On the road again
Hello everyone! Hope everything is going well for everyone back home. Things are going well here. I just got back from a week-long bike ride across part of my region of Kara. It was called AIDS RIDE and each region of Togo puts on a separate ride each fall. We stopped at 22 different villages and in each we put on AIDS education programs to groups ranging from 100 to 2000. There were 8 Peace Corps volunteers that went as well as 4 Togolese counterparts. My counterpart, Boudema came with us. During each of the programs we would perform some of several skits about HIV transmission, prevention, stigmatization, and a typical story about a Togolese girl who become infected with HIV. We changed each program based on their amount of French and knowledge level. If a village didn’t speak much French we had some non verbal games to play that got the same message as the sketches in French. We would also demonstrate proper condom usage and disposal. This always got lots of laughs and some crude comments from the men in the audience. I didn’t like doing these demonstrations very much. We would finish each session with a question and answer period. We got some really weird questions during the week. One man asked if you have sex with a young girl, is it turn you can’t get infected with HIV. A student asked if you could use a plastic bag instead of a condom as protection. Lot of people asked what the origin of AIDS was and why we didn’t just bring the cure for AIDS with us to give them. But all we could do was provide information and some people got free condoms.
We started out in a village called Guerin Kouka on the western side of Togo. From there we looped north and east and finished in Kanté. Each day we biked between 25 and 35km a day. This was far more than I had ever done before. I was a bit nervous about it before I left but I was determined to be able to finish it all. But in case I wasn’t, there was a chase car that followed us the entire time and brought along our supplies. That made it a lot easier because we didn’t need to carry all the stuff we needed for the week on our bikes. The route for the most parts was not too bad of a ride. Lots of it was pretty flat and some ups and downs. On the first and second days though, we had quite a few adventures. At one point we had to go down this very washed out steep hill and then land n a narrow bridge that crossed the Kara River. There was a also a guy on a bike who kept trying to talk to me, telling me I should give him money to fix the road. I was nervous about falling in that water and just wanted him to shut up. Then later that day, there was one point in the road that was totally covered with a foot of water. It was thought it would be dry already after rainy season, but it was still there and about 30 yards to get across. I don’t know what kind of creatures or feces were in that water, but I just kept on peddling and made it across without falling. That night we stayed at chief’s house of the village we did a program in. It ended up being two quiet small rooms with several large bags full of corn or millet. These tend to be home to tons of mice and rats and bugs. So, for the most part, none of us got much sleep that night. There were four girls who just swore-in in August with us who I don’t think had quite gotten used to the bush life of Togo and were not too thrilled with the accommodations. They screamed quite a bit and eventually moved outside and slept on a bench. I was fine since I brought my bug net and Tylenol PM with me. It wasn’t the most comfortable floor but it was fine.
The programs we did that day were pretty good. The first one was at an elementary school so most of the audience did not speak French, so everything had to be translated into local language. We were also still nervous about our skits and what we should talk about. The second village was at a middle school. By that level students tend to be pretty fluent in French so it went much better. There were about 300 people from the schools and the village in attendance. They asked a lot questions and it went really well. The third program was with a bunch of older men and women. Not many spoke French but there was a woman there who was trained by an NGO somewhere to be a HIV peer educator so she was able to ad lib a lot of the information because we knew what we were talking about.
The next morning we started off early at 7. Right away we came to another river. This time there was no bridge so we had to walk through the river. Not as gross as the first one, thankfully. The road the rest of that day was rather washed out but it made for an exciting off-roading type experience. We stopped for lunch in one of the only villages on the route that had electricity so we enjoyed some ice cold beverages. Truly hit the spot! That night we stayed in the most in the bush villages I have yet been to in Togo. First they forgot we were coming to stay the night so the chief didn’t really know where we were going to be sleeping. It also took about an hour for them to decide which person’s wife was allowed to cook for us. We ended up staying at the chief’s house. He had tons of kids around. I counted around 20. And because he was probably the richest person in the village he had tons of animals running around, pooping everywhere. Pigs, ducks, chickens, goats, sheep, turkeys, dogs…. Lots. Same as the night before, we were given a small room to sleep in with several bags of corn. So the room smelled like mouse. I slept inside under my bug net and I was fine but everyone else slept outside. I was fine except for the few minutes in the early morning when a rat started screaming. The next morning I was very eager to get out of there. They were just a little too villageois for me. If anything they really need a volunteer to be posted there because they didn’t even think that bugs could possibly bit a person when you were inside a house, even when the windows and doors were open.
The first program was at a small elementary school. Very few people there spoke French but they were still very interested in the information. They thought that the condom demonstrations were the funniest thing. Wooden penises can be funny I guess. I don’t think that any of the kids really understood what we were talking about. The second program was at another elementary school about 20km down the road. There were also a lot of towns people that came. About 300 people crammed into a small school room for the program. We did the usual activities and then questions and answer. There was one little boy who was sitting in the front row who looked about 9 years old who knew the answer to just about every question we asked. It was amazing. He also spoke beautiful French. For as in the bush we were, that is a very uncommon thing to find, especially with such a young child. We gave him some free pens at the end for giving so many answers. From there we went into the larger town that had electricity for lunch. I rested for a little while before our next program by climbing up into a tree with the rest of my group. The Togolese kids that came to look at us thought we were the weirdest thing. After lunch, we did a program at a large middle school. There were about 500 people there for the presentation. It went really well. It was all in French and people asked lots of questions. That was the program where a guy asked if you could sleep with a young girl and not get HIV. Other than that it went really well.
Third day was quite a challenge because a lot of the roads were really gravelly making it difficult to bike; also the fact that my body was starting to get really tired and from sleeping on the floor for two nights. That night we stayed at an elementary school. I much preferred this because we could spread out a lot and it was not hot to sleep inside. The only problem was that the house that we were supposed to go to for showering had a really gross shower. It was just a grass hut with mud and rocks on the floor. It was also used as a bathroom so there was poop all over the floor. Even the Togolese people wouldn’t use it so that says how gross it was. So, we just set up a makeshift shower stall behind the school using our sleeping mats, and then after it got dark just showered without them. It worked fine.
Our first program was about 15km away from where we spent the night. We had run out of breakfast food by that point so we had to bike for a bit on an empty stomach. The ride to the village was really long and up hill for a lot of it. I was so tired by the time I got the site. We did the program at a mixed school so there were young and older kids. They thought that our skits were really funny. Togolese people LOVE skits. One of our homologues was really good at improving and made everything so funny. I got quite a few gross comments from men at that site. We stayed for lunch at the chief’s house and rested afterwards. I was finally able to wash my pants which I had been wearing for 3 days. They were gross. But they made us really yummy guinea foul that was really huge, nothing like I had ever seen in Togo. After lunch we biked on to a village 2km past. The chief had forgotten to announce the program and wasn’t even in village so we just went to the march and called people over. There were only around 50 people that came but they were really interested in the information. They were some gross guys there though who were being obnoxious. At the end of most programs we hand out condoms but in this village we had a huge problem. We ended up getting bum rushed for the condoms and even after we ran out, but no one believed us. We ended up having to leave that village in a rush because they wouldn’t leave us alone and were getting angry. It was sad that it happened. The ride to the next village was really hard. I almost got in the car at that point. It was all gravelly and soft. I really wanted to collapse once I finally arrived.
The fourth day we only had one program in the morning and then biked to Kanté. The first program was in this really small village that had never really heard of HIV. There were a lot of little kids and some adults. We were all exhausted and didn’t really put a lot of energy into the program but the people seemed to like it. The bike part was really hilly and we were all exhausted. I had to get off and walk up this one big hill, but it was the only time I had to walk. At the top of the hill the driver of the car saw me breathing really hard and asked if I wanted to just get in the car the rest of the way. I told him no, that I was going to finish the rest of it on my own even if I had to go really slowly. But I ended up making it the whole way to Kanté on my bike. When we got there, I showered off at the volunteer’s house who is posted there and got lunch. That afternoon there was a large program being put on by that volunteer in conjunction with an AIDS association that he works with. We thought that we were going to have more involvement in the program there but it ended up being pretty much all about the association. That was a bit annoying because we had put a lot of work in and people kept talking about AIDS Ride but it totally got overlooked. We were able to perform on skit but they didn’t give us time to do the question and answer afterwards to the skit didn’t really make much sense.
On the fifth day we only had one program in the morning. My village was not informed about a schedule change so only about 100 elementary school kids came. But we played some HIV education games with them. They had fun and hopefully got something out of it.
I am really glad that the I participated in the event but I do not want to do it again next year if I am still here.
Other than that some other stuff happened before going on AIDS Ride. I was in Kara the 2 weeks ago for the weekend and when I came back I found that my house had been broken into. The person had broken into my roof which is made of thatch and made quite a bit of a mess. He stole my DVD player, my shower soap, a calculator, my alarm clock, and this sunburn cream. He had had also found my lock box where I keep my money and passport, and had pried it open. But I didn’t have any money in it so they didn’t take anything luckily. They also ripped the screen to my window. However, after talking with my brothers and with the police my suspicions became true. My gardener who I had learned to trust, had broken in. We all went to his house and searched his room and found my soap, so the rest we told him just to give back. I got back but two DVDs that I had borrowed from a friend, which I feel bad about. Also, the week before, he asked me for a loan so he could start an apprenticeship. Turns out that he stole the money and bought drinks with his friends and had no plans to pay me back. He had to go to jail for two days and now has to do manual labor, filling in all of the roads around the village where the rain washed then out. He not longer works for me and really lost out on a good thing. Sucks for him. I am fine now and I am getting my roof fixed to be more permanent. So no worries.
Also that week, my host sister found out if she would be able to go back to school. She transferred from another reason and because last so many students failed the 3rd level and stayed back, there was not enough space for her. She the director of the school did a test for the last remain 6 spaces in the class. He ended up taking 12 instead and left out 4. She was one of them. She was really devastated. 3rd level is the last class before you can go to high school. Although she wasn’t the greatest student in every subject, she is a really good kid and wanted to keep going. The night after she got the results she took so medicine to kid herself and left a note saying if she couldn’t go back to school, she would rather be dead. She didn't die, it just gave her a bad stomach ache. She was in the hospital for a few days but she is doing fine now. My host brothers ended up getting her a place in another middle school in Niamtougou but it is a 30 minute walk each way so she is not too thrilled since she doesn’t have a bike. This event just proved the point of how hard life for girls here is. Not only do they have to do work at home for the family, they also have to struggle with school. They are seldom given the opportunity to solely concentrate on their school work. Boys are allowed to pay sports and work, while girls have to help with cooking and cleaning and the school work is always secondary. Very sad to have to deal with.
But tomorrow, today I am leaving for my very first vacation since arriving to Togo. I am going to Ghana with some of my girl friends here. I am going to eat nachos and sushi, go the beach and just relax. CAN’T WAIT!!!!!
That is all for now. Please write or email again soon!!!
Love and miss you tons
Alia
We started out in a village called Guerin Kouka on the western side of Togo. From there we looped north and east and finished in Kanté. Each day we biked between 25 and 35km a day. This was far more than I had ever done before. I was a bit nervous about it before I left but I was determined to be able to finish it all. But in case I wasn’t, there was a chase car that followed us the entire time and brought along our supplies. That made it a lot easier because we didn’t need to carry all the stuff we needed for the week on our bikes. The route for the most parts was not too bad of a ride. Lots of it was pretty flat and some ups and downs. On the first and second days though, we had quite a few adventures. At one point we had to go down this very washed out steep hill and then land n a narrow bridge that crossed the Kara River. There was a also a guy on a bike who kept trying to talk to me, telling me I should give him money to fix the road. I was nervous about falling in that water and just wanted him to shut up. Then later that day, there was one point in the road that was totally covered with a foot of water. It was thought it would be dry already after rainy season, but it was still there and about 30 yards to get across. I don’t know what kind of creatures or feces were in that water, but I just kept on peddling and made it across without falling. That night we stayed at chief’s house of the village we did a program in. It ended up being two quiet small rooms with several large bags full of corn or millet. These tend to be home to tons of mice and rats and bugs. So, for the most part, none of us got much sleep that night. There were four girls who just swore-in in August with us who I don’t think had quite gotten used to the bush life of Togo and were not too thrilled with the accommodations. They screamed quite a bit and eventually moved outside and slept on a bench. I was fine since I brought my bug net and Tylenol PM with me. It wasn’t the most comfortable floor but it was fine.
The programs we did that day were pretty good. The first one was at an elementary school so most of the audience did not speak French, so everything had to be translated into local language. We were also still nervous about our skits and what we should talk about. The second village was at a middle school. By that level students tend to be pretty fluent in French so it went much better. There were about 300 people from the schools and the village in attendance. They asked a lot questions and it went really well. The third program was with a bunch of older men and women. Not many spoke French but there was a woman there who was trained by an NGO somewhere to be a HIV peer educator so she was able to ad lib a lot of the information because we knew what we were talking about.
The next morning we started off early at 7. Right away we came to another river. This time there was no bridge so we had to walk through the river. Not as gross as the first one, thankfully. The road the rest of that day was rather washed out but it made for an exciting off-roading type experience. We stopped for lunch in one of the only villages on the route that had electricity so we enjoyed some ice cold beverages. Truly hit the spot! That night we stayed in the most in the bush villages I have yet been to in Togo. First they forgot we were coming to stay the night so the chief didn’t really know where we were going to be sleeping. It also took about an hour for them to decide which person’s wife was allowed to cook for us. We ended up staying at the chief’s house. He had tons of kids around. I counted around 20. And because he was probably the richest person in the village he had tons of animals running around, pooping everywhere. Pigs, ducks, chickens, goats, sheep, turkeys, dogs…. Lots. Same as the night before, we were given a small room to sleep in with several bags of corn. So the room smelled like mouse. I slept inside under my bug net and I was fine but everyone else slept outside. I was fine except for the few minutes in the early morning when a rat started screaming. The next morning I was very eager to get out of there. They were just a little too villageois for me. If anything they really need a volunteer to be posted there because they didn’t even think that bugs could possibly bit a person when you were inside a house, even when the windows and doors were open.
The first program was at a small elementary school. Very few people there spoke French but they were still very interested in the information. They thought that the condom demonstrations were the funniest thing. Wooden penises can be funny I guess. I don’t think that any of the kids really understood what we were talking about. The second program was at another elementary school about 20km down the road. There were also a lot of towns people that came. About 300 people crammed into a small school room for the program. We did the usual activities and then questions and answer. There was one little boy who was sitting in the front row who looked about 9 years old who knew the answer to just about every question we asked. It was amazing. He also spoke beautiful French. For as in the bush we were, that is a very uncommon thing to find, especially with such a young child. We gave him some free pens at the end for giving so many answers. From there we went into the larger town that had electricity for lunch. I rested for a little while before our next program by climbing up into a tree with the rest of my group. The Togolese kids that came to look at us thought we were the weirdest thing. After lunch, we did a program at a large middle school. There were about 500 people there for the presentation. It went really well. It was all in French and people asked lots of questions. That was the program where a guy asked if you could sleep with a young girl and not get HIV. Other than that it went really well.
Third day was quite a challenge because a lot of the roads were really gravelly making it difficult to bike; also the fact that my body was starting to get really tired and from sleeping on the floor for two nights. That night we stayed at an elementary school. I much preferred this because we could spread out a lot and it was not hot to sleep inside. The only problem was that the house that we were supposed to go to for showering had a really gross shower. It was just a grass hut with mud and rocks on the floor. It was also used as a bathroom so there was poop all over the floor. Even the Togolese people wouldn’t use it so that says how gross it was. So, we just set up a makeshift shower stall behind the school using our sleeping mats, and then after it got dark just showered without them. It worked fine.
Our first program was about 15km away from where we spent the night. We had run out of breakfast food by that point so we had to bike for a bit on an empty stomach. The ride to the village was really long and up hill for a lot of it. I was so tired by the time I got the site. We did the program at a mixed school so there were young and older kids. They thought that our skits were really funny. Togolese people LOVE skits. One of our homologues was really good at improving and made everything so funny. I got quite a few gross comments from men at that site. We stayed for lunch at the chief’s house and rested afterwards. I was finally able to wash my pants which I had been wearing for 3 days. They were gross. But they made us really yummy guinea foul that was really huge, nothing like I had ever seen in Togo. After lunch we biked on to a village 2km past. The chief had forgotten to announce the program and wasn’t even in village so we just went to the march and called people over. There were only around 50 people that came but they were really interested in the information. They were some gross guys there though who were being obnoxious. At the end of most programs we hand out condoms but in this village we had a huge problem. We ended up getting bum rushed for the condoms and even after we ran out, but no one believed us. We ended up having to leave that village in a rush because they wouldn’t leave us alone and were getting angry. It was sad that it happened. The ride to the next village was really hard. I almost got in the car at that point. It was all gravelly and soft. I really wanted to collapse once I finally arrived.
The fourth day we only had one program in the morning and then biked to Kanté. The first program was in this really small village that had never really heard of HIV. There were a lot of little kids and some adults. We were all exhausted and didn’t really put a lot of energy into the program but the people seemed to like it. The bike part was really hilly and we were all exhausted. I had to get off and walk up this one big hill, but it was the only time I had to walk. At the top of the hill the driver of the car saw me breathing really hard and asked if I wanted to just get in the car the rest of the way. I told him no, that I was going to finish the rest of it on my own even if I had to go really slowly. But I ended up making it the whole way to Kanté on my bike. When we got there, I showered off at the volunteer’s house who is posted there and got lunch. That afternoon there was a large program being put on by that volunteer in conjunction with an AIDS association that he works with. We thought that we were going to have more involvement in the program there but it ended up being pretty much all about the association. That was a bit annoying because we had put a lot of work in and people kept talking about AIDS Ride but it totally got overlooked. We were able to perform on skit but they didn’t give us time to do the question and answer afterwards to the skit didn’t really make much sense.
On the fifth day we only had one program in the morning. My village was not informed about a schedule change so only about 100 elementary school kids came. But we played some HIV education games with them. They had fun and hopefully got something out of it.
I am really glad that the I participated in the event but I do not want to do it again next year if I am still here.
Other than that some other stuff happened before going on AIDS Ride. I was in Kara the 2 weeks ago for the weekend and when I came back I found that my house had been broken into. The person had broken into my roof which is made of thatch and made quite a bit of a mess. He stole my DVD player, my shower soap, a calculator, my alarm clock, and this sunburn cream. He had had also found my lock box where I keep my money and passport, and had pried it open. But I didn’t have any money in it so they didn’t take anything luckily. They also ripped the screen to my window. However, after talking with my brothers and with the police my suspicions became true. My gardener who I had learned to trust, had broken in. We all went to his house and searched his room and found my soap, so the rest we told him just to give back. I got back but two DVDs that I had borrowed from a friend, which I feel bad about. Also, the week before, he asked me for a loan so he could start an apprenticeship. Turns out that he stole the money and bought drinks with his friends and had no plans to pay me back. He had to go to jail for two days and now has to do manual labor, filling in all of the roads around the village where the rain washed then out. He not longer works for me and really lost out on a good thing. Sucks for him. I am fine now and I am getting my roof fixed to be more permanent. So no worries.
Also that week, my host sister found out if she would be able to go back to school. She transferred from another reason and because last so many students failed the 3rd level and stayed back, there was not enough space for her. She the director of the school did a test for the last remain 6 spaces in the class. He ended up taking 12 instead and left out 4. She was one of them. She was really devastated. 3rd level is the last class before you can go to high school. Although she wasn’t the greatest student in every subject, she is a really good kid and wanted to keep going. The night after she got the results she took so medicine to kid herself and left a note saying if she couldn’t go back to school, she would rather be dead. She didn't die, it just gave her a bad stomach ache. She was in the hospital for a few days but she is doing fine now. My host brothers ended up getting her a place in another middle school in Niamtougou but it is a 30 minute walk each way so she is not too thrilled since she doesn’t have a bike. This event just proved the point of how hard life for girls here is. Not only do they have to do work at home for the family, they also have to struggle with school. They are seldom given the opportunity to solely concentrate on their school work. Boys are allowed to pay sports and work, while girls have to help with cooking and cleaning and the school work is always secondary. Very sad to have to deal with.
But tomorrow, today I am leaving for my very first vacation since arriving to Togo. I am going to Ghana with some of my girl friends here. I am going to eat nachos and sushi, go the beach and just relax. CAN’T WAIT!!!!!
That is all for now. Please write or email again soon!!!
Love and miss you tons
Alia
posted by Alia at 12:57 PM
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