Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey everybody - I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving! In the spirit of the season I just wanted to say I'm very thankful that I have all of you family and friends who I love and who care enough about me to follow my stories... All of your comments and emails and calls mean more to me than you can imagine.

This'll be a short blog; I just thought you'd be interested in what I did for Thanksgiving since people have already started asking. Every year the Togo Country Director has people over to her house in Lome for a big prepared/part-pot-luck feast. It was the most unique Thanksgiving dinner I've ever had! The following is what was on the food table:

Turkey
Goat
Couscous
Cucumber Salad
Sweet Potato Salad and various Potato Salads
Mushroom Gravy
Pita bread and Hummus
Rice and Beans in Coconut milk
Green Beans
Coleslaw
Corn Fritters
Assorted nuts
Chili

for dessert
Pumpkin pie
Banana cake
mini pecan pies
pound cake
other little sugary cookie things

There were a LOT of volunteers there so the food went fast (the dessert didn't last 5 minutes). For those of you who know me well, it may not be a surprise to you that I was among the people at the front of the line and had 3 servings of the main course, helped Emily finished her (first), and then was also there at the front of the line for the pumpkin pie - which is all I really wanted for Thanksgiving. From 3:30 in the afternoon on, I was in a food coma, and spent the rest of the afternoon talking on the phone with family at home. It was a great day!

Emily and I before dinner

Just watch the sunset at the end of the day

IMPORTANT INFO
1) I've posted pictures! See this entry and the ones entitled "Pictures","A true story", and "AIDS Ride" for recent photos.
2) For those interested in sending mail: Due to some problems with missing mail, I opened up a new B.P. with my neighbor Danielle, which seems to be working MUCH more reliably. The address (which I would recommend you use, although the other B.P. will remain functioning as well) is:

Kristina Jacobsen
B.P. 17
Elavagnon, Togo
West Africa

Three months into living permanently at post and I was taking pride in how busy I was keeping myself, thinking, "I don't understand the PCVs who complain that there are some days when they have nothing to do"! Well, I must confess, this past weekend I felt the first pangs of boredom. I'm currently in Lome - a trip that has been planned for some time now as I'd been planning on coming down to the PC Country Director's house for her Thanksgiving dinner (which she offers annually to volunteers), taking advantage of the trip down to simultaneously pick up some work-related supplies from an NGO here, to get a Ghana visa from the Ghana Embassy (for my anticipated trip to Ghana for Christmas with some friends), and to go personally file a complaint with TOGOCELL about my phone's now long-term inability to receive texts (I learned fast how completely useless trying to fix the problem through the customer service line was, as, to put it briefly, customer service does NOT exist in Togo as it does in the States). In any case, I didn't have anything to prepare for this week in village, and this last week was similar to the other weeks in November - somewhat slow due to the absence of people to work with. November is bean harvesting season and my village is literally a ghost town during the day since everyone is in the fields. As a result, my sensibilizations at the dispensaire have been put on hold as the midwife and I agreed that the few women who come and go between 9 and 11 (but not all at the same time) do not constitute a substantial enough crowd to bother with a sensibilization. The last couple weeks have been exam weeks at the local middle school, so my girls club meetings have been put on hold too. My house renovations are now completely finished so I don't have any of that to tinker around with anymore either... So I've been frequently finding myself with a book, sprawled out on a wooden arm chair under the gazeebo in my compound, fanning myself with a bookmark and reading the hot afternoons away.

Of course there's always work I could do: preparing for future presentations and meetings, sorting paperwork, etc....But as proactive as I pride myself in being, I do have a procrastinating side to me as well. And especially when it's just so darn HOT during the day these days, my heat-induced lethargy finds support in the thought: "Well I can always do that later". In that sense, my boredom is my own fault. My boredom this past weekend was certainly short-lived though. I've been so busy here in Lome that I can't even keep my thoughts and plans straight. And when I get back, my weeks will be busy again with a number of PCV visits and as I get back into the full swing of things with the onset of December (I can't believe it's the end of the year already!).

The last chance I got, I was reading some of my fellow volunteers' internet blogs, and their creative and humorous writing made my blog seem so comparably dry and boring! I'll tell you - the greatest thing about being in country with a number of other volunteers with whom you can meet up with every once and a while is that you can laugh your heads off with them over situations that were probably frustrating and stressful in the moment, but somehow, in the presence of a sympathetic camarade, become hilarious. [To better understand my meaning of this, please read my recent blog entry entitled "A TRUE STORY" for an example of such a situation]

As a foreigner in this country who hasn't quite yet grasped an understanding of the reasons for everything that goes on, I can't emphasize enough how important it is (I've discovered) to have a sense of humor about things. Sometimes I think someone could crazy here if they couldn't just laugh things off (Emily - my best laughing partner - agrees). It's become my favorite thing about those "every-once-and-a-while" times when I can meet up and share stories with other volunteers.

As for the time in between ... I'll tell you something: As exhaustingly busy and stressful some days can occasionally be, or, in contrast, as bored as I can feel on some other seemingly endless days, there's something about those sunsets...
Especially when I'm over at the dispensaire, which is set far enough away from the heart of the village that all I hear is the chirping of the crickets, and I'm watching that sun turn from yellow to orange to hazy pink as it sets over the cornfields, with the stalks swaying in the cool breeze that's finally providing respite from the heat of the day... In the sheer utter peace I feel in those moments, I will never deny that I'm glad I'm here.

PICTURES!

I finally got the chance to post pictures from the last 3 months! See "A true story" and "AIDS Ride" blog entries for more as well.

my compound

Andre, Michel, and Sylvere (sons of the family with in front of whom I share my compound) in front of my house

Andre in the boutique the family owns

Edwige and Mondano (mother and daughter in my compound) preparing roasted peanuts

Edwige and Solomn grinding pima (hot pepper) for the sauce for lunch

(sorry it's blurry) Edwige, Florence, Solomn, Sylvere and me in front of the cooking hut

me and Michel in front of the fence we made around the moringa tree we planted

Yvette (another daughter), Andre, and Sylvere dressed up in their pagnes for church

Me and the family under the compound gazeebo

my porch

the mill in front of my house under the Harmattan mist

Mr. Pelenguei (the Dad of my compound/my landlord) grinding corn flour at the mill

more huts in my village

another scene from my village


market day (the busiest day in town)

The CEG (middle school) at sunset

The CEG during the day; I spend a lot of time here

the local elementary school

the road on the way to the dispensaire

the village dispensaire (health center)

my homologue, Emma (a midwife) giving a malaria shot

The nurse (Mr. Beleyi) and the pharmacy manager (Mr. Kezie) doing paperwork. They are some of the nicest people I've ever known.



The wound treating room, the prenatal consultation room, and the delivery room where women give birth at the dispensaire



Mark (a college student who helped me translate during my first sensibilizations). This picture was taken one evening when we were seeking out the CEG director in his fields -There was such a beautiful sunset!

bagging enriched porridge flour on my porch


One of my favorite village women making corn porridge, and then me taking a turn at it

I love this picture: This is Danielle, one of my best PCV friends. She lives in a village just 15K north of me. This is her new puppy Tache, which means "Spot" in French.

Doing laundry



Visiting Emily; cooking dinner by candlelight (not like we have a choice - she doesn't have electricity either), taking a nap on her cement floor one afternoon (it's way cooler on the floor in the hot afternoons), and Emily drinking Tchouk - a popular local beverage that one of her neighbor girls brought by for her - after having spilled half of it on herself

Talking on the phone in a local church building, one of the few places in my village where I can get reception and where I usually have privacy - although this photo was taken by a child observor who was lucky enough to be trusted by me to take a few pictures when he saw my camera and asked if he could...

A True Story

When I first permanently arrived at post, I decided to repaint the walls in my house because they were badly in need of a new paint job. Upon mentioning this to my landlord, he offered to seek out the village painter to come do the work for me. Even after I insisted that I could do the job myself - and actually preferred to do so in order to save some money - he continued to urge me to at least get the painter's opinion on how much paint I would need for the job. As I'd painted many a room before, I already had an idea of how much I would need, but it seemed as if it was going to hurt his pride if I refused again, so I agreed to meet with the painter.

The painter showed up the following day when the landlord wasn't there; he was an elderly man of few words, but who was clearly honored and content that the village YOVO had called on him for advice. I showed him into my kitchen/living room where he stood for a solid minute, "hmmmm"ing and scratching his chin as he looked around. I told him the other room was absolutely identical to this one, but he wanted to see it anyways, and there again he entered into a deep train of thought. When he appeared to have finished thinking, I asked him, "So how much paint do you think I'll need?", to which he replied, "Well I'd rather wait until the landlord comes back to discuss that since he was the one who told me to come here". Not quite understanding his logic, I felt mildly irritated - especially because all of this seemed unnecessary in the first place. But I bit my tongue and suggested he come back in the evening, when the the landlord would be there.

After dinner the painter came back, when the landlord and I happened to be chatting together under the gazeebo. After finishing the normal lengthy salutations, the landlord sat down in a diplomatic fashion and proceeded to recount in detail the entire situation (regardless of the fact that all parties present were well informed): specifically - how I had approached him about painting, how he had asked the painter to come, how the painter had showed up in his absence, how the painter had left and then come back, and now we were all here awaiting his advice.

The following was the real conversation I then had with the painter:

K: So how much paint do you think I need?
P: Well ... it depends
K: (confused because he had already seen the size of the rooms - I thought that was the entire point) Depends on what?
P: Well what color are you going to paint the rooms?
K: With all due respect sir, I don't understand what difference the color would make on how much paint I need.
P: It's just that - while you said you know how to paint, I'm worried that they might do things differently in America than they do here.
K: Ok well how about I tell you what we do in America and you can tell me if it's the same thing here.
P: Oh excellent!
K: Ok - well in America, we determine how much paint we need based on the size of the room, then we buy that amount in white paint, and then we mix in the desired color.
P: (clapping his hands and exclaiming to the landlord) She really does know how to paint!
K: Thank you. So according to your expertise, how much paint do you think I should get?
P: Well that depends.
K: (sigh) On what?
P: Well you see, the amount of paint you need depends on how many coats you want.
K: (growing impatient now) Yes I know that - but can you at least just give me a general idea of how much paint I'd need to do just one coat?
P: Well I don't think I'd be comfortable doing that.
K: Why not?
P: I wouldn't want you to blame me if it was too much or too little.
K: (clenching my hands together out of frustration, I stared at him at a complete loss for words, not believing how ridiculous this conversation was. He sat there, his hands folded in his lap, perfect posture, smiling and blinking back at me. How could it be that I was so irritated with such a cute old man? Finally I said:) Ok (long sigh to calm myself) How about: I'll get the amount that I think will suffice, and if I run into any problems, I'll come to you for advice.
P: Oh wonderful! Yes I'd be happy to help you out with anything you need>
Landlord: (clapping his hands together) Fantastic! I'm glad this worked out so well!

And so I ended up buying the amount of paint I needed based on my own judgment - which was precisely what I had planned on doing in the first place. I later found out that the village painter was titled such, not because he had been trained in the profession, but because, years ago, he had been the one hired to whitewash the village elementary school.

This is what my house looked like before (photo taken during post visit)




After I painted, redid the floor, and got furniture (complete with the collapsable cardboard turkey my mom sent for Thanksgiving):




(me with my bouille enrichie that I make for the women in my village)

Keeping busy

Well I've had quite the busy past couple of weeks. I recently started a girls club for the teenage girls in the local middle school; the idea is to provide them with a place where they can learn everything which Americans usually cover in middle school health class (but which the Togolese don't cover until high school - if that - and by then, an unbelievable number of girls have already dropped out due to unexpected pregnancy), which will hopefully better inform them and lead them to make more careful, thoughtful decisions. I also want to involve them more in the community (by getting them to help me with sensibilizations, etc.) so that their time is devoted to productive, helpful activities, and so that they can earn recognition and respect from community members (which I hope will also encourage them to be more careful to make wise choices and thereby develop and maintain a healthy level of pride and self-esteem, which I notice seems to be lacking among many of them for the moment). The CEG (middle school) director has been incredibly helpful and supportive of this new project. He and I decided to a) split the upper/older two classes from the lower/younger two classes so as to prevent intimidation among the group and b) make the first two meetings for each group obligatory so that all the girls will have a chance to see what the club is like. After the first two mandatory meetings, I will only be requesting devoted volunteers to become members, as I don't really see what would be productive about forcing girls to be involved against their will, and I feel like the club can be most effective if it consists of girls who are particularly motivated. I've had two meetings so far - one with each group - and so far they've gone great! The older girls seem to be more pulled together and enthusiastic than the younger girls, although I got overall positive responses from both groups. The real test will be to see who shows up for the first non-mandatory meetings, but that won't be for a couple weeks yet. So we'll see...

I'm hoping to soon get involved with the middle school environmental club to start a large community Moringa tree garden (for those of you who aren't familiar with Moringa, it's a tree which serves a number of miraculous functions, including the provision of an incredibly large amount of nutrients through its leaves; it would be worth your time to look it up - it's an amazing tree!); I feel like introducing Moringa to my village and teaching them how to incorporate it into their diet while simultaneously developing a source of it for them would be a great sustainable project, so I'm excited to get that underway.

I've had a large amount of success with selling enriched porridge flour to the women in my village! It's an incredibly large amount of work to make; after buying soy and corn in stock from the market, and then ideally washing and drying it all, it takes as long as 6 hours to sort out the bad grains and worms, then 4 hours to roast (which is especially important for the soy as it breaks down the trypsin in the soy which otherwise inhibits protein absorption; for the corn, the roasting just ameliorates the taste), then a half hour to grind the grains (unless the mill breaks down, in which case it can take up to 2 hours, which was the case the last time), and then 5 hours to put the flour in (what usually amounts to about 100) individual bags. It's very time consuming, but satisfying once finished (I'm definitely planning on eventually recruiting girls from the club to help me with the task). I already sold a quarter of the bags in the one day after I finished! I'm donating the money to make the flour and saving all the revenue to eventually put towards another village project; for the moment I'm thinking about using the money to further reduce the costs of mosquito nets so as to make them more affordable for community members, although I'm currently having trouble finding an NGO that will sell me mosquito nets in stock and then let me sell them for a price that's less than the established market price...

I've been doing regular sensibilizations on baby-weighing days. Last month I taught about the importance of enriched bouille (porridge) and how to read baby-weighing charts so that the moms themselves can read and understand the charts that tell them whether or not their babies are malnourished. Seeing the effect of the sensibilizations can be simultaneously disappointing and encouraging; I get frustrated when I hand back charts after marking the baby's new weight and still see some moms put them away without taking a glance at them. But then again, this last Thursday I saw one woman, whose baby had been terribly malnourished the past couple months, eagerly take back the chart and look at it, developing a smile which I shared with her as well as I saw that she read and understood that her baby had gained an astonishing kilo and a half in the last month alone! Who knows if it was actually due to my influence that she was motivated to read the chart or now pay special attention to the health of her child, but even if it wasn't, it made my day to see her so happy by the progress. This upcoming month I'll be teaching about the importance of washing hands with soap instead of with water alone.

So I've definitely been keeping busy! As of last week, I also finally finished redoing my house. Well actually, I still have to paint one wall on my porch, but after that it's completely done. I'm so glad because all the work I've put into making my house homey has taken a ton of time and energy! I can't wait to post pictures because I love how beautiful it is now. I do unfortunately still have pest problems from time to time. The big cockroaches are annoying but manageable because they're killable, but what's worse are when lizards get trapped in the house because they're difficult to get out. The WORST are mice; this last week I felt like I was in mortal combat with this one mouse who was living in my house for days (before one morning at 3 AM I did finally get him out) and whose presence and elusiveness was literally driving me INSANE and giving me sleepless nights. Such is life in Togo though. I spent a good couple hours this past week stuffing paper and foam in all of the cracks in the windows and ceiling to hopefully inhibit the entrance of more house-invaders.

Dry season seems to have arrived! As has Harmattan, which is a season caused by Sahara winds that sweep down through Togo; it causes cool mornings and evenings but hot afternoons. I've been running through thick mist on my morning runs as a result. But the decrease in humidity during the day has made the heat much more bearable!

I'm in Atakpame for the weekend but am off to visit Emily's village for the first time on Sunday. It'll be fun to see how things are for her and to do some baking! - which is always a treat for me when I get to visit someone who has a dutch oven. I'm still a sucker for sweets! In only 3 days I went through 2 of 3 large bags of peanut M&Ms that my boyfriend Dave sent me in a care package... Shameful but satisfying nonetheless :)