I've been going out with my Togolese counterpart, Michel, to some of the small villages around Vogan. We've been visiting middle schools and in general I've just been getting to know the area. I'm going to be starting a Life Skills class at one of the middle schools, so we're trying to pick which one. Below is a picture of a calabash tree. It looks like fruit on steroids. Each one is much bigger than my hand.
I've also met an artist, Joseph, who lives in Vogan. He sells some paintings to the US and I've really enjoyed going over to his compound and hanging out while he works. He lived in Nigeria and received most of his training there so he speaks English really well. Below is a painting he gave me (!) and he has more for sale (and I have more photos) if you are interested. Just let me know.
I recently got running water which is, by far, the most exciting thing that's happened to me. I can now take (cold) showers and most importantly, do the dishes with running water. Bucket baths have never bothered me, but washing dishes in buckets kinda sucks. My landlady's father died, so she held his funeral at our house. Now, funerals here in Togo tend to be a full-blown 2 day all night party. The funeral service is thrown in there as well, but huge speakers are rented and music plays all night while the body arrives at the house at about 4am. There's dancing and singing and cooking, and in this case, 6 bulls were slaughtered outside my front door. Below is one of them. He kept looking at me accusingly.
On the upside, I was invited to the funeral lunch, which was amazing. There were even grapes and watermelon, two things really hard to find in Togo. There was also a great performance of traditional Togolese dance.
No expense was spared, and my landlady has a LOT of money. I ended up talking and hanging out with her daughter, who just graduated from the Montgomery College in the States. It was great to be hanging out with Togolese people and speaking a weird mixture of Franglais and Ewe. We had a really good time. But I haven't had a good night's sleep in about a week, owing to the funeral, and this little guy below:
This is my new puppy, Mick. I inherited him from another volunteer, and he's just about the sweetest dog in the world. The kittens have gone to their rightful home (I was just taking care of them) so now it's just me, Mick, and Azi, my tripod cat. Mick sleeps all day and is extremely chill till I turn the lights out. Then he proceeds to bark at everything. So I REALLY REALLY need a good night's sleep. All of the region's volunteers are coming to my house for a party (to welcome our new volunteers to post) on Friday night, so I'm not going to get much rest. I think that's about it for now. I'm doing some quick shopping and banking here in Lome and then heading back to post. I've found now that I'm comfortable in Vogan, I don't really enjoy how expensive and crowded Lome is. I'm lucky enough to find pretty much everything I need at post, so the only real reason to come here is internet and the bank. I miss you all and thanks for all the continued letters, packages, emails, etc. They're really appreciated!
My next door neighbors. They brighten my day and make me laugh :)
