Demi-September.

The first few weeks of September have been quite eventful.  My host mom is the secretary for a one of six women’s groups who meet weekly to save money—sort of like a credit union.  She not only took me to her Monday morning meeting but also had my host brother bring a special chair for me to sit on in the middle the group while the rest of the women sit around in the circle on the little wooden stools they carried on their heads.  I felt like a princess as my mom translated everything that was going on into French (as of course they were speaking local language) and I watched as the woman took turns depositing money and repaying loans they had taken out.  More blogs to come on these groupements and the work I hope to do with them.

I spent a good chunk of last week working on my house.  Continuing to unpack random bags from Lorena, dusting off  and arranging furniture.  I had bought paint in Sokode over the weekend and was ready to paint my two rooms but quickly realized primer is a must for cement walls as one wall sucked up almost an entire can of paint.  Sorry Grandma Pat, I let you down.  Later in the week I locked myself out of my house; luckily I had changed out of my pajamas already and had my purse so at the last minute changed my plans for the day (working w/ Aposto) and caught a car to Sokode to retrieve a spare key from Rebekah and ended up  buying more paint.  Such a treat to get to see Bek (unplanned) and she treated us to instant mashed potatoes and brown gravy = AMAZING! Those of you who know me, know I don’t eat many ‘instant things’ –things taste better in Togo I guess.

Wednesday was painting day thanks to my sweet friend, Hortance – my Togolese friend who is a machine! We worked all day to prime and paint both rooms—wow.  Lots of times I would stand back to take in our progress while Hortance just plugged away- more like scrubbing the paint into the wall rather than painting. A lesson in painting and appreciation for Hortance’s can-do attitude and work ethic.

I spent Thursday shadowing one of the woman who works for the NGO in LT.  She is in charge of training and supervising local outreach workers who educate their respective small villages on malaria and TB.  One meeting was at the hospital in LT (more like an empty building with a blue ‘H’ on the outside—they have a few beds and even fewer supplies) and it was that morning that I witnessed my first truly malnourished baby.  Wow.  Earlier that morning I had been playing with a happy, chubby baby and then the hospital director showed me this mom and her alien-looking baby.  Small head (not enough blood), huge eyes and tiny, nimble arms and legs. So sad. And there I stood – the one mom trying to coax her baby to eat this peanutey-goo, while the other woman stood to my right with her chubby little guy strapped on her back and giggling. A moment I won’t ever forget and one that has motivated and excited me to hopefully have the chance to work with the hospital in the future.

Peace Corps volunteers are organizing the second annual tradeshow in November that Aposto and I will be attending down in Lome.  Friday, we went through his inventory of batiked items, natural dyed fabrics, and brainstormed new ideas.  I felt like it was my first ‘official’ work and I felt very needed and useful.

That day was made even better when Conner and Vanessa arrived in LT around noon. I literally went running out to the road –smiling the whole way.  Wow is it good to see friends. I’ve learned the incredible value of just being- just sitting- with people you care about.  We had an amazing night – Connor showing off his cooking skills, making pizza and enjoying some boxed Sangria. It rained all night and the next morning I emptied my water container (filled with brown-ish well water) and filled it with fresh, clean, rainwater. So nice!

Saturday we headed to Sokode to meet up with Rebekah and catch the bus that the post office runs to get to Kara to meet up with the rest of our training group to celebrate one of our friends’ birthdays.  Even though we bought tickets in advance, expecting to leave on time and hoping for a nicer charter bus, it still arrived two hours late and ended up breaking down right outside Kara when they informed us that the accelerator and brakes had stopped working. Yep, both. Fortunately, the company and the scenery were worth the wait. I sat next to a really nice older man who had worked with the PC in the past and the landscape was beautiful as we climbed further north and there were quite breathtaking views of mountains and valleys as the national road twisted and turned.   

And then- then we got to Hotel Kara and before I could wipe the drool from my mouth over the beautiful, large, clean swimming pool I jumped in and proceeded to splash around for a while --- like a pig in poop, as my friends later said.  I donned my cap and goggles and enjoyed a half our of laps—floating on my back, looking up at the blue sky and palm trees, I didn’t feel like I was in Togo anymore—I was on a vacation and it was so lovely.   I shall be making this 90 minute trip more often!

After two hours in the pool we go out and headed for an amazing dinner of hamburgers and banana splits. Again, not in Togo- I’m on vacation! We saved money on the lodging as a bunch of us stayed in a hostel like room that night. Not vacation, but cheap  it was clean and I’d slept in worse in places in Europe! Of course, the next day when we had nowhere to be- no pool to get to- the post bus – the very same one from the day before (with the man still under it fixing something) ran perfectly back to Sokode, even getting us there early. Togo Togo.

Have a feeling the next 6 weeks are going to fly: headed south to Kpalime with Bek for the week to shadow a volunteer. A few weeks in LT when I hope to conduct some community activities and another trip south for shadowing another volunteer.  It was so great to be with our group again and we are all looking forward to being together for a whole week at the end of October for more training.