November 14th, 2007

Alright, well I promised some more information on my service, and I've got the computers at the office, so lets get into it...

The elections were declared "free and fair" by all international observers who were here in country and in Lomé. I was moved out of my village for the election, as I lack even a fixed land line, let alone cell phone reception within 10 miles of my village. I was with several volunteers in Pagala, and it was a good few days getting to know one another, as there were a couple new volunteers there, new to our cluster.

As a member of the United States government, I'm not allowed to bring personal views about the election into the public sphere, and I'm not going to. That said, it was inspiring to see people getting dressed up in their Sunday best, and taking a long walk to their polling stations, where people waited patiently to bring home their blue thumbs, showing everyone that they had voted that day. When you speak about the power of democracy, remember here people still appreciate the simple act of voting: over 95% of registered voters came out in force for parliamentary elections. That is a very humbling thought, when considering that midterm Congressional races in the States barely registers 30% of people taking time out of their days to do their civic duty.

What do these elections mean for the people of Togo? Well hopefully, for starters, we can restart the "cooperation" with the European Union, and get our trade ban and economic stranglehold lifted. For small businesses, the lack of being able to import or export easily as is done in Ghana, has stifled creative capitalism at its best here. A more immediate concern is paving some of the international highway spots all the way up country, as Lomé is the biggest port in West Africa, so we see most of the area's commercial trucks moving through here on what would be considered a dilapidated back road in the States.

Post-elections, I moved into that final month of service. I was busy cleaning and sorting out two years of projects, two years of mail, two years of living in a small village. My sanitation delivered over 15 small talks over the last two months of service, as they positioned themselves as my most prized attempt at work here in the last two years. Their dedication to making this group a volunteer-led, sustainable group, is inspiring to me and I am hopeful they will continue on our work as we go.

As for the latrines, the last month has been great, seeing all of the final walls being constructed, and the latrines coming into full use. It has been really rewarding seeing the faces of the masons as well, as they now have been contracted to carry on our work in small villages and big towns near and far from my village. Over 80 latrines have been ordered through Peace Corps Volunteer-led projects or villages themselves over the last six months, and I'd like to think we, and by extension you, had a small hand in helping some families climb up the economic ladder.

I feel like the last three weeks has just been one long fete. It started with some volunteers in my cluster in Pagala thanking me and two others for our service here, and it has continued right up to the run up of my departure. My French teacher, Bougri, invited me and two other volunteers to come over for All Saints' Day two weeks ago. His family had prepared lunch for us, and we toasted our friendship and our years of conversations and discussions that we've had. He has visited the States several times, and speaks English well as he teaches it at the middle school, and he is one good friend who I am going to miss dearly. I usually would go over his house on a biweekly basis to have dinner with him and his wife, and it was one of those rare moments in Togo where the man and the woman both prepared the meal, and that sat together for it. We would have rousing discussions on women's rights, Democrats versus Republicans in America, and the current events in our village. It was such a privilege to be part of his family, and it was wonderful that we were able to share so many conversations over the last two years.

That All Saints Day turned into a party, as another friend, Mana, who is the farmer in charge of our latrine project, had my two friends and myself over for dinner. We had pig, rooster, chicken and fu fu. Needless to say, the endless plates of food here in Togo will be missed. As I read that my mother in the States just cringed, but if you've visited Togo you would understand.

And then the fete continued that weekend as I went to the new house of my nurse and his family in Anie. My host mother, whose accident I recently wrote about here on the blog, was just the highlight of my visit. Seeing her laugh, her spirits still high, was something positive for me to leave on (maybe she wanted it that way, I don't know). That said, she prepared this gigantic feast, killing a sheep in the process, and had over their new friends in their new town as a welcome party for them and a goodbye party for me.

What killed me a little, was that in Togolese society, the way you joke shows the strength you have internally. Bridget was dancing on one leg, and making references to her one useful leg, and everyone at the party was laughing, at what I thought was just a very uncomfortable situation. You still have it here, even after two years. Our cultures are just so different at times, and their ability to be optimistic in the face of what seems like insurmountable obstacles is literally unbelievable for me.

They have purchased a wheelchair so she can move long distances, and in Togo, you have your legs laid out in front of you, not dangling down like in the states, and you push forward with your arms, so you need to be strong as well, as most of the roads here are not paved.

I've never had a goodbye that difficult before I guess. She spoke to me as we held hands about 100 yards from everyone else. She told me "it was like she was losing a son. It was like I was dying to her, her white son was dying." She started to cry, and I did too, and then she pulled herself together in typical amazingly-strong, Togolese fashion, and said "But you need to go home to be with your mother in America. I will always be your mother in Africa, and you call me when you get in to America." With that we hugged, I continued crying, and she started to move away.

You have days like that and when people ask, "How was Africa?" you really cannot find the right words to respond, or you lamely reply, "Cool." You spend your first year clawing your way around, mangling the languages you're learning, and befriending people as you go. The second year you spend doing a lot of work, and trying to balance time with friends in village and out. And then, just like that, it's over, right when both work and play are at all time highs.

My last day in village, my village cabinet came over at 7 in the morning to start drinking and eating. They brought rice, sauce and goat, and we started in on Tchook and Sodabe (think grain alcohol). After eating, the head Voodoo doctor in the village, who I think also was half-blind and about 80 years old, started the fetish ceremony. He had me sit next on the ground next to him, as he chanted in Kabiye for awhile, and started singing, while continuing to drink and throw around what looked to be a goat's foot on a string. After a few minutes of this, he then brought over a rooster, and blessed it and me together. Then, mixing animism with spirituality, he spun the rooster around and beheaded it, sending it to the ground in agony. He threw the head, and then took the blood of the rooster and painted a bit on the sides of my face, to "have the village ancestors, the spirits of all of the village, protect me on my journey home, back to my family in America."

From there, certain members of the village cabinet spoke about our work together, and the fete continued. The Chief of the village spoke to me personally, then with the Cabinet, then at night in front of the village as well. At mid-day the people of the health clinic joined our soiree, eating and drinking with us well into the afternoon. I had, at one point, 20 people on my small terrace together.

After eating, different groups that I had worked with in village came over to eat, and drink chook that they had prepared, and exchange gifts.

By three or four o'clock, the village sent out the fete drums to announce that the party would begin. And boy did it. Each neighborhood came out with their dancing and drumming troupe, and then proceeded to have their version of Akaba's American Idol Dance Off. I got up there, dancing with the women in my sanitation group, and was well received by the audience.

By nightfall, the party was going strong, as over 13 barrels of tchook and 8 liters of Sodabe had been drank by at least 300 people. It was a helluva party. During the dancing competition, different people took turns to speak, and to thank me for my service and to tell of stories that we have shared together, from projects accomplished or what I liked to do in village, such as my rice woman who fed me every morning for two years, who offered to marry me and go to the States, before kissing me in front of the village.

She is about 65 however, so I'm not sure if that would work out.

At night, the absence of my host father and co-worker nurse Emmanuel was felt. He had promised to be there but he wasn't able to attend. And then out of nowhere, around 9 PM he showed up walking his motorcycle up the house. His motorcycle had failed to work 10 miles from the village, so he walked it down the sandy path to Akaba, in the dark, to come see me. We stayed up all night talking, laughing and drinking, and barely had any sleep before dawn came and I needed to gather my things.

I had a slow walk down to the route junction, where I had all of my possessions in Africa -my stove, gas bottle, water filter, bike, and travel bags. Mana and Emmanuel and the Village Chefs escorted me, and when Laura came on the bush taxi, I got in. No one really could speak for awhile, so Laura did my goodbyes for me, after I hugged each of them.

And then you leave. You walk out the door that at first you were really scared to walk into, two years ago. I remember driving down that road 20 k, only to see a small village that scared the hell out of me when I got out. I actually got back in the car, and took Laura to her village, rather than have to start my post visit right then. And two years later, here I am crying (and I'm not a crier) on my way out of village.

As I write this from the confines of the Peace Corps office in Lomé, it seems already like a distant memory. And I'm sure it will continue to feel that way for awhile. It was, as they say, a "helluva ride."

I've got two more entries I'd like to write about. Stay tuned for my most difficult aspect of my service, my village at war with the nomadic herdsmen, and also a post Peace Corps sum up of me back in the States from Europe, etc.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day.

November 9th, 2007

Hey everyone. As I write this to you, I'm currently in Lome, having left my village for the final time, and having a great last week saying goodbye to friends and filling out the mountains of paperwork they make you do before allowing you to leave and be considered a "Returned Peace Corps Volunteer."

I just wrote that last sentence and its really hard to believe actually. You start some things I guess in life, not knowing how much they are going to come to mean to you, and then its kind of hard to accept that the reality is everything you start must one day end. For me, the reality began to sink in last week, as I took a bucket shower. Last year I painted a smiley face saying "Smile" in my latrine, as days spent in there can tend to be depressing, and as I took my bucket shower it hit me like the cups of water I was washing with. I stared out at that big African sky, the stars here are unbelievable in my village, and I thought "A year ago, my latrine still had a roof. I have since took that off, and that second year was marked with showering under the stars. And now its over."

You build up a little life here. You make friends with Americans over the first three months, people who come to touch your lives in ways you cant even imagine when you come here. These are the friends who sit there with you when you need consoling, talking about village actions of rape, incest, murder, hopelessness. These people understand you and they understand what you are going through. Over the first year you build up not only these relationships but you start to "make friends in village." People start inviting you into their homes to share their food and drink. You learn to laugh with them and to laugh at yourself.

Over that second year, those friendships become strengthened, and you start to think of these people as what they have become, your "african family." And as that second year comes to a close, you realize that while you will keep these American relationships going in person, you will have to physically leave your Togolese ones. And thats a pretty difficult thing to accept. But, also, the reality.

And so this marks one of several updates I will do over the next week. I'd like to give a brief update of the elections here, a brief what went down over my last month here, and then maybe some loose ends when I go home to the States in mid December (I cant wait til I can actually share some stories and thoughts that Im not allowed to share at this point). Its been an emotional month, but one that I will never forget. Thanks for continuing to read this, and to show your support through emails and the like. Stay tuned over the next week, I will try and get a few updates off.

October 2007



Well the month of October is upon us. This is my third October spent in Togo. This October promises to be different than the others, as the elections are going to happen, the 14th. The campaign has already begun. Again I really can't comment on them other than to say we're neutral in all of this...



Do a little searching on some african news source and you can read about northern Togo's excessive flooding. Over 30 dead I believe, and countless families lives' ruined, as their mud houses up there were never made to deal with heavy rain, for as long as they can remember, it hasn't really rained in September in their history. Now they are hit with disaster, as schools, clinics and homes are destroyed, as are major bridges. The President went up there to oversee work done by the French army to help the families who are homeless up there. It's really a sad situation, and I've got nothing to offer to it other than say if you have a moment, look it up on google.



That said there are other elements of my life that I am willing to share. My host father and host mother have actually suffered a couple bad accidents. My nurse, who also is my host father, was struck head-on while he was on his motorcycle by a drunk apprentice chauffeur. My nurse was flipped over the car without a helmet on, and landed on his legs underneath him, lying on the ground.



Other Togolese walked away from him as he writhered on the ground, bleeding from large cuts in his legs. He picked himself up, flagged down a car, and then spent a week in the hospital. Hospitals here cost 8 dollars a day in the cities here, very expensive even for him who is a state salaried employee. Luckily he didn't end up breaking anything, which really is a miracle. But he couldn't walk and spent the month of August and part of September on my porch, working on paperwork and just laying on my couch.



Why did the Togolese watch the accident and walk away, rather than helping him ? That's that one part of West Africa I haven't spent a lot of time talking about in these blogs, but the jealousy intermixed with the voodoo elements here is nothing short of very prevelant. Others have told me the Togolese did not want to help him because they feared reprisal from the chauffeur (who fled the scene and hasnt been found since) in the way of « Gri Gri » , or voodooism. To get in the mix there that day would have incurred the wrath of one of the party's, and that would have meant a good deed would have brought bad gri gri.



I one day was in a car in Lome and watched this guy flip off his vespa attempting to miss a small child, do a complete 180 degree flip and land on his head. Togolese fled that scene as he died on the street as well. In their defense I guess, there's really a dearth of ambulances here to call, and to call in the police is, well, never mind.



My host mother, who I have talked about a bit in these blogs, was carrying a basin of water on her head in my village, next to the river. She slipped and rolled her foot, breaking her ankle and creating a deformity that without the requisite surgery that I don't believe you can get here save maybe an expat hospital in Lome, will stay with her permanently. She had an infection (if you break your limbs in Peace Corps they usually in West Africa send you home for the risk of infection is too high) and has been in the hospital for over 2 weeks. The kids are with her parents and Emmanuel has been commuting over 150 km each week to see her and keep track of the kids. It's really an unfortunate situation, and one that I hope will be remedied.



I was told by village friends that they fear there was someone who put out bad vibes to the two of them and that is why they have fallen on bad times. Adding credence to that, my nurse went to his home village to purge his family of these bad vibes in a traditional ceremony.



There are thousands of stories here like this. Something I really can't understand, have seen a lot of, but don't really talk about in my blog because unless I'm physically there to discuss it, it's really hard to garner an appreciation for the level of what we are talking about here. So buy me a beer I guess in the States, and I'll spin you a yarn or two...



You'll hear from me after the elections. Keep Togo in your thoughts on the 14th...

Friday September 9th

So this is it. The culmination of two years of intense sweating, being very dirty, and living the life of someone I once would have thought was nuts. I am now sitting at the Lome Peace Corps bureau, after completing what was a great COS conference. The acronym, which Peace Corps is filled with, stands for the close of service conference. We had sessions on mentally readjusting to the states, sessions with regards to applying to graduate school, applying for jobs (I frankly will be needing one!!!), and had a really interesting career panel with an NGO director, Peace Corps director and the US Ambassador and his #2 at the embassy here in Togo. Their thoughts on the readjustment phase were interesting, in that it really takes 6 months of really not feeling happy or normal at the very least. That's comforting to know that over 60 percent of returned peace corps volunteers feel that way going back to their former lives, which have now been forever changed due to this experience.

But that said the best part of the whole conference was being with my Peace Corps training group. We watched a video/slide show of all of us from 24 months ago, and to see our physical and mental changes as exhibited by our looks and what we were saying then was really funny and also nostalgic. To be with these people, some of whom you barely see over the 2 years yet still we have this unique bond, was like coming home for the holidays. This is your family for two years. Some are closer to you than others, but in the end, these are people who you share a very unique bond with. They know about my escapades with my erratic bowel movements in Togo, and we know little things about each other that probably a lot of friends in the States have no clue about. I really hope I stay in contact/ and or really close with some of them, as I feel today like I did at the end of college. On verra I guess...

I completed my GREs with my neighbor Laura in Ghana, and I plan on heading back for the final stretch in village starting tomorrow. I will be here until mid-November, whereas my plans have now changed and I think I'm going to go with two friends here to Morocco for a couple weeks and Spain for some much-needed, head-clearing, beach time. I'm going through a whole mess of emotions similar to how I felt before coming, sad to be leaving, excited to be back in the States to re-adjust, and nervous all at the same time. I'm not sure how I'll adjust back to the United States, but I'll try and take it a day at a time. In the meanwhile, the next 60 some odd days will be filled with drinking local millet beer, hanging out with my Togolese friends, and helping new PCV friends get off on the right foot with their service. I also have a lot of medical appointments, and a ton of paperwork to complete in the next two months. Frankly it really is going to fly.

Hope this email finds you enjoying one last barbecue in the U.S....enjoy the end of summer!!!

Friday June 22nd 2007

His name is Komi. This is his story, as I had him explain to me.

Living in a township called Amou Oblo, life in Komi's village was set in a majestic environment. Bordered to the east by gorgeous hills and small mountain ranges, Komi's village was a haven for farmers wishing to grow cocoa and other cash crops in abundance. Komi failed out of school before high school, as most Togolese tend to do, and helped at his parents' house in town with their plot of land for the summer.

As the rain season came to an end, and with no imminent school in the dry season, Komi was at a crossroads. He knew he did not want to keep farming for the rest of his life, but did not have the money to enroll at an apprenticeship for the required 3 years. One day a friend mentioned to him about a "work opportunity" in Nigeria. Komi inquired about the position, which amounted to working someone's field for six months in exchange for a motorcycle at the end of the work season. Others in the village had returned with their motorcycles, and had moved up the economic ladder as moto taxi drivers, which Komi wished to become as well.

Leaving his village in the middle of the night, Komi left in a small car with two other boys from his village. Not yet eighteen years old, his parents were not informed of his decision to leave and find work. The trio traveled three full days without stopping for food, only eating basic manioc flour out of small black plastic bags. They were not allowed to leave the vehicle, and passed under the cover of darkness into Nigeria, crossing the second-largest country in Africa in over 18 hours by car.

Finally arriving on the eastern half of Nigeria, the trio were let out to the "Patron's" concession. For the next three months, every day was spent from dawn to nightfall working in the fields. Only being fed once a day, a corn-mush type substance, the trio quickly realized this work was harder than they had bargained for.

After three months time, their patron left to bring more workers to his fields from Togo. He left with a large stack of cash in his pockets, and Komi knew that he wouldn't be seeing that man ever again. Sure enough, the patron never came back to look after his farm, and the three were left at the house without food and without money to their name. Komi and his friends struggled to eat enough to sustain their workdays. Slowly, the trio took on other work at neighbors' farms, in hopes of raising enough cash to start their own way back to Togo via bush taxi.

Several months' later, the trio set off en tandem to Togo. In their first day of travel, a band of hijackers robbed the car at gunpoint, leaving the three stranded literally in the middle of nowhere, without a dime to their names.

Now if you have never left the United States, two things need to be added at this juncture. What we take for granted, the idea of citizenship and a shared national language, was something so crucial that Komi lacked. When one is a citizen in the United States, with one look at your state license a policeman will allow you to remain on U.S. soil - which is something that Komi lacked in Nigeria.

Being child trafficked into Nigeria, he carried no papers and was instructed not to speak for he did not speak the local language and had no English background, only French coming from his francophone country. Komi therefore lacked the ability to go to the police, and he lacked the basic ability to communicate within the culture. Though he had worked for close to a year at no pay and only ate what he could grow, he had only picked up broken English phrases, as he had little interaction with the Nigerian people, living on the former Patron's farm.

Komi walked for three days straight. By three days' walking, he articulated that he walked from four in the morning until almost eight at night. Stopping only to beg for food or to grab something from a passing tree, I have no idea how he sustained himself. He found himself at a juncture in Nigeria where he could not walk any further physically.

That day Komi encountered a nomadic tribesman passing along the same road. In West Africa, nomadic tribesman take on the "persecuted ethnicity" status - citizens of said countries do not like them, for their cattle roam on their fields, and they have no shared language. Komi was desperate, and he gesticulated that he needed a place to stay. The man allowed Komi to stay, and while everything Komi had ever heard about Fulani was stereotyped as evil, he remained with that man, working alongside in the fields, saving some money to have cash to eat with on the remainder of his journey.

Eleven months' later, Komi left that bamboo thatched hut, and re-started his walking journey. He continued walking for several days, finally reaching Benin. Inside Benin, he worked himself across the country, spending days at different farms along the way. His work finally took him back to the border of Togo.

Arriving almost two years removed from his village, Komi re-entered his village with as little money as he left with...nothing. His journey brought a young boy into manhood, and his story is a sad one, yet a common one in Togo. Komi entered his apprenticeship to become a tailor, which he continues today.

Komi recently attended our leadership camp that I had been helping organize in Togo. During our child trafficking section of camp, where we warn of the dangers of trafficking yourself to another country for work, Komi stood up in front of 60 people, including his peers and his American and Togolese facilitators. He told us this story. As he finished, not a dry eye was in the house, as he is a better story-teller than me, and his manner of telling it with a small smile and laugh made you wonder at how he did it and how amazing he is.

As he finished, someone asked him how he kept going, through being tricked into leaving his country, days of not eating and long hours in the field; finally leaving, only to be hijacked and robbed, and having to walk his way through two countries. He replied that though he never learned much English while in Nigeria, he learned enough to one day understand a speech being made on the radio.

Komi then talked of listening to his first time with Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech. He kept repeating in English, "I have a dream," and then repeating it in French for his peers. Then he stood straight, and you could have heard a pin drop in the audience. I looked at him with tears in my eyes, as he stated that "he too, had a dream. I have a dream that one day, we will cultivate our country of Togo, so that we may never have to leave to find work, and to find our happiness" here.

I pray for his dream to be realized one day too.

Thursday June 7th 2007


Ok well I'm officially an old "baby" in my training group from 2005 as I am now 24 years young. I feel a bit older but I still do not tell Togolese how old I am usually to keep some semblance of respect for me because they think I'm older than I am with the beard I now sport for the last 6 weeks.

For my birthday we had the proverbial "pub crawl". 10 of my friends and buddies in country traveled to Atakpame where we sampled some of the fine lagers and finger foods to cap off the birthday festivities. I had a wonderful Thai dinner shipped from the States' the night prior, and chocolate crepes for breakfast and french bread pizza and french fries for a perfect end to a perfect day. I was even able to receive some calls from beloved friends and family in the States...making my Mother happy I'm sure.

My friends here mean a lot to me, and I hope I keep up with them in the States, because they are my family here. It's a very close friendship in a short time period here due to the circumstances, but one that is really rewarding. We then watched a few movies the next day and had a very relaxing Sunday. I'm back to work today however, but before I begin my day I just wanted to take some time and catch people up on my last couple months'. I know I've been pretty busy and haven't been able to adequately write an update, so here it is, in its entirety...

This is the third time I've tried to write this update. Twice over the last few weeks and months I've sat down to write and have had the power cut in the middle of an email. You want frustrating? I've had this happen to me so much over the last two years however it never ceases to ruin my day. Ever write an email and had it accidentally deleted? Ever wait five or six weeks to write an email and right before you hit send the power goes in the entire country and you thought you saved the email only to find it was wiped because the computer place doesn't have power surge protectors? Welcome to the developing world...

I apologize for that little rant but I'll move on.

When one tries to do a building project in West Africa it is best to know problems will come from all sides. Lack of cement, a lack of adequate means of transport, a village that is so accustomed to mud huts that lacks belief in change...things I never knew I'd encounter before embarking on this enterprise. As we speak we are 26 latrines in, with 52 families now beginning to benefit from your help back in the States. Over 500 people now have access to cleaner water directly due to your help, you who is reading this right now.

Making latrines is not sexy, but it's the reality on the ground. But to see people hauling sand and water and gravel on their heads, chipping in to help all day in the searing sun to assist the masons; their smiles and pat on the back when a hard day's work is finished...I wish each and every one of you could see it. Thank you. I've had old women who have two teeth come up to me, lying on the ground holding and touching my feet and thanking you through me for their new gift. Old men who know the village is essentially the same today as it was 120 years ago, just have a goofy grin on their faces and repeatedly say, "Labalye, labalye." Thank you, thank you, in local Kabye.

Don't get me wrong, we've had issues. Families that looked like they were serious refused to do their end of the bargain, and we had to do some horse-trading to find new houses who wanted to change their lives for the better. We were hurt by masons coming together to strike in the village, until we renegotiated our contracts, making that the first time I've felt like a really young manager with people twice my age negotiating with me. The rains came and my village fled to the fields. You can barely find someone in my village these days, so getting them to stay home to finish their latrine is next to impossible some days.

But that's when you realize something. Over the last few months when I've had to report progress to my parents and through them the donors, I've realized my "American-ness." I recently finished a book called Three Cups of Tea, which if you get a chance, pick it up. In it an American builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and gets very frustrated at the slow pace of productive work in those countries. Until one day, a Chief sat him down, and made him understand that "in our history, we've never had a school. Now you have brought one. What does it matter if it finishes this year or the next? We will have one, and that is what matters. In the meantime, relax." And I've had to learn to relax, which for those of you who know me, know that can be difficult for me. But I've been able to, once I came to read that book and learn that lesson about life.

And then the conference for first-year health volunteers came to my village. After spending a day talking about building projects for water, a mass caravan of close to 50 people came to my village. The villagers had never seen that many Americans at one time, but everyone got along famously. My engineer stood on top of the health clinic's new and only latrine, and the Togolese homologues gathered round him as he explained the process for this new type of latrine. Meanwhile the Americans gathered with me, and we walked through the whole year-long process of collecting data, sensibilizing, writing the drafts, budgets, etc. Its satisfying to see the project at its conclusion. Everyone that was there seemed generally pleased with where we were in the project, and what we are trying to do in Togo.

CREPA, the Togolese NGO I'm working with, is currently in a project with the E.U. to make 3,000 latrines like my village has produced inside Togo. Their President attended the conference and promised he would bring more latrines to my village, after seeing their positive efforts over the last few months. Meanwhile my masons have been hired out as private contractors in a couple villages close to mine, making their new skill at these latrines a tradable commodity that now will net them close to $200 apiece, close to their whole year's net worth. When you start to see the change happening countrywide, to effective and energy-efficient latrines that are longer-lasting, and that the people who have sacrificed to make it happen are being rewarded by a small business enterprise - then you see where we are at right now at post. Happy. Pleased.

We're having a soap and sanitation training sometime at the end of June/July. With a few more classes this next fall at the school, you have the end of my service. I have 3 more leadership camps left, with one just completed two weeks ago for women's apprentices. I've never run a summer camp before, but being involved with some highly talented other PCVs in running this camp has been really rewarding. Watching the change in the young girls from the beginning of the week to the end, when we have them stand up in front of 500 people in village and talk about women's rights - that's very powerful.

And then we have the last new group of trainees coming in this weekend. I'll only be around them for a couple months before leaving, but one of them will be a close neighbor, only 7 miles away. I'm affecting the life of a girl trainee, the new ones are all girl trainees, someone is who in the States right now, furiously packing and saying goodbyes to all her friends and family. Her next two years will be affected most directly by the choice I had in influencing my boss to select that village as a new village. I feel nervous but confident in that village's need for a volunteer to work on behavior change issues. Come this August, she'll be there...

And finally comes my post PCV update. It looks like I'll be taking a trip with PCV Jane Coleman to South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland for a few weeks in November, before that fateful return to the States in early December.

Post Peace Corps, I hope to either hook up with someone in Albany or Washington, and work for awhile before starting up a joint degree for grad school, public policy/law focus.

And that's it. If you're still reading and you're not my Mother, thanks for sticking with it. Thanks for the continued support, and I'll try and put up some new pics this summer so stay tuned. Hope all is well. Stay dry.

Wednesday, April 18th 2007

Greetings to everyone. Hope spring is finally in the air in the States and know that hear the grass has come back and its started to rain a bit though Im not sure if that is a sign that the rainy season is coming or its just that hot out. To think of how hot it is please envision the following...(gathering sympathy here...)

Imagine its 106 degrees outside, and 97 degrees in the shade. Inside your house is over 100 degrees, and you are armed with nothing but a paper fan that you have to fan yourself with. No AC. No electric fan. And now imagine that you are expected to work in that environment, giving health talks, going to do home visits, checking in on latrine work.

Now imagine that at night, its now 95 degrees. The house is 100 degrees inside so you sleep on a cot made out of a grain sack and wood outside. Your sweat creates an outline of your body on your sheet, should you choose to use one. Welcome to my existence inside the Dry Season in Africa.

At this juncture it would be prudent to note that the latrine project is a third of the way through. I have a conference of volunteers, homologues and NGO representatives coming in 3 weeks to look at and talk about the latrines in my village, so thats the next big thing on my calendar, and it will be a race to the finish to see how far we can get before their arrival.

Id like to talk a trip down memory lane for a few friends and family of mine who knew of my accident last November 2006. If you were unaware, as most people were, when I was home for Christmas I was on the mend from a major car accident in Togo. Its time I talked about it online in the journal, and Im fine in retrospect so here we go...

After spending Thanksgiving at the pool and lazing around with friends over a good bottle of wine at a restaurant, the next day 7 of us were heading north to go back our villages. We were in a 15 seat van that had 22 people in it, and had a ton of stuff on top adding maybe another few hundred pounds to our already over loaded vehicle. Unbeknownst to us at the time, our tires lacked tread, and somewhere about an hour into our voyage, our van blew a tire and we careened towards the bush, which was filled with trees and underbrush. Two of my friends were in the front of the car, known as the "Death Seat" to us volunteers, and the rest of us were interspersed in the next two of four rows in the van.

We careened into the bush at around 35 mph, and started to hit trees as we then flipped twice ensemble. The top of the van broke off where all the equipment was stored sending all our bags broken into the bush. Inside the van all 22 of us lacked seatbelts as all the glass shattered inside the car, and we were thrown all over the van, with people hitting their heads and bodies all over the car. There was 2 people who I dont believe, Togolese, who did not walk away from the crash, an elderly man and an older woman. It looked like a bomb went off at the crash site, and it was very traumatic for all of us to be a part of.

The worst among us was a male PCV from up north. He subsequently had to be medically separated from the Peace Corps with a broken back. The rest of us had bumps and bruises, I broke my collar bone (but not badly and theres nothing I could do for it anyways, it subsequently healed by the time I was in the States for Christmas).

Peace Corps scrambled a car to get us to Lome to the medical unit and we were in Lome for about a week into December. My World AIDS day planning was pretty crappy after being in the medical unit for a week on the run up to the event, but I guess thats the way it goes. I could get a lot more into how grotestque some of the injuries of the passengers were, and how we all had lasting images from the crash that were pretty bad, but I assume you get the idea.

I had only told a few people outside my immediate family when I was hurt, and even afterwards. So for those of you reading what went on in November, know that I occaisionally cant write about some things until Ive digested them myself, and its taken to about now for me to be able to write about it on the blog, though others of us had already done so, who went through the crash.

Bush taxis in Africa. Ive had my fill of fun with them for more than this lifetime.

Wednesday March 21st,

Hello and welcome to the new season of ITS HOT AND DRY EVERY DAY. Currently Im faced with heat rash and lack of sleep due to the heat and Ill say this, its just not fun living in Africa when its this hot at night. I looked at the temperature in my house at midnight the other night and it was over 103 degrees, which is hot when you lack a fan or AC.

That last paragraph was designed to elicit sympathy from the audience, but really everything is fine. Fresh off our annual All Volunteer Conference, Im feeling refreshed and ready to go back to village after a quick two day vacation to Ghana to pick up Jane Coleman with a friend, Mamahen. Fresh steaks and cold milkshakes await our visit, and Im looking to go swimming at the Shangri La Hotel while we are there.

Why the need to recharge the batteries? Well things in village are moving along, with people now forming the 190 sand and gravel and cement bricks per latrine, and the formation for the masons coming along smoothly to build the latrines. School is in session and health classes continue to be interesting, with my 7th graders continually asking Are there black people in America?, no matter how many times I try to show them with magazines that America is pretty big and diversely populated country. And so it goes...

All in all Ive got about 8 months left and lots of stuff to do in the mean time. I now understand second year PCVs whose stress comes from too much work, though less by American standards of lots of work, but hence a lot of work for a small African village that takes time and life a little slower, sometimes for better or for worse.

Ghana Update: Hello from the playland of Ghana everyone. Currently in less than 18 hours Ive had incredible Indian food, and a fillet mignon for dinner, and the smells of pizza are wafting in to this internet cafe, so I think thats next. I have to go back to Togo today, and I say that in the resigned sense, because when you are in Accra, you feel at home in comfortable sights and sounds of commerciality, overeating and just plain luxury. my hotel room's air conditioning was so cold I didnt know how to turn it down, and the customer service here is just like out of a dream, the way customer service was designed to be - really nice. Im going to go to the authentic Irish bar in Accra, where I can get a calzone and lots of Guinness on tap imported from Dublin itself. Its going to be a good day....Its incredible to me that each time I go to Accra, i still feel amazed that this country is next to togo, they just celebrated their 50th anniversary as a country last weekend and the flags are flying all over and patriotism is in the air. In Africa, patriotic feeling is something to cherish and be in awe of, and I can say I too, am a fan of Ghana...

Thursday March 8th,

Well just when you cant predict the next problem you have in third world construction projects, another one pops up. Oficially Togo is out of ciment. In the whole country. Yes you read that right. I had to send down the quasi Home Depot rep from Pagala to Lome to bribe people to pass some ciment in the black market our way. We came across 10 tons out of the 14 needed, and all of that safely arrived in an overnight truck this past Tuesday. But, no ciment? Are you kidding? What else can you throw at this project???? We are in the middle of putting our ears to teh wall and finding where else we can find ciment in this country so hopefully by early next week my contacts will have procurred the rest.

The distribution was, of course, a circus show with about 500 villagers milling around and I had to set up a security team to watch over the ciment, and then have multiple signing off points for beneficiary families so no one would pick up a few bags and make off with it. One person tried stealing the plastic ventilation pipes but luckily we caught him in time. My nurse and my village counterpart led the way, barking out orders for people to carry ciment bags up to 5K from the pickup point, and I was busy unloading and recalculating what i owed the Home Depot of Pagala now with 10 tons rather than 14 tons of ciment. In a word, it was crazy. But enjoyable. People were generally appreciative, and in doing rounds we have noticed all of the requisite sand and gravel being prepared. 4 tons of each is what we ask, which is a lot to carry from 5K away at the river.

Construction projects are good but behavior change projects that spoon off of them are even better and really why I am here. I hope to have a soap making training for all of the families after this project, so they can learn to make it on their own, which is more important than actually having a latrine to good hygiene. For now the well project looks to become something of a pump fixing project, as the village has made it clear that they are tired of wells drying up and instead we may comprmise, we will fix the pumps that being two of them and then hold a water training seminar for a few days of how to manage the finances of your pump. THat way we can at least say they were trained in good water management and maybe they can build a rainy day fund for when the pumps inevitably break. Normally the money is just put into their pockets with no record of any transcation taking place. On verra, we will see.

Im in Pagala this weekend to search ciment and then next Thursday we have our annual all volunteer conference where 100 of us in country get together for a conference on work issues of Togo. That is the weekend of the 17th of March, and then Im planning a little respite for a night in Accra to get away from things here to clear my head for a couple days and pick up a fellow PCV on leave in the States. Hope all is well. Write soon if you are free...

Wednesday Feb 28th

Hey everyone, this is a piece I wrote for the Griot, a literary magazine in Togo for PCVs. You may remember this story from last year, when I gave a simplified version of it for the website.

"The Day Laura Left Me to Burn"

A Memoir by Jeff "Peaches" Locke

It's a special time of year for new PCV's, that first month or two at post, and with all the hoopla about adjusting to village life, one tends to forget a more important rite of passage: getting to know your site mates. Post assignments tend to come in that first three weeks of stage, and, more often than not, you will barely know that special person who will later become your closest confidant for countless late-night, inebriated gossiping sessions. My "site mate" ended up being 25 km west of my village, with my village being her outlet for packages and goodies in Pagala, 30 km north of me. Going to post, I only knew her as "Mama Hen," her Philadelphia-given moniker. You know her as Laura Rishel. This is our story, as I remember it…

"Homme Simple" may have been the worst bush taxi on record. And if you are reading this from the confines of your walled-in Peace Corps mansion, with your fan running, please know I am an original member of the Double Flip Club – I know bush taxis, my friend. "Homme Simple" was the car's name, and also what I called the chauffeur, a term of endearment, if you will. He would start his day at 7 am, driving Laura and a car full of Marche Mamas, picking me up halfway through their 60 k, one-way jaunt to the big city of Pagala.

This Saturday seemed like any other Pagala Marche day. We arrived at the volunteer's house in Pagala, collected our mail for the past couple weeks, and proceeded to buy out the closest buvette of all bien fraiche Awooyos (P-town is Awooyo territory for those of you who don't know the Pagala Cluster). After a few hours touring the marche, Laura and I headed towards home, getting back in the 15-placer in our normal front seats, with her taking the middle seat between the chauffeur and myself. (It would be prudent to note that her seat lacked a back, having only a bench above the gearshift for her to squeeze into.)

We embarked on our 30 km journey to my house, with the African sun setting over the picturesque Pagala mountainside. I stared out at the scene of Fulanis setting out into the bush, marveling at how lucky I was to have this experience – nomadic tribesman, ample wagash every Pagala market day, and the makings of a wonderful cluster of PCVs near and around Pagala. (Hey, two out of three ain't bad…)

I settled into a comfortable silence with Laura as we passed the 20-foot statue of Jesus that overlooks the 5 km descent into my village. As I sat admiring the scene, Laura interrupted my train of thought to ask, "Hey, do you smell smoke?"

"Smoke?" I asked.

"Yeah, I smell it," she replied, and as she finished her sentence I took a whiff of what was definitely smoke.

Laura cried, "Shit, yeah, it's coming out of the vents! Chauffeur, is this a problem?" The Chauffeur smoked his cigarette and laughed at the crazy Yovo to his right, stating that "no, this smoke was not a problem."

(If you have never driven with Laura before, this would be a good time to mention that Laura usually critiques the driving techniques of Togolese chauffeurs. Homme Simple never seemed to take her critiques personally, always laughing them off because, well hey, he was a simple guy.)

Meanwhile, my attention was now concentrated on the smoke pilfering out of the vents. I noticed that underneath our feet on the floorboards were the remnants of a Christmas gone by, with Christmas packages arrived late from the States. As pepperoni sticks and sugarplums danced in my head, I saw the driver shut the car off as we descended past the statue of Jesus. However, as he shut the car off, Laura shot her legs up to the seat, yelling "Fire! Fire!"

Homme Simple decided that this fire may now indeed constitute a problem and moved to open his door, yelling to the packed van "Il faut descendre! Il faut descendre!!!" At his pronouncement, the rest of the Togolese in the van moved to get out the side door, moving faster as a group than at any point of my service observing Togolese behavior.

Before I knew it, the fire was now flaring to my immediate left, and Laura had taken this opportunity to leave the scene. As the other members of the van piled out of the car, which was still slowly moving down the hill, Laura pulled a scuba-diving move from her river guiding years, dive-bombing into the backseats, and rolling safely out of the burning vehicle.

My situation however was a bit more precarious. Left to get out the passenger door on my own, I noticed for the first time that the door lacked a latch to open. Everything inside me was screaming "Leave!" to join my site mate, who was now jogging down the hill to escape what could become an engine fire (anyone who knows me is aware that I am quite the car connaisseur).

I hurriedly grabbed the "Oh Shit!" bar, and proceeded to start pulling myself out the window. As I did so, Homme Simple ran around the car and started pushing my head back in. At this moment I have to admit, I had lost absolute faith in the Togolese to manage a crisis, until I realized that he was pushing me in to open the door for me, as he knew the "secret code." I, however, did not know the code.

For in the place of a latch, lay an old radio antennae, that if you knew the right way to jig it, could actually open the door. Homme Simple in his heart was a gentleman, who believed in Togolese customer service. Homme Simple realized that what I really wanted was to open the door the right way – not just get out the car to avoid being burned at all cost.

At this point I had some very pointed English phrases for where he could put his hands that were pushing me back into the flames. Finally, he jimmeyed the antennae and freed me from the inferno. As I stepped from the car, I heard in the distance a voice in english screaming, "Jeff! Jeff! Get my bag!!!"

Ignoring all rational thought, I put my body in harms way, pulling at the bags and Christmas packages on the floorboard. I gathered them all in my arms, feeling the heat sear onto my sweat-stained arms, and started running down the road to Laura, who as a good health volunteer had taken up a "triage" site (re: to watch Jeff burn) further away from the flames. As I ran away, Homme Simple started pouring dirt and sand on the flames.

From a distance, Laura and I watched the scene. Slowly passengers from the van ensured that the flame was put out, and that a problem could be accurately surmised (evidently, an electrical fire, go figure). The packages fell from my arms, and Laura and I could only laugh. As the sun finally set over the hill, Jesus stood watching (and maybe chuckling) at the scene at-hand, as Homme Simple invited us back into the car to finish the descent into village. We got in, and in so doing started what has since been, the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Monday Feb 26th

Fishing is one of the great pleasures of my life. Sitting in a stream, alone with your thoughts, having a lazy day somewhere...even in Africa. Due to my Uncle Richie, who sent me a pole last year, I've been doing some intermittent fishing over the last six months. But in Togo fishing brings with it its drawbacks. It is so personal watching people fish here in my river in Akaba, because frankly its what they catch that they eat for dinner. No fish, no eating. Im doing it for sport, and frankly I attract a crowd. Whats the white guy doing now???!!! About a dozen kids will follow me with my rod through village awaiting my next futile attempt at fishing, and I have to go far downstream til I lose enough of them not to disturb the actual fisherman in village. These men wade into the river with a net then throw their nets out and pull it back into a noose, capturing the fish inside. Its very personal and intimate to watch, and Ive been moved to tears at the sight of it. There I am fishing with a rod not catching a thing, while they are pulling in huge catfish. The other day they pulled in 4 catfish right down river from me, calling me over as they captured the fish then hit them over the head with a big machete. I then took pictures to refute anyones doubt of my big fish stories...

Fast forward to last week where I needed a break from the latrine saga to fish a bit. I finally had secured a vehicle for materials transport, and was going to celebrate with a bottle of wine and a long day at the Anie River in my village. As I settled in to a session, several men to my right were in the middle of a river doing their best Steve Irwin impressions. They called me over and I put down my pole and my fruitless efforts at catching something, and instead I watched them tackle and then hold on to a 5 foot crocodile. They held it as one of the men took a machete and beat it in between the eyes with a machete. And finally it died and stopped thrashing as the machete tore into it. It made excellent meat which I was able to enjoy later. All in all a really enjoyable experience, yet I have to date caught zero fish this year. Its just nice to be alone and at peace in village and not have anyone asking you where you are headed or what you are up to. Its just nice to be anonymous.

In the next two weeks I will be trucking in 14 tons of cement, large packets of aluminum, metal bars, plastic pipes, and will do a massive village distribution day to dole out the goods. People have been busy bringing materials for their benefit as well, such as mud bricks and sand and gravel. Should make for a wild time, one that I will remember the rest of my life. Should you be reading this and helped with the latrines, I thank you, the villagers are ready and eager to begin the work. We shall see how it goes, as Africa has shown me many times, nothing she does here is ever easy.

Saturday Feb 10th 2007



I thought Id use this opportunity to expand a bit on what I wrote on an earlier entry, regarding the role of women in Africa. I'm used to writing a few things each month, usually something that would not raise the ire of either the US Government or the Togolese government, and I try to keep this entry light and funny for the most part (though sometimes I cant help but show a bit of frustration). Several months ago I wrote about my African mother, Bridgett, who is a cloth maker who runs her own business with a set of apprentices and also sells shoes to go along with her batik cloths. While I was home I was able to give some of those cloths away as a gift, and received many compliments regarding them.



In that same entry I made a remark that I feel the "future of Africa" lies within the role played, demanded and given to women on this continent. It seemed to have struck a cord with some of the people who read this site, unlike any of my other entries, so I thought it could use some further exploring while viewed through the lens of the last few weeks in my village.



A day in the life of a woman in Africa: I left for my regional capital at 5 am in the morning on Friday to get her by 8 or so, so I would have enough time for meetings with government officials, and to grab a quick shower. Before I got on the motorcycle to leave village however, I usually say goodbye to my mother Bridgett and tell her when I should be expected back “home.” By five am on a Friday morning, no different than any other morning, she has already awoke, and swept the dirt compound of any excess trash or items lying around. Simultaneously she prepares breakfast of pate, or cornmeal, with a sauce that she had prepared at 10 pm the night prior, different to the one actually served at dinner. While breakfast is prepared, and after sweeping the dirt for thirty minutes or so, she puts a big wash basin on her head and walks to the river where she puts about 6-8 gallons on her head and walks it back to the house so everyone can shower before heading out for the day.



While everyone gets showered she gets the kids prepared for school, monitors their health and takes them to the clinic when necessary, and gets all of her materials out for the day, sandals and cloths, putting them out on display from 7 till 5 all day, every day. While her kids go to school she prepares new cloths, and prepares the rest of the day's meals and laundry, while getting more water and firewood from their fields during the later morning hours.



Now with all of this responsibility, she is also the keeper of the family's finances. And this is why I feel that women are the key to Africa's future. These women manage the household, manage the lives of everyone in it, and also manage the lives of these people balanced with their illnesses and any expenses henceforth needed. And these women come to family planning sessions to learn about ways they can keep their husbands happy (who usually refuse protection) while also keeping their families at a minimum number. How do families live on $250 a year here? By the amazing management of the women in Africa, who oversee the lives of 6-10 family members on that pittance. These women fake illnesses, come up with excuses, anything, in order to be able to get their shots or pills or supplies of microbicides (in Uganda and Ghana) in order to prevent pregnancy and/or HIV.



And that last statement sums up the courage that these women stir up. They face imminent danger in not obeying their husband's wishes' to avoid the clinic and any of our modern family planning options, yet do so for the betterment of the lives of their family. That is why Africa's future belongs to women - they are inherently trustworthy and are the source of much of the hope I have left here.



With regards to the latrines, we are forming a committee that will manage the water of the village. The pump is going to be fixed again, this time by the State, and the committee will oversee the finances of the pump, and the majority members will be women. Why? Because even in a hierarchal society, a patriarchal society, women are still the trusted source to protect the livelihoods of the family, rather than leave the money at the hands of someone who will blow it on liquor or any miscellaneous expense. Therefore all latrines will have a component of management mandating female oversight, because frankly without it, we don't have a chance at successfully overseeing the proper usage of the latrines. If we can have women monitoring other women in the use of latrines, one’s ability to have more members of the family using proper hygiene will augment exponentially.



In Uganda and Ghana, microbicide creams are being tested in situations that allow the females to put the cream on and have it dissipate before sex, while at the same time protecting the women and/or baby from HIV and/or pregnancy. In this fashion, much of the Bill Gates research has been directed, in order to promote the roles and responsibilities of women to decrease the spread of the disease. This is one of the positive NGO developments, using existing societal norms to work on continuing problems plaguing the society - women normally manage the family planning, so being able to better facilitate women's access to family planning methods that would decrease the spread of HIV while keeping African men from becoming upset. . . all that is a definite positive for the future of Africa.



So it continues. My education here is one that is very in my face, whether it be race relations, the role of women or the role of the State or the international community with regards to public health policy. I'm just along for the ride, and I'm still enjoying it (for the most part).



On a lighter note, I put in a new window at my house to better deal with the hot season. I also went fishing by myself and came across a man who pulled in a 6-foot catfish, actually a pair of them. He hit them over the head with a stick and then pulled a net around them. Me standing there with my pole tended towards looking like an idiot, as I failed to even bring in a perch or its equivalent in Africa. Alas, my life in a nutshell in Africa, me looking around in a fit of curiosity both by me and the perpetual audience that surrounds each solitary action that I take.

Saturday January 20th

Hello everyone. Its good to be back in the groove of village life, which is to say, living very slowly. The latrine project rolls along, as we have contracted our masons and have finished with site selection and are now just awaiting a few other small details. I hope to have them put in by the end of February or early to mid march at the latest. Having lived in Africa I now know these projects take time and that I have in abundance.

I spent the first few days back in village scrubbing the floors of my house and ridding the house of any rodents who have made camp in my absence. We celebrated Togos indepedence in village, as I watched the parade go all morning of basically everyone in my village walking past my house.

The past week has been a culinary success for me as well. Ive recently taken to cooking risotto and making homemade gnocchi with what the potatoes I bring in from outside of village. Its good to be back making interesting things in village where ironically you cant find any food outside of rice or pasta to buy and no veggies to boot. I have to bring everything in but thats no longer an issue with me.

Well Ill be back online at some point in the next few weeks and Il make it a longer entry with some thoughts on different aspects of this experience that some of us started to get into while I was in the States on development.

Friday January 12th

Ok everyone Im back safe and sound in the confines of West Africa. The flights were fine coming back, a bit delayed but the layover allowed us to travel around Casablanca and see what was up there. A nice city, pretty bland and didnt show what Morroco is really all about. I didnt get a chance to go to Merekesh or Fez which is where I here all the action is. Too bad but who knows one day I may go back.

The mosque however in Casa was amazing, costing around 3 billion dollars to make. Huge... And its the 3rd largest in the world. Caught a nice tour of it and some good digital shots that Ill try and put up on the website at some point.

This summer a few friends of mine and myself are running a summer camp so we needed to meet up with an NGO way up north taking around 16 hours to travel to, about 400 miles away. Since then I have taken my time getting back down country, for travelling here in the hot season is just that, hot and dirty and tiring.

And today brings village. You usually have a pit in your stomach going into isolation and I have it today. But its something that usually goes away about 3 or so days into village life, a life similar to early 19th century America, so Im sure itll be the same. Im awaiting the return of my friends who are still out of country, and itll be good to catch up with their stories of the States, which seems a bit like a dream at the moment.

Wednesday January 3rd,

Happy New Year everyone! I want to take a moment and thank everyone who I was able to get together with for taking the time out of the holiday season to see me. I really enjoyed spending time with famliy and close friends, and if we werent able to get together please accept my apologies for it was a really busy break...

I spent the first few days in New York City with my parents and my sister, and it was very eye opening. If you want culture shock from the third world, try walking down 5th Avenue during Christmas season. My eyes were kind of bugged out watching all the advertisements on big screens towering above city blocks, and taking in all the street smells of city pizza and "dirty dogs" on the street. It was good to spend time with my family off the bat, for the rest of the trip was a whirlwind.

My cousin Sheila came in from San Francisco to spend the holidays with the family, and she came in on the night of the concert. It was terrific catching up with her, and her presence at the concert made that night even more special.

Ahh yes, the concert. What an incredible evening to see the community of Rochester come out in support of this project and the school. Greece Athena, of which I am an alumni, put together under the direction of conductor Gary Samulski and Principal Richard Snyder, a wonderful evening of music, from school orchestra to choirs to jazz bands and individual soloists. To say the evening was just a pleasure to listen to would be an understatement. Thank you to all the many performers who gave of their time and effort, and to their families for their support, as most counts had the audience around 1,000 people. A terrific success! Without Mr. Samulski or Richard Snyder, the concert does not happen. Luckily we had their assistance and Greece Athena was able to raise enough money to build the sanitation system, with a chance to maybe think of some other projects in the future. I'll keep you updated as to what goes on. But nevertheless, to Joe Valone, to all the soloists, and most of all, my family and friends who were so helpful in putting this together, my most heartfelt thanks to you.

To the people who came, or who did not come but gave anyway, thank you. Your taking of the time to come out and listen to what Togo is about and what my experience has been like was really wonderful. Its rare to see that community involvement to this level these days, and to see it first hand is something I will remember the rest of my life.

And with that, this will be the one and only entry from the United States. Its been wonderful walking around Wegmans basking in the baked good aisles, ordering pizzas on a whim with great buffalo wings to go with it, and having endless supplies of homemade pasta and steak while at home. To see the generosity of those around me is really humbling, and I want to again thank you for coming around these last couple weeks. If you are still reading this entry, stay tuned, as I will look to update this in about a week or so, as I go "home" to Togo.

To Sean, Joe, Brian, and JJ, thanks for organizing togopalooza, and for taking me to Boston for New Years. It was a terrific time and I couldnt have enjoyed it more...

Who would have thought 16 months ago I would have thought of Togo as my new home? But its been a wild ride, and its about to continue. I hope you have enjoyed the intermission during the holidays, and as the famed Buffalo Bills radio announcer Van Miller, "Buckle your seat belts!"

Sunday December 3rd

Ok final stretch is here...I cant believe Im less than three weeks out from coming home...early plans are to see the family in NYC for a bit, then go to Rochester for the concert, Togopalooza and Christmas, then with some friends in Boston for the New Year. A friend of mine, Brett, will be visiting Rochester en route to the two of us visiting Casablanca for a day on the way back to Togo in January. Should be a great trip.

Im really looking forward to seeing everyone and I cant wait to share a drink and have some laughs over some of the stories I can tell ya about the last year, theres some good ones Ive left out for in person...

Togopalooza is still a go for Friday December 22nd. Look up JJ Wager on Facebook if you are internet savvy or email me if not...

And the benefit concert is really taking off. Special thanks to my parents and Gary Samulski for taking this idea and running with it. All I know is Joe Valone will be performing along with current music groups at Athena and I think it will be a really special night so come out and support a good cause....who doesnt like building latrines????

My project is in the final stages of approval by the administration here and then in DC and it should be up hopefully before I go home on this website. Its the holiday season, and if you have questions about the project feel free to email me or call me when in the States, 585 225 7670, to chat and catch up as well.

A quick World AIDS Day synopsis. I ran into some personal issues that took me out of village in the run up to the day, but our plans went off without a hitch, and our girls soccer tournament with all of the Greece jerseys were on full display. During the matches the Red Cross and I took to the schools and the field to give HIV talks and sketches and I think it went over really well, it was well attended in my village and it gave the girls a real opportunity to shine. Ive taken lots of photos of them in jerseys so I will give those out when I return to the States.

THis week marks one year in village. Thank you again for your support. By reading this, emailing me, writing me a letter; sending a package or calling me or just keeping me in your thoughts...thank you cant even begin to articulate how appreciative I am. But ill try anyways...thank you.

I hope to see you in the States and KEEP AN EYE on the website as over the next couple weeks the latrine fund will begin and therell be more information on this site about it and you can give direct with a link online. Thank you in advance and we ll talk more in the next few weeks Im sure.

Happy Holidays...

Sunday November 26th

hello all and a happy belated thanksgiving to everyone at home reading this. as i write this i had a wonderful, relaxing day at a pool in Kpalime, followed by a hotel who catered our thanksgiving dinner for 20 people. A nice Austrian and Togolais couple who have lived in the states gave us a wonderful smattering of pies, turkey, potatoes, green beans... the works! So it was a very different day for me as far as thanksgivings go but overall one that went really well. Its funny, i kind of now see how ex patriates stay outside the US for long periods, its really the first holidays that are the worst, after that the days tend to lose their US significance or at least change in their meaning for you. It was good to have my Togolais PCV family with me and to spend time with them from all over the country.

So officially I will be coming home for the holidays, and I want to cordially invite you, the reader, to two events:

December 3rd Jazz concert is cancelled and replaced with a Thursday, December 21st performance as part of a benefit concert at the APAC for a former music/band student (Jeff Locke) who is in the peace corp in Africa and trying to put a sanitation system in a tiny, underdeveloped African area (Togo)....more on this to follow... SAVE the date! (check the greeceathenabands website around Dec 1st for more details/pictures
That is the concert I hope that will finance my latrine project and if you are in town Id love for you to stop by and enjoy the sights and sounds of some of Athena's finest. It should be a great night and I'd like to thank Gary Samulski, my parents Jim and Noreen, my siblings Matt and Amy, the different members of the staff at Greece Athena High School, and best friends JJ Wager and Joe Valone who all have or will be having large roles in pulling off the benefit concert. Its truly amazing seeing the reaction of a community back home to your efforts here, and Id like to take a moment and thank Don Brown and Doug King again for their efforts at collecting womens soccer jerseys for Togo.

I just received about 200 more jerseys here in Lome, and they will be going out to women's soccer teams all across Togo with different volunteers who run teams in their towns or villages. These girls will truly treasure these jerseys and they will be the nicest things they've ever worn and they are really appreciative. Ive taken a bunch of pictures to display when I get home and to thank you all appropriately.

Also the next night, the 22nd of December, we will be throwing a bash entitled Togopalooza. If you are reading this consider yourself invited to a night of having a glass of wine, being able to spend a few minutes catching up, and me being able to thank you for your support over the last 15 months in Togo. Even as I write that its hard to believe its been that long. But if you want the time and place of this party, call my parents Jim and Noreen or email me for more details.

Ill try and write once more before going home but happy holidays until that point everyone...

Saturday November 11th 2006

Hey everyone. While the news in the States is inundated with the election news, maybe you can use a break from domestic news stories for a bit of international news or not really news but how about an update of where im at??? While as a member of Peace Corps I cant comment directly on the election that just occured in the States, Im neutral officially, I have to say it led to interesting discussions with the few really educated Togolaise i know who were generally interested on what this changeover means for the President and his foreign policies. It was a good cultural exchange of what our opinions are of democracies or at the idea of it at least.

So last I wrote I was in the midst of prepping the bike ride for HIV in the mountains of Badou, a large town in Togo where in five days we hauled 200 Km in the dirty, sandy and rocky mountain paths to little tiny villages who feted us with big meals, sodabe the local grain distilled liquor here and big dancing to go along with the big drums rolled out for our entrances to over 30 villages and touching 6000 people with our message of prevention and awareness. To say the least it was an interesting week for the 16 of us going on the ride in my region, there were four other regions going at it at the same time as well.

So basically what happens is you roll up to a village that knows your coming because we had been there 2 or 3 times earlier to explain why we were coming to talk about HIV, and once they realized we werent bringing a new clinic or pump they were genuinely happy we were coming to visit their village in the middle of nowhere. So you come in and the village takes about an hour past the meeting time to gather, and we would split in two groups one going to the local school and one meeting with the adults of the community. I did both during the week and some terrific sample questions when standing in front of 1000 people talking in french were......

Can you buy abstinence at a pharmacy as a product?

Why does the US want to kill Africans by giving them HIV made in US laboratories? This was a question that the South African Health Minister posed that someone heard on the radio and thought id be a good target to get a good answer from.

Why does the white man put HIV in condoms to kill the african?

When do you plan on giving the black man free ARVs like the black man in the US can get?

Some men who have 9 wives had never seen a condom before and that was interesting seeing their reactions to us waving wooden penises around with condoms on them. We talk of abstinence here in deference to President Bushs Pepfar campaign but im not sure anyone here actually practices it. Sex is run by the males who choose when and why, and thats why stuff like microbicides being developed in Uganda and Ghana are so huge for having women be able to protect themselves from HIV and or pregnancy, Im not up to date with all the research, but women cant say no here to sex, so giving them some sort of an out would be a good thing.

There were moments in the bike ride that were too gorgeous to talk about, prettier mountains than any ive seen in Ireland or Scotland, and to be on a bike just made me enjoy it more. I rode it with my homologue from another village Constant is his name, hes an artist and has worked for Peace Corps for a long time. If you ever need great African art let me know he makes some great stuff.

There were also moments in the bike ride when you feel your message isnt getting through, that you question why you are doing this but those moments are fewer and far between.

I then took off for a few days of helping the new group of trainees in Kpalime here. I helped them on family planning informational sessions and getting them ready for their post visits which they just completed and what is ususally an interesting week of getting followed around every day by 100 people just curious as to who and what your doing in their village. We obviously had a lot to talk about in terms of preparing them for what they just went through this week and it was good for me to note my own growth and how much I still have to go here by being back in the training village with my original host family and their new host son. Just an interesting perspective I guess, the baby girls are big now and their farmlm has grown and they are building a home in the capital so things are going well with them which I was glad to see. They treat me like family having me over to hang out and eat like a pig for a few days, so it was really well appreciated on my end.

Well outside of that I went back to village and rolled my sleeves up a bit getting back in the groove of village life. Time in village stands still, really village hasnt changed much since it was founded in the early 1900s by the Germans who did forced labor and made my ethnic group which is Kabye move in to work on the national road and do farming for them. Mud huts still abound and time is an abstract idea by looking at the sun and taking a guess. I now can look at the sun and be right on the time within up or down 15 minutes. Its pretty neat. But no one in village or at least practically no one has a working watch so every meeting tends to start about an hour or two later than advertised.

But this week was good for Peace Corps sent my boss over for an evaluation day. We are putting a new volunteer near me to replace me kind of about 12 k north of me, so we went to that village and said hello to the people im working with in the schools and in the clinic. Its comforting to know that if some of my work doesnt finish theres someone who can close the doors and is available to the village as well after im gone. Im not a big believer in sustainability right now but hey its a nice thought to have.

After my boss and I went to Nyammasila, the closest village to me on the national road. We met up with a member of the government health system who just finished a traininng in Waga in Burkina Faso, on different types of latrines that are new to West Africa. We went shopping for latrine types for my village and settled on a ecological sanitation model all above ground, and Ill be raising money on my website through a program called Peace Corps Partnership, where friends and family of mine and friends of theirs can donate to help with a project a PCV is working on. For me Ill be wanting to do 30 private family latrines in village to have about 60 families touched, making that 600 people hopefully now less affected by rampant fecal orally transmitted diseases that is very prevalent in my village. The Chamber of Commerce in my village asked for my help in this, and relatively soon you will see a new link that if you should choose to read about the project you may and should it strike you as something youd like to contribute to it can be done online.

So the latrine project is taking up a lot of my time finishing the budget and this week it will be sent to Washington for approval and once approved will go online. This week I am running a golf tourney for the Embassy and PCVs to send little girls to school in Togo and raise money among ourselves to help a scholarship that exists here, we hope to send about 80 girls to middle school next year with our proceeds Monday in the capital. Ill let you know how it goes.

And one other note of interest. To also help raise money for this latrine project, which in itself isnt sexy like an HIV ARV campaign but is needed for my village, my high school and friends of mine who are alumni will be performing a benefit concert before the Christmas holiday when I come home. Ill send more details on this and the latrines later but keep this in mind if you are thinking of seeing a holiday concert this holiday season...

Well next I write will be around Thanksgiving the day so please until then, have a good one.

Ssaturday October, 14th

Ok there I hear officially the fall season has hit the New York region. A foot of snow in Buffalo and snow elsewhere. Wow how I cant wait to see some snow and feel really cold for once...And I also see that the playoffs in baseball are winding up and the Bills are in for another losing season. That said there should be an interesting mid term election that I wish I could watch daily updates on, we ll see if the Dems take the House???

Well officially I am going to be home for Christmas and New Years and that is exciting. What turned into a mini fiasco buying a ticket and trying to get out money in a third world country was corrected by some wonderful people at the bank in the States and it made me happy to deal with good customer service again. Refreshing. My family and friends by now have heard of a rumored gathering when Im home tentatively titled Togopalooza, and Ill have a firmer date on that as it gets closer, because Id love to see everyone who is passing in town for the holiday and share a beer or glass of wine and see how you all are doing and maybe tell you a funny story to pass the time of my time here in Africa.

I think this is as good a time as any to talk a bit about my host mother in Africa. The wife of my nurse in my village, she is an incredibly strong woman, both physically and mentally, and is probably my most trusted person in village with regards to who else I CAN trust in village and who really is a good and honest person as well. She is my go to person about other people, and I love to spend time with her and my 2 year old host brother Michele, or Michael, who is learning remedial french and says Thank you Mother to me if I give him a piece of candy or something and always makes me laugh even if Im having a terrible day.

My mother in Africa is representative of the mothers I meet in Africa, who are very inspiring in that they can run a household and maybe a small business and send their kids to school and manage the finances and supply of food on less than 300 dollars a year. These women impress me with how defiant they can be to their husbands, and make sure their kids are in good health and are doing well. I think the key to Africas revitalizing resides in these women. If you want to talk about family planning, the health of babies, the finances of a family, you really want and need to talk to women in Africa who can and do amazing things with nothing and want the best for their families. With regards to HIV prevention and bed nets for preventing malaria the people you want to talk and work with are the women, because they hold the keys to Africas future. And its amazing to watch.

Ive been doing some work in the schools the past couple weeks, starting to organize health clubs and peer educator groups in a couple of villages including my own at the middle school level, which is the normal finishing level for 90 percent of this population so time is running short if you want to get to an 8th grader before he or she graduates about the need to plan for your familys future with your partner or the ABCs of preventing the spread of STIs and HIV.

A funny story to end on. I get a lot of questions about what I eat here and in general Im very taken care of. I cook, a small hobby from a past life that I wanted to continue here, so I make calzones, tofu asian sauces and recently expanded into some lebanese dishes. I started making falafel sandwiches with a huge plate of hummus to dip into, all from scratch. I had a friend over the other day, and she was crushing the chick peas onto a rock which is normal here in Togo, and she was adding the hot peppers and water at the same time. As she did so my mother was watching her intently and after, my friend was in agony as the water and hot pepper spices seeped into her pores and her hands swelled up and became way hotter than the rest of her body for over 3 hours. My mother put some local leaves and crushed them into her skin and kept saying, I was watching you do it wrong but I thought you were well integrated and have a different system than me, so I didnt sayi anything when you were adding the water but EVERYONE knows you cant crush peppers with water with two hands or else your hands will catch fire. My friend who had her hands in my cement water cystern just laughed through her tears as did I, another unknown fact of Africa that found its way to the surface when we needed to know it. Who knew you crush peppers with one hand on rocks when mixing with water??? That wasnt in the orientation guide to pcvs here... have a
good week all.

Saturday Septmenber 30th,

Hello all. This past month has gone by well with a varied work schedule in and out of village. I oversaw the new groups arrival to Togo and saw a lot of myself in their faces, filled with anxiety and nerves and asking a lot of questions. But I was also able to provide a few answers so it gave me a new sense of appreciation for my experiences here. This has had its ups and downs but Im here and enjoying myself and I tried to convey that to them.

After a few days of helping the group settle in, Jane Tim Travis and I stuck around to do our one year physicals and Im happy to report to all concerned I am in fine health. Knock on wood...The experience was capped by a round of golf together which as enjoyable, and its a work thing too as the four of us are running a golf tourney to put young girls in school in november with the embassy and the peace corps. Ive been pushing to do this because A I like to golf and B its a great way to make some cash for girls to continue their educations in Togo. A win win situation. Ive never run a golf tourney before but hey theres a first time for everything living in the developing world.

ANd next month our AIDS bike tourney goes off as well so im busy outside of village. Inside of village Im working with the schools to start health classes in my village and nearby villages, as well as work with the Red Cross on community health agents. Its nice to feel busy and have some projects to work on through next year already. Im finishing up financing details for the latrine project then I will let you know whats going with that, I think Im going to try and finance latrines for 90 families with the help of family and friends back home. And the girls soccer season starts soon and as soon as it does Im getting out all of those thank you pics to anyone who helped with that.

Ill be in touch soon! Keep those emails coming!!!

Friday September 8th,

So the highlight of my last year just happened and I want to thank
Lynne Cerullo for coming to visit me in Togo and it was just a
terrific time. I hope she enjoyed herself but it was definitely her
most different vacation of her life I can bet you that. If you visit
Africa you need to be calm and ready to face adversity, and from cars
losing tires at 40 mph or catching typhoid fever and spending a day at
a third world hospital, Lynne really was a trooper.

Lynne met a lot of volunteers here in Lome where I write this, seeing
our offices and the life of a capital in a thirld world country. She
then went up north to my regional capital, Atakpame, where we stayed
in our Peace Corps house and went to see the hippos. These mammouth
beasts were just awesome to see from the river banks up close, they
are really dangerous but it was great to just see wildlife here I dont
see that a lot. Lynne and I then went to my village where I threw a
party in her honor as well as to open my really nice bar that I put in
my house with Tyek wood, and about 15 volunteers came down for it.
The next morning we went to the Fulani camp about 15 k from my house,
and we hung and ate and drank with the nomadic tribesman seeing their
cows, they put on a traditional dance for us and we had a long
audience with the Chief on how they live. It was really cool.

My village then welcomed the new harvest of inyams with a huge party
that was previously scheduled but my friends Jane Laura and Lynnie
were able to party with us, literally eating at 6 in the morning fu fu
then going house to house for liquor and food through like 7 pm. We
then took a tour of Kpalime and the mountain area of southern Togo
where we caught sight of some monkeys, a huge troop of them in the
area called Badou. Really neat. We went to the waterfalls which I
think we enjoyed they were so pretty.

Unfortunately all great times must come to an end and sadly Lynne had
to go but it was so great for me to show someone my life here, and to
gain some perspective on my time here as the one year anniversary in
country approaches. Really its gone fast and while I know everyone's
life back home is changed I am confident we will fall back into old
friendships if my time with Lynne is any indication. I was asked to
be a trainer for the new group of health kids coming in so Im going to
a training week this week so Im reachable by phone through the 17th of
September. As I write this NFL football is getting started, GO BILLS!
Ill write soon.

Sunday August 20th, 2006

hello everyone...

well the dog days of august are hitting the states and its our winter here so its just delightful, 80 85 degrees everyday with a rain storm sometime in the day. i can actually get a full nights sleep without waking up in a chalk outline of my own sweat so im pretty happy with that. It is true what they say or what ive read they say, when you boil down life to its most simplest elements, eliminating pressures of american life, high end jobs, deadlines, family obligations school whatnot, life becomes a series of wakeup, work, find food and appreciate the little things, like nighttime breezes. During the hot season I would pay a lot of money for breezes but in the rainy season which is until the end of october theres enough to go around and its just great to have.

well its been a busy summer, im really busy with work in village for once and out of village with commitments as well. its a more american approach to life and im definitely american so its nice to feel busy. I had won a NGO grant to do a african bush AIDS campaign with murals and we have been working on that in my village, and we have been training community health workers to help at the hospital who can also be actors in our sketch group that I created. These guys and girls are great, from 15 to 40 years old and we have been working closely with the Red cross in training them and weve had a few village fetes incorporating them and our murals against AIDS, and its gone really well. Longer term budgets came in on my latrine project which i will explain at a later date, so things are moving along well.

Its been almost 6 weeks since last i wrote i think so to catch you up i was involved with another camp, this time for underprivileged togolaise youth and it was rewarding to have a week working on behavior change issues with them, i worked with boys on female empowerment, long term planning and general life issues over a week. Pretty rewarding stuff. I was able to send one girl to a camp too so im excited to hear how she liked it when i go back today.

Its a double edged sword here being white in Togo. First they think im french, they being any togolaise that does not know me, so that starts our conversation that no im american and i speak english better. And anywhere you walk you here Yovo screamedandsung by people along the road, so that can grate on you. But when you enter a place you do get treated like you are royalty with the best seats, glasses etc food you name it. And while everything costs more bc you are white or a yovo, people are so generous here. Ill give you two stories to illustrate my points here...

First i just got back from a two day 100 Km bike ride in the mountains of togo. I am charged with coordinating with a friend a ride for 16 people where we go for a week of aids talks in small villages not used to hearing people talk about health issues. I was in the back hills of these mountains having to get off my bike and walk up hills filled with sand and rock, in the sun and tramping up to these villages that have either never seen a white person before or if they have its been a european tourist, bc while you cant find a female and hardly a male in the village who can speak french, everyone calls you Yovo and asks for a cadeau, french for a gift. As brad and angelina show its fashionable to volunteer for a month in africa in the summer nowadays, and europeans here give out a few bucks bc its nothing when your on vacation, but when your living on a few bucks a day you feel bad but you cant give out money if youd like to eat.

but these tiny villages of a few hundred people welcomed us, kids screaming in terror and older men taking our bikes and we would have meetings with the Chief and explain what we would like to do through an interpreter, ususally a 6th grade boy in the village. Then he would thank us for coming to build a building in his village and we would have to start our AIDS Ride intro again until they kind of understood why 16 yovos are coming to their village when no one has been there prior. But then they feed you, give you local beer or liquor, and we stayed over in a mountain village, with them finding us a room to stay. It was very Mountains Beyond mountains if youve read that book by tracy kidder, just me and my friend biking to prepare a health week where we work on prevention with groups that have never had it before, but deserve it. I was inspired and the views on the mountain were to die for so it was tiring but worth it. AIDS Ride is in October so stay tuned ill keep you update on how it goes.


On that Yovo strain, the village next to me has the giant jesus statue and a huge church in the middle of nowhere, literally, with european imported rock. A villager had become a priest and worked his way up the Vatican chain to become the head of africas communication division, and he comes once a year back to his village to help develop it with wells and water pumps etc. He showed up last week and Emanuel and i were called to see him.

We went over and there was literally 1000 people on his front lawn, its a mud hut village save his house which has electricity. And we were ushered past teh villagers and because of my heightened social status I was able to sit with John Pauls and Benedicts communication officer, and it was so interesting being with him and the Togolaise ex pats from france, doctors etc. Its a social circle im not in often in Togo. But he had brought all sorts of italian goodies, wine coffee breads meats and it was a little slice of Heaven for a few hours. Just a great experience and next time in rome im gonna need to see if i can meet him again in a very different environment...

So there you have it. Just finished White Mans Burden, a book that has set the international development world on fire and one im recommending if u need some summer reading interesting stuff in there. My opinion of development changes often and its left me with quite an impression. Let me know if youve read it.

Lynne my bestus friend from Albany comes sunday and im thrilled i cant wait for her to show up. We are gonna try and see hippos, fulanis, party a bit and just enjoy west african life. Its such a cool thing her coming and i want to thank her publicly and im sure itll be a great trip.

Until next time...

Saturday July 15th,

Hey everyone, happy belated fourth of july and happy belated birthdays to those that are this month I know theres a lot of family and friends who are having one or had one pass recently.

My fourth of July was spent in village, quiet, listening to Billy Joel and Sinatra, having pizza and a cold beer to celebrate in the style of how our forefathers did it originally, sans electricity or running water. i burned my trash to signify my firework celebration and that went well.

Other notes of interest...The camp for kids stricken with HIV or having been orphaned by parents with HIV was just incredible. It was the first time in Togo I could see verifiable difference in the work Im doing and it was rewarding to see it happen over the week I spent as a camp counselor there. I oversaw six kids, Masdouc, Alex, Louis, Tarriq, Komi and Mouctar; ages went from 8 to 18 and we bunked in a cabin together. I taught them card games, played water balloons with them and found a launcher for a really interesting afternoon with my buddy Tim, raining water balloons on them which they had a blast with. We had sessions on discrimination, womens rights, reproductive health, etc, and it was a good mix of education and just letting them be kids for once in their life.

Its tough to describe this camp and the plethora of emotions you go through but Ill give you an example. One night we went into a big building, sat on couch cushions on the floor with lighted candles, and had the 40 kids talk about their lives with HIV or having lost parents to a disease, which most dont know that it was HIV bc the families dont tell them.

Alex was my oldest camper, 18 years old, and in 8th grade which is normal for Togo. A great student, he had lost both parents to HIV within the last year, and now tends to his sister who is sick, which I imagine is the disease as well. He cooks, cleans, and sells little trinkets in the market to make some money, and owns some land to farm from his father. He doesnt have the 8 dollars it takes to go to school next year, but hes studying nonetheless. He lives across from a bar and at night around 11 pm he goes and studies under the light for two hours before waking at dawn to sweep the house.

It took me ten months to adapt to the poverty level here in Togo and then voila, you enter a whole new level of understanding here. THere wasnt a dry eye in that building that night and its a night Ill never forget for the rest of my life.

I had a visitor recently in village, and its always fun to have someone to kick back with. We had a field trip about 14 km into the bush, walking on farm paths to a little encampment near my village filled with Fulanis. If you are reading this google them and maybe you can find a picture of themin their beautiful jewelry and makeup. They are nomads who herd cattle, and they are always on the move across west africa but there exists camps made of thatched roof huts with tarps over them where they can stay when passing way way into the bush. they speak Housa a language of Niger, and it was awesome to visit their camp. we stayed in the chiefs house for a couple hours as we were served risotto, milk from a cow, and fresh cheese pulled as we spoke with them. it was a wild experience to see how they live bc normally u just see them walking with 50 cattle in the fields crossing towns and countries as if they were nothing. they invited me to a party in late august so we will see how that goes.

im working on getting the money and starting my message mural campaign with PSI in my village this week so I hope everyone is well, im busy and doing just fine. Theres one more camp this summer for underprivileged boys and girls that Ill attend in early august and then my best friend Lynne from Albany is visiting at the end of august so its going to be a fun race to the end of the summer.

Until then...

Thursday June 22nd

Hello everyone its been awhile please excuse the absence. I just finished watching Ghana beat up the US and go to the second round and i say bravo. I had a chance to watch old games of theirs in ghana and actually predicted to those there with me that theyd get to the second round. They are terrific. its world cup fevor here in togo. Most village togalaise cant afford the 20 cents to watch the game in village but ive been there and have seen a lot of games with friends of mine in village. We should have won or at least tied the Korea game but the swiss were too much for us. Tomorrow is gonna be a helluva match against France, the French are really despised here and we have nothing to lose but pride so im betting on a Togo win or at least tie. Ill wear my American colors proudly though in case they do win and the rioting starts...though Ive had to take a lot of talk because the Americans faired so poorly in the cup. But the one goal Togo did score was awesome to watch people were dancing and partying in village like nothing ive ever seen. At least until Korea tied it up in the second half...Soccer at a national level takes on a significance we cant know in teh US bc we havent been ravaged by disease and tough tough times since the' Civil War. But it was great to see Togalaise of every ethnic strife united not only behind our team but behind the team of every african nation in the cup. this was a big positive for this country regardless of the games outcome.

speaking of ghana, my vacation there was terrific. The 3 days spent there was too short but alas well worth it. We packed a lot in there, a short stop in accra for lunch, quick tours of the slave castles, which were very moving, and a rope walk over the rainforest. We spent most of our time travelling in Ghanas excellent public transportation system.

Ghana itself is beautiful and is a lot more developed than Togo is. You see the difference really about 10 minutes over the border, travelling in one seat to yourself versus half a seat in Togo, and you see it in the foreign investment and plentiful educational opportunities available in Ghana. I didnt see alot of accra or ghana in general in the short time there but accra struck me as Myrtle Beach South Carolina minus the golf courses but with all the chain restaurants and shopping. We dont have that in Togo. Seeing all this touched off a lot of debates among the PCVs i was with, Jane and Brett and Time and Katie and Casey among them, on development issues but i definitely appreciated ghana and want to go back over my two years here, well actually 17 months more to be more precise.

The next month brings latrine discussions in village, more on that is coming bc ill be raising money online with that, and then HIV orphan summer camps which Ill be a counselor at, which should be a highlight of my experience as a volunteer here. Ive been told its one of the most amazing times of your life, being near kids affected by HIV. Ill be back online in mid July; hope the summer kicks off well for everyone back home.

Monday May, 22nd

Hey everyone. Happy post May Day. We just finished a four day formation for birthing mothers that my predesessor started six months ago, and it really was an uplifting time to listen of stories of people 20 miles in the bush helping birth babies or evacuate babies or diagnos infections, all through the help of some able volunteers before me. It was great to have 10 african women in a room just talking in local language and me and my nurse being able to pose questions for discussion, ranging on taboo cultural topics such as female orgasm to how to birth a baby when both feet are stuck sideways using local remedies passed down for generations. It truly made me feel honored to be part of this project, and im lauding over it because it wasnt mine but was able to participate in it.

A couple other notes of interest...taking a vacation to ghana in early June to go climbing on tops of rain forests and eating sushi and things of that sort, and able available next week as I start to take on a project for latrines, to put into application in my village over the next year. Its a long project that you will be able to learn more about in detail later, but for now ill be available by phone next Tues-Friday June 2nd, until the 3rd of June.

For you adventure seekers out there, I had my first brush with snakes at my house the other day. I sleep outside on a mat occaisionally because its so hot out, and I was sick that day spending a good portion of the day in my lavratory, and on my way there I came face to face with a viper on my porch. I frantically called my host father to come over and bring sticks to kill it, and we took it on in style, beating it as it fled to the hole it came in on, which I have now plugged. Oh the joys of going to the bathroom in Togo....

Ill update again from the training on latrine building next week. Have a good one. And a belated happy mothers day to my mother Noreen!
Hi Ma!

Saturday May 6th, 2006

For those of you soccer buffs out there, get ready to see Togo enter its first world cup next month. The streets are going to be wild here literally everyone will be watching or listening to the game, hell they cancelled a month of school to watch the games. The France and Togo matchup should be particularly wild, a great colonial rivalry, the French are really disliked here and I try and make a point of using my bad french to point out I am American here, for they generally like us.

But back to soccer. Our girls soccer team has taken a few blows from the elementary girls teams in village, remember though that this is africa so the girls on the elementary team and the girls on the middle school team could both be the same age. Anyways we lost two straight to finally come and win one against the village apprentices. On Labor Day here in village we had a big party, then had the girls play the first game, where our starting halfback knocked a corner kick in the from the post off another girls head, I swear it was like watching sportscenter. Then what I really love is when you score a goal the entire fan group rushes the field, wherein I was scooped up on my nurses head and we paraded around the field for the 2-0 victory. We started halftime and post game chats locking out the crowds to have the girls analyze how they were doing without coach input, and I like where this is headed. They pointed out they needed more help after the goalie kicked it back at them on defense, and in the second half they corrected it themselves. Girls empowerment really is touching to watch happen.

I then played as the starting halfback for the functionnaires or the people with jobs in village, against the farmers. I was really like the celeb in the celeb pro ams, because after 15 minutes they subbed me and the 65 year old men who run as fast as I do, out, and put in the real players. We tied 1-1, but werent able to get over the sorcerers curse that he put on the opposing goal so we wouldnt score another goal...I tell ya African sorcercy is a battle here in more ways then one...

Thanks for checking in, love you all

Saturday April 22nd

This is probably the most bittersweet email Ive ever written. Africa, she has a way of giving you her best and worst over the span of a week, and last week was my time for it. I want to start off by thanking from the bottom of my heart, the generosity and heartfelt help my girls middle school soccer team has received from my hometown. To Doug King, Coach Don Brown, Randy Hutto, Coach Hubie and Butler...to the teams of Athena and Arcadia and the full roster of men and female coaches at the Athena athletic department.... thank you. Words cannot express how my girls reacted upon hearing the news of the soccer jerseys, goalie jerseys, socks, shorts, plethora of balls and pumps, and nets for the goals, arriving by the end of the month courtesy of Paul Johnson and the Department of State's diplomatic pouch. This donation will make the games the girls have as we travel to face other villages the highlight of these young girls' lives. And not just for today but for the rest of their lives. To see their faces when they play soccer, having the community watch and cheer them, for a moment they are able to forget how hard of a life they have here, and just be young girls for a few hours. To say I am indebted to you would be an understatement. I will be taking pictures of the girls in uniform, and we are sending thank you notes to all involved. From my Chief, to the coaching staff, to my nurse and on behalf of the Peace Corps....thank you. To the people who donated cash at Doug's shop, that was really sweet, to start a collection to send what was a 500 dollar package overseas...a real wonderful story.

And to the victory of the week...Countless hours of meetings, frustrations, tough days all came to fruition and a validation moment for me coming last week. By the stroke of luck we found a mechanic who was trained by an Arab NGO 15 years ago on water pumps. We worked to bring him to my village, for him to price out the 3 broken pumps so we could begin saving the 900 expected dollars to provide clean water to 3000 people. His name was De Gaulle, a towering man, and he worked all day in the sun with me, my friend Jane another PCV, my Chief, my nurs, 20 village men and the Chamber of commerce, to open a pump and begin repairing it. Instead of working on 3 pumps he concentrated on 1 pump, taking parts from the other 2 pumps, and adding new ones to fix the broken pumps. Our bill came to 90 dollars because we fixed with electrical tape a 200 dollar item, and after pulling out the 50 meter USAID pump, we put it back in, realized one other thing needed to be changed, and 8 hours in the African sun later, brown then clear water was shooting out of our foot pump. I cried, Jane and I danced, we jumped and hollered and ended up having chook and beer all night long, our village now has clean water again, no more using the river filled with disease. We then organized female run committees to manage the pump, bridging ethnic and neighborhood differences, and we will use the revenue gained to fix the other 2 pumps. It was a truly magical experience to see how you can affect the lives of 3000 people and their health in a long process that is continuing. But the first big project of the chamber of commerce is successful, and i was so happy i was buzzing all week...

I was buzzing until the bitter part of my week. We have a birthing mother in village, and unfortunately she was indisposed to help with the birthing of a child one night at the clinic. It rained that day and the dirt roads were a mess, untravellable at night. The mother had malaria, and was weak; and had lost a child during birth the last time due to her weak state. This time the child needed to be cut out; but we dont have that capacity in the bush, and normally have the laboring mother take a motorcycle for 2 hours to the hospital. We didnt have this option with the rain. I had to help with the birth because the birthing mother was not available, helping run drugs and products and water and any thing else you need in birthing a baby in the african bush. She had no pain medication and teh labor lasted 8 hours, she lied on the cement floor of the clinic withering in pain. It was awful to watch. What was worse was that my nurse finally turned the baby around to come out the right way, and when it did, it had lost its oxygen supply. It came out and died in his arms, while we tried CPR then using different products to try and revive her heart and breathing through injection. If we had had an oxygen mask he said the baby would have lived. It was a beautiful baby, healthy, just was born in the bush....

So anyways those 3 stories sum up my last 3 weeks nicely. Im sorry for the downer last story but im slowly trying to show the realities of health care in the african bush, while trying to keep some funny heartwarming stories still front and center. I had a nice Easter with my family here, guinea fowl and chook, and I will be back with internet in two fridays the 4th of May, avialble by phone as well that weekend. Have a good one.
Oh yes; thank you for the overwhelming response to my cry for emails i promise to only do that once every 7 months or so, but thanks for the outpourintg of emails Ill write everyone back when I can.

Saturday April 1st, 2006

Hello all hope this update finds you well. Its been an interesting last two weeks. I started making calzones at my house and my host family really likes them. For a house in the bush I have a nice kitchen, island cutting table, a table with a sink that i put in, with water in a basin that i throw out after use outside. I have a shelf with supplies on it and a cabinent for food both from Kate my predecessor. In the Better Bush and Jardin section of our PCV magazine I nominated myself for best kitchen. I even have a starbucks cooking apron that i found at a market here.

Work is so so. We have a very monolithic village run by a chief and advisors from the last chief. However the professionals, the college graduates, are other ethnicities who are not allowed to make village decisions. This is a preface to explaining we were given one fifth of the money needed to fix a pump in village by an outside source, and instead the chief passed it to each neighborhood chief, putting us further from our goal of collecting the 320 dollars needed to fix the pump. The professionals and the chamber wanted the money put to the pump as did I. We had many meetings over this and other pump issues and all I have to say is that it is a dog fight and we will see how long it takes to be successful. This is definitely the hardest thing I have taken on in my life, getting a community beset with cultural and educational barriers to come together, and while its not big relativity wise, for our tiny village, heres hoping...

I caught the solar eclipse with some villagers and nearby pcvs. It was a total eclipse in my neck of the woods, with a couple minutes of darkness at 9 in the morning. To see the sun totally blocked except for the outside ring by the moon was really cool and may be the only total one I ever see. The Togolaise in my village all ran indoors for the 3 hours of the eclipse, save a couple profesionnals who could afford the dollar to buy the glasses that I wore to protect our eyes. THere were rumors in village that it was sorcery, which I tried to disspel with my boss in village the nurse, we went school to school explaining the eclipse and how to watch it or avoid it.

Thats a good snyposis for now but I will say if you reading this, please extend me the favor of writing me a quick email, my emails have trickled to just my mother, which is great, but I see over 2,100 people have checked this site and I would really appreciate you taking a minute to give me an update on the latest movie u saw, the price of milk and gas, and any other details that people think are unimportant but I really would like to hear about....

Monday March 20th, 2006

Hello everyone! It feels weird typing on an american computer i type really slowly bc ive forgotten how to use the y, w, p, and other letters all different on french keyboards. Things are well at chez moi, been doing some serious chamber of commerce work in village, establishing some type of communication and sociopolitical infrastructure takes time, as I am slowly realizing. We are starting a pump water project basically attempting to fix the broken ones in village, which are really all of them, but we need to establish some type of honest brokerage system for charging for water, and keeping the money in a pool for when the pump breaks so it doesnt take 2 years to fix like our situation now. We shall see how it goes.

I tried snake the other day, it was very tasty, a bit bony but you got used to fishing the bones out of your teeth after awhile. I also had a few friends come over and see my village for a few days, helping with vaccinations and whatnot, and its good to play host, making pizza and alfredo pasta. Then before I left for a week seminar on grant writing with my friend from village Mana who is a farmer in the chamber of commerce, i had an interesting offer. Some neighbors killed an oranguatan off of the reserve next to my house, and then brought over the oranguatuan dead and offered to sell me the meat for teh equivalent of 8 US dollars, or my daily pay here. Animal activists out there, please know i declined.

I spent the past few days in Lome, doing work days and meeting with PLAN Togo and PSI, an international US NGO, on some project grants we are working on in my neck of the woods. It was also cause for celebration, as a friend of mine's parents came down, my friend being Katie, and put her and all of her 7 or 8 friends up in a really swanky resort hotel in Lome, the only one of its kind here. We had AC, plush carpeting, elevators, nice bars, olympic pools, horses roaming the grounds - it was surreal and so very kind of them to include us on that, plus several food outings to taste imported beef and other things that was just terrific to have. Its not easy being a vegetarian Ill say that much, and if Katie's parents are reading this, thank you again (grand merci encore), and it was so sweet of them to bring me a portable DVD player that my parents sent to them, so 2X a week there will be movies at chez moi, rechargeable batteries being recharged in atakpame monthly!!!!

Six months has passed now in the Peace Corps. Its been a fun ride and Im ready for the next step in the process, the 6 month to a year mark is a watershed moment so here we go. For those of you still writing or sending a letter or package, my sincere thanks and know I really appreciate it, I have been truly humbled by the generosity of those at home in the States. Next time I write will be in two Fridays from now, im available that weekend with reception for cell access as well.

Thanks for checking in everyone!!

February 26th 2006 . . .

Greetings and happy belated Valentines Day. Its that time for a new submission to the monthly column so I had previously promised another Jesus story so here it is...

Mamahen, my closest neighbor, and I travel together on Saturday mornings to get our mail with this ratty 1970 European minivan thats been stripped of all comforts including interior spedometers, lights, seat cushions, and paint. Id actually be hard pressed to call it a car, bc in the States it would have been junked about 15 years ago. Nevertheless our journey to get our mail was successful, grabbing our mail and a quick soda with friends in the area. The same van takes us to and fro, with 8 legal spots inside the van that the taxi brusse puts 16 people inside, and then puts another 8 or so on top of the van so the van is well over its weight limit when you throw in some chickens goats and other assortment of animals on peoples laps. Laura and I get the seats of distinction up front with the driver, with Laura in the middle and me on the end.

We commence our journey home, and its a gorgeous african sunset, with mountains in the background and it seems like veggie burgers and fries await us toute de suite. However taking you back to another entry, we pass the Jesus 15 foot statue in the middle of nowhere, him on the cross bleeding, as we go down hill about 15 km from my home.

Laura looks at me and asks if i smell smoke. I say no then sniff again and shes right the air vents are spewing smoke out. She asks the driver if we should stop and he laughs and says we are fine. About a minute later we pass Jesus, and the driver shuts the car off as they do to save gas when travelling downhill, and then looks at his and Lauras feet.

Below there is a raging electrical fire that has now entered through teh floorboards, and on the floorboards at our feet are our bags and all of the really nice and thoughtful letters and packages we had picked up for the week. Laura is screaming and the driver jumps out of the van as we roll downhill yelling Il faut descendre, il faut descendre, It is necessary to descend...and then the 24 people in the van panic and go for the doors.

The people in the back throw open the back door, and the Togolaise pile out faster than a blink of an eye. Laura meanwhile is telling me to get out, but my door is a trick door. It lacks a handle on the inside or outside and the driver had jimmy rigged an antennae to double as a lever that if u know how to jiggle it right the door pops open. Normally he opens the door for me so I dont know how to do this. I frantically flail at trying to get out through the door then look back to see Laura dive backwards out of the front and roll out of the van with the others.

At this time I decide that now is not a good time to learn how to open the door so I grab the Oh Crap bar at my head and try to swing myself through the window. As I do so the driver and his apprentice are trying to open the door from the lever on the outside, and see me coming at them and push my head back into the van yelling at me to stay there so they can open the door.

I had some choice words for the driver in english, as they pushed me inside and popped the door. I scramble outside the car, last one out, and Laura who had run down the road thinking the engine had caught fire and that the car was going to blow, yells from the distance, grab my bag Jeff...and i grab the bags and the packages and run down the hill as the others pour sand and dirt to put out the fire.

As I run the packages break open and go all over the road, and at that moment the sun sets behind Jesus perfectly over the hill, and Laura and I are laughing and crying so hard that we cant stop laughing. Eventually they put the fire out, established it was an electrical fire, by this time its dark and its too far to walk at night, so we have to wait until the driver disconnects the electrical wires he thinks were the culprits, and then we all piled in and got back on the road, coming home a bit later, and a bit more light hearted, than when we had left our post office. Oh, the joys of African transport....

On a work related note, Ive set up a girls middle school soccer team and a Big Sister program for area girls between middle and elementary schools, but I wanted to put out there that if u are reading this with access to used soccer jerseys that you would be willing to donate in a set of 11, I would be sincerely in your debt. I have written to area high schools back home in search of jerseys, so we will see if that route is possible but if not, my girls could use any old practice team jerseys that you could be looking to discard. If thats possible send me an email I would appreciate it.

We caught a Stilt festival this past weekend in atakpame where different neighborhood stilt teams did acrobatic stunts on stilts,and it was a pleasure to watch in the stadium in town. We then had dinner with the Ambassador and his wife, and held a reception in their honor at the house here, and it has been a great weekend seeing friends and having cold drinks. Should you want to call I leave tomorrow and then can take calls the following Monday the 6th from 12 noon EST through Sunday 7 am EST. Please stay in touch...

Monday February 13th, 2006

Hello all happy mid February.
Things are good in my neck of the woods...just getting back from spending the weekend visiting a friend of mines post in the mountains of Togo, Agou. There is just a terrific view, and the winds still exist down there and its incredibly lush and rich with fruits such as pineapple even this late in season...elsewhere you cannot find that type of fruit because it resembles fall in America when all the leaves have fallen off except its about 120 at night in my 2 room 4 window house...

THats a good segway to talking about the last few weeks. One story of notice is that I needed to put new screens in for the next year so I had the carpentar come over in village. He and his assistants have to pound the wood window out of the cement wall frame and when doing so, on the 2nd of 4 windows, hits his hammer so hard he hits through my wall and creates this huge crack wherein he says its necessary to blow it all open now that its cracked or else it would fall piece by piece. He blows open this huge 4 foot hole in my wall and theres a road behind my house that people then could peer in my house...theres no carpentar insurance here in Togo so I had to call the maison who came over later in the day. Meanwhile I had lunch and ate a lot of chocolate and Triscuits to get over my feeling of hysteria at missing a huge portion of my wall with Peace Corps coming to check on my security the next day...

After having my share of Triscuits eight hours later the maison came and built me a new wall and they put up my window again; with a beautiful new screen. But to see the 25 people staring into the Yovos room to see what he owns and how he lives was an experience; at one point the carpentar in local language was telling everyone what kinds of food I eat in village bc he was examining my pantry for quote unquote damage....

Work related stuff...class with the middle schoolers is going well we are reviewing the meaning of Hamas rise in Palestine and going over the events related to the cartoons worldwide. This week the vetrinarian in Togo is coming to my town to give a talk with me and Emanuele regarding bird flu and how to better protect against the possibility of my 100 percent farming community from receiving it. No worries though because though it may be in Nigeria, there is no human to human transmissions and frankly nothing in Togo to give pause at the moment. So please no worrying...

Also work has commenced with the Chamber of commerce and the Red Cross, I have a new partner to work with, Jean, my regional representative. We are working on creating a 20 member peer educator system for my community and are getting ready to train them on AIDS and the like. Lots of meetings to prepare for it but hopefully it will be a productive endeavor in behavior change soon, and it may lead to further needs such as creating a mothers club to combat malnutrition in village and create a latrine system in lieu of them using the roads or their houses...more on that in a later email.

if youd like to get a good view at how it is to be a Togolaise woman please check out the first two chapters of Do They Hear You When You Cry? It should be in your library and its on female genital mutiliation, as a warning...But its an accurate account of how it is here, she was lucky to have been so rich in Togo but that didnt seem to have much effect on her second rate status here as you may read...

Ill be in town again in 11 days so Ill update again around then.

Love you all, and thanks for checking up on me!

Monday January 23rd, 2006

Hello all and Happy belated New Years. I was able to celebrate the Muslim new year as well this year in village and the dancing and guinea fowl were plentiful.

I have to take a moment and send my heartfelt thoughts to my Albany friends now dispersed throughout the globe, I miss you and am thinking of you and Greg daily. Im not sure what else to say on this on a website but know I felt I needed to share that.

The last month in village has gone fine. January in Togo for public health means tallying up your receipts and reporting in to the government so that is why I am in a town with email until tomorrow Jan 24th. I will be back here for another meeting around Jan 17th for three days as well.

For those wanting to see tangible evidence the Peace Corps can impact a village positively my hat goes off to the woman PCV Kate before me. With her work giving talks and working to set up a Population Services International condom selling distribution system that has now been cancelled due to lack of US funding, her and my boss cut teenage pregnancies in my village from an average of 27 down to 15 in her years here...thats tangible results and I feel proud to try and extend that work. The analogy I use here is that in the US being in the inner city gives you two strikes growing up but being born in Africa, in a village, poor and as a woman, puts you about 9 innings and two outs into the game and you are losing by 10 runs, so the work trying to cut down on pregancy rates I feel is needed.

My move in to the house has gone fine, a few slip ups with a 3 foot hole in my wall by my carpentar trying to fix my window, but other than that life in Akaba is well. Ill have some more stories to share next time I am in Atakpame, a preview being a fire in a car story and some thoughts on cotton trading.

Hope you have a good Valentines Day

The early postings have been removed due to saving disk space. when i am back i'll have everything put together somehow so no worries, i have the copies.

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