What’s up everyone!
I am officially a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer! I did it. I really did it. The swear-in ceremony is over, I have spent five glorious days shopping, and eating and drinking in Lomé and as of 7:30AM tomorrow, I will finally be on my way to post. It’s ridiculous to think that just a few months ago I was working a 9-5 job [an amazing one at that though…hi everyone at Childspring :)] and living a very comfortable life with my family and friends in Atlanta. And here I am now, about to move to post where I can finally live out my dream of saving the world, or at least begin to live it out as saving the world takes more than a day lol.
The past few days here in Lomé have been amazing; the perfect way to transition between the structured life of training and the great unknown of moving to post. I didn’t get to do much exploring of Lomé last time I was here as we had just gotten to country and technically we weren’t allowed to explore (our schedules were so packed with PC stuff that there wasn’t much time anyways). However after spending a few days here, Lomé is definitely an interesting city. It’s not quite the metropolitan city it aspires to be, but it’s much more “developed” than the rest of the country. There is no McDonalds or Wal-mart here but it still felt like being back in the “western” world. And Lomé sits on the coast with some pretty beautiful views of the “other side” of the Atlantic Ocean.
After packing up and saying one last goodbye to our incredible host families and our beloved training sites, we drove 2 hours south to Lomé to officially swear-in as volunteers, shop for post and enjoy some “comforts” from home. We arrived at Mamy’s again and spent the rest of the day going over PC policy, banking and relaxing. Alicia came by with a few of the older volunteers and we went out to the beach bar to grab a beer and chill. The bar, a few blocks from Mamy’s, is a beautiful covered bar on the actual beach with a spectacular view of the ocean. Although the beach is not the cleanest, at first glance it’s pretty beautiful. At sunset Krissy and I tried to take some pictures on the beach but the light wasn’t the best and my pictures didn’t turn out the best. It was still a pretty awesome sunset though. For dinner that night, I went out with Mikey, Taylor, Lou & Ilona for Chinese food and it was AMAZING! Okay so I’m sure that I’ve had slightly better Chinese food elsewhere but after not having eaten any sort of Asian food in over 3 months, my stomach could not have been happier. I never knew I missed spring rolls and lo-mein noodles so much! After dinner it was off to cheap bar for a few drinks before heading off to bed.
Although we officially swore-in on Wednesday at the bureau, our actual swear-in ceremony was on Thursday at Brownie Lee’s (the PC Togo Country Director) house. She has a beautiful house that very much reminds me of our house in Bangalore, yet slightly more tropical. The ceremony took place in her huge front yard and in front of our host moms, the formateurs (language and technical), people from the US Embassy, Marines, volunteers and some other random people in Togo. It’s an unwritten tradition that all the trainees are supposed to dress in traditional garb so we arrived all decked out in pagne and ready to party. After brief speeches by Blandine (our training coordinator) and the presentation of certificates of service to some COS-ing volunteers, it was finally time for me to give my speech (btw I’ve posted scripts of my speeches at the end of this post). I was super nervous but luckily everything went well. All my friends cheered loudly for me and I was so relieved when I made it to the end (the fact that Raymond came up to me after and said that my French was perfect was probably the biggest compliment I received!). After my speech, the rest of the trainees did short speeches in our local languages. Kristina and Rose gave awesome “formal” speeches, Kristina in Kabyé and Rose in Ewe. I even gave a second, much much shorter speech in Kabyé. All the trainees finished with the speeches and we closed off the ceremony with speeches by Brownie and also by the interim US Ambassador to Togo (the previous ambassador was headed to his next country of service and the new ambassador had not yet arrived in country). After speeches, we took our “official” oaths of service and then it was PARTY TIME! We mingled for a bit at Brownie’s house with drinks and snack food but after 15 minutes all the food and drinks were gone so a bunch of us headed out to grab street food. Another unspoken tradition of swear-in is to hang out at Reagents (the bar that we went to for our welcome to Togo party) after the ceremony so we all headed there to grab drinks and celebrate. It was nice to just chill with the volunteers and hang out. We drank, danced and had a really good time hanging out all together for the last time.
The next few days were a blur of touring Lomé w/ Djotang, shopping at Ramco, LiterPrice and the Grand Marché and of course the bi-annual GAD Beach Party where we headed to Coco Beach to raise money for the Gender & Diversity Committee. It was awesome to chill on the beach, play football, swim in a swimming pool and eat awesome food. Okay gotta talk really quickly about shopping b/c it was kind of a surreal experience. Ramco is the biggest and probably the most expensive supermarket in Togo. And when I say supermarket, I mean authentic western-style supermarket with rows and rows of food, cooking utensils, liquor and cleaning supplies. I felt like I was back in Kroger or Wal-mart in the states as I was pushing my real shopping cart and everything (I don’t know if it’s funny or pathetic how excited I can get by something like seeing a shopping cart…). They had tons of western ingredients (cereal, marshmallows, Jell-O, etc.) and even pretty much every Indian ingredient I might ever need from channa daal to coriander seeds! LiterPrice is MUCH smaller than Ramco but also much cheaper. The best part of LiterPrice however is their deli where you can order a real deli sandwich!!! I think over the course of three days I bought like 10 turkey sandwiches, complete with sliced cheese, pickles and all…
This brings me to today where I’ve spent the entire day chilling in the volunteer lounge taking advantage of the Ethernet internet connection to upload photos on Picasa and surf the internet. We head to post tomorrow, bright and early at 7AM, as we say bye for now to our many friends who are now a part of our family here in Togo. It’s the end of the beginning (no more stâge!), but this is also the beginning of the next so I hope you will wish me luck as I board this great journey of service and self-exploration over the next two years. It won’t be an easy one, as these past few months have acutely demonstrated, but then again they never said it would be. What’s that old Peace Corps saying? The hardest job you’ll ever love! Hmm, I guess only time will tell. But here’s to hoping…
Du courage et de fromage,
-Nikhil
P.S. I really hope everyone goes and check out my Picasa website that I linked to this blog ASAP as I FINALLY uploaded a ton of pictures from stâge. I have random pictures taken during class, pictures from my hike up Mt. Agou as well as pictures from post-visit week and field trip week. Although I do have a few more albums of pictures from fête-ing, the last few days in Agou and from swear-in, I ran out of time here in Lomé to organize the pictures and upload them. Since I only get “fast” internet connection here in the Peace Corps lounge, those pictures will have to wait till my next trip to Lomé which unfortunately might not be until December when the new stâge swears-in (or earlier depending on if I get to have a “Lomé medical vacation” or if the new satellite internet in Sotouboua is functioning well).
P.P.S. As promised, here is a copy of both of my speeches. The first one is the “official” French speech I gave at the beginning of the swear-in ceremony; the second one is my Kabyé speech. Although I did include a translation for my Kabyé speech, I didn’t include one for the French speech as the speech is long and it would “waste” space on this blog. But if you want the gist of what I was saying in the French one, send me an e-mail and I’ll happily explain it to you.
Nikhil’s French Swear-In Speech
Excellence M. le représentant du Ministre de la Sante
Excellence M. le représentant du Ministre de l’Economie et des Finances
Excellence M. le représentant d’ambassadeur des Etats-Unis au Togo
Madame la Directrice Nationale du Corps de la Paix
Madame la Directrice de Formation
Honorables invités
Chers collègues nouveaux volontaires
Mesdames
Mesdemoiselles
Messieurs
Je m’appelle Nikhil. C’est un grand plaisir pour moi de prendre la parole ici au nom de tous mes collèges. Nous sommes 30 Américaines dont 14 hommes et 16 femmes. Nous représentons les différentes parties des Etats-Unis comme la Californie á l’ouest, Indiana et Texas au centre, Alabama et Géorgie au sud, New York et Massachusetts á l’est, etcetera. Nous avons des formations différentes allant de la licence au doctorat. C’est ainsi que nous avons parmi nous deux docteurs, une avocate, etcetera. Nos personnalités sont aussi différentes à cause de nos backgrounds différents. Cependant nous avons en commun un but: l’amélioration des conditions de vie et le changement du monde. Et c’est là, notre raison d’être au Togo.
Nous constituons deux groupes : le premier c’est le groupe de développement de petites et moyennes entreprises basé á Kumawou et le second groupe est celui de la santé communautaire et la prévention du VIH/SIDA basé á Nyogbo. Avant de commencer notre travail nous sommes passés par une formation du 11 semaines. A notre arrivée, nous étions très contents d’être au Togo mais à la fois nous étions très dubitatifs en ce qui concerne notre habileté de nous adapter au nouvel environnement et de pouvoir opérer quelque changement que ce soit. Une fois arrivée sur les sites, les différentes communautés et les familles hôtes nous ont accueillis à bras ouverts. La formation a commencé le jour suivant dans le deux programmes. Nous avons suivi des classes de langue, de technique, et d’adaptation culturelle. En technique nous avons couvert la micro finance, le paludisme, le développement de compétences et le VIH/SIDA. En adaptation culturelle nous avons appris entre autres l’importance du protocole au Togo et comment porter un pagne. Nous avons eu l’occasion de visiter nos postes du travail pour prendre goût à la vie de volontaire. Nous avons travaillé dur et nous avons étudié beaucoup aussi. Maintenant nous somme prêt à commencer notre travail de volontaire.
Le Corps de la Paix vient de célébrer ses 45 ans au Togo en décembre dernier et nous sommes heureux de porter le flambeau que nos prédécesseurs nous ont passé pour continuer le legs du service. Nous allons à nos postes maintenant avec toute notre motivation et notre passion de travailler aux côtés de nos homologues Togolaises pour les deux ans ou plus pourquoi pas ? Nous demanderions au Togolais d’être patients et tolérants envers nous, de nous aider à les aider.
Avant de finir, je voudrais remercier tous ceux qui ont contribué à la réussite de notre stage. D’abord, merci a nos vaillantes familles hôtes de Kumawou et Nyogbo pour leur patience et la nourriture délicieuse. Elles nous ont gavés. Ensuite, merci à Blandine et à tous les formateurs de technique pour nous avoir donné les informations nécessaires pour faire notre travail avec succès. À tous les formateurs de langues qui nous ont aidés malgré nos fautes en français et langue locales, merci beaucoup. Aux volontaires sur le terrain, merci pour vos encouragements et pour vos conseils. Personnellement, je voudrais remercier mes collègues nouveaux volontaires pour leur support moral. Vous étiez plutôt ma famille au Togo qu’un groupe de soutien pour les « yovos » que nous sommes. Je suis très content de passer les deux ans qui suivent avec vous.
Pour conclure, je voudrais dire quelque chose que ma mère hôte m’a dit la première semaine, « peu à peu… ». Bien que cette expression ait été une source de beaucoup de frustrations, elle a été aussi une source d’encouragement. Que cette expression nous soit un rappel pendant les 3 mois au poste et même durant le reste de notre service au Togo. Je cite : « le changement prend du temps. » Fin de citation le changement se passe lentement et il arrive en fin de compte. Il ne faut pas se presser parce que deux ans c’est un long temps. Petit à petit. Doucement. Ça va aller, un peu de courage et voilà, du fromage !
Bon Appétit, Bonsoir et Bonne fête !
Nikhil’s Kabyé Speech
Mina danaj! Payam se Nikhil. Melina Atlanta. Menge Corps de la Paix soolim tumiye ladu. Mowoki Sotouboua tonuda alafia tumiye labu. Pilabi tasi.
English Translation: Good evening! My name is Nikhil. I come from Atlanta. I am a Peace Corps volunteer. I am going to Sotouboua to do health work. See you later!
I am officially a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer! I did it. I really did it. The swear-in ceremony is over, I have spent five glorious days shopping, and eating and drinking in Lomé and as of 7:30AM tomorrow, I will finally be on my way to post. It’s ridiculous to think that just a few months ago I was working a 9-5 job [an amazing one at that though…hi everyone at Childspring :)] and living a very comfortable life with my family and friends in Atlanta. And here I am now, about to move to post where I can finally live out my dream of saving the world, or at least begin to live it out as saving the world takes more than a day lol.
The past few days here in Lomé have been amazing; the perfect way to transition between the structured life of training and the great unknown of moving to post. I didn’t get to do much exploring of Lomé last time I was here as we had just gotten to country and technically we weren’t allowed to explore (our schedules were so packed with PC stuff that there wasn’t much time anyways). However after spending a few days here, Lomé is definitely an interesting city. It’s not quite the metropolitan city it aspires to be, but it’s much more “developed” than the rest of the country. There is no McDonalds or Wal-mart here but it still felt like being back in the “western” world. And Lomé sits on the coast with some pretty beautiful views of the “other side” of the Atlantic Ocean.
After packing up and saying one last goodbye to our incredible host families and our beloved training sites, we drove 2 hours south to Lomé to officially swear-in as volunteers, shop for post and enjoy some “comforts” from home. We arrived at Mamy’s again and spent the rest of the day going over PC policy, banking and relaxing. Alicia came by with a few of the older volunteers and we went out to the beach bar to grab a beer and chill. The bar, a few blocks from Mamy’s, is a beautiful covered bar on the actual beach with a spectacular view of the ocean. Although the beach is not the cleanest, at first glance it’s pretty beautiful. At sunset Krissy and I tried to take some pictures on the beach but the light wasn’t the best and my pictures didn’t turn out the best. It was still a pretty awesome sunset though. For dinner that night, I went out with Mikey, Taylor, Lou & Ilona for Chinese food and it was AMAZING! Okay so I’m sure that I’ve had slightly better Chinese food elsewhere but after not having eaten any sort of Asian food in over 3 months, my stomach could not have been happier. I never knew I missed spring rolls and lo-mein noodles so much! After dinner it was off to cheap bar for a few drinks before heading off to bed.
Although we officially swore-in on Wednesday at the bureau, our actual swear-in ceremony was on Thursday at Brownie Lee’s (the PC Togo Country Director) house. She has a beautiful house that very much reminds me of our house in Bangalore, yet slightly more tropical. The ceremony took place in her huge front yard and in front of our host moms, the formateurs (language and technical), people from the US Embassy, Marines, volunteers and some other random people in Togo. It’s an unwritten tradition that all the trainees are supposed to dress in traditional garb so we arrived all decked out in pagne and ready to party. After brief speeches by Blandine (our training coordinator) and the presentation of certificates of service to some COS-ing volunteers, it was finally time for me to give my speech (btw I’ve posted scripts of my speeches at the end of this post). I was super nervous but luckily everything went well. All my friends cheered loudly for me and I was so relieved when I made it to the end (the fact that Raymond came up to me after and said that my French was perfect was probably the biggest compliment I received!). After my speech, the rest of the trainees did short speeches in our local languages. Kristina and Rose gave awesome “formal” speeches, Kristina in Kabyé and Rose in Ewe. I even gave a second, much much shorter speech in Kabyé. All the trainees finished with the speeches and we closed off the ceremony with speeches by Brownie and also by the interim US Ambassador to Togo (the previous ambassador was headed to his next country of service and the new ambassador had not yet arrived in country). After speeches, we took our “official” oaths of service and then it was PARTY TIME! We mingled for a bit at Brownie’s house with drinks and snack food but after 15 minutes all the food and drinks were gone so a bunch of us headed out to grab street food. Another unspoken tradition of swear-in is to hang out at Reagents (the bar that we went to for our welcome to Togo party) after the ceremony so we all headed there to grab drinks and celebrate. It was nice to just chill with the volunteers and hang out. We drank, danced and had a really good time hanging out all together for the last time.
The next few days were a blur of touring Lomé w/ Djotang, shopping at Ramco, LiterPrice and the Grand Marché and of course the bi-annual GAD Beach Party where we headed to Coco Beach to raise money for the Gender & Diversity Committee. It was awesome to chill on the beach, play football, swim in a swimming pool and eat awesome food. Okay gotta talk really quickly about shopping b/c it was kind of a surreal experience. Ramco is the biggest and probably the most expensive supermarket in Togo. And when I say supermarket, I mean authentic western-style supermarket with rows and rows of food, cooking utensils, liquor and cleaning supplies. I felt like I was back in Kroger or Wal-mart in the states as I was pushing my real shopping cart and everything (I don’t know if it’s funny or pathetic how excited I can get by something like seeing a shopping cart…). They had tons of western ingredients (cereal, marshmallows, Jell-O, etc.) and even pretty much every Indian ingredient I might ever need from channa daal to coriander seeds! LiterPrice is MUCH smaller than Ramco but also much cheaper. The best part of LiterPrice however is their deli where you can order a real deli sandwich!!! I think over the course of three days I bought like 10 turkey sandwiches, complete with sliced cheese, pickles and all…
This brings me to today where I’ve spent the entire day chilling in the volunteer lounge taking advantage of the Ethernet internet connection to upload photos on Picasa and surf the internet. We head to post tomorrow, bright and early at 7AM, as we say bye for now to our many friends who are now a part of our family here in Togo. It’s the end of the beginning (no more stâge!), but this is also the beginning of the next so I hope you will wish me luck as I board this great journey of service and self-exploration over the next two years. It won’t be an easy one, as these past few months have acutely demonstrated, but then again they never said it would be. What’s that old Peace Corps saying? The hardest job you’ll ever love! Hmm, I guess only time will tell. But here’s to hoping…
Du courage et de fromage,
-Nikhil
P.S. I really hope everyone goes and check out my Picasa website that I linked to this blog ASAP as I FINALLY uploaded a ton of pictures from stâge. I have random pictures taken during class, pictures from my hike up Mt. Agou as well as pictures from post-visit week and field trip week. Although I do have a few more albums of pictures from fête-ing, the last few days in Agou and from swear-in, I ran out of time here in Lomé to organize the pictures and upload them. Since I only get “fast” internet connection here in the Peace Corps lounge, those pictures will have to wait till my next trip to Lomé which unfortunately might not be until December when the new stâge swears-in (or earlier depending on if I get to have a “Lomé medical vacation” or if the new satellite internet in Sotouboua is functioning well).
P.P.S. As promised, here is a copy of both of my speeches. The first one is the “official” French speech I gave at the beginning of the swear-in ceremony; the second one is my Kabyé speech. Although I did include a translation for my Kabyé speech, I didn’t include one for the French speech as the speech is long and it would “waste” space on this blog. But if you want the gist of what I was saying in the French one, send me an e-mail and I’ll happily explain it to you.
Nikhil’s French Swear-In Speech
Excellence M. le représentant du Ministre de la Sante
Excellence M. le représentant du Ministre de l’Economie et des Finances
Excellence M. le représentant d’ambassadeur des Etats-Unis au Togo
Madame la Directrice Nationale du Corps de la Paix
Madame la Directrice de Formation
Honorables invités
Chers collègues nouveaux volontaires
Mesdames
Mesdemoiselles
Messieurs
Je m’appelle Nikhil. C’est un grand plaisir pour moi de prendre la parole ici au nom de tous mes collèges. Nous sommes 30 Américaines dont 14 hommes et 16 femmes. Nous représentons les différentes parties des Etats-Unis comme la Californie á l’ouest, Indiana et Texas au centre, Alabama et Géorgie au sud, New York et Massachusetts á l’est, etcetera. Nous avons des formations différentes allant de la licence au doctorat. C’est ainsi que nous avons parmi nous deux docteurs, une avocate, etcetera. Nos personnalités sont aussi différentes à cause de nos backgrounds différents. Cependant nous avons en commun un but: l’amélioration des conditions de vie et le changement du monde. Et c’est là, notre raison d’être au Togo.
Nous constituons deux groupes : le premier c’est le groupe de développement de petites et moyennes entreprises basé á Kumawou et le second groupe est celui de la santé communautaire et la prévention du VIH/SIDA basé á Nyogbo. Avant de commencer notre travail nous sommes passés par une formation du 11 semaines. A notre arrivée, nous étions très contents d’être au Togo mais à la fois nous étions très dubitatifs en ce qui concerne notre habileté de nous adapter au nouvel environnement et de pouvoir opérer quelque changement que ce soit. Une fois arrivée sur les sites, les différentes communautés et les familles hôtes nous ont accueillis à bras ouverts. La formation a commencé le jour suivant dans le deux programmes. Nous avons suivi des classes de langue, de technique, et d’adaptation culturelle. En technique nous avons couvert la micro finance, le paludisme, le développement de compétences et le VIH/SIDA. En adaptation culturelle nous avons appris entre autres l’importance du protocole au Togo et comment porter un pagne. Nous avons eu l’occasion de visiter nos postes du travail pour prendre goût à la vie de volontaire. Nous avons travaillé dur et nous avons étudié beaucoup aussi. Maintenant nous somme prêt à commencer notre travail de volontaire.
Le Corps de la Paix vient de célébrer ses 45 ans au Togo en décembre dernier et nous sommes heureux de porter le flambeau que nos prédécesseurs nous ont passé pour continuer le legs du service. Nous allons à nos postes maintenant avec toute notre motivation et notre passion de travailler aux côtés de nos homologues Togolaises pour les deux ans ou plus pourquoi pas ? Nous demanderions au Togolais d’être patients et tolérants envers nous, de nous aider à les aider.
Avant de finir, je voudrais remercier tous ceux qui ont contribué à la réussite de notre stage. D’abord, merci a nos vaillantes familles hôtes de Kumawou et Nyogbo pour leur patience et la nourriture délicieuse. Elles nous ont gavés. Ensuite, merci à Blandine et à tous les formateurs de technique pour nous avoir donné les informations nécessaires pour faire notre travail avec succès. À tous les formateurs de langues qui nous ont aidés malgré nos fautes en français et langue locales, merci beaucoup. Aux volontaires sur le terrain, merci pour vos encouragements et pour vos conseils. Personnellement, je voudrais remercier mes collègues nouveaux volontaires pour leur support moral. Vous étiez plutôt ma famille au Togo qu’un groupe de soutien pour les « yovos » que nous sommes. Je suis très content de passer les deux ans qui suivent avec vous.
Pour conclure, je voudrais dire quelque chose que ma mère hôte m’a dit la première semaine, « peu à peu… ». Bien que cette expression ait été une source de beaucoup de frustrations, elle a été aussi une source d’encouragement. Que cette expression nous soit un rappel pendant les 3 mois au poste et même durant le reste de notre service au Togo. Je cite : « le changement prend du temps. » Fin de citation le changement se passe lentement et il arrive en fin de compte. Il ne faut pas se presser parce que deux ans c’est un long temps. Petit à petit. Doucement. Ça va aller, un peu de courage et voilà, du fromage !
Bon Appétit, Bonsoir et Bonne fête !
Nikhil’s Kabyé Speech
Mina danaj! Payam se Nikhil. Melina Atlanta. Menge Corps de la Paix soolim tumiye ladu. Mowoki Sotouboua tonuda alafia tumiye labu. Pilabi tasi.
English Translation: Good evening! My name is Nikhil. I come from Atlanta. I am a Peace Corps volunteer. I am going to Sotouboua to do health work. See you later!
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