9/9/08
I don’t feel like writing. Lately, I never feel like writing. Maybe I am finally boring myself.
Upon my arrival in village yesterday, I was please to see that the chickens had not completely destroyed my garden. This morning early I watered it and was getting ready to go to the field with Tseviato to harvest corn when Effoh returned with the tip of the pointer finger on his left hand sliced through to the nail. I brought him disinfectant to clean it, but when I saw that the tip of his finger was barely still attached, I suggested that he go to the dispensaire and get it sewn back together. We went, but he balked at the cost (a total of 2,000cFA = $5.00) and decided to take care of it at home. I am worried the tip of his finger is going to fall off. Yucky. Looking at it makes me sick to my stomach.
I picked corn all day. It wasn’t too bad. Easier, I’d say, than beans or cotton because you don’t have to bend down as often. I was wearing long sleeves and gloves which made it even easier. Otherwise the corn leaves and husks are rough on the skin. You just go down the row twisting the ears off and throwing them in a pile.
It would have been entirely pleasant had I not stubbed my toe on the way out to the field – I think the nail is going to fall off. Eve so, though, it was fine. We were all women – Tseviato, DaJulie, Mama, Tseviato’s older sister – it was nice working together in silence, or listening to their chit-chat, or joking around with Tseviato. We got home at dusk and I showered and am now going to go look for Giz who has begun bolting out the door every chance he gets. So far he has always returned (but not until he jolly well feels like it).
9/10/08 and 9/11/08
I ate my weight twice over in pasta primavera today. I was so excited when I saw the green beans in my garden that I went overboard: carrots and cabbage (from the market), green beans, yellow squash, zucchini, and moringa from my garden. It was delicious, but made enough to feed a family. I turned more than half of it into couscous to give away, but I am unfortunately not sure how it will be appreciated. So far, my prized vegetables: green beans, squash and zucchini, haven’t received very good marks in the Togolese taste index. DaJulie actually spit the green bean out.
Highlights. Hmm.
I think I am in the process of finally succeeding in drying moringa leaves; this time out in the sun but protected by a sheet (I hope that counts as “shaded”).
Tseviato’s sister said she would die (of sadness) when I leave and Tseviato said she will fall sick (nice to know I will be missed).
Yesterday I made another delicious moringa sauce for pâte for Jerome’s visit. I gave some to DaJulie and Tseviato’s older sister and they loved it. This morning I convinced Tseviato’s older sister to add Moringa leaves to her sauce.
This morning I went to see the field that Midojicope has chosen for their moringa trees. Hopefully it will rain tonight (a storm is menacing) and we can plant tomorrow. I am worried that it won’t be a community (but rather a family) affair in Midojicope, but, of course, they reassure me that everyone is welcome to participate (yes, but are they informed?).
Effoh’s finger seems to be healing. I was honestly worried that the tip was going to turn black and fall off (ironically, it turned white, but didn’t fall off). But it seems to be reattaching itself. Last night he cleaned it and this morning we bandaged and splinted it. I suggested a splint of sorts because he re-injures it every time he bumps it while working in the field.
I am working on a formation for young couples. Looks like I might be organizing classes ate the EPP, the CEG and for young couples. My “vacation” seems to be coming to an end.
I don’t know how to ask people to stop taking water from the cistern in my garden because I invited them to help themselves during the rainy season. Now I want to save my water to irrigate my plants when it doesn’t rain. Tsevi’s wife is currently taking water. Usually she asks first . . .
9/12/08 and 9/13/08
Yesterday I spent the whole morning making koliko (fried ignam) with an audience of a good ten children. That is the way it is lately; I can’t cook anything without an audience because I have to do it all outside over charbon (by the way, Dad, the lining in the bottom of my stove, that catches the cinders and ashes fell out). I used to try to get the charcoal to light without cheating (requires patience, a lot of matches and a lot of fanning), but I have discovered that a capful of kerosene makes the whole experience less frustrating and time-consuming. Now that I am cooking outside, my eating habits have become sporadic. Some days I don’t cook at all and revert to scavenger mode, and other days I cook as if for a Togolese family and inevitably share what I have made wit hmy neighbors. I feel badly cooking anything other than pâte (and even my pâte is better than theirs because it has fish, big fish, in it) and then hoarding it all to myself.
I shared my pâte sauce, shared my vegetable couscous and shared my koliko. I spent a good part of my afternoon sitting sullenly at the dispensaire. DaMarie had asked me to accompany her “younger sister” to a prenatal consultation so she wouldn’t be “scared.” Of course, I couldn’t refuse, but the woman has had 4 children, I don’t know what she could have to be afraid of. Had it been her first child, my compliance would have been a bit more willing. It took forever and a half because there were a lot of patients: a child wit ha severe case of malaria, three kids (all under 13) who go it an accident while driving their father’s moto and other pregnant women.
Other than that, my day was largely uninteresting.
Today I filmed another episode of my cooking show; this time corn bouillie for breakfast and beans and rice to eat with leftover sauce from my koliko. The in-studio audience was awed by my efforts.
I had a bit of a misunderstanding with DaMarie and thought she had canceled our plans to go to the filed and was surprised (unpleasantly) when she came to my door and said she was ready to go. Evidently my Ewe is far from flawless. I trudged behind her to the field, but it turned out to be a good day. I learned how to stack corn on the grenier (storage paillote for corn; what I have been previously spelling something like grenouille (frog) is actually grenier (grainery). I don’t know why it took me so long to figure that out). We made a four-sided corn wall twenty rows high all around the grenier and then through the rest of the corn inside. The huge mound of corn is covered with woven strips of paille – they shove sticks through the weave and into the corn rows to keep it in place. Once several layers of paille are in place, they pack more corn in from the top, dup water mixed with insecticide on it, and seal it up. Apparently water helps the ears (still in their husks) to stick to each other better when you’re stacking. Luckily for us, it had rained lightly, otherwise we would have had to manually sprinkle it with water before stacking.
Once the grenier was finished, the men left. I was going to stay and pick corn with DaMarie, but was thankful when rain bailed me out. The remains of their field is a mess – all toppled over – it would have been a pain in the butt to harvest.
9/14/08 and 9/15/08
I am so mad at Gizmo I could wring his scrawny little kitty neck. I’m not going to feed him for 24 hours. Maybe that will teach him not to pee on the moringa leaves I have spent four days carefully and painstakingly drying. They hadn’t been in the house more than a minute before he was peeing all over them. It was a lot of pee too – as though he had held it all day for just such an opportunity. Evil. Pure evil. And his litter box is perfectly clean so he has absolutely no excuse. I’m so angry. He has ruined so many leaves and I thought for sure this time I’d get to the powder making stage. =0( Grr.
Yesterday, at church, I felt so claustrophobic that I thought I was going to pass out, scream, vomit or all three. I have a bit of a head cold and that compounded with the heat, the proximity of bodies, the lack of air circulation and the pastor bellowing into a megaphone a few feet away made me feel positively ill. I escaped at the earliest opportunity (not early enough) and went home to drink lemonade and lie in my hammock reading Newsweek.
In the afternoon Effoh charged my cell phone with a gadget he has rigged up to charge phones with 7 D batteries. Whatever. It works. I just hope it isn’t bad for my phone. And then he made pâte with moringa sauce. I had told him that I wouldn’t cook for him again until he cooked for me, so he did. They crushed the moringa leaves on a stone which brings out the flavor more than with the whole leaves, but it might be somewhat of an acquired taste. It was good though.
Yesterday afternoon Ash texted me to let me know that our Country Director would be accompanying our APCD on his visit.
After bringing moringa seeds to Midojicope so they could plant, I spent the whole morning preparing for their visit: making pâte and moringa sauce, cleaning my house, doing laundry. The visit was fine. IT went more or less well, although I kind of felt like I’m not doing enough here, like I should be more active at the dispensaire, with the ASCs (community health agents), with women’s groupements, etc. And yet, somehow, I manage to fill the time.
Today Jorge has his thesis defense. I hope it goes well. I am sure it will. How I wish I could be there! At least I was able to get through with a phone call to wish him good luck.
9/16/08 through 9/29/08: The Highlights
(This is me indulging my laziness and trying to spin it as something positive). For the past two weeks I haven’t been writing on a daily basis, rather I have been jotting down the highlights in hopes of remembering them when I finally get around to writing. For some, this turn of events may be long overdue (you’re thinking: finally she stops writing about her bowl movements and what she eats!), but really, it is out of no consideration for the reader, just plain old laziness on my part.
9/16/08
Apparently on the 16th I lay in my hammock and read “Helping Healthworkers Learn” a didactic accompaniment to “Where There is no Doctor.” And that’s it.
9/17/08
On the 17th, Alicia’s birthday, I left my bike at the Director’s house in Agbatit and hopped in a car to Atakpame. Upon arrival I busied myself making a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Happily it turned out well. It was a nice day and I was glad to see many of my friends and have a chance to chat with Jorge (although I missed the water balloon fight ‘cuz I was ate the internet café).
9/18/08
On Thursday the 18th, Tig,
We checked into a hotel in Badou , after grabbing lunch, set out to hike up the mountain to the waterfall. We were accompanied by two teenage guides and had to ford rushing waters (Ashley almost took one of the guides down with her) and climb countless rocky steps. It definitely provoked heavy breathing, but it wasn’t killer. It was only about a 45 minute hike and worth every step. The waterfall was beautiful – bigger than I expected – and the best part was getting in the water at the base and experiencing the power of the falling water up close and personal. The water was only about waist high, but the water was pouring down off the mountain with such force (it is a vertical waterfall) that two meters was about the closest I could get due to the wind, spray and water that created an invisible, impenetrable force field around the bottom of the cascade. It was exhilarating and I would go back in a heartbeat.
Unfortunately, the day was marred by a conflict of personality. When I am on a trip (we were only going to be in Badou for an afternoon and a night) I like to go, go, go, see everything, do everything, take advantage of every second and I think, in groups in which not everyone is that sort of traveler, I can rub people the wrong way and come off as pushy and inconsiderate. And so I will have to try to be more aware in the future of other people’s needs and desires.
9/19/08
We left Badou early Friday morning and returned to Atakpame in a torturemobile. The van was smaller than average and falling apart, and still we managed to fit fifteen people in it even though both Ashley and Tig had hard metal objects jabbing into their a**es.
In Atakpame I did some shopping and some internetting and was debating going back to village but succumbed to the temptation of watching a movie instead.
9/20/08
Saturday, Ashley and her friend, Meg, came to visit me in village, so that was fun. At my request, Meg had brought supplies for s’mores. The children were making all sorts of conjectures as to what this strange white thing on the end of the stick was actually made of. Some of them called it sweetbread and others candy. I told them that children under the age of 20 will die if they eat it and perhaps they believed me, but they still sat around hoping for the taste that never came (I know, I am selfish).
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