Inyams, Nanners and Christmas wounds

I have been taking random pictures of fruits and tubers in village lately and I wanted to share them. This is the real Togo, l-l-l-live! Inyams and nanners. They were Christmas gifts from my lovely peeps in village. I also have some interesting skin wound (contact dermatitis) and I had some professional pictures made with it. I spent Christmas in Notse and had a wonderful one-on-one time with its volunteer, Ashley. We drank tchouk, locally made millet beer that tastes like apple cider with a kick, with 2 of her friends in village Christmas Eve. Christmas day, we ate fufu with her homologue and family and Christmas was almost ruined (according to her homologue, not us) when Ashley, trying to help pound the fufu and then take it out of the wooden mortar, received a large splinter shoved up her pinky nail as a Christmas surprise. I took it out with her leatherman pliers and Christmas was saved until I noticed the beginning of my contact dermatitis. Some say it's from a blister beetle (dragging its ass across my arm?). I think it's from a caustic inyam peel that somehow found its way on my right wrist even though I NEVER touched an inyam that day until it was transformed into fufu.

Ashley and I watched a horrible film cleverly named, Noel, with an all-star cast and guest surprise actor Robin Williams! later that afternoon. Never watch this film on Christmas or ever. We also watched the DVD's of "The Soup" that Andrea had burned for me. Somewhat disturbing actually. Reality TV makes me feel odd about Americans. We saw some clips from "The 2 Coreys" and Feldman sang to his wife, extremely close to her face and very loudly with a microphone, "na na na na na na na i love you, on and on and owhun..." Terrible.

But, I am ready for 2009. I feel really good about 2008 and have no regrets from last year because I learned a lot. My new resolution for 2009 is...drum roll, ta ta ta dah! Living in the moment.

I made some enriched cereal and did a formation on nutrition at my dispensaire for the women. It was fun making it because I got to go to the mill and grind corn, roasted peanuts roasted by moi-meme, and roasted black eyed peas ( it was actually delicious, especially with a sliced banana in it). So, I took a picture of the sacks of enriched cereal that I gave to the women after the talk. Oh and my carrots are ready finally and I ate one and it was super sweet. I gave some to my friend, Marthilde, and when looking at them, she told me that everyone is not the same because these carrots are all carrots, but totally different. I loved that, so I decided to send the picture of her with my carrot garden and the carrots I gave her that inspired her comment. Okay so here are some pictures to enjoy. Love to you all. Happy New Year!

I am stubborn.

My Peace Corps experience has truly allowed me to reflect. I am stubborn as I just titled this blog. But, I am also learning that I can not be stubborn if I know I am being stubborn. And I feel like this may just be the secret to my future success. Did I just jinx myself? I also need to work on being less superstitious. But, I would just like to clarify that even though this experience has been challenging, I would never trade it for anything. I have wanted to be a Peace Corps Volunteer since I was 16. And I'm finally in it. To win it. Living in a developing country is not easy and so maybe my previous blogs reflected my frustration or misunderstanding of the culture in Togo. But, isn't this part of the process in being here, living here, eating here, sharting my pants here, crying, giggling, being bored here? So, if I came across as being unhappy or ready to leave, I was just being honest. My emotions are up and down daily, hourly, secondly. At some moments, I am so bored or frustrated that I get a little nutty. At some moments, I am so glad to be here that I can't imagine what it will be like to leave and re-enter what my life was. I am scared to come back. I am scared to stay here for the full 2 years. Will I just fall back into myself? But, I have learned to cope. I have learned to not react immediately to a situation. I have learned to try to understand why someone reacts a certain way to a situation. I am learning patience. I am learning that nothing ever turns out the way you want it to, okay, maybe occassionally it does, but to be okay with it.

As far as work is conerned right now in village, things are going well. I am starting home visit sensibilisations on latrine use (i.e. how to use the EcoSan latrine, washing hands, etc.); I just finished a health coloring book; I am working on introducing solar cooking to my village (CookIt and fruit drying) and am still working with the NGO in Kpalime. I am organizing a small event in my village for World AIDS Day. I am not coming home for Christmas. I am going to Abidjan and Ghana in January. My dream is to go to Morocco before I leave. I hope I haven't cheesed anyone out with this posting. I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving. Later my taters!

Lee Greenwood's song finally makes sense...

That's right, I am finally proud to be an American. I have had so many conversations in the last few days about Obama. Every Togolese person I know, knows Barack Obama. They are really excited about him and I am speechless. I stayed up until 5 A.M. watching the coverage in Atakpame at another volunteer's house who has satellite television. I saw both his and McCain's speeches after the results came out. Ahhh. I can't wait to come home.
I recently went up to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso for an artisanal tradeshow. I had fun. But, the most important part of my trip was the food. Togo and apparently Burkina Faso are rampant with street food and snacks. I wrote down all the scrumptious snacks and have decided to list them:
1. Egg omelette sandwhich with cafe au lait: this is served pretty much throughout the day and usually has some pieces of onion and tomato chopped into it. The cafe au lait is just nescafe but with something very magical. Sweetened condensed milk. So good.
2. Sweetened black tea shots: a man with a roll cart walks around selling this in shot glasses. I think further up north, more mint would be used. This excites me.
3. Frozen coconut milk: bought this in Burkina Faso right out of the bus. It was on a stick. It cut my tongue.
4. Minty Bissap juice: Hibiscus juice with mint in a sac. Cut a hole in the sack with your front teeth and sip away.
5. Oranges, Watermelons, Boiled peanuts, Bananas: fruit right out of the bush taxi. Always fresh, always good.
6. Beans and gari: black eyed peas and toasted grated cassava. With piment (hot pepper).
7. Alagba: frozen baobab juice in a cold sac that you suck out. Tastes like apple juice.
8. Sesame bar: found more north. I thought I could only find this in Greece. I bought a bag of heart-shaped bars once again right out of the window of my bus.
9. Soy milk: frozen and in a sack. Sweet. Right out of the bus window.
10. Yellow melon: shaped like a cucumber, but tastes like honeydew.
11. Wild peanut, "arachide sauvage": tastes like a chickpea and peanut. Found this at a station heading back to my village from Atakpame.

12. The picture that I posted is from a coffee shot stand in Ouagadougou.
I am being disturbed by another volunteer right now blocking my attention from this blog, so I cannot put any concentration into this beyond listing. I am sorry. Blame David Johnston. But, these are all things I can easily get at most stops when on a bush taxi. This is why I love Togo. I guess it's like fast food, but healthier and more spontaneous because you never know what will be offered. I love you all and I am really happy that Obama won. Really happy. Later taters.

Resistance is futile

I am back in Lome for just 2 days in order to do some quick work on the computer and will leave bright and early tomorrow morning to head to Atakpame for a quick birthday celebration and then head back to village so I can be present for my liquid soap formation on Sunday. My host mother from Agou Nyogbo has offered to come to my village to show my women's group how to make it and I am so excited. I am also here to buy some coconuts because I want more jam. I think they are starting to come into season and I can't seem to find any further north near my village. So, I never got to talk about the marathon and I sent some letters out but I decided it would make for a pretty good post.
The marathon was in Accra, Ghana September 28 and it was sponsoring the Longevity Project (programs to increase the average life span of Ghanaians). It was my first. I ran the half, but here it why it kicked my ass:
1. It started at 7 a.m., not 5:30 a.m., as advertised. West Africa is hot.
2. The half-marathon was 24 km not 21 km as all other half-marathons in the world (a full marathon is 42 km).
3. We were running in traffic (it was a Sunday, so it was just church traffic, but by just, I mean more traffic than usual because everyone goes to churchee here).
4. There were only about 200 people who ran the marathon, so I ran alone for most of it. There was no crowd cheering me on, only people greeting me and screaming things at me like, "Run faster! Everyone is so far ahead of you! You only have a little more to go(this was at mile 8)..."
But, I am so glad I ran it and I can't wait to run another one in the U.S.A. I have no pictures to post because I could not fit a camera on my person for the run. However, we had some parents present for the marathon and there are pictures posted on my Facebook site. Under Linda Golden.
My work in village is going. I am currently working on a Health and Hygiene coloring book for the Ecole Primaire students (similar to grades 1-6). It's something I really wanted to do when I first got to poste, so I am excited to finally be able to do it. I am also working with an NGO in Kpalime called Vivre Mieux that works with HIV positive people. I have started a support-type group with men and women and I plan on introducing Moringa and other income generating activities.
I hope everyone is doing well. I hope to have some pictures up next post. Bye-byee-lo.

Coconut Jam-On-It

Greeting earthlings. I am in Lome once again not preparing for someone to ET, but for the marathon I have been training for since March. I'm having some personal problems, so instead of writing about them, I would like to share a recipe. It's coconut jam and it was born out of the womb of a Ms. Allison Green. Here it is:

First and foremost, one must know how to open a coconut. I do not really know how to do this, so I asked my friend, Bienvenue, to do it for me. He used a machete quite craftily. We poured the water out into a cup, which I then later used (for evil) in the jam. We then used knives to crack the "meat" of the coconut out of its shell. We then scraped the brown skin off of the coconut and washed the pieces before chopping them into very fine little pieces. Next time, I will probably use a grater. Here is Marthilde, my friend in village, demonstrating the cut coconut pieces.

After that hour long process, Bienvenue crushed the coconut pieces on a stone slab (Togolese use this to 'ecrase' most things they put in sauces, such as tomatoes, onions, piment, etc. especially for their fufu sauces. I think this is sort of like using a chopping board, except no choppy choppy, only crushy crushy.) Note picture of him in action. His girlfriend, Marthilde, made fun of him and started singing a booty shaking song as he was doing it. I laughed a lot.

So, next we added the coconut water along with enough water to cover the coconut bits. We used 3 coconuts for this recipe, which yielded 3 small jars of coconut jam. I used about 2 cups of water. I also added all the cinnamon I had left (about 2 tbsp), 1 tbsp of vanilla and about 1 1/2 cups of sugar. We then boiled the living scheisse out of it for about 45 minutes. Here is a picture of the hotter than hell fire we used to create this jam. Once, the "jam" had a sticky or "gel-ly" texture to it, we set it aside and boiled our jars and lids so that we could add the hot mixture to the hot jars. We then placed the filled jars back into the boiling water and let them sit in the hell for about 1 minute. I then carefully removed the jars and placed them on their lids to "seal the deal". And that's that. It's delish and I recommend everyone try it.

Maybe next week, I will send a more personal story of my travails here in We(s)t Africa. It's rainy season and everyone is out in the fields. Except for me. This last picture is of Marthilde acting as a chief of the coconut jam jars (Chiefs in Togo wear fabric draped over them as she is demonstrating here). Wish me luck on the marathon this Sunday. And I would like to send a shout out to Ivy Antigone Chiavarini. M'waezo lo (Welcome in Ewe)! I can't wait to meet you, you little precious morsel!

I'm not sure what to title this blog entry, so it's going to be a long one about how I don't know how to title it...

I am on an impromptu trip to Lome because my Kpalime cluster mates, Nadia and Tristan, are ET'ing (early termination). And it's sad because now 3 people from my already small cluster have left in the last 3 months. But, on a really great positive note let me tell you all about my trip out to Notse and Avassikpe after my awesome pelvic exam required by Peace Corps after 1 year of service. Oh yeah, I have been a volunteer now for 1 year. Bon travail Antigone! So, in total, I have been in Togo for 15 months. Crazy, right? I went to my friend's village in Notse and it was quite interesting because there are about 9 bridges down in Togo, which is causing a lot of problems. List of problems: 1. There are really only 2 main paved roads (the Route National and the Lome-Kpalime-Atakpame road) 2. There are mother loads of semi-trucks that need to transport materials, food, gas etc 3. I live off of a dirt road that connects the Lome-Kpalime road to the Route National. List of solutions: 1. Re-route all semi-trucks through my dirt road so they can avoid the flooding and cluster of damaged bridges that are all concentrated south of Notse 2. Re-route people by making them walk ~1 km with all of their luggage and what-not to the other side of the Route National. I did this in order to get to Notse and it was almost like mass exodus, like the scene in "Fidder on the Roof" when everyone leaves Anatevka together. However, this is a problem and if the roads do not get fixed soon, then travel in this country may come to a halt. I saw 3 semi-trucks yesterday on the Notse mud road that had fallen on their sides and will probably be there for a very long time. No cars are allowed to pass that road now because they would only get stuck in the huge holes the heavy trucks have created day to day during the rainiest season Togo has had in a while. But, once I did actually get to Notse I spent 2 days lolly-gagging around and went to my friends' Moringa fields (see picture with sunset) and then did the same in another volunteer's village about 18 km away that we happily biked to. In Avassikpe, we made Moringa oil and I have attached the pictures. I love going to other volunteers' villages because I get to see how different they all are. Whether it's the reaction to the volunteer or the access to resources such as food, gas, or cold water (electricity, te amo). I also like to see how motivated people in the village are. It's given me a better perspective on my village. Anyway, all is well and as always I miss all of you. Adios Nadia and Tristan. If you read this, know that I just can't quit you two...I miss you guys already and you haven't even left the country yet. But, I'm a big girl and as Peggy once wisely said, I'm going to put my big girl panties on now...


Moringa Oil recipe

After removing the outer casing of the Moringa seed (initially using our hands, then teeth, then a garlic press), we pounded the seeds until they became...
this! Because it is rainy season, I don't think the seeds were completely dry, which made the powder more "gewy", but it still worked when we added that "powder" to hot boiling water...
and waited for the oil to start pooling at the top like this. We had to keep adding water in order to continue boiling the solution and allowing for more oil to pool at the top.
Unfortunately, this is all the oil we got. I tasted the seed and Ashley correctly stated that it had a "flavor burst". I had to drink a lot of water and add several of Danielle's Swedish Fish candies to my mouth to get the rubbery paste of the seed off of the roof of my mouth. The oil was also very bitter, but I would imagine that it would be good in a sauce. The process of making Moringa oil took a lot of time, so I don't know how useful making it for consumption would be, but I think adding it as an essential oil to a soap or lotion recipe would be nice. It smelled like fresh cut grass to me.

Back in the A-F-R-I-C-A

What it is. Yes I am back in Togo after a very tender, magical time spent in wonderland, a.k.a. Greece. I would post pictures, but I cannot find the cord necessary to plug into the computer to do so. It is somewhere hidden in Nacho's tender, magical locker that I think has about a week's worth of dirty laundry, a whiskey sachet, her iPod cord, a solar charger, some flip-flops and other various important necessities such as a camera cord. My trip to Greece was great. Let's just leave it at that. The trip back to Togo is what makes my life so much more interesting. I missed my flight from Athens to Dubai because my flight into Athens from Thessaloniki was late. They also made the flight out of Athens early, which gave me absolutely no time to get my luggage out of baggage claim and check in to Emirate Air. So, they booked me on a flight with Olympic Airlines into Dubai. Olympic Airlines. Where to begin? They ran out of blankets, they gave us only one choice for the meal (beef pastitsio--a Greek noodle casserole--that I actually did eat. I'm so glad I practiced eating meat before I came to Africa, but who knew I would have to put it into use in Europe?), the headphones did not work and there was only one TV monitor with only one choice of a show per 1000 seats, the flight attendants were saucy as hell, and the bathroom would put even a latrine at a bus station in Togo to shame. But, before all of this even happened, my leave-in conditioner was taken from me at the security check in Athens. That's right, LEAVE-IN CONDITIONER. The woman tried to also take my Tom's of Maine Cinnamon-Clove toothpaste that was given to me by my mother, Biggie Smalls, but when I started crying and pleading to her that where I was about to go was so undeveloped that they didn't even have Tom's of Maine toothpaste, she placed her pointer finger vertically over her mouth and told me to keep quiet and furtively threw the toothpaste back in my bag. Afterwards, ss I was trying to cover my red, swollen eyes from my fellow travelers with my favorite big, Togolese, haute coutoure sunglasses, I noticed that one of the lenses had fallen out (they finally broke-I knew it would happen, it was only a question of when, because these are the second pair of these glasses, but the first pair had a different demise. The ear piece fell off). So, I just let them all have it. I was sad and couldn't hide it anymore. I spent the night on a chair in Dubai (8 hour layover), but not before checking out the Duty Free Shop. To make up for my sadness and loss of leave-in conditioner, I bought a big bag of almonds, Haribo gummy bears, and anti-wrinkle eye cream. My friends met me in Accra and it was like a gift from god.
The marathon in Togo has been cancelled because only 3 people are running it. I am still running the Ghana marathon, but have decided to participate in a bike tourney that runs across Togo and supports the same scholarship for girls' education. It is in November. Today, I will be leaving for my village and I am nervous and also scared to see the state of my house. Bat guano and mice turds fall down from the cracks in the ceiling, especially in my bathroom, and it is not a very welcoming site. I will have a lot of work ahead of me and I am tired and too lazy to wash my hair that has dusty mud in it from yesterday's bush taxi ride back to Togo. I think about all of you and miss you all so much. I have to keep reminding myself that this is all an adventure even when I am twiddling my thumbs, staring at the ceiling and trying to figure why I did this and how much longer I can do this. I am lucky to have this opportunity and I am experiencing new things all the time, even though they are not always very comfortable. I am okay. I am okay. This is an adventure.

Fat lady a-singin'

I have been in Togo for 367 days. The new training group just arrived here the day before yesterday and we had a big welcoming party for them last night. I have been out of village for about 2 weeks. But, let me tell you all about Camp UNITE. C'est bananes! It was a week long camp (I never went to camp as a child) for female apprenties (what is an apprenti/apprenticeship, you ask? An apprenticeship is like a trade school. They can do apprenticeships in carpentry, sewing, mechanics, etc.) They are also doing camps for male apprenties and girl and boy students. My camp though was the first camp and even though I am now exhausted, it was well worth all the hard work. The camp consisted of sessions on Family Planning, HIV/AIDS, Gender Equality, Nutrition, Adolescence and Puberty, Self-Confidence and Techniques to Good Communication. The mood of the camp was positive and all the girls after the 2nd day really came out of their shell. We sang and played games and taught the girls some income generating activities (jewerly making using bottle caps and magazines pages...prettier than it sounds; lotion making...). I got to play the role of "Pagi" the negative villager who tries to discourage the girls all week, but somehow learns from them too. The last day of camp I was a changed girl who had gained self-confidence and a positive attitude. Voulour c'est pouvoir (to want is to be able)! I am leaving Togo on a very positive note. I will be in Greece from mid-June to mid-July and I am super pumped but also super scared because I am afraid I will not want to come back from the land of milk and honey (actually yogurt and honey). But, I have a lot of support from other volunteers and they keep me here happy, most of the time. Kisses and hugs to all of you. Barack, eh? Sweet.

Holy Janet! You send me a comment with absolutely no information about yourself. Like an e-mail or an address. Please do this. Here is my address: antigoni_yes@yahoo.com or
PCV Antigone Pantanizopoulos
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 3194
Lome, Togo
So good to hear from you. Janet, why the long face? We found each other again. This is so exciting...dreams do come true. Please send me your info. And hello to everyone else!

Pictures speak louder than words

Hello everyone! So I've been doing stuff...biked the pathway for the marathon with Alicia, my co-coordinator. It was lovely and really hot and rained immediately after we arrived in my village. I went to Tchifama, Alicia's village, with my host mother from our training site, Agou Nyogbo, and Julia, my cluster mate who had the same host mother as I did (she's a Natural Resources Management volunteer). We had a good time, drinking tchouk, dressing in the same pagne, wandering around Tchifama looking ridicoulous and then eating fou-fou of course made by Alicia's host mother. So I've decided to just leave you a bunch of pictures this time and little word. I'm doing well, settling in. I read 3 books this week...Gone to Soldiers, The Village of Waiting and The Alchemist. I also started a girls' soccer team (the SexEd class was a bust, so I decided to approach it by talking about SexEd issues during practice) and started on the home visits with the water committee to teach the peeps in village about potable water and fecal-oral transmission. I said little word, didn't I? Okay. Enough. Here. I miss you all...oh and that spider was not killed, fortunately I had a friend come by and catch him in a broom and place him outside unscathed. I call him Biggie Smalls. No relation to the rapper or my mother. Peace out.

Kalo Mina en Avril!

Dear All! I hope you are all well and happy in this beautiful month of April. It is hotter than all get-out here right now and I am really missing a beautiful spring in Tennessee. I am in Lome just for the day to do some computer work and check e-mail. What to say? What have I been doing? I've started training for the marathon and I've decided to run a half-marathon in Accra, Ghana in Septemeber as part of the training. I rode my bike to the dispensaire in Akplolo after not riding it for 3 months (I rode it all the way to Notse and left it there for 3 months...). I made date nut bread, actually 3 times because it's good tasting. I'm being kicked off the computer because someone else has to use it for evil. Just kidding...I miss you all and I hope you haven't forgotten about me b/c I think about y'all all the time. I leave you with several attractive pictures of me pounding foufou and of my beautiful village from the view of Mt. Agou. Tootles!

Me, Alicia and Natasha in Tchifama, Alicia's village. She lives in the chief's compound with his 19 children and 2 wives (he has a total of 5).

Huge spider I found in my bathroom, stared at it to make sure it didn't move during my bucket shower.

Me and the kids sitting on a mat outside my house New Year's Eve.

Me and the kids at my first funeral in village. Akpedje is to my left and was sucking on a sack.

I meant to post this blog at the beginning of this month. This is not Akpedje because the video clip I wanted to add here is not working, but I will send via e-mail so some of you can see it, k? This is me in my house and those are my brooms behind me.(This is Akpedje, my best friend in village, singing "Kalo Mina!" to me Feb. 1. It means "Good Month" in Greek and it is always said at the beginning of any month. I had told her the day before to say it to me and she remembered the next morning. She is shaking a bottle of "tchouk" as she is singing because this was a gift given to me by my Ewe language teacher and she was delivering it to me.) It has been an interesting month so far. I am back in Lome working with another volunteer, Alicia, on organizing a marathon from my village to my friend Ashley's village in Notse. We are planning it for next December and we want the money raised to go to a scholarship fund created by Peace Corps to pay for boys and girls to go to school. The students are nominated by volunteers and their grades are monitored in order to keep their scholarship. Just an idea so far, but I am hoping that it works out because I want to finally run a marathon! I am also working on having a 3-day training for the women's groups in my village focusing on nutrition and better farming practices (i.e. compost and maybe trying to grow more nutritious vegetables instead of the same manioc, yam and corn...). I also want to start a Health (i.e. sex) Education class for the young girls and possibly boys in my village. I am doing a small talk on Moringa at my dispensaire in my village this Wednesday and Thursday. I am planning vacations...so far Burkina Faso and Ghana. I am feeling a lot more settled here and I think having work has actually helped me feel better living here. I just got my ticket to Greece and I am super pumped. July 2-16, y'all. For anyone who wants to come visit me this summer, do not plan anything for those dates. And please come visit me...just let me know ahead of time so I can plan something, but also so I can make sure I can take off for a little bit of traveling, eh? Alrightee, everybody. Hope all of you are well. Here are some more pictures...

Oh Irlene...

Well, I knew it was going to happen. I just wished she would have waited for me to be there with her. My sweet precious lovebird Irlene passed away January 29, 2008 on her own. I just want to dedicate this blog to the most wonderful sweet best kitty that a mama could ever have (except for Joc of course). Irlene came to me as my first foster mom with her 2 little kittens when I was still working at the animal shelter in Vestal. It was in January 1997 actually. She was found huddling under a porch in the cold with her 2 live kittens and 2 dead kittens. Her other 2 kittens died a week after I started fostering them, and since she got along with Joc so well, I decided to adopt her. I loved her sweet nature and her freakish lobster claw front feet (one of her kittens that died had the same polydactyl mutation...typically seen in Hemingway cats). Irlene loved to do high flips in the air that could have won a gold medal in the extreme sports olympics if only they weren't so racist and exclusive. Right? She also loved to sleep at my feet and curl her claws around my toes and purr to wake me up to feed her. I think this picture of her is funny because the picture in the blog before this one has me almost making the same face. The second picture of her is more flattering and noble. Thank you Lee so much for taking care of her and Joc and I have decided to send a letter to you at Magpies, but wait have you guys moved already and has the address changed. I will send it to Peggy's home address. It's settled. And thank you also goes to Amy for taking such good care of her (best veterinarian in the universe and I hear Mars has some pretty good ones, hee hee). I wish I would have received your e-mails sooner than 2 weeks later, but I knew you would treat her the same way I would have treated her. And of course thank you Alexia for being so awesome in general but also for spanking Irlene the way she liked it so hard and firm and hard. Rest in peace my precious little gentle morsel Irlene.