow on rather that fully tying it on. Then, with just the kids again, we played a water balloon tossing game. It was fun. The children and adults come so well dressed, though, that you are almost afraid to play games with them for fear of getting their best clothes dirty. We also distributed pop corn and candy.

Afterwards we chilled out and watched the last half of a movie we had started earlier, One Fine Day, and the first half of My Super Ex-Girlfriend before heading home.

I thought I was going to get out of playing UNO tonight because Felicite was frying plaintain chips, but unexpectedly, my host mom said “lets go play UNO” and so I played for awhile with my host mom and Fidele and then a couple more rounds after Felicite joined us.

I have decided that the perfect adjective to describe Fidele is “saucy” – she has such an attitude and this way of walking and talking – I just wish could understand what she says because I am sure I would find it so funny that I would have to repeat it all for your benefit.

8/14/07

Today was a good day. After Ewe class, I spent the rest of the morning preparing for our final project, which pretty much just consisted of me filling up little baggies with samples of enriched porridge flour and thinking about what I would say during my part of our presentation. One of the flour mixtures contained corn and soy flour and the other contained sorghum, millet, corn, bean and peanut flour. We hosted our enriched porridge formation this afternoon and we had a very good turnout – over thirty women with young children (our target audience). It seemed to be pretty successful – we made the porridge and then explained the ingredients and the importance of some source of protein to make regular corn porridge more nutritious for young children. Whether or not anyone will actually take the initiative to make enriched porridge for their children or whether they just came for the free handouts is questionable, but as far as the exercise of doing an enriched porridge formation goes, it was a success. It was also the first time that I had made it because I missed the practice session while I was in Lome (it is pretty easy – for the thick porridge (two year olds and up) it is four parts water to one part flour and for the more watered down version it is six parts water to one part flour). You might think that it doesn’t sound very appetizing with all those different flours mixed in together, but it was actually pretty good. Since we had such a great turnout, there was not a lot of porridge left over, but I cleaned out the cooking pots pretty well with my fingers and so I got a good taste.

Afterwards we watched My Super Ex-Girlfriend. I think I can delete it from my computer now that the girls have seen it because I don’t think anyone will really be interested in watching it again and I think I am running out of space.

The only thing that put a slight damper on my day was seeing the outfits that one of my friend’s host mom had had made for them. They were a bit nervous because they had no idea what the outfits were going to look like, but they are fantastic – a little on the wild side, but they look really really nice. The top is sleeveless and doesn’t really have straps at all except for a collar around the neck (that is what holds the top up) and then it is fitted with a high sash around the waist and the skirt goes to about the knee level and then flairs out with two layers and two color tones of material. It is hard to explain, but it looks really stunning and stylish. Anyway, it put a slight damper on my mood because I can’t help but be a little jealous and disappointed that I will have to wear an outfit that I don’t like to swear-in.

I spent this evening organizing photos so that hopefully I will have a CD crammed full of photos to send you right after swear-in.

8/15/07

I am well. I am in the tech house right now waiting for the other girls to arrive. We are going to have a chocolate night – eating chocolate that we have received from packages (my contribution is hot chocolate) and watch the movie Chocolat =0). It should be fun. I probably won’t stay for all of it because my host mom waits up for me and I want to be home by around 8:30 (it is 7:30 now).

Today was a pretty good day. In the morning we had a tech session during which we just discussed the completion of our final projects. Then we had a bit of free time and we did a mini photo shoot. I think I am going to try to make a movie with all our photos so that we can add music, titles and explanatory quotes. We are planning to get T-shirts made for our stage (training group) and on the back we are going to put excerpts from a bunch of songs that we have personalized. For example, some of the ones that I can remember are “It’s a hard knock life for goats” (from the musical Annie), “I’ve got my mind on my cFAs and my cFAs on my mind,” and “Agou Nyogbo knows how to party” anyway, there are at least ten of these songs and I thought it might be fun to use them in our photo movie. It is going to be a lot of work, though, and I am having a bit of trouble getting everyone organized to give me their photos, but tomorrow will be the deadline, any photos that I don’t have by then won’t go in. Hopefully, I can get it done and then we can send it out and it will give everyone at home a pretty good idea of what we have been up to.

During the second half of the morning we had a tech session on adjusting to our post. I am most worried about food issues. Not what I am going to eat, but figuring out how not to waste food – how not to cook too much and how not to allow the fresh fruits and vegetables that I buy to go bad. I need to learn exactly how much I should buy each week, exactly how much I can consume and how fast I need to consume it so that I don’t end up throwing it away. It is a huge no-no to throw away food here, but if it has gone bad, I don’t really feel comfortable about giving it away . . . I will have to try to give things away before they go bad, but at the same time I would prefer not to have to give things away at all (not because I don’t like to give, but because I don’t want to create an expectancy that I will give regularly). Anyway, it is just one of the many challenges that I am foreseeing.

After lunch I was going to go down to the tech house early to prepare some popcorn, but I decided to involve my host family so that I could spend more time with them (I have been out of the house a lot lately). Involving my host family turned into my host mom making the popcorn for me (I should have known =0). My intention was to have Felicite help me (just because I thought she would like to and because she had made popcorn the week before to sell, but my host mom did it all). She made wonderful popcorn. She did it over a charcoal stove, which I think is much better than gas because it doesn’t burn the popcorn as quickly. She didn’t shake the pot at all, but rather scooped the popped popcorn off the top and let the rest keep popping. Ingenious. =0)

Then we visited the seamstress who is making my two complets. The one I ordered for myself is not far enough along to tell how it will turn out, but I saw the top to the complet that my host mom is having made for me and I am afraid that it is as bad as I feared – gold background, florescent green triangles and navy blue circles with tiny white polka dots all topped off with some florescent green ribbon trim. Fantastic. Oh dear me, I have already apologized to my fellow trainees for ruining all the swear-in photos =0). I was thinking about getting my hair done in little braids (with extra fake hair woven in to increase the quantity of braids), but as one of my friends rightly said, why go to great lengths with my hair when my outfit is just going to ruin it. I think I will save the braids for another time.

In the afternoon we had a language session called “free university.” Each of us had to think of something to teach the others in French. It was fun. My popcorn was for that purpose – I explained how to make popcorn without a microwave or popcorn maker and at the request of my audience I even did a little popcorn dance. The other trainees taught us how to make pretty letter paper, how to make an awesome nacho cheese dip with vache-qui-rit (super processed cheese that doesn’t need to be refrigerated), how to do the hokey-pokey (in French of course), how to castrate our cat (from our resident Veterinarian), how to make and origami flower, how to play a game called “honey, I love you” (you have to try to make people laugh), how to make no-bake cookies with enriched flour, how to do some basic tie-kwan-do moves (from our closet black-belt), how to play rugby, how to help someone who is choking, how to do a yoga warm-up and how to give a massage.

It was a good day, except for the fact that one of my friends sprayed nacho cheese sauce all over my computer. It really scared me, but luckily I was able to clean it all off and none of it went down the slots around the keys (as far as I can tell). Also, my cough has gotten much worse in the last two days and I didn’t sleep very well last night (because I was coughing a lot and I couldn’t get my to stop thinking about how I am going to make a movie with all our photos). All over the country there are big billboards that say that if you have been coughing for more than two weeks you probably have tuberculosis. I don’t think I have tuberculosis, but I have definitely been coughing non-stop for more than two weeks.

8/16/07

This morning we just had our tech exam (it was pretty general and pretty easy) and then I spent the rest of the morning organizing, sorting and deleting photos. I just have to nag two more people for their photos and then I will have everyone’s photos and I can start putting them into windows movie maker. Hopefully we can add music, perhaps even a voiceover in some places and titles. Soon I will be going home for lunch and in the afternoon we have language exams. I am not nervous for mine and I am not preparing even though other people at my same level have been preparing all morning. Hm . . . It is semi-important because if you don’t pay to get your language level tested at the end of your service, the results of this language test are the ones they will report to future employers. I think I will just try to remember to pay the ten bucks right before my close of service and have another language exam, my French should be somewhat better by then. I hope.

I am also thinking that I am going to let my hair grow out until my parents get here (after Christmas) and then I am going to have my mom chop off ten inches and take it home and send it to Locks of Love. I am thinking now is a good time to experiment with having short hair and that way I still have a good eight months or so to grow my hair out before Jorge gets here. =0)

After lunch we had our language exams – I was last and so I just waited around the tech house for my exam. I bought some sugar cane to entertain myself, but it wasn’t very good and so I wasn’t motivated to cut it all up. My test went well, I think, except for the subjunctive. I am awful at the subjunctive. Oh well. They asked me pretty tough questions to answer in English, much less French, like, for example, what, if anything, about Togolese culture do I think might impede the development process, how can international development be improved, what changes do I hope for Togo’s future and how elements of the Ewe language reflect Ewe culture (I brought that last one on myself by saying that one of the reasons I am so interested in learning Ewe is because language is key to understanding culture). My test lasted forty minutes when I think they are only supposed to last twenty minutes. I hope that my level went up because I feel as though they put me at a relatively low level the last time (intermediate high). The way they rated people the last time was strange because people with very different language levels were all ranked intermediate mid and intermediate low. I honestly think that the Peace Corps has to fudge it a bit because they accept people into the Francophone West Africa program with absolutely no French and then expect them to have an intermediate mid level after only ten weeks. I think that is pretty impossible without fudging it, but they have an “intermediate-mid” language requirement for health volunteers and they aren’t going to send someone home because of language, so I think probably everyone will be intermediate-mid or higher (which means they have fudged it even though the language trainers get very defensive if you say that out loud). There is the possibility of an extra week of intensive language tutoring, however, for people who don’t make the language requirements.

Afterwards, I joined all my friends at Afrikiko, many of whom were well into a new drink, made with whisky and Fanta, that they call a “creamscicle.”

This evening I just played UNO with my host mom, Felicite and Fidele. It was fun, but now I am going to work on my photo-movie a bit.

8/17/07

Today was an okay day. I spent the bulk of it working on the “movie” that I am making with all of our photos – a frustrating task at times. Right now the movie is more than an hour long, but I think it will be interesting – people don’t have to watch it all in one sitting.

In the morning we visited the private hospital in town – a Presbyterian hospital built by the Germans. We also visited a more modest “case de sante” (clinic) which caters to the people who can’t afford the fees of the private hospital. The private hospital was much nicer and better equipped than the public hospitals we have visited. However, I will be interested to get to know the public hospital in Notse better because at first glance it seems quite nice.

During my lunch break I heard the honk-honking of the Fanmilk vender on his bicycle. I ran outside and bought Fanmilk for my whole family. I think it was a nice treat for them. Fanmilk is pretty expensive for local standards (150 cFA = one Fanmilk or a loaf and a half of bread or five pieces of fried soy or six beignets or six bags of sugared peanuts or two huge stalks of sugar cane).

I also tried to get a very hungry two-week old baby to stop wailing (note to self: when baby is hungry, nothing else will quiet it). I am repeatedly surprised at how roughly women here handle newborns (my host mom put the baby (a two week old baby!) on her back today – I was sure he was going to roll right off as she was putting the pagne on). It is simultaneously shocking and reassuring – now, when I have my own baby, I will be a little less scared of “breaking it,” but I won’t pick it up by one arm like they do here.

During our afternoon technique session we made jam – I didn’t participate much because I was trying to work on the photo film and I have made jam several times with my host mom. In the evening I continued working on my photo project.

The most interesting part of my day was finally seeing the finished product of my two complets (outfits). I absolutely love the one that I had made for myself (even though it is a little hard to tell what it looks like on me as mirrors are scarce) and I was even moderately surprised by the outfit that my host mom had made for me. Again, I didn’t get to see it on me and even though I would never have chosen the combination of colors and patterns for myself, it fits well and the seamstress did a very good job. My host mom tried on her complet as well and I think she likes it, so that makes me happy too. Anyway, I can picture myself wearing the complet that my host mom had made for me for swear-in without dying =0) and I might even wear it once or twice afterwards to change things up a little.

8/18/07 and 8/19/07

Why oh why o why do I have pink eye? And WHY did I leave BOTH my pairs of glasses in Avassikpe? Yesterday morning when I woke up my eye was hurting a bit. I thought that my contact lense might be scratched or ripped or that dirt or an eyelash had gotten under it and so I changed contact lenses when I finished with my shower. It didn’t help, though, and my eye just got redder and redder. Why I didn’t bring my contact lense case to Kpalime with me still baffles me – sometimes I just don’t think. So all day in Kpalime, my lense was irritating my eye, but I couldn’t take it out because it was a perfectly new lense (eventually, near the end of the day I gave up and took my contact lense out and put it in a little baggie with water). When I got home from Kpalime, I stored my contact lense properly and then lay down to try to rest my eye and see if it would get better. It didn’t. After dinner I went down to the tech house and half watched a movie – I decided to stay the night at the tech house where I could be free to put hot compresses on my eye and do whatever I want without bothering my host mom. Several other girls were staying the night and even more stayed until pretty late, just talking and joking around, so I was able to get my mind off my eye a bit. It just kept getting redder and more swollen, though, so I think it must be pinkeye. Somehow, I don’t think it was pinkeye when I woke up yesterday morning, but rather that it developed into that somehow. Maybe, maybe not.

Other than the contact lense situation, my day in Kpalime was just ok. I walked out to the Centre Artesanal (where we bought the elephant and hippo wood-carvings that are in my house in PA). I wanted to go there before I left the Kpalime area (the big wood-carving area) to see what it is like. I wasn’t planning on buying anything, but then I saw something that I thought would be a nice wedding gift for Elizabeth and Matt and so I bought it. Considering that they aren’t getting married until next May, I am way ahead of the game, but this way my parents can bring the gift home when they come to visit and Liz and Matt will have it on time.

Internet wasn’t working at any of the four internet cafes in and around Kpalime except one, the one that doesn’t allow me to use either my memory stick or a CD. The internet itself was relatively fast though, and so I was able to read all of Jorge’s emails and write a short email back in response and a paragraph to my parents.

Today we are going to do some cooking (I am supposed to be making pineapple upside down cake with two other girls) because we are having an appreciation party with our trainers this evening. I am also going to try to nag people into looking at the movie I have made and putting captions on the individual pictures where-ever they have something to say about a picture, just to personalize it a bit more. I am wondering if in Lome I will be able to upload pictures onto my blog. I think I will try. I am also going to call Paula in a few minutes and see if she could send me some pink-eye drops.

I called the PCMO and after giving me the party-line on this is why it is not recommended that we wear contacts in Peace Corps, she told me that I pretty much just had to ride it out. She said that if it is pink-eye, it is usually the viral kind and so drops won’t help.

Then my friend who is staying at the tech house and the volunteer who is here with us for the last few days of training went out to find ingredients for French toast. On our search we met up with Felicite. She had been down to the tech house with her father to see if I was feeling any better. I told her that I was feeling a bit better and that I would be home in about an hour.

When I got home Felicite told me that my host mom hadn’t slept the night before because she was worried about me and my eyes. I felt badly because of that, thinking that if I had stayed at home, perhaps she wouldn’t have been so worried.

I tried to do my laundry, but my host mom wouldn’t allow for it and she did it for me. Luckily I was only washing a few articles of clothing. Then I played cards and drew pictures with Felicite and Fidele.

I had eaten breakfast late (around ten) and so when I was served lunch at noon I wasn’t hungry at all. I had to eat, though, because my host mom would be really upset if I didn’t and she would probably think that it was because I was sick and not just because I wasn’t hungry. I ate and felt extraordinarily full for the second time in the day.

I played some more UNO and the memory game with Felicite and Fidele and then one of the other trainees came to get me and we went in search of the ingredients to make our pineapple upside down cake. We couldn’t find any fresh eggs and so I went walking to the next town over to the Sunday market to find some eggs. There weren’t any there either and so I had to keep walking and ask in every boutique I passed. Finally, I found some.

We used a dutch oven (a big pot on top of the gas stove as an oven) to bake our pineapple upside down cake and it turned out amazingly good. AMAZINGLY GOOD. We were extremely impressed with ourselves. It was a little tricky getting the baking pan into the big pot and balancing it on top of tomato cans (so it wouldn’t be too close to the heat source and wouldn’t burn), but we did it. It was also tricky getting it out, but we managed (we used a folded up tea towel sling to get it in and two forks to get it out). For the rest of the afternoon (as we waited for our cake to bake – we made two cakes) I worked on the photo movie with the help of some of my friends. I was hoping more people would help me out with captions for the photos, but they don’t seem too motivated and I am tired of nagging them. As a result, the photo movie isn’t going to be funny because I’m not funny, but oh well. . .

Our party turned out really well. We had soja, tortilla chips (that we had made from scratch), a spicy cheese dip, tomato salsa, bread, egg salad, a fruit tray, the cakes, lime-ade, and the trainers brought us soda and beer. It was fun. I ate way too much and suffered for it during the night (I had really sharp stomach pains and had to run to the bathroom for fear of exploding from both ends for the first time since I’ve been in Togo – it was worth it though =0). Some of the trainers were a bit late and so we dug into the food before they all arrived, but there was plenty of food.

8/20/07

First thing in the morning we got the results of our French oral exams. I was ranked at the Advanced-Mid level which is a two step improvement from my last exam. I am happy with the ranking and I think it might be the best ranking of all the CHAP trainees, although I am not sure that that is an accurate evaluation. I think two of the other girls have at least equal or better French skills, but perhaps they just weren’t as talkative during their exam as I was.

Then we went to the other training site for a ridiculous Safety and Security Test. We did the test collectively, all working together to come up with the answers. It was long and elaborate and would have been much more productive had it been administered right after we had had the safety and security session (and not a month later).

We then talked with our APCDs – the person in charge of the CHAP program and he said that he has arranged for a paillote to be constructed in front of my house in Avassikpe and I am really happy and excited about that. I hope it is big enough and strong enough to hang a hammock under.

There was a lot of down time during the day in which I worked on our photo movie and tried to encourage my fellow trainees to add captions on the photos. I am really hoping to be able to upload it onto my blog while in Lome.

At lunch time I was still feeling a bit nauseous and my stomach was cramping, but I was hungry and it would have been harder to explain to my host mom why I wasn’t eating than to just try to force down some food. I was worried that I might throw it up, but I didn’t and towards the end of the afternoon I started feeling better.

In the afternoon we heard more information on the progress on our houses at post. In addition to the paillote, my screens will be fixed. I forgot to mention to them that my latrine seems to be awfully full. . . hm . . .

Then I worked on the movie some more and in the evening I stayed home and played UNO with Felicite and Fidele. I also talked with a twenty-year old member of the family (one of my host dad’s many many nephews) who belongs to an association of young people working for the sustainable development of Africa. He in his second year of university (a relatively impressive feat here as it is very difficult to succeed academically) and he seems to be motivated and active. The conversation was interesting, but not completely free of sexual undertones which make me uncomfortable. The most interesting thing I learned from the conversation with him was that there may be a card that I can buy for a little over $2 that would allow me to call the States and talk for 100 minutes. I find it a bit hard to believe, but he says that he uses it to talk to his brother or uncle who lives in Atlanta. I will have to investigate further . . .