Dear Friends and Family,

Happy April! I hope all of you in the Northern Hemisphere are enjoying some fresh spring days. We’re gaining a little more rain each week here in Northern Togo. But some days the dust can still kick up and the air can feel far too hot. Luckily, I had a chance to satiate my craving for green lush landscapes on vacation last week. Jane and I traveled south through Kpalime, Togo and on to the Volta Region in Ghana. The rain has been working hard in the south for at least a month already. The forests and grasses are dense, heavy, and verdant. 

The week before vacation, activity in the village picked up pace. The Koukoude neighborhood formed a formal working group for the garden. And we began the real work on the garden site. The masons completed a cement block base for the fence and the new work group worked together to place the chicken wire around the fence posts. As we were clearing the land, we decided I could do a rapid-fire compost pile training and demonstration since we had most of the materials before us. While I was on vacation the group marked out a quarter of the garden beds and spread some manure. All that is left to prepare now is the garden gate and marking out the rest of the beds. I’ll hold some trainings with the group on plant nurseries and completing the compost process, and then we’ll begin planting! I can’t wait! 🙂

I am able to share all of this because the government pause on my grant work was lifted. Our grant manager had to edit our grants and remove words such as “diversity” and “variety.” (God forbid someone “consumes a variety of fruits and vegetables.”) My reaction to the censorship and control of language by the current administration (and its lackeys) swings from thinking “how silly and absurd” to feeling deeply disturbed and concerned. But at least in this situation, I can continue my work in official channels. Most importantly, I will be assured that when the grant project is complete a record of the work will exist that can be passed on to future volunteers.

In other village news, Monsieur Tchangani, my work partner, retired from his post of President of the Committee for Village Development. He is looking forward to some well deserved rest, but he’ll still be my go-to work partner for Peace Corps work. The village held an election for the new committee. There was only one committee running but over a hundred people still came out to vote. It was my first time watching an election process here. People from the mayor’s office came to officiate and organize the event. After lots of ceremony and pomp, the new committee lined themselves up and everyone in support of them went to stand behind them. One of the workers from the mayor’s office used a long millet stalk to count off the crowd by fives. They won 127 votes. Then the new committee stood before everyone and received advice. All the representatives from the mayor’s office, the chiefs, the women’s leaders, the youths’ leader, the heads of important cooperatives, and even I was told to stand up and give advice to the new committee. The whole event conclude with handshakes, drumming, food, and drink.  

My vacation in Ghana was just what I needed. Jane and I set out with the goal of being in nature and relaxing. We stayed the majority of our time in an eco-lodge fairly close to Lake Volta. Our first full day, the lodge’s guide took us on a short hike to a view point looking across a valley to the lake. Clearly, he was not used to guiding tourists who are working physical jobs in West Africa’s climate. He was happy and energized by how easily we climbed. He told us about how his friends years ago hiked all the way to the lake. We all gazed at the view for a while longer before he asked if we wanted to try for a little adventure and hike our way to the lake? He was honest and told us he had never done it before but that he liked exploring new trails. We were game, it was a beautiful day, and we came to the area to see the lake, why not today? 

As it turned out, my first experience of bushwhacking was surprisingly calm. The trails soon faded to old boar trails and then mostly disappeared. But with a machete, a good pair of boots, and an ability to look for light-filled openings you can get down a mountainside. Near the end we did have to descend through a crag where we basically slid or hopped boulder to boulder. But another hundred or two hundred yards on from that we found a human trail and in no time at all we were on the valley floor. The compact sand and flat rocks made a welcome change from the rich, soft hummus, on the steep mountainside. We walked across the valley. There were a couple of homesteads and patches of banana plantation. The fields weren’t yet turned over for a new season of crops. With a short climb we entered a town by its back door — and received some surprised looks. A short walk through the town, a brief break to buy water, and we were on the road descending to Dodi, a small fishing community on Lake Volta. Leaping into the lake at last was the definition of refreshment and reward. 

It’s hard to follow such a first day, but we had so many good moments. We visited the lake again in hopes of finding somewhere to rent kayaks, but a lot of the lakeside operations were closed after last year’s flood. It was nice to see the water again regardless. Jane and I got to enjoy our own personal summer camp with some long walks around town, card games, reading, and drawing. We left the eco-lodge for higher ground and enjoyed a canopy walk. The drive was beautiful — winding through, then climbing huge green hills. We descended and spent the night in Hohoe, a decent sized city. The next morning we headed back into the hills to climb Mount Afadjato, Ghana’s highest peak. From the top we could see the next ridge line that marked the border with Togo. Throughout a rather complicated border crossing we sped through even more beautiful hillsides and eventually came soaring into Kpalime. 

My host village is so far North, that all my travels are sandwiched between Togo travels. Although traveling in Togo can be cramped and tiring, it also means I have a chance to see other volunteers in regional capitols along the way. We spent some time in Kpalime to see our friends and do a batik making class at Akala boutique. Then we had a night in Atakpame with a group of friends, before turning fully North and heading home. 

I love my village. It feels so good to come home to it. The soja ladies happily wave to me as the motorcycle brings me back into town. Maman is so quick to spot my open door and run up to greet me. The grandpapa next door sings out my name (“Tchilalooooooooo”) when he spots me. Monday was my first full day back and it was productive and full of people. My fifth and sixth graders were enthusiastic as we transplanted seedlings during Agriculture club. They love talking about all the tomatoes and salads they’re going to eat — and teasing each other that they will get to eat more because they’re doing more work. I walked over to the Koukoude neighborhood after school. The new garden fence was glinting in the sun. My friends had saved a bowl of Tchouk for me. I sat and laughed with everyone as the sunset burned the whole sky hot pink. Then I headed home to Zorro and Maman’s cooking. I could not ask for a better return. 

Love from Togo,

Janet