All-Volunteer Conference, Weather, and Cooking
I just spent the past week with everyone I went through training with. It was so good to see everyone and to catch up. I also got to meet just about all of the other volunteers in-country for an All-Volunteer conference over the weekend. It was a much needed break from Togo. I really needed some "yovo" time. We had an auction of stuff from the US that people brought back with them when they went home. I won a box of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies. I won't say how much I bid on them though. I went a little crazy when I saw they were being auctioned.
When I was down in Pagala for the volunteer conference, I got to meet the four volunteers who were evacuated from Guinea. They were all at different points in their service. One girl arrived in country around the same time I did and others had already been in country a year and a half. I think if Togo were to be evacuated I would just go home. I would have made the most of it and being evacuated is out of my control. But I don’t think that day is ever going to come so doesn’t really matter that much.
I had a training session with my homologue, Faustin right after the All-Vol conference. He loved every minute of it. He has also made a complete 180 in how he wants to work with me and is becoming much more involved and active. Let's hope that it stays this way. He has a lot of projects he wants to get started on. Like he wants to get several public latrines built around the village. He also wants me to research funding to get water pumps built or repaired. I am still researching finding meds and supplies for the clinic. I learned this week that a lot of the money for projects PCV put on comes from their friends and families and organizations I know back home donating money to the cause. But those will all take a long time. So I am continuing with the women’s health groups, the peer educators and I am starting a health class at one of the middle schools. It rained yesterday in Kara for the first time since October. It was quite a refreshing escape from the dryness and the heat. Right now it is around 100 and somewhat humid but not very. Unfortunately that is only marking the beginning of the real hot season. That is when it gets up to 130 at mid day. Then in early May the rainy season should start and it will cool off a little. I can't wait for that day. Down south the weather is totally different. The training site where I was all last week is in the south. It rained really hard one night while I was there. It is much more humid and not as hot. In the south there are two rainy seasons and two hot seasons. But up north where I live, there is just one hot season and one rainy season. Rainy season is May to October and hot, dry season is November to April. I much prefer the northern climate. I sweat so much when I was down south. It was gross. A lot of us from up north got heat rash because we weren't used to sweating so much. So some people asked me to describe what I eat here and what kinds of foods I can find here. Well, because I don't know how to cook the African way, I have been eating a lot of food I know how to make. For example I make home fries and scrambled eggs all the time. Also tomato sauce with pasta. The one thing African that I make a lot is peanut sauce. It is made with peanut butter and veggies and I put it over pasta or rice. I make it just about every other day, it is so good. Other than that I eat a lot of the same things over and over again. I can get some veggies in my marche, but not a lot. I can get things like green peppers, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, onions and garlic. I have also taken to eating this African cheese called wagash. A tribal group called the fulanies, who come from Mali, migrate all over Western Africa with their herds of cows. They then make this cheese that is sold all over. It is not pasteurized so it has to be boiled first but it still tastes really good. But it is nothing like cheese at home. Just a good filler for my lack of protein. Real cheese is one thing that I really miss. I can get good cheese in Lomé but I am down there so seldom that it doesn’t really help me. The other thing I really miss is being able to go out to eat if I want to. I can only do that when I am in Kara and there is not that much of a selection. I also really miss home cooked family meals.
Alright, well, I think that is it for now. I hope everything is going well at home and abroad. Love and miss you all!!!
When I was down in Pagala for the volunteer conference, I got to meet the four volunteers who were evacuated from Guinea. They were all at different points in their service. One girl arrived in country around the same time I did and others had already been in country a year and a half. I think if Togo were to be evacuated I would just go home. I would have made the most of it and being evacuated is out of my control. But I don’t think that day is ever going to come so doesn’t really matter that much.
I had a training session with my homologue, Faustin right after the All-Vol conference. He loved every minute of it. He has also made a complete 180 in how he wants to work with me and is becoming much more involved and active. Let's hope that it stays this way. He has a lot of projects he wants to get started on. Like he wants to get several public latrines built around the village. He also wants me to research funding to get water pumps built or repaired. I am still researching finding meds and supplies for the clinic. I learned this week that a lot of the money for projects PCV put on comes from their friends and families and organizations I know back home donating money to the cause. But those will all take a long time. So I am continuing with the women’s health groups, the peer educators and I am starting a health class at one of the middle schools. It rained yesterday in Kara for the first time since October. It was quite a refreshing escape from the dryness and the heat. Right now it is around 100 and somewhat humid but not very. Unfortunately that is only marking the beginning of the real hot season. That is when it gets up to 130 at mid day. Then in early May the rainy season should start and it will cool off a little. I can't wait for that day. Down south the weather is totally different. The training site where I was all last week is in the south. It rained really hard one night while I was there. It is much more humid and not as hot. In the south there are two rainy seasons and two hot seasons. But up north where I live, there is just one hot season and one rainy season. Rainy season is May to October and hot, dry season is November to April. I much prefer the northern climate. I sweat so much when I was down south. It was gross. A lot of us from up north got heat rash because we weren't used to sweating so much. So some people asked me to describe what I eat here and what kinds of foods I can find here. Well, because I don't know how to cook the African way, I have been eating a lot of food I know how to make. For example I make home fries and scrambled eggs all the time. Also tomato sauce with pasta. The one thing African that I make a lot is peanut sauce. It is made with peanut butter and veggies and I put it over pasta or rice. I make it just about every other day, it is so good. Other than that I eat a lot of the same things over and over again. I can get some veggies in my marche, but not a lot. I can get things like green peppers, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, onions and garlic. I have also taken to eating this African cheese called wagash. A tribal group called the fulanies, who come from Mali, migrate all over Western Africa with their herds of cows. They then make this cheese that is sold all over. It is not pasteurized so it has to be boiled first but it still tastes really good. But it is nothing like cheese at home. Just a good filler for my lack of protein. Real cheese is one thing that I really miss. I can get good cheese in Lomé but I am down there so seldom that it doesn’t really help me. The other thing I really miss is being able to go out to eat if I want to. I can only do that when I am in Kara and there is not that much of a selection. I also really miss home cooked family meals.
Alright, well, I think that is it for now. I hope everything is going well at home and abroad. Love and miss you all!!!
posted by Alia at 8:19 PM
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