Happy May Day!

The first of May (Premier Mai, aka Labor Day) in Togo is a HUGE holiday. Or at least it was in Mogou. Granted it was wild, but it was definitely the most fun I’ve had in village thus far. One of my Mango PCV’s and I joke about “potential friends”: people in village we would like to be friends with, thus a work in process. There are lots of great colleague-type people, the marché lady who always slips you an extra onion, and packs of kids sing/chanting your name, but vrai friends, that’s not always there. My Gangam teacher, however, is one such potential friend, and we made great strides on Premier Mai. She took me in her group of 8 women to celebrate together, and we were quite the scene, parading around town in our neon red and yellow pagne. I really won points when I tied the third pagne around my head “à l’africaine.” Oh yeah. Pictures to follow.

The holiday continued for about three days afterwards, and it put my whole village in a great mood. In Girls Club this week, the girls opened their letters from the BEHS French Club—GIANT success!! The girls were so thrilled with their correspendentes and the pictures, silly bands, etc that were included. Decorated with markers, some of them typed up with pictures from prom printed on the same page… really impressive. They read and showed each other their letters for about 20 minutes straight, and then the room was dead silent as they worked on their responses. It was really hard to tell who was more thrilled, though: me or the students.  If you’re reading this, bon travail et grand merci aux élèves de BEHS ! Les réponses viennent : )

Besides that, things in Mogou are continuing to go along. I got a new kitchen cabinet (garde manger) to keep the mice out of my food, and it has transformed my kitchen! I really like cooking now, and with an organized food situation, it makes it even better. Toby’s getting bigger and bigger and continues to follow me around… well, like a puppy : ) I don’t know what I’d do without him.

Really good news: our Camp Etoiles du Nord was approved! It’s going to be a Take Our Daughters to Work-style camp for 30 female students from middle schools in southern Savanes, set for the second week in August. We’ll bring them into Mango and do career-related activities, have them meet with women of different professions, and try out computer skills, etc. It should be really fun, and so far the girls and women sound equally excited for it. For the funding, we’ve been granted a Peace Corps Partnership, meaning some of the funding comes from the community itself, with the rest from outside donations. If you or someone you know would be interested in donating to Camp Etoiles du Nord (Northern Stars), please check out our project on the PCPP website: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=693-374. If it has you search for the project, use the project number 693-374. Merci beaucoup!!

Love you all-- I’m thinking of you all the time! Take care and ttys!