Talking Trash

This morning my homologue told me he slept much better last night than he had all week. Yesterday marked the last day of a three day training we gave for seventy community leaders on the importance of community waste management and public waste bins. After all the planning and worries that it wouldn’t go smoothly it was relaxing to finally have it over with, but there is still much more to do.

The three days of training were only the first phase in a project to install public waste bins in Vogan.  With the help of the mayor and the director of Hygiene and Sanitation for the prefecture of Vo we sought to educate the community leaders (including all Chefs du Quartiers among others) on why public waste bins are important and how they, as community leaders, can help make this project a success.  The appreciation for the project was evident in the participation we received at the trainings, and of course everyone wanted a bin in their quartier.

Felicity and Delphine with an example bin.

As of now we are installing sixteen public waste bins around the city in locations that are most frequented, such as the marché and public areas of assembly.  We have had a local welder make the bins and we hope to get them all installed later this month. With the availability of public waste bins we hope to encourage people to place their trash in the bins rather than tossing it on the street. 

Installing the bins is, however, not the hardest part of this project; it is going to be getting people to actually use the bins. Simply having public bins and a trash collection program in place doesn’t make people use them.  It is habit for nearly everyone to toss their empty water containers and plastic bags on the ground and simply toss household trash into a pile next to the house.  Hopefully the community will recognize the importance of a clean city and the bins will catch on and people won’t simply toss their trash at their feet. 

To achieve this behavior change we trained community leaders, are having radio public service announcements, and are even working with the mayor to institute fines to those found littering.  With the community’s participation I hope that we can make Vogan a cleaner city and that after we have set the example for the first few bins that the community will take the initiative to make them multiply.

Without the help of many of my Togolese partners, and the community itself, I would not be able to make this project be a success, because as I so tackily said is my speech at the training, “It is not the waste bins that will create the change, but the people of the community.”

Let's Do a Little Planning

In the past month I have seen more of my prefecture Vo (comparable to a county) than I ever thought I would, and all of it was from the back of my counterpart’s motorcycle.  From our journeys I am convinced my counterpart, Fogan, knows everyone in the prefecture or possibly just that he really really likes to wave and honk his horn.  I have seen Vo’s phosphate mines and fields of manioc, napped under the trees, and stumbled off the moto with stiff legs, but most of all I have been able to speak with rural villages all over the prefecture about family planning.

In my work here in Vogan I have been so lucky as to pair up with a local NGO—ASFECDI—that works with health and women’s rights.  Much of their work is with sixty-one different farming cooperative groups (groupements) around the prefecture of Vo; promoting women’s leadership and helping to connect these rural agriculture groups to sources of micro financing.  For the past month ASFECDI has assisted me in working with these rural groups in another way—through educating about family planning—an endeavor the NGO hopes to continue after I leave.

For those of you a little rusty on what family planning is: Family planning is making the active decision of how many children you want and when you want them.

Along with Fogan and two women from the NGO, Felicity and Delfine, I have visited about four to six groupements every week to explain the advantages of family planning and the planning methods available in Togo.  We tag-team answering questions and getting the group involved with a small sketch, and of course my three Togolese coworkers serve as my translators for local language.

Having a large number of children is ingrained in much of the culture and expectations of Togolese, but the importance of spacing births is an idea that is easily grasped once it has been suggested.  Many people are eager to share their experiences with having too many children and their own bits of wisdom about the importance of family planning.  There are of course concerns about family planning and we receive many questions.

Most questions pertain to rumors and side effects of using hormonal contraceptives and other concerns about effects of future children and fertility, but there are also some questions that are a bit different.  The rumors people hear about using contraception can be amazingly bizarre and once they become comfortable people ask questions very freely. I have been asked by one man about his wife becoming a loose woman once she can have sex without the fear of having children, who would pay for the parents’ funerals if there were only a few children, having a child born with an IUD in its head if the mother uses that method, and whether or not I personally enjoy sex with a condom.

After our work is done each groupement insists on giving us a meal or drink as a thank you for giving our time.  After a long day I have been stuffed with food I can’t refuse, though at least it keeps me from having to cook that day   Thanks to another day of groupements that fabricate sodebe (the local hard liquor) I have returned home from work hung over for the first time in my life, granted with the heat it is very easy to become hung over.  All day long I was offered shots of liquor and to refuse would have been very impolite.  Thankfully, I wasn’t the one driving!

Having closely spaced births is a problem that is very common in Togo.  Without knowing how or why to space births many Togolese, particularly many of the rural subsistence farmers, suffer a huge burden by having more children than they can fully support.  Not using family planning can have a significant negative impact, not only on the family itself, but on society.  Family planning is one of those things that if used can make other behavior and development changes easier to accomplish.  Many of the Togolese I have spoken with recognize the problem and I hope will begin using family planning or talking about it with their children and peers. 

You may have notice that family planning and access to contraception has been a hot topic in the U.S. the past few months.  I don’t want to get political, but I just want to let it be known that according to Togolese law all women are guaranteed access to contraception and family planning tools.  It is true that in practice this may not always be the case… but seriously, come on U.S.

“About the most massively useful thing”

Some local ladies rockin' pagne.

If you have ever read Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy you know that Adams has said that, “A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.” 

I think Adams may have been a little confused; I think he meant to say “pagne is about the most massively useful thing.”  Pagne [pon-ya] is a colorful cloth that many people in West African countries use to make their clothes and really use it for everything else.  My preference is for the good looking handmade African-made pagne called batik.

Of course I have clothes made of pagne, but I also have some spare pagne around for everything else in my life.  I use pagne for a sheet, for a towel, a wrap to throw on and walk around my compound, a cover for my couch, curtains, table cloth, a rag to clean up, a head scarf, and a baby carrier.  Pagne is an item I always pack when I am traveling.  It is so utilitarian I wonder how I ever functioned without it back in the states.  I suppose I had a dozen different things back home that served the function of this one item.  It’s nice to grab just one thing to do it all, maybe using pagne will be one of those things I bring back home with me.

Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday

April 25^th is world malaria day, and along with Stomp Out Malaria April is blog about malaria month. 

Here in much of Sub-Saharan Africa malaria is the number one killer of children under the age of five.  In many regions of Togo malaria represents approximately 60% of all childhood deaths.  Eliminating malaria in Africa would represent an opportunity for thousands of children every year to celebrate their fifth birthday.

The effects of malaria reach far beyond the thousands of deaths it causes every year.  Everyday kids can’t go to school and people are kept out of work all thanks to malaria.  With cyclic fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, and malaise, who can blame anyone for not being able to head into work?  As a result, malaria endemic countries suffer huge losses in GDP and productivity every year.  Malaria is a serious illness with resounding consequences, but it is something we can ameliorate.

You say “well that’s tragic, but what possibly could I, someone thousands of miles away from Africa, have to do with combating malaria?”  Just knowing that the issue exists is a step towards eradication.  Did you know that the U.S. used to be endemic with malaria?  It was as or more prevalent in North America than malaria is currently in Africa, but with focused efforts we eliminated it from the continent.  The same can be done in Africa, especially with the new tools we have.

There are of course always opportunities to give charitably, there are continuously campaigns to distribute the highly effective insecticide impregnated mosquito nets, but you don’t have to give money to help the cause.  Just be aware of the issue, talk about it, and read about what is happening in the world of malaria and you can help make a difference, too.

Renew, Reuse, Recycle

Since a very young age I have been shaped and molded into a recycler.  For me separating plastics, metal, glass, and paper has become second nature or quite possibly a compulsion.  In the U.S. my compulsions are satisfied easily enough; recycling is made so convenient, I can drop off soda cans and bottles at my grocery store, trash collection picks up my separate bins of paper and plastic, and separate trash bins are provided on the street.  Such recycling opportunities are not available here in Togo and I am suffering.

In my kitchen I have a bag for tin cans, a bag for plastic bottles, a bag for paper, a place for used batteries, a bin of compostables, and recently I’ve even added a bag for toilet paper rolls.  If I was back home I could take all these things to the dump and have them whisked away to a recycling plant, but here they sit in my house causing me anxiety every time I see them. 

I am involved with a project establishing a trash collection in Vogan and soon we will be installing public waste bins around the city.  However, even convincing people of the importance of not throwing all their garbage into the street can be a challenge, much less recycle.  We have discussed implementing composting to reduce the amount of waste that enters a landfill, but beyond that there is little to no option for recycling.  We could ask people to separate their trash, but no recycling plant exists, we would simply be making a more organized trash pile.  There are some women who melt down tin cans into cooking pots, but that’s it.

We volunteers have tried to recycle in our own way, particularly for dangerous things like batteries.  In the office we have a bin for dead batteries and whenever someone ventures back to a developed country they are asked to take a handful of batteries to recycle.  The little pill bottles the med unit sends vitamins in can also be sent back for reuse.  Among other acts of recyclable material creativity, at post volunteers use tomato paste cans for making candles and water bottles for hand washing stations.

Maybe the potential use of these materials has also contributed my hoarding.  In addition to the act of tossing my cans and bottles onto the ground being unimaginable, I can’t toss things because they may be useful one day—this is my explanation for even creating a place for toilet paper rolls.  In a place without the convenience of Walmart or Home Depot you never know when a random little doodad may be needed and you have to build it yourself.

My longing to recycle and my resulting compulsion of hoarding is painful.  Probably one of the most persisting discomforts of life here is not being able to dispose of my trash in an environmentally friendly way.  It may sound silly to be so uncomfortable about not recycling, but when you know better and are directly faced with your own waste management it’s tough.  If I had a list of things I miss from the States waste management would definitely be there. Just be grateful that you get the opportunity to recycle, it’s good for the environment and you get the opportunity of not having your very own trash heap.

A Raw Food Diet

No, don’t worry, I have not picked up some new age diet. I have simply run out of cooking fuel.  When I was first being settled into my site I chose to buy myself a two burner gas stove and propane tank.  A gas stove is a significant convenience over the alternatives of a charcoal stove or a kerosene one.  Theoretically for me it is even more convenient as I have a gas station in my city that sells the propane tanks I need. 

This would be a simple bike ride down the road, if they ever had gas in stock.  With cooking three meals a day and a bit of baking to boot, last Saturday represents the second time I have used up my gas.  The first time I used up my fuel I was told it would be two weeks before more gas would arrive in Vogan and I quickly caved and had my tank refilled in Lomé.  This time, however, I did not want to go through that same hassle, and besides I was told more gas would arrive this past Wednesday, and then I was told it would arrive today (Friday) and now…maybe Monday? He’ll give me a call.

An unpredictable delivery schedule and my sheer laziness have placed me on a raw food diet, or to not confuse it with the fad diet, a diet consisting of raw foods aka I don’t cook ‘em.  There is street food available in town, but it is a bit of a hike to get to them and frankly I just don’t want to leave my house for every meal.  Before I realized it would be such a long time until I had fuel, I happily lived off my honey milk balls.  Oh yeah, oatmeal, peanut butter, powdered milk, and honey mixed into delicious goodness.  I unfortunately ran out of honey very quickly and while I still do it, plain peanut butter mixed with dry oatmeal is not as good.  As a healthier option though and to use the vegetables I had in my house I moved onto some glorified cole slaw. I have much cabbage, beets and carrots in my house—add a little vinegar and mustard and you have yourself a slaw, vary it a little with some soy sauce and you have a new one. For other meals bananas and avocados do just fine.

Searching for ideas for tasty foods I don’t have to cook, I came across recipes for people following the “raw food diet,” but besides an avocado chocolate pudding (yeah, sounds strange right? But is pretty good) very few of the recipes were useful at all because of all the bizarre ingredients they asked for. Where am I to get ground yellow flax, lucuma, and almond pulp?  I was really a bit disappointed and found no magical use for my peanut butter or cabbage. 

So, I am left with my slaw and my oatmeal.  But I will tough this one out, I am finding myself stubborn and giddy at the prospect of the challenge.  Now I just need to find a way to use those dozen eggs I bought just before running out of cooking power.  Maybe I’ll pick up body building and make myself some crazy raw egg protein energy drinks!  Six days and counting!

The Little Things

Today was a good day.  No, I did not solve some serious health problem or complete a big project, today was a good day because I found olive oil in one of Vogan’s stores.  No more cooking with regular old vegetable oil for me! Oddly enough it was tucked away in the isle with beauty products.  I don’t understand, but I’ll go with it.  In my excitement I purchased a little more at the store than I was planning on when I went in.  I even treated myself to ice cold Fanta from the store’s fridge.

Adding to the excitement of olive oil is the fact that the three year old girl in my compound has officially stopped calling me “yovo.”  Thanks to her grandmother always talking about me as the “yovo,” she picked up the habit, but no more.  It has taken a lot of work, and thankfully much help from my neighbors, but now she happily shouts “Liss!” every time I appear.  She “helps” me push my bike across the compound and runs ahead to open the gate.  As a bike away she continues to shout “Liss” and laugh hysterically when I turn around and wave.  I hear her calling out long after I disappear from sight.  Now, I am not a big ‘kid person,’ but it is nice to hear someone happily calling after me, not screaming “yovo.”

If olive oil was the ice cream and Liss being the whipped cream, the cherry on top was discovering that one of the banks in town accepts my bank card.  My bank card has no Visa attached to it or other company and I had always thought and been told that it wouldn’t work in any ATM besides those belonging to my bank, well…I was wrong!  Being able to use an ATM locally means that I can now save roughly 3,000CFA and four hours of my time every time I need to go to the bank.  Pretty soon I will have absolutely no excuse to leave Vogan.

It’s true that a big event like professional success could make my days seem much better, but in the end it is the little things that make a day seem so much better.  Just the same, the little things can make an empirically good day seem like a terrible one.  So, thank you olive oil, banks, Fanta, and little children for tipping the scales and making this day a good one.