Jiujitsu

It has come to our attention that we have a Jiujitsu master in our company on female health volunteers. Shanon, a petite young woman with an extremely ourgoing personality was training in Brazil right up until the point where she got on a plane for Togo. As we have found ourselves in a developing country and in the company of very few men, we felt self defence might be a handy skill. This past wednesday we had the afternoon off. Shanon organized a class for a few of the volunteers, myself included. We walked out to this open soccer field less than a mile from our village. When we got there it seemed to be fairly secluded and there werent many other people around besides a few members of Shanon's family who wanted to see her in action. Shanon shared with us that she finds that women think themselves most vulnerable once they are on the ground. It is at that point that many women think the fight is over...according the Shanon it has only just begun. So basically we paired up, one person acting as the victim the other as the attacker and we learned some stealth moves for how to get out of an on-the-ground holding situations. Before we knew it, as we were so intent on practicing our new skills, a crowd had gathered around us. We were surrounded by adults and young kids wondering what these crazy Yovo women were doing! People began to get involved as if they were watching a sporting event, cheering us on and yelling encouragement when we were able to escape a hold. A few of the teenage boys watching asked if they could learn too. The gender dynamics here in Togo are a bit different from in the states, and I wondered how the young men would respond to being taught how to fight by a woman half their size. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they resonded with respect...kindof hard not to when this self-described "peanut" has you in a choke hold, asking, "are you gonna tap out yet?" After an hour we were hot, sweaty and happy and ready to retire. One of the young men however, decided he really wanted to see what Shanon was made of. They began to fight and it was clear who was the stronger among the two - Shanon very quickly found herself on the ground. Fortunately, that's where Shanon likes to be. She was able to wrestle her way into the offensive position and the young man tapped the ground, indicating he had had enough. As I was in the experience I was unsure how it was going to pan out- whether the cultural differences would prove to vast for us to be able to continue in such a public place - but in the end it was one of the best experiences I have had so far.

Just a side note - I have gotten a letter from Helen - she wins by the way for being my first piece of Togo mail - and also a package from the Halls. Thank you all so much for thinking of me, getting mail is such a treat here. If you are thinking of sending packages (which you should be) padded envelopes are best because I dont have to pay the delvery fee, and writing "God Bless" and drawing crosses is a good way to assure a safe delivery(and yes I find that as amusind as you do). My internet access here is quite unreliable so I am doing the best I can to post as often as possible. Please leave me messages I love reading them and feel free to ask questions. Love you all and miss you every day.

Yovo!

So we have arrived in Agou-Nyogbo and begun the homestay protion of our staging and training. It is so beautiful here, the streets are red dirt, it is in the foothills of a small mountain range and there are mango, coconut, banana, orange, and grapefruit trees everywhere. I live in a small compound with the Ahavi family. My mama and papa are both older and retired and actually my papa is a retired piano teacher and has decided to teach me. I know Oma will be thrilled, he is pretty strict and has instructed that I must practice at least a half hour a day minimum. I have a little nephew who is five and I taught him to throw a frisbee and took his picture with a poloroid. He was scared of me when I first arrived, but after that he has been following me around yelling Yovo! Yovo! Which is the word for white person in the local language. My family is actively trying to teach me Eve, the local language, but sometimes their idea of teaching me is to have me repeat words, laugh at my attempts and not really tell me what I am saying. It is really fun when I do catch on to something though because they think it is sooo wonderful to hear the Yovo speak Eve. For the fact that I have only been in village 3 days, I think I am doing quite well. The children are facinated by us and some of them just stare, some hide, and some just run up and hug us and pinch our arms. They really help to keep us up beat and positive.

We needed some positivity yesterday because one of the girls from our group of only 15 health trainees decided to go home. It really took a toll on everybody and brought all of our personal worries to a head. But we got together last night and watched Mean Girls on my tiny little dvd player screen - a great morral booster. Everyone in the group takes good care of each other, and that makes it a lot easier to get through the down periods. But I have to say I am having more ups than downs and am even begining to get used to the "night life" in my latrine and bathing areas. This is the Peace Corps after all - the toughest job youll ever love!

Le Voyageur Sans Baggage

So, for those of you who dont speak French, the title means, the traveller without luggage and it is also the title of a french book i substitute taught when i was subbing for Madame. It is pertinent because my first adventure in togo was that i am the only person out of a group of 35 missing a piece of luggage! sweet! so when we got to the airport they had brought all the PC luggage to one place, everyone was getting their bags, i found my big duffle with the clothes in it, but not my bag with all my "stuff." So this guy - not really sure who he was - starts taking me into different places in the airport (speaking only french so i am kinda glad it was me and not another PCV with limited french ability) asking about my bag. It was clear it wasnt there and for some reason I had to pass through a security check to leave the baggage area again. Here is where it got fun, because i brought poloroid film which cannot go through Xray and i am trying to explain this to the men in the airport, but to them, i am a scared little girl. So they grab the film, sort of pull me away, but i am, as daddy told me to be "being persistant" and the man escorting me throught the airport took back my film before it went through, put his arm around me and guided me through security. Of course I was overly tired so when i got out of the airport and into the PC car i started to cry, and i was with the two women in carge of PC Togo so I just kept saying "I dont know why Im crying Im really OK! And of course, those of you who know me can imagine, I was most deffnitely laughing through my tears.

The bag is in Paris at this point, trying to find a flight to Lome. I know we will be reunited soon. Right now I am out of time in the internet cafe so this is all Ive got for now. Sorry for the terrible spelling! love you all!

Last Day

So here I sit in my lovely hotel room in Washington D.C. (well actually it is the hotel room of one of my new-found friends and she is being kind enough to let me bum the use of her computer) on my last day in the United States. It occurred to me yesterday that I had been so stressed out by the last two weeks of saying goodbye that I had forgotten how excited I actually am about this whole experience. My entire Peace Corps training group is AMAZING! They are sooo much fun and we have all bonded far more than I could have ever expected in the last two days. So after two days of being given the nuts and bolts of what to expect and how to prepare, they have told us that we are now ready to get on a plane and fly to Togo - after spending over five hours hanging out in the D.C. airport that is. My bags are packed and I just took the longest and hottest shower I think I have ever taken, enjoying what could be my last bathing experience that doesn't involve the word "bucket." Tomorrow we will get up at 6am and I will go to Starbucks for one last Grande non-fat latte before heading off to the clinic for my shots and malaria meds. Hoping I will be able to fight for the malaria pills with the least amount of side-affects, but of course those are the most expensive and I will probably end up taking the ones that make me hallucinate, overly-prone to sunburn and I'll vomit the whole plane ride - but hey, its all about the experience. We leave the hotel at 3pm even though our plane doesn't take off until 1030pm so there will be a good long time for me to make final phone calls and continue to bond with the group. We fly to Paris and will be there for about an hour and a half as long as we don't miss our plane. However, we were told that the flight from Paris is guaranteed and if we do happen to miss it the airline will pay to put us up in a hotel for a night - tempting, I know. It is about another 5 hours from Paris to Lome, the capital city, where we will begin our Togo adventure. I will be giving the Peace Corps mom's email address to send the "safe arrival" email and she can either post on the blog or send out a mass email to forward the news to you. I feel like this has been a long post especially since I haven't even gotten to Togo yet, but I wanted you all to know that I am truly happy and loving this so far. Thanks for all the emails and posts you have sent so far. Keep it up! I will post again asap, but I'm not sure when that will be, so remember: no news is good news.
Gros Bisous!!