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Published: January 3rd 2007
Happy New Year everyone! I'm looking forward to a healthy and prosperous 2007 and quite possibly my first full year in Africa!
So what's new here you ask? Not much, except that I realized I've been writing so much about my work that I've neglected all the other facets of living in Togo -- the food, the music, the clothing, the friendships, and the way of life. So I'll try to fill in some of these aspects since I took a much-needed break from the "work" except for a week-long seminar on running community-initiated projects, my omnipresent gardening club whom I taught about marketing and feasibility studies, and my upcoming formation on strategic planning for small non-profits which I am in the process of strategically planning. But all that's for the coming year, after the holidays. So what's life like in Togo?!?!?!
Well first off let me talk about my village because that's where I spend just over half of my time, and plan to spend a lot more time there now that the holidays and seminars are over. I don't cook often because I don't like to cook for just myself, but I sometimes have neighboring volunteers visit and we try to cook more "American" dishes. Instead, might eat some bread and cheese or peanut butter for breakfast, or maybe some porridge or oatmeal. For lunch I eat at this small restaurant, the only one in my village, where meals cost about 50 cents depending on how much meat you ask for. I order rice and sauce and meat, or lately I've been addicted to pate, which is corn flour boiled into a substance a little firmer than mashed potatoes that you eat with your hands and dip in sauce. Usually the meat is beef or goat and since people here love the intestines and fat, I'm not crazy about it (plus it's extremely tough). It's funny that I am being so critical now because when I eat there I LOVE the food and almost aways leave happy and full. Sometimes there are even more special ingredients, like fried soy kind of like tofu, fried cheese, spaghetti or other pasta, and even the occasional vegetables. Of course for Chrstmas the main meals are a little more detailed, like fufu (slimier than pate and made by pounding yams), flavorful and spicy sauces, friend rice, pheasant which my laundry lady finds for me and kills and prepares, etc. As for drinks, there's locally brewed beer made from millet or sorghum that is served in calabashes and comes in various potencies. It's called tchouk and it's definitely a preferred drink of farmers and volunteers in small villages. Then there's palm wine, sodabi (basically moonshine, or grain alcohol), and any imported beverage you want to pay for. But mostly I just drink water, either from sachets, boiled, or occasionally straight from the pump if I'm really thirsty. Of course we hope to expand all these choices with the gardening club!
So how about dress? Well I'm tryin to dress less like a sloppy volunteer and more like a businessman because appearance is extremely important in this society. It's hard when it's hot and dusty and dirty to look and feel your best, but every little bit of professionalism help you do your job. I've made a lot of shirts and a few complets, like suits, out of pagne, or bright cloths sold all over the place. Women make really cool dresses and skirts out of them and use them to wrap up their babies. The styles here, especially for men, are a mix of traditional and modern, meaning from bubus and pagne outfits to suits and ties, and of course t-shirts, jeans, etc. No, people do not walk around in loin cloths, although they are much freer with their bodies: people bathe in rivers, go to the bathroom almost anywhere (especially to pee, men and women, though Muslims are more strict about this), and women breast feed wherever they feel like it. The grandma next door to me frequently lounges with no shirt on and I've gotten used to it. Oh, and everyone but mostly women carry amazing amounts of things on their heads like water in buckets and anything to sell at the marché, or market.
I try to live a lot like my Togolese neighbors while incorporating my own standards of cleanliness and aesthetics. I get my water from the well outside, but it's getting dangerously dry now that the rains have stopped (replaced instead by a dry dusty foggy wind called the Harmattan that covers everything in sight in a layer of dust), so we might have to start getting water from the neighborhood pump nearby. I light my house with candles or flashlights since I have no electricity, and I cook or boil water on a small gas stove. I go to the bathroom in a very basic latrine, think campground style, and I shower with a bucket. I guess it sounds so different, even "primitive," but I've gotten so used to it all that it's normal. Sometimes when staying in a bigger city I still shower with a bucket and use a flashlight to leave, even if I dont have to!
The music here mostly comes from the radio. Lots of drumming, occassionally flutes and trumpets, and lots of singing. Togo is proud of it's hip hop scene and there's some good stuff here if you like to dance. Also lots of dance music from all over Africa, especially cote d'ivoire, congo, and south africa. Lots and lots of Christian music, with its own African tilt of course. And the dancing is absolutely unbelievable! I was at a small club for New Years and I swear every person there could be a professional dancer, well except for me of course! The men and women both gyrate their hips and twist their bodies in crazy ways.
Finally, friendships: this is an area I've come a long way in, allowing me to be much happier and more comfortable here. When you gain people's trust and respect they will do anything for you, and it creates a snowball effect because as they say "l'ami de mon ami est mon ami", or a friend of my friend is also my friend. I've always had a great rapport with my adviser and confidante Aboga, and I have a high school friend that comes to do chores and keep me company. But in the bigger cities, like our regional capital of Atakpame, its easier because there are more people that are educated and can speak French well, and also more poeple with money so you can go out and do things together without paying for everything or having a dependency dynamic. People overall are sweet and well-meaning even if they come across as harsh and aggressive; they aer simply from a different culture and we tend to misinterpret their intentions, for example with all the "yovos," asking for money or gifts, or demanding that you bring them to America. It's almost always a joke, and if you react strongly then the joke's really on you. But o course it depends on my mood, and sometimes I just wanna be left alone. Here, not possible, unless maybe in the provacy of my house. I am constantly under a microscope, constantly watched and monitored and commented on, because I am different and usually the only white person in sight. I've also gotten used to this, although it's been harder for sure. And there's my network of Peace Corps friends I can vent to because they go through the exact same thing. We arent tourists; we are living here in small villages where tourists and even development workers never went, trying to integrate into a comletely foreign culture where people have no problem laughing and even criticizing you if you do soemthing differently. You develop a tough skin. Confidence is key to everything here, and to get the job done you have to believe in what you are doing.
So that's Togo in a very small nutshell. Hope it shed a little light on my life here, which is neither the life of a Togolese nor is it anywhere near my life in America. With all that said, I'm happy here, and it all comes down to 2 things for me: personal relationships and feeling good about my work. And both of those things are getting better all the time. Take care!
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Daniel
non-member comment
Togolese life
I volunteer my time translating business plans for Togolese entrepreneurs applying for micro-credit loans for Kiva dot com. Came across your blog while trying to find out what a "pagne" is. The dictionary online says it's a "loincloth"...! Thank goodness for your blog that I could get the insight I needed to do the translation justice. After all, a good translation means faster funding of a loan for that shoe maker in Lomé or the bouillie (a kind of mush or porridge???) merchant in Tsévié. Hang in there and thanks for illustrating life in Togo for us in the State - Courage, et bonne continuation - Daniel dkuey at yahoo dot com