So all is still well in Togo. I feel as though it is Christmas since it is the first day that I have used a computer in over a week, all of my sports teams are doing well (shout out to the Twins and Huskers!), my ipod is being charged, and life is good!
This past week has been fairly slow going, but life is becoming a little more settled than it was over the course of the first two weeks in Agbang. School is proving to be a little more difficult than I had initially thought. Not only am I teaching English in French speaking West Africa, I am teaching it in French to villiage children who know just slightly more French than I do! Also, my kids names are Tchalim, Pakpabia, Wenegue, Foussani, Gnabina, and Pelinliwa. Those are just their first names, and you thought that having two "Mathews" in the classroom was difficult. Asside from teaching my four 55minute classes per week, the days are filled with doing Yoga, reading, studying French, talking with Colin and the other Monks, and trying to occupy my copious ammounts of time.
I also realized that I am coming up on the end of my 4th week in Africa on Thursday! It's strange to think that I have been here for that long, but the weeks are flying by! It's even stranger to think that because sometimes the days just won't end! Not that this is a bad thing, but the food selection is somewhat monotonous and while filling, there are generally not enough nutrients/calories in a meal to keep up with my energy level. I have already lost 2 pant sizes in my almost 4 weeks making that belt that I bought one of the best pre-trip investments! Yes, Eric it is that same belt that you tried oh so desperately to convince me not to buy!
And a little bit of humore before I continue on with my recanting of past events, yesterday the 21st of September was my sister's (Natalie) birthday (Happy Belated Birthday!) and also one of the monk's birthdays as well. He was turnign 44, double my age as I pointed out to him. He was stunned! He and another monk were under the impression that Colin and I were oh roughly 30 years old!!! They couldn't believe that they were, as they pointed out to us while giggling like little children, old enough to be our parents had they been married at our ages!
Jeudi...
Today, we found out that there was a trip to the village after which the country was named, Togoville.
After a nice hour and half van ride past the shipping yards and industrial sites, the group reached a boat landing, where to my surprise we had to use a boat! And this wasn’t your traditional; well I guess technically it was more traditional than the boats that I am used to, but it was a large wooden gondola with a guy who stood in back and used a 20 ft . pole to propel us across a lake? (couldn’t tell if it was a lake or a bay). Talk about a job, geeze. The ride took about 30 minutes with the wind at our backs, long enough for me to snap some choice photos of fishermen passing by.
Once at the town we walked around and saw a few of the sites, what few there were. There was a nice little chapel an outdoor amphitheater type church with a huge mural of Mary ascending from the lake (picture to come soon), a little tradition-African gift shop, a Fufu bar (traditional Togolese food consisting of sheep, pate, and a type of peppery stew), a market (which was closed, market day is Tuesday in Togo), and a small convent/retreat center on the outskirts of town. Overall it was a nice experience and a decent view of village life as opposed to the “large” bustling city of Lomé
On the boat ride back we crossed paths with a little boy who was what one would call a boat-to-boat salesman. He was steering around this large boat by himself trying to sell coconuts! And, naturally our driver wanted some to take home, but insisted that since we were heading into the wind that he not slow down. This was quite entertaining for us in the boat and proved to be an excellent photo-taking opportunity! This kid, who was no more than 12, was trying to keep pace with us into the wind and was doing so with little control over his boat. Essentially he had to sacrifice his speed in order to regain control, only to lose it again when he tried to speed up! After about 20 minutes of this back-and-forth driving, he managed to catch up to the boat full of chuckling onlookers. He didn’t seem to mind, and actually looked like he enjoyed all of the attention. Narcissist.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful when you discount the fact that our driver blew out a tire on the drive back to Lomé. Luckily for us, the streets by the shipyards are full of motos and moto shops waiting to take advantage of stranded passers-by who are in need of a lift or a quick repair. So after a half an hour of sitting by the window having every living soul who walked by stare at me, we were on our way back to a cold shower and a yummy meal of leftover lunch (I will have a separate post regarding food as soon as my little tale is caught up to present time)!
Also a little humor for the night that actually made Colin and I laugh for the better part of an hour while trying to fall asleep – Bernard (the prior of the abbey) was sleeping in the room next too us, and being that we had the windows open to create some airflow we could hear everything going outside. Well we were almost asleep when I decided to make the comment that sleeping in a room next to Fr. Bernard was like sleeping next to a Vuvuzela. Yes I did. We still joke about it to this day, but oh man was it true; I don’t know what kept us up longer – laughing at the joke or the noise from the next room! (the joke was also made lightheartedly and was not ill-intentioned)
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