July 13 –

I’m on post visit. Delave is a village of about 6000. My counterpart is really cool, and I have been kept pretty busy this week. So the hierarchy of a village is as follows:
Chef Canton (He is the chief of the whole village)
Chef Quartier (There are subunits of the village called quartiers. In Delave there are 11.)
Chef Concession (To assist the Chef Quartier, there is a “concession” committee, of which there is a chief of…)
Notables (Other officials)

I live in a compound (concrete fence all around the area) with one of the notables of one of the quartiers. He and his wife live here.
My house is donated by the notable’s brother (who owns it). I have two rooms. It’s kind of like a townhouse in that there is shared wall between my rooms and the other house. Really it was one house and then a wall was added to make my rooms separate from the rest of the house. So it’s like an attached apartment. No electricity, no running water. If I run out of collected rain water, there is a pump nearby where there is always a line and it costs. Plus I have a difficult time picturing me carrying a massive tub of water on my head like the others. I will try. Some people just pay a kid to run and get it for them. Not sure what I’ll do yet. The compound is nice but there are a bunch of cut down palm trees used to ferment sodabe (the local liquor). I tried a sip once and just the smell made my eyes water! I am looking forward to when I get back and setting up a garden and a pen for my future chevre (goat, or Egbo in Ewe). I haven’t figured out what constitutes my space and mutual space yet. I will probably find out more when I return permanently. I have a private latrine/shower that I keep a lock on, so it stays private. I do have roommates: I have seen one large cockroach that I was too scared to kill (plus I didn’t have any spray and I want to vomit at the thought of squishing it). Then another night I heard something rummaging but was too afraid to look, because they only come out at night. Hopefully it is the same cockroach and not a mouse too. I hear the lizards on my tin roof too. I have been keeping my dishes clean and all my food is in a closed plastic container, but I have yet to figure out the protocol for burning my trash. Plus, what do I do with tin cans? I will be asking very soon.
The weather really has not been bad. Outside it is cool and breezy since it is the rainy season, although it does not rain that often. Just when I really need it not to (see note below). The house is a little stifling though, with a combination of only one window in each room, and a mosquito net around my bed that does not allow the breeze through. If I spend more of the day outside though, it’s great.
What I have been doing: meeting all the chefs. We go to each one for about 45 minutes to explain who I am, why I am here, and what work I will be doing. It’s all in Ewe so I don’t understand. Everything had been very positive so far and welcoming. My homologue has been great about communicating that my security is of the utmost importance and has explained that I am here to work, not to marry. (If I have problems I can let them know, and they’ll fix it). Today I also visited the disponsaire (the local doctor’s office / hospital). The office services the whole village plus another one locally. There are only three personnel: nurse, midwife, and an assistant who maintains the facility. Healthcare is cheap relatively speaking. To birth a child you pay 3 mil CFA which is about 6 UD dollars. But there is no care for having birth. There is a bed to stay in but you have to have family come to change your sheets, clean up for you, and feed you. It’s the same for all who come in: surgery, wounds, maladies. Nurses here are more like doctors and provide information and diagnostics, not care/service. The disponsaire does not have a latrine. I am not sure what they use in the way of a bathroom. Apparently one was in the process of being built but is an uncompleted project (as is the house for the personnel that has half built walls and corn growing in the interior).
I am feeling pretty motivated. There is A LOT to do here, and people appear to be receptive. I am more worried about language because my homologue seems to think I will have mastered Ewe after living here for a month. Considering I still can’t get the salutations right, I am not quite as hopeful. I will try but I still have to work on my French. My homologue speaks English (which is not so helpful as it means I am not working on French which I need to work with other people, but is good if I don’t understand things). In Ewe they will determine your name based on what day you were born. I was born on a Thursday, so my name here is DaYawa (sister Yawa). It will be better than Yovo.
In addition to working with the village in Delave in general, I will be working in a neighboring bigger village of Tsevie where there is an NGO Espoir de Vie that works with people living with HIV/AIDS. I have a meeting with them on Friday to see how they would like to collaborate.
I’m trying not to be too homesick. I miss everyone so much.
Hugs from the bug-bitten Nikki.

**So the awful rainy day: On Friday (last) we met with our homologues in the morning and then had time in the afternoon to purchase food, pots and pans, and such as would be needed for our post visit. Since I have a new post (not replacing an old volunteer), I needed to buy everything. When I left it wasn’t rainy, but hot. Then it sprinkled a little, still not bad. Then it poured and I sat under one of the marche centers next to the smelly fish, hoping it would stop soon. When it lightened up, I continued on my adventure (with another stagiare) only to find myself further locked in the downpour. After waiting at a little shop with little coverage (thus my clothes were drenched and I was cold) for 30 plus minutes, we decided to brave the torrent and walk home. Only to find that below the foot deep water in the street was mud that locked our shoes so we couldn’t walk! I ended up walking into a hole that was about 2 feel deep and further soaked my newly made African pagne dress in dirty street water. We ended up getting a ride to her house and then back to the tech house where I was to be picked up to return home. It was quite the fiasco and after all that I still didn’t have some of the basic utensils I needed for post. Fortunately, a couple volunteers who live in town were able to pick some up for me and get it to me before I left for post. I find myself everyday saying, TIT (This is Togo!).