2/4/08 through 2/11/08

2/4/08 to 2/5/08
Yesterday was a Notse day meaning internet, chatting with Jorge, market, etc. Other than being able to chat with Jorge and receive emails, nothing interesting or exciting happened. Nothing even worth mention except that the weather has suddenly changed and it is muggy and hot out as opposed to dry and cool-ish. I'm not a fan of Harmattan, but I'm not sure I'm a fan of hot and muggy either. It makes it very difficult to sleep. I just sweat and sweat and sweat.
Oh – yesterday I also played around with my video camera. It doesn't seem too hard to use so that is good and I watched some HIV/AIDS videos – educational skits made in different African countries that I will screen for my PE class.
Last night I woke up from a fitful sweaty sleep because my right eye was hurting. I took out my contact but it continued to sting and burn and I found it difficult to fall back asleep.
All day my eye has continued to bother me. I got a bit of a late start on my ride back to Avassikpe and stopped at the dispensaire first thing to say hi to Lili. We talked about housing at the dispensaire and that the village could easily make at least the walls of the house, but they just aren't motivated enough to do it. Lili's house is perhaps a three minute walk from the dispensaire, so it isn't really far, but she finds it inconvenient, especially when she gets called out in the middle of the night. We also talked about the difference between being a dispensaire that is ranked prioritaire and not having that ranking. Mostly the older, more established dispensaries are prioritaire and that means, if I'm understanding correctly, that they are somewhat subsidized by the state. Other young dispensaires like ours have to prove that they are worthy first by paying a whole lot of tribute tax, or I don't know what, to the prefecture, the state, and Togo-Pharma (I'm guessing that is the state-run pharmaceutical distributor). It seems strange to handicap already struggling dispensaires and help already established dispensaires, but, from what I understand, that is how it works.
As soon as I got back to my house and unloaded my bike, I went to the pump. I made five trips before the sun got too hot to continue and then I went home and made a yummy pasta and tomato dish with a jumbo slim-jim that I received in the care-package from the Sunday School.
After lunch, I pounded egg shells with my mortar and pestle and generated a lot of curious attention. I couldn't pound it as fine as I would have liked, so I'm not sure how pleasant it will be to eat. . . .
I then played a couple of rounds of UNO with the children and pounded eggshells again to try to achieve a finer powder. Still not really a powder, though, and it will still be very gritty to eat. Then I pounded some dried hot red peppers. They are so strong that it was hard to breathe while pounding them.
Afterwards I started with my trips to the pump and dumped five more canteens full of water into my cistern. At least it is starting to fill up.
I saw the pastor of the Assemblea de Dieu (Assembly of God) church and asked if I could meet with him tomorrow morning. He said he would be at home. I want to talk with him about my moringa project because he might be able to help me motivate and mobilize the community. He does a pretty good job of getting people to show up to church . . .
I showered and now I am writing. I might be in bed before 8:00 today; I am wiped out.
2/6/08
I'm so tired, but it is way too early to go to bed. Today was a busy/productive day. This morning I noticed that a large group of people were all working together to disassemble the grenouille – corn storage platform. I stopped by to greet all the people who were working and asked if they were going to sell the corn. Yes. Is the price of corn good right now? No. Then why are you going to sell? Because it is going bad. The mold and the bugs are attacking the corn and so the idea is better to salvage what we can then let it all spoil. I went home, got my little bench, and went back to help. I shucked corn for two hours or so until 9:00. The work wasn't hard (the next step is the hard part – getting the kernels off the corn by beating bags full of corn) – but it was dirty – corn dust and mold going everywhere – can't be great for the lungs. . . I pretty much just sat silently and shucked the corn that was placed in front of me because I was sitting with women that don't speak French. Adjo's father gave me a pointed stick to slice the corn husk with to make it easier to shuck. It was a itchy, buggy job, but it was nice to be a part of community work like that. All the while I was wondering who the corn belonged to and how he or she had mobilized so many people to help with the work. I thought that I should enlist his or her aide in mobilizing people for my moringa project. Turns out that person is God. Go figure. Only he could mobilize all those people, both Kabiye and Ewe to work together at the same time, in the same place. The corn was donated to the church by the members and the sale of the corn is to help rebuild the Assemblea de Dieu church – but I only found all that out later in the morning when I went to speak with the pastor about my moringa project.
After meeting with the pastor one on one, I am even more impressed by him than I was before. He really wants to help Avassikpe and he has the power (influence over people) to get things done. He is the son of an ex-Magistrate of Togo's Supreme Court and his family is in lome. I think Avassikpe may be his first post after finishing his studies and he has some big ideas to improve it. After finishing the construction of the church (it was built poorly, doesn't have a roof, and the walls have either fallen down or on the verge – he plans to tear it down and build it again properly), he would like to build public latrines and then bring electricity through solar power to Avassikpe. He is also currently mobilizing his members to clean up Avassikpe. After hearing his ideas, I was sure such a motivated and well-intentioned man would be happy to help me mobilize people for a moringa field and of course he very willingly agreed. He seemed interested in the plan and he was very open and willing to collaborate. I told him to feel free to ask me for help and I will do the same. He is a fantastic resource for the community. Avassikpe is really very luck (and so am I), although I am not sure they realize it. They have a mid-wife, a school director, and a pastor who are all (seemingly) honest and well-intentioned. Often people with power are the first to misuse and abuse, but somehow Avassikpe has lucked out. I am also very lucky because I have such worthy people to work with. I was very pleased by my discussion with the pastor – hopefully we will be able to work together. He also mentioned wanting to start a pineapple field. Wouldn't that be wonderful? It would save me all that time and energy transporting six to seven pineapples a week =0).
After my visit with the pastor, I went home and prepared my PE lesson plan for the day (correct condom usage and sexually transmitted infections) and then I made five grueling trips to the pump.
I really need to do some laundry – I have no clean clothes, but I wanted to set up my baskets for my clothes first (using sticks to make a frame to better and more evenly support the baskets), but the woman who borrowed my coupcoup has apparently gone to Notse until Friday. Maybe I will go out tomorrow equipped with Jorge's Swiss Army knife to cut some sticks. They don't need to be too too strong.
Tomorrow I will also go see the field that the elders have proposed for the moringa project. I have a sneaking suspicion that there is no water source. We will see.
After eating beans and gari for lunch and showering and after many false starts (I kept forgetting things in the house) I biked as fast as I could to Agbatitoe. I normally arrive 15-20 minutes before class starts, but today I arrived with only one minute to spare, sweating and panting and red in the face. (Speaking of sweating, I am sweating terribly right now as I write. I guess these kerosene lanterns really do put out a lot of heat).
My class went well, but it could have gone better had I known more about STIs myself and had I some gory pictures as a scare factor. I got away with not even doing a condom demonstration, though, because I asked for a volunteer and he did a pretty decent job. I think they got the point – why you should seek treatment at the first sign of an STI, etc., but I myself felt a little uncomfortable because I felt as though I didn't have a solid grip on the information I was trying to transmit.
I forgot to mention that a woman brought me a huge basin full of corn kernels in thanks for my help this morning – I have to ask Tsevi what I should do with it so it doesn't go bad and the nI have to figure out how to make a sauce for pâte. Gotta buy me some little fishies; can't have pâte without little fishies.
After biking back from Agbatitoe, I went to see Bébé and we planned for a meeting in Midijicope (the other half of the village) on Saturday morning.
I also bougth some wagash (sort of like cheese) from some Fulani or Peul women and so I will cook that tomorrow. I am thinking of making a macaroni dish with it.
2/7/08
Today was another busy and tiring, but productive day.
Right now I am in a bit of a limbo because I prepared beans and koliko (ignam fries) for a woman/family in front (Yolke's co-wife) and I don't know when to bring it to them. Last night, after writing, I went outside to lay in my hammock because it was simply too hot inside. Just as I was thinking that I should get up and go to bed, this woman, Marie, came and invited me to eat pâte at her house. Of course I didn't really want to eat pâte at 8:30 at night, but I went anyway because it was really sweet of her to come over specifically to invite me to dinner. I watched her prepare the pâte and even helped mix it a little (a very vigorous mixing motion, somewhat as if you were rowing a boat – you even use a big wooden paddle). She wanted me to spatula-scrape it off the side of the pot like they do, but of course I would burn myself even if I did dip my fingers in water first. No thanks. I'm already getting calluses on my hands from the pump, I don't need any more from purposely burning the tips of my fingers. Granted, fingertips without feeling might be useful in certain circumstances, but I'll take the feeling, and the pain when it is accidental. We ate pâte and chatted intermittently and then it was decided that Marie would give me beans and ignams and that I would prepare them the next evening so we could all eat together again; this time something I had prepared. Hence the reason I made a huge pot full of beans and a pot full of koliko with an oily onion, garlic, tomato paste and piment sauce to accompany them both.
I just saw Marie and told her I had prepared the food and asked her to spend Xola – a twelve or so year old girl of some relation – to help me bring the food over. She seemed to understand and agree, but Xola has not yet arrived. Hmm. Anyway, at least now she knows I have the food ready and she won't prepare something else in vain.
I kind of just want to go and do it so I can come back and write calmly without fearing imminent interruption. Hmm. Be chill, Danielle, take it as it comes. Who ever knew me to be chill or to take it as it comes? I'm going over.
It's a wrap – practically painless. I brought it all over and Marie dished it out and everyone ate up. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. It is always awkward to me when I bring something to someone in the family, Marie for example, and there are all these other people around – co-wives, parents-in-law, nieces, nephews, sisters and brothers-in-law, and the food isn't shared with everyone. For example, I invited Yolke to come eat, but she refused; probably because I was bringing the food specifically to her co-wife and maybe that is awkward and, yet, she thanked me for the food . . . I guess they are used to the way things work here, but it still makes me uncomfortable.
This morning I made French toast and then went to see Tsevi about the field. He essentially said that I shouldn't waste my time going to see the field they chose – it is apparently on the other side of the soccer field – too close to town to be protected from the goats and sheep and too far from a water source. He said that he already told the elders that they would have to meet again and try to find another piece of land close to the barrage (man-made body of water).
I spent the bulk of my morning doing laundry until my forearms and fingers ached from the effort and I was even more wrinkled than a prune or even a raisin. I was accompanied off and on by various small children who are still too young to go to school and I didn't finish washing my Teva sandals and my watch until around 11:00. You should try washing a sweatshirt by hand sometime . . . not fun. Also, I hadn't done laundry since Pagala, so it had been about two weeks. Normally I don't let my laundry accumulate like that, but I was busy getting water and trying to fill my cister.
I made a total of 35 trips to the pump and my cistern is not yet full. My guesstimate stands at 50 trips to the pump (50x30L), but I have given up for the time being because people keep telling me that the rains are coming (meaning I need to fix my gutter system at the front of my house and get busy on a gutter system at the back of my house if I decide I want that.
BTW, the mice here eat everything and anything – they're not picky – they even took a couple of bites out of my bananas.
After finishing the washing, I made lunch – a spaghetti sauce with the wagash I bought yesterday and did dishes and filled up my oatmeal, gari and powdered milk containers. I didn't eat right away because I wasn't too hungry, it was really hot, and I am being spoiled by some lemonade drink mix I received in the package from the Sunday school and that is much more appetizing than hot food. Did I mention that the pump water tastes differently than rain water? I prefer rain water.
After eating lunch – once the macaroni and sauce had cooled down, it was quite yummy – I started to prepare my Peer Educator class for Friday. It is going to be a challenge because the topic is how HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects women for biological and sociocultural reasons and about HIV/AIDS symptoms particular to women and children and mother-to-child transmission and prevention. It is the first class during which I am going to attack the gender issues full force and I am not completely sure how to go about it. I still have a lot of work to do in preparation. Hopefully Jerome doesn't arrive until 11:00 tomorrow as usual so I will have time to prepare. I have lots and lots of work to do still . . . Speaking of Jerome . . . what to make for lunch? Shall I go with my all-time favorite? Beans and gari? I answered my own question with an affirmative and just put beans in water to soak overnight.
Around 3:30 I took a break from my lesson plans to go cut some wood to make a supportive frame for my basket-shelves. Armed only with Jorge's swiss army knife, I wandered off looking for straight pieces of wood. I found a bunch, but as I was cutting,
I got nervous that I might be "stealing" someone's property. I also got all streaked with black ash because I was walking through brush that had been burned. As I was finishing and getting ready to attempt to load all my sticks on my bike, the director of the school spotted me. First he told me I am "forte" (strong) and then he scolded me for not having asked for help (a little contradictory, no?). He seemed genuinely put out that I would go cut trees myself rather than ask him to have the school children do it. He insisted that I let these children bring the sticks to my house rather than trying to balance them all on my bike and I gladly accepted.
As soon as I got home, I tried to take advantage of the fading rays of sunlight to make the koliko, beans and sauce – I don't like cooking in the dark. Once it was all ready, I took a much needed bucket shower and began writing.
2/8/08 and 2/9/08
Yesterday wasn't a particularly eventful day although it was busy. Form the moment I got up until Jerome arrived and again after he left until it was time to leave for my class, I worked on my lesson plans. It was a hard class to teach and required an awful lot of preparation, but first my Ewe class: short and sweet, but I was thinking how it is worth the three mille and lunch every week just to have Jerome as a resource.
I asked Jerome about the invitation that I got to go to Adjo's little sister's graduation ceremony and reception from seamstress school. I asked if it was a big deal, if I should give a gift and whether it would be ok to go only to the ceremony and not to the reception. He said that it is a big deal, that I should give 2,000 cFA in an envelope and that it would be ok to go only to the ceremony as long as I explained why I can't attend the reception (I am going to Lome). He also said that it wouldn't be a problem for Ashley to come, but I am pretty sure she won't want to. I feel, though, that if they thought to invite me, I should at least make a show of presence. I also learned that Jerome's 19 year old son, whom I have never met, is a very good artist so I am hoping he can help me with my health coloring book idea, considering te fact that it doesn't look as though I will be doing classes at the EPP in Avassikpe this school year.
My Peer Educator class went well, but sometimes I don't feel qualified to be teaching this stuff – I don't have a profound enough handle on the information. Yesterday was a particularly strange class because I made the students do strange things like throw two different quantities of beans, representing semen and vaginal secretions, at two different sized containers representing the vagina and the head of the penis, in an attempt to illustrate why, biologically, women are more susceptible to HIV (more fluid in contact with a larger mucus membrane – among other reasons). Then I made them place a whole bunch of statements under man or woman columns like "the sex that most frequently has sex with people older than themselves," "the sex that initiates sexual relations," "the sex that most frequently pays to have intercourse," "intercourse is primarily for the pleasure of this sex," etc. They needed some explanations on the meanings of the cards, but once I elaborated, they seemed to understand. The only placement I was surprised by was "the sex who decides whether a marriage will be monogamous or polygamous." The students placed the card under woman and stood by the placement when I questioned their reasoning. I'm not 100% convinced, but . . . I hope it got them thinking about the sociocultural factors that make women more vulnerable to HIV infection.
As soon as I got back to Avassikpe, I went to find Bébé (she wasn't home) and almost got in an accident with a moto – another of those head-on, which way are you going to go, dealsi in which I was mostly to blame. Oops. And the moto driver got yelled at by the bystanders. Double oops.
In the evening, after showering and chatting with Jorge on the phone (yay!), I sat with DaJulie, her mom and the kids. We managed to have conversations about the price of corn, the rains, me leaving for the U.S. and coming back when I have children, my parents and grandmother's visit in April and Jorge's arrival in November. I also spoke with Effoh's older brother, Kodjovi, and I was sinking Tseviato's praises – how smart she is and how well she will do if she has the opportunity to continue her schooling – and then I learned that she isn't his child. All this while I thought she was his eldest, but in fact she is his wife's sister. She lives with his wife, though, and does everything with his children as if they were siblings. If there were one child I would consider helping to go to school, it would be her. She is very bright.
Today I thought I was supposed to have a meeting to explain the moringa project to the other half of the village, but apparently there is some sort of problem with the gongonneur and he didn't inform the population. Again. I don't know what the problem is – whether he wants to be paid or what – but it seems as though he wants to pick the day for the meeting. Strange.
Ignace came first thing in the morning and helped me (actually, I tried to help him and perhaps didn't to a very good job of it) place the woven paille mats around my garden to-be as fencing. I gave him two pineapples in thanks. Then, after eating some leftover beans, I got to work on my frame for my basket-shelves. As you can imagine, I attracted a lot of attention and kids wanting to help me, wanting to play with my tape measure, my hammer, my swiss army knife, etc. At first it was fine, but after working for three hours and having it all fall apart (quite literally) I was frustrated and out of patience. Everyone knows how I hate when a project idea doesn't go exactly as I planned/desired/willed. I took a break from the kids and the work and went inside to make myself pancakes. After eating, I went back outside and tried again. Eventually it worked, more or less, but not without a lot of frustration, sweating, impatience with children, etc. I am pleased with the result, though, and think it will be very useful in helping me to make use of my small space and organize all my stuff. I finished around 4:00 and went to find Tsevi so we could go measure the field they have chosen for the moringa project. HE said he was coming right over – an hour and a half later . . . Luckily, I got busy organizing and cleaning and trying to prepare my house for my absence (four days) and I spoke with Jorge's mom on the phone. She is so sweet to call.
Little by little my plans for my house are progressing. My kitchen is set up, the bedroom is getting ther, the garden and outdoor space as well. As soon as my garden is completely fenced, I will set my jar-frigo up (yes, it has been sitting in my room since October – I am afraid the children will break it if it is out in the open – they will just be curious and want to touch touch touch). I also hope to put my crushing stones on bricks outside so I am more apt to use them, make a real compost pile in the corner of my garden, fix my gutters, perhaps have a second cistern built in the back and, of course, actually plant my garden when my parents bring me seeds. Yay. Vegetables! I think it will be nice to be able to give people vegetables as gifts – add something new to their diet and a new taste to their palate.
Eventually, as it was getting dark, Tsevi and I biked out to the designated field. I paced it out and am guesstimating that we can plant at least 1,000 trees. The water source is further than I would have liked (200 meters or so) and needs to be dug out more so as to last the entire dry season, but it is a start. I would have preferred a plot on the bank of the barrage, but I understand that it would be difficult to get someone to give up that land.
Tomorrow I will leave bright and early for Notse, shower, go to the graduation ceremony and then go with Ashley and Nori to Lome. Yay! Fast internet here I come! I need to make a list of all the searches I want to do.
Oh! I can't believe I forgot! It drizzled today! The first rain!
2/10/08 through 2/12/08
So, I apologize – but when I go to Lome I get distracted and stop writing every day. Anyway, it will give y'all a break from my verbosity. Are you getting bored yet? You should let me know, although you can just stop reading if you're bored, I'll pretend not to mind =0).
On Sunday morning I biked into Notse. First priority upon arrival: food. I made scrambled eggs mixed with the wagash "cheese" I bought from a Fulani (Peul?) woman the day before and made egg sandwiches for Ashley, Nori and myself (Jake was there too, but he opted out of the sandwiches). Then I showered and donned my complet for this graduation ceremony I was invited to for Adjo's little sister who just finished the seamstress training. I thought it was at the cultural center near Ashley's house, but when I walked over there it was all shut up and so I walked back to Ashley's house. She asked someone who directed us to another cultural center on the other side of the market (at least a twenty minute walk when not inhibited by a complet – walking in a complet is like trying to walk in a burlap bag – it is hot and you can't take long strides). I was already late – it was 9:10 and the invitation was for 9:00. I debated whether to go at all and finally hiked up my skirt to knee level and hopped on my bike. I bet that was a sight to see; I probably blinded half the population of notes with the whiteness of my knees. I felt ridiculous and indecent and when I arrived at the designated place for the ceremony there were only a few people milling about and a band. The family who invited me wasn't even there yet. I was seated and eventually the father, the girl herself, the mother and the sisters arrived. I insisted on taking pictures of the family before the ceremony and ended up leaving around 10:45 before the ceremony had even started. Bummer. I hiked my skirt up again and biked back to Ashley's house feeling equally inappropriate. We left half an hour later for Lome.
About halfway to Lome, our car broke down. There was a wretched banging noise in the back left side – something with the wheel or the axel. We waited on the side of the road for over half an hour for another bush taxi to pass, but they were all full. One of the six passengers from our car got picked up, but it was even more difficult because we (Nori, Ashley and I) wanted to stay together. We were somewhat jokingly doing the one finger up in the air jabbing motion (that they do to catch cabs; different numbers of fingers signify different locations I think) and yelling "Lome! Lome! Lome!" at all the passing vehicles (sometimes it is hard to tell which ones are taxis) and this car pulled over. The driver of our taxi, who is a friend of Ashley's, went to talk to the driver of a car. I could tell that it wasn't a taxi now that it was stopped because the license plates of taxis are yellow and those of personal cars are white. Bruno (Ashley's friend the taxi driver) told us to bring our stuff. I was skeptical and when a middle-aged man with a polo shirt, cowboy hat and gawdy gold jewelry stepped out of the driver's seat to open the trunk I was even more reluctant; but there were three of us and it was hot and we were stranded and Bruno assured us that it was ok . . . and so essentially we hitch-hiked to Lome. The man only "rescued" the three white girls and not the Togolese couple that had also been in our now broken-down taxi. Nori and Ashley chatted him up on the rest of the ride down to Lome and found out that he is a judge in Kante – a town in the Kara region and that he was driving down to Lome for his yearly physical (they have doctors in Kara too . . . ) and that he is from the Kpalime region, etc. He seemed like an ok guy, but that didn't stop me from giving him my old cell phone number (the one I no longer use) when he asked for our numbers as we sat and sipped cold drinks after arriving in Lome (his suggestion, not ours). He refused to accept payment for driving us to Lome and we figured the least we could do was be polite and buy him a drink. I was sullenly quiet because I didn't feel like making the effort to be too polite – like I said, I was still skeptical as to his intentions – and so poor Nori and Ashley had to pick up the slack in conversation. We then took a taxi to the Peace Corps Bureau and after finding a hotel room and getting Lebanese food for lunch, we immersed ourselves in internet and air conditioning for the rest of the evening.
On Monday I was hoping to get a lot of work done (I had a whole list), but it was frustrating because the days we chose to be in Lome happened to coincide with the moving days from the old Peace Corps buildings to the new Peace Corps buildings and so everything was a chaotic mess. I got some things done, but it was frustrating and time consuming and not at all efficient. The resource center was being moved and so the books were all packed up, the NRM APCD just left for the field (getting moringa seeds from him was one of my primary reasons for going to Lome), and my APCD was crazy busy and so even though he had said he would take me to find a baby-weighing scale, he pretty much just turned me around three times, pointed me in the right direction and said "give it a go." Great. He also said that a baby weighing scale might cost $100 and I refuse to pay that much, so . . . I didn't even try to find one. I will talk to my DPS again (Prefectural Health Director) and see if he can find me a scale. This is ridiculous.
I spent much of the day on the internet, but there were an awful lot of volunteers in Lome for some reason and the internet was slow and sometimes there weren't enough internet or even electrical connections available. Also, Jorge was busy working on a piece of his thesis that he had to turn in Monday evening and so he wasn't available to talk for hours.
I also went to the MedUnit to fill up on supplies and get a lump I found in my abdomen checked out. The PCMO said that the lump might be a swollen lymph node or a fatty mass (?!?!), but I am skeptical. It is a recent discovery and like an oval shaped stone in my side right above my right hip bone. Strange. The PCMO told me not to worry about it but to inform them if it changes in any way. Hm.
We went to the bank and shopping. I bought brown sugar and toothpaste (my luxury items – just kidding – toothpaste is a necessity! =0) I looked at the French-Ewe dictionary they had available in a bookstore. I really wanted it, but it cost $60.00 and so I thought I would write down the title and author and see if I could find it online for cheaper. It turns out that it is more expensive online – I found it for 54€ or $89 and so this morning (Tuesday) I went back and bought it. Yay! I'm excited. It is a 500 page dictionary. Now I can start muddling my way through other Ewe documents, even the Bible and looking for translations. And not only does it have translations but also sentences in Ewe for each word in French that it provides and Ewe substitute for. I am super excited about it.
The other good thing about Lome was getting to see some of my friends – half of my CHAP stage was in Lome, so that was fun, but we decided to leave today, Tuesday because there were too many people in Lome for the days to be productive work days. We plan to go to Lome again at the end of the month perhaps so that we can actually get some real Peace Corps work done.
Kate arrived yesterday from the States with a ton of luggage and today she rented out a whole car so Ashley, Heather and I profited to get an easy ride up to Notse. The car was great – it had automatic windows! – but I think she might have gotten overcharged. We paid what we would have normally paid for the taxi ride to Notse and she paid the rest and so now I am in Notse, finishing typing up my emails and spending a lot less money that I would be were I in Lome. I will go to the internet now and send off emails and then tomorrow I am going to do a bit of shopping and bike back to village. On Thursday I have an Ewe lesson and on Friday I have Peer Educator class. I think I will go up to Atakpame next Tuesday for Adaeze's birthday because many of my friends will be congregating there . . . we will see. I don't think I will come back to Notse on the weekend though because I won't have been in village very long.