Well, this is it! Last day that I'll be a Peace Corps volunteer. Pretty strange. Tomorrow, September 19th, I will be finalizing my COS (Close of Service). There are still a few more things I need to get cleared for such as the return of books that are the property of Peace Corps, my bicycicle, etc. So hopefully by the afternoon, I'll be finished and COSed! It is pretty strange thinking that such an important part of my life is coming to a close. However, because I have so much stuff to do I'm not really thinking of it as much. I think that by Friday I should be finished with everything and then off to Ghana for a week before coming home. I kind of regret not coming home right away, but Ghana will be a nice break from all this craziness here and a nice easing into America. Chelsie and I were planning on going to Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), but some PCVs that just COSed went there and they said that it would be fun if it wasn't so expensive so we nixed that. Also there have been some attacks/bombings but all have been on government/military buildings. We were also planning to see some more of Togo, but I'm ready to move on.
Here's a little recap of what I've been up too these past few days. I've been slowlying getting rid of things in my house. The furniture, I'm selling them off little by little which is good. I'll be able to get a little bit of the money I put into all of it. Fritz, the director of Plan Togo invited me to his house again for burgers and I brought Chelsie. That was pretty delicious. I gave him some traditional cloth so he can make some shirts or something out of it. It is really shiny! Also some cashews from the cashew factory in Tchamba where Chelsie was posted. Also the cloth came from Tchamba because, for some reason, there is a lot shiny cloth there. By shiny cloth I mean that there is like gold foil in designs on the fabric. He really liked it and was very thankful. I think I already explained about him that he was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 70s in the Dominican Republic. He re-upped for another 2 years in the Dominican Republic so he spent a total of 4 years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Then after Peace Corps he came home to the US for a few months, started working and after a few months came right back to the Domician Republic to work for Plan. He has been with Plan ever since. That was really fun.
Yesterday, Monday September 17th, was a crazy day. Jean-Claude, a work partner of mine in Adjengre threw a small party for me and Chelsie in Tsevie. I think I've talked about him before, he was the driving force behind the library at the local high school in Adjengre. He also was my French tutor in the beginning of my service in Adjengre and a good friend, even if he is kind of blunt. However, here especially that is a breath of fresh air. People, I don't like to make platitudes, but they never talk directly to you when they have a problem with you. Instead the protocle is going though some type of intermediary or simply alluding to the problem with many metaphors which is especially hard when French is not your first language and you've learned it here on the job. He is a really good English teacher as well and so I nominated him for an American Embassy program where he would go to the States and learn about America and better ways to teach English in school. He won the nomination and went with around 20 other teachers from around the world to America for a month and half. It was a great program and he learned so much. I really wish I was in America so I could have seen his reactions. The farthest he travelled in Togo was to Ghana and that was one time.
So, Jean-Claude invited Chelsie and I to Tsevie, the village where I spent my first 3 months in Togo, living with a host family (surname Afatchao), learning French and learning about Togo from Peace Corps. Jean-Claude's son and girlfriend live in Tsevie with the girlfriend's family while Jean-Claude works in Adjengre about a 4 hour taxi ride from Tsevie. Tsevie is only 45 minutes from Lome. So Chelsie and I went up to Tsevie for this small party that he had for us. It wasn't really a party, a party here in Togo means drinking alcohol and eating some food with meat as meat is expensive here. We ate Jen-kumé (sp?) which translates to Pâte Rouge in French which translates to Red Pasta in English, which actually isn't pasta at all it is more like a paste, normally made with corn flour. But, what makes Pâte Rouge different from the normal Pâte is that the corn flour is fried first with tomatoes and then after you add the hot water. In normal Pâte one just adds hot water to the corn flour. So we ate Pâte Rouge, chicken and drank sodabi. It was a real Togolese fête (party). Earlier, last week, he gave me a traditional Togolese, I guess you could call it a suit. My friends and family will see it...it is hard to explain but it is woven cloth and almost like a big pancho with pants. It is what village chiefs wear, but is acceptable at really fancy occasions here in Togo.
After the party, I rushed from Tsevie back to Lome because of the presentation of the mosquito net evaluation project that I was going to do to the Minister of Health himself and other heads of state. The meeting was moved forward to Monday instead of having it on Thursday, later on in the week. That was pretty nerve-wracking, as I just heard about it that Monday, yesterday. So once I got back from Tsevie I quickly created a presentation in French and practiced a little. (I was planning on working on the presentation for a few days before the date we would present it) At 4pm myself, Liz and Ismael, the Peace Corps health apcd (Associate Peace Corps Director - the head of the health volunteers in Togo) went to the meeting and it turned out that we didn't present the evaluation. Instead it was a press conference for the minister of health. However, we were on TV as there were a ton of cameras in the room and the Minister of Health thanked us personally for all our hard work on the project and really just heaped praises on us so that was nice. The press-conference was for the new initiative that the ministry of health is implementing which is free testing and treatment of malaria no matter what your age forever. This is just amazing...this kind of stuff never happens and especially forever it is hard to believe. I hope it works. It will be funded by the Global Fund. The reason why they moved the "meeting" was that Thursday women in Togo are going on a sex-strike. Which means that women all around Togo will refuse to have sex with their husbands or boyfriends until certain things change in the country. I'm not sure exactly what it is for but I've heard from other PCVs that this has been done in other African countries and has achieved some success. We will see what happens!
Finally, my host brother Arsene Afatchao, who was part of my host family in Tsevie and who now lives in Lome just had a baby boy a few days ago! I will be celebrating with him soon. I bought cheap "champagne" (sparkling white wine) so it will be a party! I doubt he has ever tasted any kind of champagne because even though it is cheap ($8) for us it is really, really expensive for people here in Togo...and for me actually with a salary of $290 a month so I hope he'll enjoy it. I know he will. Ok well that's it. I'll post again once I am no longer a volunteer...so strange.
Here's a little recap of what I've been up too these past few days. I've been slowlying getting rid of things in my house. The furniture, I'm selling them off little by little which is good. I'll be able to get a little bit of the money I put into all of it. Fritz, the director of Plan Togo invited me to his house again for burgers and I brought Chelsie. That was pretty delicious. I gave him some traditional cloth so he can make some shirts or something out of it. It is really shiny! Also some cashews from the cashew factory in Tchamba where Chelsie was posted. Also the cloth came from Tchamba because, for some reason, there is a lot shiny cloth there. By shiny cloth I mean that there is like gold foil in designs on the fabric. He really liked it and was very thankful. I think I already explained about him that he was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 70s in the Dominican Republic. He re-upped for another 2 years in the Dominican Republic so he spent a total of 4 years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Then after Peace Corps he came home to the US for a few months, started working and after a few months came right back to the Domician Republic to work for Plan. He has been with Plan ever since. That was really fun.
Yesterday, Monday September 17th, was a crazy day. Jean-Claude, a work partner of mine in Adjengre threw a small party for me and Chelsie in Tsevie. I think I've talked about him before, he was the driving force behind the library at the local high school in Adjengre. He also was my French tutor in the beginning of my service in Adjengre and a good friend, even if he is kind of blunt. However, here especially that is a breath of fresh air. People, I don't like to make platitudes, but they never talk directly to you when they have a problem with you. Instead the protocle is going though some type of intermediary or simply alluding to the problem with many metaphors which is especially hard when French is not your first language and you've learned it here on the job. He is a really good English teacher as well and so I nominated him for an American Embassy program where he would go to the States and learn about America and better ways to teach English in school. He won the nomination and went with around 20 other teachers from around the world to America for a month and half. It was a great program and he learned so much. I really wish I was in America so I could have seen his reactions. The farthest he travelled in Togo was to Ghana and that was one time.
So, Jean-Claude invited Chelsie and I to Tsevie, the village where I spent my first 3 months in Togo, living with a host family (surname Afatchao), learning French and learning about Togo from Peace Corps. Jean-Claude's son and girlfriend live in Tsevie with the girlfriend's family while Jean-Claude works in Adjengre about a 4 hour taxi ride from Tsevie. Tsevie is only 45 minutes from Lome. So Chelsie and I went up to Tsevie for this small party that he had for us. It wasn't really a party, a party here in Togo means drinking alcohol and eating some food with meat as meat is expensive here. We ate Jen-kumé (sp?) which translates to Pâte Rouge in French which translates to Red Pasta in English, which actually isn't pasta at all it is more like a paste, normally made with corn flour. But, what makes Pâte Rouge different from the normal Pâte is that the corn flour is fried first with tomatoes and then after you add the hot water. In normal Pâte one just adds hot water to the corn flour. So we ate Pâte Rouge, chicken and drank sodabi. It was a real Togolese fête (party). Earlier, last week, he gave me a traditional Togolese, I guess you could call it a suit. My friends and family will see it...it is hard to explain but it is woven cloth and almost like a big pancho with pants. It is what village chiefs wear, but is acceptable at really fancy occasions here in Togo.
After the party, I rushed from Tsevie back to Lome because of the presentation of the mosquito net evaluation project that I was going to do to the Minister of Health himself and other heads of state. The meeting was moved forward to Monday instead of having it on Thursday, later on in the week. That was pretty nerve-wracking, as I just heard about it that Monday, yesterday. So once I got back from Tsevie I quickly created a presentation in French and practiced a little. (I was planning on working on the presentation for a few days before the date we would present it) At 4pm myself, Liz and Ismael, the Peace Corps health apcd (Associate Peace Corps Director - the head of the health volunteers in Togo) went to the meeting and it turned out that we didn't present the evaluation. Instead it was a press conference for the minister of health. However, we were on TV as there were a ton of cameras in the room and the Minister of Health thanked us personally for all our hard work on the project and really just heaped praises on us so that was nice. The press-conference was for the new initiative that the ministry of health is implementing which is free testing and treatment of malaria no matter what your age forever. This is just amazing...this kind of stuff never happens and especially forever it is hard to believe. I hope it works. It will be funded by the Global Fund. The reason why they moved the "meeting" was that Thursday women in Togo are going on a sex-strike. Which means that women all around Togo will refuse to have sex with their husbands or boyfriends until certain things change in the country. I'm not sure exactly what it is for but I've heard from other PCVs that this has been done in other African countries and has achieved some success. We will see what happens!
Finally, my host brother Arsene Afatchao, who was part of my host family in Tsevie and who now lives in Lome just had a baby boy a few days ago! I will be celebrating with him soon. I bought cheap "champagne" (sparkling white wine) so it will be a party! I doubt he has ever tasted any kind of champagne because even though it is cheap ($8) for us it is really, really expensive for people here in Togo...and for me actually with a salary of $290 a month so I hope he'll enjoy it. I know he will. Ok well that's it. I'll post again once I am no longer a volunteer...so strange.
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