11/23/07 through 11/29/07

11/23/07 and 11/24/07

I am sitting on Tig's screened in porch in her village on Sunday morning and marveling at how green it is here! It is truly beautiful. Her village is very unique in that it is tiny, but at the same time it seems a bit more worldly perhaps than other tiny villages. For example, ther is a small group of vegetarian Buddhists and Belgian volunteers are constantly filtering through for a couple months at a time.

On Friday morning I went to the med unit and got some pills and ointment for my finger which the PCMO diagnosed as creeping eruption – the larvae of dog and cat hookworm. Yay. I also got my MIF Kit analyzed and they didn't find anything which is both good and unsettling. I know something is making me recurringly sick and I would like to identify it ASAP so that I can start treating it.

I spendt a bit of time in the PCV lounge on internet finishing typing up my emails from the week before and around 9:30 I left – catching a ride with Regina, Ashley and Kate. Regina had rented a car because she bought a fridge and needed to transport it back to her village. I contributed a mille (1,000cFA) because they were also taking my big green duffel bag to Ashley's house in Notse which will save me a lot of hassle

They dropped me at the Kpalime gare (station) where I sat in a bush taxi van in the hot mid-day sun for over an hour waiting for the car to fill. There were some apples and grapes for sale and they just looked so tempting, but they were really expensive because they are imported. I might have splurged except for the fact that I would want to eat them right then and there, but had no way of washing them.

The ride to Kpalime, once we got under way, was uneventful. Once in Kpalime, I kept asking people for directions to Tristan and Nadia's quartier. I think I might have gotten lost except for a small boy (10? 12?) who ran after me and accompanied me almost all the way to their house. It was lovely to see them considering I hadn't seen them since swear in. We spent a couple house just getting caught up on each others news.

They seem to be doing really well and they are pretty happy with their location and jobs which I am very glad for because I know that originally they weren't pleased with being posted in Kpalime. They are both already working pretty much five days a week – Nadia works with a microfinance organization and a coffee production company and Tristan works with an internet café. They have also made friends with the Baptist missionaries in the area (who work at a school for blind children) and the next day were planning to go decorate a Christmas tree (!) at the house of one of the missionary women. So they seem to be doing really well and that makes me happy.

Tristan made us a lovely dinner of pasta with a cheese sauce and then they talked about their plan to take a road trip around the U.S. after COS-ing (close of service) and showed me the plans they had drawn for their dream house. The funniest thing was that their bedroom was about the farthest thing from their childrens' bedrooms and they planned it that way on purpose.

Saturday morning we left the house around 8:00 – Nadia and Tristan biked off to the missionary lady's house and I ran a couple of errands – I needed oatmeal, eggs, carrots, and onions to bring to Tig's house. Then I sat at the gare for over an hour and watched some men spit petrol out of their mouths onto parts of a tree and light it on fire. Apparently they were trying to kill some bugs.

It took a long time to fill up the car to Agou Nyogbo even though it was market day. When we finally got under way, I realized how nervous I was to be seeing my host family again (and I hadn't warned them) and when I got out of the taxi right in front of their house I was shaking I was so nervous (strange, I know). My host Dad was sitting outside the house and Felicite was standing in the doorway of what used to be her mom's boutique and is now a phone calling place. At first – as I was paying and getting my luggage, it seemed as though they were looking right at me, but not seeing me, but then they recognized me and seemed very happy to see me. I got the best welcome reaction from my host mom who screamed, ran over and gave me two huge hugs (breaking some of my eggs in the process) – which was surprising because she isn't usually demonstratively affectionate. My host mom immediately rushed off to prepare me something to eat and I was left with Felicite and eventually Fidele. I don't know whether it is because I am used to seeing malnourished children or if Felicite really did put on weight, but she looked a bit chunkier to me. Fidele's little brother was also in her care and he is a big roly poly baby.

I was happy to learn that my family did get a stagiare again, but I didn't get to meet her because they were off on a field trip to Dapaong. I learned a bit about her though – for example she doesn't eat meat or jam, bread, oatmeal, peanut butter or milo. Just black coffee and omelets. My host mom commented on all the differences between what we like and don't like to eat.

I played UNO with Felicite, Fidele and Valerie for a bit. Valerie brought me a present of four pieces of soja. It was a little awkward and uncomfortable and I was hoping for the time to pass quickly. I ate a lunch (specially prepared for me) of rice wit ha vegetable, peanut, soja sauce. It was very good except for the soja. I am not a fan anymore. It is funny how your tastes can change because of an association of a specific food with stomach problems.

I ate with Felicite while my host mom prepared pâte for my host Dad. Afterwards we took a walk to greet some of the other host families of my friends. We walked all the way down to the tech house – which was quiet and empty – but where I filled up my water bottle and made use of the toilets.

Back at the house I sat wit hmy host family a bit longer and tried to chat and then they helped me find a car to take me to the intersection where I would hop on a moto to Tig's house. My host Dad stood out in the hot sun for quite a while before finding a car.

The rest of the trip to Tig's house was uneventful. I took the taxi and then the moto to Tig's village.

Tig's village is lovely and green and at the base of Mount Agou. It's layout is very different from mine and it is difficult to judge its size because the houses are hidden by vegetation.

The village shares a well as its primary water source and so Tig and I made five or so trips to the well to carry buckets of water back to the house and fill up the big trash bin by the door while Natasha made dinner.

I think I have less patience for people and kids when it isn't in my own village. Perhaps it is because when I am out of village I want a break, but I have to keep in mind that it is someone else's village and they are still "working."

After we filled up the water bucket, one of Tig's friends – a Belgian volunteer who has been living/working in her village for the past three months – came by. We chatted and then ate a dinner of Spanish style rice – rice with tomato sauce, veggies and a hard boiled egg cut up on top. We then just talked for the rest of the evening until bedtime.

11/25/07

We woke up, had oatmeal for breakfast and then we took a walk out to the filed wit ha woman whom Tig is organizing a women's growing cooperative. They had planted some okra and apparently we were going to have pick brush off the other half of the field but whoever was supposed to clean it hadn't done it and so we had no work to do. I wasn't disappointed because I was feeling a little nauseous and completely without energy. When we got back to Tig's house she started doing laundry and Natasha and I started making lunch. As usual, our proportions need a little work. We cut up four and a half ignams (small ones, but nonetheless 4 ½ (!!!) What were we thinking?!?!). All the while there were kids around criticizing how we were doing it. Eventually Tig sent them away and I was thankful for it because I was looking forward to trying to make fufu ourselves without criticism or too eager and over bearing helpers.

I wanted to make an "authentic" fufu sauce which is really liquidy – no chunky vegetables, and so we tried mashing tomatoes, onions and garlic on the cutting board. They use rocks on a cement or stone slab, so why shouldn't I? I later got some skewed looks from a bossy little girl who told me that I shouldn't have done it like that. Anyway, the sauce turned out like I wanted it to and as it simmered we started to pound the fufu. We disagreed amongst ourselves to the exact fufu-pounding technique – such as whether or not to add water directly to the mortar and the fufu or whether just to wet the pestles. It seemed to be going alright – it is just an awful lot of work and we had boiled an awful lot of ignam. Eventually the woman who accompanied us to the field came ot help us, but by that time we had had our fill of doing it ourselves and were ready for a bit of Togolese woman power.

We didn't' pound all the ignams – we gave away probably a third in their boiled unpounded state (to the woman who helped us and to some children) and then we ate the other third. It was really good, but almost immediately I began to feel nauseous and bloated and not half an hour afterwards I vomited and then again four times afterwards until it was just dry heaves and/or whatever water/pepto I had tried to swallow. No one else got sick so I think it is my stomach acting up again. I really wish the Med Unit could figure out what is wrong with me so I could get treated already. I was in serious pain all afternoon and evening – just uncontrollably nauseous. It was not fun. I lay out on the screened in back porch intermittently dosing. I was also listening to a beautiful choir practice at the church across the way which made the evening more pleasant. The music was different that the pulsating, percussion-packed church music I am used to. It seemed acapella and with multiple harmony parts. It was beautiful choir music – something I'd want a CD of.

11/26/07

I am feeling a little better today. Not nauseous so much as sore and tentative with what I want to put into my system and lacking in energy. And so Natasha and I went on a hunt for bisquits (little cookies) and eggs to make pancakes. We found some cookies, but no eggs, so after she got back from her run, Tig went on another egg hunt. To make a long story short we found someone who would go get us eggs for really cheap but we had to buy thirty of them. So we did. I will take a dozen back to village, so that is fine.

We were hanging around the house, trying to figure out what to do with ourselves when we decided to go to Kpalime. I wasn't really feeling energetic, but it was a good decision because it wouldn't have been relaxing in any way shape or form to stay in the house because they started doing work on the other half of the house. Poor Tig. Her compound, her haven, is soon to be invaded by a Togolese woman. Her neighbor, the woman who will share her compound, is going to move in soon and she will no longer be the sole owner of her space. That is a bummer and will take some adjustment.

We just walked around Kpalime doing nothing in particular. Natasha bought a boubou (sp?) – just a big bag-like dress – and Tig bought some plastics and then we walked out towards a bar (a little outside of Kpalime) for a drink. On the way, a group of Peace Corps Volunteers who were biking from Cinkasse (on the Burkina Faso border in the very north of Togo) to Lome in the very south (900 kilometers!!!), passed us. They stopped to give us sweaty hugs and it was very exciting because there were four girls from my stage (two CHAPers and two SEDers) that I hadn't seen since swear-in. They had a schedule to keep, so of course they couldn't hang out, but it was still wonderful to see them and cheer them on their way.

After that, though, I had two huge disappointments with the bar that put me in a bad mood. I wanted mango ice cream (watering at the mouth at the memory of the mango ice cream Dad made me when I got my wisdom teeth taken out), but of course they were out (it isn't the right season) and then I ended up ordering a grapefruit soda which I assumed (stupid, I know) would cost 350cFA like always and it ended up costing 500 which just pissed me off. Everyone knows how cheap I am and how much I hate spending money. Well I hate it even more when I know I am getting totally over charged and can't do anything about it because I have already consumed the drink. Great. Anyway, afterwards we went to the bank and then to village (none of which was as simple as it sounds, but then again, it never is).

In the evening we made omelet sandwiches and chatted over the blaring racket of a motorized saw (for some very odd reason they were sawing planks in the dark; we didn't hear any screams though, so I guess they got the job done with their fingers still in tact).

11/27/07

Today we got up early, made pancakes and were planning to be on the road early, but as always, the departure got delayed by little things. Tig sold me her mortar and pestle because she can easily get another and so we hauled that down to the road and were going to take motos (with the mortar and pestle!) but we got lucky and a car came along. The Belgian volunteer was with us and so we were four people and we quickly got a car to Lome. It was a pretty straightforward trip – no mishaps.

Regina, another one of my stage-mates, but a SED volunteer, had gotten us a hotel room which I am very thankful for because there are lots of volunteers in Lome this week and the cheaper hostels in and around the Peace Corps Bureau are filling up fast. It is now 5:00 in the afternoon and I haven't been very productive, but I did shower, get money out of the bank, get a ham and cheese sandwich (an expensive, but good one – cheese here is a rare treat), and I got some reimbursement papers signed by my APCD.

I spent the afternoon in the PCV lounge and in the evening we went out for dinner at a Lebanese restaurant (there is quite a large Lebanese population in Togo) and then back to the hotel for bed.

11/28/07

This morning I went to the MedUnit with Regina and Tig around 7:30 in the morning. Ideally I would have produced a stool sample, but my poo window is 5:15-5:30 in the morning and the MedUnit isn't open at that time – it just isn't convenient. The PCMO now thinks that perhaps I have an overpopulation of yeast in my intestines. Hm, we will see.

We walked over to the Peace Corps Bureau where the inauguration of some new buildings was to take place. I met up with Sue Rosenfeld (a family friend from Niger who is in town for the 45th Anniversary Celebration). She gave me a really nice Niger Peace Corps pagne that I think I will make into a wrap-around skirt – we didn't get much of a chance to catch up because the ceremony was starting, but hopefully we will get a chance to go out to lunch tomorrow. Sue says that her favorite restaurant in all of West Africa is in Lome and she wants to take me there for lunch tomorrow, so that is very exciting. Apparently it is a German restaurant. I don't think I have ever been to a specifically German restaurant.

The new buildings are going to be a new MedUnit (the current one is eight blocks from the Bureau) and more space for administrative offices. The ceremony was pretty much just a speech by our Country Director, then a long prayer to the ancestors by the spokesperson of the chief of the quartier (neighborhood) with offerings of tchouk, some brief singing and dancing and then they cut the ribbon and we got to walk around the buildings and eat some croissants and drink orange juice.

Now I would like to continue doing internet until this afternoon when we are apparently all invited to a sit-down dinner at Brownie's house, but the internet just cut out and so I might go out to lunch with the girls if it doesn't come back on soon because the PCV lounge quickly loses its appeal when there is no electricity.

The electricity came back on and so I grabbed a quick and unhealthy lunch and then chatted with Jorge for a while. However, I kept getting kicked off gmail chat and so it was a little frustrating.

At three I went to shower and get ready for the 45th Anniversary Celebration – the celebration itself was rather boring and tiring. I think I went mostly for the food. We had been told to get there at 4:30 and that it was going to be a sit down dinner (!). I think that was a purposeful trick, but it was mean because not only was it NOT a sit down dinner, but there wasn't any place to sit at all and so we had to stand for the hour and half long ceremony full of speeches and testimonies before any food was served. The food was good, but it was just finger foods – luckily I found the right place to stand right at the beginning and so I ate plenty. There was a live jazz band and after the ceremony and eating people danced and chatted. I talked with Sue for a while and then got myself a big piece of cake (even though the PCMO told me to lay off the sweets in case I really do have an overgrowth of yeast in my intestines), but who can pass up cake? It was worth it too. Anyway, anyone who knows me knows that I have a terrible sweet tooth and asking me to stop eating sweets is like asking me to stop drinking water – I hope I don't develop diabetes.

My friends were getting roaring drunk (they had started in the early afternoon) and so I opted out of the evening entertainment (going to a bar and drinking more) and went to the bureau where Regina and I had internet all to ourselves and I got to skype with Jorge and see him through the webcam!! It was amazing.

11/29/07

In the morning I went to give a stool sample at the MedUnit only to have them send it to the wrong lab (one of my PCMO's had plans for my poop that she didn't share with the other PCMO who sent it to the normal lab). Apparently they still didn't check for yeast, and didn't find anything else that might be causing my stomach upsets. Two of my friends who have similar symptoms DO have an overgrowth of yeast, though, and so they are giving me some sort of vitamin pill (Acidophilus Dietary Supplement) to help regulate the balance in my intestines. We will see if it does any good.

I went to a new grocery store in the morning and I didn't realize that the restaurant I would go to with Sue a little later in the day was right in front. I bought three new varieties of beans (yay! – white beans, kidney beans (or something like it) and fava beans, which I don't recall ever eating before) and some generic Nutella (1/3 of the price but just as good!).

Lunch was amazing – a huge treat. The restaurant is really nice, a place I would want to go with my parents and grandmother when they come to visit or with Jorge for a special occasion. It is a German restaurant called Marox and it is a little pricey for the Peace Corps budget but not hugely unreasonable for what you get and the quality of the food. I ordered the same thing as Sue which perhaps isn't what I would order the next time I go, but she said that she had been dreaming about it for ten years (since the last time she had been to this restaurant which she ranks as the best in West Africa and she has been AROUND) and so I figured that it was worth trying if it was worth salivating over for ten years. We had an avocado and shrimp salad. This will surprise everyone who knows that I am not a huge fan of either avocado or shrimp, but it was very good and I am expanding my taste horizons to include smoked fish so why not shrimp? =0) Then as the entrée we had breaded pork and mashed potatoes with a side salad. The piece of breaded pork (a little like a classy milanesa) was gigantic, but guess what? I ate it ALL and it was the most tender meat I have had since I got here – I hardly had to chew. It was also probably the biggest protein intake I have had since I got here as it was the reverse of my normal tiny bit of protein and huge amounts of carbs. It was a lovely meal and I really enjoyed just chatting with Sue about Peace Corps (she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal).

Afterwards we waited for about 45 minutes for my Country Director's driver to come pick us up which was unfortunate because Regina was waiting for me so that we could travel together to Notse. We got a late start on our travels and it ended up being the first time that I have been in a bush taxi after dark. It wasn't a particularly pleasant trip, but it wasn't terrible either. Our bush taxi was a cargo van that had been transformed (by throwing unbolted down seats into the back) into a passenger van, so it was a very jolting ride. And the driver kept stopping to buy cell phone credit, to buy bread for (according to Regina) his mother, sister, aunt, wife, mother in law. We were so fed up that we absolutely insisted being taken to Ashley's road once we arrived in Notse. Normally we would have to get out at the station and walk, but we asked them to take us and they did. They asked for us to "ajouter un peu" (pay them a little more), but I said no. They were good humored about it and took us anyway which is a good thing because I had my mortar and pestle and after just carrying it the three blocks to Ashley's house I thought my arm was going to fall off (of course I also had a big backpack, my computer backpack and my little blue over the shoulder backpack).
We made pancakes for dinner and ate them with cinnamon sugar, syrup Regina had bought in Lome and generic nutella. Yummy.