3 months!

I have officially been in Tchamba 3 months now, woo! That is a pretty big landmark. So to recap what I have been doing since my last blog post:

December:

I spent most of this month trying to figure out what was going on half the time.  Lucky for me I came in with some French….except not exactly West African French.  It took me some time to get used to some phrases like “Et les gens de la?” literally meaning “And the people of there?” I get asked this anytime I go anywhere that is not Tchamba.  Or “Tu es la?” meaning “Are you there?” when someone is looking right at me.  Or asking a specific question and getting the answer “c’est….les choses quoi”, or “it’s…the things what.”

I live in a primarily Muslim town, however, so Noel was not quite celebrated in my community.  But luckily, my girl Ellen came down for Christmas and I spent the day learning how to kill and defeather a chicken.  Then we made chicken tacos! With Rice and beans, taco seasoning and velveeta (the last two were definitely sent from America).  We spent the night eating and drinking wine with Nahid and my neighbor Salim, who was the one who gifted me the live chicken.

January:

New Years also isn’t exactly celebrated here in Tchamba because we are a Muslim community and it’s not technically their new year.  But, we had a huge fete regardless because General Tikipina came to town.   The general is from Tchamba, so our city put on a daylong party for him which included various speakers, horses, dancing, and food!  General Tikipina even gave a shout out to Peace Corps in his thank you speech, which was pretty awesome.

I also went down to Lome for a bit to take care of some business and to see Justin back from his trip to America.  We explored Lome and took in some ‘Al Donalds’ and ‘KFG’, both surprisingly delicious.

After my trip, I came home and got the cutest kitten in the world, who I named Potato.  My neighbor had kittens so I decided to buy one.  I paid 1005 CFA.  A pretty bizarre amount because no one usually has 5 CFA.  I asked if I could just give 1025 CFA, but they insisted I give the 5 CFA piece otherwise my cat might run away.

I had training at the end of January where all the GEE volunteers from my group got together for a week and learned about new possible projects we could work on.  All the topics were super interesting; I learned how to make tofu and soy milk, so cool. Plus, it was a lot of fun to see everyone all together again since I hadn’t seen most of them for 2 months.

AND the most exciting news of all, Nahid and I started a radio show in Tchamba! It’s every Saturday evening.  We pick themes that relate to girls education or health.  We started by introducing ourselves and Peace Corps and what our program goals are.  Then we’ve moved on to topics like self confidence, behavior change, HIV/AIDS, and correct condom use.  This week we are going to be bringing in the local doctor for an interview, and hopefully in the future we’ll bring in some “femme modele”, model women in the community to interview.

February:

This was a hectic month for sure.  There were a few volunteers who were planning on going up to Burkina Faso for FESPACO, the pan-african film festival that happens only once every two years.  So I got my visa for Burkina Faso, which was a pretty good debacle.  To get a visa into Burkina Faso, it’s 90,000 CFA, about $180. Or, you could get a 5 country tourist visa which gets you into Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Cote D’Ivoire, and Niger for 25,000 CFA, or $50. This 5 country visa isn’t exactly publicized very well, nor does it really say on the visa that it’s for 5 countries, but after a few stressful days, I got it and it ended up working.

So, at the end of February, I made my way up country and into Burkina Faso.  FESPACO, held in BF’s capital, Ouagadougou, was so much fun.  There were films from all over Africa, a few from France and a few from USA.  The films were mostly in French, or in local language with French subtitles.  Ouaga is also just a pretty awesome city to take in, especially if you’ve been living in Togo for a while.  We went swimming, ate burritos, spaghetti bolognaise, cheeseburgers and fries, and found a wine and cheese restaurant. 

At FESPACO HQs

Justin and me at a fancy pants restaurant.

Us with our badges!

On our way home, after our car exploded in the middle of nowhere.

And now I am home, hanging out with my cat, nursing some amoebas, and watching some Frasier.  Despite all the fun things in Burkina, I am really in love with Togo, especially Tchamba.

Work:

So in terms of what I’ve been doing in my day to day activities…

·         Tuesday and Thursday mornings I go to our hospital’s baby weighing and vaccinations.  I usually help update the vaccination records and will sometimes stand in front with the doctors to provide the anecdotal “My name is Cherifa” in local language to all the mothers who come.  Once in a while the doctors ask me and Nahid to do a causerie.  Since Nahid is the health volunteer, I usually hold the posters up and smile as she talks about what to feed your babies after six months.

·         Wednesdays I go to the Science Club at the high school. Every week I’ll translate two experiments out of a science book to give to the teacher, and he usually runs with it.  Half the club is made up of girls, which is amazing considering the low enrollment numbers for girls.

·         Wednesdays I also have an English Club for the high school kids.  The kids have to take and pass the BAC in order to successfully complete high school.  There is an English portion on the exam, which even I think is hard.  So, I go to the school with a BAC study guide and will work through examples with them.

·         Saturdays I meet up with the high school girl’s soccer team.  Each week a new girl will volunteer to come to my house at some point within the week and we’ll pick a theme to do a 10-15 minute presentation on after their practice.

·         After the girl’s soccer team, I make my way over to the English Club.  I offer it on Satuday mornings too in case Wednesday didn’t work for some of the students.

·         Saturday evening I have my radio show.  During the afternoon, I’ll usually meet with the high school kid that helps us out with the show.  We pick out the theme and write up the script.  Then he introduces the music and the theme and asks me and Nahid questions related to the theme.

·         An ongoing project is planning Camp Informatique with Katy K.  Camp Informatique is a summer camp for the top boy and top girl in seconde (like a sophomore) in their high school in the Centrale region.  They get the chance to work on computers (computers are a scarce here) and to learn how to actually work one.

·         And! I’m one of the new editors for Leve-Toi Jeune Fille, a magazine that compiles articles written by students, volunteers, and Togolese professionals all related to a certain theme.  It’s so awesome because it’s written entirely in French, which gives Togolese something to read (which there is none of here).  There are 4 editions a year; the upcoming one’s theme is Girls in Science.

…And that has been the last three months, in a nutshell.

And obligatory cute cat pics:

Justin and Potato Cakes after a bath

Me and Sweet Potato!

....Potato with Potatoes...

im here!

HEY! So it’s pretty obvs I haven’t written in…ever. But internet here isn’t the easiest thing to find, and when I do find it, I get pretty distracted. So Il try to sum up what I have been up to the past 2 months, sans pics, but ill edit them in soon enough.

I had staging in Philadelphia where I met everyone who I was going to be spending the next 2 months with in stage (training). There are two groups of us, Girls Empowerment and Education (GEE—me!) and Natural Resource Management (NRM). We all flew out of Philly together, then had our layover in France, then headed off to Lome, Togo.
After we landed in Lome, we spent a few days there just getting acclimated and going to different medical meetings. Then, we were off to our perspective cities to do our training. GEE and NRM were in different cities for training, but only about 5K away. So, during training, we each stayed with a different host family. Turns out, mine ruled so much (and in my opinion was the best family…just saying).

My Papa is an anesthesiologist whose life motto is ‘Vouloir C’est Pouvoir’, meaning, where there’s a will there’s a way. I got a pretty good philosophic discussion every now and then from him. My Mama always sat down with me and talked to me about Mama things, like the importance of getting a good job before settling down to get married. She also made popsicles, so everyday was a good day while living with my host family. My host brother, Koffi, was visiting from Cote d’Ivoire. He ruled and would cook me meals because I would tease him about letting all the girls do all the work. He made the best peanut sauce I’ve had yet. Yawa, my host sister, but not really because she was an apprentice living with us, was super sassy and would tease me all the time. But of course we were best girlfriends. Holla (not at all sure if that’s how you spell her name) also lived with me. She was the nicest person ever, and would always stop whatever she was doing to help me with something. That actually worked out pretty well, I learned how to wash laundry by hand super efficiently with her. Francis is 12 and went to school everyday, so I didn’t see him too much but he loooved playing uno and connect four with me and Koffi.


So, for two months I had training Monday through Saturday, from 7:30-5:00, with a lunch break from 12-2:30. Luckily, Saturdays were half days. I got a lot of good naps in during the time. During training we took French class or local language class every day, technical training (things about GEE and doing GEE projects), or bike repair class. Bike repair class RULED so much. We learned how to fix anything and everything with our sweet Trek mountain bikes Peace Corps issued us.

After training, we were offish sworn in as volunteers on November 18th in Lome at the Ambassador’s house. So, now I’m at my post. I’m east in the Centrale region. It’s pretty perfect here, I absolutely love my village. It’s gorgeous and I live close to a cashew factory (!). My village is predominately Muslim, so there are mosques everywhere, including right next to my house. My house rules beyond belief. First of all, it’s huge with running water and electricity (what!-this isn’t normal). I have a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bathroom with an overhead shower (!) and a western toilet (!)…before moving here I was using a latrine and bucket showering. I’m replacing another volunteer who went back to the US so it came furnished. Now all I’m going to do is touch up, like paint and reupholster the couch. I’ll take pictures when 1) I remember to and 2) when the house is repainted.
Typically, I wake up at about 6:30 or 7. If I don’t get woken up by the call to prayer, the rooster outside my bedroom window does a pretty good job of it. Then I debate on whether I should take a shower, but I usually veto that since its pretty cold in the mornings (and by that I mean like 75 degrees). Then I hop on my bike and ride to the ladies down the street that sell watchi, rice and beans boiled together. I sit there for a while, eating breakfast and trying to explain to people stopping by that my local name is Cherifa, not anasara (white). Then, I’ll either head to hospital where I’ve been tagging along with my site mate, Nahid, in helping fill the vaccination forms out for all the bebes getting their shots that day, or I head to the high school where I’ll sit in on an English class or help out with the Science club. Nahid is a health volunteer, and she’s been in village since August. Every other Wednesday, Nahid has a health club at one of the middle schools, so I’ll go over there and help out.

I’m about to start a few other projects like an English club to help the high school students study for the BAC, the test they have to take to get their diploma and go to university. Next week I’ll be starting a club for apprentices to discuss subjects like life skills, sex education, planning for the future, etc. Also, there is already a girls club at one the middle schools run by women in the community, so I’ll be tagging along and trying to help them out in any way with the resources I have. And when I get a more concrete schedule, I hope to start working more the Red Cross, especially with the mother’s clubs.
Somewhere along the day, I eat lunch. I typically go out to eat for lunch. My choices include spaghetti with an omelet on top (surprisingly delicious), an egg sandwich, or a salad, which is noodles with a few pieces of lettuce, some tomatoes, onions, and lots of mayonnaise. That’s not all I can choose from, but just what I generally eat since I’m not too sick of it yet.

If I have nothing to do in the mornings or afternoons, I’ll ride my bike around town and say hi to people that I recognize. Usually I hop from boutique to boutique, order a soda and sit and talk to whoever owns the store. I actually really enjoy doing that and look forward to it every day.


At night, if I don’t come home too late, my neighbor will swing by to check on me and we’ll chat for a while. Otherwise, I come home, make some dinner, read or watch something on my computer, then go to bed around 9:30. My dinner though is pretty abysmal, usually either pasta with tomato sauce or peanut sauce or a sandwich of laughing cow cheese and cut up tomatoes and some oregano…I had to bring the oregano from the states though.

All in all, I am completely in love with my life here. Togo is absolutely beautiful, and people are unbelievably nice and welcoming. Plus I’m totally safe here--y’all really don’t have to tell me to be safe . There are people all around me that are willing to help me out in any way in a moments notice; even strangers in taxis usually keep a pretty good eye out for me.
OK miss everyone beaucoup beaucoup. I hope everyone is doing well! Feel free to write me letters (notice the address change to the right), I promise I’ll write back. Besides, I’m probably better at writing letters than updating blogs, I think.

Philadelphia

I went a few days early to staging to hang out with my mom, Curtis, Liz, and Moose.

We went to Amish country and ate an Amish feast:

We spent a day in NYC and ate at Kat'z Delicatessen (where When Harry Met Sally was filmed--my fave movie)

We also spent some time doing some taste tasting for Pat's and Geno's cheese steaks (Pat's FTW!)

And of course, I hung out with Moose.

Yesterday marked the first day in the Peace Corps.  I went to staging where we spent the day in a conference room, talking about what is to come. Today we woke up super early to go get our yellow fever shots.  I already got mine when I went to Bolivia, so I just walked over to eat an egg and cheese sandwich in a federal cafeteria (woah).

We leave the hotel today for our flight this evening.  I'm pretty pumped.

So it's really happening

Here is the start of my packing.  Pretty daunting. My most exciting items are my solar powered/crank powered/battery powered shortwave radio, head lamp, and travel connect 4.


I'm leaving this Saturday for Philly, 1 week before orientation.  My brother lives in Philly, so that's pretty convenient.  I'm kind of freaking out now about leaving. When I first started the application process (which took 1 year!), 2 years didn't seem that long.  Now that I'm packing and saying good-byes, 2 years seems like forever :(

Things I'm looking forward to:
1. Living in Africa!
What! That's kind of crazy, admit it.

2. Working in Girls Education and Empowerment.
If it's anything like GENaustin, I know I'm going to be really happy. There are already a ton of projects already started in the GEE program, so I'm ready to jump on any of them, or start my own.

3. Meeting about a bajillion interesting people.
Judging from the few I've become facebook acquaintances with, it looks like we're coming from all over the place, with all sorts of majors. Some of the best people I've met were while studying abroad.  So here's to the 30 or so people I'll be spending the next 2 years.

4. Speaking French.
So, J'adore french, beaucoup. I've missed being in France and speaking it tout les temps.  Now's my chance to relearn it and speak it toujour. 

5. Being part of a small-ish community.
Well, this is just an assumption at this point.  I won't know exactly where I am going until my 3 months of training is up, but either way, I'm totally pumped to find out where I'm going. 


Things I'm Totes Nervous About:
1. Being bit by a snake.
Ok, so I'm bringing rain boots.  Yes, there is a rainy season in Togo, but I'm bringing them more for the fact that I don't want a snake to bite my ankles.

2. Finding out I'm just crazy.
Why am I leaving my 100% comfortable life for this again? Oh that's right, to challenge myself and to help out in any way possible. But still, I have a really comfortable bed at home, all sorts of yummy foods at my fingertips, a super loving family, and some really great friends. Regardless if I realize I'm crazy or not, I'm gonna be sticking to this.

3. Missing people way too much.
I'm really in love with so many people here in Texas. It's going to be really hard.

Things I'm Pretty Sure I'm Going to Miss:
1. Casey Jones
My best bud for over 5 years and the only person who knows me 110%. It's going to be rough without him.

2. Cheeseburgers/Pizza/Beer
My staple diet here in the USA. I don't think I'll be getting very much of these items the next 2 years.

3. ATX
Austin, Texas! I super love this city! There are so many things to do at any given moment; so many places that serve really good cheeseburgers/pizza/beer.  I'm going to miss going to concerts all the time, hanging out at Crown and Anchor, eating at Austin's Pizza, seeing really pretty views of the capitol, and going to UT (ok, that ended anyways, but still).

4. Swimming
I'm not a runner, at all.  In fact, I'm pretty terrible at it. I'm pretty sure there are not going to be any indoor lap pools where I'm going.  Time for me to learn how to run.

5. Ice Water
That's pretty self-explanatory.

Orientation starts on the 16th in Philly.  At orientation I'm going to get a ton of shots and attend meetings. Then I fly to Lome (capitol of Togo), with a layover in Paris (wahoo, too bad its only for like 5 hours). I'll keep this blogging thing up, hopefully!

It's offish, I'm off!

Bonjour tout le monde!

I have officially received my invitation to serve in the Peace Corps.  I will leave on September 16th for Philadelphia for a two day orientation.  On September 18th, I'll leave for TOGO!

Once in Togo, I'll have 3 months of training before I'm off to the location where I'll live for the next 24 months. I am assigned to the Girls' Education and Empowerment (GEE) program and I'll be working as a Girls' Education Extension Agent.

Other than that, I'm kind of up in the air about details still.  I am now in the process of applying for my visa and passport, packing up everything I don't think I can live without for the next 2 years, eating as many tex-mex meals possible,  trying to find enough concentration and time to study to take the GRE before I leave, and coming to terms with all the things I'm totes going to miss (primarily all the wonderful people in my life).

Until next time!

P.S. Pardon my Togo to-go pun....you know me and puns :) Also if you google image search Togo, you'd be surprised how many fast food to-go pictures that pop up.