There is always a crying baby
Rule #1, Rules of Life in Togo. I don't think the children here aren't happy. In fact, I think these should be some of the happiest babies in the world. They spend all day with their mothers and like a million other children that just hang around everywhere. Half the time they just sleep strapped to their mothers' backs, and I've seen these babies sleep through literally everything. I'm talking like beating drums and music playing, while his mother was dancing with him strapped on. But, I don't know why this phenomenon actually exists; maybe because there are so many babies? Regardless, at any given time of the day, wherever you are, you can hear a crying baby. That is, if you can hear anything over the constant music. Thank God for earplugs, or I would never sleep.
Time to catch up; its been a little while since the last time I had internet. So, I moved in with with my host family on the 16th of July. There was a party and everything. We all danced and hung out. I tried to talk to my host mom in French for a good 5 minutes before I thought to ask, "Parlez-vous Francais?" Which, of course, she didn't. That explained why she stared at me like that for so long. I found out she only speaks Ewe, the local language here. We all went home with our families after the party, and I gotta say, my host family is really awesome. In addition to my host mom and dad, there is my host brother, host sister and then 2 cousins who live with my host family. Lucky for me, I have a host brother who has become my translator between French and Ewe.
The next day was the first real day of training, and I spent the day feeling like it was my first day of Kindergarten. My host family walked me to class in the morning, as did everyone else's. We took "first day of school" pictures together, and everyone was all dressed up nice. It was super cute. Then to make me feel even more like a kindergartner, we learned that the Togolese have a certain affinity for "banques" (sp?) which are basically like clapping chants, and proceeded to spend the day learning our fair share of them.
Training so far is going really well, and my French is improving every day. I 'm trying to pick up some Ewe, but it's pretty limited. My host family/village LOVES it when I say anything in Ewe, so I make it a point every time I leave the compound to say "Mayimava kaba kaba,"meaning I'll be back soon. It's a riot for them (as are many other things I try to do). Speaking of entertaining my host fam, a few days back, we had an impromptu dance party going on. It started off with all the CHAP(Health) volunteers going to a bar for a beer and when we got back to our houses, Sarah's host family, who lives in the compound next door to mine, was making foufou for dinner. So, Sarah and I joined in. It was so amazing to them, to see Sarah and I pound foufou; they all laughed and cheered and clapped. This somehow led into Sarah trying to show them all her dance moves, because I went back to my compound for a bit and returned to even louder cheering and everyone standing around watching Sarah. Of course, I joined in, and it was like Sarah and I attempting to dance to Togolese music was the next big thing. Anything we did was amazing; Sarah's host sister kept yelling out "Ruth bien danse!" and "Sarah bien danse!" They were showing us dance moves and telling us to copy them. We got cheered on as we mimicked chickens, waved our arms and stomped around. It was pretty awesome. We had a lot of fun with it.
Other updates:
My days of hotel internet are over. Which is why I haven't been able to post or get back to peoples' emails. I just got an internet key, so I'll be able to get on periodically, although I don't really have electricity. I have a light in my room hooked up to electricity, but no outlet, so I can't charge my computer here. I don't have running water here either, though. What I do have, is gigantic spiders in my room that I'm afraid to kill. I just tuck my mosquito net in a little tighter every night.
I found out where I'm going to be spending the next 2 years! I'm going to a tiny village near Sokode in the Central region. Its just about half way up the country, and it's a majority Muslim village with about 1000-1500 people. I'm replacing another volunteer, who's leaving there now, and after talking to him about my site, everything sounds good. I wont have electricity or running water though, which I had already assumed. I found out a bunch of other stuff about my village, but I'm going there in 3 weeks for a post visit, so I'll be able to better tell you about it after that.
No more cold showers. My host family is so awesome, they warm up water for me every time I take a bath. All is right in the world again.
I feel like taking baths here is something I need to discuss further though. My baths here are the best thing ever. I especially love when I take my shower after the sun sets and I get to look up at the stars. The sky at night is amazing; I would never be able to see stars like this in Kennesaw. Plus, because I take bucket baths, I can take as long as I want in the shower without using up more water, so I can just stare up at the sky for a while. I have never taken so many baths in my life as I have here. And for those of you that know me well, I'm kinda a hippie when it comes to taking showers, so that might not seem like it means much, but it does. I take at least 2 showers a day, sometimes 3. Although, that's due to other factors as well. For one thing, Togo-dirty is not the same as US-dirty. In the states, I could take showers just so often as to not be stinky, but here, you get coated in dirt. All. The. Time. Like, by the time I get back to my room from the shower, I'm already dirty. That's because you have to trudge through sand and dirt everywhere you go including in your own compound. But, I'm getting used it. Also, the Togolese are the cleanest people I have ever seen. They bathe all day. 3-4 baths is the norm here.
Before I came to Togo, I heard that it was hard to find deodorant here because people don't really use it. That was a real mystery to me, knowing that Togo is 2 degrees away from the equator, air-conditioning is rare, and people spend the majority of the day in the sun, doing physical labor. But, it's isn't really common to walk by someone here and be able to smell them (a lot less so than I was expecting), because they bathe so much. It's not just that though; when I say that the Togolese are the cleanest people I have ever seen, I mean it, because I have seen them clean everything, literally, everything. Basically every morning, they get up at the crack of dawn and start washing down everything in their compounds and outside of them, windows, walls, chairs, stools, clotheslines, they even sweep the dirt clean. It's like spring cleaning every morning. And, they wash their clothes like maniacs. I tried to do laundry last weekend(gotta wash clothes in buckets here), and my host mom and host sister pretty much took over, grabbing everything out of my hands. My host sister laughed at my attempts and told me that each item of clothing has to be washed 6 times before it's clean. Pretty sure that's only a rule here.
Anyways, I kinda went off on a tangent about baths and cleaning there, but I don't think there's anything else new really, that I need to talk about. Life is good. Togo is awesome. Bout it. Oh, I did have a dress made here, which I'll have to take a picture of. And, just fyi Cyndy, it's week 3 and I'm still caring about how I look.
Time to catch up; its been a little while since the last time I had internet. So, I moved in with with my host family on the 16th of July. There was a party and everything. We all danced and hung out. I tried to talk to my host mom in French for a good 5 minutes before I thought to ask, "Parlez-vous Francais?" Which, of course, she didn't. That explained why she stared at me like that for so long. I found out she only speaks Ewe, the local language here. We all went home with our families after the party, and I gotta say, my host family is really awesome. In addition to my host mom and dad, there is my host brother, host sister and then 2 cousins who live with my host family. Lucky for me, I have a host brother who has become my translator between French and Ewe.
The next day was the first real day of training, and I spent the day feeling like it was my first day of Kindergarten. My host family walked me to class in the morning, as did everyone else's. We took "first day of school" pictures together, and everyone was all dressed up nice. It was super cute. Then to make me feel even more like a kindergartner, we learned that the Togolese have a certain affinity for "banques" (sp?) which are basically like clapping chants, and proceeded to spend the day learning our fair share of them.
Training so far is going really well, and my French is improving every day. I 'm trying to pick up some Ewe, but it's pretty limited. My host family/village LOVES it when I say anything in Ewe, so I make it a point every time I leave the compound to say "Mayimava kaba kaba,"meaning I'll be back soon. It's a riot for them (as are many other things I try to do). Speaking of entertaining my host fam, a few days back, we had an impromptu dance party going on. It started off with all the CHAP(Health) volunteers going to a bar for a beer and when we got back to our houses, Sarah's host family, who lives in the compound next door to mine, was making foufou for dinner. So, Sarah and I joined in. It was so amazing to them, to see Sarah and I pound foufou; they all laughed and cheered and clapped. This somehow led into Sarah trying to show them all her dance moves, because I went back to my compound for a bit and returned to even louder cheering and everyone standing around watching Sarah. Of course, I joined in, and it was like Sarah and I attempting to dance to Togolese music was the next big thing. Anything we did was amazing; Sarah's host sister kept yelling out "Ruth bien danse!" and "Sarah bien danse!" They were showing us dance moves and telling us to copy them. We got cheered on as we mimicked chickens, waved our arms and stomped around. It was pretty awesome. We had a lot of fun with it.
Other updates:
My days of hotel internet are over. Which is why I haven't been able to post or get back to peoples' emails. I just got an internet key, so I'll be able to get on periodically, although I don't really have electricity. I have a light in my room hooked up to electricity, but no outlet, so I can't charge my computer here. I don't have running water here either, though. What I do have, is gigantic spiders in my room that I'm afraid to kill. I just tuck my mosquito net in a little tighter every night.
I found out where I'm going to be spending the next 2 years! I'm going to a tiny village near Sokode in the Central region. Its just about half way up the country, and it's a majority Muslim village with about 1000-1500 people. I'm replacing another volunteer, who's leaving there now, and after talking to him about my site, everything sounds good. I wont have electricity or running water though, which I had already assumed. I found out a bunch of other stuff about my village, but I'm going there in 3 weeks for a post visit, so I'll be able to better tell you about it after that.
No more cold showers. My host family is so awesome, they warm up water for me every time I take a bath. All is right in the world again.
I feel like taking baths here is something I need to discuss further though. My baths here are the best thing ever. I especially love when I take my shower after the sun sets and I get to look up at the stars. The sky at night is amazing; I would never be able to see stars like this in Kennesaw. Plus, because I take bucket baths, I can take as long as I want in the shower without using up more water, so I can just stare up at the sky for a while. I have never taken so many baths in my life as I have here. And for those of you that know me well, I'm kinda a hippie when it comes to taking showers, so that might not seem like it means much, but it does. I take at least 2 showers a day, sometimes 3. Although, that's due to other factors as well. For one thing, Togo-dirty is not the same as US-dirty. In the states, I could take showers just so often as to not be stinky, but here, you get coated in dirt. All. The. Time. Like, by the time I get back to my room from the shower, I'm already dirty. That's because you have to trudge through sand and dirt everywhere you go including in your own compound. But, I'm getting used it. Also, the Togolese are the cleanest people I have ever seen. They bathe all day. 3-4 baths is the norm here.
Before I came to Togo, I heard that it was hard to find deodorant here because people don't really use it. That was a real mystery to me, knowing that Togo is 2 degrees away from the equator, air-conditioning is rare, and people spend the majority of the day in the sun, doing physical labor. But, it's isn't really common to walk by someone here and be able to smell them (a lot less so than I was expecting), because they bathe so much. It's not just that though; when I say that the Togolese are the cleanest people I have ever seen, I mean it, because I have seen them clean everything, literally, everything. Basically every morning, they get up at the crack of dawn and start washing down everything in their compounds and outside of them, windows, walls, chairs, stools, clotheslines, they even sweep the dirt clean. It's like spring cleaning every morning. And, they wash their clothes like maniacs. I tried to do laundry last weekend(gotta wash clothes in buckets here), and my host mom and host sister pretty much took over, grabbing everything out of my hands. My host sister laughed at my attempts and told me that each item of clothing has to be washed 6 times before it's clean. Pretty sure that's only a rule here.
Anyways, I kinda went off on a tangent about baths and cleaning there, but I don't think there's anything else new really, that I need to talk about. Life is good. Togo is awesome. Bout it. Oh, I did have a dress made here, which I'll have to take a picture of. And, just fyi Cyndy, it's week 3 and I'm still caring about how I look.
First day of training, that's my host mom next to me
For our site revealing, they drew out a huge map of Togo in the dirt and had all of us run to where our site was in county when we found out
All of the Centrale Region group
The day we did baby weighing, Sarah wanted to try on the baby backback
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