Saturday, December 27, 2008

Happy Christmas and New Year!



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Joe and I spent Christmas “up north” this year visiting one of our PCV friends and having a little PCV Christmas party, the only version of a white Christmas we can get here in Togo (I know, what a lame joke, right?!). We managed to make it feel like Christmas despite our lack of snow, however. We played Christmas music, made Christmas decorations, and even made homemade egg nog (thanks to M – that was good stuff, man!). The usual Christmas fare was traded in for beef kabobs, chicken, rice, and hummus made from black-eyed beans, all of which turned out really well. Celebrated my dreaded birthday up there, too, and managed not to let it get me down too much. I guess I’m officially on par with the rest of my friends back home now, but feel pretty old sometimes here in Togo with all my 23-year-old PCV friends…

North of Kara, the big city up there, Togo is like a completely different country, at least now, during Harmattan. It’s mountainous, insanely dry (the air dries up your whole head, there’s zero humidity, and everything is brown), and it’s almost like fall weather in Michigan in the mornings and evenings – refreshingly cool. Wore my hair down for the first time in months up there! The dust is pretty crazy, though; there’s a haze over the sky and in the air, which made me think either someone was burning stuff or that my glasses were really dirty when we first got there. Quite a change from the flat, green, comparatively swampy-feeling air we have down in the Maritime region. Come February and March, though, the heat up there is supposed to be much worse than where we live in the south, so we’ll see who really has the best overall post weather-wise when we have to deal with the “real” hot season. Yikes.

Yesterday, on our way home from up north, our bus blew a tire, which also somehow affected the air suspension (brakes) and the battery, so we had to hang out on the side of the road for a couple of hours while they changed the tire, backed the brakes off, and recharged the battery. Might have taken a lot longer, but Joe came to the rescue and helped the bus mechanic with the brakes. Being a mechanic for 15 years paid off yesterday, as we were on our way a lot sooner than we might have been! Here are a couple of photos of Joe saving the day, too!

Things have been kind of slow for the past few weeks in regards to work; everything seems to be shutting down for the holidays: our village development committee meetings, school for the peer educators, etc. I’m supposed to pick up my work with them again January 12, so it looks like they get a little Christmas break from school, same as we do. The catalog for Schalom is almost finished and should be able to be printed very soon. I’ll be sure to send a couple copies home for those who are interested in their products. There are lots of versions of the tote bags now, along with some clothes and household items that I got them to add in (placemats, table cloths, things like that), so hopefully the variety of things will help with their plans for exporting outside of Togo. Joe is still building bunny cages and is now helping a new elevage enterprise with their chickens and turkeys. We’re also moving forward a little with the latrine project; we had the meeting with the school inspector that we’ve been trying to have for months, so that was a step in the right direction. Also, we’ve done a little more on the case de santé (health clinic) project and are writing up the proposal to get that funded through a mechanism called Peace Corps Partnership, where we ask friends and family to donate to our village projects via the Peace Corps web site. This is a pretty small project, compared to many, and we think it’s a good one to start with as far as being the first thing we’re trying to get funding for. The association that has initiated the project has found an infermier (nurse) to come from Lomé and live for two years in Tabligbo to run the clinic and train a woman in the village to become a sage femme (a little lower than a nurse, but higher than a birthing attendant in the health hierarchy here in Togo). The plan is for her to take over the clinic after the two years is up, with help from the association for financial and bookkeeping activities. We’ll keep you updated as this project moves along.

We hope everyone back home had a good Christmas and that you have a great start to 2009. More from Togo soon!

Monday, December 22, 2008

A photo of the "Tabligbo Cluster"


Here is a picture of the six of us in the Tabligbo cluster of Peace Corps volunteers. We all live within 20km of each other, and Joe and I live at the center of the cluster (and are the only ones with running water, electricity, and a pretty big market). The girl on the bottom right just finished her service this month and was replaced by another guy, but this was the cluster up until a couple of weeks ago.

We will be heading up north to celebrate Christmas with some fellow volunteers tomorrow, so will have some pictures of "up country" to post later this week.

Tabligbo Flowers




Here are a few pictures of the plant life (during the wet season!).

More Tabligbo Photos




Here are a few more pictures of our village to give you a better look at where we live.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Around Town Pictures



Here are a few pictures of us around town. Joey with
a local kid, Joey working on the computer with our cat,
Elliott, and me and our dog, Awooyo, up on our roof.



Tabligbo "Wildlife"

















Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Six Months in Togo so Far

There are two recent incidents that came to mind when I sat down to write this blog entry. So, here they are, two things that made me shake my head and wonder why things go the way they go here in Togo. First, I think there was a rooster caught inside the (empty) house next door a couple of weeks ago. He started crowing at 3am, and since I couldn’t sleep with the crow echoing off the walls and bouncing around, I started counting the seconds between the crows. Where else in the world does a rooster need to crow every 6-12 seconds for at least an hour straight? He started tapering off eventually, but was back the next morning with the same routine. After a few days, there was an unexpected silence – I can only assume that he somehow got out of the house or that someone came in and ate him. The vengeful part of me hopes for the latter…


The second incident occurred this past week at the marché. We’ve been buying the wheels of Vache Qui Rit cheese (which is actually more like cheese-flavored butter) since we got here, and the price has been consistent each time. Last week, the price went up 100 CFA (which is, granted, only about $.20 at the current exchange rate), but irritated by this, I asked why the increase. The marché lady proceeded to show me the expiration date on the cheese, which is no longer August 2008, the date on all the cheese I’ve been buying without problems since we arrived at the end of August (with only a few bad pieces here and there). So, it wasn’t that I was paying more for fresher cheese, but that I was paying more for non-expired cheese. I wonder will the price go down when this new batch of cheese reaches the expiration date?


Joe has been working with three different people on three different elevage (farm animal breeding) projects. One is a group with a chicken farm, another is a guy who’s starting a rabbit and guinea pig elevage (yes, guinea pigs – apparently, they’re quite good for eating, although we haven’t tried it yet), and a third guy who’s starting a chicken and turkey elevage. He facilitated a loan at the local microfinance for the first group, who lost all their chickens to the avian flu recently. Also he’s been helping the second guy build bunny cages for the last couple of weeks, and is becoming quite proficient in the art of using the machete, an implement we originally bought to cut up whole chickens, but which has become quite the multi-purpose tool around the house. You might be surprised to learn that the machete is handy as a shovel, a weed whacker, a kitchen utensil, a saw for bamboo cages, and an axe. In addition to perfecting his couper-ing skills, Joe has also been working with the association that makes the tote bags on improving their accounting books and records and has been investigating exporting authorities and methods for them, along with potential buyers for their products.


As for me, I attended my first training for peer educators (mostly as an observer, although I did help a little with the condom demonstration), and have had exactly one meeting so far with my own group of peer educators at the apprentice school. It’s a group of five boys and five girls, all training to be tailors and seamstresses and hosted by the association that makes the tote bags. We’ve decided to meet twice a month, and our second meeting falls on December 1, World AIDS Day, so I’ve asked the association president to see if he can get permission for them all to go with us to a fellow volunteer’s village nearby that day, where Joe and I will be helping with a sensibilisation on HIV/AIDS. Hopefully, it will give them a better picture of what I hope they’ll be able to do themselves after all of our classes are finished. I’m also continuing to work on the catalog for the association, and will be sure to send some home for you all to see when it’s ready – it’s pretty close! And finally, I’ve been talking to the same chicken elevage guy that Joe is working with, and he wants to build a dispensaire (like a pharmacy with an on-duty nurse) out in his cartier, which is a neighborhood of Tabligbo that’s a little dans le brousse and not accessible by car. His is the center of eight small cartiers, and they all have at least a 2km walk or moto ride to the hospital. So, we’re setting up some meetings to talk it over with their neighborhood chief and the hygiene director at the hospital. More soon on this one.


We’re both still working with the local CVD (village development committee) and attending those meetings to see what the village is talking about. They still want to go ahead with the latrine project, and we’re slowly researching the possibilities for that. During one recent meeting, they were talking about gathering up the stories and memories of the older residents of Tabligbo and trying to consolidate it into a comprehensive history of the city. It sounds like it would be an interesting process, and last week, we visited the chief’s older brother, who gave us the history of the village as he heard it from his father. It seems the name of Tabligbo came from a story about a guy getting his head cut off at the marché and the people watching it roll away: the word for head (something like “tabli”), and the word for roll (something like “gbo”) got combined with a German accent, and apparently, Tabligbo was the result. How about that for a story to name your city after?


I managed to post the puppy pictures, and I have some more, but I'll have to try later or tomorrow to get them up. Sorry for the delay!

Puppy Post



Here are pictures of our dog's puppies that she had our first month at post. Thankfully, they've all been farmed out to their new homes now!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Happy Halloween

Tabligbo is starting to feel like home now for lots of reasons. First, we recognize people we’ve been working with around town and a lot of people recognize us (and our names!). Second, we’ve figured out where the good deals are on vegetables, street food, and how to navigate the marché on marché day. Third, we’ve added some things around the house that make it seem more like ours: curtains, furniture cushions (with fabric from Schalom, the association Joe is working with), and a garden. We never got around to that at home, but here it seems like the thing to do, so Joe is trying his hand at tomatoes, lettuce, onions, squash, and beans. We’ve also planted 11 pineapple plants out in front of our compound in the little strip of dirt we have. Fourth, we’re getting used to the water and electricity going out at random times, and while it’s sometimes a pain, we’ve mastered the charcoal stove, so no worries! And finally, we’ve found two good (if, albeit, expensive) tchouk stands that have pretty good tchouk (a type of home-brewed beer that is definitely an acquired taste); the stands are a good place to talk to people and learn (and relearn) a few words of Ewé (see items 4 and 7 below!).

We’ve also started to learn what’s around Tabligbo and which direction various things are. We’ve visited a few of the surrounding villages, one to visit another volunteer in our area, and another to investigate a Catholic mission that makes pagne, fabric like Schalom, and to visit a guy who does elevage (breeding) for chickens. In that village, we experienced the epitome of Togolese hospitality – we wandered into the Catholic mission and were immediately given a tour of pretty much the entire village and the two outfits we wanted to visit by the Togolese priest who had no problem dropping what he was doing for the afternoon and showing two white people around town!

Our latrine project with the 18 primary schools is still in the works and we’re negotiating with the village development committee, the local school inspector, and the school directors, to get that project under way. It’s hard to get everyone together for meetings, but we’re still in the very early phases of the project. We still have to decide what kind of latrines to build and where they should be built at the schools, who the masons will be and where the materials will come from, and who’s going to teach the students about the use of the latrines once they’re all built. So, it might take some time before we have an update on this one, but stay tuned.

Joe and I are now both working with Schalom a little. My new pet project is to help them create a catalog of all the things they can make with their fabric (besides the obvious things like the tote bags and clothes). I’ve begun working with them on one catalog in French and one in English, and they seem pretty excited to have something to send to businesses overseas. So, watch for a catalog soon!

In addition to the group that does chicken breeding here in Tabligbo, Joe has also started working with another elevage that has rabbits and guinea pigs. Both groups want to improve their business practices and capabilities, so Joe is trying his hand at the farm animal industry. Do guinea pigs count as farm animals? Anyway, Joe says it was pretty funny to see big fat bunnies and guinea pigs here in Togo – not the kind of animals we were expecting! And speaking of animals, Joe’s mom asked us for pictures of the local wildlife, but I'm again having problems with posting pictures from our cyber cafe, so they'll have to wait to be posted until we get back to Lome.

We’ve been to visit the local high school, and it turns out they already have a group of peer educators who are just getting started. School started late this year, so things are taking a little longer to get going, but the principal said we could meet with the peer educators once they get their meetings going. I also talked with the director of the local radio station and he was agreeable to allowing health talks with a few of the peer educators on the air a couple of hours a month. So, that might be a future project, if we can get someone to translate our talks into the local language.

My first sensibilisation (health talk) has been scheduled and cancelled three times so far. I was also planning to meet with some of Schalom's peer educators yesterday, to get them prepared to lead talks of their own, but it rained and no one showed up. Rain tends to put a stop to any plans people make here, so hopefully, I'll have a better update about this project soon. Patience....

Also, here are some fun random observations after five months in Togo:

1. Vendeuses (ladies that sell food in boxes or baskets on their heads) sell all kinds of things, but their “advertising calls” as they wander around the streets all sound like the same thing.
2. You can fit way more people (and animals) in the back seat of a bush taxi than you would think.
3. Discussing the price with a bush taxi driver can be a very long exercise in patience.
4. The name “Joe” actually means the equivalent of “go away” in Ewé.
5. A 5:00 meeting can start anywhere from 5:00 to 5:59, and be considered on time.
6. It’s best to avoid eye contact with local naked fous.
7. You know you’re starting to become a little Togolese when you find 100 CFA (about $.20) an appalling price for a calabash of tchouk (about a pint of beer).
8. Your compound isn’t really clean until you’ve swept the dirt for at least an hour, twice a day.
9. Togolese babies can sleep through anything, in what must be the best sleeping place anyone has ever found, ever – tied to their mothers’ backs with pagne.
10. No matter how many times you tell a marché mama that you don’t need a black sachet for your purchase, she will inevitably give you one anyway.

Friday, September 19, 2008

After One Month in Tabligbo...





Joe and I have been at our post in Tabligbo for a month now, and we've been busy mostly meeting people (a lot of people!). We met the Chief (who had us over his house for dinner and a big dance), the Prefet, the Mayor, and the gendarmes.

We've also had meetings with the local village development committee (who want us to help them build latrines for the schools and build a library), the women's business Joe is working with called Shalom, another group of farmers who sell eggs, the doctor at the hospital, a local NGO, the Red Cross, and lots of union groups (mechanics, teachers, furniture makers)...oh, and I met the principal at the high school, who wants me to come back in a month when school starts (it's been pushed back a few weeks due to flooding in the region) to talk to him about teaching a class. So - we've been busy just learning our way around, talking to people about the community's needs, and making contacts. We have lots of ideas for projects to work on, but we're just getting started, and have a ways to go before we get settled in.

Here are some pictures of Tabligbo: our street, the main street, the Chief's house, and a picture of Joe buying cookies at our local version of 7-11. More coming!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Spider Post!



Here are pictures that offer a glimpse into the arachnid life that we’ve seen so far here in Togo. There are two here for your viewing pleasure (if your name is Peter), and just to creep you out (if you’re everyone else!). Unfortunately, the one we got of the monster variety that so far, Joey has only seen in his shower and latrine in Agou Koumawou, is on our other camera and we can’t get it off there. These can get as big as two man-sized hands put together, and take at least a couple of whacks with the broom to kill. Resilient bastards, and apparently quite good jumpers as well! So, sorry you don’t get a look at that guy, but enjoy these two.


The first is a fairly common one that’s flat and ranges in size from a 50-cent piece to the palm of your hand. They're fast! This little guy was in my room in Agou Nyogbo, and many of you will be surprised (shocked? amazed? incredulous?) to hear that I managed to kill him all by myself with a shoe. Of course, I now realize how tiny he is in comparison to the other giants that awaited me (see below).


The other is a creepy guy that looks like he could be dangerous, the likes of which I’ve seen in a fellow volunteer’s case de santé and unfortunately also in my kitchen in Tabligbo. Our cat got to this guy (he’s missing a few legs, as you can see – good kitty!), and he was a little bigger than the cat’s head. The one in the case de santé was about the size of a grapefruit.


Hope this satisfies the curiosity of those of you who are interested in creepy crawlies (you know who you are!)…

Our House and Pets in Tabligbo!





Here are photos of our compound and our living room at our house in Tabligbo, along with pictures of Apollo, our cat, and Awooyo (named after a local beer), our dog. The stairs go up to our roof.

Pictures from the Swearing-In Ceremony



Here we are again with our host moms in the clothes they made us for the ceremony.

More Pictures from Stage!





Here are pictures of Joey and I having a beer at the bar in Koumawou, the unfinished church by my host family's house, the road to the Tech House where we had all our classes, and a picture of us at the Togolese fashion show. More coming!

Pictures from Stage!





Here, finally, are some pictures of my host family and home in Agou Nyogbo and of Joe's host family and home in Agou Koumawou.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

End of Stage, Swear-In, and the Beginning of Month Four

When our training (“stage,” to those familiar with the term) started in Agou Nyogbo and Agou Koumawou, time seemed to drag for the first few weeks. Now that we’re finished and have said goodbye to our host families, we’re here in Lomé for our swear-in ceremony, and it seems like we were here just yesterday for our initial orientation. We both agree that our French has improved, and that we’ve learned a lot of really helpful cultural information during our first three months. Our formateurs (technical and language instructors) are some of the best people in the world. They were very patient with our bad (but hopefully much improved now) French throughout our training. We hope we haven’t seen the last of them.

But as wonderful as everyone has been, we’re ready to get to Tabligbo and eat, sleep, drink, and live on our own schedules again! For those of you who are worried about our health (moms!), we’re both just fine, despite some weight loss. As soon as we get to Tabligbo and I can cook my own food, I promise to try to put some weight back onto my husband, whose diminishing frame has caused some alarm here. He worries that people might now confuse him with a certain slender friend of ours with the initials DMN – not to worry, though; I’ll try not to let that happen.

Some of our initial expectations of Africa have changed in the past 11 weeks (gee, what a surprise!). It’s a lot more tropical here and a lot greener than I expected, and our accommodations are a lot more technologically advanced than Joe expected (running water, tile floors, and electricity were not in our list of things to expect!).

Togolese food-wise, I’m a fan of foufou (a big dumpling-like thing that’s made by pounding the crap out of yams) and wagash (a type of fried cheese). Joe seems to be partial to soja (soy that’s fried with sauce). I’ve learned how to make peanut sauce and piment (hot pepper) sauce also. Our Togolese host families had a lot of fun making American-style meals for us with a Togolese spin. We’ve had French toast, garlic bread, pancakes, and spaghetti – all a little different than back home, but good! Things like turkey sandwiches with Sunkist orange pop in a can and strawberry milk are a luxury you can only get in Lomé, but are worth the price once in awhile! Jim Beam is also worth an occasional splurge in Lomé, and I’ve managed to find some tolerable red wine at a couple of “yovo stores.” Lomé is still two hours away from Tabligbo by bush taxi, so we’re not sure how often we’ll get there yet.

Other Togolese news: gas prices have sky-rocketed in Togo (675 CFA per liter last time we checked), 11 bridges in the country have collapsed due to rain and flooding, and both occurrences have made travel throughout the country a lot more difficult and more expensive. The cement shortage has also made for higher prices and had made repairs on bad roads next to impossible. One observation from earlier today: instead of road flares to mark an accident, the people here just tear up big chunks of grass and throw them in the road as a marker for people to watch out!

We hope you’re all having a good summer and doing fun things back in the States. For those who can, please go to Knight’s, have a good steak, and think of us. We’re doing fine, but familiar food seems to dominate our thoughts here! We’ll be back in touch soon!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Finishing up week 7 of Stage...

Hello family and friends! Joe and I have just finished week 7 of our training, a week we spent visiting our post (the city of Tabligbo in the Maritime region). We have a compound that has a space for another family, but no one is currently living there, so it’s just us along with the dog and cat we inherited from the previous volunteer who lived here. It's nice to have pets again!

Training continues in Agou Nyogbo (for me) and Agou Koumawou (for Joe) for 3 more weeks. We’ve started a little bit of language training in Ewé, which we discovered this week will come in handy at post, since many people in Tabligbo speak a mixture of Ewé and French. Our French is improving a little, at least according to our language trainers, who rated us both as proficient enough to go to post during our mid-stage language test a couple of weeks ago. A subjective test, for certain, since they rated me as “Intermediate High,” and Joe as “Intermediate Mid.” (Those of you who know us know that’s completely impossible – I must have just been having a good test day!)

At the end of week 8, I have a project to do with three other trainees that involves teaching young girls in my village about AIDS and possibly starting a health club. The local president of the Red Cross is helping us and hopes to continue the club after we leave for post. Joe is currently business shadowing a seamstress in his village, and he’s supposed to make some recommendations about growing her business at the end of training. As a result of this experience, Joey has learned a new skill. He wants you all to know that he is now proficient in the art of the pedal sewing machine, and we promise to post a picture that a fellow trainee took of his experience when we can get it from her.

At the end of week 11, we’ll be heading back to Lomé for the swearing-in ceremony, and we’ll be back in Tabligbo at the end of August to settle in for good. Training is going by fast!

Our week-long visit in Tabligbo was spent learning where things are (like the Prefet, the police, the post office, the market, etc.), meeting a few notables, and drawing a map of our immediate area. We also met a couple of the volunteers who live nearby and came to welcome us. We also met two girls who teach the children of American missionaries who are living in Tabligbo until the end of this year. They made us chocolate chip cookies! It must be nice to have an oven, but we really can’t complain since we have running water and electricity, two things that many volunteers don’t have. We spent the week cooking on a charcoal stove (just like camping on the Au Sable – those were the days, weren’t they?!), but hope to buy a propane stove in Lomé after swear-in.

We spent a lot of time in the market on market day, which was a bit of an overwhelming experience. It was the biggest crowd of people I’ve seen yet in Togo! We successfully purchased a number of items, and managed to dispute the price (discuter le prix) a few times successfully as well.

We also got to know our homologues (the Togolese counterparts we’ve been assigned) and learned a little about what our work will be like in Tabligbo. These are just the possibilities so far, so things are bound to change once we get situated in village. One project that I’m going to work on is starting an organization for counseling people living with AIDS on health and nutrition. I also might work with one of the schools on teaching a health class. Joey has plans to work with a mechanics’ union, a women-owned and operated purse business, and a group of farmers on increasing productivity. We’ll let you know how those plans pan out in the coming months.

Thanks for the phone calls and the letters – we hope you all continue to stay in touch that way until we can get the Internet thing figured out. Hopefully, our letters home to you have been arriving without a problem. We’re sorry we haven’t been able to post much so far, but soon we’ll be in Tabligbo and may be able to get reliable Internet access and post more often. Bear with us!

Finally, happy birthday to Heather and Mommies (both of you!) from Togo! More information coming soon!

Sunday, June 29, 2008

About a month into training...

Joey and I have been at our training sites in Agou Nyogbo and Agou Koumawou for a few weeks now. The rainy season is in full swing, so it rains almost every day. We’re right at the base of Mount Agou, and the view is awesome. We both have electricity and no running water, which I haven’t missed as much as I thought I would. We’re both enjoying getting to know our host families and speaking French on a daily basis. I have a host mom, a sister (she’s 17), a brother (he’s 7), an aunt and a grandma in my compound, and Joey has a host mom, and two little host sisters (ages 9 and 13) in his village. We’re starting to learn a tiny bit of Ewé (ev-ay), the local language that they speak in this area.

We also found out this week that our post site is going to be Tabligbo, which is in the Maritime region about two hours northeast from Lomé. From what we’ve heard so far, it’s a city of about 18,000, and the main employer is a big cement factory. Ewé happens to be the local language there as well, so I think we’re going to start getting a little more education in that area soon. We’ll be doing a post visit to Tagligbo during week 7 of training (at the time I’m writing this, we’re getting ready to start week 4). We do our swear-in at the end of August, so that’s when we’ll be off to our post together.

Besides the French, my training so far has been on things like malaria, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, and gardening (you’ll be hearing more about the moringa tree soon!). The group of health trainees I’m with have been to a hospital and a dispensaire (like a pharmacy run by a nurse); we’ve also had practice doing baby weighing and been to a training session on how to make enriched food for malnourished kids. Joey’s training so far has mostly been about microfinance and tantines (the Togolese version of a personal savings). He also visited a microfinance bank in Kpalimé.
Our first experience at the marché (market) was interesting. The piles and piles of whole smoked fish made for an interesting aromatic experience, and it took a long time to figure out that there was a structure to the way things are organized. I managed to successfully buy some vegetables for my host mom there.

The wildlife in village mostly consists of sheep, goats, and chickens, with a few small dogs and cats here and there. The lizards are everywhere, and they’re fun to watch. For those of you who are interested in the insect life, the mosquitoes are a bit of a pain, and the spiders (at least the ones I’ve seen!) are fast, but not too big. Joey apparently has some killer spiders that live in his latrine, but no one else has seen one yet, and he’s promised to get a picture the next time he sees one to post on the blog.

Pictures are currently not posting, so I'm going to email some to all of you. Will be sure to try to post them here next time!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

To call us...

Joe and I now have an international cell phone number, but apparently my training area in Agou doesn't get good reception, so Joe is going to take it with him to his training area (the areas are 5km apart). We doubt we'll be able to be placed together for stage (we'll find out for sure tomorrow), but we'll be in class together twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and together on the weekends. So, you can get in touch with both of us on those days.

Our number is: 011 228 938 5479.

Calls to the States are rather expensive for us, but incoming calls are free. So, if international calls aren't too bad on your phone plan, give us a call!

Arrival in Lomé

We’re now in Lomé, Togo, and have been here for a few days at a hostel owned by Mamy, a little Asian woman. She has a nice cat named Milo who loves the volunteers because they like to pet him, and she cooks excellent food. Spicy and good! It’s a little weird living with all these people after living on our own for more than ten years, though. But everyone seems to get along really well, so we’ve been having fun so far. We’re up to six shots with more to come, and have gotten educated on malaria and other maladies, and have gotten instructions on the basic day-to-day stuff. Our language tests were an individual question and answer session in French. We find out at stage what level we’ll be placed at. Yesterday was, I think, the most helpful training session so far – all about how to wash clothes, take a bucket shower, use the lanterns, etc. We also went to our Country Director’s house for a reception last night – une grande maison! We also met the U.S. Ambassador to Togo. This afternoon, we got to go shopping and buy shower buckets and supplies and cell phones. I’ll post our number tomorrow – we likely won’t be calling anyone in the States, but incoming calls are free for us.

Granda will be disappointed to hear that my only encounter with bugs so far has been flies (it’s fly season here), and a few mosquitoes. Once we get to our training site and live with our host families, I heard we’ll have all kinds of interesting things living in our latrine. So more soon on that front.

The kids between Mamy’s and the Peace Corps office a few blocks away seem pretty used to seeing the volunteers around, but they like to wave at us and giggle. This area of Lomé has lots of chickens along with a few goats and dogs wandering around. You can hear the Togolese playing American music from their homes and from local bars (I’ve heard Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, and Tina Turner). Lomé is interesting (and living conditions are much better than we expected), but I think we’re a little impatient (and a little anxious…at least I am) to see what life with our host families. Tomorrow evening we head off to meet them.

Also, for a fellow volunteer’s mom named Elizabeth T., your daughter loves you, and is telling you not to worry. She’s very happy, excited, and making a lot of friends (she’s one of my favorite people, so I promise to stay in touch with her as much as possible!).

To my own Mom, and to Joe’s Mom and Dad, and everyone else (family, friends, and ex-coworkers), we’re feeling good about everything so far. Please send us news of home (via the blog, email, or letter)!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Leaving tomorrow...

We completed day two of staging in Philadelphia today. We head to clinic tomorrow morning for some shots and then we'll be off to the airport where we'll leave for Paris at 6:45pm. On Saturday morning we'll arrive in Paris, and take off for Togo in the afternoon. Orientation over the last two days has been long, but getting to know the other 29 people in our Togo class has been fun. There's actually one other married couple - we were surprised to see them! The demographics of the class (for my demographer friends) is generally younger than us with one exception. We heard today that the oldest current PC volunteer in Togo is 37 - we suppose we'll bring the age average up some more (the current average is 25).

Thanks to those who have posted messages in the last few days - we appreciate your support! Please keep in touch and let us know what's going on back home.

A final tip that we learned today: if you want to send mail or packages, it helps get them delivered if you draw a religious symbol on the envelope or address it to "Sister Bree Gunter" or "Brother Joe Gunter" - we'll let you know if it works!

The next time you hear from us, we'll be in Togo (finally...)...

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Welcome to our blog...

Off to Togo in about a month!

Joe and I leave for Philadelphia for our orientation on June 4, 2008, and from there we'll be off to Togo. We're told that after a few days in the capital city of Lome, we'll be heading to the Agou region southeast of Kpalime for our 11-week training. Our assignment locations after training are TBD for now.

Joe will be training for the Small Business Development program, and I will be a Health Extension Agent in the AIDS/HIV education program (otherwise known as a CHAP volunteer).

More to come soon!