Making the Adjustment: Petit a Petit

Hello friends and family!!! Its taken me a while to send another email out because the internet cafe in this town always seems to be closed or when its open, the server just suddenly goes down, so checking my email has been very frustrating these days. The lack of communication is kiling me slowly but surely!!! Anyway, lots of things have been going on...Last Wednesday we moved from Lomé to Adéta, where we met our host families and officially started our training program. My family is great! I have a mother, Maman Jeanne, a father Pere Honkpo, 2 sisters, Gentille 18 and Cheritta 23, and 3 brothers, Koffi Dodgi 21, Komi Jean 12, and Ametepé 8. On the day that I met them, I was completely overwhelmed by their hospitality immediately. I dont think Ive ever seen people more excited to see me or more welcoming of me EVER! The mother is a schoolteacher and the father also teaches, but he works at a school in another village and is only home on the weekends. He just recently got promoted to the position of headmaster, which means hes the director of the math department at the school. All of the kids are very smart, theyre all in school, even the girls, which is somewhat rare out here. Communicaton between us can be tricky now because right now my French is basic but luckily Koffi Dodgi speaks a little English, so we find a way to get the point across. They have a yard full of animals, its a bit overboard, even for out here... theyve got a cat, 4 dogs, chickens, roosters, ducks, goats, and a turkey!!! And they used to have pigs too!!! Sleeping at night is definitely a challenge, and even with earplugs in, the roosters and goats wake me up every morning at 4:30 on the dot. My diet was a bit of a problem for my host family up until yesterday. Im not eating any of the meat at all out here just because the markets here arent among the most sanitary places in the world, and I really am trying to take all precautions to prevent getting sick. Yesterday the directors of the program had to come to my host mom's house to actually show her what kinds of foods she should cook for me, and how to properly clean and treat my water and vegetables when she cooks with them. I had been getting sick because she wasnt cleaning the vegetables properly and she was just using the untreated water from the well to cook with... YUMMY, right? Now all that has been resolved though and so Im hoping things will be better in that department from now on. We do have electricity right now, but theres no running water, so everytime I need water, yes I have to throw a bucket down the well and pull it up! I can deal with the lack of running water and the cold water bucket baths now, but something I know Im never gonna get accustomed to using is the latrine. Its gotta be the nastiest thing Ive ever seen, and just the smell alone is enough to have me on the next plane back to the states. The latrine is their version of a toilet, but its pretty much nothing more than a fancy hole in the ground that you have to squat over everytime you have to use the bathroom... theres no flushing and all toilet paper must be put in a basket on the side. Very unsanitary! But hygiene here isnt of much importance to very many people it seems. Theres no sink to brush your teeth, you just spit right there on the ground, if you actually do brush; I dont think anybody in my host family does because when they were showing me around on the first night, they didnt know what I was talking about when I was asking about where ! I was supposed to brush my teeth. I said it in French so they shouldve understood; but they didnt get the hand motions either, so Im not so sure what they do yet. I do have to sleep under a mosquito net, and theres no way Id ever sleep anywhere here without one. Its the best thing to have out here because it keeps all the bugs out of the bed, not just mosquitos. My family is Baptist, and they are very religious. I went to church with them on Sunday that was interesting, but not that much different from what you would see at a Baptist church in the states. The musical instruments and the choir were the main differences. Im gonna try to go to some traditional African ceremonies while Im out here too, just to witness it and experience it for myself. Yesterday we went to visit an elementary school out here, and that was definitely an eye opening experience. Theres about 90 kids in each classroom, with one teacher to maintain order. Everything is so strict, it almost reminds me of military type discipline, but the kids are very well behaved and focused in class. The teachers will use corporal punishment out here if not. There's definitley a huge majority of boys in the classrooms, especially when you get to the higher levels. Girls are the ones that end up having to help out with the housework or they get married early; its just not a priority for a girl to actually go far in school here. (Thats part of the reason my program was created) I'll write more soon, I should get off the computer because theres a line of people waiting to use the internet, and I know what that wait is like. I hope everyone is great, and I hope to hear fro! m you soon! Write me! If you send packages, keep them small because Im hearing its expensive. They also say that getting the insurance isnt worth the money.
My address is:
Erica Rachal
Corps de la Paix
BP 3194
Lomé, Togo
West Africa
Take Care!!! I miss you all!!!