Dear Family and Friends,

The Harmattan season is settling over northern Togo. Wind streams are blowing in dust from the Sahara. The nights and mornings are cool and calm. Big gusts of wind start whipping the trees and shaking roofs in the late morning. They are calm again  but by the afternoon — just at the moment the sun’s full force makes you wish for a breeze. Luckily, the dust is not so thick as to block out the stars at night. There’s still some blue sky days before us. 

Thank you all so much for your contributions to my neighborhood garden and water pump project! The project is fully funded! I am amazed that we were able to raise nearly 10,000 dollars. I am just waiting for the wire transfer from HQ and then work will begin! Thank you, thank you.

If you intended to donate and did not get a chance to before we reached our goal, I encourage you to donate to another project from my cohort. My friends Sue and Paul are creating a comprehensive learning center. They are about $4000 away from their goal. You can read about their project here: https://www.peacecorps.gov/donate/projects/pp-25-693-004/ Any help would be much appreciated!

This past week was go-go-go for at least five or six days. On Wednesday and Thursday I hosted a soy bean food product training. Which means in the days leading up to the training, I was walking all over the village to spread the word, buy materials, organizing people, and desperately using up my phone credit to make it all work. Jane came up on Tuesday afternoon to help out during the training, which was so appreciated. Katja came on day one and Will was able to join part way through day two.

My unescapable challenge in Peace Corps is that while I drive to accomplish so much, the reality of Togo means I need assistance from my local friends at each step of the way. I need to know the cultural protocols for inviting people, I need translation assistance, I need to know where to purchase certain items, and so many other small logistical hurdles. I worry that my work partners cannot see my vision of an event as clearly as I would like, which makes pestering them for help all the more frustrating, almost embarrassing. I am still fine-tuning my awareness of when I need to push my work partners for certain things and when I can let the issue rest and have faith that it will be resolved by them. I hope what I have learned from this event will make organizing future projects less stressful. 

The training itself was a success! Our trainer is an organic farmer from the Centrale region of Togo. She specializes in food production/transformation techniques. Jane had invited the same trainer to her village and had had great success. So I followed Jane’s lead, invited the trainer up, and acted as hostess to our participants. We had a group of almost thirty from my village and surrounding villages. The vast majority were women. I think the women had a special appreciation for seeing someone like themselves so knowledgeable, successful, and helpful. Over the course of two days, our trainer taught us how to make soy milk and “viande du soja,” a type of tofu that can last a week or more without refrigeration. She refined everyone’s techniques for sorting and cleaning beans to make the process more hygienic. Along the way, she discussed with the group the importance of saving money, how to calculate a fair price for goods you sell, and how to plan ahead for the future. She shared all this knowledge in Kabye and French, meaning nearly everyone got to learn in their native tongue. (We had one non-Kabye speaker amongst us, plus of course we volunteers). She also trains farmers on juice production, so the village may invite her up for another training in January.

Once we were fully in the swing of cooking during the second day, I was in one of my favorite happy places: hanging out with people in the kitchen. I still had to make a few mad dashes to resolve problems, but most of the day was spent amongst food, laughter, and women forming new friendships. For ceremonies and holidays, I’ve spent time with women while they cooked all day. They keep each other company and laugh during the hard work. But this training was something newly joyous. I think it was this way because none of the food was made for another person or purpose beyond themselves and their own learning. The soy milk and  “viande du soja” were both delicious. I have never had much interest in soy milk, but this version was warm, infused with citronella and sweetened. The “viande du soja” was covered in sauce then grilled which gave it a nice smokey spicy flavor.

Our trainer left late Thursday evening, off to her own meetings in Sokode the following day. After cleaning up and fetching water, Jane and I had an evening to relax at last. We had been working from 7am to 7pm for two days straight — plus all the pre-training days of stress for me (and Jane’s million and one projects at her site). We had a nice lazy Friday morning before she headed home. I have taken it fairly easy since the training: focusing on finishing end of the year reports for Peace Corps, tending my garden, planning out what will need to be done for my grant project, and drawing while listening to audiobooks. The kiddos have been piling in for sticker-by-number sessions. And a few students have stopped by to study for their end of the trimester exams. Other than the Monday before my soy bean training, clubs have wrapped up until after the new year. I need to stop by the school this week to check on our compost pile and make a plan for after the school vacation. 

In just about a week, I’m on the road again! Mom, Dad, and Richard are coming to visit. I’ll meet them at the airport on Christmas Day, then we’ll cross to Benin for a guided five-day tour. Then off to my village for a few days — just in time to celebrate the New Year here. 

If I don’t write to all of you before then, I wish everyone Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Good Tidings to you and your kin! I hope the New Year brings health and happiness for everyone.

Love,

Janet

Celebrating a successful training! Our trainer is in orange in the center. The uncooked tofu is on the platter in the center, and people are holding up the cooked “viande du soja”. The bottles are full of soy milk. I have lots of other photos from the event, I plan to put together a nice album soon.