L'arrivee

We’re here!! Made it safe. It completely threw me off when I realized we were coming in after dark, because it was only 6:30 but the sky was already pitch black. The Togo staff and a couple volunteers greeted us, helped us through customs, and took us to one of the two hotels we’re using these first few nights. They started us right away on malaria medication, gave us food, and then put us to bed.

When they showed us to our room in the hotel, it finally hit me that I’m here. I was paired with the same PCT (we’re still “trainees” so they call us PCTs) to be roommates as in Philly, where we each had our own queen bed, a full shower, a TV, and carpeting. Walking into our room here, I saw one double bed to share, covered in a tent of mosquito netting, with one light bulb in the corner and a shower with just a cold water spigot, and I had an internal freakout. No going back now!  As much as I tried to picture myself without American amenities, it’s just not the same as actually being faced with it. And this is a very nice hotel: they have wifi. But after I got over the shock, learned to turn on the light by smacking the light switch, and took a cold shower, I was actually excited to be here. I was so happy both my bags made it here in one piece! A few bags were lost and haven’t made it yet, but those people have been super calm about it, surprisingly. The last two days have been so busy already I can hardly process what all we’ve been doing! There are a few PCVs that have come down from their posts to take us around and help us with orientation. It’s a little intimidating being around them… they seem so comfortable here, it’s like being a freshman again. Or maybe more like a kindergartener. But they’re being really patient with all of our questions and sheep-like mentality. We’re on a tightly organized schedule, so much so that whenever we have free time for 20 minutes or so, I start asking around to people if there’s something we should be doing. One of the PCVs walked us home from dinner at the other hotel tonight and had to remind our group that we each needed to watch the traffic when we crossed the paved road, instead of just following the person ahead of us, because traffic wasn’t going to stop.

            Yesterday was our language placement exam. When we go to our program training later this week, we’ll start French class based on how what level we placed into.  I’m having an okay time adjusting to the French, I think. I’m able to understand almost everything people say to me, but my responses leave something to be desired. And then it gets really confusing when people throw in a local language word in the middle of a French sentence, and I can’t tell if I just don’t know that word or it’s in Ewe (Ev-ay, the primary language here in the south).

            I saw the ocean for the first time yesterday—you can see it just down the road from our hotel. The staff discourages us from going to the beach, because it’s supposedly full of sewage and bad characters, but I felt reassured just seeing the water.  Tomorrow is more health and cultural sessions, and then on Wednesday we travel to our training site to meet our host families for the first time! I’d better get to bed—the sun sets at about 6:00 pm, so our days start at 6:45 am.  I miss you all and I hope I’ll have internet again soon! xoxox