in-between-ish

SO,....October... long known as the month when the leaves are starting to change and the wind is getting a bit nippy and the frost comes to greet you every morning...

But, not here! It's not getting colder! It's getting hotter!! Here, October is the month when the torrential rains of rainy season begin to die out, leaving more sunny days and hotter weather, waiting for Harmatan’s winds to arrive. October is an in-between month. Not super rainy, but not dry. Hotter than rainy season, but not as hot as hot season.

And like the weather, my time has been in-between-ish. Not super new and exciting like the first months here, but not super knowledgeable about the community and health needs yet. Just, in-between, a work in progress, little by little. That's October. But, as always, while there are no extremely exciting happenings of October, there are the standard little things, and I have listed them below.

BUSH TAXIS:
Oh my. So, transport in Togo is completely different from Transport in any other place I've been to. There are a few buses roughly similar to the greyhound, in that there is a time schedule and a schedule of certain stops. But, usually, traveling is by moto or bush taxi. I love motos around Kante. I know a few good moto drivers, so I always call them when I need a moto around Kante. It is so much fun riding in a moto. Like an rollercoaster ride...(not one of the upside down rollercoaster's). Outside of Kante, they can be a bit annoying because you don't know the price or they want to overcharge you, which happens a lot in Kara. But, when you're not going within a town or between nearby villages, the best way (actually, pretty much the only way) to travel is bush taxi. Every peace corps person has many interesting bush taxi stories, some good ones and many bad ones (bad experience, but good story). The organization of the bush taxi realm is: there are many "gares' or "stations" around. generally, there is at least one in every fairly large town. This is where bush taxis hang out. They hang out here, advertising their destination, and wait till there are enough people to have a full car, and then they go. Now, one stipulation is that a car is considered full when there are four passengers in the back seat and 2 passengers in the front seat. (also in the front are the driver of course, and sometimes an apprentice driver. who's learning the bush taxi way). So, it's a super full car. each person pays a set price for their place in the car . And, that's how it works. A driver can have any destination that he wants. It's not regulated. like there's no 'boss" who assigns "routes". Also, since this is pretty much the only means of transportation, these cars take everything that someone may need to transport to another place (think: goats, cows, chickens, other animals, babies, baggage's, food, furniture, anything). So, often, you will see a bush taxi car (or van) carrying a load on its roof that is twice the cars size! It's pretty ridiculous. Bush taxis are often informal post office/delivery boys too. If you know a bush taxi that is going to pass through a small village where your buddy lives on its way to its destination, you can give the driver a package and hell find the buddy. Last time, I was in a bush taxi and we were driving along, and there were some guys along the side of the road. we stopped and the driver said something to them, and then they pointed us farther up the road. We then went a bit further, and stopped on the side of the road, and, a guy who was doing work in the fields, just came to the side of the road and we gave him a package and then drove away. To me, it seemed like the most random thing ever! Random bush taxi, random side of the road, random man, random package.. haha. Also, inherent in the theory of bush taxis, is the waiting period. If you want to go somewhere and you are the first person to arrive at the bush taxi, you need to wait until 5 other people show up who want to go to the same place. So yea, there is a lot of waiting. The longest I've had to wait so far is 2.5 hours. although I've heard much worse horror stories.

TRIP TO KARA:
So, about every month, I go to Kara. Kara is the capitol of the region (the region is also called Kara) and is the big city. The president hails from Kara so he's pumped a lot of money into the city, making it pretty and a fairly large central spot for businesses and stuff. I always have a good time in Kara; it is a central place for all the volunteers in the region to meet up and also has other Americans and other "yovo's" (the name for foreigners). But, my last time in Kara was super amazing. Why? There was a trampoline. And, I jumped on it. Haha. Like I mentioned, Kara is a hub of businesses and stuff in the north. This also includes missionaries. Peace Corps people in general have been buddies with the missionaries in Kara. Some of them work with the same AIDS/HIV organization that I work with. Anyway, a missionary couple invited a couple of us peace corps ppl over for dinner one night. And it was totally amazing. We had taco salad, and lemonade. and smores!!!!! real smores!!!! with real Hershey's chocolate!!!! AND, they have a trampoline in their yard! so Stacey and I saw it and got super excited and started jumping on it and just kept on laughing from the whole ridiculousness of the situation. Here we were, in Togo, with a church across the street, in the night, listening to the thunder in the distance, and just jumping on a trampoline. It was sooo much fun.

BUGS:
i've become an expert at killing bugs while reading i slap the book closed when a bug is in smooshing range. however, now all the books i read have flattened dead bugs on every page. i was happy to notice that some books already have the trade make flattened bugs and that means someone who read the book before me decided to flatten a bug the same way i did. peace corps comradery. also, i think i've developed my mom's talent for killing flies with a fly swatter.

HOT SEASON WORRIES:
So, right now, it is the end of rainy season. Next season on the list is Harmitan, and then hot season. But, since rainy season is on its way out, there has been more sun. And, to me, it feels super hot, even though it is not "hot season". this makes me a little worried about "hot season". I asked another volunteer if the past couple super sunny days are comparable to hot season and she laughed. Then she said that during hot season she would just lay on her mat, doing nothing, completely covered in sweat. Then, she tried to go into her water storage container to cool off, but she was too tall. So, that's what I know of hot season. Last night i swatted what i thought was a mosquito on my leg, only to realize it was sweat dripping down from the crease in my knee. at least during hot season i wont have to worry about mosquitoes!

FUFU:
September recently finished (obviously, seeing that it is october now), and September is Fufu season, so I'm worried that the fufu will finish soon. I love fufu. one week i somehow arranged it so i ate fufu everyday (people usually share whenever they make it, so you just need to know someone who's making it each day). It is a play dough type texture and you eat it with your hands and with spicy sauce. soooo gooood. The ignames that it is made from look like furry animals. They remind me of that cartoon, when the forest burns down, and there is a beaver with his family who are trying to escape the fire. Anyway, point of the story is: ignames, and therefore fufu reminds me of beavers.

FARTS:
when you fart, no one laughs or blames other people. they just continue on their normal day. My theory regarding this is that Gastrointestinal problems are more common here than in the states probably due a lot to sanitation (or lack there of). So, Farting here is far more common and therefore not something to be singled out as unusual and funny. But that's just my theory.

MICE:
there was a mouse in my house. the first mouse i saw in my house. I had been out with some people and when I got back, it was late and I was super tired, and went to check on the dog's food status, and saw something move out of the corner of my eye. The lighting was dim, so I thought there was a frog, jumping in one of my kitchen buckets. Then I started looking more closely and thought it was a strange frog. Maybe the frogs in Togo are different; i mean, i have not seen a frog up close yet here in Togo. Maybe the frogs had narrow heads and noses... and whiskers? NO! It's a mouse! There's a mouse in my house! I quickly threw something on top of the bucket to trap it in there, and did a quick run around the house to make sure there were no more mice hiding around the house, and then was so exhausted i went to bed. The next day, I mentioned it to the kids. however, i mispronounced mouse in French and they thought i said there was laughter in the bucket in the kitchen instead of a mouse in the bucket in the kitchen. but once that was cleared up with the help of some charades, they offered non-chalantly to take the mouse out of the house for me. They henceforth brought the bucket outside, threw the mouse on the ground, grabbed rocks and started chasing the mouse and throwing rocks at it. eventually the mouse was stoned to death and we all went back inside to continue making cookies.

SPIDER:
in other critter news, i saw a giant spider, that i will classify as a critter instead of an insect (although, are spiders classified as insects?. anyway, that's beside the point). but, i saw it running across the floor. I had been doing something completely different, and then once i saw that spotted super fast spider, my whole life's purpose became to find and kill this giant spider before it found and killed me. (realistically, it probably wasn't giant, but it was really big. like bigger than my palm- and spotted. i did not like it) so, i decided on a strategy and set to work. put on my flip-flops (flip-flops make you feel much more invincible and powerful than being barefoot) and i grabbed my Nigerian bug insecticide stuff that probably gives you cancer, jumped on a chair to get a good overall view of the room. aimed, and fired (aka sprayed the insecticide spray). unfortunately, the spider ran away into a corner. out of reach. then, right at that moment, Poppy (the dog) arrived.. I pushed him up to the spider until he saw it move. at first i thought this was going to be the solution and Poppy was going to save me. But, Poppy decided he was not interested in the spider and ran away outside. So, it was just the two of us: me and the spider. At this point, i think the spider gave up. It came out from its hiding place and stopped running so quickly, and i pointed and sprayed ..probably much more than was necessary. and the spider stopped, curled its legs under and turned a different color. then, just for good measure, i smashed it with a shoe. also today, and also in critter news, i caught a mouse. Travis had said that he saw a mouse when he was visiting, so the next day, i set up the mouse trap and sure enough, by the end of the day, there was a dead mouse! I went outside to toss it somewhere, and Papa saw me and ordered one of his sons to take care of it for me. i went back and set up the mouse trap again and soon afterward, heard a loud yelp and saw Poppy sprint out the door.

SCORPION:
So, One day, I was having a conversation with my friend Clementine, who works at AED. We were talking about snakes and scorpions. I mentioned in passing that I had never seen a scorpion (although actually I had seen one...one of my earliest memories as a kid in Hawaii). She said they come inside during hot season to escape the sun and they are not good, and that was about the end of the conversation. Anyway, about a month after this conversation, Clementine stops by my house with a guy who I had never seen before. She's holding sugar cane and a small cup, and i just assume she was chewing the sugar cane and just stopped by to say hi. So, I invite her in and offer her some water, but she just stands there and holds out a cup towards me. I look in and threes a scorpion! She had ran into a guy who had found a scorpion and brought him (and the scorpion) to me so I could see it! Its a pretty nasty looking bug about the size of a two of my thumbs (i have small hands). Another thing to look forward to during hot season.

FRUIT:
I made homemade grapefruit juice. Harvest time is just about now. And orange and grapefruit season is now, so you can get like a billion grapefruit and oranges for just a small amount. I bought 5 grapefruit for 100CFA, the equivalent of 20 cents. So, yea, I made juice with the grapefruit, citron, and citronella (you can boil the leaves in water). And it was soooo good. Also, in other fruit news. there are no berries here. No strawberries, no blueberries, no blackberries...you get the point. and no cherries either (for some reason I personally always classify cherries as a berry. even though i don't think they are)

OTHER VILLAGES:
i've been visiting other volunteers in the area. Betsy, who will be leaving soon lives out in Atalote, and Travis lives in Tchore. Both are small villages about 10/12 km away from Kante. It's amazing what you can learn from visit other peace corps volunteers, see what ingenuities they've come up with. After visiting people I now, add margarine to my oatmeal, Make popcorn as a snack, make nacho cheese dip (oh my god amazing), and other random things that just make life good.

TEXT MESSAGES:
Random Text messages i've received from Travis:
“Is it ok to eat moldy bread?”
“Wild monkeys!”