à Bassar

Sorry it's been a while… but alas here I am. I'm currently in Bassar nearing the end of my one week post visit. Post visit came at just the right time. My patience with 5 hours of language classes a day was wearing very thin. Unfortunately the different compartments of my brain for the different languages that I'm surrounded by have started to mesh together. Sometimes when my host family speaks Ewe to me or when people here greet me in Bassar, I respond in Thai.

Post visit has been great. I have a slightly unique situation as I have 2 work sites. My primary site is the city of Bassar . It's a fairly large town (it's actually on most maps of Togo), with almost everything that I need. In Bassar I will be working with A.V.L.S (Association des Volontaires Lutte contre le SIDA) and NGO in Bassar and the Kara region that specializes in "conseil et de prise en charge" for people living with HIV/AIDS. Today I spent my morning at the HIV testing center were I sat in on pre and post test sessions. It was great, a group of high school boys came in to get tested, so I got to grill them on the ABCs of HIV/AIDS prevention. My homologue at AVLS is great and already has projects in mind for me, so I'm excited to get back here to start working. Bitchabé my small village 26km away from Bassar is what is considered here in Togo to be en brousse, aka in the sticks. It's a village of about 2000 people; there I will be working with the dispensaire and doing mother-child care. I feel thought that I am going to be spending the majority of my time in Bassar as there are 2 other PCVs here, Netta and Jeff.

Highlights/fun stories:
I am 99% sure that I had a worm in my ankle and that it moved to the other side of my leg. I am pretty sure that it is gone now as I can fully rotate my ankle again.

I have now mastered the art of riding my bike in a pagne. Although the bruises on my leg dont show it. I may or mayu not have run dirently into Jeff on my bike. opps.

My taxi brousse/bush taxi ride back from Bitchabé was maybe the most interesting ride of my life. Since there is only one car that comes back to Bassar from Bitchabé a week everyone that wants to get in pretty much has to. In the rest of the 15 seat car were at least 25 adults and countless babies and chickens (hello bird flu), and lest I forget the 5 people holding on the top. This doesn\'t sound so bad if you\'re going down the interstate, but no, this road is basically all rocks and potholes. I\'m not looking forward to the day that I have to bike it.- I have now mastered the art of riding my bike in a pagne (African cloth that you wear as a skirt).

- My taxi brousse/bush taxi ride back from Bitchabé was maybe the most interesting ride of my life. Since there is only one car that comes back to Bassar from Bitchabé a week everyone that wants to get in pretty much has to. So because I'm a yovo I was fortunate enough to be one of the 4 people sitting in the front seat. In the rest of the 15 seat car were at least 25 adults and countless babies and chickens (hello bird flu), and lest I forget the 5 people holding on the top. This doesn't sound so bad if you're going down the interstate, but no, this road is basically all rocks and potholes. I'm not looking forward to the day that I have to bike it.

I have successfully eaten real Togolese food. I say successfully because I've tried all the staple dishes (fufu, pate, a spaghetti filled fired dough ball and something that is like a rice noodle but the shape and size of a small football) and haven't gotten amoebas or crazy stomach problems like the rest of my stage.

Less than a month until I swear-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer, yay! If any of you happen to be watching Togolese TV on December 7th, keep an eye out for me. I will be the one in the outrageous outfit. My host mother is "secretly" making my ensemble for swear-in, so there is potential for lots and lots of ruffles around the neckline.