Gborode

Rebecca (pictured below), who is also posted in Sokode, and I are helping the NGO I work with, ADIFF, set up a women's village-level savings and loan system in the village pictured here, called Gborode. It's perhaps less than 5 kilometers from Sokode (Togo's second-biggest city), but even in that short distance away life is completely different. The small mud-based building pictured is one of the two small school buildings the community built (although they have just started building a larger, sturdier building for the school to replace the smaller ones). Before school starts the kids have to sweep the courtyard and then the stand in a formation as school is about to begin while they raise the Togolese flag and sing the national anthem.