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.
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