Hey everybody, I’ve been at post for a little over a month now. I’m doing well, though there are tons of challenges every day. Some of my greatest triumphs so far?
Finding eggs was a big one. Despite an overwhelming abundance of incredibly annoying chickens that start crowing at 3 am and poop all over my porch everyday, eggs were not readily available for the first few weeks at post. Then, one day, while searching for phone credit, I wandered down to the local bar (no electricity, so not that appealing unless you’re into beer that’s at the nice warm temperature of Africa degrees Fahrenheit) and discovered that while phone credit was a no go, they had eggs! Since then, I’ve enjoyed fried rice on occasion and French toast on Wednesday, which is market day, or as I like to call it, bread day.
Another triumph was building a table to prepare food on. I purchased a garde-manger (basically a cabinet with a screen door to keep mice out), a coffee table, and a bench (so versatile!) from a carpenter and had it shipped in to village on a giant truck. But while not having to cook on the floor was a definite improvement, my stove took up most of my coffee table space, and didn’t leave much room for chopping the onions. Onions, by the way, are great, because you can find them in village, and they can survive through the week to the next market day without refrigeration. How did I solve this seemingly intractable kitchen-space conundrum? Well, I can tell you that I certainly did not buy another table. Instead, I took my bedroom door off its hinges and rested it on top of my garde-manger and two logs made from a tree I had a little kid cut down. No, I have not planted any trees yet, so yes, that does put me in the hole as far as reforestation goes, but cut me some slack; I’ve got two years here to plant trees, and having a big kitchen countertop with a door handle in the middle is oh so convenient.
Also, I’ve triumphed over the noises that used to keep me awake at night, those noises consisting of rats scrambling around above my ceiling (made out of cement bags sewn together), bats chirping above my cement bag ceiling, sheep bleeting outside, and kung-fu movies being played at ear-splitting volume a few houses away Every. Single. Night. There is no worse soundtrack for sleeping than a crummy kung-fu soundtrack, what with the badly dubbed voices and over-the-top kicking and punching noises. Contrary to popular belief, village is not a particularly quiet place. Animals, motorcycles, movies and music being played as loud as possible, as is the norm in Togolese culture, and people just plain yelling at each other all contribute to a very loud environment. The notion of “inside voices” doesn’t really exist here as far as I have seen. This may have something to do with the fact that people live the majority of their lives outside, be it cooking, going to the farm, or taking an afternoon nap. But all the same, I’ve triumphed, and can sleep like a champ no matter the sonic assault taking place on my nice little bedroom.
I hope that the next time I post (a month from now, maybe? If I’m lucky?) I’ll have some stories of work-related triumphs. But for now my job is simply to get at home in my new surroundings. All I have to do is learn a complicated tonal language, make friends, find my way around the commerce system here, much of which involves going to people’s houses and asking for peanut butter, and figure out what the most pressing environmental needs of this community are. Easy, right? A cinch. Until then, I hope you all had a happy holiday season, wish you a happy new year, and hope you’re coping with winter well. It’s hard here during Togolese Harmattan, when the temperature can drop below seventy degrees, with a breeze to boot! I’ll survive though, so don’t worry. Or maybe worry just a little, just enough to send me a care package. Yeah, worry that much.
Billa batasi!
-Ben
