Two Years and Counting... a Q&A sesh

Hello everyone,

Ag girlies: my fellow female ag volunteers

As of June 12^th, I have officially been in Togo for two years! To celebrate, I want to do a Q&A format for this blog posts with a few questions a people have sent me.

But first a little life update:

I will be wrapping up my service at the end of August and then will be visiting home for the month of September. However, I couldn’t quite yet say goodbye to Togo, so I will be returning in October to extend my service for a third year. I will be living in a different region of the country, working on a farm that serves as a local nonprofit. I have assured my friends in my current community that I will come back to visit throughout the year.

That puts me in Togo until at least October 2026. And then, well… who knows!

Thanks for all your support over the last few years and enjoy reading my responses to some of your very thoughtful questions!

Also, disclaimer: all thoughts and opinions in my blog are my own and do not reflect those of the Peace Corps.

 

What have you been most impressed by during your time abroad?

Along with living in Togo, I have also visited Ghana and Morocco during my time here. Being in parts of the world that are so different from where I grew up and experiencing different lifestyles and cultures has rewired my brain in how I think about how one goes about life. Turns out, there are many ways to go about doing the same task. Relearning how to cook, do my laundry, carry things, eat food, etc. has been a humbling experience that has taught me perhaps the way I grew up doing or thinking about things isn’t necessarily the best way; at least it certainly isn’t the only way. This has also led to an interesting thinking exercise about other aspects of my life: work, relationships, religion, leisure, etc. Cultural humility is a challenge yet also a necessity when adapting to life far from home. It’s been an insightful journey learning in what ways to adapt and adjust to the life and culture here and when to standfast on the morals and values I was raised with.

 

Drying cassava to make "gari"

What life experience most helped you thrive in Togo?

Not surprisingly, my time rowing at Oregon State has probably helped me the most during my time in Togo. The discipline, mental toughness, and determination I learned and witnessed among my teammates at OSU has transferred to my life in Togo. Thanks to hours of erging in the barn, I was all too familiar with sweating more than you ever imagined possible, and I assured people here I already knew what a blister was after my first time swinging a machete for several hours in the field. But more importantly, rowing and being a member of a tight knit team taught me how to advocate for myself; set goals; manage my time; and have difficult but necessary conversations with teammates, coaches, and friends. All these skills have come in quite handy in Togo.

Before leaving for the Peace Corps, I remember several returned volunteers telling me my service will be the hardest job you’ll ever love and hate at the same time. Sometimes I think about this and wonder if serving as a Peace Corps volunteer has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done so far. It certainly isn’t quite as physically demanding as being a DI athlete, and I don’t feel the same pressure to perform day in and day out with every small decision during the day affecting your training. But the challenges here are different. While I had a community and support system immediately in place for me at OSU, I’ve had to build my own community and support system from scratch here. While I had fellow volunteers to lean on, I was on my own at my site, and no one in my life was going through anything like what I was experiencing on a day to day. I had no one to come home and rant to after a long day, like my roommates and I did often did after a bad practice, and no one knew who or what I was talking about when I started to tell a funny story about something my friend in village did. A lack of a physically close support system along with the language and cultural barriers I face daily often makes life quite tiring and isolating at times. My weeks at college were often predictable (or at least they followed a pattern), but here I often wake up without a clue of what I’m going to do that day.

To manage all this, I brought parts of my life when rowing back into my life in Togo. I found the team environment I had been so greatly missing among the soccer teams in my village, and I used exercise to create some consistency in my life. I have also kept in contact with friends from college and rowing, which has expanded my support system again. I have also built up my support system in my community, and I now have trusted friends who I can talk to and turn to for help.

 

Your favorite day and least favorite day?

Not to be too dramatic, but I’ve got to say my worst day is traveling 7+ hours to the capital city of Lome to go to the hospital after being extremely sick with a mystery illness for five days. I spent five days alone in my house with the worst headache of my life, a fever that hit nearly 104 degrees, chills, and full body aches. The Peace Corps medical staff were keeping tabs on me, and when the illness started to get worse, they asked me to find my way down to Lome for blood work and to rest at their medical office. Just the thought of climbing into a bush taxi for an 8–10-hour voyage with bumpy roads, blaring radios, honking horns, and screaming goats when I could barely leave my house to buy bread led me to a total breakdown with PC doctors on the phone. Fortunately for me, they caved and shuttled me down in several official Peace Corps vehicles. Even in a quiet, air-conditioned vehicle, it was the worst trip of my life (thus-far), and every pothole was banging my brain against my skull. I spent several days recovering in Lome and then found my own way home. They never identified the strange illness, but my theory is that it was some strain of dengue fever that did not show up on the original tests.

Luckily, I have not gotten seriously sick too often during my service, but the reality is that when you do, it is NOT fun. The heat, pit latrine, no running water, and limited food options can make even minor sicknesses all that more uncomfortable. We are supplied with a well-stocked medical kit, but sometimes a serious illness calls for the dreaded journey down to Lome, which you typically must manage on your own. We, the volunteers, have tried advocating for better transportation services (especially in cases of emergencies) when travel here is by far the most dangerous thing we do, but we have had little luck, given the budget is especially tight these days.

It's hard to pinpoint a single best day out of the two years, but recently I participated in a celebration for the Muslim holiday, Tabaski (also known as Eid al-Adha). The holiday is often celebrated with group prayers, slaughtering a cow, dancing, and soccer matches (at least in my village). I started the morning at soccer practice and at the end of practice, was immediately invited to the coach’s home to share a soda and some beef with the family (eating beef at 9am in the morning is quite tasty btw). Afterwards, I spent more time visiting friends and eating more meat than I’ve eaten in the past 6 months. That afternoon, I participated in a traditional dance that consisted of moving in a large circle with wooden batons and hitting the batons together with the dancers on either side of you to the beat of the drums. At the end, several performers danced with large swords and ran the blade across their bodies without drawing blood. I had witnessed this tradition during Adossa Gadao in January, but this time, I got a much more up-close view of the dance. The festivities continued for several weeks with more dancing and soccer matches, most of which I participated in. I really enjoyed celebrating with some of my closest friends and was touched by people’s hospitality and eagerness to include me in all the traditions. Last year, I was too shy to participate in the festivities, but over the past year, I have learned a lot about the Islamic faith thanks to having many Muslim friends. As a result, I really appreciated participating in the celebration this year.

Spending time with my friend, Falila, during Tabaski

 

What is your favorite Togolese food?

My favorite meal is fufu (pounded yam) with chicken and peanut sauce. My favorite snacks are kuli kuli (a baked peanut snack), coco (a pink porridge made from sorghum), and khakesi (bean beignets.

 

Which one of your brothers do you miss the most?

Depends on the day. (Nice try mom)

 

Is there a moment or person that transformed your perspective?

Just as I cannot pinpoint one best day, I can’t select on single moment or person. However, one group that has had a surprising and large impact on my life here is the football team. Before arriving in Togo, I tried to manage my expectations regarding my freedoms and what hobbies I would be able to partake in as a female living in a society where the gender roles are a bit more rigid and limiting. Navigating stricter gender roles was something I was most nervous about, especially since I was accustomed to having many guy friends and many of my interests may be considered more traditionally for boys. However, my worries were quicky diminished when I was invited to play with the men at soccer practice. My community began to develop the attitude, “if you’re capable, you’re invited.” While I have sometimes toed the line with certain behaviors that challenge the traditional gender roles here and my liberties as a female here do have their limits, I have felt quite welcome and comfortable in male dominated environments, though it did take some courage and tough skin at first…

Some of my closest friends are the boys and men I play soccer with each week, and now I have a group of protective “brothers” and “uncles” who have my back when I’m out and about. Additionally, participating in sport early on when language was still a large barrier allowed me to build up my confidence and feel more like myself when out in the community. This past year, I started a soccer team for the girls in my community with the support of many of the guys so that they can an environment similar to the one I have enjoyed so much here.

Me and the team

 

What were your expectations, and how did your experiences align with them, or not?

To be honest, I had expectations for the work I would be doing as a volunteer, but I had little expectations for the country of Togo and came in with limited knowledge and an open mind. Unfortunately, the reality of Peace Corps Togo and where it’s at currently did not live up to my expectations. There have been constant challenges with organization and communication between volunteers and staff, which I believe have inhibited my work here and have resulted in me having to find my own way to complete projects with little support from the organization. Perhaps this is the reality when working for a federal bureaucracy, or perhaps PC Togo is currently facing its own unique challenges; I do not know. But what I do know is that once I realized I would not be receiving the support I had originally hoped for from my organization, I began to search for other sources; I turned to my community. With the support of my community and the connections I have formed, I have been able to create several projects that match my community’s needs and interests, and I believe the work has been meaningful.

As far as Togo as a whole, I didn’t know what to expect. Coming in with an open mind made me curious and eager to learn new things and meet new people. As a result, Togo has been full of surprises, and I have really enjoyed my life here.

 

Me and my counterpart, Noel, the real MVP

If you could bring back one thing (object or not) from Togo to the US, what would it be?

If I had to choose a material item, it would be the beautiful fabric here. Like most volunteers, I enjoy buying fun, colorful patterns and sending them to local tailors to make clothes. I certainly plan to bring back some of the dresses and skirts my tailor made for me.

An important skill I hope to bring back are the languages I have learned here. I am confident my French will be useful throughout my career, but I fear I will eventually lose the Kabiye and Koto Koli I have picked up here. I guess I’ll have to keep practicing with my friends with phone calls and WhatsApp vocal messages.

What has life in Togo revealed about your purpose in life?

Since high school, I have always felt a pull towards international development work, particularly in the agriculture and environmental sectors. I dreamt of traveling and working overseas and experiencing new places and cultures while also hopefully leaving each place I visited a little better than I found it. With limited experience traveling abroad, I saw the Peace Corps a promising first step in what I hoped to be a long-term career in development.

My time serving in the Peace Corps has made me realize that this is, in fact, what I was made to do in life. While it often isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, and I was quickly exposed to the harsh reality of extreme poverty and the limits to effective and sustainable development, I find this work extremely meaningful and impactful to both me and the people I aim to serve. Learning new languages, adapting to different lifestyles, and finding creative ways to form new and unexpected connections has not been easy, but it does feel natural to me. I have been extremely blessed and privileged throughout my life, and I am hoping that I can use the opportunities given to me to improve other people’s lives and create new opportunities for others.

While my efforts will be a small drop in the bucket, I do think I will have a lasting impact in my community, even if it’s simply a funny story one of my friends will one day tell their grandkids or a smile that made someone’s day just a little brighter. And so, I hope to continue making these small impacts everywhere I go, and I hope to work for organizations that will have a far greater impact on communities than I can alone.

Just some of your favorite ag volunteers