The Stuff of Legends
So here I am. It is March already!!!??? How is that possible?
Oh yeah, because I have been swamped with this school project. However…..It is now approved!! So I guess the hard work really paid off. Mary and I were a little worried that it wouldn’t get approved right away by the admin committee, which would pose some serious issues for our timeline, but alas, it went through!! Now the real work begins…
Most of February I was traveling throughout the country for a couple of previously mentioned projects, meetings etc. It flew by and now it is hot season. I guess that was the idea, get all the legwork done for projects before the heat set in, and boy did it. I am literally drenched in sweat right now, barely able to type, having to wipe sweat off the keyboard, and I just took a shower not an hour ago! Oh well, now that it is officially here, after about the first week or two, it is more acceptable. Barely. It seems a lot more intense this year… like living in an oven.
Met the son of one of the president of my woman’s group this morning. He was nice. Very astute. They want me to nominate him for camp. At first I resisted, he is a little older than we had agreed to, but we can always take nominations and decide later. He noticed that I was the only one in the compound today (maman is in kara, everyone else is scarce because without her it all falls apart…) and they seemed worried for me. Why? Because someone could come and there wouldn’t be anyone to protect me? No, because I would have too much time to think and I would have nightmares… interesting.
Another interesting cultural difference came up awhile back during a school meeting with our pump engineer, Kader. He had just come from having lunch with a ‘sister’ (meaning she could be any form of relative really) and her husband from Nigeria. He was really upset because he said that she had mortified him by getting up and pouring a beer over the head of her husband/fiance. He had arranged the meet to try to counsel them for a problem they were having. Now he was upset because he said the man would think he had known what she was going to do and invited him there so that she could humiliate him.
According to Kader, the action of pouring a beer over her man in a public spot is the most degrading thing you can do. Really, we asked? Worse than hitting him or something? Yes, the worst. If you hit a man, everyone will know that he deserved it, that a woman cannot actually hurt a man. However, to waste a luxury and to dirty him in public, everyone will think poorly of the woman. That he will have to walk down the street with his soaking shirt, shamed. Hmm. The views/judgements and the importance placed on physical appearance and dress here is funny. Seems the opposite of how that situation would be seen stateside.
Had a great evening with the kids in the garden today. It is my favorite thing to do. We have a nice little system going finally. I told them I came up with a name for our little club/group – Les agents Verts d’Ataloté (green-agents? doesn’t translate too well) I like that it ensinuates stewardship and has the cool word of ‘agent’ in it. The kids loved it! We joked around a little, weeded, applied our long-awaited goat manure…good times. I love the garden, it is such a great space. Much better this year, and will be even better once we get our Moringa trees planted in June! The kids are learning a lot about patience and team-work. At first I felt like it might be a pretty limited project, but we all really enjoy it, so as long as it is making positive progress I am content.
Saturdays are our garden days. I like the routine of it. They have learned about proper plant nursery management, watering techniques, the importance of plant spacing, and we have used nothing but organic means thus far—organic fertilizer—thanks to our friends the goats and chickens, and organic pesticide—thanks to our friend the Neem tree! Hooray for the Earth and all its wonders!! The kids have started selling some sauce leaves, the lettuce is nearly ready and we have okra, gboma (like a local spinach), cabbage, tomatoes and peppers on the way! I think they are starting to see the fruits of their labors, they have worked so hard to get there.
Hmm. What else is new? We had a fun theater club the other day. One of the teachers has committed to helping out, which makes my life loads easier and the project tons more sustainable and effective. Some of the kids are absolutely hilarious comedians. Very positive project. We are going to do sketches about themes that hit close to home for most of the Togolese population: The importance of condom usage against HIV/AIDS and avoiding stigmatization of AIDS victims, the importance of sending girls to school and the importance of protecting our environment! Yay for theater fun to make awareness raising less of a bore!
Caught up with an old friend from High School on the ole internet tonight. We haven’t talked in over eight years! That is crazy. It is amazing how time can just slip on by, year after year. It was really good to finally catch up a bit. Inspired me to try to catch up with some other long lost acquaintances. It is about time. Sheesh.
Moonlit bucket showers and sleeping on my porch in my hammock. This, is the stuff of legends.