My Village
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
-Steve Jobs
And I can tell already that my speech is slowly moving from young American adult to Togolese, non-native english speaker.
My Village:
So, last week was post visit week. Extremely overwhelming, but good. I'll start from the beginning. So, the trip to my site was around 7 hrs driving. Keep in mind Togo is about the same area of West Virginia. So, not big, it's just that the roads are that bad. It's a miracle I didn't get car sick. But, I was really under the impression that we were gonna arrive after dark and I could just get to my house and relax. No. I hop out of the car and the ENTIRE VILLAGE is outside waiting for me. There are drums playing in the back ground. A hundred children grab my bags and start running with them. I just like don't know where to go or what to do, and I get kinda dragged into this circle of chairs. Surprise! It's a ceremony for my arrival and I get to meet all the village elders and the chief. All the other volunteers in the car are like good luck, see ya later, and peace out. So, here I am, alone in my village, in my traveling clothes, grungy, wearing a tank top, (not really appropriate for meeting the chief) after I just spent the last 7 hours in what seemed like a life boat, and it's surprise party time! The whole village sits around in this circle, I'm introduced to the chief, the village authorities, the elders and luckily everyone is just really happy I'm there. There is a prayer for me and the chief hopes I enjoy my time in village. Then the drums start back up and no one starts dancing. My Togolese counterpart leans over to me and basically tells me its time to dance. For me to dance. So, I have to get up and dance in front of my whole village. But, one of the elderly women rushes up and puts a veil on my head like, "You can't dance in public without a veil!" Everybody cheers and all is well in the world. I'm so relieved when this thing is over, I mean, I was really glad my village is happy to have me and to have them do all this for me, but I was so ready to just be alone in my own house for the first time since being in Togo.
All these little kids carry my baggages up to my house and it is like scaling a mountain to get up there. My village is kinda in a valley surrounded by mountains. It's really beautiful and the weather there the whole week was so nice. Also, I have the most amazing view right outside my compound door. But, it's really rocky and hilly and to get anywhere is a hike. Anywho, we get to my house, I didn't take any pictures, so this is my rendition:
Everything gets put in my house and my counterpart is like, "time to saluer* everyone," so I get dragged back out to go around my village and saluer everyone I just saw, in the little Kotocoli that I've learned. I attempted to greet people in French, but it seems like the majority of people in my village don't speak French, and even if they do, they're determined to have me speak Kotocoli with them. So, I do the basic greetings (as described below) and then they try out some other Kotocoli on me, which I don't know; I respond with a questioning "Alafia?" (translation: everything is fine), and they laugh because that's not the right answer. So, then it's either on my way or if the person speaks French, they like to point out that Lyle (the volunteer in my town before me) spoke not only fluent French, but fluent Kotocoli. Thanks for setting that bar high.
*(The French word for "to greet", but in Togo it takes a whole new meaning; everywhere you go in village you have to stop for each person you see, and have the following conversation: "Goodday. How are you? Fine. How's the work going? Fine. How's the house? Fine. How are the kids? Fine. Everything's fine? Everything's fine. Really, really, really fine? Really, really, really fine." And I'm not joking. This is a literal translation of the greetings I've learned in my local language, and what I experienced everyday.)
I finally get to go back home as the sun is setting. But, after getting home I realize I don't have water to take a bath or to make dinner, and it's too late to go to the well. Ate beef jerky and m&m's for dinner. So glad I brought those. First day over, it was a lot, but I got to sit alone in darkness in my house for a couple hours after it all to eat and take a short breather before going to sleep.
Next day: Woke up early to go find my counterpart's house, and go get some water from the well. After showering, surprise, surprise, it was time for more salue-ing. Went around town, then run into the chief and he's like time for prayer! That day was actually the end of Ramadan, so there was supposed to be a grand fete (translation: party) but I realized that in my small traditional Muslim village grand fete actually means lots of prayer. But, I was on the verge at this point of having an anxiety attack, because it was almost midday, I hadn't eaten, I'd been dragged all around town for the 2nd day in a row, and I didn't know how to translate into Togolese French to my homologue that I was really overwhelmed. In addition, Sundays are my days to take my Malaria prophalaxis aka mef and those are notorious for causing unnecessary anxiety. So, I was just like I need to eat, and went home. I hadn't gone to the market for food yet, so what I had was scarce. There were some containers of rice and beans, both of which I tried to make and realized they had been infested with worms. By this time I was so frustrated, the one thing I had been sure to buy before coming to my village was a box of Sangria, which I promptly opened and downed half the box. Yeah, I drank alone in my house. It was necessary. So much better tho. I made some food and headed back out on the town.
The rest of the week got progressively better, I hung out a lot with my homologue, the other village women and their kids. I got to sit in on the mother's club, the village savings association, there was a political rally for someone running for Togolese congress while I was there, and I went to Sokode (the big city) to go to the market. My village is really growing on my. I feel this way about almost all the Togolese I have encountered, but everyone in my village so welcoming and just excited to have me and help me out in any way. I got to talk to my counterparts and the prefet about possible projects to do when I return, and I'm excited.
So, now on to the nitty gritty of village life. Living without electricity is a giant pain in the behind. Having to cook, or prepare my bath, or get ready for bed in the darkness is so dreary. And walking across my compound at night, you never know what you will step on. Plus I have the compound to myself. Which I love, because I have so much privacy, but it's hard because I have to cook for myself all the time and do everything in my compound myself. And then, there is the house. Oh, the house. It's actually a really nice house. I like the set up, and I have my own little paillote (straw hut). And it is leagues better than the majority of houses in my village. But, there is alot to be done. When I got there, the volunteer who lived there before me, I think had been gone for a little while, so everything was really dirty. I spent a lot of the first few days just cleaning and killing bugs, only to realize 1. when I go back to training for 3 weeks, my house will become just as dirty again, and 2. there is an entire village of mice living in my ceiling and dropping mice poop through the cracks. Yeah, so I asked my homologue for a cat, I got a kitten that was maybe 3 weeks old. So, it's gonna be a while before those mice are taken care of. There are some other things too, like cutting down the grass around my house and fixing the doors. I also had an episode where I left the lid off the latrine for a few hours and came back to at least a hundred cockroaches escaping into my compound. I went to go find my counterpart for backup and her response was "Are they the long-longs?" Me: "Yeah, they're huge." Her: "Can they fly?" Me: "Yeah." Her: "They can't hurt you." I'll have to take of all that, but it will have to wait til I return to village in 3 weeks.
Other things I should mention:
Facebook messages are hard, because facebook just takes forever to load, so sorry if I just don't answer, send me emails instead please.
And mail, I put my address up here, but because I REALLY want packages and letters, I need to be more specific about how to mail things here. So, if you're sending a package draw crosses or write "le Dieu voit tout" on it to keep people from opening and stealing stuff and if you are asked to write on the package what is in it, don't write anything that sounds valuable. But then, inside the package put a list of everything in it, so I know none of it was lost.
Things I would love to receive: velveeta mac and cheese packets (not the whole box of macaroni, just the cheese packets inside), any kind of sauce packets like stuff you get from fast food etc, hot sauce, beef jerky or slim jims, granola bars, candy (twizzlers, mnms, etc. don't send just plain chocolate or something that would melt in the sun), any kind of non perishable food really, magazines or good newspaper articles, clothing catalogs, new music or movies (on a zip drive or CD), and books.
Ruth Kallay, PCV
Le Corps de la Paix
B.P. 3194
Lome, Togo
West Africa
I have another installment coming hopefully later this week.
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