If You See Something, Say Something

There are many things we take for granted in the U.S., one of them being our school system.  While there are many ways in which our system could be improved, we are very lucky to have it.  It’s not just that schooling is available to every child regardless of income, but that our schools often provide an experience that is beyond solely wrought memorization of the material itself. 

Our children are encouraged far beyond just being a text book of state mandated material. Students are more often than not taught to think deeper about the material presented; a history lesson isn't just names and dates that need to remembered, but a lesson about our past and how it has impacted us today, and how it could impact our future. We have extracurricular activities that encourage teamwork, communication, community involvement, and creativity such as athletics, debate, Model UN, Amnesty International, and art club.  Although some of these activities fall under threat when cutting budgets is concerned, our students and teacher benefit immensely from the fact that most of these clubs and activities are budgeted right into our school system. It is with opportunities like these that our students are encouraged to be leaders and where passionate educators can reach out beyond the classroom to inspire students.

We can sometimes take for granted these resources that are available to us when we are young. It’s easy to think that, “Of course I’m able to stay after school and solve math problems with my fellow mathletes under the tutelage of our math teacher.” But in some places, not everyone—really almost no one—has the opportunity to ever experience an extracurricular activity. In the school system of Togo there aren't the resources to pay the teachers much less buy a ball for a soccer team. Without property taxes like in the U.S., school in Togo isn’t free for every student and often teachers make barely enough to live on. While it may seem cheap and easy for a group of students to get together and discuss politics after school, think about how difficult it could be to even give your time if you had to work a second job to feed your family or work in the field to help you family pay for your school fees.

When students do get an opportunity to use their skills outside of the classroom it is wonderful to see their enthusiasm.  This past Saturday we finished up a three day peer-educator training for 35 students and five teachers from five middle and high schools in the area. We covered topics ranging from basic reproductive anatomy and discrimination to how to run a club and present material to other students.  Much of what was covered is something that students never get the opportunity see or do.

The main topic of our training was HIV/AIDS.  In Togo, AIDS is a disease that gains a foothold thanks to the fear surrounding the disease.  HIV/AIDS is a disease that can really only be fought with awareness, including testing and knowing how and when to take preventative measures. There is hardly any dialogue about HIV/AIDS in Togo and often if you host a talk about AIDS people will actively avoid participation because it makes them uncomfortable. There also exists a significant amount of stigmatization associated with people living with HIV/AIDS and discrimination can make people avoid being associated with the disease in any way.  People are also not aware of medications available free from the government or other measures they can take to keep from getting ill, making people feel that HIV is an immediate death sentence. This creates a big obstacle to getting people to get tested for the disease.  Without knowing their status people can unwittingly spread the disease to their partners and children. Not knowing your status can also mean you are not getting the treatment you need to stay healthy and delay the progression to AIDS.

In our training we attempted to tackle all the issues that could present obstacles to the students being able to inform their peers about HIV/AIDS.  We gave them the technical information on the disease, how you can contract it, and how to prevent its spread.  We also gave them techniques to use to talk of HIV/AIDS (as well as other topics) and spoke about the obstacles that arise, like stigmatization and discrimination.

I had the opportunity to lead the session about discrimination. We spoke about why discrimination occurs and the impact it has on the people discriminated, particularly focusing on the impact as related to HIV/AIDS.  As peer-educators, and now enlightened individuals I told them that they must stand up to discrimination and educate people on why they shouldn't discriminate against people with HIV (or any person for that matter).  I came up with a nice and catchy slogan to encourage the students to not be passive in the face of discrimination.  The slogan was, “If you see something, say something.” You know, I thought I was pretty creative making such a catchy and easy to remember mantra, but about ¾ the way through I realized where I’d heard it before. That just happens to be the slogan of the anti-terrorism signs posted in the NYC subways, among other places. Congratulations homeland security, your message has reached Togo. Well, at least the students seemed to understand what I was getting at.

This week we are introducing the participants as trained peer-educators to their fellow students and teachers. In each of the five schools an anti-AIDS club is going to be formed to provide an opportunity for those students trained to reach out to their peers and their community, hopefully creating a dialogue about HIV/AIDS and helping to halting the spread of the disease.

A Different World

Some pagne clothing and coconuts on the side of the road helped remind me that I was still in West Africa as I drove to Ghana, a world that seemed so different from Togo. Living in Togo, my view of West Africa has been fairly narrow and in my mind I cannot help but imagine the entire region being very similar to Togo. It is true that I had the opportunity to travel to Senegal, but being ushered around for a conference didn’t let me fully appreciate how different from Togo it was. Last week though, I took a short vacation to Ghana and I was blown away by how developed the country was compared to the West African stereotype I had formed in my mind.

Right across the border you notice the difference.  Not being crammed into a van meant for twelve--holding eighteen, and no stomach churning swerving to avoid pot holes. The roads were in perfect condition. Now, Ghana has installed these pesky speed bumps outside all there towns that serve to slow down traffic and when you sit over the wheel in a van, bounce you around so you can’t nap on the trip in, but speed bumps aside it was impressive to see such nicely paved roads throughout Ghana, when not even our capital city has more than a handful of paved roads. Travel in Togo can be tiring and dangerous as road conditions keep vehicles moving slowly and swerving around, sometimes even off the road itself, to avoid large holes, but in Ghana the roads were a vacation in themselves.

It is true that I spent my time on the southern coast in the capital of Accra and a tourist spot of Cape Coast, so I saw the most developed areas of Ghana, so my view is a bit biased, but I have heard that even in other areas of the country, while more similar to Togo, still have much better infrastructure including good roads.  Because of the bias of my view of Ghana I don’t want to generalize too much, but after being in Togo for over a year, Ghana is basically America or maybe somewhere in Europe. 

Travellers who go to Ghana first may say that Ghana is poorly developed and not nearly on par with an American city, but coming from Togo, Ghana is a whole different world.  Roads are well paved, there is not garbage in the street, sewer systems and street drainage exist, there are nice restaurants, a mall, and a movie theatre—all things that do not exist in Togo (or do to a very very limited extent).

Traveling to Ghana was very much a vacation. We primarily travelled to Ghana to participate in the marathon, but in Accra we ate sushi, went to a movie, drank smoothies, went shopping, and I managed to wear nice clothing without getting covered in dirt and sand.  As you may remember from my previous complaining about the weather, climate really impacts my happiness, well, Accra to the rescue! While being positioned on the coast as is Lomé, it was less humid than where I live inland and I could wear jeans and a sweater at night. Cape Coast was similar and the breeze off the ocean was heavenly. For seemingly similarly positioned cities it is amazing how different the weather.  It made me very happy and comfortable.

Our time in Accra was full of good food and relaxing, but also a run of 26.2 miles.  OK, I didn’t run, I carried water, but Peace Corps represented itself well with one of our volunteers taking second place in the women’s full marathon and another volunteer taking 10^th in the women’s half marathon. We also had another volunteer run a great half-marathon and a past volunteer finish a full.  I was impressed at how after running so much they got right back up and we explored Accra, shopped and eating another great meal.

After Accra a friend and I ventured further west to Cape Coast to play on the beach and visit one of the forts used during the slave trade.  The castle was very interesting and thinking about the people who passed through its dungeons is haunting.  The horrors that occurred at the castle have been preserved in a museum and through reconstruction of the fort, providing a reminder of the atrocities that people are capable of, that we should never forget them and together we must never let them occur again.

Beyond the fort, Cape Coast was a nice tourist town with a lot of tasty street food. We explored the streets eating shrimp, squid, lobster, sausage (in Togo “sausage” in synonymous with hotdog, no real sausage included) and much more.  We really over ate, but it was so good! Cold beverages were plentiful, and the local ice cream on the street (Fan Milk) has a strawberry flavor not available in Togo.  There were a number of nice shops and we bought some beautiful batik pagne (hand printed fabric).  I will soon have a much expanded wardrobe, no more wearing the same outfit over and over.  

It wasn’t just food and shopping either. We took naps by the beach and played in the ocean (though the surf can be pretty rough).  It was a wonderful little vacation. While, we couldn’t stay at some of the ritzier beach resorts, our hotel by the beach was still a nice spot and I could make a habit of taking those naps in the ocean breeze.  But alas, it’s back to home, back to Togo.