Togo Togo.: Harmattan---the Dusty Season.

Bonne Année! (Happy New Years). I’m back in village now in Togo after a great 3 week vacation seeing family and friends. It was amazing to have hot showers, a sparkling Christmas tree, time with family and friends, and yummy food! It was a little overwhelming to say the least after not being in the U.S. for over a year and half, but my time there was great and thanks to everyone who made it so special! I rang in the New Year in Paris with my boyfriend and his family and then headed back on a jet plane to Togoland. I spent a couple days enjoying what Lome had to offer --pool, indian food, semi-fast internet and then climbed in a bush taxi to head up country.

Now back in village it is dusty season also called Harmattan. People burn all of their crops, an agricultural technique I still have major doubts about it and then there is an abundance of dust swirling around in the air. It is the only time of year that you ever snuggle underneath a blanket and are still cold at night. I feel like I’m taking sinus decongestion around the clock, but it will soon be over and hot season will arrive.

Everything is pretty much as I’ve left it, and when I got back it was nice to see certain friends in village, though I was trying to avoid the masses as everyone wanted a ‘cadeau’ (gift) from America. It’s certainly weird to get back to the solitude of Badou after being around people straight for about a month. I’m in the midst of two books the Steve Jobs biography and a book married to a Bedouin Women that DW sent. I spent today which is Sunday with my old landlady and her daughter that was in town, we went to the Catholic Church service because it was the anniversary of the death of her husband and there was to also be a big marriage ceremony. The marriage ceremony was quite basic, and then after the whole church marched their way to the house where we ate rice, meat of some kind? danced and then parted ways. I took a dusty moto ride back to my house and have been doing laundry.

I have some new work on my plate in the coming months, the Women’s Wellness and Empowerment Conference, finishing my Community Health Agent last Training, and working with our new Malaria Action Committee with PC Togo. The later involves some data collecting by every volunteer. We will each visit 50 homes and do a survey in addition to getting statistics from the hospital. It will give us a better vision we hope of accurate statistics. Most of the statistics collected have a large…umm error rate so it’s hard to ever get baseline data. It really isn’t even totally the fault of the people collecting data; everyone is so overloaded with too much work and paperwork that finishing it with accuracy never seems to happen. On an exciting note, the Women’s Savings and Loans Association my sitemate and I started did their first savings round last week. So hooray for them, this is a huge move that has taken months to happen! I gardened the other day with one of my favorite women in village and we planted carrots and green/red peppers. I also brought back a tiny (basically foolproof) sunflower pot kit for my house from Paris, and I saw the first sprout today. Out of all the things to miss, I really do miss flowers a lot.

I went running yesterday for the first time of the year with Zoey my dog. I’m hoping it will become more of a regular thing this year. I finally got some new dance/run music in the states from my lovely sister so running should be more fun.

Okay that’s all for now, I hope everyone had a New Year, and a big ‘akpaloooo’ (THANK YOU) for all of you for the letters, emails, packages that you’ve sent, they really do put such a smile on my face!

Photos below are from the last couple of months hope you enjoy!