Three months down

A few things that I’ve done in the past three months since I moved to Wassarabo, my little rural village:

1. Started to learn how to speak Kotokoli, the local language in my village. French is Togo’s official language, but it’s very few people’s first language. In small, rural communities (like mine), French is pretty much never spoken outside of the school. So, I’m trying to learn Kotokoli.
2. Gotten awesome at riding on the back of a motorcycle—the only way in and out of my village.
3. Started teaching at the village school. I teach English to the older students, and teach “Life Skills” to all the levels. “Life Skills” is a Peacecorps curriculum that’s supposed to teach kids stuff like HIV/AIDS info, decision-making, health info, communication skills, etc….Imagine a middle-school health class curriculum.
4. Learned how to carry a baby on my back. (This was not my idea. One of my students thought it would be funny.).
5. Organized a Girls Soccer Club in my village. This, again, was not my idea, because, let’s be honest, I don’t really know how to play soccer. But the middle school girls were so excited about it and I had an extra soccer ball, so, you know, my village has a girls soccer team now. I’m the “Coach.” Ha.
6. Planned an International Women’s Day Fete in my village on March 8. We did a big town meeting in the morning, complete with speakers and kids doing sketches, and in the afternoon, I organized a big match for the girls soccer team and a few neighboring villages. My team lost. Badly. Probably because I was their coach.

Anyway, I posted a bunch of pics on facebook, but thought I'd post some pictures of my house here, just so you could see a little bit more of what my life looks like. The below 3 pictures are of my main room in my house, which is huge and awesome. I have pictures of my bedroom and the outside of my house on facebook, so you can get a composite visual of what my house looks like. Seriously, my house here is great. No electricity or running water, but it's really well maintained and way bigger than anything I could afford back in the US...







All in all, things are going really well. Keep the letters and packages coming! Miss you all back in the US (or wherever in the world you may be)