...Back to August

Tue Sep 16, 06:02:39 PM
Togo or not Togo...
Very Funny story #1 (Happens before I even leave Toronto...)

First of all, I would like to say that I have the most amazing friends on the planet. Sunday night I was chillin' in Toronto for some pre-departure training and Frank came to pick me up and drive me to Ian's for a final hoo-rah. Lo and behold, they had invited about 10-15 of my best buds over for a big party! Frank of course was the chef for the evening, and the menu was CRAZY. The courses were as follows:

• Salad & Juice
• Caribbean Jerk Chicken (How's your eye Lisa?)
• Corn on the cob
• Swordfish
• Lamb ribs
• T-bone
• Salmon
• Steak
• Strawberry rhubarb & blueberry pie with ice-cream.

Thanks everyone, it 'twas da best!

... On with the funny story...
So, I'm in T.O. for some training on Sunday and Monday, getting ready to fly out on Tuesday September the 17th. My parents were back home, and I had just finished telling everyone about my flight out on Tuesday the 17th at the goodbye party.

Noticed the problem yet? TUESDAY IS THE 16TH!!!! So I ACTUALLY leave on Wednesday, but I didn't put this together until the day before I *thought* I was going to leave.

So now I have an extra day to hang out and chill in Toronto :P. Good times.

Anyway, I fly out at 7:30 on WEDNESDAY... I think... I'm pretty sure... kinda sorta... :P

Fri Sep 17, 06:22:57 PM
I'm in!!!
I am now spending my second night in Lomé, the capital of Togo!!! I am writing on a really goofy French keyboard, and none of the keys are in the right place, so if my spelling is bad, it's because of this keyboard is goofy, as well as the fact that I'm a bad speller! :)

Anyway, things are amazing so far, other than the fact that I got zero hours of sleep on the overnight flight to Paris. Strangely enough; they expect you to be instantly accustomed to the new time zone with air France, because they shoved breakfast in front of my face at 3AM, so I only had like, 5-6 hours of darkness.

Arrival went smoothly, they tossed us into a car and suddenly we're zooming through the streets with no street lights, and little scooters EVERYWHERE driving on both sides of the road. I was dropped off at a house with a very nice lady named Silva and her family. She made me supper, which I would best describe as an onion salad... The ingredients were as follows:

• 3 pieces of lettuce
• 1 onion
• 1 tomato
• mayonnaise

I'm still healthy after one day....

Today the food was much more African. This morning I think that everyone else had already had breakfast by the time I woke up, because I ate alone while sitting with two other people. Now, this was an experience because I didn’t' actually know HOW to eat some of the stuff...

...but I'll save that for another letter cause I gotta jet.

Keep Smilin'
-Tim

Thu Sep 18, 11:02:55 AM
DAY 1 - A Different World
Well, I have arrived. The airport was not too bad, I never had to show my yellow fever vaccination card which is weird, but whatever. Guy showed up to help us through the first few steps. He is my work place supervisor at vivre Mieux, and is very nice. He thinks very carefully about every word that he says, so it is very easy to understand his French. As soon as we were out of the airport I had people asking me for money. I give a deaf girl 2 euros, which is about 4 bucks, which is like, 8000 franks which I now realize was a bit of a jackpot. I'm not sure if I did the right thing, because that encourages further begging in Togo society, which in the end isn't really very helpful at all- but I will talk more on that subject another day.

We hopped into a car, and there were cars and scooters everywhere, going both ways on both sides of the street. That was a bit of a sensory overload, and yet it was too dark to even see what the city of Lomé was like!!!

That night I arrived at my host family's place. I felt like a bit of a clod because I could only understand half of their French so I often found myself just nodding stupidly. My room has some light sheets and a fan for me. The first thing that struck me about the house was that it was made entirely of cement. There was a cement wall also all around the house. Out the back there was a spiralling staircase that went right onto the roof of the house! Apparently eventually that is to be another floor, but they haven't gotten to that yet.

The mother, her name is Spira, has three children. Kellyn (3 yrs), Kevin (2 yrs, he is very scared of me) and Kennith (2 months). She has brothers there named Joshua (34) and Edem (26), and an older sister who doesn't speak any English or French, whose name I can't quite remember. She would ask me TONS of questions, but somebody else had to translate it into French for me, at which point if I understood I would attempt to form a coherent response in French. I'm not very confident yet at all with my French.

Joshua and I probably talked until midnight, despite the fact that I hadn't slept at all the night before. Spira had shown me the bathroom to use which was actually in her room. Everybody has a shower before going to bed, which is a good idea to cool down because it's so stinking' hot. I went up to the roof afterwards and a nice cool breeze swept by to cool me down. When I was in the shower (by shower, I mean while I was splashing water on me out of a bucket), I heard some crying. Around the bend and through the shower drape (there is no door to the bathroom, just a drape, and there is no shower stall to separate it from the rest of the bathroom,) and into the bathroom/shower room. He turned and looked at me (I'm naked) he starts crying some more, and I gently nudged him out of the bathroom.

"Welcome to Africa" I thought to myself with a little grin :P

• Powdered Cocoa
• Powdered Milk
• A tea bag
• A Thermos of hot water
• 3 mugs
• A pot full of a rice drink
• A baguette
• Butter
• Some hard boiled eggs

I didn't know what to do first! And there was nobody else for me to watch to figure things out. Anyway, I got through it eventually. Later that day we went to training. Directions had been given to Edem on how to get to the meeting place. We were late and need to hurry, so Edem whistled down a Moto-Taxi! Now you must understand, a moto-taxi is a two person motor-scooter or motorbike. You hop on the back, with NOTHING to hold on to, and they take off down these "roads" that most hard-cord mountain bikers would quite enjoy, with people driving all over the road.

Don't worry Mom, I made it through safely, a little spooked though-

So we had an orientation meeting with Jehoachim, a very energetic man, and then headed off to change our travellers cheques into CFA francs (£). The problem is, they gave me 5000 franc bills, which is waaaaaay to big to use in the market (1 CDN = 450 CFA). Yes, 5000 franks is only $10, but my moto-taxi ride only cost 100£, which is like, a quarter.

That afternoon we did a little tour of Lomé and visited the museum. I didn't understand most the tour guide's French, but it was cool none the less. At one place that we stopped, there were a group of children across the road who started singing to us over and over again the following verse:

Yovo Yovo
Bon soir
ca va bien
Merci

Which is translated as follows;

White person, white person,
Good evening
I'm doing well
Thank you

Yovo means "white person" in Ewe, the local language. So, every now and then, whenever there are children around I can be sure that I will hear "Yovo" in the distance.

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On Saturday we had a meeting with all pertinent people related to the Togo end of Vivre Mieux. I met a lot of people, and they gave us an intro to Togo and the relevant social/geographical issues, as well as some personal health and hygiene stuff. Unfortunately, the discussion digressed into a many of the Togolese complaining about so administrative issues that had come about. However, this just went to show that the Togolese are very keen on bringing issues of debate out into the open, so that we don't harbour resentment inside ourselves.

Here's a hard earned lesson: MAKE NO ASSUMPTIONS!!!
We had been given a lesson that day about health. One of the instructions was to drink nothing out of a bottle that was not sealed. Anyway, at the same time we were being SERVED juice in a bottle. That evening one of us became very sick, because of the juice. They had hired an outside company to do the food, and they had given us unsafe juice. The bottles weren't sealed, but we thought nothing of it. We asked Guy about it later, and he said that he didn't drink it, and we shouldn't have either.
Go figure.

After the Marché we headed off to a private beach with Yovos everywhere. The water was warm, and the day was fun in the sun! The taxi ride back to my place took about 35 minutes, and cost us 2200£ (5$).

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Mon Sep 22, 09:03:22 AM
DAY 5 - WHAT'S A SCHEDULE???
Monday it was time to say goodbye to Lomé and head up to where I would be stationed, Kpalimé We were going to take the bus to get up there. The bus cost 1300£ ($2.50) and took almost 2 hours. Now; let’s talk about the definition of the word bus and what a bus does in Togo:
- A bus is not like a school bus designed for 40 people; it is a large van designed for 11 with no space for luggage; 2 seats in front, and 3 rows of seats for 3 people per row.
- There is no bus "Schedule". The bus leaves only once it is full of people.
- Full doesn't mean that there is a person in every seat. Rather, in a row for 3 people, there will be 4 adults and a baby on somebody's lap, and luggage on the laps. So our "bus" designed for 11 had 17 people stuffed into it, plus luggage.
- The bus stops regularly at "customs checkpoints" at which point everybody has to get out of the bus, walk along the road for 50m or so with people everywhere trying to sell you stuff, then you hop back into the bus. I still can't figure out for the life of me what the point of these stops was.
Luckily enough, nobody had ever asked for my passport because I had already sent it up to Kpalimé with somebody else.

That evening I settled in at my new home for the next 6 months: Motel AGBEVIADE. My host father and mother's names are Amedgie and Christine respectively. They are wonderful. They have taken me in as their son and every meal insist on teaching me a few new phrases in Ewe, the local language. I feel like a total clod because they teach me the same thing over and over and over again and it just doesn't stick. The sounds are all so- weird. Ewe is very different. But, it's fun!

I am staying in their motel. The motel has 9 rooms, with a restaurant and a little bar. We eat supper outside typically, but it is still inside the compound itself. There is a lush garden all around us as we eat our supper. It's a very beautiful place. My room is a modest size, but I have my own toilet and shower! WITH HOT WATER! - but it's pretty hard to get a good temperature because it's either extremely hot or extremely cold, but I'm sure I'll figure out how to trick the system eventually.

The city itself is kind of like a scaled down version of Lomé. There are not many taxis, but there are still many moto-taxis. The air in Lomé was really quite polluted, and I got a bit of a sore throat by the time I left it. Here in Kpalimé it is not nearly as polluted. There was also a lot more garbage left around on the ground in Lomé than there is here. One funny thing about Kpalimé (and Lomé, but to a lesser extent) is that there are hens, roosters, sheep and goats EVERYWHERE. The roosters are crowing all the time, and she sheep are baa-ing regularly outside our door as we eat.

For dinner I was served some sort of rice-sauce-fish dish that was very very tasty. My host father here filled up my bowl to the top. When I finally finished it all, he filled my bowl back up to the top again much to my surprise. I think my facial expression gave away my thoughts "how am I going to eat all of this!?" His response was classic;

Il faut que tu manges comme un home, pas comme une femme!

Which means;

Eat like a Man, not like a Lady!
I almost fell off my chair laughing.

I have also concluded that my bathroom bag had been stolen at the airport. It was a nifty bag that zipped onto a larger backpack, and it had been removed. That wouldn't have been sooo bad except that in there were also the sunglass clip-ons for my glasses, an extra pair of glasses, and a CD that I had burned with a bunch of important documentation and software that I needed over here. Garrr.

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1. Train people to create web sites for local NGOs (Non Government Organizations, i.e. aid agencies).
2. Train people to create instructional and promotional videos for local NGOs
3. Train people to create databases to keep track of projects and resources
4. Train people to set up a small office network here at Vivre-Mieux

You may be asking, WHY do this when there are still basic needs in Togo such as food, water, and health? After one week of being here, I will give an initial attempt to answer that question.

First, the people of Togo are very hard working, ambitious, determined people. Unfortunately, their ability to succeed is seriously hindered by current socio-political problems. Interestingly enough, when I tell somebody that I am here as a computer professional their eyes are sure to light up. Many Togolese recognize this field as an important one for future economic growth, as well as a means to fulfil personal goals and ambitions. I now have many Tech-Talk "dates" lined up with people who I have met thus far, because they want to share their technology ideas and learn from my ideas. The Togolese people themselves desire the availability and proliferation of new computer communication technologies to further their success.

Secondly, there is a dire need for communication between the following parties:

• Between Local NGOs of Togo
• Between Local NGOs and foreign NGOs
• Between Local NGOs and financers
• Between Local NGOs and the target population of their work

With web sites, local NGOs can communicate to the world what it is they are accomplishing locally. This availability of information can help them secure funding, which can always be put to great use here. Also, with multimedia capabilities local NGOs can more communicate their message to the local population (TVs are more prolific than you might think!), as well as use multimedia technologies as teaching tools.

Third, some NGOs manage vast amounts of information by pen and paper, when that time could be used for other tasks. For example, one of on the things that have been done here at Vivre-Mieux was to take a census of the entire population of Kpalimé, make people aware of Vivre-Mieux's work, and identify influential leaders in each region of the community who could help accomplish Vivre-Mieux's purpose. Furthermore, Vivre-Mieux may soon be participating in drug hand-out programs, and will need to manage all of the date related to who gets what medicine, where the medicine comes from, financial information, etc- Databases can be used to greatly simplify this data-maintenance process, and can generate useful summary reports at the press of a button. Program management and financial databases can help the workers here spend less time with paperwork, and more time where they are needed most, with the people.

For Vivre-Mieux to get the most use out of my technical expertise as possible, it is important that they have the right equipment. Unfortunately, we are lacking in that area. There are 3 very low end computers here, and one mid-range computer (PII 400MHz 128MB RAM Windows XP) that is needed my many people. We do have an internet connection on one computer that we pay for by the hour. We are trying to find a way to get a good quality multimedia workstation as well as a few parts to upgrade some computers and create a small office network to share resources including the internet connection. Our hardware needs are as follows:

• -PCI 10/100 baseT Ethernet cards
• 6 Ethernet Cables (15m each) (Pass-through as well as one crossover)
• 1 Router/Switch/Hub
• RAM cards (SDRAM)
• Any other miscellaneous computer part such as Motherboards, video cards, sound cards, hard drives, CD drives etc-
• 1 high end multimedia station or laptop with the following minimum specs:
  • Pentium IV
  • 256 Megs RAM
  • 40 GB hard drive (but 60 is much better)

I can assemble and upgrade computers given the proper parts, and could probably use any parts that came this way (I have quite a few old parts at home that I now wish I had brought). If you think that you would be able to help with any of this, please let me know, and I will try and find a person flying that may I may be able to connect with. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated! If you are particularly skilled at finding good deals on parts (my brother Mark, ), it would be fantastic if we could find a used laptop at a good price with sufficient multimedia capabilities, because it can easily be brought over here. I would further attempt to find financing somewhere for such a purpose.

If you, or if you know somebody who could help in such a way, again, please let me know! (timberezny@alumni.uwaterloo.ca)

Things are going wonderfully here for me so far, it looks like I'll have a thousand things to do and will be put to good use. The region is gorgeous, and the family I'm staying with is very nice. I'm trying to post updates as regularly as possible on www.togotrip.blogspot.com , and with limited success, but I'm starting to get into the groove here now.

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On to October...