Blogs from Togo, Africa - page 9

Initially, I acquired quite a dislike for Togo. This was entirely based on one particular day’s experiences: First of all the difficulties in getting a Nigerian visa continued. In Ghana, the Nigerian embassy had run out of passport stickers and in Togo the embassy, for some reason, was closed. Next I was threatened by a moneychanger who had tried to rip me off. He then accused me of ripping him off, and proceeded to follow me through town shouting thief and promising he’d kill me if he saw me again. I wanted to visit the fetish market to experience some of the voodoo culture, but I heard from friends that it was purely for tourists. You had to pay to get in and on sale were such artefacts as gorilla’s paws, monkey testicles and leopard ... read more

I have to give a great big Thank You to my best friend Norris for his visit to West Africa to see me last week! It was an amazing experience for both of us: his first trip to Africa, and my chance to see my new home through his eyes and also see how far I've come at adapting to this difficult environment. We started his 12 day trip by traveling through Ghana, because its always cheaper to fly into Accra, Ghana is more developed and organized than Togo, and Ghanaians speak English so it was easier for Norris to communicate. Accra is a very modern African city, and after 10 months in Togo it looked like America to me (of course for Norris, just off the plane, it looked a lot morelike Africa, but he ... read more

Salut mes amis ! I know it’s been a while but believe me I’ve been impatiently waiting to reach out to you all as well, especially because of the encouraging feedback I’m getting from all over the world. So what’s new? As usual I’ll start with my projects because my life does really center around my work, partly because I enjoy it so much. The gardening club is surely and slooooowly evolving to the point that I can leave village for more than a few days and trust them to keep watering. I know they are busier than high school students in the States, and with the same short attention spans, because they have to do a ton of housework and study all night on top of the gardening, but I keep emphasizing the MONEY they ... read more

holaaaa aqui me encuentro en Lomo sin probar cerdo...paradojas de la vida. Mali ha sido epico, tanto q no se por donde empezar. Burkina fugaz, tanto que vuelvo la semana que viene a verlo como dios manda. empezando por el principio salimos de bamako con muchas ganas...despues de la primera curva algo no iba bien con la direccion de Dereck...habiamos olvidado un desmontable dentro de la cubierta...increible? esto solo fue el principio de una serie de desgracias para su moto. Nochebuena, acampados a la orilla del Niger, fuego de campamento y pescado a la parrilla aun coleando. Nada de dulces, solo algun timido villancico recordaba que estabamos en Navidad pero disfrutamos como enanos. A la maniana siguiente busque regalos dentro de mis calcetines para encontar arena y alguna que otra espina... no esta mal, Dereck encontro ... read more

AIDS Ride was a total success! We biked about 30 km per day through probably the most hilly and mountainous region of the country, and our two teams conducted HIV/AIDS sensibilizations at upwards of 6 villages, high schools, and middle schools per day. I found my niche doing the condom demonstrations on a wooden penis, but we all got to try out all of the aspects of the program: ABCD skits for prevention; talks on transmission of the virus and reasons not to stigmatize or avoid people living with it; discussion of the differences between HIV and AIDS; Q and A; and of course plenty of games involving more wooden penises. It was the first time in Peace Corps that I felt like I was making a direct impression on people, and almost everyone who attended ... read more