The Pause Before the Plunge

I am on the threshold of being sworn-in as an official PeaceCorps (Corps de la Paix) volunteer in exactly 5 days, on August 20, 2009. So Monday, August 10 I picked out some pagne (pronounced pawn-yah in Togo) at the local marché (market) here in Tsévié. Oh and before I continue, I’ll let you in on a little turbulence I encountered just now, during my search for the correct spelling of “pagne.” I thought that I had the spelling right, but just wanted to make sure so I looked up the word in my trusty Larousse Français-Anglais/English-French Dictionary. The spelling turned out to be correct, but the translation into English wasn’t what I had expected. It turns out that the only English translation the dictionary had for “pagne” was “loincloth.” I flashed back to the many conversations I have had with my friends in which we exchanged descriptions of the colors and the designs on our pagne in extra loud voices so we could be heard over the growl of a moto or a crowd of people. However in consultation with the older volunteers via text messaging and also talking with my host sister I found out that yes, at least in Togo, “pagne” is the correct spelling for the yards of colorful printed fabric that is sold at the marchés in this country. So just to make it clear, when I refer to pagne in this post and all posts hitherto and after this post I am not referring to a loincloth. Well, unless stated otherwise. I am also curious about the kinds of visitors who will accidently stumble upon my blog now that I have written, “pagne,” so many times.

After I picked out the awesome pagne I had it made into a complet (meaning “suit” in French and pronounced com-play) by a tailor who Sam and I had met at an earlier date. Here are some pictures of it. I will add a link here when I get to Lome and have a better internet connection but for now you can see my complet in the link to all my Togo pics on the right hand side. I just picked it up yesterday. Why did I have this incredible complet made you ask? For PeaceCorps swear-in. Yes I will wear it proudly in front of chiefs, politicians, the US ambassador to Togo, PeaceCorps employees, fellow volunteers, all the host families and theoretically the entire population of Togo being that it will be televised live. All in all about 200 people should be at my swear-in.

Every one of us will have to go on stage and speak very briefly in the local language (not French) that is spoken at our post. I will be saying my name, the name of my post, the state and country I come from, and the work I will do in Adjengré in Kabyé. If anyone wants to know what my speech should sound like e-mail me. I recorded my Kabyé instructor, Faustin, on my computer reading my speech out loud so I could practice it in my free time. In addition PeaceCorps also picked one person from each local language class to give a longer introductory speech before the people whose post is in that language region. Liza, a fellow SED volunteer, will be giving the longer Kabyé speech.

Up to this point I haven’t really given an account of my thoughts and feelings towards the role of PeaceCorps and my placement here in Togo. So first, I have not as of yet, become disillusioned with what I had originally perceived PeaceCorps to be before I saw it firsthand. I cannot claim to have experienced PeaceCorps, because I am still in training and haven’t started any projects. I believe that the organization does do great things where the government is, for lack of a better word, “lax.” However, what I have come to understand is that the most profitable aspect of PeaceCorps is not whether the project was “successful” because success is such a subjective term, but instead it is first and foremost cultural exchange and the dispersion of knowledge we possess. One can read about life in Togo, but it is an echo of the reality here. Almost every day opens a new door or illuminates a facet of Togolese culture that I never knew existed. This cultural integration and cultural exchange can be hastened by sharing the knowledge and skills that we might perceive as basic. For example, how one searches for information on the internet, if you have a business how to write down your expenses or even just how to turn on a computer. These are the kinds of skills that at least my generation takes for granted. So overall, despite some of its bureaucratic tendencies because it does have to answer to Washington, PeaceCorps so far, is a great organization. From what I have seen and from what I hear it is not money that is needed, but people willing to work for sustainable change. The impact can be far greater and highly sustainable if the project is, if not created which would be optimal, fully supported by the local people.

So in regard to Togo, I will be honest. I had never wanted to be placed in Africa, let alone Togo. When PeaceCorps asked for the top three regions I would like to placed in I wrote down, 1. Asia Region, 2. Central/Eastern Europe and 3. Central/South America. That being said, I love it here. I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. One thing that I especially like about Togo is the amount of music and dancing. Music is a fundamental component of life here. My host brother and/or his friends will suddenly break into song and nobody bats an eye. It is just what people do here. Funerals would put any birthday party in the states to shame. There is non-stop singing and dancing all through the night and into the later hours of the morning. I have knowledge of this from personal experience. When I had visited to Atakpamé during my post visit I slept over that night at the Transit House. It turned out that there was a huge funeral going on right outside the house. The music consisted of religious hymns and traditional African music being played at a high volume from huge speakers.

Also everyone seems happy even though life is so hard. Exchanging pleasantries with complete strangers such as, “Bonjour” or “Bonsoir” or “Comment ça vas” is encouraged and embraced. I feel the understanding of what is really important in life and how fragile life is seeps even into their humor. For example, my host family will laugh at me as they watch me put in my contacts or even just shave, but there is no maliciousness behind the laughter. Just today a friend, Akéve, who Sam and I met within the first few weeks of coming to Tsévié was talking with Sam and I. As Sam and I parted ways from him we did the usual handshake then finger snap and he said, “Justin” and then started laughing for no reason. Sam gets the same from his host brother. I will be over at Sam’s house and his host brother will walk into the room say “Sam,” then pause, look at Sam and then start chuckling to himself.

However there are irritations and injustices I experience every day. It starts with the treatment of women here. Women are expected to cook and clean wherever they are. For example, there was a haricot (bean) festival in Tsévié all last weekend and my host brother had his friends and their girlfriends over for a few days. The girlfriends cooked and cleaned the entire weekend Togo style meaning everything by hand, absolutely nothing automated. People don’t use vacuums they use these short brooms made from dried palm tree leaves and every morning someone sweeps the entire front yard. All the food is prepared by first lighting wood charcoal and waiting awhile till the charcoal reaches a certain temperature and then cooking on it. Yet in this culture the women are the ones who handle the money for the family. Besides that though, the woman’s role is to be a good wife to her husband. However, this does seem to be changing a little and there seems to be an increase in the acceptance of independent women.

There are many things that make this culture difficult to live in. Life here is both difficult to understand and accept. You can see the sadness and the happiness etched into every face and feel the effort it takes just to live here when you shake their hands. Already I am beginning to understand life here, but I can never accept that this is just how life is. There are fundamental rights that I believe are inalienable, but which are totally and utterly denied to the people of Togo. Civil liberties and human rights which one unconsciously takes for granted.