The Holidays in Togo

I hope everyone had a good holiday season!! As you would expect, the holidays were a bit different for me this year, but they were still a lot of fun! For Christmas, I went to Dapaong and celebrated with other volunteers in my region. Everyone brought different items sent from home in care packages, so we definitely overindulged on sweets like skittles and oreos, just like you should at Christmas. Our program director lives in Dapaong and invited us over for Christmas lunch, which was really nice because we got to spend the day at his home and with his family.

Coming back to Mango from Dapaong, I had my worst bush taxi ride yet. To start, the bush taxi was even more overcrowded than usual. Usually, in a car with nine seats, drivers here will squish 14 or 15 people, but this driver managed to fit 17 or 18 of us in the car. It was ridiculous enough that even the Togolese passengers were upset. I should have known the ride was doomed when to start the car the apprentice had to get behind and push the taxi. Finally, we were on our way. I immediately began to feel sick and I assumed it was just dehydration and banked on the fact that I would be home in 1.5 hours like normal. However, the driver had somehow managed to not put enough gas in the car, so about an hour into the trip, we ran out of gas and were stranded on the side of the road. We had to wait for the driver to hitch a ride with another taxi to the closest gas station and bring back gas for the car. When we finally were on our way again, the taxi stopped in a town about 20 km away from Mango and let off a bunch of passengers. We were then informed that we would have to switch into a different taxi because the one we were in was going to go back to Dapaong. Of course, Megan, who I was riding with, and I tried to fight this, but it didn't work and we were forced to change taxis. Before leaving, the new taxi's door fell off, so we had to wait to fix that, and finally after 4 hours we rolled into Mango. By that time, I felt really sick and when I got home I realized I had done the whole annoying, hot, and cramped voyage with a fever.

The next couple days I spent sick in bed. The medical unit had me go get a malaria test, just in case, so I took a moto to a nearby clinic and got myself tested for malaria. As I was waiting for the results, the doctor asked me what I would want to do if the results were positive. As I looked around the small, dusty, and relatively barren clinic, I felt so relieved to know that if I did have malaria, Peace Corps would immediately bring me to the air-conditioned, clean medical unit in Lome and if needed would fly me back to the States where I could get some of the world's best medical care. It's in moments like those when you realize how far we, as volunteers, are from truly "living like locals", because although we may live in villages with Togolese people and without running water or electricity, inside our houses are water filters, medical kits, and phones that will allow us to be whisked away if anything ever actually does go wrong. Most Togolese people do not have that option. Anyways, luckily I did not have malaria and just went back to bed for another day until I felt fully better.

On New Years Eve, there was not much going on in Magna, so I found myself watching an episode of Mad Men and falling asleep at 9pm... that may sound depressing, but I was happy to go to bed. It's probably the first time since before kindergarden that I did not make it to midnight, but it's okay, there is always next year. The next day I celebrated with my host family. For my compound, celebrating New Years Day meant taking a day off from working in the fields and eating rice instead of pate. I also bought a guinea fowl to add to the mix. Normally, my host dad would have killed one of the chickens in our compound, but when I recently found out that his second wife, Salamatu, who is only about 20, was told by a feticheur that she can't eat chicken because she hasn't been able to bear a child yet, I decided to buy a guinea fowl for the family, because apparently that is okay for her to eat. Chicken, however, is off limits until she has a child. Anyways, on the first, I ate a big lunch with my host family and then went to Megan's in Mango for dinner. She made chili and corn bread and invited some of her Togolese friends over. She also managed to obtain a bottle of champagne, so atleast I had one glass on New Years!! I brought marshmellows and we shared the art of roasting marshmellows with Togolese friends. They were skeptical at first, but ended up loving it, because who doesn't love roasted marshmellows!!

So, that was my holiday season in Togo. The weather here has been really nice lately. Apparently, now it's the REAL harmattan, but before it was just the warm up. This means lots of wind, but also even cooler temperatures. I even have had to heat up water for warm bucket baths. I also have had entire days without excessive sweating, I've worn sweatshirts because I actually need to not just because it's cool enough to not overheat in them, and at about 3 am I wake up cold and get into my sleeping bag. It's great!! However, I'm enjoying it while it lasts because soon enough hot season will be here and having been through hot season in Niger, I know it will be miserable, expect this time I won't have a fan at night!! I hope all is well at home, write or call if you can, I really appreciate it!!!