April was a good month. I finally got settled back into Kante after traveling and being sick, and was able to spend time with people, doing things like eating mice and going to the market. My English club picked up, the soccer club finally started, and I saw camels! I also began training for the marathon that will take place in Ghana in September.
APRIL IS HOT. REALLY HOT.
April is very very hot. I don't really know or feel like describing it. I don't sleep on my mattress anymore, because it is too hot. I keep the fan pointed at me, but it blows hot air. Its so freaking sunny, it feels like the sun is just burning my skin. I have never noticed that I could get burned on my fingers. And never really thought about how sweaty my wrists and ankles are. My hair is constantly either soaking wet with sweat, or covered in dry salt from sweat. So yea, that's that. But, taking all that into account, its not as hot as I thought it would be (knock on wood). I thought it would be so hot that I would want to kill myself. And I haven't felt like that.
CAMELS
One day, I was riding my bike through town, on my way to someplace, and I saw a camel! Two camels actually. It was the most random thing in the world! No one seemed to be completely surprised or reacting in any way to the fact that there were two camels walking down one of the main streets of Kante. Sure, animals run around through the streets here, like dogs cats chickens goats sheep etc, but never camels! It would be as if you were walking in DC, minding your own business, and you saw a ostrich strutting down E street. And no one was reacting to it! In fact, they just acted normal! Not knowing how to react, I just started a bit, told my peace corps friends, and then continued riding my bike. A few hours later, Akanto calls me, saying they have stopped and people can pay to get on the camel. So, I head down to where the camels are, and sure enough, there is a small crowd surrounding about five or six camels. Men and women and schoolkids are taking turns getting on the camel teasing the people who are scared. I tried to take a picture, but then they asked for money (just because I was white- seriously, other people were taking pictures and they were not asking them for money). Finally, one of my friends told them it wasn't my cameral it was another person's camera, so I shouldn't have to pay. That placated them, seeing that it was not the white person's camera, and they didn't make me pay a fee.
THE NEW SCARY BUG
We discovered a new scary bug. It's a mixture of a spider, a scorpion, and a cockroach. My clustermate had mentioned this bug to me, and I didn't really think anything of it...until Easter dinner. We were all relaxing, after having a super amazing meal (pork, cheesy pesto rice, curry cabbage, hummus, mango chutney) and i saw something -really big- move -very quickly- across the room. It was about the size of one of those giant cockroaches and it was the fastest moving bug i've seen yet- faster than the cockroaches and even those speed demon wall spiders! My clustermate who was already familiar with this bug screamed that yes, this was the bug she had been talking about. We immediately put on our flipflops (foot protection) and grabbed other flip flops, ready to kill this super fast furry looking spider bug that had two big antenna type things. After a few unsuccessful attempts at smashing it, we finally cornered it into the kitchen. The three of us stood at the kitchen doorway, flip flops in hand, ready to smack it when we saw it. (I decided to stand on a chair, just for extra space and protection.) After what seemed like eternity, the bug appeared in a blur and somehow someone smashed it! it was dead! Once we confirmed that it was dead, we tried to figure out what it was, but to no avail. It has 8 legs like a spider, but it had weird antenna things, and just did not look like a spider in general (besides the 8 legs. Anyway, I am glad it is dead, and I hope I never see it again.
MOUSE - TASTES JUST LIKE CHICKEN
I ate a mouse. It was so good and the perfect accompaniment to tchouk, the local beer. It reminded me of chicken wings-like the kind you get at sports bars. We just needed a football or ice hockey game and I would have felt I was back home... once I got over the look of the dead mouse, at least.
AMEOBAS AGAIN
I got ameobas again :(. Which, is not fun. I was told to stay away from street food and tchouk, but i think that may be next to impossible. I was a guest at my friends house, where i was given the grilled mouse and calabash of tchouk. Totally rude to say no.... plus i really wanted to try the mouse too :)
INDEPENDENCE DAY
April27 marked Togo's independence day! I heard that there was going to be a big parade and dancing, so I walked over to the big field in town, to watch this parade. Everyone was there. More specifically, everyone was in the parade! The whole town was in the parade! Every organization and group paraded, followed by every neighborhood, followed by every school and finally by every government job (hospital, teachers, etc). It was the hottest (think midday hotseason) and longest parade I've ever watched, but it was still interesting. The best part was afterwards, when the parade formality ended and everyone gathered at the market to eat and drink and dance.
BIKING THE TAMBERMA
One of the only tourist sites in Togo is the Tamberma valley, which happens to be located right by my town. I had long been planning to bike through the valley, which is gorgeous, especially during hot season when you can see far into the distance, and see the layers of mountains. So, one day, when two of my peace corps buddies mentioned they would be biking through the Tamberma, I immediately decided to join in. The plan would be that they would be biking from one end of the vallery, I would be biking from the other end, and we would meet somewhere in the middle and return to Kante together. The valley is probably a little over 30km of unpaved, very sandy road. So, soon after setting out on my bikeride, I got a text message saying that my friends were stuck at teh opposite end of the valley with bike tire problems and had no idea if/when it would be fixed. So, I just decided to keep on biking. Biking biking biking. Met some nice new people and was attacked and chased by some mean new kids. Eventually, I made it all the way to the other side of the valley and met up with my friends! However, I was pretty tired, and I still had to turn around and ride the 30km back the way I came..with more uphills through sand and gravel. But, needless to say, we did it. We were just really exhausted afterwards.
SOCCER CLUB
My girls soccer club finally started! There are about 10-20 girls (depending on the day), and they are great. I'm working with a high school guy, who actually knows soccer (I was a bit worried about the fact that i would be "coaching" a soccer team without having played soccer since 1998) and is a great guy to work with. The girls are great too. The first day, I fell on the field (which is a mixture of gravel and sand) and skinned my knee. It started bleeding and the girls told me to sit down and they ran to get water and medicine They all gathered around to make sure I was OK. Anyway, I already love my girls soccer club, and I hope it continues and doesn't fade away.
BAC
There is a test that every high school student must take. It is called the BAC. (Actually there are two tests, BAC I and BAC II). Anyway, these tests are ridiculous; the students need to know sooo much information. In depth information on a wide variety of subjects. So, I've been helping my english club study for that. We have been meeting more often now. Many of the English questions are so difficult, even for me, an English speaker! The "book" will say the answer is one thing while the students are learning another thing and while I say that there are multiple correct answers. Anyway, I have felt frustrated for them, because this is such an important exam, but sometimes seems impossible to conquer. Besides that, English club has been great. We have the most random conversations; they recently asked how astronauts return to earth after being in space, and why they went to the moon, and what a walrus is, and how much it costs to build the world's tallest building.
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