Small Blessings
- Don’t forget new photos are up
- “Empowering Young Women to Initiate Change” was a training I found online at the YWCA that I did over the course of 4 days in June at the collège with all the girls in 4eme (9th grade?). There were 42 girls, although we lost about half of those by the fourth day, due to conflicts in the school schedule and also to the increasingly ambivalent attitude of both students and teachers towards attendance (all exams are done a month before school is officially over, so kids don’t have any motivation to come to school cause it’s their exam grades that count, so most villages treat it as unofficial vacation time and even expect the kids not to attend school). The themes were : HIV/AIDS, Economic Justice, Human Rights, and Sexual/Reproductive Health. By the end of the second day I changed stuff around according to the girls’ interests and abilities, so we ended up doing activities on HIV/AIDs; learned how to make banana fritters to sell as an income generating activity; learned how to do a feasibility study and budget money; and lots of reproductive health. And for some reason I’m drawing a blank on what I did the third day but that’s ok . Anyway, it didn’t go too badly, and I loved the reproductive health day – it was the ONLY time the girls took notes , they were fascinated, although they were too shy to ask questions, unfortunately. It was great to finally just to something only with the girls and to see how they appreciate that. It also helped me get over a little bit of the discouraged slump I’ve been going through. Some of the male students at the collège are also asking for a training of their own , but I’m worried about fitting it in because I’m busy with Camp Espoir and also because of the aforementioned attendance problems I don’t really feel like preparing a training and then have no one show up. So I’ll think about it and decide this week. School officially ends on July 17, so there are 2 weeks left.
- My birthday fete was great! We had it on the 24th so that all the school exams were over so that everyone could participate. We had rice and wagash (fresh real cheese… it’s sort of like mozzarella?) in a yummy tomato sauce. I played togolese music on my ipod with speakers and Justine presented me with a pagne skirt for a present and a birthday card!
- * AKOU PASSED HER CEPD EXAM !! This means she will continue on to collège next year as a 6eme student, and that no matter what happens in her life, she has an actual diploma to justify her eduction. As you know, I love both Akou and Adjo, in different ways due to their age differences; but Akou and I have a special bond (probably due to her age – looking for a big sister substitute?) and so when I heard that she had succeeded I was overwhelmed with pride and joy. It was Michel who came to my house and told me that both Akou and his little sisters had passed; Michel has put even more effort than I have into tutoring this group of little girls. He told me first; but when I saw Akou the next day I pretended not to know. She kept looking at me out of the corner of her eye and couldn’t contain herself. When at last I asked her, she tried to give the customary, Togolese response of nonchalance, “Oh ca va….” (meaning yes) but couldn’t quite pull it off: a big grin spread across her face and she hooked her arm through mine as she said it and instantly leaned in for the embraces she knew I would shower her with. Now she has begun to insist on that fieldtrip to Lomé (she’s never been) that I promised her as a treat this summer; hopefully we’ll go sometime next week, just her and I, to the beach and the grand marché and the Peace Corps bureau and buy ice cream and talk about how she should keep on going, right on through lycée …. Her older sister, Viale and Justine’s younger sister who attends high school in Lome, just passed her BAC I exam too, so she only has one more year/exam to pass (the BAC II). I am still waiting on the BAC II for Michel and Emmanuel, they should be hearing really soon, and I have a huge ball of dread in my stomach due to the realities of the education system and corruption and just life in general here; that chances are they have not passed, and I am not sure if they will accept to repeat another year again ….
- On another positive note, the day after I found out about Akou, I found out that KOKOUTSE PASSED THE BEPC which means he has finished collège and will enter lycee in Vogan next year!!! Again, I was so excited and felt like hugging the entire village. I bought him and his best friend Coca Colas at one of the buvettes in village. The BEPC is a major stumbling block in rural Togo, and many kids after they fail it will not return to school because they can’t be bothered to repeat 3eme again just to take the national exam. But the BEPC is the key to continuing lycee and to getting the BAC II (another near-impossible feat) and without BAC II it is hard to find any sort of “real” work (not that the jobs are there anyway, but that’s another conversation…) Anyway, the week that I found out that so far three people in Justine’s family have passed their exams was an extremely happy week for me. Like I said, hopefully we’ll hear about michel and emmanuel’s results soon ! (Although I’m scared.)
- The night of my birthday fete I had to take a bush taxi from hell to get back to village, …. Long story but it involved the rains, 35 ppl in a 15-place vehicle, flooded roads, breaking down, etc etc… Not the point right now. As we were entering the taxi, I slid over next to the gear stick next to the driver; I’m used to sitting this way with slanted legs and turned body. Michel said: “Anna, no. Get out. I’ll sit there.” At first I thought he was just being mildly chivalrous – sitting closer to the window is more coveted and I thought he was assuming that I would be mad at my seat placement. I started to assure him that no, I was used to sitting like this. Michel shook his head. “No – you’ll have to squeeze even more. They want to put three people there. Let me sit first.” So now because we were so squeezed in , Michel was obligated to practically sit on the driver’s lap, straddling the stick gear and permitting the driver to reach over and down every time he switched gears. It’s actually not that uncommon for bad drivers to put someone in this position, which Ive blatently refused before, and only had to actually do once (which was with a driver that I knew from village and who was obviously so terrified that he would be accused of molesting the white gear that he used the bare mimimum of movements needed to shift gears), but I have never, ever seen anyone (up till now) voluntarily offer to sit in this position, much less take note of the fact that it is ultimately more humiliating for a woman to deal with this, and refuse to let her suffer through it .
- It’s 730 at night. Simon has called me to see why I’m not back in village yet, as I was expected to return from Pagala this evening. I explain that the car did not arrive at Lome until past 6 o’clock, ,which would have obligated me to take a moto to village around 8pm , well into darkness, something I wasn’t willing to risk considered how much it’s been raining and that even in daylight it’s a little terrifying to have the moto be surrounded by so much water that it covers my toes. His voice is still weak from the malaria that’s been troubling him all this week, but I can tell he’s frowning. “If only I was in better health,” he says, “I would tell you to just get a car anyway and I would come myself to pick you up on the road.” About to say goodbye, he adds, “Tomorrow when you’re coming back you should call us and maybe I’ll send Justine’s brother with my moto to pick you up from Hahotoe.” “I don’t understand , why can’t I just take a zemijan like I normally do?” “Because that’s more money for you to spend.” Let me get this straight – I’m the white American who can afford to spend the night in Lome and Simon wants to not only make sure I get driven by someone I know/trust, and to get back to village as soon as possible, but to save me money? Driving the motorcycle in the dark is no easy feat even for experts, and yet here he is voluntarily having the idea that he could come to Hahotoe to pick me up, as opposed to me just paying the moto taxis who are already there.
Posted by togolesejourney 
Posted by togolesejourney 
