One of my PCV friends from Savanes came to visit me in Mogou on Monday. As she got off the taxi moto, the first thing she said to me was, “How did Peace Corps FIND this place??” Since the rains started, both of the roads leading out of Mogou have been hit pretty hard. The “good” road to Gando is more like a river for large stretches of way, forcing motos and bikes to ride in the grass on either side. The not-so-good road to Mango is about to close for the season because it goes through the Oti river floodplain. So, we’re slowly turning into an island…which I find all the more strange because not more than two months ago it was so dry and hot here that it only took an hour for all my laundry to dry on the clothesline. But nobody in Mogou seems too concerned about it; Everyone is way too busy planting and working in the fields. My half-hectare of soybeans just sprouted with the last rainstorm! My Gamgam teacher and I have a shared field and she decided that soy was the thing to plant. Afterwards she felt badly because she didn’t think that yovos ate soy. “We should have planted beans! You love beans!” But I assured her that yes, yovos eat soy and that even if it were beans, her family would be getting most of the crop, anyways. Her cousins and aunts did all of the work for the field, so I feel a little badly taking the credit for it… but come harvest time it’ll all get repaid. We also have fresh corn in the market now! I was so excited when I saw it and bought 5 ears right away. All the marché mamas started talking, and my Gamgam teacher translated: “They’re surprised you eat that! We thought only Africans ate corn. Yovos eat corn? Right off the cob like that? And you know how to cook it?” It’s like in People magazine or Us Weekly—the section called “Stars: they’re just like us!” They shop for shoes, they play with their dogs, etc. “Yovos! They’re just like us!” They eat corn! And soy! They travel in bush taxis! They ride bicycles! We yovos are pretty unpredictable, I guess.

We’re in the final stretches of work for our girls’ camp… oy, lots to do. I’ve been in charge of tracking down the girls in southern Oti (Mogou, Gando, Sagbiebou) to have them fill out questionnaires, permission slips, etc. Most of them are pretty shy but seem eager to go, so it will be fun to pull them out of their shells a bit at camp. It’s also been fun working with my PCV colleagues in Mango… we just made a delicious lunch of macaroni and cheese with REAL cheese and butter. We’re up in Dapaong printing and photocopying all the documents for camp, and taking advantage of all the luxuries of the “big city.” And, in spite of electricity cuts, copy machines from 1999, Mac-formatted USB key issues, and only one functional color printer in all of Dapaong (meaning all of Savanes), we printed and copied everything we needed for camp in a day. Boo-yaaa! Togo is really helping me gain some perspective and appreciation for the weirdest things. Like Kinkos. And dairy products.

Hope you’re all doing well and enjoying summer! LOVE xoxox

Oh, one thing I forgot! One of the volunteers up in Dapaong put together a CD of music by artists in villages around Dapaong called Songs of Savanes. You can order it at http://cdbaby.com/cd/moba, and proceeds go to buying a donkey and cart for one of the villages. Check it out! : )

Hello from Lomé! This summer is really flying by… I can’t believe it’s July already. June was a blur. I was a counselor for Camp Espoir, which is a Peace Corps-organized camp for kids infected or affected by HIV/AIDS, and they have a week for each region in Togo. So I was there for the Savanes week and was the counselor for the little girls (aged 9-11). Really cute. So many games, songs, dancing, talent shows, soccer games… I don’t know how camp counselors in America go for entire summers with that much energy.

But, moving from one camp to another, we in Mango cluster are really busy with our preparations for Camp Etoiles du Nord: a career development camp for middle school girls in the Oti prefecture. One of my fellow organizers, Megan, made a blog for the camp: http://campetoilestogo.wordpress.com/ Check it out! We’re down here in Lomé to buy supplies, meet with PC staff, and get all of our sessions and documents organized... and to eat some delicious food. Next week we’ll trek out to all of the villages to meet the participants and make sure they’re ready to go, double check transportation, food, and lodging arrangements, organize speakers… it’s all happening. It’s nice to have some real worky-work to do, especially because my village is really busy with planting season right now.

It’s been raining in Mogou about once a day or every other day, which really cools the temperature down. I’ve been enjoying sitting on my porch with a cup of tea and watching it rain… while Toby whines because it’s chilly and hides under my chair. Now that the kids are out of school, I’ve had more visitors to my porch library. A HUGE thank you to everyone involved in sending me French books—the kids love them. I had a boy about 9 or 10 years old come over one afternoon asking to read who I know from around village; He’s kind of a sassy kid who gives me a hard time and teases me when he can, but I told him to take a seat and brought out some picture books. As I handed them over, he took them so carefully and had such wide eyes… I could tell it was the first time he had ever held books. He opened the covers and just felt the paper of the pages, and then sat for hours reading. It was pretty cool to see. I’d like to work out someplace to have a permanent library in village, but in the meantime the porch is working pretty well. There’s one girl who just came back to Mogou after working as a nanny in Nigeria for 5 years, so she speaks English and together we’re working on the English picture books as well as the French. And then there’s one boy who comes every evening after dinner, and we sit together with our respective books and read with the lantern. Pretty cute. I’m flying through books by the way… no electricity has its perks, I guess. Recommendations, anyone?

Hope everyone’s doing well! LOVE LOVE!