AIDS Ride

Let me start by saying I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post new info. Hope you all weren't too worried. The elections went as well as they could have gone, nothing eventful to report, and hopefully this will mean the return of NGOs and other aid organizations to Togo. I have been fairly busy since the end of standfast. I have had several community meetings with various groups including a women's organization, the director of the local school, and a group of community health agents. So far we are just getting to know each other and brainstorming about possible projects. My most exciting adventure of the past several weeks, however, has to have been AIDS Ride. AIDS Ride is sponsored by Peace Corps and Public Service International (PSI). Volunteers from each region in Togo get together with their Togolese counterparts, map out a route, choose sleeping locations and spend 5 days biking around doing educational presentations about HIV/AIDS prevention. In the Kara region we had 8 PCVs and 4 Togolese counterparts. We divided into 2 groups and each group did 2 or 3 presentations a day. Danielle, Kate, Aimee, and I made up one group while Fan, Alia, David and Peter made up the other. Fan and Alia did AIDS Ride last year, but the rest of us were all new. We all me up in Guerin-Kouka and started our route at 6am on the 5th. The first day was pretty easy in terms of the amount of biking we were doing, but the girls and I were nervous since we had never done a sensibilization before. For our first time I would say it went pretty well; people were responsive and asked good questions. We performed a short sketch about a young woman who tests positive, but tries to keep her status a secret and ends up infecting someone else. Afterwards we asked the audience questions about what they saw in the sketch and what they thought the characters could/should have done differently. The idea is to get people talking about stigmatization, testing, prevention and treatment. We went over the ABCDs of prevention (Abstinence, Be faithful, Condoms and the french word for testing, which is Depistage), did a condom demonstration and answered questions. In each village we had to greet the chief and at the end of each session we would thank him and present him with a T-shirt. On the way out of the first village Kate fell off her bike and scraped up her leg pretty badly - fortunately that was the only accident we had throughout the trip. We got Kate cleaned up and patched up and moved on to the next village where we met up with the other team for lunch. None of the education sessions that day were particularly eventful, but by the time we reached the last village we were all ready for a good night's sleep...that didn't really work out. We were shown to our rooms - two adjoining concrete boxes with one window and no circulation. It was incredibly hot We were all so tired, however, the heat probably would not have kept us from sleeping. As we were getting ready for bed Kate was stretching and felt something run across her leg. It was dark by this time, so we were shining our flashlights around but couldn't see anything. We lay down to go to sleep and Danielle and I both felt something scurry by our heads. At this point, of course, we have all started squealing like 13-year-old girls and are thoroughly annoying the other team in the adjoining room. A few minutes later, we are settling down and we hear David yell from the other room. He tells us a mouse fell from the ceiling and landed in his hand and he threw it across the room. The three girls and I jump up and start shaking out our stuff, shining flashlights, shrieking and laughing and preventing anyone within a 5 mile radius from sleeping. I would like to tell you that was the end of it; David succeeded in throwing the mouse out the door and we all settled down for a relaxing night's sleep, but I would be lying. Just as I was finally drifting off to sleep I hear Aimee scream and suddenly there is something flapping its wings on my face! I sit up, throw it off of me, causing Danielle to scream and roll over and wrap her arms around Kate's legs. This is when I decided I would not be sleeping inside, took my pillow and blanket and spent the rest of the night outside on a 6-inch-wide wooden bench. The next morning I kindly asked Aimee is she wouldn't mind NOT throwing any bats in my face tonight. On the second day we had three sensibilizations and due to the combined forces of exhaustion and much hillier roads, the biking part was a little rough. We made in through though and decided that tonight we weren't even going to try sleeping inside. Aimee and Danielle managed to rig up a mosquito net under a tree, but since it would only fit 2 people Kate and I slept on a mat outside the net and lit mosquito coils. I got a call from America as we were all getting ready to sleep so I wandered off to talk of the phone and when I got back Aimee and Danielle were laughing hysterically. Apparently someone had been eating peanuts earlier and there were a bunch of shells in a pile outside of the mosquito net right next to Danielle's head. As they were both falling asleep they heard a strange noise; Danielle turned on her flashlight to find she was staring into the eyes of a large pig about 3 inches from her face. They managed to remove the shells and the pig wandered away. Again, I would like to tell you that the night's adventures were over at this point, but again I would be lying. As a result of a combination of dehydration, sleep deprivation, travel and Togolese cooking, I woke up in the middle of the night with some serious stomach issues. I grabbed a roll of TP and the closest head-lamp I could find and made a run for the bushes. I was followed. By 4 pigs. In case you were wondering, is extremely difficult to squat and swing a stick at 4 ravenous pigs at the same time. Somehow I managed, however and ran out of the bushes as quickly as possible. My stomach issues persisted for the next 24 hours, making the third leg of the trip extremely difficult. Thankfully the next night I was actually able to get some sleep and we all made it through the rest of the trip in one piece. We biked a total of 80K and between the 2 groups we did 22 AIDS sensibilizations. Despite the bugs, the bats, the mice, the mud, the pigs, and the runs, it was a rewarding experience and Im glad I did it...I'm not sure I would do it again though, I'll let you know in a year :) Of course those aren't all the stories and there is always more to tell, but I have run out of internet time and will have to leave it at that for now. More fun tales from Africa to come. Love and miss you all!