It’s official: I’m an RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer)! They cut my ID card this morning as the last step in my COS process.  I’m now sitting in the bureau on my last full day in Togo, packing and repacking my bags and getting super stoked for my trip to Tanzania which starts tomorrow. I’ll be there for two weeks, then back to Wisconsin on Oct. 7^th.

As much as people tell me goodbye and congrats, it still hasn’t hit me that I’m leaving. My last week in Mogou was a blur—cleaning out my house, giving gifts, having my last dinner with Affaires. He was so, so great! We hung out all week, set up an email account for him, and reflected back on my two years. It all went well, that is, until my last night in village when I started not feeling well. After a quick check up at the clinic in Dapaong, I found out I’d contracted malaria and amoebas at the same time. No fun. I felt terrible, which I think diverted my attention from the emotions of leaving, but recovered after a few days and am feeling better now. It’s funny, I had a relatively very healthy service right up until my very last day in Mogou. Saved it all for the end!

Well, I’ll have to keep this short, but will be home soon enough to update you all in person! A bientot!

Well, to be honest with you, I did write two blog posts since my last post. I just never uploaded them. And I think it’s for the best… they were, um, a little bitter sounding. I was in an eager to-get-to-the-end-of-my-service rut for much of July, and when you’re sitting at the bottom of the culture shock roller coaster it’s best just to keep your mouth shut.

But now! I’m still riding the “post-camp high” from Camp Etoiles du Nord—what a blast! It was an even bigger success than last year, in my opinion, and the girls didn’t want to leave. We packed the schedule with activities, but the girls were still not too tired for dancing and singing every night. I especially loved working with our awesome team of women who organized, led sessions, cooked delicious food, and sang and danced right along with the girls. We had 6 university girls who are originally from the Mango area, and they were a big help to us and inspiration to the girls. The 3 law students led a really interesting session on girls/women’s rights in Togo, and they all talked with the girls and shared their stories in the evenings. On the last night, we held a certificate ceremony with all the people who’d helped out throughout the week. One of the university girls insisted that each of the “staff,” including our panelists, the university girls, facilitators, and organizers, do their own ethnic dance to go up and collect their certificate… and the place went wild. Everyone was so happy and cheering each other on, my PCV friend had to elbow me and tell me not to cry, because I was starting to tear up. It just hit me: this is Togo, and I’m leaving this in a month. Of course I pulled it together, but since then I’ve been looking at Togo through some rosy, nostalgic glasses.

Immediately following camp, we went down to Lomé for our Close of Service (COS) conference, which was amazing. We stayed at a beautiful hotel on the beach, complete with hot running water showers and butter on the breakfast table. It was extremely helpful: we got sessions on resumes and interviews, how to explain our service to employers and family alike, and tips for dealing with readjustment in America. And again, the butter. I loved it. Even the more so because it was all Peace Corps doing it, saying “thank you” and “good job”, which was a big departure from the usual “don’t be late to turn in your VRF” and was not lost on us. It was also really nice to hang out with my stage, all together for the last time. I realize I’ve made some fantastic friends here, and just being in a group of volunteers is something I’m going to miss.

I’m down here again in Lomé for the new stage’s swearing-in ceremony, which is going to be a big deal this year: 50 years of Peace Corps in Togo. Rumor has it the President might come… We all have matching pagne and are going to look sharp just in case. It will be great to see my replacement swear-in, and I’m also taking advantage of the opportunity to get some COS paperwork/ stuff done.

Then, back up for my last days in Mogou! My replacement moves in around the 14^th, so I gotta be out before then. Last marché day, last drinks of tchakpa, last time with some of my friends. Affaires and I are going to go into Mango to set him up with a gmail account, so hopefully that will make staying in touch with him easier. It’s weird, I have days when I can’t wait to get home and get started on my life back in America, and then others (or even later in the same day) when I don’t want to leave. I mean, I will never see most of these people, people I can call my friends, ever again. I will never live in a village in Africa again, and from this experience I’ve gotten to see so many things I otherwise wouldn’t have. I’ve really benefited from getting a first-hand account of Togolese culture, which would have been very difficult to do from living in the capital. And it’s given me the inspiration for planning the rest of my life! Which was always the goal… along with challenging myself, a goal accomplished a thousand times over.

So, I’m off to buy presents! I’m getting matching pagne for Affaires, Beau Père, Salamatou, and the gang, except they won’t know they’re matching until they start wearing it around village after I’m gone, haha.

2 weeks to go!

Pictures from Mogou: Ruth's visit!

The cotton truck came to collect the harvests of Mogou's cotton farmers... which is pretty much everyone. They weigh the cotton on site and then issue a receipt. Another truck is supposed to come soon with the payments.

Toby, ready for a walk around town.

Pounding fufu, a staple dish made from boiled yams pounded into a sticky jello-like ball. Really good with peanut sauce.

Heading into the marche

Ruth drinking tchouk at my neighbor's stand in the marche. Yum! ; )

Pictures from the Men As Partners Training of Trainers- Savanes Region

Me and Madame Rose leading a session called "What is Gender?"

Our newly-trained participants leading a practice session on violence with moto-taxi drivers

Participants from neighboring villages meeting to discuss plans for implementing MAP activities their communities

Pictures from the Women's Wellness and Empowerment Conference- Kara/ Savanes 2012

Learning about food groups in a nutrition session 

Our opening ice-breaker activity about diversity and helping each other 

The candlelight ceremony on the first night: Madame Rose passed the light around the circle of participants, explaining the importance of sharing the information we learn with our sisters

Yoga!

Hello, everyone! It’s been too long. I’ve got a lot of stuff to report, so I’ll break it up into segments for easier processing. I’m in the last four (can you believe it??) months of my service now, and while it seems like I just got here, I’m also really getting excited about coming back home. But first, a re-cap on all that I’ve been up to in the last few months…

Women’s Wellness and Empowerment Conference

This conference had been in the works since last September, and I was really, really pleased with how it turned out. Our 27 participants from all different backgrounds, villages, towns, ages, religions, and ethnic groups came together for a week to focus on health, confidence, family, and life goals. It was a pleasure to see how enthusiastic and participative all the women were, how well-organized the PCV and Togolese facilitators were, and how smoothly it all came together. Some of the themes we covered were: Nutrition, family planning, being a role model, self-esteem, planting and cooking with moringa (a really healthy tree—lots of protein, vitamins, etc.), stress, water filtration, raising livestock techniques, and everyone’s favorite: yoga! We had all the ladies up at 6:00 doing yoga and talking about fitness. One of the participants from last year’s conference led the yoga with me, which was really fun. 6:00 is definitely sleeping in for women in Togo… one morning I got down at 5:45 to set up the mats and saw women running laps around the courtyard to warm up. They continued with high energy through a packed day of sessions and activities, fueled on weird food like salads, burritos, and stir-fry. One important aspect of the conference is promoting an “open to new ideas” attitude, including trying new, balanced meals to mix up the usual Togolese diet of corn pâte and a handful of sauces. The burritos were a real miss; the women just ate the rice and beans off the corn tortillas that PCVs spent hours making with the kitchen staff at the hotel, confirming the cooks’ suspicions that we Americans eat strange food. But other things, like the moringa powder we put on the tables to add to each dish, were a huge hit, and like I said, the yoga was a major success. One of the participants that I nominated, Salamatou, now does yoga every morning at her house here in Mogou, and has even started running laps around the soccer field at the school, in spite of comments from her neighbors and friends about her unusual behavior. “The doctor had been telling me for a while that I needed to change my diet and work on my fitness,” she told me a few weeks after the conference. “But after the Women’s Conference I really decided to do it. I’ve cut back on salt and oil in my cooking, I work out everyday, and look at me! I’ve started to slim down. And I’ve never had more energy!” I’ve joined her for yoga sessions a couple of times, which was a great experience. While doing “chat et vache” (cat/cow) poses in the courtyard, chickens are running around, kids come in and out of the house getting ready for school, neighbors stop by to buy sugar (she sells small groceries in the market every day)… it’s all chaos. But Salamatou isn’t phased. “Breathe innnnn, breathe outtttttt,” she says, and “sugar’s in the room on the left, 50 fCFA for the small bag, 100 fCFA for the big one. Breathe innnnnnn…” I love it.

Men As Partners (MAP) Training

This conference just wrapped up—May 8^th through the 11^th. It was the first of its kind for the Savanes (my) region, even though many PCVs have organized MAP trainings in the other 4 regions of Togo. So, this was a highly anticipated event, and it fulfilled and surpassed everyone’s expectations. We had other PCV friends come from down south to help out, and they told us this was the best MAP event they’d ever seen. All we do is win! : ) It really was fun to do; a nice challenge, and it was wonderful planning it with my friend, the lead on the project, Christy.

            Like the women’s conference, this was a 3-day training for 28 participants from all over the Savanes region, with different backgrounds, levels of French, etc. But unlike the Women’s Conference, it was a training of trainers, meaning the participants were expected, at the end, to be able to train others in the community in MAP. Also, the message was much more specific: gender equity is in everyone’s interest. Here’s how you, as a man, can and should care about women’s rights. This is a tough message to sell given the entrenched traditional ideas about gender roles in a patriarchal society. But the MAP framework is a really interesting, really effective approach to gender. It places men and boys as the main beneficiaries of gender equity. Instead of railing against sexual harassment and unequal division of labor in the home, MAP goes back to the basics. What is gender? Why do we have different tasks for men and women in the family? How does violence negatively affect our families and communities? All sessions are based on questions and interactive activities which help the male participants think through and challenge preconceived ideas of gender in their society and come to their own conclusions about what needs to change, and how. Some of the activities were hard to watch, like “Sharing our attitudes about gender.” This is the very first activity of the training, and is intended to get participants used to sharing their ideas and hearing others’ with respect. That said, some of the perspectives are less than enlightened. In the activity, multiple statements are read and participants decide if they ‘Agree,’ ‘Disagree,’ ‘Totally Agree,’ or ‘Totally Disagree’ with the statement. For example: “Men are more intelligent than women.” Most participants were ‘Disagree’ with this one, thank goodness. So it seemed we were on the right track. But then, “If a woman dresses in “sexy” (skirt hem above the knees, etc.) clothes, she deserves to be raped.” Almost all of our participants were ‘Totally Agree.’ Throughout the training, Christy and I tried to stay out of the discussion as much as possible. We had a really capable team of Togolese facilitators and pretty much left session management up to them. But on this one I couldn’t help myself… deserved to be raped?? Come on, guys! So I ‘shared my attitude’ that no one can deserve a crime, and that I think men are strong enough to resist these girls, and they all laughed. I think part of it is the cultural expectation of dressing correctly. Here, you dress UP for things. Going out of your house is an event. Even if you are the farmer-iest farmer, you put on your best clothes for the marché or a bush taxi ride. So not dressing properly is seen as intentional and a major faux pas. Also, people kind of do believe that you can deserve a crime by not taking proper precautions against it. Locking doors, closing windows (very small windows, so people can’t go in or out of them), not leaving anything of value out in plain sight, it’s a national obsession. But anyways, I digress. The point is, it was very interesting hearing people’s views on gender issues in such a candid way, and then watching how they changed throughout the course of the three days.

            On the last full day of the training, we organized community groups to come in and be audiences for the participants to so they could lead sessions as practice before heading home. This was a great part of the conference. We sent some of the participants (the teachers, mainly) over to the huge middle school in Dapaong to lead sessions with students and teachers on sexual harassment and consent. The other groups stayed on site and led sessions with groups of taxi moto drivers, social workers, and a small environmental volunteer group. It was all a big hit. The moto guys, in particular, loved their sessions on ‘New types of courage’ and ‘What is violence?’, and the environment group had so much fun with ‘Agree/Disagree’ that they played for an extra hour. Then, two days after the conference was over, one of our facilitators ran into the environment group in the marché. They had set up shop in a cafeteria (sells egg sandwiches, rice, spaghetti, etc.) on Saturday morning, and were leading ‘Agree/Disagree’ with everyone who came in for breakfast. Just like that! We hadn’t even really trained them, they were just there for a couple hours to do one activity, but I guess they really loved it and got to work right away.

            So, overall, a great event. We sent everyone home with certificates (like gold in Togo—folks LOVE certificates), their very own MAP manual, and had a dance party on the last night with tchakpa. One thing I really, really appreciate about Togo: grown men will literally drop whatever they’re doing and get up and DANCE, I’m talking booty shakin’, linking arms with their friends, laughing and running around DANCING when their song comes on. I couldn’t imagine a group of teachers, for example, dancing it out at the end of a conference in America. But, for the record, the women at the women’s conference out-danced the men three times over—we had to shut the ladies’ party down at midnight. They’d been having a traditional dance stomp-off competition. The men all went to bed of their own accord around 8 pm : )

Premier Mai, 2012

Once again, Premier Mai proved to be my favorite holiday in Togo. This year, one of my Mango cluster friends came over to celebrate with me, as her village is mostly Muslim and doesn’t party it up quite like Mogou. Apparently, few places party it up like Mogou. We started the day with a parade through town, featuring all the workers of Mogou. Teachers, moto drivers, health workers, couturières and taillers (tailors), me and Affaires. Aichetou got me in on the teachers’ uniform, so I was wearing the matching shirt and looking very official. We got into very organized lines and marched around town, those in front carrying a Grey Goose Vodka promotional tablecloth or sign or something, cuz we needed a banner. M. Akata, the class clown of the teachers, let the parade yelling ‘Left! Left! Left right left!’ and Salamatou led everyone in singing, “We are the workers of Mogou!” The parade went to the Régent du Chef Canton’s house (head guy for the canton, like a county? but smaller), where all of the notables were seated, waiting for us. We then had our spokesperson present our group and give a short history of Premier Mai: labor day. Shout out to Dad and Brian for doing research for me on the world history of labor day… they loved it. He then read the list of things we, the workers of Mogou, appreciate in our community (the new electricity, the cell tower, the road construction from Mogou to Tchimonga, etc.) followed by our list of demands/ requests for this year. Those included: new road to Mango, a parking lot in the marché for the cars/ trucks that come in, a police post, electricity for the health clinic, etc. I really liked this part. Everybody got together the day before and made a list of things they liked and didn’t like about Mogou, and what we should ask for to change from the Chef. How great! Let’s do it, guys! Some of that stuff, like electricity for the health clinic and the parking lot, should be pretty easy. New road to Mango? Well, at least I know I’m not the only one who thinks it’s bad.

            After the parade, it was marché day as well, so we hit up the beans and rice, got some mangos, and headed back to my house to take a nap before the afternoon festivities started. Affaires had already been by. “Where are you?” was scrawled on my porch in charcoal. This is his favorite day out of the whole year, and he was busy getting his people together. At around 2pm, Aichetou came by with another woman from our group to collect us. They tied my pagne on my head for me, and off we went to get the others. There were about 10 of us who ended up together that afternoon… part of the deal is walking around collecting everyone so that the people of the village can see how pretty and fancy you all are. So after 2 hours of that, we ended up at the bar to watch the impromptu dance party that went into the night. We called it a day pretty early, like 9pm…. the rest of the village stayed out all night.

Everything in between…

Besides all my activities, life has been going pretty well. I had the pleasure of hosting my fourth American visitor (Mom, Dad, and Kev, I’m counting you guys as one visit…), Ruth Marks! She was so fun and such a trooper, and we had a great trip running all up and down Togo. We saw Lomé, Kpalimé, and the mountains of Danyi, all the way up to my village and back down again. It’s always nice to get a fresh perspective on life here and catch up on what’s going on back in America. She also took some great pictures of Mogou, which I normally don’t do because it would be a bit awkward for me. I was trying to post them now, but the internet is not cooperating… I’ll get a bunch up when I go south next month.

            So now, here I am up in Dapaong on a very unscheduled trip… I ran out of cooking gas three days ago and finally couldn’t eat another meal of mangos and crackers, so I came up to refill. I had a rough weekend in general: snake in my latrine (killed it!), baby mice falling from my kitchen ceiling, bug outbreak in my house after a big rain, etc. so I’m kind of glad for a quick, one-day break. I’ll head back tomorrow and will be in village for about 3 weeks, studying for the GRE. Fun, fun! But really great as far as free time goes… I can literally spend days just studying without much worry. The kids are all in their final exams, and since the rains started all their parents are planting in the fields, so nobody’s really around to do anything with me. Perfect! After the GRE, my main (and last, really) thing is Camp Etoiles du Nord, the planning for which should take most of my time until the end of my service. I officially got my COS (close of service) date: September 21^st! Since I’m getting replaced, and the new group is coming early this time around, I have to be out of my house by September 14^th instead of the usual November. It’s still a full two years, and I feel like I’ll have done a significant amount of work by then, so it works out well for me. I’m really glad I’m getting replaced in Mogou: the village has changed so much since I first got there, and I’m hoping with some of the groundwork I laid, the next volunteer can really get a lot done. Or at least enjoy the electricity : )

            One last thing, sad news: Toby got sick and passed away yesterday. There’s something going around with the dogs in the area, so I don’t think it was anything intentional (at first, Affaires thought it could be poison). It was very sudden, but as all my neighbors tell me, you never know what’s going to happen in life, and “we don’t cry over animals, Ellen.” He was a great dog, and I miss him a lot, but at least I know he was the most loved (and spoiled) dog in the whole canton.

'Til next time... which I hope will be much sooner : )

Hello, all! Long time no post... and sorry, this one is kind of a teaser. I promise more to come very soon (right after I finish my Men As Partners training conference this week).
In the meantime, Camp Etoiles du Nord is back again this year! Like last summer, we're bringing 30 top female students from villages all over our prefecture into Mango for a week of fun! The girls will meet professional women from the area, tour workplaces and learn about different careers, and gain life skills through sessions on self-confidence, contraceptive use, time-management, setting objectives, etc. This is a really great project and one of the best things I've done during my service; last year's participants still talk about their time at camp, and I have seen such a difference in their confidence, leadership, and schoolwork. Check out the link for more info (and to donate!): https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projdetail&projdesc=693-401

Grand merci! : )

I had a really great moment with a Togolese friend of mine, the director of the elementary school last marché day. We were sitting in the bar, chatting like usual, when he asks, “What does your shirt say? GW woohhmeenss creuugggh?” “Oh dear,” I thought. How do you explain rowing to a guy to whom “sport” means only soccer? And who has maybe never been in a boat. So I started… “Well, when I was in university, I did a sport that I don’t think we have in Togo… there are these long boats with 8 people in them, all using, uh, sticks to make them go fast in the water, and they race other boats. And we got these shirts made for the team.” “Oh yeah, I think I saw that on TV once,” he replied, and then looked kind of pensive. “Village life sure is interesting, isn’t it?” he asked. I didn’t know what he was going for… I assured him that I was very happy here… “No no, I mean to say, isn’t life interesting? You look at where you’ve been, where you come from, where you are now, and can’t help but wonder where you’re going to go next. Interesting.” I was floored. First that he’d seen rowing on TV. But also because it seemed like he really got it: how strange it is for me to be here, coming from my old American life and living in rural Togo. Mogou is so familiar to me now—I’m not shocked every time I walk out my front door. But thinking about how two years ago (wow, that’s sounding long) I would spend large portions of my day rowing, something so beyond foreign to Togo that I didn’t have the vocabulary to explain it… I was glad my friend made me stop and appreciate where I am.

In other news, I got a cat! A kitten, really. It seemed like a good idea… I’m sick of my mouse problem, and walking behind my house I saw that my neighbor’s cat had cute little white and black kittens, so I bought one. His name is Leo, and he hates me. Well, all people, I guess, and he’s scared of Toby. I kept him in my house, terrified, for three days, before he made a mess of the place and I moved him to the yard. I’ve kept Toby away from him as much as possible, given him lots of milk and dried little fish, but he’s still scared to death of me and hisses if I get too close. I guess he wasn’t petted or handled at all by my neighbors, and getting taken away from his mother must have been traumatizing…but really now, he’s definitely big enough, and I am not a scary human. Toby liked me and let me hold him from day one. Leo tried to claw and bite my hand off when I set him down next to the milk. I just don’t get cats. My friends and neighbors say he’ll get over it soon, so here’s hoping.

I’ve been spending lots of time in Mogou, which has been relaxing if nothing else. We just had the fete of Dako, which is the “quiet festival” of Mogou. For four days, the village has to be very quiet so as not to upset the fetish (sacred area/ rock/ the gods in animist tradition) of Mogou, who doesn’t like noise from radios, singing, dancing, cars/ trucks, etc. So everyone is supposed to make lots of tchakpa (sorghum beer) and sit around with their family and drink it. Very quietly. They turned off our electricity so as to remove the temptation of playing loud music at night, and told the road construction workers to come back next week because their trucks were upsetting the fetish. Besides the loss of electricity and trucks (our road is a mess), this was awesome… normally people play their radios at top volume all night, but with four days of silence, I got plenty of sleep. My PCV friend came in from Mango to celebrate the end of the fete with us, which was really cool to see. All the women from Mogou danced bambatti, a group dance where the ladies go two by two into the middle of the circle and bump butts, with not a little bit of force. Then the fetishers (witchdoctors) got together and did the ceremony for the fetish, pouring water and sorghum flour on the rock to thank the gods for a good harvest and to assure a good planting season and harvest next year. Dako also marks the beginning of hot season, so now it’s been getting warmer and warmer… I’m not sure if I’m ready! I still need to get a standing fan.

Girls’ Club goes on… Affaires and I decided to mix it up last week and included the boys. We did a Men As Partners (MAP) activity with the mixed group, which introduces ideas of gender equity and challenges the students to debate and question gender norms. The event was fueled by American candy and by the end, the students were more interested in the Starbursts than the debate, but I’d still consider it a success. My girls did had some fierce responses and did well defending their position for the statement “Soccer is only for boys, agree or disagree.” Another PCV friend and I are organizing a MAP Training of Trainers for the Savanes region in May, so this was good practice. Affaires loves MAP, and is really stoked to help out for the Training of Trainers. We’re hoping to take two adult participants from each PCV village in Savanes for a 3ish-day long training in Dapaong… the idea then is that they will go back and run MAP activities in their villages. I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

Update on the gas situation: the prices went down, and then back up again. From my new shortwave radio, the BBC World Service (LOVE it!) tells me that Nigeria is pretty much a mess right now, and with Ghana taking away part of their subsidy too, Togo’s in a jam. My “bike everywhere” solution to the high prices has brought mixed results. My first trip to Mango on the back route (through some fields and then over the river in a canoe), I got hopelessly lost. I hadn’t biked it in months, and in my early-morning haze, I took the wrong tiny path and ended up circling in the wilderness for an hour. It takes a lot to find yourself somewhere in Togo without anyone else in sight, but somehow I managed it, and it freaked me out. I finally ran into some lumberjacks who got me back onto the main road, and from there I found the real path and Mango. On another trip back from Mango, my brakes seized up, and I have yet to get them back to normal. With all the dust and rocks, I’m surprised I don’t have more bike problems than I do (knock on wood). Still, sometimes I wish I could travel like this guy, on his way down to Lomé from Niger:

For once, the kids weren’t staring at me : )

Women in Mogou coming back from harvesting millet (sorghum... its a grain) at 6:00 am. And I thought I'd gotten up early!

Brian with my biggest fans in the whole village. 

Brian on top of the mountain! We went to see the mountain caves up by Dapaong where the Moba people hid from the Tchokossi during the war in the 1700s.

With my wonderful brothers in London! Check out the Starbucks in my hand... so exciting! And the red double decker bus in the background... so London! 

Awww what a cutie! Hard to believe he has it out for baby animals...

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 13^th, 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. 

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 2^nd 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!

Of all the times to forget my camera, I thought as I watched three men load a cow into the back of a bush taxi. The red Toyota Starlet, from whatever year Toyota was making Starlets, looked like it would buckle under the weight of the animal, or maybe the sacks of grain, bicycles, and people already loaded into the vehicle, but miraculously it did not. You could tell from the windshield (held together with tape) and the doors (held closed with rope) and the ignition (hot wired) that this car had seen worse than cattle in its long life, and was up to the challenge. This bush taxi is my favorite car on my route into Mango, which involves biking 32km on “dirt” (read: sand/mud/rocks/river, depending on the season) roads, and then 25km in the Starlet. The driver has spent time in Ghana, and always greets me with “Good morning, sister! Let’s go to Mango! You go take your tea, and I will wait. Go and come.”Awesome. I get coffee in a can to go from the egg sandwich guy at the corner (and a sandwich, of course) and off we go, cow mooing all the way, to Mango: the big city.

But the big city is quickly coming to Mogou—this past week, big news—we got electricity! They turned on the big generator! The streetlights are on every night, and I have a lightbulb and a socket in each room in my house, which work from 6:00 pm until 11:00 pm. Other (larger) villages have electricity periodically throughout the day, but we don’t have quite the office worker population to support daytime electricity. So for the time being, it’s five hours. But what a difference! The first night we had it on in our compound, I was so excited I started dancing and hollering around the house, once again confirming my neighbors’ theories that I’m crazy.  I then plugged in everything I own and watched ten episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” until it went off at 11. Wild times in the village.

Girls Club is going again this school year: we meet every Wednesday and talk about different Life Skills topics for about an hour, and then dance it out in the courtyard. We’ve also started Reading Club with all of the donated books. The students LOVE them, and have started checking them out to read at home. I’ve had lots of other people in village asking to borrow books as well, from the teachers to the bartenders. Go reading!

I’ve been pretty busy with my national project work: Our first Lève-Toi Jeune Fille (our girls magazine) issue came out (theme: Girls in Science), and we’re working on our second right now. I’ve also been spending time in Kara getting ready for the Women’s Conference, scoping out hotels, getting our team together, etc. And, of course, taking advantage of the pool at Hotel Kara : )

And now, a shout out to all my readers who remember the battle I had with cockroaches in my apartment: check out this bug, which was in my house. It was one of many, attracted by the electric lights. Enjoy : )

Family visit pics!

Me and Kevin in the marche

We call this one "dinner looking at dinner." One of the goats checking out the chickens on the menu for the party.

The ladies of Mogou escorting us to the party, singing and dancing all the way

Mom joins in the dancing circle

My family at my house!

Wow, where did I leave off?? So much happened in the month of August, and only now am I getting enough of a break to stop and think about what all I’ve been doing.

First, Camp Etoiles du Nord was a huge success. The girls loved it, and really it was hard to tell who was enjoying themselves more: the participants or the organizers. For me and my Mango cluster gang, it was lots of work and pretty stressful making sure thirty girls plus all of our panelists and other counterparts were having a good time, but when we had the chance to step back and appreciate all that was going on… it was pretty impressive. The girls were fantastic; lots of energy, participation, and great attitudes. We also had four female university students who grew up in the Mango area helping us out as counselors. They stayed with the campers at the center overnight, and were able to answer more of the girls’ questions, having already been through their same situations. They were a big help to us… I really don’t know how we would have done the camp without them.

            One thing we’d overlooked was Ramadan. Our camp took place during the second week of the holiest month of the year for a town with a population that is about 90% Muslim. So, we had about 10 out of the 30 girls fasting, that is not eating or drinking water, from 4:00 am until 6:30 pm every day of camp. I know I would have had a hard time concentrating, but they really rose to the challenge and we had very few problems overall.

            Camp Etoiles had three major components: panel discussions, educational sessions on different topics, and site visits. Our panelists were a great group of women (and a few men) from the Mango area who shared their different careers and experiences with the campers, and we as PCVs had a great time getting to know them. Really impressive people. We had a female civil engineer (the regional director for public works here in Savanes), a policewoman, an accountant, a nurse, the manager of the post office, teachers, NGO workers, etc. I think the panel presentations were just as interesting for us PCVs and the university students as they were for the participants.  The part the girls liked the most was the site visits. We went to a microfinance/ credit union, the hospital, and the radio station. The radio station was the best; each girl got to speak on air and say her name, her village, and what she wants to be when she grows up (along with a few “Hi Mom!”s).

            When camp was over (literally, the same day), I went down to Lomé and over to Accra to pick up my mom, dad, and Kevin. Yay family! They stayed for 8 days, and we saw it ALL. Lomé, Mogou, and everything else in between. It was so awesome to see them and be able to show them what my life is really like here. We had a party in village in honor of their visit…which was in the end a success but caused a lot of stress along the way. I didn’t realize that there is no such thing as a “small” village fête. The entire village came to eat, drink, and dance with us at the school. The chief made a speech, and Mom and Dad made one as well, which everyone loved. The Mogou women showed off their traditional dances and let me, Mom, and my PCV friends join in—really fun! Kevin and Dad had matching batik pagne shirts made for the occasion, and even Toby came to party it up with us. I was really impressed with how well my family put up with everything Togo threw at them: strange food, French, crazy/ uncomfortable travel in a bush taxi, chickens and radios waking us up at 5:30 in the morning… not quite a relaxing vacation.

            Then, about a week later, Kelsey and Cindy came visit! Kelsey did a mini tour of West Africa, visiting Cindy at her site, then the two of them came to Togo to hang in Savanes with me. We saw the Moba caves, which are cliff caves that the Moba people hid in during the Moba-Tchokossi wars in the 18^th century. We biked out there with one of my PCV friends who lives nearby… he forgot to tell us they were cliff caves and thus we would be climbing a mountain to get to them. But we rallied and the hike was totally worth it! Awesome views, a waterfall, caves, what’s not to like? The next day we kicked it down to Mogou, did the marché, and hung out on my porch watching the rain. Kels brought me pop tarts and cookies that she and Cindy baked… first of all, I love how she remembered my pop tart obsession. Second, wow, cookie baking? I need to step up my game. Although, thanks to chef Dad, I am now a confident okra-cooker! But anyways, Kels, GOOD LUCK at your new job! So freaking proud of you. And Cindy, I’ll need to plan a Burkina trip sometime soon so I can see these tall goats you’re talking about.

            Well, my busy-ness didn’t stop there. I went right down to the Gender and Development Committee meeting in Kara, and while it was great to see all my friends, I could tell I’m in need of some village time. But, our first Lève-Toi Jeune Fille issue is out! We’re now working on our next issue, themed Community Action!, with a community service/ Camp Unite focus. Should be done by December, we hope.

            So now, back to village. I might sleep for the first three days. Then, prep for the first day of school! I’m hoping to do a girls’ club at both the middle and elementary school this year, and I’m eager to get back and start planning with Affaires. We’ve been in Togo for one year now… some days it feels like we just got here, and sometimes it feels like I’ve never been anywhere else. Yikes!  

“I don’t think this is the same pork we bought last time.” “No, it’s not, I’m almost sure. I saw what was written on the package…” “Me too! But I wasn’t going to say anything…”

“What are you guys talking about? What kind of meat is this?” I was lost. We were nearing the end of a delicious chili dinner, made with pork we bought from nuns in a village near Mango, and as I had been washing dishes, I didn’t watch much of the preparation.

My PCV friends looked at each other. “The package said ‘Pâté de Tête.’ ” Pig head meat. “Are you kidding! And we ate it!” I was thoroughly grossed out. But both my friends defended the pork. “Oh, it’s all the same! Like, what do you think is in sausage? That’s meat from who knows where on the animal. And maybe it’s just regular meat with some brain in it.” “I ATE PIG BRAIN?? And you think that’s reassuring!” I couldn’t believe it. Two Americans, one of whom had been a vegetarian for eight years prior to coming to Togo, were trying to convince me that pig head meat and/or brain was not only ok, but that I was the weird one for freaking out. Indeed, we have come a long way.

Before leaving for Togo, I heard from lots of people that Peace Corps changes you. I didn’t really understand at the time… “Change how? Do I need changing?” I thought. I couldn’t think what about me could change… I’d traveled before. I’d seen things. And now, with my friends and family coming to visit really soon (YES!), I’ve been thinking about it again. Has Peace Corps changed me? Apparently not in the same way as my friends, who don’t think twice about what kind of meat they eat as long as it tastes good. But I’m pretty sure I’ve changed in one way or another. Life is just… well it’s different here.

Here are some events from this past week:

-I was cooking dinner  one night with Toby and Jabenjezu (my neighbor’s dog) curled up on the kitchen floor. Then my neighbor’s cat wandered in. Then a mama duck and her 8 baby ducks wandered in. “Hey duck family, get out! All the animals, out out!” I shooed them out, and kept cooking. Ducks in my kitchen. Surprising, but not unbelievable. I’d been the one to leave my door open to a courtyard full of ducks, guinea fowl, cats, dogs, and chickens. And two weeks ago, we’d also had 2 giant bulls staying with us that my neighbor had rented to plow his field. As my friend from Mango has helped me to discover, I talk to animals a lot more now. I was telling her a story that started with the line, "So as I told Toby the other day..." and she burst out laughing and said, "Please, you don't even need to finish that sentence."

-On Friday, I stopped through a village on my way to Mango to talk to the director of the middle school there and invite him to the opening ceremony for camp. “Oh sure, I’ll be there, that’d be great!” he says. “And by the way, of the three girls you thought were coming from this village, only one is coming. And she’s bringing her baby, is that ok? The other two left… I think they’re in Lomé.” Camp starts in four days. I went to talk to the parents of one of the girls. “I heard the camp was called off! That’s what my sister told me. (What! Who is her sister?? Where are we getting this information?) My daughter’s in Sokodé… I don’t know when she’ll be back. Sorry.” So we scrambled and found two replacement girls. Fingers crossed, camp looks like it’s going to go really well, and we’ve now verified with the rest of the girls that they’re coming, so hopefully no more snags. Well, who am I kidding, there will be snags, but here’s hoping they’ll be small.

-Yesterday, in an effort to remind all of our participants that camp is YES, still happening, my PCV friend in Mango and I went on the radio to talk about the camp. It was really cool… I don’t think I’ve been that nervous in a while! Everyone in even the tiniest of villages listens to this radio station all day, and I knew it would be on in my compound at least. We talked about the goals of camp, who was going to participate, what we were going to do, and how we hoped it would help the girls and the community. The radio had a guy translate what we said from French to Anufo and Gangam, back to back. I will admit, that must be tricky work, but I was still miffed to hear him open each translation with “The Peace Corps ooboumpié says” or “The Peace Corps batouli says,” meaning “The PC white lady” in Gangam and Anoufo, respectively. C’mon! We were so close! Just stop after Peace Corps… but honestly, calling me ooboumpié probably helps all the peeps out in Mogou and beyond recognize who’s talking better than saying Corps de la Paix.

NOTE: Starting today, Togo is changing it’s phone numbering system to 8 instead of 7 digits. If you’re trying to call me, my new numbers are:

Togocel (doesn’t work in village, but is my main phone when I’m out of village):

92.22.63.12 [used to be 722.63.12]

Moov (works in village):

99.40.31.03 [used to be 940.63.12]

LOVE to you all! xoxox

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!

Bonsoir, bonsoir! Long time, no write, I know… I’ve been really on the go, and I’m afraid it’s going to be like that for most of the summer. It started with the Women’s Wellness and Empowerment Conference in Kpalimé in late May, which was a huge success. The conference was organized by volunteers in the plateaux region, and next year they plan to hold a conference in each of the 5 regions. I attended as the Savannes rep, meaning next year I’ll be planning the conference for our region (with lots of other people, I’m sure! It looked like a ton of work). They hosted 30 women from villages all over the region and presented themes and sessions from all four program sectors here in PC Togo. The women ate it up. From nutrition to family planning to budgeting to container gardens, they loved every minute, although it was hard to tell who was having more fun: the participants or the PCVs. We all did yoga together every morning at 6:00… the first morning, my fellow regional reps and I were slow to get out of bed and arrived to yoga still pretty sleepy. But we were the only ones. The women were so excited and greeted us with huge smiles on their faces. And we realized: this is a huge vacation for them. For three days, they don’t have to wake up at 4:30 am to sweep the compound, make breakfast, wash and dress the kids, etc. Instead, as Madame Rose pointed out, they were served all of their meals by men. It was awesome to see what an impact each new session had on the participants, especially on topics like family planning, which is usually taboo. I left with such a renewed feeling of purpose… it’s not everyday that you see people loving work that you do. And even though my role was very small (I was more of an observer than facilitator), the energy surrounding the whole event was contagious.

            On that awesome note, I left on another equally fantastic adventure: Molé National Park in Ghana. My friend from Mango and I trekked over to northern Ghana to see the game reserve in Molé… so fun. We saw elephants! And baboons, crocs, red monkeys, antelope, and warthogs. It was interesting seeing a part of Ghana that looked so much like our part of Togo, instead of the beach version of Ghana I saw on my last trip. It was kind of a hassle getting there… we crossed the border at Mango, but let’s just say there’s a reason that border crossing didn’t make the guide books. And, for the record, I thought Togo transportation was sketchy, but at least here we don’t make people stand in the aisle for a 5-hour long bus ride. Don’t worry, Mom, we had seats : ) We also hung out for a few days in Tamale, which is a very large city at the same latitude as somewhere between Kara and Mango. They were used to tourists in that town, and we took full advantage. We went swimming at the pool, ate meatball sub sandwiches, and went shopping in the touristy art market. But it was really nice coming back to Togo… I was relieved to know what I was doing again. I feel more comfortable speaking French than Ghanaian English, and in francs CFA I can tell when I’m getting ripped off, instead of having to guess and convert. We designated the day we got back in country as “I Love Togo Day,” so we loved our crowded bush taxi, our hotel room with the broken air conditioner, the moto taxis, and the bar-resto blasting Toofan while we mange-d cafeteriat spaghetti. It was just so familiar.

            And my Togo loving has continued—I spent one week in village and then didn’t want to leave to go to the GAD (Gender and Development Committee) meeting. I usually miss things about Mogou when I leave, like Affaires and my Gamgam teacher and Toby, but I’ve never not wanted to leave before. Making strides.