One Month Update!
What has Josie been up to? Let me tell you!
Time flies when you’re having fun, but it flies even faster when each day is a new adventure filled with new food, new languages, and new people. Have I really been here for a month already?! I feel like I boarded that plane in New York yesterday! Sorry to keep everyone In suspense these last few weeks, things are really picking up with training here, and I was waiting to post this until I had a stable internet connection at the Peace Corps center. I’ve been writing stories and taking pictures as I go, so this letter may be long, but I’ve got lots of stories to tell!
My Host Family!
Here is a photo of my host parents! This photo was taken at the Peace Corps center when all the volunteers met their host families.
In an effort to respect the privacy of the kids and other families in my village, I’m choosing not to share photos of any of the children on this newsletter. This excludes lots of photos I’ve taken so far (the kids loooooove my camera), but unless that person or family has given me permission to share, you’ll just have to be okay with tons of pictures of me!
My host family has graciously accepted me into their home and I am so blessed to have been placed with a caring and patient host family. Our family consists of my host dad, host mom, their two sons, my host dad’s second wife, and her three children. Their family has five more children that are grown and have families of their own that live in the capital, Lome. They have gone above and beyond to make me feel at home, and I am really grateful to be a part of this family for my three months of training.
Here is a photo taken by my little host sister! She and her twin brother love taking photos of themselves, but here’s a rare one they got of me. This is my porch off of my room in my host families compound.
My name is rather hard to say for the Togolese so I’ve become used to responding to most words that start with “J”. My nicknames so far include “Jwee”, “Joshua” and occasionally my actual name, although the Togolese use the french pronunciation (Joséphine), which I love because it is much fancier. I’m also called “Yovo” which means foreigner in the local language, and “Americane” which is self-explanatory. Every time I leave my compound, the village kids serenade me by singing “Yovo Yovo” to various melodies. I’ve learned to welcome it, and sing along.
Sustainable Agriculture Education
Recently we’ve been doing a lot of sector specific training, here are a few projects we’ve been working on in our village:
The Community Garden
Our first project as trainees was to build a community garden in our village. We used bamboo harvested from the river to build the fence and tied it all together with metal wire. It took 6 of us about 8 hours to construct the whole thing. We then shaped the bare ground into 12 beds and made 8 rows at the back of the garden for traditional row cropping. We planted Cabbage (Chou), tomatoes (Tomate), Eggplant (Aubergine), Kilometer Beans (Haricot), corn (Maize), red peppers (Piment), lettuce (Laitue), and a local green called Gboma (leafy green)
My soft American hands are being torn to shreds from the manual labor, but I welcome it. They’ll probably never be as tough as the hands of my host mother, whom I’ve seen reach into a fire and pull out a piece of flaming charcoal to examine it, but maybe one day I will be able to carry buckets of water without any struggle.
The Chicken Coop
Our second project was to build a chicken coop in our village. They chose my host family as the recipients of the coop, so it’s been nice to be able to check on them each morning with my host brother. We also built this project out of bamboo and wire, due to the cheap cost of materials.
Chicken raising in Togo often utilizes a hand off approach (laissez-faire if you will) . Chickens are kept in a coop at night and released during the day to forage. One of the Peace Corps initiatives is teaching families how to build sturdier and more sanitary coops to prevent chickens getting sick or eaten, promoting the vaccination of chickens, and encouraging supplemental feeding with household ingredients (corn, soybeans, egg shells, fish bones, etc)
My host family was involved in the building process and was given a supply of starter feed. The Peace Corps provided them with 10 hens and a rooster, they cross bred the Togolese chicken with a stronger breed to hopefully increase the chicks chances of survival.
The finished coop (minus the thatch roof)
Fourth of July! 🇺🇸
Happy Independence Day! I wasn’t expecting to celebrate the Fourth of July here, but the Peace Corps staff did an amazing job of making us feel at home on this holiday. They picked us all up from our host villages and drove us back to Peace Corps Center for an American themed lunch, karaoke, and a USA versus Togo basketball game with some village kids.
We kicked off karaoke with the Star Spangled Banner, continuing with songs that we loved (We Are The World, Country Roads, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, and more!) I sang Chiquitita by ABBA. The whole day was a nice break from our daily french and sector classes.
Our American themed lunch consisted of hot dogs, fried chicken, coleslaw, potato salad, mac and cheese, lemonade, and apple pie! It was amazing and nearly brought tears to my eyes. Traditional Togolese food is very good, but nothing will ever taste as good as southern fried chicken in my opinion. That was something I expected to give up upon arrival here, so it was nice to have an unexpected taste of home.
After devouring our lunch and singing about 20 karaoke songs, we went straight into the basketball game. I was wearing a borrowed pair of pants and no shoes, it was not my best planning moment, but it all worked out. There was a torrential downpour of rain during the game but that didn’t stop us. Unsurprisingly, we lost both games very badly. Not a great win for the USA in the sports front, but I consider it a win for world peace. It was a really special day, and i’m glad we got to share it with the village. It made not being at home for one of my favorite holidays a little easier.
The Reveal of our Permanent Sites
Possibly the most anticipated day in my training was during week three when they announced our permanent site placements for the next two years. A map of Togo was drawn on the ground and volunteers were called one by one and their site placements were announced. We then got to stand at our site locations on the map and see where we were in relation to other volunteers! I was placed in the Kara region which is in northern Togo. I can’t publish the name of my village due to security reasons, but once I establish my PO Box in the closest capital city, I’ll let everyone know where they can send letters. In about 10 days I’ll travel to my site for a two week solo adventure. Each volunteer goes on a “Site Visit” to meet their community, drop off some belongings and get acquainted, before coming back to their home stay villages for three more weeks of training. I am super excited and very very nervous. In preparation for the site visit I’ve been stocking up on things I’ll need at the market like pots, silverware, water storage containers, soap, etc. I could make an entire post about the market, and I just might, it’s a pretty fascinating experience.
During the site placement ceremony, we got a packet with information about our permanent site that was prepared by the volunteer who has been living there for the past two years. She gave me lots of good advice and says that the community is really excited to get another volunteer. She also told me that my village is completely off grid, none of the homes (including my own) have power or running water! This is a little daunting, but won’t be to different from how I live currently in my homestay village. I’ll have a solar panel on my roof and access to a communal water pump. Overall i’m really excited and once I get back, i’ll write again to tell everyone about my new home!
Other News
Traditional Clothing
One of my favorite parts of Togolese culture so far is the beautiful traditional fabrics called Pagne. You can buy fabric at the market (essentially by the yard) and take it to a tailor to be made into whatever clothing piece they would like! I just got my first dress back from the tailor and I love love love it! The total price of the fabric plus the labor to make the dress was only 3500 CFA (about $7). It fits perfectly, and I’ve already gotten tons of compliments at church! My favorite thing recently has been seeing all of the volunteers in their Pagne outfits, and knowing that each style and fabric choice was especially made for that person.
My Church Community
My favorite part of my weekly routine has been attending the little Baptist church in my village. Our one room sanctuary is small and stiflingly hot, but comes alive with music and dance each Sunday. One of the pastors (there are three) speaks excellent English, and so he sits next to me and translates the sermons and songs. When he’s not there, they translate into French from the local language Anyanga, and I’m able to understand most of the service. Church lasts typically 3-4 hours depending on how many sermons there are (sometimes up to three, one from each pastor) and how many songs we sing. A typical service starts with prayer, then there is a recap of what the lesson was last Sunday before a reading of scripture by one of the teenagers in the congregation, and the sermon. I’ll admit, I’m a fan of a 15 minute sermon, but here in Togo they can last over an hour. That may sound rough, but our primary pastor Jean-Paul is very animated and I usually am hanging onto every word (mostly because I’m trying to practice translating). Lastly there’s an hour of dancing and singing. The children play the drums and the mothers lead the singing, usually with babies strapped to their backs. I feel so welcome in our little church, and I’ll be sad to say goodbye when I relocate north to my permanent site in about a month.
I have lots of gratitude for this entire month, but for this letter i’ve decided to sign off with my list of learning moments from the last month. I hope you get a laugh out of them.
Learning moments
A collection from me and other volunteers
Always look into the latrine before sitting on it, or else you may get closely acquainted with a lizard
Lock your gate at night if you don’t want a herd of goats to seek shelter on your porch and have a huge mess to clean up in the morning
Babies who have never met a white person before will assume you are a ghost and scream in terror at the sight of you
Don’t plug a 120volt plug into a 220volt outlet, you will nearly start a fire
Make sure your water filter nozzle is closed when you refill it at night, or else you will wake up to a flooded room and a disgruntled host mom
Do you really need to sterilize your water twice before it’s drinkable? Yes. Yes, you do. Your stomach will thank you.
That’s all for now! I’m still missing my friends and family dearly, and probably always will, but I’ve gotten settled into my new life here and I absolutely love it so far.
Sending peace and love to you all,
Josie :)
The stories written in this newsletter are my own personal beliefs and experiences of volunteering in Togo, and they do not represent the values of the US Peace Corps.
Can't wait to hear about your on the job training at your permanent site. Love you Josie!
You are such an inspiration! I love how much fun you are having learning and connecting. I read a great study recently about how healthy the "typical" African diet is. The study was describing the number of grains and vegetables. It's neat to know that you will bring home so much knowledge to share with all of us. The dress you had made looks terrific on you and I can understand why you got so many compliments! Sending lots of love!