There are a few things I’ve wanted to blog but haven’t yet. I spend a lot of time thinking about food… like hamburgers. And pizza. And anything with cheese. I’ve also come up with a couple lists.
Strangest foods I’ve eaten so far in Togo:
- An entire frog. Legs, body, arms, head. Including bones and eyeballs.
- Sheep intestines
- Chicken necks
Strangest foods I’ve been offered but have (politely) declined:
- A monkey
- Pig ears and intestines (this one was disguised under the question “Do you eat pork?”)
- Rooster testicles
- Dog
- Iguana
Another thing I’ve wanted to do is just write what I’ve done in an entire day. Today was marché day, meaning it was about as animated as Mogou gets, so I figure today is as good as any. Here goes:
I woke up at 6:30—kind of on the late side because I didn’t have a morning meeting or déplacement (outing, quoi), which would probably have been at 7 or 7:30. I went outside and hung my phone on the nail on my terrace to get reception, said good morning to my neighbors, and went to my kitchen to put water on the stove to boil for tea and oatmeal. I was majorly bummed to find mouse poop in my box of oatmeal… it might have been old though because I cleaned up a dead mouse last week. Here’s hoping that was him. So, took my oatmeal and tea back to the house and ate breakfast and wrote a letter. I then swept out my house, latrine, and shower and cleared out some wasp nests. After that, unlike most days, I had written Peace Corps work to do. I filled out an application for a committee position and worked on my shadowing report (from shadowing my neighbor PCV in Mango who’s been here a year already) to present at IST. At about 9:00, the mason showed up to work on my latrine seat. Yess! He found cement. I explained what I wanted twice more and he had me sit on a few cinder blocks as a height reference. Then he got to work and I went back inside to draw up a visual aid for girls club tomorrow. I worked on that and ished around the house, packing for IST and whatnot, until around 11, and then headed out for the marché.
My neighbor wanted tomatoes but couldn’t find any, so I told her I’d keep an eye out. My first stop was the generator guy, where I dropped off my cell phone to charge. I then found tomatoes and carrots (!) and tossed them in my bag along with some string and bread. Looked for ant killer but couldn’t find any. Stopped by the lady who makes salads (She’s new. Comes in from Mango. ) and sat and ate one for lunch. I already have a reputation for liking salad… she knows me by name and scolded me for not telling her I was traveling last marché day. I then took the veggies back to my house and my neighbor was so thrilled she said she’d make me a salad for dinner. Score! Two salads in one day!
Back at the marché, I headed for the Kabyé hangout: the tchuk stand. Beau Père, Affaires, a couple Directeurs, my Gangam teacher… everyone was there. Chatted and drank tchuk for a bit. My Gangam teacher wants to start, ou bien re-start, a girls club at the elementary school, so we hashed that out a bit. Five old, drunk men stumbled in one after the other to ask to marry the white lady. Dèja mariée, dèja mariée, bye bye yo. The tchuk ran out early, so the tchuk mama and my Gangam teacher and I went shopping. They had to get stuff for dinner: yams, dried fish, dried peppers, etc., and I was just happy to be tagging along. Then they showed me the “good pagne” lady. Gangam teacher and I got matching pagne to make dresses like the one tchuk mama was wearing; the three of us are going to wear them to church together when I get back. So stoked!
After making all the rounds, we went to the couturière’s house to order our dresses. I brought along another pagne to make a skirt, as well as a skirt with a hole in the side for her to fix. She said she would have it all done by tomorrow evening for mille cinq cent ($3). Done deal.
Then I headed home for the day. Bought some colico on the way (fried yams) as an appetizer before my salad. You can’t be too healthy, tu vois? I ran into Affaires on the way and we fixed a time to leave for our déplacement tomorrow morning. Got home, put my phone back up on the nail, and mange’ed my colico. My water girl brought a bidon of water for me, which was really awesome because the mason had used up all I had for mixing the cement. And now here I am, sitting at my desk/ table quoi waiting for dinner at 8. After that it’s bucket shower and bed. Day in the life, yo : )
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