Happy New Year, everyone!! Toby and I wish you all prosperity, health, happiness, good work, money, and lots of babies in 2012 (a la Togolais). My friend and I were looking through our planners, trying to set the dates for Camp Etoiles du Nord 2012, and got a little freaked out… this year is going to fly by! I’m organizing three major conferences (Women’s Conference in March, a Men As Partners training for my region in May, and Camp Etoiles in July/August) on top of my usual village and national activities. 2012 looks much busier than my 2011 planner, and the best part is, I’m so much more comfortable here now, so things like Girls Club and Camp are not nearly as scary as they were last year. I just have to stick to my plan and excecute.
Also, I’m in a great mood because I just got back from a fantastic vacation with my family in London. It was awesome getting to see them for Christmas and spend time hanging out and seeing the sights, eating delicious food and taking hot showers : ) We saw so many museums, did lots of tours, saw “the Mousetrap” play, and had teatime everyday. I brought back loads of tea to Togo and I’m trying to continue the teatime thing. My fam was really patient with all of my requests (Indian food, sushi, cereal, a pedicure) and I think they had fun watching me marvel at Harrod’s food hall and Diet Coke in to-go cups. Dad told me to pick out a loaf of bread at the grocery store… it took me 10 minutes. There was so much bread! It was all sliced, half was wheat, and then there were different thicknesses and brands… so overwhelming. Brian finally had to put a loaf in my hands and tell me it was time to move on.
Then, Brian came back to Togo with me for a 10-day visit! It was a great way to transition back to my Togolese life. He was such a trooper and didn’t complain at all as he rode bush taxis, climbed mountains, and saluer’d (greeted) everyone in Mogou with me. Here, everyone is your “brother”: your cousin, your friend, or your moto driver can be your “brother.” So when I introduced him, most people then asked, “Oh, where is his post?” thinking he was another volunteer. “No, no, he’s my brother, same mother, same father,” and then their eyes lit up. “All the way from America?!” He was a big hit.
So now, I’m back in Mogou, working a lot on the Women’s Conference. This weekend, my co-coordinator and I will be reading all the applications and selecting the participants, which I think might be hard…in the process of collecting the applications, I’ve met a lot of really awesome women, and I hope we can accept them all. Also, our website is up, and it looks great! Check it out:
http://wwectogo.wordpress.com/. Some news from Mogou:
- Toby got a lil overexcited when chasing a baby goat (one of his favorite activities), and ended up killing it. Fun fact: current price of a baby goat is 2 mille fCFA ($4).
- Today is January 13th, a sorta-minor national holiday. It was the day President Eyadema (the current president’s father) took power, and is not celebrated very much now since his death. But, my compound (the party house) doesn’t let much get between them and a holiday, so we’re fête-ing it up.
- Gas prices are skyrocketing because of the Nigerian oil subsidy repeal. Gas had been between 500 and 550 fCFA ($1.00-$1.10) per liter for almost all of my service. Yesterday, it was up to 750 fCFA ($1.50) in the morning and 850 Fcfa ($1.60) by the afternoon. Which, by my calculations (yiiikes math..) is over $6 a gallon. It now costs me $8 to get in to Mango by moto, so I’m pumping up my bike tires.
