January Project Push!
A good day to be in Togo! Today was nice. Again. Another day when everything went perfectly. Toto we’re not in Kansas anymore….
I am in Lomé with my closest neighbor, Mary, to talk to admin about our project and run the proposals by them. It is a BIG project, and so we were a bit nervous to lay it all out on the table in front of our Country Director and CHAP (Community Health and Aids Prevention) project director. We have done tons of work on this project over the last three weeks, we know it in and out, we’ve attempted to foresee all problematic issues and assure sustainability. It is so big and a wealth of future work that I am considering adding another year onto my service.
So we had a nice breakfast of instant coffee and sweetened condensed milk and wrote down a full agenda of what we wanted to cover. It took us the better part of 30 mins and three pages. The meeting took an hour. Very exciting. We could see the looks of apprehension on their faces as we briefly described what the project entailed: building a school with dormitory compound, water pump and complete with showers and latrines; two different proposals under two different volunteers names and a cut-throat fundraising period of three months. But as we continued to throw down prepared answer after prepared answer to their many and valid questions their looks started to soften into nods and smiles, into casual asides about how nerve wracking it can be to launch a project like this, how to start small and work from there, how money can bring out the worst in people. We all agreed that this project sounded hopeful and by the end of the meet, Mary and I were breathing a bit easier. As soon as we left the admin building, we turned to one another and smiled. Beer celebration?
Definitely.
But not quite yet. We both still had to meet with Carolina, (the director), about respective end of service issues. Then celebration at the beach bar. Nothing like cold beer on a beach, cheezy bread with Mediterranean spices and sand on your feet after a phenomenally productive meeting and month of hard work. Felt good.
And now, what does this next week hold? Rest? Relaxation? NO!!! We are on a mission here people.Tomorrow we have to get up at 530AM to get on a bus up North again. 9hrs. At least we are planning to try to go to the pool after, if we are feeling up to it. Thursday we have a meeting with another contractor and then over the weekend we have subsequent meetings with a partnership missionary who works with a local engineer to build pumps throughout Togo and the Kara region and another volunteer who had helped start a similar project in Mali before her service. She will be a real asset to the project as well. I also have planning meetings for the National Environmental Camp in July and then have to jump on another bus to head South again for our third edition of ‘Farm to Market’ in Atakpamé. That should take us a few days, buy me some time to polish up a couple of proposals and head down to Lomé for some more meetings with fingers crossed.
I essentially got the go ahead from Carolina on the subjects concerning what I would like my service to look like if I extend for a third year. That was really encouraging. Now I just have to finalize everything with my boss Paul and the medical staff et al. Whew. Huge weight lifted off my chest, and by the end of next week I hope another ten pounds will be lifted. This is the good kind of stress though. It is exciting and exhilarating to think that we might actually pull this project off. It sounds trite, but it literally gives me faith in humanity and the universe. All things conspiring together when all is correctly aligned. Lovin’ it.
Smell of Rovita (hotel we stayed in when first arriving)… normalcy of the strange and once new and bizarre places that have become some type of home.