Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Thoughts on Togo -by Mike Wilmoth


Hello, everyone… This week Tay asked me to write her blog for you guys to get my Togo experience since my twelve days of being here.  Well like three days into it I started this blog, and had a lot of it written, and it felt like I was writing about some neat and nifty summer camp experience, with exclamation marks and quips, the whole nine yards….but after being here, going back and reading it….it just didn’t reflect my trip, and my feelings towards it. 

You know when you go to do something that you know will be hard, but you have never done it, you have this ignorance about you, which for the most part isn’t all that bad, because how could you ever do something if you really knew what you were doing.  That’s how I felt before I left- people kept asking me “What are you going to do?”….I replied “Survive, I guess…” I didn’t’ actually believe that really, but to be honest, that was a big part of it, sometimes just getting to the next day.

Africa is huge, and it would seem that it would eat you up quick and spit you out even faster, but here, it’s a small and slow grinding process that is the thing that makes it hardest.  Me and Tay sometimes would say….”Togo won today….” And on my trip, we won most the days, but even as a team, Togo had some victories.

In general, the idea of planning in this country is just more of a calculated hope. Which couldn’t be more evident than in the start of my trip, when I found myself stuck in DC for two days due to a weather delay. It’s just how you can adapt and roll with it that makes or breaks the day.  We had things we wanted to do that we couldn’t; the one I most remember was the waterfalls in Badou.  It is the rainy season, and it had turned streams to raging rivers, making the journey impassable.  But the way we adapted, and rolled with the circumstance made that day the best, playing cards in some small village in the middle of the jungle hills, then finding out our hotel had hamburgers….rolling with the punches and making it your day. That, to me is how trips are made, with some “planning” mixed in there for good measure.

I have some thoughts that I had wrote down since being here, so I think just listing them will be the way to do it. Here we go:

Lome, the capital city is not segregated at all in the class of people.  There are awesome eateries and hotels, and most will be right next to dumps.

If I lived here I would need:

1.       Dehumidifier
2.       Something like a cat litter box to dust the sand off my feet
3.       A make shift urinal in my house, so I wouldn’t have to walk outside to go to the bathroom.
4.       A refrigerator, for sure.
5.       AC is too unrealistic
6.       4 burners instead of standard 2, I would plan my day around cooking to pass time

Being n Tay’s house I was trying to hang something in her concrete wall, and it kept chipping.  I felt like Andy Dufrian in Shawshank Redemption: all the time in the world, concrete walls with bars, and all alone in your thoughts.

We visited the hospital in her village.  I don’t’ know how they could call it that, it’s just a building with beds.  I saw a couple of charts, and some forceps, that’s about it.  Note to self, DO NOT GET SICK! AH!

Probably the scariest thing in this country is traveling the road.  With no traffic laws, it’s a rhythmic insanity.  At first I was about ready to freak out and called riding in a my first bush taxi “ A hot day in hell”, but by the end I wasn’t noticing the chaos as much. However, the road to Badou can absolutely drive a man insane.  Imagine, well honestly there isn’t the right imagery bad enough for you to imagine it.  Let’s just say livestock on a country road in the States, travel better than we did that day. PCV’s here have a tough choice, be alone in village, or face the chaos to get to social settings.  So, if the road doesn’t kill you, the loneliness might….I would need a dog.

I was grabbed a couple times by the “crazy” people here, don’t know what it is about me, but I attracted ‘em. Taylor smacked the first one, and we just walked really fast around the others.
Tay’s local contact, Aposto, that guy is awesome. He is a genuine soul, who looks out for her, and is a true friend of hers and now of mine.  I had such a great time with him and his wife, Nima.  I truly hope I get to see them sometime in the future….bless you Aposto!

I want to reiterate again the grinding process of Togo: every single meeting or event we went to was late to start. You think you would get over this after a few times, but our culture has engrained punctuality in so much that I don’t know if it is possible, especially for type A personalities like me.
It was really tough for me not to speak French on this trip. I thrive on being able to communicate, and to not do that was taking away a huge ability for me, and honestly, that just plain sucked.
I  almost got robbed in the grand market in Lome. Two guys tried to get my cash but I figured it out quick enough, thank goodness, but really ruined that afternoon.

I was really interested in how things were made in this country.  All legit buildings are concrete, I think because of the humidity.  I watched a kid spread concrete one morning, it was interesting and I thought about what it would take to build this country, the infrastructure.  The thought itself is exhausting, let alone actually orchestrating it!

The landscape is a lot like Florida, low land shrubs, swampy…and hotter and more humid than anything right now with rainy season.

This place is simple and complex at the same time. I am ready to get back to America, but some of me wouldn’t mind being here either. I know I will be thinking about Togo long after I get back to the States, and hopefully bringing some of it back to Iowa with me.

Well, finally I just want to say to Taylor, I’m so proud of you. You have made the days yours and have accomplished things of true value to this country. I can’t say it enough, I’m proud of you. 

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Rain running under rainbows


Say that three times fast. Lately, that’s been the story here; nearly all of my runs have been accompanied by at least some form of precipitation. But is this girl complaining? NO WAY! The harder it pours, the happier I am.  In training for the upcoming half marathon in Accra, Ghana at the end of September, and I did my first ten-miler in Togo last week in Pagala after my final week of Camp Espoir.  It poured all day and drizzled throughout the whole run but I was pleasantly greeted by a full rainbow as I turned around and made my way back. I ran backwards for a while to take in the awesome golden and fuchsia sunset. I literally ran under the rainbow and back to the center. 

Enough about weather and exercise.  I spent the last three weeks in Pagala, again, as we finished up the last weeks of Camp Espoir and I helped out as a counselor for another camp Peace Corps sponsors.  A camp based on creating young leaders for Togo, Camp UNITE brings some of Togo’s top students to the center in Pagala and loads them up with information and enthusiasm to take back to their communities.  It was a moving week for me as well as I had the chance to lead sessions on the importance of girls education and time management.  It was really neat to watch the participants realize that their entire future will be better if their sisters, wives, and daughters are educated right alongside them.  And teaching about planning – if you know me at all, you know I can get pretty fired up about this one!  Even more, I had the chance to be with three boys from Lama-Tessi who were invited to participate. To be able to watch them experience something so new and exciting was really cool. What’s more, they’re fired up and ready to spread the knowledge here in LT.

The second week was a blur – what’s with this exhaustion? Not used to FULL days without long hours of reading at home, I struggled throughout my time at camp with questions like, “Why can’t I get through a day of camp without needing a nap, sugar, caffeine?” and “Will I be able to make it in America?” Scarfing down my lunch, I practically ran back to my bunk each afternoon, coveting every precious minute of rest hour.  By the end of the week I realized why my mom valued my nap time so much when I was little!

The third and final week in Pagala, was the last week of Camp Espoir and I had the pleasure of being a staff member (rather than an organizer as I was for the other 3 weeks) and be right among the little monsters for the week.  I was assigned to a ‘medium’ aged cabin of seven boys from the southern regions of Togo.  This means it was my turn to be energetic, silly and fun. Yes, I know some of you are thinking about how that must have been a stretch for me. However, my good (and smart) friend Connor kept the office stocked in sugar and caffeine and the week went really well and I found my laid-back camp mode and had a great time!

Some highlights: In the talent show the group of PCV’s on staff that week did a ‘circus’ act complete with a clown (Connor), a gymnast and ribbon dancer (Alex and Lauren), a peanut catching/animal caller (Ryan), and a bad mime (me).  I don’t think the kids got it at all. But we sure had fun! The next night the kids had time to share stories of the challenges they’ve experience in being infected or affected by HIV/AIDs. Almost all seven of my boys opened up about losing one or both parents and friends to AIDS.  It was an up close and personal reminder of why this week of fun and encouragement is so important. As we sent the boys home and began cleaning up the center, I stopped to read the some of the camper evaluations the PCV’s collected.  “Why do you like Camp Espoir,” we asked.  “I like camp because I don’t get hit and we get to eat lots of food,” one responded. Wow.  Sharing with the other volunteers we all realized how easy it is to forget that these kids are seen as outcasts- lepers to their friends and family members who have been obligated to take them in.

It was interesting to have the perspective on these different camps. UNITE gives hope for the future of Togo- empowering the country’s young people to stand up, take responsibility and make change for themselves. ESPOIR provides a safe environment where for one week vulnerable kids impacted by HIV aren’t seen as different but can play and have fun as well as enjoying some positive love and 
attention from PCV’s. Different, but both important for Togo.

Other exciting things from this week include the prospect of a new project with a Togolese volunteer (think AmeriCorps) here in Lama-Tessi who has his medical degree and would like to improve the hygiene situation. He drew up a plan to put in trash cans at each of the schools and we met with the chiefs this morning to win their support.  Also, I was encouraged yesterday with a trip to Yao Kope, the small village to the north of LT where there is a group building a new hog enclosure with the help from a grant from the US Embassy. I was impressed to see their progress and foresight for the project.  Always nice to be around motivated, hard working people!

Finally, four days. My sweet boyfriend will be landing in this hot little country in less than a handful of days. After absorbing lots of vaccinations and buying random things for my friends here he is taking the leap across the Atlantic to come sweat with me for ten days. I’m a lucky girl.