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!

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.

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!

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.