Great line from a great movie: the Boondock Saints!
Anywho, I thought that today I would give a little insight on my daily life here in Togo as well as some of the things that make living here much more, well less difficult.
Asside from the 5 and 6am wake up calls from the monastics, my alarm goes off roughly 4 times between 6 and 7 a.m. before I finally crawl out from under my mosquito net. I only really pay attention to one "alarm" really, and that is the morning breakfast bell that usually goes off sometime between 7:15 and 8 am. And this is of course assuming that it is not a Tuesday or Thursday morning due to the fact that I have class at 7am. For these days I pay attention to my 6:50 am alarm and end up running the quarter of a mile or so to the school with the rest of the students who don't want to be late! I look at it as bonding time! (more on school in a little bit)
Breakfast, which I catch the tail end of after my two 7 am classes, usually consists of a baguette, coffe/tea, and for lack of knowing the french spelling of the word - porrage. I usually have a couple of bowls, as this has been one of the most difficult things for me to get used to. And no I am not referring to waking up, which my college roommates can attest to...my room was described as an orchestra of alarms in college as hearing that it took roughly 10 of them to actually get me out of bed in the late-morning, early afternoon. But back to the food, I regard breakfast as the most important meal of the day so I generally eat a ton of food in quantity and variety. The kitchen here lacks both. So I do what I can, and eat as much as I can while making sure that the monks and other lay staff get their fill as well. Luckily for me, the big breakfast thing is typically an American cultural phenomenon that isn't seen throughout almost all of Europe and most of Africa = more porrage for me! You'll also be surprised to hear that this is typically the best meal of the day.
After breakfast, if I have already taught my class, I have a few hours of free time that I usually spend studying French, preparing lesson plans, or attempting to grade the partially done homework or quizzes from class. And on Saturdays (generally) I do my laundry, which as you probably know by now takes almost the entire morning. So much for sleeping in, watching cartoons/ESPN Gameday and getting prepped for the college football games. After that period of free time comes my favorite prayer of the day, which lasts for roughly 10 minutes and is followed closely by lunch. Yippee! Except not really. Colin and I have a little rule of thumb that works 100% of the time, if the plate is flat you're getting fat! That basically means that there is a flat platter that usually holds spagetti, couscous (the food so nice they named it twice!), or a fruit salad; so basically these are the best meals for Colin and I that are served here because we are accustomed to the food and we know what the nutritional value of everything is. That last part is important because, if we decide to play soccer or workout (push-ups, pull-ups, curling buckets/bottles of water, running, yoga - for me) we need to be certain that there will be enough nutrients in a meal to replenish our bodies. We have made the mistake before of overdoing it somewhat in that aspect and have ended up with that feeling of weakness where your muscles just feel like their are vibrating under your skin trying to eak out every last bit of energy before they go into failure. And I am not talking muscle fatigue, we are way past that point here. This is full blown muscle failure, not to scare anyone, but there have been points where I couldn't walk in a straight line from the monastery to supper. I could barely lift my feet off the ground to the extent that I tripped over just about every rock in the road. It was a pretty pathetic site, and needless to say I slept like a rock that night. (btw this happened a few weaks ago, so I am perfectly fine now
So yeah, lunch is typically this mushy corn based doughy stuff with la sauce, which is some combination of green beans, meager portions of fish if any, and spices. And that is typically the dinner meal as well. There are two exceptions to this meal, one being better and the other worse. The better of the two is the traditional Togolese food "Fufu," which is pounded yams and some other form of sauce that includes some type of meat in slightly larger portions that the fish. This stuff is pretty good, and I had the fortune of eating a spectacular meal at the house of one of the monk's sisters, which included some home-made and not mass produced Fufu! The third meal is cooked yams, which taste like they have been freeze-dried ro dehighdrated (sp), covered in yet again some kind of sauce. If anyone has ever completed the "Saltine Challenge" (eating 10 saltine crackers in under a minute without anything to drink, then I dare you to try this! It literally sucks the spit out of your mouth, forcing you to drink copious amounts of water.
Oh, sidenote: from drinking all of that water during the meals, I end up waking up at 3:45 every morning having to piss, my God if there was one thing that I wish I could control better, it would be my blatter. That early morning wake up call and proceding walk to the mosquito filled, unlit and unpowered latrine; followed by the return trip to my bed where I have to lie in the darkness listening to the mosquitos, who followed me back, hover above me is one of the most annoying things in the world! Luckily, I am usually too tired to care and can fall asleep quickly, but there are some nights where that is definitely not the case! On that note, thank God for the Red Cross and their Permanet Mousauito Nets! I wake up each morning to find a plethera of dead little critters lying on the net above me, talk about a reality check!
Back to the daily life... After lunch I have some more free time which is usually spent once again studying or grading or talking with Colin. However, recently I have been accompanying some of the monks, and one in particular, on walks around the area to visit family members and most importantly work on my French! Those walks do an amazing amount for my comprehension and are also a great way for me to experience Togolese life! (more to come on this in future posts)
Mid-afternoon free time is proceeded by playing soccer or working out and then by mass, dinner, and night prayer before hitting the hey. And yes Br. Paul I am still going to mass! But I do generally skip night prayer as it has only just recently started (generator and electricity problems) and I tend to use that time wisely charging my ipod (essential for falling asleep in the bush), working with my photos and writing a little. I also tend to spend that time explaining what I am doing to most of the passers-by as almost all of them have never before seen a laptop, let alone a camera that connects to one!
Ok, time for the things that make living a little less complicated...
First off, the rope! I bought a 50ft section of 1/4inch rope before I left thinking that I could find something to use it for and it definitely turned out to be one of the best buys of the trip! Not only did the illuminescent rope mark my bags, but it also provided me with a clothesline, a closet/room divider (pictured at right), and a way for me to hang my Nebraska flag!
Second: duct tape (thank you Mrs. Whit!), I couldn't even begin to describe how many different things I have used this for. Breifly some of them are making weights, fixing my tripod and fixing my cheap soccer shoes)
Third: the crank/self-powerd flash light (Mrs. Whit once again). No power means that there are no lights, and when I am not stationary or don't want to walk around with a candle (all of the time) I have my rechargeable flashlight! So while the monks are constantly buying baterries, I am cranking away!
Fourth: the ipod, this is the sole thing that allows me to sleep somewhat peacefully at night and give me a little dose of the outside world during the day. I love my music!
Fith and finally: My (other) Bible - the College Football magazine, this keeps me going on those tough days and gives me a reason to pay attention to the time and day as well as keep me grounded somewhat as to who I am! I would have gone totally insane without this, and Colin will attest to that! I can't describe in words how important it is to have something like this that reminds you of who you are when you are so far away from everything else that subliminally reinforces that for you (i.e. friends/family). If you have seen Inception, this would be somewhat similar to the token that signifies the reality of a state of mind!
Ok, this was a long post so there wont be anymore this week. However I did get a ton of new photos up yesterday. And I spent a large majority of the day trying to upload a video from the tribal dance and think I have found a way to do it, so it should be up by next week!
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