Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We had quite the turkey day up in Dapaong. All of the Savanes volunteers plus some guests from down south gathered together at the Campement Hotel in Dapaong for a real feast. We had everything from stuffing to green beans to mashed potatoes and gravy to pumpkin pie, thanks to a couple super-chef PCVs. Our Country Director came and brought three turkeys with her on the Peace Corps car for us. About two hours into the twelve-hour journey, one of the turkeys tried to make a break for it and launched himself off the roof of the car. He traveled the rest of the way on ice, and the other two were moved into the trunk. Just like the pilgrims, right?
It’s been a busy month for me, or rather one with lots of change. I’ve now been an officially sworn-in volunteer for a year…fourteen months total in Togo. It’s kind of reassuring to be seeing everything the second time around, and other volunteers have told me that the second year goes by so much easier and faster than the first. Some of my really good PCV friends are COS’ing (close of service, aka going home), so it’s been not very fun getting used to going to Mango and Dapaong and not seeing them there. But! We’ve got a great new group of volunteers that just swore in, and I’m really stoked for my two new neighbors in Mango and Takpakpieni.
The season of Harmattan, the windy season, has just started. It’s super dry and dusty and very cool at night, which has been great. I have to sweep out my house a couple times a day, but the fact that I can sleep with a sheet over me at night totally makes up for it. It was amazing watching how fast everything turned from green to brown… the last rain was in October, and within two weeks it was a completely different landscape. Now everyone is busy with the harvests: corn, beans, sorghum, soybeans, rice, peanuts, and cotton. Our soybean field did really well—Aichetou says we got six sacks of soy out of it. It was a tough year for beans, however the cotton is looking good, so people seem pretty pleased overall with the harvest. And that’s all for the farm report… : )
Now, a plug for the 2nd Annual Women’s Wellness and Empowerment Conference! I went to the Plateaux regional conference last year, and it is one of the highlights of my service so far. This year, the conference is expanding to three conferences, and I’m one of the regional coordinators for the Kara/Savanes Women’s Conference which will take place in March 2012. Thirty dynamic women from villages and towns all over the north will participate in this four-day long conference focusing on health and wellbeing. There will be sessions on personal finance, family planning, agricultural techniques, goal setting, nutrition, and much more. The project is being funded through a Peace Corps Partnership, meaning we’re looking for donations from people like you! If you’d like to donate, or just learn more about the conference, check out this link: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=693-389. Grand merci!
