UNITE and Ghana

I’ve sent many emails out about this by now, but for those of you who’ve managed to fly below the email radar, I just wanted to do a little bit of blogging about this amazing project that I’m working on right now called Camp UNITE. Camp UNITE first started in 2001 as a week-long camp for talented and motivated Togolese school girls, and, because of my own experiences with camp, I volunteered to be a national organizer for camp this year. Since 2001, the program has expanded to include a week for Togolese school boys, as well as a week for boy and girls who are involved in vocational training (mechanics, hairdressers, tailors, etc). Togo, as you all know by now, is one of the poorest and most undeveloped countries in West Africa, and Camp UNITE is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Togolese kids.

I’ve heard so many amazing stories from past participants about what an amazing and transformative experience Camp UNITE is for kids. Camp is completely FREE for Togolese kids, but we need donations from people like you back in the US in order to make camp run! It costs about $80 to send one Togolese child to camp, so even the littlest bit helps. The US Embassy and other Togolese NGO’s have already agreed to help fund a large portion of camp, but we need about $9000 to help make up the difference. So, please, please, please consider making a tax deductible donation to Camp UNITE through the Peace Corps website. Our project only went up online last week and we’ve already raised over $2000!

The link to make an online contribution to Camp UNITE PCP is (the project is in the name of Jillian Gleason, another volunteer organizers): PEACE CORP Partnership

The link for the Camp UNITE website (created by RPCV's) is : www.unitefoundation.org

Thanks for all your help and support!


As for what else has been going on in my life here in Togo: I've been traveling out of village a lot for the past few weeks, which has been a nice change of pace. I was in Lome for awhile doing work, and I had a great vacation in Ghana and a wonderful visit from Kerrie, an old camp friend, this past week. It was so much fun to see Kerrie and show Wassarabo off to her and her girlfriend. It was also so interesting for me to see how they perceived Wassarabo and Togo from an outsider's perspective. I've had a few fellow volunteers stay with me in Wassarabo, but Kerrie and Hazel were my first "non-volunteer" visitors! Wassarabo welcomed them with open arms, and I think Hazel and Kerrie were truly impressed with how warm and welcoming the village was.

They also got a great taste of "how to travel Togolese-style," on our trip down to Lome from up north this past Friday. We allowed ourselves two days to get from Wassarabo to Lome, which is more than enough time (from Wassarabo to Lome should never take more than 7 hours), and had a relatively pleasant experience on the first day. On our second day, though, what should've been an easy 2 1/2 hour car ride turned into a crazy 5 hour trip. We were jammed into a small, five person car (we actually had the back of the car all to ourselves, which is a luxury here in Togo--normally they force 4 people into the back and at least 3 people in the front), and stopped so many times for so many absurd reasons that I lost count. At one time we had to drive almost 20 minutes out of the way, to a random market in the middle of nowhere, to drop off this girl who was selling palm oil. We also had to switch cars because our original driver didn't have the right papers to get through a military check point and then ended up having to drive all around Lome before finally making it to the Peace Corps office. But the best part of the trip was definitely when our driver stopped to load up 4 loud, bleeting goats into the back of the car. The goats were tied together and were NOT happy about it, and spent most of the trip crying and trying to kick themselves free. Oh, Togo.

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)