A New Home (June 7, 2011)

After our introductory lessons in Lomé we are headed north about 45 mins to our training sites where we’ll be spending the next nine weeks.  SED is being placed in the regional capital of Tsevie (chev-e-ay) and the CHAP volunteers are placed in a farming community Gbatope (bah-toe-pay) 6km away.  I’ve been told that our training sites are foreshadowing our posts in the future.  The SED volunteers are in a city, have electricity, running water and ready access to the internet, market, post office, and other amenities afforded by a big city.  In Gbatope the community only received electricity a few months before we arrived and only a few of us volunteers are living in homes that have electricity (myself not included).  

Here in Gbatope I live with a host family on their farm a little outside of town.  I have five siblings ranging from the age of 18 to 7, Jean is 18, Mary is 16, Adjo is 15, Victorine “Victo” is 11 and Ansin who is 7.  In addition, my father’s sister, his aunt, and a cousin have houses on the compound.   Along with the five children in my immediate family there are four others ages 1.5, 5, 6, and 12.

Joining the fifteen humans there are sheep, ducks, chickens that roam freely, and a donkey.  The donkey is a novelty for the southern region of Maritime.  Donkeys are much more common up north in the Savannes region.  When asking what family I live with people they know it as “the one with the donkey.”  Donkeys are pretty strange animals and the braying adds to the cacophony that’s ever present on the farm.

The main house, where I have a room, is a cement building with three bedrooms, a living room, a washroom, and a front porch that spans the width of the house.  Without electricity or running water, there is an outside kitchen which consists of a palm frond canopy over an earthen stove and a small charcoal stove.  Another small wood building with a tin roof serves as storage for all the kitchen implements and a place to escape the rain during meal times.

Also on the compound are two small two room cement houses with tin roofs and one house made of bricks from the dark red mud found in the area.  I also have a small private walled in bamboo latrine/ shower area outside.  It’s here I get to take bucket showers under the stars while being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

This is where I’ll be calling home while I’m in training.  The Peace Corps places us with host families as a crash course in cultural integration and I’m excited to get to know my family, but with language barriers it can be tough to live with a new family.