Um, would someone want to do research in solar chargers for laptops and then email me their findings as to reviews, prices, etc? 

I posted more pictures, of the Thanksgiving fete (including me as the turkey for our skit) and of my house in my village!   These pictures are obviously backdated, but I didn’t have any of the newer photos (since swear-in) on my laptop.

Also, I might not have said this, but I do love reading everyone’s letters, comments on my blog, emails, etc.  Thank you so much everyone!  

Merry Christmas / Happy Boxing Day / Happy New Year!

quick blog post

____

Dec 17—
I came into Vogan by myself to charge some things, use the internet, etc.  I hope the internet is working.  I also picked up my mail.
There was a lot!  6 envelopes from Sophia, a letter from Carrie, two letters from Lizzy!  I haven’t read them yet (I like to savor) but thanks guys!!! VERY exciting!!!

Here is a backlog of some journal entries:

Dec 10, 2007

I played soccer with the little kids in the neighborhood, who are always ready to look for an excuse to come into my compound.  I was about to complain that wearing flipflops made kicking the ball difficult – then I noticed  they didn’t have any shoes, so I bit my tongue. Whoops.

I ate dinner with Justine and Simon and continued to press them with questions.  For example, in Agou I was used to coming home before dark, eating dinner, and going to bed.  But in Sevagan, people seemed to stay up much later and get out of bed later in the morning.
Justine herself was constantly leaving at night to fetch water, buy groceries, etc.  They kept on trying to explain that there was a market at night, but I couldn’t imagine it.  So when we were done eating, Justine took me to see.  (This is the largish market every Monday and Thursday night, but apparently every night there are some
vendors.)

The market isn’t far from my house, and soon we saw the lights of candles and shadows of market goers.  I found myself inexplicably thinking of something out of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.  The market was lit only by candles and flickering oil wicks and rows of women sat in front of their baskets selling tomatoes and soap and matches and bread and beignets…  It was as if the tired empty market place through which I pass during the daylight had come to life.  (And I was happy to be greeting so many new people and seen & be seen in this clearly important community event.  I was also pleased to realize I can get some many basics in my village – street food, soap, matches, candles, nails, even some plasticware, flipflops, canned tomatoes, oranges, etc., so I’m not completely isolated…)

Dec 11, 2007

What Do You Say When Someone Wants to Wah Your Porch?

This morning I was in the middle of making breakfast, when a member of the CVD came by to greet me.  (Greeting is very important in Togolese
culture.)  Excellent, although small minor detail, she didn’t speak
French.   I was excited that I could follow proper protocol, however.
I brought out two chairs and tried to explain through hand motions that I couldn’t offer her water because I was in the middle of doing my dishes.  She looked at my soapy piles and set about rinsing them.
Not exactly what I had been suggesting when I pointed to the pile.
When the dishes were rinsed, I gave her water in my good silver “for guests” gobelet as we sat silently looking at each other.  I fetched my Ewe notebook and tried out some phrases, basically My Name Is… and Where Do You Work?  Eventually, my visitor looked at my veranda and told me through mimes that I should clean it.  I told her I would sweep it after she left.  “No,” she replied, “with water.”  I looked at the dusty yard and my dusty porch and wondered why I should mop it when a) dust seemed a part of Togo and b) water is  a precious resource.  She then proceeded to generously sprinkle my entire terrace with powdered soap, and splashed water on it, and began to scrub it with my broom.  (Brooms are bundles of stalks tied together, and you sweep by bending paralleling to the ground and shuffling along.)  And I mean scrub, not just “sweep.”  She did this meticulously not once but twice, until my entire terrace was amass with suds.  By this time I was helping, although she would just redo any areas that I worked on.  She then repeated the process with clear water to rinse.  (At this point I’m eyeing my quickly depleting water supply and wondered how I’m going to shower tonight.)  I never thought a porch made out of cement could sparkle but mine was pretty close.  She then proceeded to DRY the porch with a rag, somewhat like polishing a wood floor, except my porch is cement and the water was almost gone anyway due to evaporation the heat.  She then nodded in satisfaction, peed in my neighbor’s yard, said goodbye, and then left, leaving behind one
vaguely stunned Peace Corps Volunteer and one immaculate terrace.   So
lesson #121 learned:  Keep your porch clean so your visitors can rest and not perform manual labor for you.

—Dec. 17—

Well, here I am in Vogan.  I’m typing this at another PCV’s house who is awesome enough to let me use her electricity.  Then we’re going to
go to the internet café, which hopefully is open.   I’ve been at post
eight days.  During this time, I’m concentrating on baby steps.  I sewed myself a pillow case, put together my bed which I bought on Friday (except, I forgot to tighten the screws, but the mattress was such a pain to settle in that I don’t want to take it out of the frame to tighten the screws, so I’m just going to hope that physics keeps the bed together), I made couscous and tomato sauce, but as my kitchen isn’t really set up I eat a lot at other people’s houses, I put up a clothes line, I bought some “tabourets” (little benches) and little tables, and eventually I will put the rest of my house together.

That’s all for now.  As you can see, I am within a not-too-shabby trip to a relatively quick internet cafe and other amenties so hopefully
within a couple weeks I will have a routine down.   I will update
again but I’m not sure whether it will be before or after Christmas, so Merry Christmas Everyone!

Sworn In!

Can someone please send me an ethernet cord?

First of all I would just like to clarify, people:  “Moto privileges” means that I can take a moto from my village to two different towns in the area.  It does not mean that I can drive a moto myself.  So never fear, the Togolese are safe.   I have suggested to the safety & security coordinator that it would also be a good idea for me to wear my moto helmet while using my bike, although I would look like Darth Vader with wheels.

 Also — this is an exciting announcement — I have posted a link to my photos!  I am in the middle of uploading as many as possible.  I’m not sure if I will get all of them up, but check it out!  My Photos The link is also posted on the menu to the right.   There are A LOT.  So, don’t try to look at them all at once.   But I hope you guys enjoy them and maybe things on my blog will make more sense now.  There are a couple videos that I want to upload eventually but I’ll save that for the next time I’m in Lome.

So… Swearin-In was December 7th!  I was a wreck during the day… but the nighttime turned out to be fun and we felt so happy to hear the Ambassador saying “Congratulations, you are now Peace Corps Volunteers.”  Anyway, the swearing-in ceremony was at the Ambassador’s house.  Our host families came too.  So did the media! Another PCV saw me on TV the next day! I made my long Ewe speech and my legs were shaking so much but everyone said I did a good job.  Kassie took a great video and like I said, maybe sometime next month (ha, that will be 2008!) I can post it.   Afterwards we had yummy refreshments.  We went back to the hostel to change and then went out for a little bit.  Kassie and I split a brick oven pizza and a creme brulee — yes, we got yovo food to celebrate.    The next day was administrative stuff and then free time for shopping, same with today (Saturday).   We got our first taste of the grand marche of Lome, which is quite an experience — picture Italian markets with super aggressive and random people.   However, I thought about Sophia a lot because I saw the most beautiful shoes and jewelry, prettier than Italian market shoes.  COS spending spree in two years, anyone?  Also, Ian and I used Skype and talked for an hour! I am coming back here tonight too to talk to him again, hopefully.

That’s all for now.  I leave for post tomorrow, with a lot of stuff that I bought with my settling in allowance.  Today was mattress shopping, and I’ll order my furniture next week in Vogan.    I’ll be at post from Sunday on, where I can set up my house, figure out my job for the next two years, and catch up on letter writing, now that I can finally afford to buy stamps.  I am sure I’ll get to the internet at least as consistently as I did during stage, so hopefully I’ll be able to send out Christmas greetings.   If not — Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  

another update

Notable Quotes:

 

[overheard in a bush taxi]

Fabiola: “Where do you think that crack in the windshield came from?”

Anna: “Eh, probably just a normal accident like a goat falling off the back of a moto.”

*

[at the tech house]

Kassie: “I saw five sheep on top of a bush taxi today.”

-silence-

Kassie: “Five! Sheep! Are you listening to me?”

*

Me: “My mom sent me an Advent calendar! It’s the first new one I’ve gotten since I was little – we always reused ours.”

 

~*~*~

 

Dec 5

 

Well here we are in Lomé the night before swearing-in.  We have three days of administrative paperwork, shopping for our houses, fast internet, and the like.   I wasted four hours of these days trying to upload photos but didn’t finish, but I’m hoping that soon I’ll be able to post a link to the past three months’ photos.   Yes, there’s a lot. 

 

We were in Lomé exactly a week ago, for the 45^th anniversary “gala”.  Peace Corps in Togo is one of the longest uninterrupted terms of service.   The deputy director of Peace Corps (from Washington DC) came over for the celebration, as did other notables.  The stagiaires were excited we got to come too.   There were speeches by important people and testimonies from people from each decade of service – RPCVs or Togolese who had been influenced by PCs.  It was pretty neat.  Then there was a live band and dancing.   My Togolese host family is convinced that the sores on my legs, which are really infected bug bites (I think…), are from dancing too much in Lomé.   J   Then it was back to Agou to wind down training, take our final language tests (I scored Advanced Mid, although I’m not sure how that’s possible since I couldn’t talk in my village), and practice our speeches.    (Oh and we also took part in World AIDS Day on Dec 1^st.)

 

I was going to type out my Ewe speech, but I printed it off another computer and it took a ridiculous amount of time to do so because of the special characters.    So here it is but without the accents and stuff (Ewe has a couple additional letters along with the Latin ones).

 

Fie na mi loo! Miafemetowo ? Deviwo ? Nyitso be do ? Miawoe zo loo!

Nyonye enye Anna.  Metso Pittsburgh le Pennsylvania.  Ma no Sevagan.

Medibe ma fonu tsu fomenyenye nuti.  Le Amerika la, gomesese de le miasi tso fomenyenye nuti.   Esiata evemi esi mie dzo le miafe fomewo gbo le Amerika, elabe mie susu be mie ble.  Ke esi mie va Togo la, amewo va fo xla mi eye mie kpoedzesii be mie le fomeme.

Miafe fome gbato nye amesiwo pede mianuti esi mie va do Lome.  Evelia nye miefe fomewo le Kumawu kple Nyogbo, esiwozu miatowo kple mianowo.   Etolia, nusrolawo siwo zu xolowo.  Enelia, miafe nufialawo.  Atolia, du vovovo siwo me mia no awodo.

Fifia, Togo kata zu miafe fome. Togo nye duade si wo na amedzro nuto.  Le fome ga sia me, mokpokpo le miasi be miawo do asi le asime elabe lododoade gblo be:

“Novitikplo me nena O.”

Aza bokoo na mi loo! Akpekaka!

 

Here is the rough translation.  I wrote in French originally and then my teacher translated it into Ewe, so the English might be a little rough:

 

Good evening! How’re your family members?  Your children?   The work of yesterday? [*These are the traditional greetings you say every time you see someone.] Welcome!

Today I’m going to talk about the definition of family.  In the USA, we have a very different definition of family than in Togo.   When we first arrived in Togo, we thought that we had left our families behind, and that we would have to be alone , and scared, and nervous, in Togo.

But arriving in Togo, we’ve found that family can mean many different things.  We’ve found ourselves amongst many different families here.   Firstly, there was everyone in Lomé who helped us out when we first arrived.  Secondly, our host families in Agou and the community members, who surrounded us and became our papas and mamas.   Thirdly, the stagiaires who have supported and encouraged each other.  Fourthly, our dear teachers who taught how to speak and live in Togo.   Fifthly, our host communities where we’re about to go live in for two years to work together.  Finally, Togo itself has become our family.  Togo is a beautiful country with warm and welcoming people.  We have truly felt ourselves “en famille” here, and we will live and work and laugh together, as the proverb says: “Nothing can break family ties.”   Have a great party! Thank you!

 

Yesterday was my last night in Agou.  I’m not sure I  can really describe what it was like.   I wanted to write yesterday but (given my already established packing skills) I was a little pressed for time to finish arranging my bags and stuff.    Anyway, it was pretty draining.  My host family gave me a two page letter , and my mama cried while I read it.  I’m pretty sure my papa cried too.   Then in the morning my papa left for 6am mass and he told me he was going to say goodbye then because he didn’t want to see me walk away.  I said goodbye to my Togolese friends.   So, pretty much what I had to go through three months ago leaving the States—added onto the anxiety of knowing in a few days I will have to go off on my own, to an empty house and a new community, where people aren’t as patient as my teachers or I don’t have family there.   But (when I’m feeling positive) I keep reminding myself that it took me three months to establish my relationship with the community in Agou and that it wasn’t always easy especially in the beginning.   So maybe after three months in Sevagan I’ll have established the same links that I have established in Agou.    But these past couple days have definitely been pretty hard!!

 

I have a big list of things to buy for my house, although I have to budget carefully because I still need to buy a bed and stuff.   So for now I’m just going to get essentials, although shopping in Lomé is proving to be a little overwhelming, hence my decision today to spend it on the Internet.  However tomorrow I will buckle down and get shopping.   Tomorrow we get our motocycle helmets – turns out I have moto privileges (as do, actually, most people in Togo it seems) from my village to Vogan and my village to Anetohoe.   I’m kind of excited to try it, as it’s much more convenient than waiting for a bush taxi to fill up!   Anyway, after that I am going to get some 120l bins/buckets to store water in, some baskets to keep my clothes, hammer and nails, mirror, carving knife – yes, the list continues in no apparent order.   This is going to be chaos.  I also need to hunt down a yovo store so I can buy a pillow.  I’ve been using my travel pillow for the past three months.   Anyway more updating on shopping as  I actually do it.  I actually suggested at dinner tonight: “Can’t I just pay a petit to do my shopping for me?”   (Petits are little kids.  They’re great for carrying messages, running to buy ingredients, or whatnot.  They can also carry fifty pounds on their head.  Ever felt like a ten year old is more competent than you are?)

 

Oh, yesterday we went to the bank to withdraw money.  Since I’m in Maritime, I get the bank that has an ATM card (there are only three towns in Togo which have ATMs, though: Kpalime, Lomé, and Kara), which turned out to be a great blessing because everyone else had to stand in line (and when I say line, this is by Togolese standards, which isn’t exactly the same as what you’re envisioning) and then write themselves a check and it took forever.  

 

 More updates coming tomorrow after swearin..