first post from africa

hello. sorry if there are any errors i am typing on a french keyboard and it is very different. i am in Togo. it is amazing here but also very different. it is taking awhile for me to get used to the heat. oh and funny story about the plane. on the plane from dc to paris there was a french businessman sitting next to me. he was rather grumpy and when i asked him to get up so that i could get out, and i even asked in french, he just moved his legs to the side a bit so i had to hurdle over him, i felt pretty cool about that one. but on the way back he had fallen asleep in a position that was not condusive to me hurdling again so i tried to climb over him by first climbing onto his armrest and then onto my seat so that i could sit but i think that i ended up kicking him in the stomach, he was very angry at me for the rest of the trip.

so i made all of my flights on time and such. on the plane to lomé i met this guy who is now a us citizen in the military but who grew up in togo and was on his way to visit his family. he hadnt had the yellow fever shot nor had he gotten his visa. for a sum total of $10 he was able to pay off officials. i wish i had known that, it would have saved me $200. the people working for PDH are very nice. i am staying in a room at the center but it is right next door to Antoines house. i eat all of my meals at his house and there is one other volunteer sharing my room although there is somewhat of a partition between our rooms. we have our own bathroom even with a western toilet. to flush the toilet you have to pour water into the bowl and to shower you fill buckets of water and pour them over yourself. it has worked well so far.

the people of Togo are very interesting. many of the women can carry large tubs filled with water or other things on the top of their heads. i would never be able to have that type of balance. i saw a person my age carrying a tray with several dozen eggs on top of her head. the sanitation issue is very much a problem here. i have seen several people use the bathroom on the road and also it seems that most people pile the garbage in the streets. although it is also interesting to see so many goats and chickens running in the streets. i keep wondering how they dont get lost because they literally seem to wander around.

as far as working i havent done much yet. i spent my first morning trying to find an atm that worked, oh and i had my first motorbike ride it was quite interesting. i did a bunch of administrative stuff the rest of the day and now we go back to work on monday. i slept until noon today and when i got up people kept asking me if everything was okay, apparently people do not sleep like that here. i think i am going to the beach tomorrow with one of the other volunteers. i am trying to stick with other people because all of the roads are made of dirt and none of them have names so i am sure to get lost.

that is all for now.