One year in...

As the title says, I'm just a few days away from the first day that I got here in country. One year can change a lot of things, especially when you're in a world completely new to yourself. Like it can teach you new things about yourself, build relationships with people you otherwise would never have known, or even just show you how much you love to eat rice and beans. It also lets you know that some things about you won't change. Like the fact that I still love to watch Scrubs (thank god for having 6 seasons with me), hang out with close friends and talk life, or sometimes just lay around with a good book and devour all that is inside.

I've also learned that learning a new language is a truly challenging experience, and that even though you use it every day you still find yourself trying to communicate in words you don't fully understand. But the most important thing I've found is that each person, regardless of who they think they are or where they stand in life, has a sort of indestructible inner-self that makes them who they are. Even the smallest insights can be enough to make one happy, or at least content with life.

I've spent so much time recently running all over the place and working on training materials for new trainees who arrive here in country shortly that I haven't had too much time to sit down and think on my own experiences. I've helped to decided what the newbies will learn during the first 11 weeks they are here, where they will visit, what I personally will be doing for 2 weeks to introduce the ICT curriculum, and now here I sit in Lome working on the toolkit that the volunteers will be able to use for resources in the ICT domain. Being busy continuously is a different feeling now, I feel a little more “American” at the moment.

I've managed to travel more in this past year than I have my entire life, I've managed to meet people who speak completely different languages than me and manage to have conversations. I've learned what it feels like to live in Africa, what the difference of 20 cents is to a full stomach. I've discovered what obstacles seem to be, and how there is no way you can really be prepared for each one that comes your way. I've also learned to take them in stride, and just try your hardest to make things work. Everyone has problems, learning to deal with them and overcome them successfully is what makes a person great.

Heres to another year...

Another Story

Welcome esteemed reader to today's edition of “This African Life”. This edition is brought to you by wonderful readers such as yourself who have taken upon themselves to call me to complain about not enough updates. Therefore, I shall try and flesh out more of life here, although to be quite honest it has become routine for me so not quite that interesting. Although there are definitely little things to keep it interesting (like little friends hanging out in the corner of your shower that you don't notice until halfway through). Without much other prattling, we shall commence today's program.

Alors, village life. That wonderful period of time that is the majority of the program I find myself in here. Not much has changed here. Market days are still the most exciting day of the week, I rather enjoy going there in the afternoon and doing whatever; be it drinking a calabash or two of tchouk or digging through tshirts looking for the perfect new one to add to my collection. When I say dig, I mean it. Picture piles of clothing splayed out on tarps with someone standing in the middle of it all yelling out the price of different things, and turning over the materials to bring stuff up from the bottom. The best part is that this is the African version of Goodwill, I mean for ~$0.25 I can get some pretty sweet tshirts or dress shirts if I'm lucky. Also all sorts of fun things to eat abound, be it dog to frog, you can find someone selling little morsels of it all. What better way to get protein?

Life beyond market days is different, thats when I do work. I've started teaching solo at Plan International to middle school kids. Its definitely a challenge, my French is still rocky but I can use hand motions as fillers and have a counterpart that helps out when I need it. But in general I get to just be on my own and interact with the kids. That takes up my afternoons two days of the week. Beyond that, I have mornings at my NGO giving advice on all sorts of stuff. Right now its web design advice, which seems to have become my niche here in country. I'm still in the middle of developing a site for CODHANI, a handicap cooperative in the north of the country, but am making some pretty sweet progress. Its pretty much just a great mix of all sorts of stuff at the moment. I also help out other volunteers near me on stuff too, from sitting and being one of the “token white guy's” at a anti-AIDS formation to being asked via text message to “bring your machete and a camera, we're gonna trim trees” at Nikhil's organization's building. Thats how life kind of goes here.

Its still hot. This month is when the rain is supposed to start for good, which will be great. It rained heavy on Saturday night, which kind of ended my phone call with Brad when I saw lightning hit next to the cell tower in ville. It cooled everything down very nicely though, and Sunday was a chilly 80 degrees all day. Yea, I was wearing pants and feeling cold. Right now its about 6pm and ~100 degrees inside my house and it feels ok. I like having an internal and external thermometer now, it lets me measure the difference and figure what differing degrees of hot truly feel like. When the rains come every day it will be so nice to feel cool again...

World cup qualifying is going on again. We played Cameroon on Saturday and won 1-0. I was invited to watch the game at the house of some of the kids who live by me. Theres not much else comparable to soccer games here, I may be missing the NCAA tournament but hey at least I get to see people go crazier here over a ball. I mean after we won, the streets were full of people cheering and talking about the game. People were draped in the flag and running up and down the street. I haven't been quite privy to see stuff like that before, not even when the Colts won the superbowl. Its really awesome.

Continuing on with our story, I shall weave in a bit of an afternoon that occurred recently. One of my kids came over during repo/lunch time and I taught him how to cook some stuff. Made “chicken” soup (the only thing chicken was the bouillon cubes that I used) and he was amazed by the veggies I added and the gas tank as opposed to charbon. He also had never had potatoes before, so I gave him a raw piece and then a cooked piece so he could taste the difference. Entertaining to say the least.

Then the afternoon itself was just fantastic. Went and watched some soccer games at the stadium here in ville, all the CEG/Lycee kids were playing each other (the girls that is) and it was awesome. Got some fun photos and videos. The fun part was the fact that I went with my kids and watched another one of my kids play for one of the CEG's. I got the cutest picture in the world too of one of my neighbors...she is absolutely adorable. I'm afraid of the reactions I'm going to get to some of these pictures back home...I think that the family will want me to bring kids back with me! Oh and after soccer, I come home to my neighbor bringing me dinner. Bean cakes with sauce and onions? Delicious! I eat, say thanks, and take off to Nikhil's house to prep for tomorrow morning (cultural presentation, I'm doing trivia and giving out candy!) and on the way got cadeau'd a bunch of mangoes. And now there are wicked huge thunderstorms. Hows that for an amazing afternoon/evening?

The following day's cultural week presentation went quite well also. Asked a bunch of trivia questions about the US and our culture and gave out candy to people who got the answers right. Then assisted Nikhil with a presentation on American music. Got to play all sorts of music and dance around like a crazy person, win-win for me. Now its April. Coming up on the 1 year mark, kind of hard to believe. I thought the other day at the bank what I was doing a year ago this time and just was kind of in awe at how much had changed over the past 365 days. Then it dawned on me that I couldn't be happier anywhere else in the world than where I am now.

What can I say, I've grown to love it here.

2 Months later...

So I got pestered enough to update this, and figured I could leave a little insight into the past few weeks that I've been floating around country.

Lets pick up back in January: Spent most of that time just hanging out in village and the like, had "PDM/IST" training at the end of the month for a week. That was an enjoyable time. Basically the training center in Pagala is like a summer camp. Now take your image of summer camp, with bunk houses and dining halls, and translate it into the middle of Africa with 20-somethings and their African counterparts. We had sessions from 730 in the morning until ~4/5 in the evening. The best part was playing basketball with Togolese high school kids who came by in the afternoon, we played volunteers vs. Togolese and destroyed for the first ~15/30 minutes. Then their superior stamina took over and we started hopping around and not exactly running. But it was still alot of fun while we played. Got to bring in my Indiana bball skills.

Thats about my excitement for January, its only a few weeks back but seems like ages. Thats because it got hot, and heat kind of destroys memory (not scientifically proven, but I'm pretty sure of it). That brings us to wonderful February! The first few weeks were pretty quiet, had a cookout on valentines day and got to make bbq chicken over a grill. That was fun. Then my computer died. Yea, somehow the partition table for the hard drive got erased, so I got to enjoy an old version of Ubuntu for an operating system for a few weeks until now where I'm down in Lome installing a new OS (Ubuntu 8.10, I've officially transitioned to Linux nerd) and also software for development stuff.

Also exciting for this month: started working at Plan International teaching introductory computer classes. Its been alot of fun so far, high school kids are much more difficult to teach than middle schoolers, but thats all part of the fun right? Also working on a formation on using Linux as a viable alternative to Windows as an operating system for computers here. Me and my counterpart, Marius, are almost finished and it should be pretty awesome.

Can't think of too much else, its been up and down here really. All in all though, I'm happy. Through sickness or misfortune, its all good on this side of the pond. Being a wayward IT consultant is pretty nifty, as my brother suggested last night on instant messenger, I should pack up a backpack with my laptop and just go out doing freelance IT work in the world. We'll see how that goes ;)

Enjoy the update, not quite that long but eh, I'm tired. And have other stuff to do! So yea, I'll write something fun and upload it at post when I'm free. Stay classy.

Latest Update

Alrighty, its been a long time coming but I finally feel like sitting down and writing a little bit. It is now the 11th of january and I'm back in village now for “good” per-se. I have to leave at the end of the month for a week for training stuff, but I get to actually rest here and enjoy life. I think the last update I wrote on was for AIDS ride, which was in october, so I kind of have some catching up to do. Here goes:
November: Did a 3 day formation on Web Design with CODHANI, a handicap cooperative here in Togo. That organization is the one that my buddy Rayan is assigned to work with, so he helped facilitate the meetings and also translate my French into real French. After that, hung out in ville for a little bit, then had thanksgiving at Nikhil's house. Now this was a real dinner and I was actually stuffed beyond normal afterwards. We had all the usual american thanksgiving goods, Nik had stuff shipped from the states. So after 3 plates of stuffing, mashed potatoes, and turkey later (as well as green bean casserole and all the other fixings), I sad there in a food coma and actually explained the concept of a food coma to the togolese guys we invited over for dinner. That pretty much sums up my november. Pretty exciting.

December: Went to Lome to start the month, got pickpocketed, my streak for going to lome and getting something jacked is pretty good, I mean I feel like I've increased the GDP of this country just by “giving stuff away” each time I head down south. Kind of explains why I tend to stay towards the north of the country...Anyways, got my visa for vacation while I was down there and took care of minor health/admin issues. Found out I had Giardia, neat little protozoal infection. Got that taken care of. Came back to post for a bit, got stuff sorted out for the upcoming year, then headed up for christmas in Niamtogou. Helped Rayan set up stuff, as well as play grill master for the kebabs we made for dinner. Our grill was like a wire mesh bedframe over charcoal on rocks. It was awesome. Christmas was a very enjoyable time, got to see friends whom I hadn't for quite some time, as well as enjoy good food. After christmas time came the real fun though, when Matt, Rayan, and myself packed up our stuff and said goodbye to Togo for a short period of time.

Vacation: Our trip started with a bush taxi ride to the border of Benin. After descending at the border and going through customs (which I'd like to thank Obama already because each customs officer looked at the passport, said “oh yes, america, mister obama, it is very good” and just stamped us and let us be on our way) we picked up a ride to a town about 30k from the border to find a car to Paraku, a city in the middle of the country where we could get a ride northward. This ride was fairly easy, the ride to Paraku though was one of the more memorable car experiences I've had in life. It started with us driving in circles for a period of time finding more people and getting gas, then finally getting on the road...then the driver stopping to make change for about 20 minutes with a car packed full of people on a hot day. Yea, we were in a real good mood at that point. During this stop though, I got to witness another taxi driver pulling over, getting out a water bottle and proceeding to urinate into it, then put the cap back on and put it in the car. Free radiator fluid? Also during this ride, while going down hills, the driver's door would open randomly as we hit every pothole on the road and he would just pull it shut like nothing was happening. I was laughing at the situation and the other people in the car were probably confused about the whitey giggling at normality.
The next fun part came when we stopped to get gas. We fill up, but the car wont start because there is none in the carburetor. Well, thats easily fixed around these parts. Oh, I neglected to mention that most of the gas stations around here are stands on the side of the rode with old alcohol bottles filled with a liter of gas each. Anyways, the driver goes to a bottle, opens it up, takes a big swig of gas, and spits it into the carburetor. One way to take care of things. We make it to Paraku about mid day, get some lunch, then hop back into another car going north towards Malanville, a town on the Niger border. We had to wait at the station for a few hours, so I wandered around a little and got a feel for the area around the place. Reminded me a lot of Kara here in Togo. Got a little agitated towards the end as we were getting ready to leave and started messing with people trying to sell stuff, I bargained prices for some lady who was sitting in the car and wanted toothpaste for 200 francs as opposed to the 250 the guy was selling it for. I told him he should sell it for 200 and it was good, so he did. The magic of the white skin I guess. That or we were stir-crazy enough at that point I was just coming across as a little insane. I'll take either guess.
The ride to Malanville was another enjoyable experience. We started counting potholes that we were hitting about halfway through the ride and stopped after we got to 231. Didn't get up north until around 11pm and got into a hotel just as it was closing up for the night. Passed out pretty much right after getting there, showered first though because dustiness is a way of life when you travel. Woke up the next morning and headed towards the border. Again, crossing was a snap, and walking across a bridge over the Niger river was beautiful, its really quite large and I'll come back to it a little later. We made it to Gaya, a town right across the border, and proceeded to wait for a car heading north to Niamey, the capital city of Niger. Most stations are a pain in the ass to sit at and do nothing while waiting. Gaya has been the sole exception. Upon arriving and finding a car as soon as we got there, we had to wait for it to fill. The next five hours of time killing was some of the most fun I had on the trip. We got out cards to play to sit around, and were immediately swarmed by guys asking us to come play with them. We got usherd into a side stall and sat down and played poker with guys who were there. It wasn't quite a full deck, and I seemed to pair up quite easily, but I managed to win a little money. Then got completely dropped by betting it all on a full house and having one of the guys there pull out a four of a kind on me. Only lost 500 francs total, so about a dollar spent for an hour's worth of entertainment was worth it. We had people in a huge circle watching the white people play cards and I was loving it. Plus they had some of the best rice and beans that I've had in Africa. Then we got on board and left around one in the afternoon.
Niger is predominately muslim. That means we stopped for each and every prayer on the ride up. It was alright though, gave me time to stretch out a bit. Car rides here are quite cramped, especially when youre sitting next to two large women who have kids on their laps. But the ladies were awesome, they kept buying random local foods and giving me tastes to try them out, delicious! We managed to get into Niamey around 8 or so and got a car to the Peace Corps bureau, where they directed us to the hostel for volunteers in the city. We got there and met a few people, went out for a beer to get to know each other a little, and then came back and crashed. Niamey was quite the experience.
We wandered around the city, enjoyed the market and zoo as well as an artisinal center. Also went to go visit the giant mosque in the city and got to climb up the spire and see out all over the place. Was a very flat view, could see almost the entire city. It was really sandy but there was meat everywhere, quite unlike Togo. There were guys on the side of the road selling rotisserie chicken stuffed with couscous that were phenomenal. Plus the beef there was tender and actually enjoyable to eat. Plus there was ground beef all around, had an egg sandwich with beef as well as the best cheeseburger I've ever had while there. We stayed in Niamey until January 2nd then took off for Burkina. Which means we spent new years eve there, which gets its own paragraph.
What better way to ring in the new years just out of college than in the middle of Africa? Exactly! We went out with volunteers who were in the city to some local bars, and ended up at one around 11 oclock where we planned on ringing in the new year. Side story: One of the volunteers in Niger was also named Marcus, and his family happened to be visiting. I made friends with them, and helped them buy drinks at the bar because they spoke no french. This led to them buying me drinks for helping, which turned out to be shots of vodka. Then after talking to Marcus's mom and learning she had never had tequila before, got us into that sort of mess. So basically, I met and managed to get an entire family to take shots with me in the same evening. They were loving it. As was I. At about 11:55 or so, one of the Niger volunteers cheer'd another volunteer with his beer bottle and it broke, then he managed to slip and fall on it. I saw him fall out of the corner of my eye and went to help him up, only to notice after picking him up that my arm was covered in blood and that he was gushing from his forehead. Rayan and a few other guys got him into the bathroom and cleaned up, I helped the bar folk clean up the mess on the floor. See in the states, you'd all be kicked out or something, here its just common place and they just kept right on going. But we missed the whole 12 o'clock countdown thing, no biggie. Hung out there for a bit, got a little sick up on the roof, and headed back to the hostel to hang out and sleep. The next day was a hungover relax day, and we got packed and prepped to head out on a 12 hour bus ride to Ougadougou in Burkina Faso.
The bus was supposed to leave at 6 am, and they said to be at the station by 530. We hired a driver to pick us up at 430 to get us to the station, so we wouldnt be late. Well, the bus line we chose had a three word motto. In english, it was “Punctuality, Comfort, Security”. Lets enumerate why these words do not begin to describe the experience. First off, the bus itself did not show up until around 930. The three of us, riding about 3 hours of sleep each, were not to thrilled with that. Then we saw the bus itself. The front windshield looked like it had just been used to drive through a barricade or an angry mob, the glass was nice and cracked all the way through and was held together by some unknown yellow substance...so much for security. Oh and comfort. The seats were basically unpadded and the three of us were crowded together shoulder to shoulder for 12 hours. Yea. Little pressed. But we made it into Burkina and to the PC hostel in Ouga.
We only hung out there for about two days, we were pretty exhausted and getting low on cash, so decided to head back early from vacation. Ouga was beautiful though, reminded me of downtown cleveland in the actual downtown of the city itself. Met some cool people there, actually travelled back to Togo with a volunteer and her friends who were on vacation and heading down this way. That bus ride was another long one, but a little more comfortable. The cool part was having 4 military police on the bus with loaded AK-47s because of bandits on the route that would stop busses and raid them. We didn't get to see any action though, and crossed over the Burkina-Togo border with no problem. Got into Kara around 1am and crashed out. Headed back to ville soon after, where I currently rest.
Getting back here was great, stopping by to see people was enjoyable just to see the excited looks on faces as they realized I was back here. I had kids running up and taking the bags I was carrying and telling me that I shouldnt carry them because I was tired and then walking with me to my house. Went out and said hi to everyone and got very warm receptions, haven't been back to work yet, that starts tomorrow. Theres a big national holiday on tuesday where I get to go dance the local dance, Kamu, so we'll see how that goes. I'm sure I'll have some sort of fun report on it. Spent the majority of the morning today with three of the local kids who I help with schoolwork. They just came over and hung out at my house and we talked for a bit about life stuff. Also had a girl from one of the private schools come over and ask me for help with english homework, so I'm starting to work with her later on this week. Its starting to feel truly like home here now, the beautiful simplicity of life here is both enjoyable and also insightful as to how truly different the rest of the world is, yet how much similarity exists in humanity itself.
So thats where I rest now. Going through life on a day to day basis and just kind of taking things as they go. Hope you enjoyed reading this, I also appreciate the packages and emails that I keep receiving, glad that I have such good friends. Happy new year to everyone and I hope that this year brings both economic prosperity for the world itself, as well as good health and good times. Keep the love coming my way, I'll reciprocate as best as I can. Oh and sorry to hear about the Colts...next year.

From Africa, With Love,
Marcus “Tchilabalo” Lee