After our arrival in Togo, our first few days of training consisted of a retreat in the capitol close to the Peace Corps bureau. The purpose of the retreat was to acclimate our stage (franglais for “training group”) to Togo and they did an awesome job of transitioning us into Togolese life; however real life in Togo will REALLY start tomorrow when we head to Mt. Agou for our actual training. At our training sites we’ll be living with host families and we’ll have to get used to taking baths from a bucket of water, living in a communal compound and doing our own laundry by hand. Luckily that’s what our families are there for, to help us. Tomorrow will be a sad day however as it’ll be the first time our two training groups of CHAP (the program I’m in) and SED will be separated since we are training in different villages. Luckily our two villages are only 5km from each other so it’ll be easy to hang out with some of the people in the other group with whom I’ve become close friends (Marcus, Frankie & Michael, I miss you already lol).
Anyways, back to our training retreat. One of the other important reasons for our retreat was for health reasons: we needed to get a LOT of shots. The PC made us get a few vaccinations during the application process. In Philly we received our malaria medications (where I was put on doxycycline, the one-a-day pill…but more on that later) and the yellow fever vaccine. During the retreat they gave us shots for Hep A, Hep B, Typhoid & Rabies and apparently there are a few more shots to come. On Sunday morning during my health session I talked with my health director and apparently there was a mistake made and I was now going to be switched to mefloquine, the one-a-week pill that is supposed to give us wicked dreams. I’m kinda glad I got switched because taking pills every day would have gotten really annoying; besides, I get crazy dreams anyways so taking mefloquine (Larium) won’t make much of a difference. After my health session, a couple of us trainees decided to go for a walk around our area of Lomé. I didn’t realize how close we were to the shore but it was only a few blocks to the beach so we decided to visit. The beaches, at least in Lomé, are pretty dirty, not just the beach but also the water (I won’t go into details but I’m sure you can imagine why). It was very pretty though. The water looked amazingly blue and at that time in the day the only people on the beach were fisherman dragging in their boats and their catch of the day. Took a couple of pictures and then headed back to the hostel for lunch. The rest of the day consisted of going over safety & security measures for PCVs.
Sunday night, all the current Peace Corps volunteers who were able to make it to Lomé threw a welcome party ("fete" in French) for all the new volunteers at a pretty cool jazz club a few miles from the hostel. The party was pretty amazing as it was the first time many of our training group had the opportunity to meet some of the “older” volunteers. Those volunteers really are the shit. I can only hope that we are as cool and as well integrated as they are in a year from now. The jazz band that played was really awesome and after about an hour they started taking requests for American songs. There were even some PCVs who joined in the band and started playing along which was fun. Btw, I finally had an opportunity to try BB or Biere de Benin, a beer company that is supposed to be pretty popular in West Africa and there are even some bottles available in the US. My favorite version was Pils but I think so far Castel is my favorite beer found in Togo. Anyways the party was a lot of fun and I danced a bunch. I didn’t end up leaving until around 1am when the last of our training group decided to head back to the hostel to crash. I swear, if this is what life is going to be like as a PCV, I think I could get used to it J. However alcohol is definitely my veritaserum and it definitely led to some emotional vomit. At least they were to people I can trust…Btw, I did happen to run into a group of 4 Indians at the club which was really wierd. I couldn't tell if they were on vacation or if they lived in Togo. Oh well, I guess Indians really are EVERYWHERE in the world...
The past two days have been pretty chill. Our health sessions covered malaria the second day and diarrhea on the third day (Loose stools! The squirts! Chocolate Soup! Wow we all totally become 5th grade boys on that third day…). We also covered integration issues, and learned how to live with our host families regarding chores such as laundry, taking a bucket bath and pooping in a hole (thank god for toilet paper!...make sure you eat with your RIGHT hand and don’t touch any food with your LEFT!). We took language placement exams on Monday at the bureau and at the same time we also got issued our bikes!!! Although we don't have our bikes with us at the moment, they will be delivered to us at our training site in a few hours. I am super pumped about our bikes as they are Trek bikes and we have sexy helmets (as required by PC policy). I won’t go into much more detail about the training retreat but I do want to comment regarding Monday night as all the volunteers, the volunteer advisory committee, and some of the Peace Corps staff were invited to dinner at Brownie’s (our Country Director) house for dinner. The dinner was awesome (food was delicious...more to come about food, i'll prob dedicate a post to it later when I get to try more of the traditional Togolese food). We even had the US Ambassador David Donne (sp?) pay us a visit and join us for dinner. He spoke about Togo and towards the end of the night even visited my table where he sat with me and some of the other volunteers to discuss politics. I even got a picture with him (I’ll post it on Picasa at some point) J
We head to our village in the morning so I should probably finish posting pics and finish packing. Before I sign off for the next few weeks, I just wanted to thank all my faithful readers for keeping up with my bloggings. Part of the reason for this blog is to fulfill the 3rd goal of the Peace Corps which is to share Togolese culture with the American people; therefore, I invite you to post comments about anything you read here in the blog and I will do my best to answer any and all your questions. If you would like me to talk about any topic in particular, let me know and I will most definitely dedicate my next blog posting or at least part of it to tell you more about life in Togo.
BTW, here is a shout out to Brittany’s mom in Texas J Thanks for reading. Your daughter is safe and she loves you and misses you very much…
Anyways, back to our training retreat. One of the other important reasons for our retreat was for health reasons: we needed to get a LOT of shots. The PC made us get a few vaccinations during the application process. In Philly we received our malaria medications (where I was put on doxycycline, the one-a-day pill…but more on that later) and the yellow fever vaccine. During the retreat they gave us shots for Hep A, Hep B, Typhoid & Rabies and apparently there are a few more shots to come. On Sunday morning during my health session I talked with my health director and apparently there was a mistake made and I was now going to be switched to mefloquine, the one-a-week pill that is supposed to give us wicked dreams. I’m kinda glad I got switched because taking pills every day would have gotten really annoying; besides, I get crazy dreams anyways so taking mefloquine (Larium) won’t make much of a difference. After my health session, a couple of us trainees decided to go for a walk around our area of Lomé. I didn’t realize how close we were to the shore but it was only a few blocks to the beach so we decided to visit. The beaches, at least in Lomé, are pretty dirty, not just the beach but also the water (I won’t go into details but I’m sure you can imagine why). It was very pretty though. The water looked amazingly blue and at that time in the day the only people on the beach were fisherman dragging in their boats and their catch of the day. Took a couple of pictures and then headed back to the hostel for lunch. The rest of the day consisted of going over safety & security measures for PCVs.
Sunday night, all the current Peace Corps volunteers who were able to make it to Lomé threw a welcome party ("fete" in French) for all the new volunteers at a pretty cool jazz club a few miles from the hostel. The party was pretty amazing as it was the first time many of our training group had the opportunity to meet some of the “older” volunteers. Those volunteers really are the shit. I can only hope that we are as cool and as well integrated as they are in a year from now. The jazz band that played was really awesome and after about an hour they started taking requests for American songs. There were even some PCVs who joined in the band and started playing along which was fun. Btw, I finally had an opportunity to try BB or Biere de Benin, a beer company that is supposed to be pretty popular in West Africa and there are even some bottles available in the US. My favorite version was Pils but I think so far Castel is my favorite beer found in Togo. Anyways the party was a lot of fun and I danced a bunch. I didn’t end up leaving until around 1am when the last of our training group decided to head back to the hostel to crash. I swear, if this is what life is going to be like as a PCV, I think I could get used to it J. However alcohol is definitely my veritaserum and it definitely led to some emotional vomit. At least they were to people I can trust…Btw, I did happen to run into a group of 4 Indians at the club which was really wierd. I couldn't tell if they were on vacation or if they lived in Togo. Oh well, I guess Indians really are EVERYWHERE in the world...
The past two days have been pretty chill. Our health sessions covered malaria the second day and diarrhea on the third day (Loose stools! The squirts! Chocolate Soup! Wow we all totally become 5th grade boys on that third day…). We also covered integration issues, and learned how to live with our host families regarding chores such as laundry, taking a bucket bath and pooping in a hole (thank god for toilet paper!...make sure you eat with your RIGHT hand and don’t touch any food with your LEFT!). We took language placement exams on Monday at the bureau and at the same time we also got issued our bikes!!! Although we don't have our bikes with us at the moment, they will be delivered to us at our training site in a few hours. I am super pumped about our bikes as they are Trek bikes and we have sexy helmets (as required by PC policy). I won’t go into much more detail about the training retreat but I do want to comment regarding Monday night as all the volunteers, the volunteer advisory committee, and some of the Peace Corps staff were invited to dinner at Brownie’s (our Country Director) house for dinner. The dinner was awesome (food was delicious...more to come about food, i'll prob dedicate a post to it later when I get to try more of the traditional Togolese food). We even had the US Ambassador David Donne (sp?) pay us a visit and join us for dinner. He spoke about Togo and towards the end of the night even visited my table where he sat with me and some of the other volunteers to discuss politics. I even got a picture with him (I’ll post it on Picasa at some point) J
We head to our village in the morning so I should probably finish posting pics and finish packing. Before I sign off for the next few weeks, I just wanted to thank all my faithful readers for keeping up with my bloggings. Part of the reason for this blog is to fulfill the 3rd goal of the Peace Corps which is to share Togolese culture with the American people; therefore, I invite you to post comments about anything you read here in the blog and I will do my best to answer any and all your questions. If you would like me to talk about any topic in particular, let me know and I will most definitely dedicate my next blog posting or at least part of it to tell you more about life in Togo.
BTW, here is a shout out to Brittany’s mom in Texas J Thanks for reading. Your daughter is safe and she loves you and misses you very much…
3 comments:
Thank you much. Give Brittany a big hug from me. Love your writing. Love, PCV Mama Elizabeth
Thanks so much for posting all of this! It is so interesting and really helping Nathan and I prepare! Keep posting! And have fun! Look forward to seeing you there!!
are you alive? you haven't posted in a while
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