Training cont.........

Well I have gotten a few requests to update so here goes. I’m still in training and everything has been going well for the most part. We are going to visit our future posts on Saturday and everyone is very excited to see where they will be living for the next two years. We are midway through training and I think most of the group is starting to get impatient. I will be going to Dapong which is the regional capital in the Savahans region which wayyyyy up north by the Burkina border. I also found out that I will have some really cool region mates when I get there. Before coming to Togo I was doubtful that I would have running water or electricity but as it turns out I will have both at my post. Dapong has a population of about 40,000 (I think), which is defiantly one of bigger posts in Togo and Peace Corps World Wide. I don’t have much more info on where I will be living because the site description was pretty vague compared to some of the others. I know once of the kids from the Natural Resource Management group is going to a village of 300. I think he and I are at the extremes of the spectrum. On a down note, the day we got our post descriptions I had to go to the Peace Corps med unit in Lome because I wasn’t feeling well. I really didn’t want to go, but it was kind of nice to sleep in an air conditioned room and have a hot shower after taking bucket baths for a month. It was almost like being back in the States. I talked to a current volunteer who said his time in the med unit wonderful even though he was vomiting constantly from Malaria. While I was in the Med Unit I was able to hang out with Brian who was staying in the Med Unit waiting for a flight back to the states. He was a volunteer in Madagascar and was evacuated in March after 8 months of service. He was my roommate our first four days in Lome and was a great person to talk to about being a volunteer. He decided that Peace Corps Togo was not for him, and he has a pretty big cross country road trip in front of him. Good luck man. After spending two days in the med unit I was able to go back to training. Since then I have been feeling much better but I haven’t had much of an appetite since. I have lost twenty pounds or so since arriving in country. I also have got a wicked cut on my foot a few days ago, and it’s been a challenge to keep it clean but so far it hasn’t gotten infected. I also got my first two shirts made in since being in Togo. They are both pretty colourful and only cost me 12 dollars to make both of them. Thanks for all the care packages I got lots of pictures and Halloween candy today and everyone else is pretty jealous of all the love I have been getting. Well I hope things back home are going well, I’m a bit jealous of your cold weather because I found out that the hot season in my region is from February to early May and it can get up to 115 in the day!

Bless the rains

Well I have been in Togo for almost three weeks and training is going well so far. We have been bonding well as a group and I have been getting along well with everyone. I was very excited to leave Lome for the training village, and It has been much better here. When we first arrived to the training center out host families were already waiting for us. There was music, dancing and food. It was obvious from the beginning that I can’t dance and have no rhythm. I’m pretty sure I was a pretty good source of amusement for the other trainees as well as our host families. I found my host mother right away. It was a little awkward at first, but she is a nice woman and great cook. I meet my host father the next morning because he was away on business. I think I lucked out with my host family because they do not push food on me and they respect my privacy. They are very nice and I have been eating some wonderful food. (To mom and dad, yes I have been getting enough protein). I eat with my family for every meal and they are always helping me with my French. Michael Jackson is loved here and some times during dinner they will play a DVD of all his music videos, and other times we will watch Lion King II in French….great film.
The training days are long, but we get a lot out of them. I usually wake up around 6:15 to get ready and eat breakfast, and then I get on my bike and head to the tech house. Along the way I hear little children singing the Yovo song. Yovo means white person here in Togo, and it’s probably the first word that the Children learn, and they are always excited to sing the song. We stick out here and we hear the song all the time, mostly from the 3 to 6 year old children. I get to the tech house around 7:30 and we start training. We either have sessions on the realities of girl’s education in Togo, or French lessons. We also have health sessions about staying healthy in Togo and how to repair our bikes. I have been fine so far but a few people have gotten sick but nothing major, except one girl who was medically separated after being in country for only a week. I felt terrible for here because she really wanted to stay here and it was sad to see her leave.
At noon we head back home to eat lunch and take a break, and we return to the tech house at 2:30 for more sessions and then we head home at 5:00. Sometimes we go out for a drink. We don’t get much money as trainees but luckily the local beer is cheap and not too bad. I usually get home around 6 and dinner is at 7. After dinner I usually go to my room where I will watch part of a movie or read a book on the terrace in front of the house. We have been advised not to go out late after dark until we are more familiar with the area. There is not much to do here at night anyways and I think we are all pretty tiered at the end of the day anyways. We have played ultimate Frisbee on Saturday afternoons and have a free day on Sundays. Yesturday some of us watched Arrested Development on someone’s laptop. I’m excited!
Well I hope this answers some questions about my life in Togo so far. I miss and love you all and I hope that you are all ready for the cold weather. Its pretty hot here, but nice in the shade and I really miss air conditioning. It has also rained pretty hard for about twenty minutes the past two days as well.