Back to Togo

I write this entry as I begin my nine hour layover in Istanbul, Turkey. I am returning from a 20-day visit to the good old United States of America. The trip was absolutely beautiful in every sense, and although I am looking forward to resettling in my home in Togo, I must admit that it was difficult to leave.

While I was visiting I found myself answering many different questions, and attempting to share the reality that is my every day life in Togo. It's challenging to convey the culture, the work, the attitude, and the way of life that I am now living. Two more straightforward themes were related to my life and work, and I'll attempt to talk a bit about those here...

Where do I purchase my food? I purchase my food at a market. What is a market? Well, there is one market in my village (and I am thankful to have an extremely plentiful market – for Togo standards – just a five minute walk from my house) and literally anything that I can purchase is sold at the market. The market is a football field-sized area (the ground is dirt) that is jam-packed with, for lack of a better description, old and rickety lemonade stand-esque structures that host varieties of goods. Women and children – the vendors – stand behind the stands and sell the goods. 

An image from market day in my village

What do I eat? I am fortunate enough to have access to a fairly wide variety of vegetables, and therefore maintain a vegetarian diet. All produce is seasonal, however I nearly almost have access to – vegetables: tomatoes, okra, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, green peppers, beets, and a bitter version of eggplant; fruit: bananas, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, and pineapple; seasonally: avocados, mangoes, watermelon, and papaya; and other items: tofu, bread, eggs, beans, peanuts, locally made peanut butter, cashews, locally made “cheese”, sugar, salt, and varieties of local spices. What do I usually eat? My diet largely consists of beans – they're a great source of protein, easy to access, and easy to mix with other vegetables. I frequently eat foods with beans and tomatoes, salads, and Togolese egg sandwiches. What other items are available? Processed items that are available for me to easily purchase in my town are tomato paste, dry pasta noodles, margarine, a French-based variety of cream cheese, soy sauce, vegetable oil, vinegar, hot chocolate mix, Nescafe coffee mix, milk powder, and varieties of “cookies” and “crackers”. What do Togolese eat? I'll save the answer to this question for another entry, pictures would greatly enhance these descriptions.

What are you doing? My life in Togo is not nearly as regimented as my life has always been in the United States. The variety of my daily activities and weekly routines is partially because I am still – yes, still – in the process of settling into a routine in my village, but it is also partially a result of the nature of the culture that is Togo and work as a Peace Corps volunteer. All of my work is related to improving the awareness of healthy living habits – such as family planning, hygiene and sanitation, nutrition, and gender equity. Strategies used to improve awareness are mostly educational sessions with adults and children – sometimes at a conference made possible through grants, sometimes at the hospital, at local schools, at a house with a women's group, in a room with a group of children, or any place with any given group of individuals. Another common location for educational sessions is under a large tree – literally anywhere works as long as there are people who would like to listen. Work is much more casual in Togo. I am lucky to have a job right now that gives me a significant amount of freedom, which also allows me to be extremely flexible in my work with community members.  

I hope that this helps in starting to imagine my life here in Togo.  It's challenging to envision an everyday routine that is so different than the one that we are accustomed to in the United States.