The coming of rain
Yesterday I did something that felt a long time coming. I sent an email to a girl who will be coming in the new CHAP stage in 7 weeks. It seems like only yesterday I was sitting at home emailing a volunteer who was in-country, being nervous about the same things. But 8 months really does go by fast. And to think how much has changed since I got here. I am quite a few shades tanner (not too happy about that) several pounds lighter and far more open minded about what it means to be a Peace Corps volunteer, and that I made the right choice in coming.
I tried to recall back to the questions I had before leaving. What should I bring, what do you miss the most, what stuff can you buy here that I won’t need to bring? Some things now I am really thankful I asked, while others are not so important. Like how much French did you know before you arrived? I could barely speak a word of French comfortably and now I can carry on a fairly intelligent conversation and even flirt! I am far happier now that I am adjusted to living here and have found a place that I consider home. I have people around me I would consider friends and I now know the signs to look for, when it comes to people I do not want to be friends with. Eight months! WOW!
I have been sitting at the computer the past two days trying to type out some project proposals and some reports that have to be in by the end of the month. This week is, and is going to continue to be, crazy. I had a meeting with the chief of the canton, the village chief and the community development committee on Monday. This was the first of many meetings I am going to have with that group over the next year. At the meeting we decided on members from the community that would be members of the health committee responsible for running of the health clinic once it is opened. We chose five of the seven members who will sit on the committee, so we got somewhere. Faustin, my homologue, had to reinforce the point that I, personally, am not going to fund the projects we plan for the village. It is a collective effort of organizations I know, along with friends and family. So when the time comes, donate some money please!!!!!!!! But anyways, they understand that and are very eager to get started on the proposal to open a health clinic.
I had the fence around my garden built last week. I am going to have some kid help me put compost on it and hopefully Juliette can help me plant next week. I am excited to have things growing. Hopefully, I will be lucky and they will grow!
Oh, last weekend was this huge fete for the Doufelgou prefecture and the Nawdm tribe. It was a very fancy event. I was told it was a celebration of the coming of rain. It was thought the president might have even showed because he did last year, but he didn’t. Three ministers of something from Lomé came up though. And all of the village chiefs were dressed to the nines. It was quite the fashion event. I got to wear my new dress I had made. Each of the villages that make up my prefecture represented themselves in a dance specific to their village. Koka’s dance was, of course, the butt shaking dance I see them do at every fete. And the women wear these noise makers around their legs that are made out of some kind of reed and a seed is placed into these small spaces to shake around. Some of the dances were pretty impressive. And it was also interesting to see maybe 100 people all wearing the exact same payne. There were like 20 different seas of matching people. I posted some pictures of the event for you all to enjoy.
The rainy season started here last week. We had a really big rain storm about a week ago that caused the power to go out for about 36 hours. A huge tree fell on top of the power line in Niamtougou and all of the poles had to be replaced. A lot of the smaller marché stands were destroyed in the high winds and some metal roofs were ripped off. I didn’t have much damage in my village luckily. The roof to my new kitchen, which I got totally ripped off on, leaks. Great job host brother o’ mine! He said if it rains in during the second rain that he would fix it.
The rain that night started around 4 in the afternoon, so I just stayed around my house and cooked an early dinner. By around 6, I was ready to lock the door to my house and stay in for the night. So I ran to the latrine, in the rain, and it was fairly dark with only my lamp. So I unlocked the door to my latrine and turned to shut the door. And as I turn back towards the latrine I saw something on the side of the wall of the room to my latrine. I leaned in a little and sitting there on the wall was a SNAKE!!! I didn’t see how big it actually was. I freaked out and ran back into the house. I just held it until morning. I could have asked one of my brothers to go in and kill it but I was too scared to leave my house. They could have just been lying in the puddles outside my house and I didn’t want to risk getting bitten. He wasn’t there in the morning. I was warned by Peace Corps that snakes sometimes like to hide near latrine during or after rain because they are covered and are sort of warm, I guess. From now on I will have my brother check the latrine after a rainfall just to be sure.
So some funny things I have witnessed lately…
There is a moto driver I see quite often driving around Niamtougou. And it never fails to make me chuckle when I see him wearing his "I AM A SEX MACHINE" t-shirt and I know he has no idea what it means. Not quite as funny as the elementary school aged girl I worked with in training who had a t-shirt that said "Clitoris. Not a Greek Island but still worth exploring". Ah dead yovo clothes.
There were two motos driving past me yesterday with 6 bikes strapped onto the back. One guy tipped over once when he had to stop. They just don’t understand the lack of logic behind that. Hope they made it to wherever they were going.
At a folklore dance in Alex’s village (I posted pictures of it) there was one dance that was about putting down men who sleep with their sisters. In good reason, but it gets worse. There was a group of guys dancing around and a guy dressed as a girl in a dress came out. Then, the group proceeds to pretty much act out that they are gang raping the girl. There were small children watching this and their parents thought nothing of it. Alex and I were quite shocked while everyone else watching just thought it was funny. Must have a cultural joke that I totally don’t want to understand.
My brother fixed the roof to my new kitchen, which leaked during the first rain storm, with, what else…Duck tape.
I always enjoying the goats behind my house play king of the sand hill and watch the loser fall off.
Well that is all I can think of for now.
Letters and emails have been rather quiet lately. So drop me a line and let me know what is going on.
Love and miss you all, Alia
I tried to recall back to the questions I had before leaving. What should I bring, what do you miss the most, what stuff can you buy here that I won’t need to bring? Some things now I am really thankful I asked, while others are not so important. Like how much French did you know before you arrived? I could barely speak a word of French comfortably and now I can carry on a fairly intelligent conversation and even flirt! I am far happier now that I am adjusted to living here and have found a place that I consider home. I have people around me I would consider friends and I now know the signs to look for, when it comes to people I do not want to be friends with. Eight months! WOW!
I have been sitting at the computer the past two days trying to type out some project proposals and some reports that have to be in by the end of the month. This week is, and is going to continue to be, crazy. I had a meeting with the chief of the canton, the village chief and the community development committee on Monday. This was the first of many meetings I am going to have with that group over the next year. At the meeting we decided on members from the community that would be members of the health committee responsible for running of the health clinic once it is opened. We chose five of the seven members who will sit on the committee, so we got somewhere. Faustin, my homologue, had to reinforce the point that I, personally, am not going to fund the projects we plan for the village. It is a collective effort of organizations I know, along with friends and family. So when the time comes, donate some money please!!!!!!!! But anyways, they understand that and are very eager to get started on the proposal to open a health clinic.
I had the fence around my garden built last week. I am going to have some kid help me put compost on it and hopefully Juliette can help me plant next week. I am excited to have things growing. Hopefully, I will be lucky and they will grow!
Oh, last weekend was this huge fete for the Doufelgou prefecture and the Nawdm tribe. It was a very fancy event. I was told it was a celebration of the coming of rain. It was thought the president might have even showed because he did last year, but he didn’t. Three ministers of something from Lomé came up though. And all of the village chiefs were dressed to the nines. It was quite the fashion event. I got to wear my new dress I had made. Each of the villages that make up my prefecture represented themselves in a dance specific to their village. Koka’s dance was, of course, the butt shaking dance I see them do at every fete. And the women wear these noise makers around their legs that are made out of some kind of reed and a seed is placed into these small spaces to shake around. Some of the dances were pretty impressive. And it was also interesting to see maybe 100 people all wearing the exact same payne. There were like 20 different seas of matching people. I posted some pictures of the event for you all to enjoy.
The rainy season started here last week. We had a really big rain storm about a week ago that caused the power to go out for about 36 hours. A huge tree fell on top of the power line in Niamtougou and all of the poles had to be replaced. A lot of the smaller marché stands were destroyed in the high winds and some metal roofs were ripped off. I didn’t have much damage in my village luckily. The roof to my new kitchen, which I got totally ripped off on, leaks. Great job host brother o’ mine! He said if it rains in during the second rain that he would fix it.
The rain that night started around 4 in the afternoon, so I just stayed around my house and cooked an early dinner. By around 6, I was ready to lock the door to my house and stay in for the night. So I ran to the latrine, in the rain, and it was fairly dark with only my lamp. So I unlocked the door to my latrine and turned to shut the door. And as I turn back towards the latrine I saw something on the side of the wall of the room to my latrine. I leaned in a little and sitting there on the wall was a SNAKE!!! I didn’t see how big it actually was. I freaked out and ran back into the house. I just held it until morning. I could have asked one of my brothers to go in and kill it but I was too scared to leave my house. They could have just been lying in the puddles outside my house and I didn’t want to risk getting bitten. He wasn’t there in the morning. I was warned by Peace Corps that snakes sometimes like to hide near latrine during or after rain because they are covered and are sort of warm, I guess. From now on I will have my brother check the latrine after a rainfall just to be sure.
So some funny things I have witnessed lately…
There is a moto driver I see quite often driving around Niamtougou. And it never fails to make me chuckle when I see him wearing his "I AM A SEX MACHINE" t-shirt and I know he has no idea what it means. Not quite as funny as the elementary school aged girl I worked with in training who had a t-shirt that said "Clitoris. Not a Greek Island but still worth exploring". Ah dead yovo clothes.
There were two motos driving past me yesterday with 6 bikes strapped onto the back. One guy tipped over once when he had to stop. They just don’t understand the lack of logic behind that. Hope they made it to wherever they were going.
At a folklore dance in Alex’s village (I posted pictures of it) there was one dance that was about putting down men who sleep with their sisters. In good reason, but it gets worse. There was a group of guys dancing around and a guy dressed as a girl in a dress came out. Then, the group proceeds to pretty much act out that they are gang raping the girl. There were small children watching this and their parents thought nothing of it. Alex and I were quite shocked while everyone else watching just thought it was funny. Must have a cultural joke that I totally don’t want to understand.
My brother fixed the roof to my new kitchen, which leaked during the first rain storm, with, what else…Duck tape.
I always enjoying the goats behind my house play king of the sand hill and watch the loser fall off.
Well that is all I can think of for now.
Letters and emails have been rather quiet lately. So drop me a line and let me know what is going on.
Love and miss you all, Alia
posted by Alia at 5:48 AM
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