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Saturday, 26 July 2008
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West Africa to the West Coast
It has been a long time coming, but David and I finally made the move to L.A. His job application process took over 8 months. Mine is just starting, and I certainly hope that is not the time frame I should be expecting! We originally wanted to take 3 months off between jobs and make the drive a fun, slow, rock-climbing/camping adventure. It didn't work out that way. We quit our jobs June 20. We packed our apartment for four days and then headed off to Michigan for my cousin's GORGEOUS wedding! Three days later we jetted off to Germany to climb in the Frankenjura for 9 days before coming home to Peoria for a night and then spent the next four days and three nights driving through MO, KS, CO, UT, NV and CA. We arrived Thursday night, the movers came and unloaded our belongings Friday morning and we spent the rest of the weekend unpacking boxes before David started work on Monday. Craziness! But we are here now and with most of our stuff - a couple of things were damaged and one box is still missing - but otherwise it all seems to fit!
The year in Peoria was good. We spent lots of quality time with close and extended family, but also with eachother. We lived in two apartments so we have moved four times in the past year (including into the apartments and out here). And since returning home from Africa David and I have not stopped traveling. We stayed put while we planned and celebrated the wedding but then we took off! We spent our honeymoon touring the Western United States and hiking into the Grand Canyon, in March we visited my dad in China, we went climbing in Germany this past July, and are planning Christmas in Geneva with my brothers! YAY! And that does not include stateside climbing trips to Vegas, Kentucky, and, of course, Southern Illinois. It was quite the whirlwind and I was expecting 2008 to slow down, but with the move it has only gotten crazier.
I was just getting used to life in the midwest and although I was eager to make a change, life out here will definitely take some adjusting to. There is ALWAYS traffic, and as my Chinese friend, Cho Ma, would say, "traffic jams." There are no yards but people pay millions for sand. Houses are tiny, apartments are even smaller. The mexican food pretty much rocks, except for those jalapenos which supposedly carry salmanella (s/p?). The Strand is officially my new favorite place in the world (it is this 20 mile long beach path and it is absolutely beautiful - always crowded with interesting people of varying athletic ability). The weather by the beach is pretty fantastic, with a nice breeze . And we only live about a 40 minute walk from the ocean - that is if you take it at a nice, slow pace. We live right next door to David's brother and sister-in-law which is actually a blessing. One, because they are young and fun and like to do a lot of the things we like to do (drink wine, dance, climb, hike, run, etc). Also, they have been here for over 7 years already so they really know their way around and have lots of fun recommendations. That being said, I miss my proximity to Chicago. There is an official downtown L.A. but really it is more of a sprawling mess of beach towns. Chicago was easy and somewhat compact and more "big-city." L.A. is big but it's not "city" necessarily. Which, is also part of the reason I think David and I will do so well here. We like the slower pace and the weather means more year-round activity.
Anywho, I'm babbling now. I guess, being so far away, once again, from family and friends, I will resort to posting my experiences on xanga - I just can't get away! P.S. If anyone has any jobs leads - let me know!
Thursday, 06 March 2008
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To Xanga or not to Xanga, that is my question.
It has been over a year since I updated this site. Most of the people I was writing it for I now see on a fairly regular basis so I suppose I didn't see the point in continuing. Also, I have regular access to internet (ie e-mail) and it no longer costs a dollar a minute to talk to a friend (Thanks Verizon!) so staying in touch via a mass weblog didn't seem so necessary. That, and life back home didn't seem as novel.
Updates: Coming home was hard. American food made me sick. I cried the first time I went shopping for a suit for an interview in the "real world." It took me (and a former PCV) 20 minutes to pick out a box of cereal at a grocery store - the only task my dad had assigned us during a quick run to pick up some basic "necessitites." He came back to find us staring at all of our options, blown away by the choices and unable to decide whether to choose based on calories, quantity, or simply pick based off the fun picture on front of the box. I went to Chicago for New Year's - less than two weeks after returning stateside - and a man on the street asked me for the leftovers I was bringing out of a restaurant - they were supposed to be for my little brother. I bawled. I spent the first three months working as a substitute teacher in the public school district of Peoria. I thought what I needed was to connect with little kids again - since their innocence and acceptance was such a big part of what kept me sane in Togo. All I can say is I am glad there are other brave souls who willingly take on that challenge every day. I got a job as a bilingual customer service representative for a high-end sunglass company instead. The benefits rock and I get to speak French every day, even if it is only in relation to sunglasses.
Giving presentations to local children's groups helped to happily relive the memories. The Togo RPCV's also seem to be a tight-knit group and being able to contact with them at a moments notice is a lifesaver! What a fabulous, diverse group of friends! Lots of them attended my October wedding - yes, I'm married now ( :
2007 was a crazy year; adapting to life in America, getting married, starting a new job, touching base with old friends and family. 2008 looks to be just as exciting! I was convinced by my little brother that, since I turn 26 this year, it would be the PERFECT year to run the Chicago marathon - so my BEAUTIFUL maid of honor, Heather, and my always motivating little brother ("you're only 5 years away from 30!"), and I are running the Chicago marathon this year. I also, finally, signed up for the GRE so grad school, here I come! If I can just figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life .... I am open to suggestions and job offers ( :
And yes, married life is AMAZING! David spent two months with me, living in my village in Togo. His understanding means the world to me. He wanted me to let everyone know that if you want to know why we are so perfect together, or how we kept that spark alive over a 4 yr long distance relationship, or how you, too, can become almost as perfect as us - simply send a check, made out to him, and depending on the amount, he will consider sharing our secret - haha!
I hope everyone else is doing well, that the past year has been productive, and that 2008 is off to a great start!
Thursday, 26 October 2006
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« You get a strange feeling when you are about to leave a place, I told him, like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and place, because you’ll never be this way ever again. » - Reading Lolita in Tehran
“In a sense, it is the coming back, the return, which gives meaning to the going forth. We really don’t know where we’ve been until we’ve come back to where we were – only where we were may not be as it was because of who we’ve become, which, afterall, is why we left.” – Northern Exposure.
Both of those quotes pretty much sum up how I feel right now – the first more than the latter. I am out of village until Monday, working on final paperwork and then celebrating Halloween, and back in village from Tuesday until the following Wednesday. And that’s it – my last week in village. I take a market car out on November 8th (it’s the only way I can leave since I’ll have my luggage with me.) and then I am in Kara until November 12th, when I head down to Lome for my exit interviews and to turn in all of my Peace Corps issued property (water filter and books mainly). I fly out of Accra, Ghana on November 16th and will spend a month in SE Asia before flying home on December 16th – which seems sooooo close right now!
It’s weird to be at this point in your service – I am no longer doing any work – besides paperwork. It is all just goodbye’s and trying to figure out what the future holds … and waiting. Unfortunately, this also means that the community no longer sees me as a permanent member and the harassment has begun – EVERYONE wants to buy ALL of my things – my furniture, my clothes, my food. My landlord started crying two nights ago because he found out I sold my bed to my friend Antoinette – this is a man who regularly sacrifices chickens and once a year takes part in a month-long whipping festival.
K, well, the job search is in full swing so if any body hears of anything fabulously exciting (or otherwise), let me know ( : And New Year’s in Chicago?? Who’s in? And what are we doing?!?!
Oh yeah – and in true Togo style – with only two weeks left till I leave I get attacked by a blister beetle on my left arm (feels like I had a tetanus shot and it’s all red and blistery : ), got stung by a bee two days ago and found a scorpion in my latrine : ) That’s one way to say goodbye.
Monday, 02 October 2006
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I have less than two months left in Togo. People keep asking me what this experience has taught me. Have I changed? What (legacy) am I leaving behind?
Recently I read a book of supposedly horrific travel stories entitled “I should have stayed home.” Is it bad that I laughed at these pathetic attempts to entice empathy from the reader? Two years ago, these are the sorts of tales that would have made me think twice about travelling halfway around the world to live alone in a cement shack with an open air shower and latrine (outhouse) and no electricity or running water. These stories, however, are now eerily reminiscent of my own.
For example, being stuck on a greyhound-esque bus (well, one built in the 60’s) where even the no-standing standing room is taken, mostly by women with screaming, hungry babies tied to their backs. There is no air conditioning, windows refuse to open, and car sickness –or the remnants of it – float down the aisle, threatening to cover your bag which wasn’t big enough to stash underneath the bus and is too big to fit in the pathetic excuse for an overhead.
Some others are refusing to sleep without your head lamp bcs larium (anti-malaria meds) dreams have you convinced mice are scampering across your stomach as you lay silently and rigidly on your mosquito-net covered bed or being too afraid to use your bathroom, at night bcs of the acrid fumes and multitude of cockroaches that come cascading out of it every time you lift the seat. Although they mirror the ones in the book –these are my stories and new ones get added to the collection every day.
My most memorable travel experience was when I took an old Toyota station wagon outo f my village to the highway (the only paved road in the country) 30k away. A car that typically holds four passengers was now packed with 17 – including the driver and not counting chickens and guinea fowl and dogs or what was tied down on top. With four of us in the front seat (one sitting with the driver) cramped into unimaginably uncomfortable positions, my legs both fell asleep ten minutes in. An hour later, when we finally arrived at the station, I couldn’t feel my feet let alone trust them to get me out of the taxi. Everyone else, apparently used to this treatment, filed out of our clown car while I waited for the feeling to come back. – that was when I first arrived – I’ve had many similar experiences since – almost every time I get in to a taxi it takes on some version of that early ride. Like last week when we were eight inside the taxi with five sheep and two goats in the back and the old big-horned sheep escaped from his foot ties and tried to charge into the front seat. I was in the middle – in the row that served as a barrier between the animals and the driver and glass windshield. The man who had packed the sheep so tightly in the back was sitting, conveniently for him, up front with the driver and kept yelling at those of us being attacked to “be careful. He is worth a lot of money with those horns!” My life is worth a lot to me, too, but the sheep handler didn’t seem too preoccupied with that. All this ruckus didn’t affect the five men riding on top – one of whom was assigned to watch my pack, which made the entire journey hanging from the pedal of a bike – also tied to the top of the taxi. They were too concerned with the overwhelming heat of the day to care.
So, in response to the questions – yes, I am sure I’ve changed, but I’m not sure how. Did I learn this patience here or had I somehow acquired it before I left? Am I more culturally sensitive now? Or is that a trait you have to bring with you in order to survive here? Have the people I work with changed? Are the boys more apt to help their sisters with the housework? Are the men now able to see the women in the community as equals? Have I cut down water-born diseases bcs of the well work I have done? Are there fewer cases of malaria bcs of our mosquito-net distribution campaign? Will the percentage of people newly infected with HIV/AIDS go down next year bcs I trained over 1500 kids on modes of transmission and prevention? I don’t know what the people here will remember about me. I can’t tell you if their quality of life has improved. But they have certainly had an impact on me. Africa finds a way to engrain itself into your core – physically and mentally. Thankfully the memories won’t wash away as easily as the harmittan dust.
Wednesday, 30 August 2006
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Vacation was amazing !!!! I am engaged!!! Which is fabulously exciting. For those of you unaware, David and I met up in Paris in late July and then travelled to Nice, Monaco, Geneva (where he proposed : ) and Chamonix, where we went parapenting!! (taking an open parachute and jumping off a mountain) – it was all wonderful! And beautiful! And the food was delicious! And ::sigh:: perfect. It was absolutely perfect. And with only two months left I am back in
( :
What else to talk about… hmmmm… well, I decided that jumping back into work would be the best way to avoid sitting idly around village reflecting on my fantastic European vacation – so I just completed two peer educator trainings (with some birthday money from mom … it was a good cause! I promise! Thanks : ) The first training was in Nadoba and absolutely rocked – mainly bcs I am bias and love the kids in my village ( : I bought them notebooks and pens and pencils and folders and we sang songs and did fun ice breakers and creative games like the Human Knot which … well if you don’t know what it is you’ll have to ask a kid who has been to camp, it is just to complicated to explain. In the remaining time we discussed the HIV/AIDS situation in
One of the girls involved, Henriette, who also plays on my girl’s soccer team and participated in Take Our Daughters To Work Week – really amazed me during this training. On Tuesday morning – our second day – a rusty old moto comes barrelling through the schoolyard. I am initially annoyed at the disturbance and send Tibe out to check on it. Seconds later he motions for me to join him. It is Henriette’s dad. A little background – she lives in Benin – on the border – and technically it is after the official government border crossing but she lives close enough that she should go to school in Benin, but she doesn’t bcs it is cheaper to attend school in Togo so she walks 6k in each direction twice a day – they have really long lunch breaks here due to the intensity of the sun. Anyway, her entire family was out at the farm and therefore unaware that she was participating in this training (so 1 – props to her for taking the initiative and coming anyway!) but on top of that, they hadn’t left any flour behind to make the boiled corn flour (ie pate) that everyone eats around here so she hadn’t eaten in two days!!! And she never complained once – she was up running around with all of the other kids and never said anything to me – her dad had come to make sure she was okay, he didn’t even know where she had slept Monday night! That might just seem crazy to most of you but I was shocked that she was so determined to be a part of the training – I definitely treated her to lunch – her family was back so she had dinner at home ( :
My second training was in Warengo – a village 6k away. Since I don’t work with them as often … actually I have never worked with them … they looked at me like I was insane the entire first day but by the last day they had warmed up to me and my crazy ways and they were singing and participating just like the Nadoba kids … everybody got the school supplies plus cookies as a reward for an AIDS questions scavenger hunt we did and Charlie gave everyone a free Moringa tree to plant (it’s leaves are full of vitamins and iron! – great for malnourished bebes and sick patients). So all in all the two weeks were a big success. Now I just have to print up certificates making it all official (this is a big deal to them).
The weekend after the skits on the 15th is a soccer match/fundraiser for a local library in Bafilo – a village about 20k on the other side of Kara (ie south) so I will probably be going to that. And the weekend after that is Club Espoir with the kids from this year’s camp! Which I am extremely excited about bcs I haven’t seen any of them in over a month!! And then we’ll be into October and I will have no clue what to do with myself … besides pack… and say goodbye – that might actually take a month.
In other news, I had hot dogs for dinner (ckn dogs actually) and am about to go play monopoly with some other PCV friends who are in town (no computers around so we can’t watch dvd’s … : ) My life sounds almost normal! – But that’s just bcs I am in Kara … I am on my third bike in two months (my first bike – the one issued to me when I arrived in country – broke while being repaired by our professional bike repairman – the second bike turned out to be for another volunteer and was mistakenly given to me as a replacement so I had to return that one and the third bike broke early in my 30k ride from Kante to village – the wire that connects the gear shifter to the gears popped in half ( : Looks like I’ll be stopping by Dapaong (where the bike guy lives) on my way to Ougadougou – heading there for a little three day vacation before COS conference – plus I need to bond with my friend Charlotte who COS’s on the 29th of Sept!!! Talk to you guys in Sept!!
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- Name: Paige
- Country: United States
- State: California
- Gender: Female
- Member Since: 7/15/2004
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About Me
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Having not-so-recently returned from 27 months in Togo, West Africa volunteering for Peace Corps, I have recently moved to Los Angeles and am still figuring out what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. Suggestions and job offers welcome ( :
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