Travail, ou bien?

3/11/2008

I want to apologize to all of you if all my blogs come off a little, well, depressing and despondent. I usually only write when when provoked. Please let me assure you that I am generally happy and content here. Most of the things that annoy other volunteers here make me smile. In fact, I can't say that too much here has taken me back. C'est Togo, ou bien.


I have wanted for awhile to give you all the dish on what it is I do here exactly. My program is Girl's Education and Empowerment, which most of you already know. How that translates into something tangible is vast and varied. Essentially, anything that supports the promotion of females here is fair game, even if that means crossing over into other programs (Agriculture, Health or Business/Commerce) as long as it is supported by the community members. I try not to do anything they don't suggest or aren't interested in getting behind since anything else would be unsustainable and be a waste of my time and theirs. In training, we talked about working with schools, working with women's groups, working with apprentice groups. We were taught about Life Skills, which is a curriculum that teaches students about communication skills, leadership skills, decision-making skills and just about anything else that would help them survive or avoid the many obstacles they face living in a developing nation. Some of the major challenges that people face here, especially children and teenagers are AIDS/HIV/STDs, Forced Marriages, Early Pregnancy, Child Trafficking, Sexual Harassment in the Classroom, unequal distribution of labor, unsupported infrastructure like Female Rights, Un- or Undereducated citizens, political corruption at all levels, and I haven't even touched on daily struggles like clean water and sanitation and food. So, part of my job is to help the people of Togo navigate through all these obstacles in a more efficient and effective way.

I have been at post officially for 3 months now. I have started working with a neighboring village (about 10K away) twice a month, specifically a group of women and men that want to improve their lives. They have no medical facilities except for a one room clinic, so I have started them on a series of health sessions, which have so far included: basic sanitation and hygiene, balanced diets and malnutrition, soap making (which took a lot of time and patience), and pregnancy health & the importance of breast milk. I also want to do sessions on AIDS/diseases, family planning, business/commerce and women's rights/laws. My biggest struggle with this the group's ability to retain information. Certain sessions build on past ones and if they don't remember the old information, I can't give them the new information. So, I spend the entire session redoing the old session so that I can move forward. Part of the issue is that Togolese are used to repetition and memorization; creative or critical thinking is not taught here. I don't lots of breathing exercises during these training sessions or formations, as we PCVs like to call them.

Another project I have is a Girl's Club at my village's community supported middle school. I meet with them every week and I try to only do things are interesting to them and that they have a hand in deciding. I guess my goal is to build self-confidence and teamwork within the group, so whatever that keeps them interested and excited is game. Thus far we've tackled heavy issues like AIDS stigmatisation, obstacles that will potentially pop up in their future and how to surmount them, a soccer game, singing, dancing and games. I taught them how to play Red Rover and I fear that may have resulted in some bodily damage. But the people here are tough and resilient, so no worries. For the future, I want to continue with the soccer, singing, dancing and games, but I also want to through in the Life Skills curriculum, public speaking, study skills, women's rights, business & commerce and the ever-popular Condom Demonstration with my Penis en Bois (Wooden Penis). Anything sexual gets lots of giggles. My stress here is again information retention. Togolese people have the terrible habit of telling you what you want to hear rather than telling you the truth. So many times, I suspect these girls are telling me what they think I want rather than being honest with themselves. There is a Peer Education program I might try to implement since teaching something is the best way to learn.

Last month one of my girls in the club came to me with what is unfortunately a very common problem here in Togo. Her father had died of AIDS and as their culture dictates, his older brother (her uncle) becomes the chief of the family. Her mother (still) has no rights over her deceased husband's possessions (i.e. money, house, crop surpluses, etc). Well, her uncle decided that he didn't want to pay for her school fees anymore and as a result, she would need to get married. She called it a "changement des femmes", which I still don't completely understand. I think there is an arrangement with another family to marry off sons and daughters, very much like an arranged marriage. Well, this is all illegal in Togo, but the problem is enforcement, especially in rural villages like mine and especially difficult to do against cultural norms. My dear girl has until the end of the school year and then she will meet her doom. She drops this sweet, little bomb on my lap via verbal diarrhea, and spend 2 hours trying to figure all the details out. I figure, sweet I've got some months to get my ducks in a row before I put the cork in her uncle's bottle. I spoke to a couple Anti-Forced Marriage committees in the Prefectural Capital and get them on board with the situation. But, one sunny Tuesday afternoon my friend visits me again, spewing garble french at me. What I gathered was that her uncle changed his mind for some reason and now gave her 2 weeks instead of 4 months. The other hiccup was that I was leaving for a Soccer Tournament the following day and would be gone for a week. It was 11 AM and I spent the rest of the day talking to various Presidents of Anti-Forced Marriage committees and arranging a meeting for the next morning to treat the matter with the girl's family. I didn't eat lunch that day and was a bit irritable, which isn't so hot when you have a 16 year-old girl begging for your help but is too scared to do anything about it. It was like pulling teeth to find out what she wanted (i.e. continue with school and not get married). There really was no question on the right way to go, but getting this girl to get behind it (because she had to be) was beyond my patience level that day. I asked her if she would be made at me if I told the right people and she shook her head. So, the aforementioned meetings happened, and to both of our delights, the uncle agreed to wait until the end of the school year and if we can find a way to pay for her school fees next year, she can avoid the whole, nasty forced marriage affair. I keep telling people that I feel like a Social Worker rather than a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Other potential projects are a Soccer Tournament between girl's teams in the primary schools, follow up work from my predecessor on Life Skills taught at all the middle schools in my area, English and Study Skills tutoring, income generating activities for the primary schools to help pay the children's school fees and summer camps (Camp UNITE and Camp Espoir) and possibly an inherited water pump project. The conference I will be going to in March (PDM) will help to focus myself on what projects to tackle.

If any of you have used soccer equipment (i.e. balls, cleats, jerseys, etc...), I would be more than happy to take them off your hands. My mailing address is in the right hand column, and I recommend using the regular postal service (USPS) and padded envelopes (not boxes) as they are cheaper. I would be forever grateful and so would the little girls I work with.

So I want to mention the education system in Togo, but I won't because this post is already too long. I'll save that juicy morsel for another day.