The Eagle and the Cobra

The lovely shirt I am wearing is legendary in Peace Corps Togo after it was taken from the back of our safety and security director, Stephen (pictured with me), during an auction held 3 years ago to benefit a girls' scholarship program run by PCVs. I was co-director of the program last year -- having recently handed over the reins at an all-volunteer conference held in mid-March -- and one of my last duties was to participate in this year's auction, where the shirt was again offered. When I won the shirt last year (I bid on it with a coalition of volunteers; I paid about 10 dollars for the privilege of wearing it and it went for a total of over 100 dollars), the PCV auctioning it repeatedly yelled that the shirt pictured a "f***ing eagle eating a f***ing cobra." Well, after that auction I never saw the shirt, but it reappeared at the all-volunteer conference, so I wore it during the entire conference including the night of the auction, where I helped it sell for over 200 dollars this time around by repeating the "f***ing eagle and f***ing" cobra bit (at top volume). A funny aside is that during one day of the conference we held some discussions about PC policy and I led the discussion on our dress code while wearing this shirt (with a completely clashing skirt, tho I'm not sure what would go with this shirt, which, by the way, is made by Sean John).

The other photos are of my friend Tami auctioning off her cleaning services -- note the rubber gloves -- and my friend Joelle, who was one of two volunteers who served as auctioneer. Here she's auctioning a solar shower that ended up going for over 40 dollars. The event is really fun and in total we raised over 1 million CFA (more than 2000 dollars) for the scholarship program.



Joelle in particular was really funny, tho I will still claim bragging rights for helping convince people to pay over 200 dollars for Stephen's shirt -- the highest-priced item by far (the next highest was dinner at the country director's house, for about 150 dollars. She's to Joelle's left, by the way, in the green).

A Togolese Wedding

This week I attended my first Togolese wedding. It was a 2-day event but I was only able to attend the first part of it, since I had to leave town during the second day's festivities. The first day's event consisted of a large group of women walking together to meet the bride and greet her and then a smaller group of women, consisting of the groom's close friends and colleagues, heading to a local "buvette" (sort of like a bar but where you can also buy soda, and in my Muslim town it's mostly the latter) to have a soda and hang out with the groom. The groom is Francais, an employee of the NGO I work with, ADIFF. He's the man in the background of the first photo, sitting next to the guy in the maroon outfit. One of the traditions here is apparently that all of the marrying couple's close friends buy the same fabric and get outfits made out of it -- tho fortunately I found out too late about this custom and was spared having to get the dreaded wedding outfit you never wear again (It's very bright green!). Instead I had an outfit made known as a "complet," a matching skirt and top made out of the same fabric, which is traditional everyday and dressy clothing here. Mine ended up a little big -- despite pressing the tailor to make it more form-fitting, it still ended up a touch baggy -- but it turned out better than I hoped. You can see it in the picture below, which includes my sitemate Rebecca (an information technology volunteer also posted in Sokode), who did get the traditional wedding outfit made...

The Worst Bush Taxi Ever

This has to be about the most beat-up looking bush taxi I've ever seen, which is saying a lot since these cars are never in very good condition. Fortunately I only had to be in the car for about 45 minutes, since it was pretty scary from a safety perspective and also had some (not surprisingly) serious mechanical problems as evidenced by the fact that extremely strong gas fumes filtered in through the windows throughout the ride. The ride was also amusing because the driver not only had to hotwire the car to get it started (in addition to popping the clutch and getting it pushed, none of which are that unusual here), but had to perform some sort of hotwiring maneuver every time he shifted gears.