A Sample Week

I've had a lot of people ask me what exactly I do over here so I decided to keep a very detailed log of this past week to share with you. The truth is, no two weeks are ever the same and, after months of not being able to say what exactly I'd be doing in the Peace Corps before I came, I now realize that that's because what a Peace Corps volunteer decides to do with his/her time and energy is completely up to him/her. I apologize if this entry is a little tedious to read, but hopefully it'll give you somewhat better of a picture of what daily life is like over here for me.

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 29
5:08 woke up
5:15-5:45 went running
-6 showered and dressed
-6:15 made breakfast (power porridge: rice, peanut butter, bananas, and sugar)
-7:15 read
-8:40 did dishes, put away dry dishes from the day before, cleaned house, swept porch, burned trash, filled large water bucket at the well to have water easily accessible at my house
-9 walked to dispensaire (health facility in my village)
-11:30 sat in on prenatal consultations and consultations with the ill. There weren't that many people who came in today. I filled out paperwork for PC administrators coming this week and also talked with my homologue, the midwife, about potential projects.
-11:45 walked home
-12:15 ate leftovers for lunch (curried vegetables and rice)
-1:15 read
-1:40 tried to take a nap; I rarely take naps but was for some reason particularly tired today. I couldn't end up sleeping because I was too hot and sweaty.
1:45-5:15 Grilled soy and corn for enriched porridge flour that I was making for the women in my village. It was very tedious work involving constantly stirring the grains in a pot over a charcoal fire. I read intermittently and chatted with passerbyers to keep from getting too bored.
-6 Finally finished! Rested and chatted with the family in my compound under the gazeebo while the mom sewed and one of the daughters stripped stems off baobab leaves for the dinner sauce.
-6:15 Discussed with a local village woman her toothache, ultimately telling her I'm not a doctor and really can't diagnose it nor can I give her money to go to the bigger village to have it treated, nor do I have medication that I can give her for it.
-6:45 showered and dressed
-7:15 had dinner with the family (pate - a kind of boiled corn meal that the Togolese love - with baobab leaf and bean sauce.
-7:30 Tried to listen to French radio but I still have trouble understanding the language on the radio because they talk so fast.
-8:30 talked with compound family
-9 toiletries and went to bed

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 30
5 woke up, debated going back to sleep, then forced myself up
5:15-5:45 ran
-6 quick shower, put water on the charcoal to boil, got in line at the mill to grind the grilled grains
-6:45 waited while the mill man cleaned and fixed the mill. Ate oatmeal as I waited.
7:15 Finally started grinding first batch of grains
7:30-8:45 The mill broke down; I had to wait for it to get fixed again
-9:15 Finally finished grinding everything into flour
10 Kids in my compound left for a big city where they will be attending school this year
-10:45 Started bagging the enriched porridge flour
-11 was given rice and fish sauce to eat; I was starving
-12:15 Was visited by the PC Security officer who stayed and chatted to make sure I've been doing alright since coming to post
-1:45 bagged some more
-3 had a snack of biscuits and peanuts, then went to the market to chat with people there (Tuesday is market day in my village)
-3:30 Chatted with a camarade in the village about potential projects
-4:30 Wrote up a list of the subjects I want to cover in a girls club that I'll be starting soon to present to the middle school director that I'll be meeting with tomorrow.
-7:10 Finished bagging. 92 bags total!
-8 Watched the 6 and 10 year olds who stayed in the village with the family make dinner; now that the older girls have left for school, its the younger girls' responsibility
8:10-8:30 had pate with leftover baobab and bean sauce from last night
8:30-8:45 Off in the distance some woman started wailing; my compound mom went to see what was up. It turns out she had been stung by a scorpion. We could hear her husband scolding her for not wearing shoes.
-9 toiletries then bed, exhausted

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 1
6 'slept in' until 6; was later asked why I got up so late
-6:20 dressed, boiled water for porridge and drinking water (which I then let cool in a big bucket and then pour into my filter before I can drink it)
-6:40 Ate enriched porridge for breakfast (soy and corn powder mixed with boiled water and sugar; delicious but I was sweaty by the end of breakfast)
7-8 Met with the middle school director to discuss the girls club, when to start it, and the extent of his involvment in it; I had to meet with him early because he was going to head off to the fields
8-8:40 putzed around house, chatted with compound mom in her boutique
-9 walked to dispensaire
-11:45 Sat in on more consultations (a lot of cases of malaria today), planned out what I'm going to say to the village women on Thursday during my presentation on enriched porridge
-1:10 talked to my boyfriend Dave on the phone
-1:40 walked home. The family had saved lunch for me (pate and fish& squash sauce)
-3:20 finished book I started at the beginning of the week
-4 practiced presentation for tomorrow
-4:20 swept porch, did dishes I should have done a while ago
-5 after biking to the dispensaire, which is the only place in my village where I get reception, I talked to my mom and brother Eric on the phone. There was bad reception so it was a short call.
-5:30 chatted with people in boutique back in my compound
-6 wrote letters, went and found the man with the generator in my village to drop off my phone for charging
-7:30 Helped prepare dinner with the family; made a salad (cabbage,lettuce,carrots,tomatoes,onions, and sardines with a mayo and vinegar sauce)
-8 ate dinner (pate and peanut sauce with fish; as you can see, the Togolese never tire of pate!)
-8:20 showered
8:30 went to bed early

THURSDAY OCTOBER 2
5 woke up
5:15 -5:45 running
-6 showered
-7 Prepared and ate peanut butter pancakes for breakfast, which are so good. I normally eat them with a banana sauce but I couldn't find bananas at the market this week. I always have a big breakfast on Thursdays because Thurs is baby weighing day at the dispensaire, which can sometimes last past lunch. After finishing the pancakes, I cooked noodles for lunch; I do this to make the most of the charcoal that's already lit and to save me time later. To extinguish the charcoal, I put it in an old airtight tin milk powder can. I used to just dump the lit charcoal and pour water over it, but then you have to wait for it to dry before you can use it again. I was taught to save charcoal in these ways by the 16 year old son in my compound who was horrified when he found out during post visit that I used to just let the remainding charcoal burn off.
-7:30 Did dishes (I do dishes in two big basins on my porch and then dump the dirty water out behind the house when I'm done; the pigs like to roll in it to cool themselves off), swept porch (I have to sweep it a lot because it's always dirty from charcoal ash and sandal dirt; also, if there's even the slightest bit of food, it attracts a ton of ants, which are such a pain for me here in Togo. I just ran out of insecticide so now I just have to stomp on them to kill them or I just squish them with my hands. Stupid ants - they drive me crazy), filled filter.
-8 Got dressed (up until this point I've just been wearing a tank top and a pagne cloth wrapped around as a skirt) and ready for work
-8:10 Went to fetch cell phone, but the guy told me he didn't have enough money to start up the generator last night so it still wasn't charged (this happens from time to time). He said he'd definitely charge it tonight.
-8:45 waited around for my homologue's daughter, who my homologue told me she'd send to help me carry the baskets of bagged flour across the village to the dispensaire. She was really late so I assumed that one of them had forgotten. I was just going to take it over myself but my compound mom refused to let me do it alone even though I insisted it wouldn't be too heavy. She pulled the mill man's daughter aside, put the basket on her head, and we were off. When we were nearly there, I saw my homologue's daughter slowly ambling towards us; she didn't apologize for being late nor did she take the basket from the girl's head, but she started chatting with a friend on the side of the road instead, which really annoyed me. We continued on.
9-1:45 Baby weighing (there were a lot of malnourished babies today); I've kind of taken charge of recording all the weights and filling in the charts, though I spend half the time fixing wrongly marked charts and mistakes in the record books. It can be extremely frustrating to see so many errors. At 10:30 I gave a sensibilization with the help of a friend translator on how to read the growth charts (so that the moms know how to tell whether their babies are malnourished or not since sometimes when 100 women show up, we don't have time to go through all the charts with them) and how to make enriched bouille, which I was also selling pre-made to address the common complaint that the women just don't have time to make the bouille (porridge). After the sensibilization, a man from some handicapped society gave a speech although I didn't understand a word because it was all in Kabiye. More baby weighing after that.
-1:40 Arriving home, my compound mom had saved some pate with fish and okra sauce for me. I was just going to make my own lunch but I didn't want to turn down the food she'd purposely saved for me. So, more pate! I had it with a grapefruit.
-2:45 Thought about doing laundry, but laziness won and I started reading a new book instead
-4:15 Studied Kabiye (the predominant local language in my village although Ewe, Losso, Mina, and Kotokoli are also spoken)
-5:30 Cleaned latrine and house
-6:30 Prepared and ate dinner: Tuna casserole on noodles. I'd made enough for tomorrow's lunch too but I started worrying that the tuna and evaporated milk in it would go back (no electricity in village = no fridge). I ended up eating both servings and was really stuffed.
-7 Showered
-8 Did work around the house, wrote letters, made a list of what I needed to get done in Atakpame, the regional capital where I was going tomorrow
-8:30 Started feeling like I was coming down with a cold (it's hard to believe but every once and a while people still do get colds even in this tropical climate!) so I listened to music and then went to sleep really early.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 3
4:20 Woke up with a bad headache, sore throat, and runny nose. Went to the bathroom then came back and turned off my alarm because I didn't feel well enough to go running.
5:45 Woke up
-8 Showered, made hash browns with yams (which are much more readily available than potatoes), cleaned up around house a little more. Then I left to go get my cell phone. I couldn't find the guy but I found someone who pointed out his wife to me, who then gave me my cell phone. It still wasn't charged - I'm not quite sure what the deal was. I had one bar of charge left and I just needed to call Danielle, the volunteer in the village just north of me, to touch base about when we were going to meet up to go to Atakpame together. But I just couldn't find any reception.
8:30 Danielle suddenly showed up on a moto taxi!
-9 Quickly packed, did dishes, got on a moto to leave for the 20 minute ride to Anie, from where we'd take a car to Atakpame - another 20 minutes. My moto driver was following Danielle's but about 10 minutes into the trip, his moto broke down. Danielle's driver had to drop her off and then come get me. We were able to find a car pretty fast in Anie when we both finally arrived, but the cars drive around for a while until they fill up before leaving. The whole trip to Atakpame, which ideally should have taken 40 minutes ended up taking nearly 2 and a half hours. This is very typical - you learn to be very patient.
11:30 We arrive in Atakpame and get dropped off at our banks (which are different for some reason), where we both really needed to go but they were both JUST closing for lunch.
-2:45 I bought paint to finish painting my house and we did a little shopping then walked over to the PC transit house and relaxed and chatted with other volunteers who were there for the weekend.
2:45 Headed back to the bank, as it would now be open, but there were sporratic (sp?) rainstorms along the way so we had to duck under shelter and wait 3 times before finally getting there at 3:30. I got money out at my bank, and then went to meet Danielle at her's, but she was stuck in this huge line with people who had been waiting there since 2. The machines were apparently broken so it was taking forever.
-5 I ran to the post office to pick up stamps and then to drop off some letters. I got back to the bank just as it started downpouring. We waited there another half hour and then decided it would be better for her to just come back in the morning. We walked over to a restaurant where we were going to meet up with other PC volunteers for dinner. We put our order in right away since usually there is only one chef and with a crowd of 6 people, you can wait as long as 3 hours before you get your food.
-6:30 Ate a yummy dinner of chicken and salad. My cold was getting worse though so I headed back to the transit house with 2 other girls.
7 started a movie(did I mention there's electricity and flushing toilets at the transit house!!! Luxury)But all of us volunteers are on Togo time and were falling asleep by 8:30
8:45 Went to bed. Unfortunately I woke up at 1 with bad diahrrea and what ended up being nearly a 104° fever; sometimes it's the risk you take when you eat in restaurants where the food isn't always clean. Saturday was spent recuperating.