one year in togo

As of this weekend, I have officially been in Togo for a year! woah...

The newbies arrive tonight and I'm super excited about having some new people in country. It's funny because last year, I remember meeting all the volunteers who were about one year into their service and thinking "wow, I hope I'll be as cool as they are one year from now..." and I think I accomplished my goal. But we'll have to wait and see what the new stagiers really think about me and my ridiculosity...

So...I apologize for the lack of postings over the last few months. I've actually been really busy with work and travel and I haven't really had a clear moment to sit and collect my thoughts to put into writing. I've been meaning to write about several things. There was tony and larissa's f-wedding at the beginning of April. There was also my amazing vacation in Ghana I want to tell you about. In May I finished the first phase of my pilot project girl's club with a fete. Finally, I have several reflections on my life in Togo that I would like to share with you. All of this and more shall be revealed over the next few weeks (or at least that's the plan).

This summer is going to be intense, but in a good way. As I mentioned before, I was selected as one of the editors of Et La Sante? and this summer we have two issues to put out, one in June and one in September. I also mentioned that I am one of the regional coordinators for Camp Espoir and I am super pumped to play counselor for a week. Finally, a few weeks ago I got selected as a volunteer trainer for the new stagiers that are arriving tonight. It's sort of like being a FASET leader, except I don't have to be a tool. With those three activities, plus work stuff back in Sotouboua, I basically have a completely booked next three months. I feel bad about being away from post for so much time but at the same time, it's summer so schools are out and it's also rainy season so everyone's working in the champ so it's nearly impossible to do anything anyways. My plan is to finish this summer, do a quick vacation in Benin on the beach for a few days and then head back to Sotouboua, not leave for three months, and get shit done.

Backtracking, I started off my week long trip by heading to Notse to volunteer at Ashley & Danielle's Moringa Fete in Notse. It's kinda funny because last year I celebrated yams in Bassar and now I'm celebrating moringa in Norse. Anyways, I think I've talked about how awesome moringa olifeira is and all the cool things you can do from this "miracle tree" so I won't go into any more details but for the past year and a half Ashely and Danielle, two CHAP volunteers in and around Notse, have been trying to sensibilize their communities about Moringa. So in order to talk about the many benefits and ways to use moringa, they raised money to have a fete complete with a parade, radio announcements and carnival with moringa demonstrations. Me and about 15 other volunteers showed up to help man the booths and educate people about topics ranging from how to make moringa oil to a cooking demonstration with moringa leaves. Overall the event was a huge success and it was great to not only hang out with my fellow volunteers but to also see my health work in action.

So as you can tell, I'm writing to you from the lounge in the PC Bureau in Lome. I've been here all week for work and personal reasons. Workwise, Tchao asked Nacho and me to update the CHAP Toolkit for the new trainees so we've been working all week to add information on family planning, sexual/reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS. Personally, two good friends of mine left Togo (Fabiola terminated her service early and Tig ended her service) and I wanted to be in Lome to say goodbye. It sucks to start having close friends leaving country; these are people we've connected with on a certain level and now they are gone. Helen and Tig are the first ones from their stage to leave and they were some of the first ones to welcome us to Togo; luckily I still have many more weeks with other 2nd years that I am close to but come this September, they'll all be gone and my stage and the september stage will be the only ones left. Sadness...

Hmm...so the new stage gets in tonight and maybe we'll get to take them out tonight but if not, I'm excited about all the good food I can eat now that I've FINALLY been paid (took you long enough PC Washington!). Tomorrow night is the GAD fundraiser at Triskall and then the Regeants party to properly welcome the new trainees to Togo. I'll prob stick around on Monday to get somemore work done and then hopefully Tuesday it's back to post!

I'm off to go and make posters for the new tech house...

ciao!

these are a few of my favorite things (in togo)...

- riding my bike in the african bush
- watching goats scratch their bums against a wall
- hearing hindi music over the Togolese radio
- wearing pagne-anything
- cooling off with a vanilla fanmilk on a hot day
- hanging out with my fellow volunteers
- playing with babies during baby weighings
- receiving mail from friends and family
- having a complete conversation in kabiyé
- drinking a cold beer and reading a good book at the buvette across the street
- eating fufu with peanut sauce and pork
- playing with my dog swarley
- biting into the first mangoes of the season
- dancing in the rain
- falling asleep to the sound of my electric fan
- being a public health badass

busy as a bee...

Hey everyone,

It’s funny how my life right now in Peace Corps is almost completely 180° different from what it was about 6 months ago. Last fall I pretty much spent my days lounging around my house reading books, watching movies, cooking and biking. I felt completely lost in terms of what exactly I was supposed to be doing here in Sotouboua (and Togo in general) and I was seriously contemplating ETing. I was happy, but I was feeling unfulfilled.

Nowadays, I barely have time to relax outside of repos time (where I’m pretty much forced to do nothing due to everything being closed and it being way too hot outside) and I find myself with much more work opportunities than I am able to pursue. I still try to read when I can but my list of books that I have started and not finished is growing (I’m currently in the process of reading about 4 books at the same time, along with several magazines and not to mention all the research documents I need to read for work). I’ve had the opportunity to make some pretty amazing meals (for Togo) with Marcus and Korie (stuffed green peppers, chicken pot pie, wagash calzones, just to name a few…) but I’m not cooking as much as I used to. As for exercising, I do a little every morning and of course I bike around Sotouboua for work but unless I have to do quick trips to surrounding villages for random things, I don’t get to bike for leisure unless I happen to already be biking and have like an hour to kill between meetings.

I’m definitely not complaining but if you had asked me last fall if I thought my life in 2009 would be this busy, I would have laughed. I like being busy. Well okay sort off; I like being busy but there is a balance that needs to be achieved between work and play and I think I am still working on finding that middle ground of moderation. It’s funny because I was always “busy” back in Atlanta but I’m busy in a different way here in Togo. All the projects that I’m working on here are things that I WANT to be doing as opposed to HAVE to be doing.

So this is sort of my excuse for why I haven’t blogged in a while. Apart from work, the only blog worthy event that I wanted to mention was the Safety & Security Conference in Pagala I attended at the beginning of March. As the contact volunteer for my Sotouboua cluster, I am responsible for alerting my group of any news from PC regarding our safety and security. Our conference basically covered what to do in case of an emergency, for example a coup d’état or if there is political violence pre- and post- Election Day next spring (I am fortunate to be in Togo when the next president will be elected sometime between Feb and May 2010). Apart from hanging out with Stephen, the conference was worth it just to hang out with my fellow contact volunteers and eat the amazing food at the training center.

Bad transition but yea, since a lot of new projects have come up and started to take form, let me update you on my work life:

1) Vie Saine Togo: I can’t remember what exactly I have blogged about regarding VST but basically ever since the members, on their own initiative, had elections for the administrative bureau in December work has started to pick up. I was still a little lost at the beginning as to what exactly I should do with them and after a little contemplation, I decided on completing a needs evaluation. Joelle conducted one I believe two years ago but since a lot has changed since then and now, I think it’s important for the members to re-evaluate where they are and what their needs are. For the needs evaluation, I am basically conducting home visits to all registered members in the Sotouboua, Adjengre and Aouda area where I am gathering information regarding their baseline knowledge level, a behavior change analysis and a qualitative needs assessment (basically I want to know what they already know and what they want to do so we can plan for the future). Not only does this evaluation help me collect data but I also get to personally meet all the members. After I finish the needs evaluation, I want to hold a “retreat” for the admin bureau to help them prioritize their needs and reassess their strategic plan. I’m not really sure where I’ll go from there but since my first goal with Vie Saine is to get them sustainably stable, I may try and do some basic management workshops to teach the members good business practices. Oh and I’m gonna start holding “office hours” at the bureau not only to put myself out there to help the members but also to set a good example and demonstrate the importance of having scheduled business hours. I have a lot of other ideas I would like to implement soon (radio programs, a kids club, an internal village savings & loans group, etc.) but all in good time.

2) I.E.A.G.R.M.S.: My girls’ club pilot project is coming along very well. Apart from the small management issue that happened at the beginning, I am actually impressed with how well the project is going. Not only have the girls attended all sessions, but they have been actively participating and doing their assignments like they are supposed. For our first real lesson, we talked about the basics of HIV, focusing on the ABCs of prevention, and then we covered an introduction to small businesses before I demonstrated the first IGAs (income-generating activity) of the pilot project: enriched flour and porridge. I wanted to incorporate a business skills section to the curriculum because I thought that it was important for the girls to learn the principles of good business and apply them to their IGA. For our next lesson, we talked about the importance of good communication and how to negotiate for abstinence and then I invited Golda and Korie (two NRM volunteers) to help me talk about Moringa before I showed them how to make a powder from the leaves that can be used as a nutritional supplement. This past weekend, in celebration of International Women’s Day, we discussed women’s rights and did some self-confidence building exercises. For the business session, I showed them how to make peanut butter and then we talked about how to determine the prices and costs involved in running a small business (I meant to cover this topic last time and talk about accounting this week but we always seem to run out of time).

We have one more class (to discuss how to plan for the future and how to do a feasibility study) to go before our evaluation and at the insistence of my counterparts, we will probably ask PLAN for funding over the next two months to help the girls secure a small loan so they can start the IGA of their choice over the summer to raise funds for school next year (as I mentioned before, schooling after the elementary level is not free). This is a little opposite from the vacation enterprise model but I think that teaching this information over the school year helps reduce tardiness (since the girls are already in a school mode) and this way they can just focus all their energy on running their small income generating activities over the summer without having to worry about “classes”. I am so thankful for my amazing homologues who pretty much run the show. I plan the activities based on the PC Life Skills book and of course from ideas that I come up with but since they pretty much repeat everything I say in a way the girls can understand, it’s pretty much like they don’t need me. I am so glad that the girls are motivated and hopefully after our course evaluation, I can determine what worked and what didn’t work to make improvements for next year. My plan is to come up with a year long curriculum (I am always rushed to cover information in the 4 hours I am allotted so it’ll be nice to be able to stretch some topics out over several sessions) for the next school year and if that model works, maybe do a training of trainers so, like my homologue originally planned, implement it at other schools in the area. Or at least that’s what I have in the works right now in my head. Again, baby steps…

3) Hospital / Dispensaire: In an effort to add more structure to my week I’ve been pretty religious about attending the weekly C.P.C. (baby weighing and vaccination day) at the hospital. They most definitely don’t need my help (well not really) but it’s fun to play with the infants and this way I get to know the mothers. My awesome counterpart Atisso has been making me do a causerie at least once a month so in January I did a causerie on the importance of breastfeeding; in February I talked about the advantages of family planning and this past week I did a causerie on malnutrition. Although I don’t really need to change anything, I am excited though because I think I did make a “tiny” impact by stressing the importance with the C.P.C. crew about giving the mothers an updated copy of their baby’s growth chart (something they had been neglecting to do since they only kept records for the hospital itself) so the mothers can take a more active role in monitoring their children’s health preventing malnutrition. Apart from the causeries, I would like to do some family planning work with the FP clinic but I’m having a hard time breaking the gender gap since it seems to be female-oriented work; however I am hoping to change that by possibly doing male-focused family planning sensibilisations and maybe holding clinic hours for men. We’ll see…

As for the dispensaire, I have tagged along on several of the campaigns such as impregnating bed nets and administering polio and vitamin A to children under 5 but they also seem to have their work well planned out. At the moment, I don’t plan to do a lot with the dispensaire (besides I do have a pretty full schedule of work) but I have been working with the program coordinator for the mothers clubs and he wants me to start working with the local mothers clubs to do small workshops. Although I definitely want to help and do some talks particularly on various health issues, enriched flour and moringa, we seem to be having conflicting schedule issues so I may have to wait till my calendar clears up a bit. I have two years though right?

4) Radio Projects: This is the project that I am currently most excited about and I hate to jinx it in case stuff doesn’t work out but oh well. Before coming to Togo, during my study abroad program in South America, I remembered learning about the effectiveness of using soap operas as a medium for social behavior change. Although I didn’t do a whole lot of research until I got to Sotouboua (since I didn’t know if I would even have a radio station to work with) after a little research online, I came across this awesome organization called Population Media Center. They came up with a training manual (in English and French) called “Soap Operas for Social Change to Prevent HIV/AIDS: A Training Guide for Journalists & Media Personnel” on how to use entertainment media as a vehicle for social messages such as family planning and gender equality. Since doing work over the television is not really feasible here (very few people in Togo have access to, much less own one) the next best medium is the radio. There has been a lot of success in incorporating behavior change messages into radio soap operas, particularly in Eastern Africa so my idea is to use the manual to create a local radio soap opera. I contacted the organization and they have been super helpful and extremely supportive; they even put me in contact with the current coordinators in Senegal who are working on a radio soap opera project through UNFPA & UNAIDS. I am very much in the initial stages of this project as I am still working on putting together a comprehensive committee of people from various sectors (the hospital, the radio, students, etc.). It also just so happens that one of my Togolese counterparts who is involved with the radio station peripherally has worked in the past on a radio project fighting child trafficking and he also has a background in Togolese theater! Could my post be any more perfect for me? I think not...He is super excited about the project and although he is a very busy man, he has pledged his full support. This is probably going to be one of my more time intensive projects since they process of creating the soap opera has many complicated facets and unfortunately it’s unlikely that we’ll get to any producing until next year; however like I said, it’s the project I’m the most excited about since a project like this has never been tried before in Togo.

I also really want to do some separate radio work since Sotouboua has not one but two private radio stations. However private means that getting free air time to do health sensibilisations or any other health work is pretty much impossible. But hopefully if this soap opera project kicks off and I get to make some strong relationships with the radio personnel, hopefully I can start doing some radio work in the fall.

5) Intelligentsia: Unlike working with CEG students, I seem to have the hardest time coordinating with the students at Intelligentsia, mainly because it’s a private school and has a different schedule than the public schools (Wednesday afternoon for public schools is designated as free time for the students to participate in clubs and other activities; due to Intelligentsia’s schedule, their free times are Tuesday and Friday afternoon). I’ve been trying to work with the health & environmental club and the theater club but apart from a couple random meetings, I really haven’t had the opportunity to do anything concrete with them which is a shame since I love working with schools. Hopefully things will change a bit because I would really like to introduce Moringa with the health club and maybe form some moringa peer educators to educate the community about the amazingness of the tree (I would really like to do the peer educator training before Earth Day so that the educators can plant some trees at the school). I also really want to involve some of the theater students in my radio project but since I don’t know any of them very well (since I’ve only met them two or three times), I don’t know who to approach. It’s a little frustrating but then again, c’est la vie togolaise non?

Oh but one “project” that is in the works is an American culture session during the annual “Semaine Culturelle” at Intelligentsia. All the schools around Togo do it to celebrate the ethnic diversity of the country but since we have the best relationship with Intelligentsia, Marcus, Korie and I agreed to have an open panel discussion with the students where they can ask questions about American culture and we will do our best to respond. Kpango also asked me to do a session on American music so I get to play various genres of music and talk about it in French. Semaine Culturelle is the last week of March / first week of April so luckily I have a bit to prepare.

6) Other Projects
- Tutoring: Not a whole lot to say but after a few very frustrating French lessons, I decided it was time for me to switch to Kabiye in my effort to better learn my local language (it’s not necessary to know a lot of local language to work in Togo but it certainly helps). So I am now taking Kabiye lessons and I have set a goal for myself that by December, I would like to be able to give a full 15 min causerie during C.P.C. in Kabiye (even if I have to translate it all beforehand). Wish me luck with that. A couple kids around my house also asked me to tutor them in English so I might start a small little English club but we’ll see how long it lasts since they already missed the first meeting and gave no excuse. I’m also helping some terminale (13th grade) students study for the English portion of their year end exams so they can get into university thanks to an awesome study guide two volunteers up north created for the BAC exam and I’ve come to realize that teaching English is really hard!

- Peace Corps Projects: Two Peace Corps projects that haven’t started yet but I’m super excited about are the CHAP newsletter and Camp ESPOIR. Due to a lack of interest, I’m pretty sure Heather and I are the new editors of the quarterly health newsletter for volunteers. I am really excited about this project because it’s a way to combine my passion for public health with my passion for collaboration; Heather and I are hoping to really transform the newsletter into more than just an update on what health projects are going on in Togo but more into a sort of a forum to share ideas and best practices while fostering collaboration among the volunteer community. Heather and I (and Nicole and Sam) have also been selected as the counselors for the Centrale / Savannes Camp ESPOIR, a week long camp in Pagala for children infected / affected by AIDS. The time commitment is very small (a one day planning retreat in April, a week long training of trainers in June and then the actual camp in July) but I’m still excited to basically be a camp counselor this summer :)

So as you can see I am certainly working with a full plate of activities and although I do get stressed out every now and then, it’s the good sort of stress. Behavior change certainly takes a long time and although I have yet to see results, I do feel like I am on my way to accomplishing what I hoped to do during my two years in Togo. However, only time will tell…

back to being a public health badass,
-Nikhil

P.S. Thank you to Christina M., my fraternity and everyone else who contributed to my AMAZING package I received at the end of February. I can’t tell you enough how much your letters, notes, and contributions meant to me. That package totally made my day :)

a trashcan of tchouk

A trashcan of tchouk, which costs about 4.500 CFA (or about $9), is approximately 1.5 feet high with an approximate diameter of 1 foot meaning the trashcan contains approximate 11.78 cubic feet of alcohol. That’s a lot of alcohol.

This past Saturday, my cluster (the 5 volunteers who use Sotouboua as a central location) and the Pagala cluster (a neighboring cluster of 6 volunteers about 50km south) attempted to finish off a trashcan at our first annual Sotouboua/Pagala mixer. It’s fitting that I use the term mixer since my cluster is 4 guys and 1 girl and their cluster is 5 girls and 1 guy so it’s very much like a mixer between a fraternity and sorority (wow, I miss Greek life…).

Anyways, the mixer was fun. The Pagala cluster came up to Sotouboua this past Friday and we hung out, ate bean burgers and pasta salad and drank lots of tchouk. It was great to hang out with them because although we have friends in each others cluster, they use Atakpame as their regional capital and we used to use Sokode as our regional capital so we rarely see each other. This might change though since Atakpame still has a transit house and is not that far from Sotouboua so our cluster can easily get there to do work/bank/shop/hang with volunteers. Regardless, it was a great party and hopefully this tradition will continue for years to come.

Oh and as for the tchouk, although a trashcan seems like not much of a challenge at first glance, as we started drinking calabash after calabash, we realized what a herculean task we had in front of us (particularly since several of us were mixing beers into the equation). The next morning, we found out that we barely finished ¼ of the bin! (it was sort of reminiscent of the never ending bowl in the middle of the island Dumbledore had to drink in Harry Potter book 6…). Since we didn’t want to return an almost full trashcan, Marcus, Sam and I attempted to finish off the rest of the trashcan on Saturday. We made it to about the end before realizing that our throats were too burned from the acid levels in the tchouk to finish. We returned the bin with about a little less than a 1/5th remaining. Not bad for two days work…

seropositif

How would you feel if you were to find out that you tested positive for HIV?

Don’t worry, I did NOT test positive; I am merely positing about what it must feel like to be sitting in a clinic and hear the words “You have HIV”. What would go through your head? Fear? Guilt? Freedom? If I was back in America I’m sure that my first reaction would be something along the lines of receiving a death sentence. But only initially. Then I’d realize that yes, I’m infected, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to die the next day, or even the next month or next year. In fact, living in the US, it is relatively easy to receive ARV treatment and other life-saving drugs so as long as I keep myself as healthy as possible by eating properly, I can live a relatively “long” life. Also, stigma against the disease has been reduced significantly since the early 1990s so I could live a relatively “normal” life as well such as keeping my job, friends and even a dating life.

No try imagining hearing those words again, but instead of being in America (or some other western “developed” country) you are now in Togo. Unlike America which has access to some of the best medicine in the world, being in Togo is a very different scenario. Already, most Togolese are blindly unaware of proper hygiene and nutritional habits which already leads to slightly poorer health (although that might be negated in the US by our obscene obesity levels…); poor health means HIV can transition to AIDS much quicker and take it’s toll on their bodies. Now, policy has changed very recently and ARV drugs are at the moment being offered at a low price; however the process of acquiring the drugs is a long and complicated process requiring a considerable about of money to be paid upfront for various tests and doctor’s visits. So although it is possible to now live with the disease here in Togo, various external factors do play a significant role in exaggerating the effect of AIDS in Togo.

Yesterday Vie Saine and PSI hosted another free testing day (“dépistage”) at the local hospital and I sat in with Fortuné during the pre- and post- psychosocial counseling sessions. For the first time (ever) I was actually in the room when a young woman found out for the first time that she tested positive for the antibodies. I just sat there staring and my mind started to wonder what must be running through her mind at this moment. I didn’t know anything about this woman. She looked about 35 but it’s hard to determine someone’s age (apart from “young”, “old” and “very old”) here in Togo. Was she married? Is her husband infected? Does she have kids? Are they infected? How long has she been infected for? Does she have enough money to afford the tests to receive a carnet, making her eligible for ARVs? Does she have enough money to get drugs for her kids if they are infected? What if her husband leaves her? Does she have a job? Can she remain healthy enough to keep her job? If she loses her job how will she provide for her children? Etcetera…

So if you are positive back in the States (or even if you are negative but might test positive one day) just remember how lucky you are to be in a place where your fate, no matter how grim it may seem, is a lot more optimistic.

more ponderings to come,
-Nikhil

seasons of change, pdm/ist, and goodbye sokode maison...

The past two weeks have been interesting so I apologize for the random jumping from topic to topic…

Seasons of change

I think that I talked about the weather in Togo a while ago but as the Harmattan season transitions into hot season, I would like to re-visit the topic. The weather in Togo varies as one travels from the south to the north. Since I only got to experience the height of rainy season in the southern part of Togo, I will focus my observations on the weather at my post. Typically, the Centrale region experiences two distinct seasons: wet season and dry season. Wet season, lasting from May until about November, is precisely as the name suggests: wet. Within wet season, you have “heavy” wet season which starts at the beginning of wet season and that transitions to “light” wet season which started a little after my arrival at post. Dry season starts around November and as you guessed it, lasts till around May and it’s characterized by very little rain. This is not to say that it doesn’t rain at all, which it can do for weeks at a time (there was zero rain from about mid December to the end of January!), but that rain is much much more infrequent. Dry season also can be divided into two separate sub-seasons: Harmattan and Hot season. Harmattan occurs basically from December to January/February and consists of a large quantities of sand and dust from the Sahara that make their way to Togo via clouds and wind and basically fill up the sky (and cover my patio along with everything else in my house) with dust. Due to the dust in the air, Harmattan can get downright chilly (okay so chilly here in anything less than 85 but I think it can get as low as 65 – 70 F) particularly in the morning. Hot season which runs from February to May is exactly as the name says: hot! Usually a rainstorm comes in at the end of January and washes all the dust from the air which allows the sun to wreck havoc in full force with nothing to stop it. Unlike the heat from rainy season, which tends to be more humid, hot season is the sun in all its heat and glory. Now the reason why I am talking about weather is because as Harmattan transitions to hot season, I would like to point out how strange Harmattan has been this past year…

Maybe it’s due to climate change? Maybe it’s due to “Le Garçon / La Fille”, the African version of El Niño / La Niña, the weather phenomenon we experience in the US? Maybe my presence causes subtle meteorological changes in Togo? Whatever it is, the weather has been definitely been strange since arriving in country. The most dramatic difference has been a lack of a proper Harmattan season like I said. Now of course I was not in Togo last Harmattan to compare what I am experiencing; however, based on the stories from several volunteers who did experience Harmattan last year, Harmattan (at least in Centrale this year) was for a lack of better word, “indecisive”. It would switch back and forth between vrai Harmattan weather (dust everywhere and cold mornings) to hot season weather (clear skies and an entire day of sweaty heat). And the only reason I know what real Harmattan weather is like is because when I travelled up to Kande after Christmas, I got the chance to drive on a road with a visibility of about ½ a kilometer due to the heavy amount of dust in the air. On the way back the dust cleared and I had no idea there were such beautiful mountains and valleys on either side of that road. Hmm, well if we have an indecisive Harmattan, maybe we’ll also have an indecisive Hot season and it’ll rain more which is good because hot season is getting HOTTT!!! Temperatures, according to my EagleCreek travel clock and thermostat, are hovering in the high eighties (remember, this is in a place with zero air conditioning) and I’ve heard rumors it gets as hot as 110 F! Eek…Rain, rain, please don’t go away, please don’t come again another day…please come now!

PDM/IST

From February 2nd through the 7th, I spent the week at the Peace Corps training center in Pagala for PDM/IST. Project Design Management (or PDM) and IST (In-Service Training) are two workshops volunteers are required to attend as part of year-round volunteer training. Typically PDM is supposed to take place three months after arriving at post and IST is supposed to take place a few months after; however, due to budget cuts (Peace Corps’ excuse for everything these days) the two workshops were combined into one long week of sessions.

PDM’s purpose is to train volunteers and their counterparts on how to do a funded project. I came into PDM with the idea that we would learn how to use the various sources of funding available to us to fund projects whether it be from PLAN, the Ambassador Self-Help Fund or even a Peace Corps Partnership (I would like to do a PCP project at some point in my service so when I do one, I’ll go into more detail then since I learned nothing about it during PDM). Unfortunately, perhaps because of the lack of external funding options due to the weakening economy, or because I badly misjudged the purpose of the workshop, we basically spent two days talking about the process of how to complete a project, starting with how to create an action plan to writing a budget and keeping an accounting book. I was a little disappointed since I already know how to do these things having done projects back in the US; however it wasn’t a complete waste of time as my homologue got a lot out of the sessions (the concept of good business skills seems to have evaded the Togolese education system and most Togolese have very little understanding of planning projects) and found the workshop very informative.

IST’s purpose is to further train volunteers in topics of interest related to their work at site. With a new push towards family planning for the incoming training group of health volunteers, we spent a good majority of IST talking about family planning and how we can incorporate the topic into our work. Family planning is a very sensitive topic here in Togo as people do not openly discuss sex and many people lack basic knowledge about their reproductive systems. Although family planning does exist at the prefectural level through clinics at most hospitals and through pharmacies that supply contraceptives such as condoms and birth control, most family planning is done informally with the help of midwives and nurses during one-on-one consultations. Unfortunately, we didn’t really cover anything new that we hadn’t already covered during stâge. The only real useful sessions we had was when we talked about other volunteer’s experiences regarding family planning projects, and other projects related to the CHAP program. Since it was very early in our service, most volunteers hadn’t done any large scale family planning activities apart from the informal discussions with neighbors and working with sage-femmes at the dispensaire or hospital, but it was good to know what to expect as I have yet to do anything on the subject (although I’m supposed to do a mini causerie on the matter in a few weeks at the hospital before baby weighings/vaccinations). Our last volunteer-only session was an informative session however as not only did we learn about the new worldwide volunteer reporting form but also we talked about improvements for the upcoming stage in June. We were supposed to select volunteer trainers but I guess Tchao is going to wait a bit; I really hope he selects me because I really want to be a trainer!

Apart from the sessions, PDM/IST was a good week overall. It was a chance to hang out with volunteers (particularly from the south) who I haven’t seen in forever and catch up. Plus all the meals are prepared by PC cooks so we had great FREE food. And of course it’s not a PC event without some sort of mini-party so to end the week I helped organize a mini fête to thank our homologues for attending the conference with us. We drank; we danced and had a great time.

Goodbye Sokodé Maison

Once again, due to budget cuts and a shift in D.C. policy towards getting rid of transit houses, Peace Corps-Togo has decided to finally close the Sokodé transit house. As of Feb 15th, both the Sokodé and Kara transit houses will be officially gone forcing us volunteers in the Centrale and Kara region to find other places to stay when we come to the regional capitals to do work. Luckily, I don’t have any real need to travel to Sokodé as everything I need for work and living can be found in Sotouboua (my bank, my post office, my grocery shopping, etc.); the one exception being when I want specific hard to find vegetables like potatoes and green peppers year round. I am one of the select few volunteers though in such a lucky position. My friend Golda on the other hand has to travel to Sokodé for pretty much everything from using the internet to banking to buying supplies for work; in addition, she lives about 70km away en brousse so it’s impossible for her to travel to and from Sokodé in one day. So that sucks…

*I had originally written a short little rant against recent Peace Corps – Togo administration policy; however, this is most definitely NOT the place to vent so I’ll return my frustrations to my internal dialogue…*

Anyways, deal with our situation we did. If there was one good thing to come out of the maison closing it was that it brought everyone in our region into Sokodé for the first time ever since I arrived in country (all 11 of us!). With everyone around, this made for one spectacular blowout fête. After doing some clean-up work for Peace Corps (PC takes away our maison and we still clean it for them? Talk about an unhealthy relationship…) we made one final meal (tex-mex) and partied. Hanging out with the other volunteers made me remember that it’s the volunteers in your country that make your experience in country. We are each other’s support system: we turn to each other for advice and we turn to each other to rant and rave. Because I get along with the volunteers in my region, I am having a much more fulfilling service than if I was in a country where I did not like the other volunteers. They (along with the people of Sotouboua of course) are making my service what it is. After a great night with lots of scandalous photos and much ridiculosity (dancing on tables, line dancing and even a walk off…hmm, maybe a transit house IS the “safest” place for volunteers to be ridiculous in country), we packed up our stuff, said one last goodbye to the maison and then Marcus, Korie and I headed back to Sotouboua.

Hmm, hope this post wasn’t too monstrous to digest. In case you didn’t notice, I’m making a concerted effort to write shorter posts focusing on one or two topics but every now and then, I have to write a lot when I have a lot to say. So bear with me…

pilaba,
-Nikhil

P.S. Once again, many thanks Kim for the package(s)! For some reason, even if someone sends me two packages together, I tend to get them a week apart. So when I returned from PDM/IST I received the two other packages of magazines (The Economist, Newsweek & Entertainment) that you sent me and I have spent the past few days hungrily devouring them. It’s so great to know the details of what else is going on in the world from business and politics and even pop culture :)

P.P.S. Happy (belated) anniversary Mom & Dad! Congratulations on 26 years of marriage…Happy belated birthday Christina M.

the adventures of swarley, and other stuff that happened today...

So I don’t know how he does it but I swear if he escapes one more time I’m going to have to change his name to Houdini. Last week, after Marc helped me find a nice sturdy chain that Swarlz can’t bite through and a child’s belt that we fashioned into a dog collar, the stupid (or maybe really intelligent) dog somehow found a way to chew through his collar (it was made of leather so I guess that’s made it somewhat easy to tear through) and escape. However today was really a magic trick; since he tore through the dog collar, I have been forced to create a collar using the chain. I know it’s not very comfortable but so far metal seems to be the only substance that he can’t break through, or so I thought! This morning before leaving for Kaniamboua for the preliminary girl’s club meeting I fixed the chain around his neck (making sure he had enough room to breathe don’t worry!) and left. When I returned around noon, he had somehow managed to wrangle his way through the chain and now the chain was taut around his midsection. I’m really not sure how he did it but to make sure it didn’t happen again, I checked the chain and tied it around his neck once again. After returning from Sam’s peer educator training in Adjengre, I came home to find Swarley loose in the front yard with the chain all tangled up around the tree! I’m pretty sure he has not developed opposable thumbs in the past week so this leaves me with the only conclusion: my dog has magical powers, one of those powers apparently being the ability to apparate! I guess this means building a doggy fence is a futile idea…

Apart from my dog’s silly escapades, the girl’s club meeting went well this morning. I was really nervous about having to change the whole program around at the last second, without any warning to my homologues but there really wasn’t any other choice unless I wanted to change my name to “Yovo, the money-donating fool of Sotouboua”. After performing a brief opening ceremony with the girls, the village chief, the director of the school and some other “important” people in the Kaniamboua community, I pulled my counterparts aside to tell them what I had decided regarding my decision to withdraw some donations (per diem for the repos time, start-up money for the loan I had previously agreed to, etc.) for the club. Although I am sure they weren’t too happy to be told this at the last minute, there really wasn’t anyway around the situation. Aside from that, everything else went somewhat smoothly. We had a much greater turnout then expected and we ended up having to turn some girls away since we only had space to work with 20 girls. After going over some rules and expectations of the club and playing “train wreck” (an ice breaker), I got into the lesson part of the club, discussing the bridge model from the life skills book and how the model applied to the structure of the club (the bridge model is used to show how the various lessons in the life skills book such as decision-making skills and future planning skills can serve as the building blocks for a bridge towards positive behaviour change). Working with the girls was a very different experience than what I’m used to since the girls were really shy and it took a lot of energy to coax information out of them but thanks to the help of my counterparts who served as a translator from my “American” French to “Togolese” French, I was able to get through the lesson.

After a quick lunch, I headed up to Adjengre to watch Sam conduct the last part of his peer educator training and funny enough I arrived just in time to observe the part of the formation that was relevant to me. To finish off the training, Sam had invited Beatrice and Djeri, members of Espoir Vie Togo (E.V.T., an association of pris en charge located in Sokodé) to come and talk about HIV/AIDS associations. Beatrice is not only a psycho-social counselor for E.V.T. but she is also an openly infected member of EVT. Djeri, who lost his father to AIDS, was a member of the EVT OEV club (children infected with or affected by HIV). After talking to them briefly at the end of the training, they invited me up to Sokodé next weekend to check out the OEV club and the members meeting to see what I could bring back to help VST in Sotouboua. I’m excited to hopefully get some ideas on how to start an OEV club at Vie Saine with the potential help of the members of the health club at Intelligentsia.

Till next time,
-Nikhil

P.S. Props to Kim Rieck for sending me several copies of The Economist magazine. You are freaking amazing!

just say no

In case you haven’t noticed, I have a hard time saying no. Usually this is not a big problem and it’s just the way I am. Guilt goes a long way with me lol. I let things affect me and although I am learning to get better at saying the two-letter word “no” (or three letter word in French “non”), I am still a long way from recovery. Unfortunately these past few weeks, my “disease” has made a subtle return…Take my latest work assignment: the C.E.G. Kaniamboua Girl’s Club Pilot Project. It was one of the first projects that came to me when I arrived at post last August and it has been one of the only projects to have lasted till now. When all my other work opportunities did not seem promising, such as work at the hospital and work with Vie Saine, the girls club project was the only project that kept me excited and made me feel like I do have actual work to do here in Sotouboua. By setting high expectations and pressure on the project, I think in the process I became too attached to it. In my mind, if this project failed, I would have no other work to keep me here in Togo. Even though my work situation has considerably improved over the past 2 months, my lingering attachment to the girl’s club has made me make some terribly stupid decisions based on emotional logic. Although it has taken me about 6 weeks to realize why I have acted the way that I have (in addition to talking about the project with some other volunteers: shout outs to Golda and Rebecca), I feel that it is time for me to set some boundaries with my counterparts and to rectify some of those decisions I made regarding the funding of the project. It started off small (“I don’t mind paying for the supplies such as photocopies for the sessions”) and slowly got bigger (“the girls need to eat something during the break so I will give them a small per diem to buy some water and some snacks for the repos”) to the ridiculously huge and stupid (“it’s ridiculous that there is no Peace Corps purse to help fund small projects like this so I don’t mind donating 60 mille (about $100) for the start-up loans for the girls income generating activities”). Every step of the way, I tried to rationalize my decision-making process but if there is one thing the heart is not and that is rational. Thankfully, after some deep contemplation I’ve realized that I need a new approach to this project and the first step to recovery is admitting that I have an emotional attachment problem. So here goes. Hi, my name is Nikhil and I have a problem saying “no” to people…

What does this mean for the project? Well even though my preliminary meeting of the girl’s club is in less than 24 hours and my counterpart is unavailable, I am going to have to make some major last minute changes to the program. I know this is incredibly unfair but it’s either change the plan, or dish out close to 100 mille (about $200) over the month of February. Hmm, I’m thinking I’ll just change the plan and deal with the consequences. Worse comes to worse, I drop the girl’s club project and focus on my other projects that are looking hopeful…

P.S. This has been a crazy busy week, probably one of the busiest weeks I’ve had here in Togo. Apart from running around to finish some last minute chores for the girls club, I helped out with the polio campaign at the dispensaire, gave my first official causerie on breastfeeding at the hospital vaccination day, had tutoring lessons with Kpango, did some major house cleaning, went to Sokodé to hang out with Golda and pick up some supplies and attended my first meeting to observe the drama and health club at Intelligentsia (a local private middle/high school).

liberation day

Here in Togo, the 13th of January is Liberation Day, or Journée de la Liberation. Unlike what you think though, the “liberation” celebrated by Togolese has nothing to do with proper liberation but rather to celebrate the attempted assassination on who I recall as either the current President, or his father. Ironically, most Togolese don’t really understand the history behind the day and look at the holiday the same way an elementary school child views Labour Day: an excuse to take the day off. Regardless of the history surrounding the day, Liberation Day has become a celebration in honour of the Army and the local gendarmerie (a mix between military and police officials) since apparently it is the day that the President gives everyone in the military their annual bonus. The marking feature of this holiday is centered around a march, in honour of the military and President Faure, which occurs in most large towns and cities. Starting around 8 or 9 in the morning, a pathway is roped off on both sides and several groups from the gendarmerie to school children to the union of fish sellers march in formation along the path as they are cheered on by spectators. Marcus and I walked down to the Route to observe the demonstration where we were selected by a Togolese woman who dragged us to sit under the tent reserved for the Chief of the Prefecture and other “notables” of Sotouboua. It was a little reminiscent of Pre-World War II Germany to see “educated” children, from kindergarten to high school marching in formation in honour of the president, but the use of the U.S. Marine Corps song on a repeating loop as the marching music just added to the ridiculousness of the event. In true Togolese fashion, there was a lot of singing and dancing which added to the festiveness of the parade and I took several videos that I hope to post on this blog soon. One of the cool parts of the march however were exhibitions by some of the local school clubs and groupements (associations) during the parade such as the martial arts club (yes, kung fu has made it all the way to central Togo), the gymnastics club, the groupement for tchouk mamas and the motorcycle-taxi syndicate (where several drivers attempted pop-a-wheelies).

how do you solve a problem like blogging?

There are two inherent problems with keeping a blog: writing and posting

1) writing: when I want to write, I don’t have my computer in front of me; when I have my computer in front of me, I don’t want to write. Most of my observations happen when I am actually outside, experiencing Africa and all that “being-in-the-moment” crap. It’s hard to do that when you are stuck in front of a computer. An existential dilemma. How can you experience life and write about it at the same time? Sometimes I feel like it would be easier for me to write if I could attach electrodes to my brain that would send signals to my blog so it would record what I’m thinking and seeing and feeling and I can compose on-the-go without having to be tied down to a table, chair, computer and outlet. For example, most of what I am writing here was actually composed in my head earlier today as I was walking down a back road to the Sokodé marché; it just took me some time to actually finish my shopping and get to a computer on time to compile this.

I am a chaotic writer. I write how I think, which is disjointed and all-over-the-place. I write one sentence, write another sentence, go back and write something in between, write the final sentence before going back and re-writing the second sentence. I can’t help it because it’s the way I’ve always written. If I were to try and write the way my 8th grade English teacher wanted me to (intro, body 1, body 2, body 3, conclusion) I would have the writing style of a 5th grader. And trust me, I’ve tried to write consecutively but all it does is put me in a box and that’s not the way my mind works thereby reducing my ability to write well by several factors. I know it’s stupid but I really am an “organic” writer, whatever that really means. Witty and sophisticated “perfect” sentences occur spontaneously in my head and if I don’t write them down immediately, I am forever haunted by what I could have said. As I desperately try to remember how the perfect sentence sounded, I end up with something sub-standard but what will have to do since that perfect sentence is gone and never to return again. The product you are reading right now has undergone many changes (over the course of several days to several weeks) and sounds nowhere near as perfect as it should have sounded had I been able to write this posting at the moment of it’s conception.

2) posting: when I want to post, I don’t have access to the internet; when I have access to the internet, I don’t have my USB drive with all my blogs on it to post. It’s impossible to sit in a cyber café and write my blogs for 2 main reasons. First of all, it’s not economical to write up a blog at a cyber café as you have to pay to use the computers and the internet. Secondly, I only really get good access to the internet about once a week (until recently, but I’m getting ahead of myself…) so that means that if I wrote my blogs at the CIB, I would have to wait to write blogs affecting the quality of writing due to a distortion of memory that occurs. That’s just not practical; thus I am restricted to writing at home on my laptop and transferring my postings via USB keys which leads to the aforementioned problem of not having access to the internet at the precise moment that I want to use it.

This is no where close to saying that this is the end of my blog though. I plan to keep this blog my entire two years, and even some time afterwards (I mean it’s good to reflect back on what I experienced after I’m back in America). I’m just trying to explain/justify why my blog is the way it is and why it has taken me several months to post blogs from September and onwards. Why I feel the need to explain myself to you, my readers? I have no idea. Is there anything you can do to help me maintain my blogging momentum? Unfortunately, no. I will say though since now that I have free access to internet (albeit slow and sporadic access) at PLAN, who opened up a new informatique center, about 1km away from my house 5 days a week, I have less of an excuse to not blog in a timely manner. Hmm, I smell another New Year’s resolution…

Till the next time I write (and post and have access to the internet and happen to have my USB key with me), ciao!

-Nikhil

P.S. Thanks Jess for the amazing letter, article and CD of music. You rock! Shout outs also go to Christina, Katie (sorry your letter got lost, silly Togo postal service!), Anu, and Patrick who have responded to my e-mails over the past few weeks. Oh and thanks Megan for the picture of us in Philly!

days of [my] lives

My life is sometimes like a soap opera, or at least a badly French-dubbed telenovela from Brasil. On today’s segment we find the main character, moi, in a dilemma. I woke up this morning with the intent of packing up a few things in preparation for a quick overnight trip to Sokodé to see Korie off and to welcome Heather back in country. The morning started off pretty normal with the call to prayer waking me up around 5:30am. I lay in bed trying to go back to sleep but to no avail so I went about on my morning business. After getting ready, I started gathering things together, clothes, my computer, etc. I walk into the kitchen, reheat leftovers from the previous night for a quick breakfast before opening my front door where I am greeted by feathers.

Lots of grey and white chicken feathers.

Lying on my front lawn is Swarley with his I-know-I-did-something-bad puppy face next to a dead hen. One of Marc’s fully grown chicken hens. I’ve told you about how Swarley has developed a taste for chicken, evident by the fact that he tore apart and ate all 12 of the baby chicks that Marc’s two hens had worked very hard to produce. It seems that now that he was done with the baby chicks he wanted to move onto bigger and better chickens so-to-speak. Now I don’t know if Marc noticed this or not which is funny because the hen was lying in the grass in front of our houses and he would have had to pass over the dead carcass on the way out the compound door and that in turns means that if he did indeed see the dead hen, he would have woken me up to discuss the issue. Now I have told him time and time again, particularly when the first of the baby chicks started showing up dead that he needed to build a chicken coop. I reasoned that Swarley is a dog and he needs his space to run around and be a dog and we have already tried the whole “let’s tie him up” but it doesn’t work since he just chews through the leash or breaks the chain (yes, for a puppy he is incredibly strong!). So taking the approach that Marc has yet to see the dead hen since he did not wake me up this morning to “talk”, I did the only logical thing: hide the evidence! Using a black sachet as a glove, I grabbed the body by the head and proceeded to throw it outside the compound wall. My plan was to make it look like the hen got out of the compound because someone left the door open (this has happened a few times and I have had to chase the chickens back into the compound) and that one of the neighborhood stray dogs killed the hen for food. And since I don’t have a chain to keep Swarley from attacking the final hen, I locked him in my bathroom with some food and water to give him an alibi. I hope this doesn’t make me an accomplice…

I don’t know if my plan will work but in any case I won’t have to deal with the situation for at least a day until I return. So here’s till tomorrow. *duh duh duh*…

…and such is the days of [my] lives…

-Nikhil

sociology

Social norms are a funny thing. They vary so much, not just between different people in different countries but even between different populations within the same country, so does it make sense to call it a norm if they can be so different? As part of our pre-service training, we were instructed on Togolese social norms such as the importance of protocol when making decisions (if you are going to plan an event that involves a reasonable amount of people such as a sensibilization on AIDS, you are required to invite everyone from the directors of the local schools to the chief of the prefecture in some cases), acceptable vs. unacceptable forms of public behaviour (it’s common to find two men or two women holding hands in public but it’s unacceptable for two people of the opposite sex who are unmarried to hold hands) and how it is perfectly normal to refer to someone as “the fat one” or “the cripple”. As Americans trying to integrate into our new communities, we are advised on how to act and behave so as to better “fit in”, gain acceptance, and survive.

Going back to something I mentioned in my new year’s post about “integration”, I’ve come to the conclusion that it might be pretty much physically (or any other kind of “-ally”) impossible to fully integrate into a culture. You can learn their language, you can wear their clothing, you can date their women, you can eat their food, but can someone from outside Togo ever be Togolese (case in point: PCV Chris Thompson)? The fact that we are yovos will never go away; the children of Sotouboua may stop calling me yovo (or ansai or anasara…you pick the local language) but the moment I step out of Sotouboua, I will once again be perceived as just another yovo in Togo. Psychologically speaking, humans are conditioned to make their first judgments about people based on appearance and all people in Togo are conditioned to always view non-Togolese as yovos (yovo meaning “white skin” and applies to all foreigners, regardless of race). So what do we do as volunteers? We are supposed to integrate into our communities in order to better do our work but if integration is pretty much impossible, where do we go from here? Do we fully integrate or just integrate enough to survive?

And then what do we do when we return to America? Most volunteers don’t plan on spending the rest of their lives in their country of service so that means holding onto a part of our “American-ness”, in this case our social norms, till we return. But if doing so hinders our ability to integrate, what do we do? Do we try to give up all pre-learned American social etiquette in order to have a more fulfilling and integrated experience in Togo only to have to re-learn the forgotten American norms in 2 years when we return? Or do you forever live in your country of assignment constantly surrounded by a wall (of whatever thickness depending on how many norms you are willing to let go off and how many you need to hold on to) that separates you from your community? Do we integrate or do we just try to “fit-in”?

Perhaps that’s where “fitting-in” comes into play. Perhaps this means co-existence, enough integration to do work but not enough integration to become a part of the culture and society, being more than a tourist but less than a habitant.

This is my attempt at being philosophical. Open to comments…

- Nikhil

P.S. this is what happens when you lie on your bed and stare at your ceiling for about 2 hours every day for a week. You ponder about everything from our own existence to the history of the necktie (no joke, Marcus and I had an hour long discussion regarding the uses and possible history of the tie the other day over a dinner of pâte and peanut sauce. Our musings were later confirmed by Wikipedia. Thanks wiki!).

bonne année

Happy 2009 everyone!

Another year has come and gone and once again I find myself in a new adventure. My last New Year’s day had me celebrating in Manhattan with my family and friends as I transitioned between graduating from Georgia Tech and entering the real world. This year I find myself in Togo in transition between surviving and actually living in a foreign country. I make this distinction between surviving and living because it has taken me about 6 months to feel like I am finally living here in Togo. This is not to say that I feel completely integrated (although I think it’s hard for most volunteers to feel completely integrated…there is always some American barrier that prevents this), but I am farther along on the path than I was about 2 months ago. Since I did my reflections on my time so far here in Togo a while ago, I won’t bother to do so again here owing to the fact that not much has changed (apart from a few good developments at work that I’ll talk about in a bit). Sooo, let me tell you about my New Year’s experience…

Here in Togo, the actual midnight striking of the clock is irrelevant to all but a few “westernized” Togolese people. The proper bonne année celebration of the new year is instead focused on the actual first day of the new year: January 1st. Now I originally wanted to stay up until midnight on the 31st to ring in the New Year (by myself unfortunately) but since I spent the whole day sick with food poisoning, I ended up punching out around 10:30pm. Bummer. After waking up the next day and not really feeling that different (I think the fact that I wasn’t around my family and friends like I normally am had something to do with the dampened and lackluster mood I was in) I went about my day as usual. I finished some chores and then decided to go out for a little walk to greet all my friends and neighbours. After visiting M. Kpango, my French teacher, and Bello to wish them a happy New Year I came back to my house to find several kids from the neighbourhood in my front yard that had come to accompany me to the Camus dance like I had asked them to.

The Camus dance is kind of like the Togolese version of Mardi Gras, (in appearance only; none of the religious connotations) where open debauchery and revelry are solicited to break social norms. The traditional dancer wears foot long ankle bracelets that jingle when shaken allowing for a moving instrument of sorts along with mini hand cymbals. The clothing consists of shorts with a skirt that resembles a hula skirt made from pagne and shells. The face and the upper body are also covered with pomade, a white powder used to cool the body. The dancer may also wear any number of fetishes (voodoo sacred objects or talismans) from animal bones to hides. However everyone, young or old, Togolese or foreigner, is invited to dance and clothing ranges from the pagne complet to military uniforms. Fashion rules don’t apply as men dress as women as freely as women dress like men, and it’s not uncommon to see someone bare “almost-all-of-it”. For the actual dance, there is no fixed choreography but instead everyone just dances to the music, moving in a circle around the musicians. Booze, either shots of sodabé or calabashes of tchouk, is free flowing and instead of beaded necklaces, dancers are rewarded with small candies or kola nuts which are placed in the mouth by spectators.

After dancing for a few hours with Genevieve and some of her friends, I headed back to rest for a bit and regain my energy before going out to the nightclub. Yes, it’s very ridiculous, but there is an actual nightclub in Sotouboua. It’s called Club Pharos and it’s located on the Route; it consists of an open bar area outside and a small indoor room with a DJ booth, a dance floor, several couches and ceiling high mirrors. Apparently there was a big party on the 31st but since I was too sick to attend, I thought I would check it out with Genevieve and it ended up being an interesting night. It was fun but at the same time surreal to be in a club on par with most clubs in Lomé (as for back in Atlanta, think the dance floor of Peachtree Tavern lol). I only ended up staying about an hour before going to bed. The next day I headed to Dereboua to hang out with Korie and celebrate the new year in her village and check out the Camus dance there. Although it was very similar, one different tradition involved the men drinking special “strength potions” (booze) and running around during the dance with dull machetes where they attempted to cut themselves and each other as a way of showing how invincible they are. They even attempted to “cut” me but luckily I stepped out of the dance circle in time. Whew! Then we went back to Korie’s house, drank tchouk and ate some amazing food. And there you have it, my very interesting New Year’s experience in Togo.

As for the work stuff I mentioned earlier, two nice developments have taken place. First of all, at the monthly Vie Saine meeting, the members actually held a somewhat proper election to fill in the vacant positions. Although no real speeches were to be had as all but one position went uncontested, it was nice to see the members motivated enough to participate and keep the association stable for now. The only “situation” that occurred happened over the position of Executive Director (previously held by Bello). I believe the members tried to vote in Melanie as the new directrice but some sort of heated discussion took place in a mixture of French and Kabiyé that prevented me from understanding what was going on. Hmm, I’ll have to figure it out later on. In addition to Vie Saine, stuff, I made some major headway on my girl’s club project right before Christmas. After talking to some of the other SBD and GEE volunteers who have done vacation enterprise projects, I used some of their ideas as models for my girl’s club. Basically, I’m following the model but in addition to teaching income-generating activities and business skills, I am also trying to include a heavy focus on life skills training. I convinced my counterpart at A.V.D.D. to try a pilot project and see how the girls react to the information; if they seem motivated and do well then perhaps we can seek funding from PLAN or some other external funding source. He suggested a middle school in Kaniamboua, about 8km north of Sotouboua meme so we met with the director who was very happy to work with a PCV again and made an announcement during the morning assembly where we gathered a list of 20 girls (a mixed group from 6eme, 5eme and 4eme students) for the pilot project. I’ve been working on a lesson schedule and I have a meeting tomorrow to go over potential dates for the meetings. So work stuff is picking up and keeping me busy which is good :)

Now it wouldn’t be a New Year’s post if I didn’t have some sort of resolutions for the New Year. However I never seem to do a good job keeping those resolutions so maybe I’ll just skip the resolutions this year and just try and make a more concerted effort to get to know my community better, speak French more often, and save some lives.

bonne heureuse année,
-Nikhil