Peace Corps 2011 Togo: Life in Togo as a PCV

December 6, 2011

My wonderful Dad figured out why the blog site wouldn’t let me on so now I can occasionally update this blog and let you all know how I’m doing. The 14^th, I will have been in Togo for three months. It’s hard to believe. Right now I’m in my regional capital Atapkame (a-ta-pa-me) at the transit house for a couple of days. I have to come here to do my banking and it’s nice to have electricity, showers, and internet. Plus, the food is awesome here (by that I mean street food). There are a couple of nicer restaurants like George’s (who apparently has grilled cheese) and then there is the street food. The most common of which is beans and rice. I can get that in my village. Then there are the meat vendors. Your buy a loaf of bread from the bread girl and give it to the meat guys and they’ll make you a sandwich. I personally don’t eat these since I got sick that one time after eating one when I was in Tsevie. Then there is the egg-sandwich guy not far from the transit house. They are amazing. Finally, there is street salad. The woman here in Atapkame has her system down. Its made up to spaghetti noodles, lettuce, onion, beets, bell peppers, hard boiled egg, tuna, and to top it all off mayo and vinegar. Delicious, and more veggies than I’ve had in weeks. Its enough for two meals all for 500 cfa (about one dollar us).

Enough about Atapkame, I’m sure everyone is curious about my village. Asrama is great. I live in a medium sized village without electricity or running water. There is a lycee (high school) which smaller villages don’t have. There is also a marché day (Monday). Though even on marché days what I can buy for food is pretty lean. I can get onions, tomatoes, okra, bananas, oranges, rice, eggs, and pasta. Notsé is my closest big city and it’s a 45 min motorcycle ride away. There are two bars in ville where I can buy cold soda, which is amazing after a long hot day.

I have a great homologue Mr. Akpo. His English is very good so we end up speaking a lot of franglais (French and English). We talk about America and the differences between here and the US. It’s strange some of the misinformation there is in Africa about the United States. For example, most people here think that New York is the capital. My host family (the family who lives next door) are great also. I pay their son, Fumiko (not sure if that’s how you spell it) to get my water, which I keep in a huge trash can. I’ve started going to the lycee and watching English classes. Right now I’m getting to know my village and will start adding work over time.

In January, I have IST, more training for technical information. Stage was an introduction and language intensive. It’s important to get a firm base of French in order to communicate. My French has come a long way, but it’s still difficult to communicate. I will be getting tutored in village by my homologue’s wife who knows French and English. I’ll be learning Adja, the local language, with my homologue. So far I only know a few phrases in Adja, but I would like to by the end of my two years be able to communicate in local language. There are many languages in Togo and they correspond to ethnicity's. The people of my village are Adja people. It’s actually a language mostly spoken in Benin. The big languages are Ewe (spoken in the south), Mina, and Kabyé (spoken in the North). Adja and Ewe are in the same language family so there are a lot of similarities between them. Similar to how French and Spanish share the same roots and some words are the same.

My house in Asrama. The two small tubs are my dish washing station (I know super fancy) and the trash bin is where I store my water. To the right towards the back is my latrine/show area.