.......and if you don't believe me, check out this:
http://www.republicoftogo.com/central.php?o=1&s=296&d=3&i=2803
yes, that is a togolese newspaper article featuring a totally random picture of me and some other peace corps volunteer at our official swearing-in ceremony yesterday. i'm wearing an african outfit completely designed and selected by my host mother. It was really cute, actually: my host mother and father had outfits made with the same fabric and we all matched for the ceremony.
i'm heading off to my village tomorrow morning to officially begin my life as a peace corps volunteer! My internet and cell phone access will be pretty limited from here on out. I'm about six hours north of lome, which is the only place i've been to so far in togo with high speed internet. sokode (the city closest to my village) has decent-ish internet, so i'll try to keep up with internet and blogging as much as i can. don't forget the power of snail mail!
Friday, December 5, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
internet access is bad.....
hey friends! so i wrote the following blog posting on my laptop way back at the beginning of november, when i came back from my week long visit to my village. better late than never, i guess.....anyway, next week ill be in lome, officially swearing in as a volunteer, so hopefully ill have better internet access then and will be able to make an updated post and put up some picture! until then, keep letters coming and enjoy this belated post:
*******************
Just got back from visiting the village where I’m going to live for the next two years! It’s a very small, very rural, and very Muslim village right smack in the middle of Togo, about 10 kilometers off the nearest paved road. There’s not much there in terms of, well, anything—there’s not even a weekly market, which is kind of unusual—but there is an elementary school, a middle school (or the Togolese equivalence), and a small, government-run clinic.
I spent the week walking around, meeting various people, visiting the clinic and schools (where I’ll be working when I arrive for good in December), and setting up house. My house is great—the building I live in is a long, cement, motel-like building with four different housing units. My house is on the end, a lovely, three-room unit with a private latrine and outdoor washing area. There’s no electricity or running water or cell phone reception, but it’s in pretty great condition. I got pretty lucky , because the volunteer who was here before me left most of her furniture, saving me the enormous headache of either having furniture made by the local carpenter (who, I learned this week after trying to get him to come fix a broken door latch to my latrine, works on his own, very slow schedule) or transporting it from the nearest big town.
All in all, really liked my village and am looking forward to living and working there for the next two years. I do kind of wished that I had been able to celebrate the Obama win with fellow Americans this week, though—I felt pretty pathetic curling up on the floor of my house by myself on Tuesday night, listening all alone to my staticky short-wave radio. According to all the radio reports that I’ve been listening to on the BBC, Africans all across the continent are obsessed with Obama and have apparently been following the election as closely as Americans. I’m sure that’s true in most places, but in my small village, people could have cared less. Seriously, with the exception of the teachers at the schools (all of whom are really wonderful and I really can’t wait to work with) and a random guy who showed up on my porch this morning saying “Victoire pour Obama! Victoire!”, no one in my village has really heard of Obama.
I know this because I spent most of Wednesday morning sitting on my porch, trying to get every person who walked by to engage in some conversation about Obama. My house is right by the school, so all those lucky children had the privilege of listening to my impassioned Obama speeches on their way to school that day. Alas, most of my conversations went something like this (only in French):
Child innocently passing by my house on the way to school: Good morning white person!
Me, sitting on my porch: Good morning child! It’s a great day! Barack Obama is going to be the president of the United States!
Child (stopping, confused): Ba-rack O-bama?
Me (a little too eagerly): Yes, do you know who Barack Obama is?
Child: Ah, yes.
Me: Really??
Child (pointing to the fields): Yes, he lives over there. He owns the cows.
(pause)
Me: No, I don’t think that’s the same Obama.
(pause)
Child: Oh.
Me: It’s ok. Go to school.
Child: Do you want to go see the cows?
Me: No, it’s ok. Go to school.
Child (shrugging): Ok.
During one exchange with a random teenage boy walking by my house, I pulled out an old Newsweek that I had and showed him a picture of Barack Obama. I was trying to impress the significance of the election, that Obama was an African-American and had his roots in Africa. Instead, the boy carefully examined the Newsweek without looking twice at the picture and exclaimed, “Je l’aime! Donnez a moi.” (Translation: I like this, give it to me.”) So……yeah.
love you all! keep letters coming......
*******************
Just got back from visiting the village where I’m going to live for the next two years! It’s a very small, very rural, and very Muslim village right smack in the middle of Togo, about 10 kilometers off the nearest paved road. There’s not much there in terms of, well, anything—there’s not even a weekly market, which is kind of unusual—but there is an elementary school, a middle school (or the Togolese equivalence), and a small, government-run clinic.
I spent the week walking around, meeting various people, visiting the clinic and schools (where I’ll be working when I arrive for good in December), and setting up house. My house is great—the building I live in is a long, cement, motel-like building with four different housing units. My house is on the end, a lovely, three-room unit with a private latrine and outdoor washing area. There’s no electricity or running water or cell phone reception, but it’s in pretty great condition. I got pretty lucky , because the volunteer who was here before me left most of her furniture, saving me the enormous headache of either having furniture made by the local carpenter (who, I learned this week after trying to get him to come fix a broken door latch to my latrine, works on his own, very slow schedule) or transporting it from the nearest big town.
All in all, really liked my village and am looking forward to living and working there for the next two years. I do kind of wished that I had been able to celebrate the Obama win with fellow Americans this week, though—I felt pretty pathetic curling up on the floor of my house by myself on Tuesday night, listening all alone to my staticky short-wave radio. According to all the radio reports that I’ve been listening to on the BBC, Africans all across the continent are obsessed with Obama and have apparently been following the election as closely as Americans. I’m sure that’s true in most places, but in my small village, people could have cared less. Seriously, with the exception of the teachers at the schools (all of whom are really wonderful and I really can’t wait to work with) and a random guy who showed up on my porch this morning saying “Victoire pour Obama! Victoire!”, no one in my village has really heard of Obama.
I know this because I spent most of Wednesday morning sitting on my porch, trying to get every person who walked by to engage in some conversation about Obama. My house is right by the school, so all those lucky children had the privilege of listening to my impassioned Obama speeches on their way to school that day. Alas, most of my conversations went something like this (only in French):
Child innocently passing by my house on the way to school: Good morning white person!
Me, sitting on my porch: Good morning child! It’s a great day! Barack Obama is going to be the president of the United States!
Child (stopping, confused): Ba-rack O-bama?
Me (a little too eagerly): Yes, do you know who Barack Obama is?
Child: Ah, yes.
Me: Really??
Child (pointing to the fields): Yes, he lives over there. He owns the cows.
(pause)
Me: No, I don’t think that’s the same Obama.
(pause)
Child: Oh.
Me: It’s ok. Go to school.
Child: Do you want to go see the cows?
Me: No, it’s ok. Go to school.
Child (shrugging): Ok.
During one exchange with a random teenage boy walking by my house, I pulled out an old Newsweek that I had and showed him a picture of Barack Obama. I was trying to impress the significance of the election, that Obama was an African-American and had his roots in Africa. Instead, the boy carefully examined the Newsweek without looking twice at the picture and exclaimed, “Je l’aime! Donnez a moi.” (Translation: I like this, give it to me.”) So……yeah.
love you all! keep letters coming......
Saturday, October 18, 2008
One month in....
I've now been in Togo for slightly under a month and this is the first time I've been able to do a blog posting. Brief update of Togo life so far:
So the first thing that I’ve had to come to terms with here in Togo is that internet access is not great. On the one hand, it’s not so hard to come by in Lome (the capital city) and is relatively accessible in the big cities (including the city that ill be living next to once i finish training....but more on that later). On the other hand: in the town where we’re doing our Peace Corps training, (about an hour north of Lome), internet is nonexistent. The closest place with any type of internet is Kpalime, a city about 20 kms north, which is where I am now.
With that in mind, please send me real snail mail. I would love, love to get letters from you all and promise to write back. The Peace Corps life is lovely, but I miss you all.
As for how life is going here in Togo…..well, to be honest, I’m not even sure where to begin. We’ve been here now for 4 weeks, and have been kept busy, busy, busy with Peace Corps training. Until we swear-in as official volunteers in December and move to our individual villages, all of us live with families and spend all day, everyday, learning the ins and outs of how to be an effective volunteer in Togo.
My day begins, on average, at about 4:30 am, when I wake up to the sounds of my host mother sweeping the courtyard in the center of our family compound. There are about 10 people who live in our family compound (most of whom are somehow related to one another) and most of them don’t get up that early, so I usually fall back asleep until about 5:45. Then a bucket shower and breakfast before leaving for the Peace Corps training site (which we call our tech house). I live about fifteen minutes away from the tech house (less on the days that I ride my bike), and I really love the walk to and from my compound. The town is right at the base of Mt. Agou, which apparently is the largest mountain in West Africa (a few people here have told me that, but I’m not sure if thats really true) and my family compound is perched on this little hill that has the most beautiful views of the mountain.
Our days our spent in classes from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm, with a lunch break from noon to 2:30pm. Evenings are usually uneventful: it gets dark here by 6:15pm and the nightlife here is not exactly happening (although, interestingly enough, my family owns the one and only nightclub in town. Wish I had the time to post about that…). I occasionally meet up with volunteers at the local buvette (bar), but I usually just help my host mother prepare dinner (help is a dramatic overstatement, actually. More like sit and watch her cook and try not to say anything too stupid), hang out with the plethora of people who live in my compound, do my French homework, read, and get to bed by 9:30pm.
Suffice to say, it’s a really different lifestyle than either college or camp, but I’m getting used to it day by day. The next big thing that I have to look forward to is in two weeks, when we go spend a week visiting our post villages. I found out this week that my home for the next two years is going to be a tiny little village in the centrale region of togo (pretty much right smack in the middle of the country). I don't know that much about it yet, other than that its very small (about 600 people total), mostly Muslim, and is very excited about working with a Peace Corps volunteer on the specific issue of girls education. The village itself is apparently pretty rural, but its only about 20 kilometers outside of Sokode. which is Togo's second biggest city. Ill probably have to go to Sokode weekly to buy groceries and there's apparently fast internet there, so once I get to post i'll probably be able to check email much more often!
I miss you all very much and and am so sorry I can't reply to all of your many wonderful emails! But I promise all of you snail mail letters if you send me your addresses!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
To Togo I go
So, confession: When I first found out that I was going to Togo, I needed to Wikipedia it to find out exactly where in Africa I was going. Here is a map, for those of you who, like me, need a quick refresher on where in the world Togo is:
Despite how embarrassingly little I know about Togo now, it's going to be my home for the next 27 months. I'll be serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, doing Girl's Empowerment and Education in rural villages. I know: "Girl's Empowerment and Education" is an impressive-sounding phrase, but even I'm not completely sure what it means yet.
I head to Philadelphia on September 17 for three days of orientation before boarding a plane to Togo on September 19. My goal is to write updates/post pictures on this blog as much as possible, which will probably practically translate into once a month, maybe more often at the beginning. E-mails from folks at home would be much appreciated and I promise to write back as much as possible, but my internet access won't be all that great. Real, old-fashioned letters would also be welcomed. I have no idea how long it will take letters to get to me, but if you send me letters with the date on them, we can figure it out. My address is:
Emily Malkin, PCT
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 3194
Lome, Togo
West Africa
Despite how embarrassingly little I know about Togo now, it's going to be my home for the next 27 months. I'll be serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, doing Girl's Empowerment and Education in rural villages. I know: "Girl's Empowerment and Education" is an impressive-sounding phrase, but even I'm not completely sure what it means yet.
I head to Philadelphia on September 17 for three days of orientation before boarding a plane to Togo on September 19. My goal is to write updates/post pictures on this blog as much as possible, which will probably practically translate into once a month, maybe more often at the beginning. E-mails from folks at home would be much appreciated and I promise to write back as much as possible, but my internet access won't be all that great. Real, old-fashioned letters would also be welcomed. I have no idea how long it will take letters to get to me, but if you send me letters with the date on them, we can figure it out. My address is:
Emily Malkin, PCT
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 3194
Lome, Togo
West Africa
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