Heat, Hunting and Finding Happiness

Man, it's heatin up. The winter winds blowing down from the sahara subsided and last month became more humid and hot. We have had a few scattered rains here and there which has been nice, and the official rainy season begins in the next couple weeks. The humidity will get worse but at least I won't have to conserve water anymore.



I just finished In-Service Training so it was great to see all my friends from Pre-Service Training again. We partied every night and told hilarious stories about our lives so far. Everyone seems to be in good spirits but it was sad knowing that will be the last time together as a group. But I have finished my first three months at post which are supposed to be the hardest so I am staying positive about the future. My french continues to improve and I feel more and more comfortable in village each week. Some of the projects I am thinking about trying to start are:



Apiculture(beekeeping)

Alley-cropping to improve the soil

Environmental Ed. with a possible student garden

Moringa Tree Cultivation

Water Purification



It will be difficult. People do not have disposable income here to pursue new interests so one has to start small in terms of work projects and work up. Usually a volunteer's second year is done doing bigger funded projects, which I will then be asking for all of your help.



My health has remained pretty steady, for Togo at least. I have been fighting nasty heat rashes since it became more humid, as do all the volunteers. Plus every little bite or scratch makes me worry about infection and some times I am convince a bruise is actually a guinea worm about to explode out of my skin, but really I'm just paranoid.



My neighbor came home with an enormous dead snake the other day whiwh he killed with a stick. It was about as long as I am tall and as thick as my forearm at the elbow. It was black so I'm saying it was a Black Mamba to make the story better, because that night we grilled it up and ate it. There really is nothing better than little Mamba marinated with onion ginger pepper and a buillon cube. Good stuff, but hard to pick the meat of all its tiny little bones. My neighbor just ate the bones , even the spinal cord. It is my belief that Africans have teeth made of steel and stomachs of iron. Tomorrow I am going to try to post pictures. I don't yet know if I'll be able to but if not tomorrow than eventually.



So that was probably the coolest thing I've done in the last month and a half. Oh I ate bush rat too. It was kind of gross seeing the fur and tail still attached to the skin perched upon my pile of rice. But, hey, that's protein here. When my neighbor doesn't kill some exotic animal out in the bush, I basically live as a vegetarian.



It's crazy to think that next week is my six month anniversary in country. Time really is flying, even if some days are a little monotonous. I am never quite sure what you guys back home want to know, so if you have any questions write them in the comment section, and next time I will try to do a little question and answer thing with you. I'll leave you all with a quote from a second year volunteer who I talked with last week. I was discussing my first three months at post and I told him what I do for fun and how I pass the days. "That's what is so great about being at post," he told me, "you remember how to make yourself happy." And he was exactly right.

Remember how to make yourself happy. Because sometimes we forget, even when we think we haven't.