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!

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)!

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...)...