Feet on the Ground in Togo

  I celebrated two big anniversaries this month: August 18 was my first anniversary since moving into my village and August 20 was my 24th birthday. There truly was no better way to ring in these celebrations than with a bout of diarrhea and a rumbling stomach, which caused me to reflect on a few of the challenges that I have overcome and decided to celebrate. This job isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, surprising as that is, and this first year spent in a rural village in Togo—my 24th year of life—has been a true test of my resiliency. At any moment I can pick up my phone, call my boss and say, “I’m done. I quit,” and in the next instant, Peace Corps will buy me a one-way ticket home. I can leave Togo with no questions asked and no red tape to cross, and trust me, over the past year, there has been more than one instance where I have wanted to do this. This power, this privilege , that I have absolutely frightens me, as does this seemingly unceasing diarrhea. I feel an im...

Marina is a student in the 9th grade and one of my good friends in the village. I see her and greet her at least once a day. It was unusual then when I didn’t see her for two weeks in May. When I finally did run into her, she was all alone at her desk with her head buried in her notebooks. She was busy studying for the state-issued exam to enter high school--9th grade is the last year of middle school here. I was proud of her and impressed with her dedication and passion for continuing her education onto high school, which is something not many Togolese women have the opportunity to do. A month after the exam, I found Marina at home with swollen red eyes staring down at the ground. Marina failed her high school entrance exam. She would either have to repeat 9th grade or drop out of school for good. My heart broke. It is frustrating to observe how easily students can be rejected from an education they so desperately want and to realize how bright and intelligent kids are failing ...

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime... Mark Twain Five months late, I finally took a vacation. It wasn’t just a vacation, but a desperately needed and long-overdue break from the exhaustive heat and Togo sun, from the challenges of constantly speaking a foreign language, and from my all-carb Togo diet. This was the vacation my family and I had planned originally for the holidays in December last year. In October when the Togolese government announced it would hold elections in late December, the Peace Corps restricted its volunteers from leaving the country let alone leaving the village they live in for the week prior to the elections and the week following. To say I was disappointed understates how I felt. In May, my parents, my brother, my aunt and I met Cap...

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...

My gastronomical experience in Togo is new, unexpected and different, and yet I’m infatuated with the opportunity to continue exploring. Togolese cuisine is all based on what is currently available in the market and what season of the year it is, making it the epitome of “Farm to Table.” Almost everyone in rural Togo is a farmer, so most of their diet comes from their own farm, or the money to support their diet is earned in the profits they make from selling their crops. Also, meat is expensive for families, so goat, beef, chicken, or sheep are really only enjoyed on special occasions. Protein in the Togolese diet comes from fish, peanuts, tofu, fried cheese or beans. Fresh fruits and vegetables are available in Togo, but most are only available during the rainy season, so from the December until May you are limited to enjoying only tomatoes, peppers and onions. In reality, the Togolese diet consists mostly of carbs—carbs mixed with carbs and then added on top of carbs. Togolese st...

Every Sunday morning I attend a Catholic church with my friends in village. On Fridays, I go to Mosque. Drinking Tchouk (the local beer) with friends from Peace Corps. Woke up one morning to this lovely surprise! Glad I didn't step on it. With some Peace Corps friends in Kpalime, a larger city in Togo near the border of Ghana. I explored a waterfall in Kpalime. You know we're Peace Corps volunteers when we wander around with beer and our motorcycle helmets. My Peace Corps friends and I bought matching pagne fabric and had overalls made. It was a true test of our French ability to explain overalls to the tailor. The boys who have my heart and live next door. Jacques is 7 months old and Eli is almost 2 years old. At the bar with my best friends in the village celebrating New Year's Day. I visited my friend and closest Peace Corps neighbor, Tarah, in her village. My friend and village neighbor, Christine (far left), came and prepared cousco...