Stiltwalkers

I come back from the states and manage to catch a stiltwalking festival in my regional capital. Enjoy the photos.

Overall, my trip home to the states was great. Seeing friends and family from all over was fantastic. I dreaded answering the same questions over and over about my service, but seeing how interested you all were, it really wasn't that bad. I enjoyed all the questions and telling you about life as a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa. The one thing I forgot about the United States is that people generally don't like talking about diarrhea (which is contrary to Peace Corps Volunteers), so I had to stop my stories short a few times. Also it appears all most of you wanted to know is how I could have possibly eaten dog, which is something I still struggle to answer myself.

I hope everyone doesn't think Africa has "changed" me too much (unless it was for the better). At times I felt indifferent about things at home; what movie to see, what restaurant to eat at, what bar to drink at. But by then of my American sojourn I remembered one of those many truths Peace Corps makes you realize: We don't love the places we go and the things we do as much as we appreciate the people that are a part of those things. It was a sincere pleasure seeing everyone.

Things to look forward to in my second year of service:

Togolese Presidential elections in February. Emergency plans are in place in case of any kind of unrest occurs. Things should be suspenseful. I personally don't follow politics here and am not able to opine on anything. But I hope things go as smoothly as possible.

My parents visit in June.

I help complete the school in my village. More info on this to come in the next month.

I eat more weird stuff. This is pretty much inevitable.