Photos


In June I took a vacation to Morocco with my good friend from college, Kellen.






The summer and fall months in the States mark the rainy season in Togo which means it's also farm season. Here I am helping plant soy among the corn crops.


My friend, Catherine, and I supporting the red, white, and blue for the 4th of July in the Togolese fabric, pagne.


When it comes to talking about malaria, sometimes you have to get creative. These past few days, my closest neighbor, Tarah, and I turned a popular cards game into a malaria conversation starter at each other’s markets. At the tchouk (the local beer) stand, we played a card game that involved putting up a mosquito net, singing about mosquitos, malaria two truths and a lie, and answering basic questions about malaria. It can be hard to get community members to come and participate in health talks, so we brought the talk to them.




In July, I traveled up north in Togo to watch a Togolese favorite wrestling match called Evala. The whole stadium was set up like a fair with food vendors, music, bars etc.


My closest volunteer neighbor, Tarah, and I with the head nurse of the clinic in the village I live in.


Some days I help in the clinic by running all of the pre-natal consultations for pregnant women. This is only possible if the women can understand French.


A photo of all of the volunteers who are entering their second year in Togo. This was taken at a conference marking the middle of our service.


Tarah and I present quarterly to the district director of health and all of the nurses in our district on our work for the past quarter.


SO incredibly proud of these 25 community health workers who have officially completed technical training & have the certificates to prove it! These past 8 months, I have dedicated most of my work to training the community health workers on all things community health, with the hopes of improving their technical knowledge and building their capacity. Community health workers in Togo are invaluable members of small, rural communities where clinics and hospitals don’t exist and are the only points of access people have to basic medical care. The real MVPs ‼️


At the end of October some volunteers from Togo and I went to Accra, Ghana and ran a marathon. I ran the 5K with some others, and the rest ran the half marathon.




After the marathon, we traveled to Cape Coast, Ghana. We toured the Cape Coast Castle where slaves were kept during the Atlantic Slave Trade.




Photo of the Cape Coast coastline.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Day in the Life

Image
I have shared stories from my first 11 months in Togo. I have welcomed you into my home. You have learned about Togolese cuisine, and you have read about culture in Togo. But, really, what AM I doing here? That is a question that I ask myself a little bit too often. As a Peace Corps volunteer, we are not led to expect structured days and work schedules. The Peace Corps administration does not hand its volunteers guides for structured days and work. Part of my work is to find and make my own structure—to find the niches where I can fit and fill the needs of the community and where I can find productive and sustainable work. With that being said, I did have a lot of down time during my first few months in village, and I still have down time to learn about Togolese culture and food, to continue learning French and Ewe, to build relationships with my community, and to question my sanity for living in such a foreign country for two years. With this downtime, however, I have created my...
Read more

Exciting News! Completion of the Grant Project

Image
In October I asked family and friends to contribute to a grant project I initiated for the small community in Togo where I live and serve. I was amazed beyond belief that in four days we reached our goal--Thank you, Thank you, Thank you everyone--and I am so excited to say that as of last week that project has officially been completed! The project's goal was to repair the well and running water at the local clinic in hopes of motivating more women to give birth there as well as increase the clinic's hygiene and sanitation levels. The project took seven weeks from start to finish and included deconstructing the old tower, building a new water tower, emptying and cleaning the current well and replacing all of the plumbing and faucets in the clinic. All of the materials were bought in country and the labor came from technicians in the community. I have created a  pdf document  which shows the project's seven-week progression. This new water tower brings running water to t...
Read more

A Long Walk to Work

Image
I live less than three minutes away from the clinic in village, and yet, I have never found myself there in three minutes. Walking the 50 or so feet to the clinic usually takes about 10 minutes. It’s not because the path I take there isn’t straightforward or is terribly arduous, but rather, my time on each walk is filled with greeting each and every person I pass on my way. Something I learned quickly, and quite forcefully, is the power of salutations in Togo. What should be my three-minute walk is tripled in time because I have learned that salutations are a necessity and not just a nicety. When I say salutation, I do not mean a simple, “Bonjour, comment ça va?” [Good morning, how are you?] If only it was that easy, and if only it was in French too. The greeting I’m expected to rehearse on my walk to the clinic, when I see my neighbors, on my walk to market, before I buy my toilet paper, and when I pass by anyone, is much more complex and is done completely in the local language...
Read more