Togo looks like what you would expect any Sub-Saharan country to look like. Even the capital city of Lome is impoverished, dirty, and disorderly. It's sad seeing just how corrupt things are, especially politically. Things around here are not moving forward as they should. There used to be a train here, which facilitated the transportation of goods and made things more affordable, but is now just an abandoned railway system. The craziest thing about it all is that Togo neighbors Ghana, which is another world and apparently the envy of western Africa. Oh and there are approximately 300 volunteers in Ghana and only 3 in Togo with my program. After visiting Accra, I know exactly why. It's clean, organized, there are no motorbikes, and though it kind of reminds me of a bad 90's hip hop video, it is very lively and enjoyable. Oddly enough though, I am really happy here and didn't find it difficult to adjust to the conditions. I lucked out because my living conditions are amazing relative to what I've seen and even compared to what other volunteers have. But I did have a really bad episode last night of explosive diarrhea and vomiting AT THE SAME TIME! Didn't know I could do that.
Mercy Children's Home is the orphanage to which I was assigned. I was really shocked when I arrived and saw the horrible conditions that the children were living in even knowing I was in Africa. The main problem here is that, unlike other orphanages I visited, this particular orphanage does not have a sponsor and thus no consistent financial support. My host mother, whose husband is a pastor, takes out loans and uses the money from the church to help as much as she can. The worst part about it all is that the government has stipulations requiring an orphanage to have one worker per certain amount of children, an accountant (lol), and a security guard if they are to receive financial support from them but despite meeting these requirements, the government does not provide. I initially contacted my mother asking to borrow money which I planned to donate but when she sent the money she told me I wouldn't have to pay her back and to accept it as a donation. After that she began emailing me telling me that people were interested in what I was doing and that they wanted to donate. My guess is she wasn't very subtle because we received almost $2,500!
Twenty-five hundred dollars may not seem like much given that there are 96 children at the orphanage but the money has come a long way. When I arrived I counted 61 bed frames, only 36 of which were being used. Most people slept on the floor. I asked why the beds were not being used and they told me that 1) they don't have mattresses, 2) no wood to lay across the frames to support the mattresses, and 3) no money for either. I decided to put some of the money towards this in order to give as many of the children possible a bed to sleep on. I asked my host mother to get several proposals in an effort to avoid Yovo (white person in Ewe) pricing.
Next day I come in and find one of the orphans standing over the carpenter holding a flashlight as he cut and measured wood in the dark. When I asked why they told me there was no electricity because they didn't have lightbulbs, working ballasts, or money to hire an electrician. This became to-do item #2.
As soon as the bed repairs were finished I started item #3 which was to find mattresses. Things worked out well when I met Nader, a Lebanese guy who worked importing products from Germany, at the local fast-food joint called Al Donald's (hehe).
I told him what I was doing at the orphanage and he told me that his uncle who works at the port just received a container filled with second hand mattresses. I immediately went to check them out and after some begging, flirting, and exaggerated story-telling, was able to get them for a really good price. It was cool to see how excited everyone at the orphanage was to receive the not-so-new stained mattresses because they were still better than anything you could find around here and better than their inch thick foam padding.
I was only able to buy 28 because this was the amount of bed frames which could hold that particular sized mattress. This worked out okay because we gave them to the oldest orphans, who gave theirs to the younger kids, who then gave theirs to the kids who slept on the concrete floor.
When I first arrived there were 78 children but in my third week 18 new kids arrived from an orphanage in the north that could no longer support itself. They arrived with only the clothes on their backs and no shoes. They have never attended school and are completely illiterate, not even speaking French. The worst thing about this bunch was the maladies they came with...all of which Google helped me diagnose. Tinea Capitis (very proud of this one) - the kids had strange white spots all over their heads and one had ringworm on his forehead.
They also had some questionable sores/open flesh wounds all over their limbs and I noticed two weeks after their arrival that they were not healing or scabbing.
There was one boy who really got to me. He is slightly mentally challenged, walks around all day looking lost, sobbing, and saying "mama" as snot runs down into his mouth.
He also has one of those huge swollen bellies you see on the Feed the Children commercials, which is from malnutrition. I noticed how he behaves around food, eating like he's eating for 3 but never feeling full. The caretakers (called Mothas) told me he poops multiple times a day all over the house because he's never used a toilet. My guess was he had some type of worm in his stomach. They are now trying to potty train him by sitting him on a plastic cereal bowl as there is ONLY 1 WORKING TOILET FOR 96 PEOPLE!
It gets better, they don't use toilet paper and instead rip pages out of their notebooks to wipe themselves. Nice.
There's another boy who I was told is 13 years old but honestly doesn't look a day over 6. Story is he was dropped off at the orphanage 11 years ago and they then guessed his age to be 2. His parents were drug addicts, which I cannot understand because I'm not sure where they would get the money. Nobody here even drinks or smokes. Anyway, I decided to spend some of the money on treating these kids so I called Julia, another volunteer with my program (Projects Abroad), and asked for her help since she is going to medical school and volunteering at a hospital. I scheduled the doctor she works for, who by the way was educated in the Congo (my thoughts exactly, he must know what he's doing), to come and diagnose the children and see what needs to be done.
He gave the children with the Scabies-looking sores a Tetanus vaccine and prescribed loads and loads of medicine.
My favorite part of the day was giving them rectal suppositories.
We also bought some emergency inhalers for two asthmatic teenagers, gave one boy with a rash all over his face an anti-inflammatory, and gave one boy with severely chapped lips aloe chapstick. We also stocked up on supplies such as alcohol, iodine, cotton, gauze, Neosporin, and Bandaids. We are now continuing the rectal meds and repeatedly cleaning the infected sites and our efforts have proved successful. The Tinea spots are almost gone, the Scabies-looking sores scabbed finally, and the boy with the huge appetite is now a much happier, less crappy, dancing machine!
Julia also just wrote Projects Abroad asking them for money in order to vaccinate the children because they apparently aren't. They agreed to give us 250,000 CFA which is only about $545. Not good considering there are 96 kids. Julia's boyfriend has an uncle here who buys meds from France and is working with us to get us a discount based on our order size. We decided the most important to be Polio, Meningitis, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, and Tetanus but don't know yet what we will actually be able to afford. Still waiting to see what happens...
Some random expenditures: Gave the secretary and director about $15 each to buy office supplies thinking it would only buy a few items but they came back with 2 duffel bags filled with supplies. They were elated to have a working stapler. $30. Spent some money having 4 huge aluminum trash cans constructed because they were just piling the trash in a corner of the lot. So disgusting because there were rats everywhere and the infants would play with the garbage. Bought some electrical wires and hired a bricklayer to repair the fallen poles that supported the clothesline.
Bought some Brillo pads and sponges so that they could properly clean the pots, pans, and dishes. Also bought sponges so that everyone could properly wash themselves at bath time, which is my favorite time of day because there are about 20 naked big-bellied African kids at one time and about 5 of them cramming into one sink to bathe as the one shower is reserved for those who have already reached puberty.
Had the locks changed on all the doors for privacy and security reasons, and so that the toddlers don't mess with the older kids' belongings.
Storage was also a problem and the main reason why the place looked like such a dump. There was nowhere to put their belongings but the floor so I hired a carpenter who built HUGE shelves for each room.
Then bought paint and repainted the exterior walls and some of the rooms to make the place feel and look better. And yes, I actually painted. They loved it.
Bought some cement and hired another bricklayer to spread it on the dirt floor where the laundry is washed so that the clothes could actually stay clean. They then let me carve my name into it and woah was I happy because I always wanted to do that.
The Mothas also fold themselves in half like on TV to sweep the floors with a hand broom. Not being able to touch my toes I gave them $2 and they bought 5 brooms with poles. 
The morning that school started two children were left at the orphanage because they didn't have shoes. I went to the market and bought some sandals, each pair only costing me 54 cents. Another problem is that there is no money to buy uniforms or books for the kids and if they don't find the money by Monday, they will all be sent back to the orphanage and not allowed to attend school. I then decided I wanted to do something fun so I took the oldest boy to the nicest sports equipment store around and bought a $30 soccer ball and $30 basketball. This was a huge hit with the teenage boys who were slightly bitter at the attention I gave the little ones. The boy who accompanied me wrote me an email in which he said he never imagined touching a ball that cost 15,000 CFA. I didn't want to buy a cheaper ball because around here they just glue the balls back together but then they pop after only a few kicks. I also bought some balls for the toddle
rs.
One morning was really bad at the orphanage. It was about 11am when I realized that the kitchen that never stops was empty, that all the kids were lazy and quiet. I was told that it was because there was no money for firewood so they couldn't cook. I gave them $6 to buy wood for the week and sugar for the porridge. Breakfast was served! This brings me to the worst thing about the orphanage. The food. It's awful and not just from the perspective of a spoiled American kid. It's really, really bad. The only things they ever really eat are porridge, FouFou (kind of like mashed potatoes made from Casava), and corn. It's usually the same thing three times a day.
Another morning while taking a 44 cent motorbike to work, I began to talk to the driver about my work here and he asked how he could help (probably in hopes that I would marry him and give him a life in America) so I gave him some ideas and later that afternoon he arrived in a car with 4 huge garbage bags filled with clothing. I managed to snag a pair of Marks & Spencer pants that nobody wanted but I loved. Women around here don't wear pants.
Yesterday was also great because Nader from Al Donald's came by the orphanage and donated some money for miscellaneous things and asked what else needed to be done at the orphanage. They don't have enough seating for everyone and so benches has become the next thing on the to-do. The boy is going to pay for the construction of some of the benches but not all because he doesn't have that much money.
I also befriended the only English-speaking and only motivated teenager at the orphanage who spends all his time reading and studying even though school was not in session. I asked what he was studying and he told me he copied the lectures from his friends who attend university. I asked him if he was going to go to school when the session starts and he said not this year because he was waiting for his father (who apparently cannot support him living at home but can support his 3 siblings) to get money. This situation sounded all too familiar to me and so I wanted to help. I gave him about $109 which covers his tuition for 4 years. He cried. Then the downside... the school held an orientation meeting in which they dropped a bomb that this year school books are not included and everyone must come up with another $113 to pay for them. I already ran out of money at this point so I'm not sure what he will do now. School started this week and he could not attend because no books = no school. He is an amazing individual who wants to do big things for Togo. He and some friends are putting proposals together in order to clean up the streets by doing small things such as installing garbage cans, so I put him in touch with my friend and old roommate from Spain who does a lot of work with NGOs. They've already started Skyping and it seems that something may actually come of this.
As far as my experience here goes, it's been amazing. My host family, despite their radical Christian beliefs and practices (they do the whole speaking in tongues/eyes in the back of their head/hands in the air thing), has been really friendly and accommodating. I had 4 roosters directly outside my window which "cuckadoodledood" at all hours of the night and when I asked them to move them to another part of the house, they served them for dinner. Excellent and tasty solution. I still cannot speak French but can understand way more than I did before. My job at the orphanage didn't change much. Still handwashing clothes, picking bugs out of the grain, teaching English, helping with the dishes, and in the afternoon organizing games. I am however running out of ideas so have resorted to showing off my tongue tricks, spit tricks, and finger-bending abilities.
I have fallen in love with the kids. I want to take about 20 of them home with me and no, not to employ them but because I actually like them. They are not like the kids at home who you have to spoon feed until they're 12 and hold their hand to cross the road. These kids are extremely self-sufficient from early on. They prepare their own food...I'm talking like a 3 year old putting firewood under the pot and heating his soup. They also dress themselves, do their own laundry, and walk unaccompanied to school. There is one boy who cannot walk as a result of a birth defect which left him with crippled legs.
School started last week and I'm an English teacher. I hate teaching, why would anyone ever sign up for a job like this? I'm inpatient and strict. They listen to me though which is nice. They have no choice because when they don't I call on the other teachers who help with a bit of whoop-ass! They use wooden rulers to smack the hands, pull the ears, pinch the arms, and sometimes even use a rubber whip... The school is ugly. No lighting just the bit of natural sunlight that penetrates through the holes in the tin roof and on rainy days it's chaotic. Best day I had there was the day I excused myself to the toilet and the door doesn't lock properly so I slammed it shut thinking the uneven rocky floor would hold it closed. When I was finished I tried to open the door only to realize that one of the kids had locked it from the outside (cuz it always makes sense to have a lock on the outside of a bathroom door?). It gets better. It started pouring rain, worse I've seen here since I arrived, and so everyone ran back inside the classrooms. Problem was that the bathroom is practically outside the premises of the school and with the noise from the rain, nobody could hear me yelling. I waited a few minutes then decided I had to get out so I climbed the walls using what little upper body strength I had and managed to get out only to drop my sandal as I was landing and so stepped in the urinal. Fabulous.
Randoms: My favorite pick up line from a woman in the streets in Ghana, "I'm a feminist, more or less a lesbian, and I think you're sexy". Cool huh? What else...hmm...oh the cockroaches never went away so Nader gave me some special roach killer from Lebanon so you know it was effective lol.
My favorite thing about Togo is the beach. Took a weekend trip to a beach near the border to Benin and also visited a lake. So nice! Strangest thing is that the Africans apparently have a fear of the water and not only don't know how to swim, they won't go anywhere near the water and so the beaches are really, really clean and empty. Oh and the best week for me for sure was when another volunteer named Ben sent Julia and I a box of "British" chocolates upon returning home.
My favorite shoe brand: Bootleg. Favorite imitation: Nkee (instead of Nike).
Another funny story - the other day I was just chilling, talking to some of the kids and I leaned on one boy like I do on all and a few minutes after he stood up with an erection that was obvious to everyone. He was mortified. I was flattered and realized he was slightly older than I thought. That gave me the idea to give a sex ed class. I was so excited! So I did it this afternoon with Julia's help and it went really well. The kids knew nothing, some didn't even know what sex was, or masturbation, or even contraceptives, and others were told that sperm had nutritional value. After our speech and the explicit visuals (thanks to Google Images), they all now know that if they have sex they will die.
The Christians are not happy with me because they wanted me to preach abstinence which obviously didn't happen. They also don't believe in using contraceptives and say there's no point since everyone is saving themselves for marriage...right and that's their solution for curing AIDS in Africa? Crazy story - Julia was at the hospital the other day when a 20 year old boy walked in asking for a check up, all the normal stuff; cholesterol, weight, height, etc. Then the phone rang and it was his girlfriend telling the doctor to check him for AIDS. He tested positive. Doctor told him and Julia said there was no reaction. He just sat there staring for several minutes. Tough huh? Oh and here when a woman goes into labor she has to arrive at the hospital with her own supplies as the hospital cannot provide anything. They sell a kit at the pharmacies.
Oh and there was one story I left out because I didn't want to worry my mom early on: On my first night in Togo, one of the workers at my home (previous orphan at Mercy until he turned 18) knocked on my door and so I told him to come in like I did with all the other children at home. So, he comes in, locks the door behind him, comes really close to me, and proceeds to tell me, in French, that from the moment I arrived he cannot stop thinking about me and how he has to be in a relationship with me because he cannot control his desires. Freaked out and not knowing what to do, I pretended I didn't understand his French and asked him to write it down (with intentions of having proof to show my host family). I then panicked and ran out of the room using the excuse that I was thirsty. I immediately told another pastor who frequented the house what happened and to appease me told me not to worry, that he will talk to him, and that he can assure me that he won't do anything like that again because I was not worth the risk of him losing his home/job. Always words a girl wants to hear.
~Transition back to the purpose of my email~
On behalf of Mercy Children's Home, I would like to thank all of you for your generous contributions. I am also thankful that you all took an interest in what I was doing. Your gifts have made many things possible at Mercy and have dramatically changed not only the conditions of the orphanage but the lives within. Your donations were sincerely appreciated by all 96 children, the employees, my host family, and of course by me. I can also assure you that every dollar was spent appropriately as I made sure to pay for everything myself.
I do have one last request though and hope it doesn't sound greedy. You all have done plenty by contributing but I have 2 weeks left here and want to do as much as possible so if you can ask your friends or families for any additional help that would be amazing. I want to buy books for the one boy, I want to build all the benches, I want to buy uniforms and school books for the children, mattress protectors because all the kids wet the beds and continue sleeping on the dirty mattresses, and would love to appropriately vaccinate all of the children. If anyone is interested, my mother can arrange to get the money here.
Thanks again for your generous support of my efforts here in Togo!
