Weekending

SO the power is out…again. We had it just long enough to miss it again. At least they got the water working, for the time being. There is a water tower that was ingeniously built into the center cross of the monastery. So at least I am not hauling water around all day, but with the way things have been going around here, that could change just about any day now. But I will take it over electricity, surprisingly. Lights only come in handy when it gets dark out; water comes in useful about 99 percent of the other time.

In other news, I didn’t pick corn this weekend…I helped dry it. But the Huskers won, so all is well in the world. Now we just have to show Mizzou that beating a top ranked Oklahoma team on homecoming means absolutely nothing next Saturday, except of course that they helped improve our strength of schedule! GBR, Oh yeah and I took a true RedOutAroundtheWorld photo, not like any of the ones that they have been showing during the football games of people standing in front of Memorial Stadium. I uploaded it to the ROATW website so hopefully they basket of eggs that was dropped on Texas can still be salvaged. Check the photo!

Let’s see, what else did I do this weekend… oh yeah I played soccer with a potato. That was interesting. I didn’t feel like walking back to my room from my friends’ house to get the deflated soccer ball so we made do with what they had lying around…a potato! It was a blast all things considered. Not that anyone could ever replace my siblings, but it was nice to beat up on a couple of younger kids in the whole rough and tumble department. And on that note of siblings, Madeline…if you ever come to Togo you have husband in waiting, I kinda sorta but not really potentially married you off to one of my students …oops! If it makes you feel any better I have been proposed to about 5 times (including once by one of my students - talk about a rough day at the office)!

Finally, I have failed to mention the amount of kamikaze bugs in Africa. Granted there weren’t massive buildings with a thousand glowing luminescent dealios back in the day so I can’t exactly blame them. But it is a little humorous to watch moths cruise around a candle in a frantic frenzy before flying right into the darn thing and then falling lifelessly to the ground. One occasion in particularly brought me into a giggle fit, and thus far this bug is second on my list for the upcoming “worst timing awards.” So I am sitting in mass and it’s dark out so the lights are on and there are bugs galore around them. Well it just so happened that this massive beetle (seriously this thing was almost as big as a golf ball) decided that it wanted to play chicken with the fluorescent light by the entrance. It lost the first, second, and third time. Each time it bounced off with a clink and circled around for another go. Well on the fourth try I think it finally figured out that the fight was futile. It knocked itself unconscious! I along with one other monk saw everything take place, and I almost burst out laughing as soon as I saw the thing fall to the ground after the final try. It didn’t move for about a minute or so and then struggled righting itself because it was so large. Oh I was giggling and caused the other monk who saw it (his name happens to be Gregoir as well) to start laughing at me. Luckily, I don’t think too many people noticed that one of the two white kids was now flush red after laughing in the middle of mass (which I am still attending Br Paul).

A word on pranks...

So this takes some of the coolness away from the photo, but I told the Abbé Primat that I was going to give him bunny ears. He giggled and said Ok. He’s a sweet dude. That photo was mostly to give Br. Paul a little heart attack and get him back for telling me to pull my pranks right!

For the record, my prank would have worked had the associated given the monks reading book on the popes back to the novices before we left St. John’s. The monks at SJU are reading a book on the Popes during the first 15 minutes or so of dinner, and it is by far one of the driest reads ever. This thing could soak up the Nile and then some, that’s how dry it is. And the novices up at SJU along with some of the other monks can attest to that! So some of the other Benedicine Volunteers who were on retreat with me and I decided to “give” the book to the novices as a going away gift to commemorate a rather rowdy and volunteer-stuff-filled two weeks!

We planned it perfectly and replaced the book on the popes with another book entitled ‘The Flight from Authority” fitting title, I know, I picked it out  I even changed the last sentence on the reading card to match one from the new book, that had the pope book cover on it. You couldn’t tell that it was a different book. It was perfect; except that we gave the book to the novices before the next reading, which we considered, but we wanted to see the look on their faces and thought it would be worth risking them putting it back.

They put it back. Spoil Sports.

So anyways, there is the elongated background info on that!

Reflections...

The other night before, during and after I had finished messing around in the moonlight with my camera, I got to thinking. Big shocker, don’t hurt yourself there Greg. I couldn’t help but think about the changes going on in my life and how I have been able to overcome and take on so many of the obstacles that have presented themselves to me. In thinking about this I was drawn to a few specific instances in my life where I chose a path that not many would have taken. Briefly the chain of events that I am referring to started in grade school where I realized that I could make it through with flying colors with my eyes closed (with the exception of standardized exams, which I still can’t take worth a darn). I needed something that could challenge me and I knew that the way things were going with my social life at the time that if I didn’t do something drastic I wasn’t going to make it out of the house much. This may come as a shock to all of you who referred to me as “easy on the eyes” or “a real charmer” or “a ladies man” in college that I was the nerdy kid with freckles way back in the day who could only get within 10 feet of a girl when she was assigned to sit next to him. Yeah, something needed to change.

That change, came as a result one of the best decisions of my life in attending a boarding high school. I am going to spare the minute details given my current location and availability of electricity, but high school challenged me in just about every way possible. It even afforded me to travel abroad (thanks to a little nudging from my parents) for the first time without the comfort of my family in a country where I couldn’t speak a lick of the language. Talk about an eye-opening experience. It was that experience that more or less paved the way for me and put me on the crooked track that I am on right now; although I would be willing to argue that my track is straighter than most people would think.

Following high school, I had the world in the palm of my hands as I felt invincible (and to my detriment…aka eating rat… still do feel that way). I was heading off to college at a liberal arts university with invitations to the honors society, the world leaders youth conference, and the most prestigious of all – CollegeBound. That trip, although it took me some time to realize it, changed my life in a way that no other experience had or will. And do not take this lightly as I have had a multitude of extraordinary experiences through the Grace of God, good fortune, hard work, and a solid family background without which none would have been possible.

It was on that trip, which again I must thank my parents for nudging me towards as at the time I regarded it as just another camping trip, that I was introduced to the most undervalued program at CSB/SJU; enter Peer Resource Program. That week of canoeing in the BWCA of Northern Minnesota was full of shenanigans and mischief (again I apologize to all of the girls who had the fish carcass thrown at them and had their canoes stolen in the same night), but also provided an introductory course into problem solving, creative thinking, leadership, communication, etc… It wasn’t until the night before I left for an extended weekend in the British Isles during my study abroad session in Ireland that I figured out I was about to let an amazing opportunity pass me by. Needless to say, I filled out an application at the last minute and managed to somehow get my recommendations in on time, and eventually was accepted to the aforementioned program.

It took two more years of organizing activities, attending meetings, FACILITATING challenge courses for people of all ages, aggravating Johnny Clarkson, and facilitating the experiential learning trips to acquire the skill sets that I am currently employing and expanding upon here in Africa. The most important of which, is only implied in the program, but that is the ability to understand. I understand myself. And that is the ultra simplistic yet at the same time most complex answer to my initial question of HOW? I can say with the utmost certainty that this is 100 percent true. My life, all of the events that had taken place up until graduation from college had been steering me towards that point, but it was the Peer Resource Program that pulled it all together. It was the link. The things that I learned as a result of being a part of the program, put feelings and thoughts into words in a cohesive and coherent manner.

Also, do not confuse understanding oneself with knowing what or even who you are. When I refer to understanding yourself I am referring to the fact that you know WHY as opposed to WHAT or even who you are. Knowing what/who you are? That’s a-whole-nother realm of thinking that I don’t even mess with. My thoughts on it are limited to - I hope to God that I am an interesting enough person that I will never know completely who I am. But with that said, I will still be able to understand who I am and why I am this way. There is a very slight difference between the two words, knowing and understanding, and I feel that it is difficult for me to convey it in a simple fashion. Part of it is due to the complexity and the preciseness of the French language. My French way of thinking isn’t translating into English in an easily comprehendible fashion, but I hope that it resonates at least on a rudimentary level with you. If anyone would like to discuss this further you are more than welcome to email me at my gmail account: gsullivan1518.

And now I leave you with one final challenge much like the sun when it challenges you to see it from dusk ‘till dawn. I challenge you to understand yourself. And not just the simple understanding why you did or didn’t eat the green-peeled orange after dinner (yes the oranges here have green peels). Truly, completely, and wholly understand yourself.

P.S. The power is back. Yippee!

Give a little, Get a little...

So these past two weeks have been interesting to say the least! I’ll skip the more mundane details and get right down to it… I ate rat two weeks ago this Sunday. Yup, that’s right, rat. R-A-T, rat. It wasn’t too bad, once you take out the fact that I watched it go from a lifeless being to something that was going into my mouth. Yeah, I watched it get cleaned too. I watched my friend’s younger brother walk out of a hut holding a foot long (not including the tail) rat by the tail with a small bundle of hay. He started a fire, roasted the damn thing until all of the little furs were singed and the skin was black and tough. He then pulled a Joker (from the Dark Night) aka, he slit the mouth open in order to pull out the teeth and the jawbone muscles. He then decapitated the thing, with his family (an 11 year-old girl, 12 year-old boy, 50+ year-old mom, and 19 year-old brother) mostly fixed on me and the interesting facial expressions I was making along with the subtle, but substantial movements to the other side of the bench. Yeah laugh it up, really funny. He then gutted the thing and put the meat into a pot with water, peppers, onions, salt, and something else that slips my mind. 30 minutes later it was ready to be eaten!

Don’t worry I tried to escape multiple times. I was actually at the house that morning because I was going to accompany my friend and his family (the two younger siblings are friends of mine as well from the school) to the church at Agbang. The monastery masses were getting a bit old and I wanted a bit of a change. Plus there are a lot of students who attend that mass, and it’s always good to see the kids outside of class. Anywho, Agoza (the little girl) wanted to leave for church and tried to get me to go along so that we wouldn’t be late, I figured okay why not, but then we were called back promptly to the question of “don’t you eat meat?” Well of course I do, I eat tons of it….oh snap, that meat. Kinda walked into that one. I couldn’t tell you why I did it and I can’t even tell myself why I did it, but I sat down and after peeling the skin off of a rib like bone, ate part of a rat. I couldn’t eat the skin that was attached to it and politely refused saying I could try the meat, but not the skin. I would’ve puked right then and there, which actually in hindsight, would have been the best possible thing for me considering the damage was already done.

We walked to mass, where a white priest was presiding, and sat through a half French, half Kabiye mass in another concrete sweatbox of a church. Afterwards, I conversed with some of the students and then returned to the house with the family for some time as the monastery mass was currently underway and there was nothing to do there other than sit in my room. I’d rather talk with people, and that’s what I did! I saw another side of African life that had managed to evade me for the first two months of my stay here. Side note! On Saturday, while Nebraska was busy dropping the basket full of eggs that they had laid with big T’s written on them, I was picking and husking corn! Lesson learned, don’t do that on Saturday in Africa. It equals bad news bears for Nebraska football. I'll sit and twiddle my thumbs in anticipation this Saturday. Not really, but I sure as hell wont be picking corn! I also stumbled upon a wedding after party in the nearby woods of the monastery. That was pretty cool too, and I even managed to get a little Tchuc out of my curiosity! Good thing curiosity only killed the cat.

Ok back to the story. So I mingled with the family and then made my return the monastery jut in time for lunch! Kinda like fraeuline Maria, never late for a meal, but late for just about everything else! Anywho, we ended up having yogurt for desert after lunch, and that could have been the secondary cause of my troubles this week, but its not very likely. I was in serious pain, and it wasn’t for fear of not being able to drink milk for the rest of my life…which would still suck.

A few hours later I was having some stomach pain and bowl movements. Nothing out of the ordinary for Africa. Except, that night for dinner, I could hardly stomach (pun intended) to eat anything. I went straight to bed, and the next morning I was approached by the resident doc John de la Croix. He  had been told by some of the other monks who had seen me doubled over in my room at random points throughout the previous day or so that I didn’t look so good. He helped me to a few medicinal remedies, pretty standard anti-diarrhea and ibuprofen.

The next day and a half was spent running from the school to the bathroom or squatting over the toilette and going through tp like crazy. And you’ll be glad to know that on Tuesday I found out that my sphincter’s threshold for distance while walking is roughly ¼ of a mile. You guessed it; I was proctoring a two hour-long exam (was only supposed to be an hour and a half, but Colin decided to gash open his toe on the concrete stairs right before the exam started). I was sitting in the chair when nature decided that it wanted to make a run at “the Bad Timing Awards” (so far it’s uncontested) and I yelled at one of the other professors to watch my class as I scurrywaddled my way back to the monastery hoping to God that I didn’t shit myself on the rocky road back. I made it, but just barely – it was close. At that point I couldn’t believe I still had anything left in me! Later that night I received some more heavy-duty medicine and that seemed to help. I was actually really worried that I was going to have among other things, dehydration problems and stomach parasites. It was a pretty lean few days in the meal category too, not that I could eat anything I was given anyways.

Wednesday morning came, and I decided that I was up for the trek into Kara, which turned out to be a pretty awesome trip. My stomach didn’t bother me at all, and I am proud to say that my health was pretty much back to normal by mid-day, although I was still taking it easy and not pushing things food wise.  In Kara, I had some time to check football scores, watch Colin get his hair cut with a razor blade, talk with a French professor at the university (who invited me to take some courses to improve my French!) about a recommendation that I need for another program.

And then the night culminated with a mass celebrated by Notker Wolf the Abbé Primat aka the Pope’s right-hand Benedictine. He was the main supporter of starting the abbey here in Agbang, and decided to swing by since it’s so close to Germany and all. Side note! Hey Br Paul, remember when you told me the next time I tried to pull a prank to make sure that I did the job right? Check the picture below J But the mass was pretty standard, although the homily was centered around spreading God’s love, which included the line…” Jesus gave us the Good News and we made a Catechism out of it…(in a dejected tone, saying that the Word of God should be a heck of a lot more exciting than that book makes it out to be tone)” That one was said by the Primat of all people! He also played his flute after the mass and told us that he is on YOUTUBE with Deep Purple playing smoke on the water! Check it out, its pretty sweet!

Later that night, I ended up having to wait two hours beside the van (reserving my place 1 of 20 people trying to get back to the monastery in a 10 passenger van) before we finally got on the road. Colin and I were pretty much guaranteed spots on the bus since we had classes the next morning, mine at 7am Oh Boy!, but there were some feisty monks who weren’t happy about staying behind in Kara for the night. I almost rather would have done that! I was on little sleep and not much food from my illness, was kinda tipsy from the after party/mass, semi-Closter phobic in a loaded van cruising down a dark, pothole-filled road in a thunderstorm. I was on edge the entire trip back.

I got about 4 hours of sleep that night, before waking up to an awful pain in my side (liver region). My first thought was that it was the rat again, but then I remembered that the night before, the only drink I had at the time I had to take my medicine was beer and I was pretty sure I took the stronger anti-diarrheal that I was only supposed to take after having said ailment by accident and kind of shrugging it off at the time. Yeah I paid for that mistake too. My side hurt until after breakfast, when the food and water/coffee made its way through my system kind of cleaning everything out. But that was after struggling through a class that I was unprepared for due to the night before, and having a classroom of students who still don’t understand what it means to do their homework. Side note, they do it for the other teachers because as I witnessed today they get whacked in the derriere by a baton if they don’t do it. I don’t hit  them and I think they are taking advantage of me (shout out to Eric’s middle school math teacher)

Later that morning I bid my "farewells" and "don’t smite me's" to the Head Prior as he was heading out the door on his way back to Lomé. I also managed to snag a picture with him before he took off! I then returned to my room to do a little cleaning and take advantage of the newly fixed ELECTRICITY!!! Yes the electricity was fixed on Tuesday night, I wasn’t exactly in a position to take advantage of it then, and is available for 3 hours at night and occasionally throughout the day (haven’t figured out that schedule yet). We also have running water now as well! And although we can’t drink it, it is a lifesaver when it comes to doing laundry and showering! And to top off a pretty darn exciting week, I got a care package from my mommy! Life is good.

Pictures!!!

So I have uploaded the next round of pictures of students. This is the set of them doing their manual labor (Friday afternoon class at the school), which was previously explained. The shovel dealios are the hoes that they use to do all of the fieldwork. There are a couple of pictures in here for you Mom Mom! I think you’ll especially like the one I took of Agoza, the Girl with the hoe in the middle of the tall-grass. There are also some pretty sweet sunset pictures from the northern part of Togo. They’re not too shabby for being taken from a van window while cruising down the road. Next, I included a picture of my newest roommate in the form of a lizard. And then there are also some pictures from an African house complex with some kids working, and also a semi-serious/semi-screwing around at night self-portrait. I was chillin on the railing in the moonlight listening to music and enjoying the cool whether (hence no shirt) and though that I haven’t attempted to shoot photos in the moonlight and it would be a perfect opportunity to do so. Enjoy!

Another Lean Week in the Blog Column

Here are a few more updates on the kids in Togo...

The market is my new favorite place because there is a plethera of cheap and generally good (albeit spicy) food.

My student-teacher relationship with just about every kid in the school is growing rapidly, and I am constantly finding myself wanting to spend more time hanging around there during the breaks and lunch periods.

I am going to start a Kabiye class with a few of the students, who got a kick out of the idea of being a teacher for a student who is a heck of a lot older and paler than they are. I am stoked for it too, that will be conversational language number 4 (behind English, French, and Gaelic)!

I talked with John de la Croix, who is currently in charge of the monastery while the Prior is away in Germany (should be coming back this week and hopefully with the replacement part for the generator = electricity and running water!!!!!!!!!). But he said that we are still welcome at the monastery and that we haven't pissed anyone off to the extent that they want to get rid of us! He was actually surprised that I approached him to talk about it, because in general the monks regard Colin and I with a large amount of respect and enjoy having us around.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my students all think that I have soft hands from not working enough. Part of that is them trying to get me into the field to do their work and the other part is actually true! Their hands are like rubber and tough as nails! This is coming from someone who worked on a grounds/maintenance crew for a year and a half, rowed for the better part of 4 years, landscaped this past summer, and played a multitude of other sports that toughened up the skin on my hands. I couldn't help but being reminded of Jaws when Quin makes fun of the doc for counting money all his life. I will admit, I was a little enerved by them calling me soft, but after seeing what they do for chores and just as a general way of life; well it's kind of true!

Last Thursday, Colin and I went to Dapong and then made it into "No Man's Land" between Togo and Burkina Faso. Yep, that was an experience. Watching all of the commuters go coming and going to the two countries over a small strip of wasteland that was riddled with smoking piles of trash and broken down vehicles and butchers cleaning steer hides/hacking up half of a carcass was pretty interesting to say the least. Not to mention, we were told not to go into sight of the BF guards, because for one, Colin left his passport in the bus, and two, we didn't exactly have visas to get into the country. The monks just thought that we would get a kick out of walking into the wasteland!

That day in Dapong, we also had lunch with the Bishop who the monks invited to the Jubilee celebration in November. The food was pretty darn good!

I have also transcribed half of a French grammer book in my attempt to be able to better communicate with everyone. I think it's working.

And lastly, the Huskers are finally going to beat the living daylights out of Texas! GBR

Oh, almost forgot...the videos from the dance are finally uploaded! Good things come to those who wait! If I don't get the link working on the blog, they can be accessed by going to Youtube and typing in gsullivan1518 into the search bar. Enjoy!

"Snakes! It just had to be snakes!"

Mom mom (and anyone else who has a fear of snakes) my want to skip down a paragraph or two! So this past week I was talking with one of my students after school. He had to stay late and cultivate/clear a field with a small backhoe as a punishment for being late to class that morning...holy buckets! If Eric and I had that punishment for being late to school we would have cleared a route to Lincoln and back! Yeah, this kid shrugged it off like, "huh that's what I get" type of thing; I was stunned. Anywho, while he was clearing a patch of grass, I saw him stop, take a step back and to the side, then forcefully swing his shovel towards the ground and do so continuously for about a minute. I asked him what was going on when he stopped, and he told me very calmy, "oh there was a serpent." Upon closer inspection, I saw a wrigling little foot-long snake about a foot away from him.
I proceded to ask him if it was dangerous, but before he could answer one of the other students jumped over, looked at it and said something to my student (Pelinliwa - his name). The look on his face afterwards said more than he could explain. The next words out of his mouth, translated for your convenience, were "I could have died." He then explained that the snake had enough venom to kill him before the sun set, which was roughly an hour away. Oh boy! Needless to say I was jumping around the already cleared sites at the slightest movement from a blade of grass! Pelinliwa picked up the snake with a stick and tossed it into the woods, and went back to clearing the field in a much more amusing, yet understandably so, cautious fashion.
After he finished, we walked to his house and then went to the market for some food!

Post Script. I now carry my snakebite kit everywher, even into Kara.

"These Shoes Ain't Got No Soul!"

So not much of note really happened on Sunday other than the usual wondering about football scores and things of that nature. Oh and there was another tribal dance to commemorate a local parish feast day, no biggie. That mass did last for 3 hours and I felt like I was gonna die in there, but at least there was some lively music throughout from the showchoir. 

But on Monday I went to school, taught my class (which is going slowly, but still going), chatted with the students, and was treated to some spicy spaghetti and yam meal that the students have the option of buying during their 30 minute midmorning break. I was having a good time talking with the students and joking around with them, but quickly became the subject of hoards of laughter as soon as I bit into a yam covered in the sauce only to realize that it was one of the spiciest things I had eaten to date. So much for having respect for the teacher! I spent the rest of break fanning my mouth off an chasing after the laughing students who lured me into the trap of spiciness.

After school, there was a large soccer match in the little clearing. Colin and I were much obliged to partake in it as the children have quickly realized that it is very beneficial to have BIG people on one’s team when playing against the lollipop guild munchkins. About halfway through the match, it started to rain. I told Colin that I wanted to stay because I love playing in the rain, and he was reluctant to stay with me. A short while after that I had some mud kicked up into my eye and ear while defending the goal and quickly ran to wash it out. No sinks or hoses here so I ended up standing under the roof of the school using the concentrated falling rainwater. I got most of it out I think, and managed to clean the rest of it out of my ear when I showered later that night… much much much later.

After that little episode, the rain started to pick up so Colin and I decided to call the game and head back to the monastery. The only problem was that we had our bags and school gear/clothes with us and no umbrella or raincoat. So we decided to run back to our rooms (1/4 mile away) and grab our stuff and then return with the waterproof items to protect our school stuff. It was a great idea and all the kids got a kick out of the two white guys sprinting down the road in the pouring rain. We briefly reminisced about our previous rain running experience on our way back, and bid a few “good evenings” in our sopping wet clothes to some of the chuckling monks only to reach our doors and realize that our keys were in our bags! Good work Greg!

So we ran back, got laughed at again by my students who were all freezing their balls off (Colin and I forgot that this is their winter as we were now shirtless since our shirts were already soaked and provided no protection for us from the elements). It was also on this return trip that I said we should be careful because “my shoes aint got no soul…and they aint got no rhythm and blues either!” Our soccer shoes are pretty much a piece of rubber held onto our foot by a piece of cloth, which gives one an excellent feel for the ball, but is not exactly a good running around over jagged rocks and sticks kind of shoe. We grabbed our keys and dashed back to the sounds of the bell signaling the commencement of mass. I told Colin, who had previously hurt his toe, that I could make the final trip and bring his stuff back. He was somewhat skeptical, but reluctantly agreed.

I sprinted back, again to the laughter of my students, who were now huddling in the corner of the room for warmth. I wrapped up mine and Colin’s things with the coats, to this time even more laughter, as the students thought it was absolutely ridiculous to be using a coat for a bag instead of a person, and jogged back. I was pooped! And the only thing that kept me in a quickened pace was the fact that a worker at the monastery handed me an umbrella to use on my most recent trip back to the school. Not a huge problem in the rain, in fact I even considered using it until a thought it over and saw a huge lightning bolt race across the sky! Yeah, better just accept the fact that I wasn’t really going to do anything for me at this point anyways. Oh I also profusely thanked my students for staying and keeping an eye on our things/protecting them from any prying eyes.

I made it back to the monastery in time to catch Colin on his way to mass (which had already started). I told him to pray twice as hard as I wasn’t going to make it in time. I ran down the hall to plug in my computer for the purpose of charging my ipod, which had died earlier that day and then went on to take a freezing cold rainwater shower in the dark, which was reminiscent of the polar plunges in Lake Sag. (clarification, I was already soaked from the God given shower, but had kicked up a ton of mud and rock, which made it necessary to actually soap up).

And to top off an already exciting and interesting night, we had a fruit salad for dinner! Colin and I finished off our platter and then half of another one. We felt slightly “piggish” but then thought of all the meals where we had eaten fluffed up cornflower. All feelings of piggishness were very quickly dismissed!

Tchouc!

So the first Saturday of every month is supply day, I think. Not totally sure on that, but I will find out in a month and let you know! As fortune would have it, I ran into Br. Johanas as he was passing out the soap, toothpaste (with an ungodly amount of fluoride), tp, laundry detergent, and razors. I made sure that Colin and I received plenty as we had previously been wandering around and asking anyone that we saw if they knew where we could find some. But now we have our own!

After obtaining the supplies, I spent the better part of my day cleaning and rearranging my room; if you can believe it. As my mom said, she called in the middle of my cleaning, “It only took you 22 ½ years and 3 continents to get you to do it on your own!” I will admit, it is amazingly helpful and satisfying to have an organized and clean room.

Later that night, Colin and I made our way to the rather small, but quaint market of Agbang. As we soon found out this, is essentially a let’s get together and drink tchuc (local beer) and eat food type of market. I don’t know how this had been going on right under our noses without us every knowing  about it! It’s like they tailored the market just for me: food, alcohol, and people! It was awesome, especially since many of the villagers have kids in the school. They were all very willing to send as much tchuc as we could drink our way along with a some huge smiles and amicable greetings.

I also had the pleasure of sitting back and watching Colin fumble around with his French when trying to bye some food. Even though I couldn’t hear anything, watching the exchange (words and looks of complete concentration from all parties involved, the exchange of (too much) money, the proceeding giving back of the money, the confused look on Colin’s face, the looking down at his hand with all of the money he had at the time (different value coins) and then the all-time favorite…looking at the vender and extending his hand so that she could pick the right amount out for him!) I had a little giggle fest along with a few of the villagers, but Colin got the last laugh because he came back with the most delicious fried piece of green bean based dough that I have ever eaten! It was amazing. However, before he got that last laugh in, he ended up biting into this cupcake shaped (I don’t know the French button for the hyphen so you’ll have to excuse me on that one) morceau of food. He had bought it thinking it was a pastry and didn’t realize until after he had bitten into it and seeing the interesting look on the villagers faces that he had just bitten into a huge hunk of cooking butter! LOL Oh never a dull moment here! That’s a lie, but the good moments!

So Colin and I skipped mass in order to pick up on some of the local customs and language at the market, but did manage to stumble our starlit way through the cornfields back to the monastery for supper. And surprise surprise, supper was this slimy gooey sauce with pate! Yummy, Colin and I ate the entire bowl of pate again and left the sauce untouched. But luckily Br. Blaise came to the unneeded rescue with another bowl of escargot! Colin and I had eaten the pot, rather joyfully knowing that we had eaten quite a bit at the market and figured that we would be good for night. Nope, on top of a full bowl of steaming mush, tchuc, and other assorted local foods, we had to try and eat an entire bowl of beady eyed little critters so as not to seem ungrateful or unwanting of the extra help, which we desperately needed on just about any other night! Needless to say, we had some uncomfortably full stomachs that night. But there were no vivid dreams so I am fairly certain that the nuts were the cause of my previous concerns.

Also, after dinner this night and before the escargot, I started speaking the one and two word phrases of Kabiya (local language, spelling is off though) and the monks got a huge kick out of it. I am pretty sure that Colin and I are now the punch line for a lot of harmless jokes because whenever someone says something that we don’t understand we always respond with one of two answers that don’t really have a translated meaning in English (aka I cant write them for you).

Some Quick Notes

So this post is a little old, but there are some funny quips in it that you might enjoy... it was supposed to be posted on  9/26

I am completely caught up to present time in the blog! Wahoo! Electricity is still out at the monastery and now the small backup generator used for evening mass is out as well so it is unlikely that many of my posts (for the forseable future) will be very long. As I stated at the beginning of this series of posts, life is going well. There are a couple of little humorous snipits of life that I will share with you now before I make you wait until next Wed for an update...

The football magazine that PopPop gave to me for the flight over here has become like a second Bible to me, I guard that thing with my life and have read it about 3 times over. Analyzing scores and schedules has become a main passtime of mine. That is how much I love college football.

The other day Colin and I were reading it and within about 5 seconds of sitting down Colin said "Oh Shit" with an absolute look of astonishment, jumped up and ran to the bathroom. I exploded with laughter and went to get him some tp, even he was laughing at the situation and the sudden urgency of nature calling. (I had his permission to post this)

That same night as fate would have it, there was a massive spider on the wall behind Colin. This thing was about the size of a silver dollar and freaking ugly. I notticed it during the final prayer and whispered to Colin, turn around slowly. He did and immediatley snapped forward and shook his head violently; I thought he was going to run out of the room. Turns out he has an immense case of arachnophobia! I giggled.

I think that's about it for now. The Huskers continue to give me hope and we are going to be 4-0 heading down to Manhatten on Thursday night! I am also reading some hype on a potential Hiesman candidate in Martinez? I picked a hell of a time to not be anywhere near a television! But anywho, go Huskers!

Oh and Mr. Swanson (haha, Tom) I would love to set something up with you for your class. I can't read my email right now which is why I am letting you know on here. But email me anyways with your ideas and I should be able to look them over next week!

Also dying chickens make the worst sounds ever! But no one here seems to be bother

Updates!

So the internet was down in Togo ( yes the entire country) for all of Wednesday, lucky me. But as you can see I made it in for a brief spell today! And oh has it been glorious...aka BIG RED trounced KState! Booyah! Ok so back to the blog updates from this past week...

So this past week has been rather fulfilling. I will start with a quick amendment to my most recent post regarding my daily life. After writing it I remember thinking that I made myself out to be the whiny little American who is used to living a rather laid back lifestyle and eating just about anything I wanted, when I wanted. Well… there are monks who feel the same way that we do! One night this past week we had a lunch of that dehieghdrated yam stuff followed by a dinner with pate and some sauce that was called gumbo, but it sure as hell wasn’t gumbo from the good ol’ south, no this was straight up slime with green beans and pepper. This was one of those meals where I was literally thinking that I would rather be gagged by a spoon than have to eat this. Colin felt pretty much the same way as the sauce was left untouched with the spoon lying neatly beside it, “oh great another hungry night” we were thinking, but during the meal one of the monks made somewhat of a show as he more or less threw a hissyfit at the food selection! He is in charge of the garden and was telling me on the way back to the house that we have more than enough food in the garden to make decent meals and also that there is a ton of escargot! Then the idea hit him, he told me to be outside my door in about 10 minutes. Uh oh, what did I get myself into this time?

I met him outside the door at the predetermined time to find him holding two spoons and a metal bowl. He made me a second dinner with escargot and other fixings from the garden! He looked around suspiciously before leaving and saying to leave the bowl outside my room when I was finished, I must admit that the thought did cross my mind to eat it right then and there, but I couldn’t not tell Colin, who had already gone to bed so that he wouldn’t be kept up by the ensuing hunger. We scarffed down the creepy eyed little snails and veggies before disposing of the evidence and hitting the sack for the night! Nothing like going to bed on an full stomach of African snails wondering if they had been cooked all the way through so I wouldn’t wake up in a few hours puking my guts out,

Luckily that didn’t happen. Also, the same monk who rather amusingly (all of the other monks were chuckling and patting him on the back/head) interrupted the meal also had a bag of nuts that he had picked from the garden; they were slightly sweet with a lingering bitterness that lasted for the better half of an hour. I couldn’t stand the after affect and bushed my teeth for about 5 minutes or so trying to get rid of the aftertaste. It didn’t work so I figured that I would take my mind off it by working on a few sudokus in the candlelight. Bad idea! For whatever reason, be it poor lighting causing eye fatigue, or the nuts/escargot after the meal making me go blind or trip out; I started to lose part of my vision. Oops, mom you weren’t supposed to read that. But yeah, I definitely could only see about half of the sudoku puzzle and the rest was all blurry. Sweet dreams Gregoir! Yeah trying to fall asleep while wondering if there is some obscure parasite or poison chowwing down on your optic nerve isn’t exactly a choice way to fall asleep! Which I will add, I did have some pretty vivid dreams that night, which were oh so strange, but there are no lasting effects of whatever it was that gave me that nice little scare. And yes mom, I have stopped doing sudokus by candlelight, so eyestrain is no longer a concern.

On a side note, that same monk who had the nuts has also been slipping us bananas under the table at lunch and also occasionally preparing a second meal of escargot (which is superb once you get passed the idea that the thing you are eating still has eyes and is watching you pick it up with your spoon: pictured at right). So the food situation has slightly improved.