This is it

There are a bunch of little things about Togo that I just love. For instance, I finally get on blogger to post about Togo, and everything is suddenly in French. It's a good thing I can understand it, but it's like the whole internet is different here. If you haven't already figured it out, I made it to Togo. We got in 2 days ago around 9pm and were chauffeured to a private airport meeting room like we were VIP. From then we were taken to our hotel; we pretty much ate and went to bed.

The trip over here took forever (only really like a day). But, we travelled all through the night and were dealing with all kinds of time changes from Philly to Belgium to Togo, so by the time I got here I had no idea what day it was or how long it had been. I made a new friend on the plane ride to Togo, though. I sat next to a man from Ivory Coast named Dakite (Pronounced: Dakeetay), who was an economics professor at a university there. He didn't speak much English, but I was able to carry on a pretty good conversation in French with him. After talking for a while, he told me that my French was very good and he was surprised that I learned it from just school (Thanks Madame Methvin!). Of course, I was beaming with pride. 

Everywhere we go around here, we are driven in a caravan of Peace Corps Landrovers/vans. Plus, the way they drive over here, our drivers cut off just about all other vehicles to rush us wherever we're going. It's so official. And then, there are like little kids everywhere, and they wave to us. We're like celebrities, but we've actually never been out to meet anyone. We've been in this hotel or at the Peace Corps office the whole time, doing pre-training stuff. Pretty exhausting, but I gotta say I'm totally content with everything so far. Our hotel has electricity, running water and internet, which I wasn't expecting at all. My room even has an air conditioner, although it took me a whole 24 hours (and one long, hot night) to realize it was there. We are pretty spoiled now, but only until Monday. Then we move into our host families' houses and begin real hardcore training. 

Another bonus is the weather. It's supposed to be rainy season, but it hasn't rained yet. So it's been around the 80s every day, and even though it's humid, in the evening it gets nice and cool and windy. In a few weeks though, once the rainy season is over, I'm sure I'll be able to testify to the searing heat I've heard about in Togo.

It's not all peaches and cream though.

Things I hate:

• Cold Showers: yes, we have running water, but we don't have hot water, and cold showers may just be my least favorite thing in the world

• Getting sand in your shoes every time you step outside: self-explanatory

• Mosquito nets: I know they will probably save my life out here, but they're such a hassle. I WILL CONTINUE TO USE MY MOSQUITO NET. So, don't worry about my health, but really, for something so necessary over here, you think they would come up with a better system. At first, it was was really cool to feel like I was sleeping in a tent inside, but then I had to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. You gotta pull up a little corner, as small of a gap as you can fit through, crawl out, then go. When you come back, you gotta crawl back through that tiny little hole and then re-tuck the net back in under the mattress like halfway around the bed. Especially with the the amount of water I'm drinking over here, it happens a lot, and you gotta do this in the dark. Why didn't someone think to install a zipper?

• The internet: this probably falls into the category of me being a spoiled brat, but the internet is so slow here. True, I wasn't expecting to have internet at all when I got here, but still...it's kinda like someone offering you candy then snatching it back as soon as you reach for it. Just when I'm excited about having internet and I can email/facebook/blog, the internet cuts out. Like right now, these pictures are taking me upwards of an hour now to upload, and it's only on picture two.

Regardless of the inconveniences, Togo has overall been pretty amazing. All of the Peace Corps staff has been really friendly, welcoming and helpful. My staging group is full of really cool, down to earth people. And, the food is delicious!

the view outside my hotel room window

the view from the roof of our hotel (it's really nice, you can see a lot of the city from up there, and that's pretty much all we've seen, other then during the caravan rides)

also from the roof of the hotel

some children who were yelling and waving at us while we were up there