Taking our Daughters to Work

I know that this post is it a little late but I wanted to talk about the “Take Our Daughters to Work Conference” that I organized with the help of three other Volunteers this past July. In Togo, especially the rural areas (there a lot of them), the number of girls who graduate from Middle School is extremely low. If 100 girls in a village start middle school by the time graduation role around a few years latter that number will have dwindled down to 10. It’s a sad reality in Togo, but many girls drop out of school for three reasons: pregnancy, lack of money, or lack of opportunities.
The goals of the conference was to show girls how to finance and continue their education, give them information about sexual health, and show them opportunities that exist with a high school and university degree. We invited 22 girls from 11 villages to come to Dapaong for the four day conference. The local community center or Affaires Social gave us the conference room and dorm rooms at a reduced price. During the first two days of the conference we talked about self-confidence and different ways that they could earn money and pay for their school fees. On the third day the girls were able to go around and shadow different model women in town. I took a group of 7 girls to see a female school director at one of a private school. She is charge of the day to day operations of the school and is the boss of several teachers. During the visit she talked about the obstacles she faced growing up as a woman in Togo. At the end of the day all of the model women went to the Affaires Social and took part in a panel discussion so that all of the girls could ask questions. We had a nurse, a secretary, a NGO director and businesswomen, come and talk about their experiences. I think that the girls were amazed to see so many powerful women together in one room and I think that the girls benefited from the one day they were able to spend with these women.
I defiantly feel like this was the biggest project that I have undertaken and it would not have been possible without the three other PCVs that I worked with . Peace Corps Togo, especially Team Savannes, is an awesome group and I have loved being here and working with them. Now the time has come to wind down my service and to start thinking about my life when I get back to AMERICA.

Ah bon?

“So what is it like having to speak French all the time?” is a question that I get pretty often when I talk to friend and family back home. To be honest there are good days and bad days, good conversations and bad conversations. After being here for over 20 months, I feel pretty confident in my day to day speaking abilities but it’s easy for me to get tripped up on pronunciation and sentence structure. When learning French or any new language it is best to learn from the things that are around you and what you need to be able to talk about, and I am surprised by the range of my vocabulary. I could probably list more parts of the reproductive system in French than in English, but couldn’t tell you the French word for escalator. I know the word for machete, but not fast food. I can talk the benefits of sending girls to school, but I have no idea how to talk about the benefits of sending business suits to a dry cleaner.
I am amazed at how some of the people in my stage came in to Togo with no French at all and basically fluent now. Learning languages is easier for some people I guess, but I am able to do work in Togo. On Saturday I went to a nearby village with my site mates, and I delivered and hour-long presentation in French on gender equity. If any incoming trainees are reading this and are worried about learning French all I have to say is DON’T WORRY. I find that most Togolese are very patient with us and the ones who criticize our French are not worth working with in the first place.
One of the challenges to learning French in Togo is that there is a wide range of French amongst the Togolese. French is the official language of the country and the language used in schools, so most people have a strong foundation in the language. But there are over 40 different local languages in Togo, so for most people French is their second or third language. Children don’t start learning how to speak French until primary school, and there a many older Togolese, mostly women, who can’t speak a word. So sometimes when I am having a conversation with someone and nothing is getting across I am always wondering.... “Is it there French or mine?”

Hot Season

Hot season is upon us again here in Savannes. It is usually about 110-115 during the day and cools down to about 85 at night. Because of the heat not much work is done between 10am and 4pm during the day. I generally try to avoid moving around too much this during this time also because heat exhaustion is not much fun. I generally just hang out on my front porch and read or listen to the BBC World Service on my short wave radio. After it cools down a bit and people start to move around a little more I try and stay productive. A few days a week I teach English at the S.O.S Children’s Village in Dapaong, and other days I try to help out with some kids clubs in my area. I recently meet a woman who started a committee that focuses on improving the lives of women in the region, and last week we held a discussion at a local middle school on the importance of gender equity and the splitting of domestic tasks between brothers and sisters. In most Togolese families the girls are burdened with more responsibilities then boys. Doing laundry, watching the infants, cooking and cleaning are jobs set aside only for girls. I know that stigma remains to some extent in the U.S, but nowhere near to the level that it does in Togo. Because of these extra burdens that girls face they have little time to do their school work at home. So during our discussion we challenged the boys in the group to think about ways they could help their sisters succeed in school and how they could help out more at home. It sounds well and good but there are many men and boys in Togo who are resistant to this idea because they will like it will emasculate them. There also a lot of men and boys who want to marry an American woman and live a life of leisure in the states, “well because everyone is rich over there.” I say fine but can you cook? Can you clean? Can you take care of yourself? They usually just shake their heads and laugh.
Many Togolese are amazed at how I am unmarried at 25 with no kids, and that this is a normal way of life in the States. I always try and share stories about my life growing up in America. Like how when my mom was in night classes dad would cook us dinner, how my sister and I both did dishes, and how I would help mom out with laundry when I was in High School. That always gets some wild reactions. “It doesn’t work like that in Africa,” they say, but I always try and remind them that their chances of living a life of leisure in America are pretty slim so how about we try and improve things here in Togo, and we can start by liberating the woman.

Eating in Togo

I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season. Team Savannes had a lot of fun. We got together at our new transit house for a couple days and watched our favorite Christmas movies, cooked up some great food, and went to the NRM Program Directors house on Christmas day for more food and drinks. Good times were had by all.
Getting together to eat is a big deal here in Togo. Whenever you are invited into someone’s house they feel as if it is their life’s work to make sure you eat more than you can handle. There are small variations in the types of food depending where you are in Togo, but there is usually a starch and a sauce and if you are lucky a meat. The starches are either rice (self explanatory), fufu or pate. Fufu is basically Yams that have been pounded in a mortar with water added, and has the consistency and look of mashed potatoes. The same thing goes for pate, but instead of yams they use maize. On their own fu fu and pate have a VERY bland taste, which is why the sauce is key. There is always sauce de tomate (tomato sauce) or sauce d’arichede (peanut sauce). These sauces are very thin but full of flavor and spice. Most volunteers are more partiale to sauce d’arichede but I am more of a sauce de tomate fan myself. The other types of “street food” that are common in most of Togo are Kolico, which is deep fried yams that resemble french fries, and sodja which is pretty similar to tofu. As you can see protein is hard to come by here in Togo. Malnutrition is a major problem in Togo especially in Savannes. It is not necessarily because people are not getting enough to eat. It’s more so that they are not getting enough protein and other nutrients. Volunteers are always talking about how nutrition Togo, and many community health volunteers do home visits and talk about how feed a family, while keeping in mind that that most families have a tight budget for food.
As much as we love fufu and pate, when volunteers get together we always seem to be cooking our favorite foods from back home. About once or twice a month several volunteers in my region and I get together and have family dinner at the transit house. We usually debate the menu for a couple hours, and then we head to market to buy all the ingredients. Some of my favorite memories here are all of us in the kitchen making everything from scratch. Pizza, Fish Tacos, Bean Burgers, Fried Chicken, Ice Cream Cake, and pot roast are just a few of the things we have made entirely from scratch with very limited recourses. On the Fourth of July, we even grinded the meat ourselves for the burgers. We are pretty much McGyvers in the kitchen. It seems like everyone has their specialty in the kitchen. I guess I am pretty famous for my pancakes and crepes, but I have also gotten pretty good at making tortillas. During training we were given a cook book that has been put together by volunteers in Togo over the years, called Where there is no Whooper (It’s a play on the health manual Where there is no Doctor) Funny title aside The Whooper has been one of the most important things that I have here in Togo. Own my own I have made Poptarts, Pancakes, Pasta Sauces, Calzones, veggie wraps, tuna cakes, coffee cake, and egg drop soup. Cooking in Togo is a great way to pass the time, and when I get back I will be able to share all the tricks I have learned in the kitchen.