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