(Kara, Togo) Helmet day!

Some of you already know this, but for those of you that don’t-I have spent the past month riding around Togo on motorcycles and commuting to work on a bicycle that I bought. Normally, at home, I love helmets, maybe even a little too much. They happen to be extremely rare in Togo, however, while motorcycles are extremely common. I kind of enjoy riding around without the helmet at this point, except when we ride up the mountain or even around town where there are many rocks. (The people that live in this region of Togo are Kabiye or Kabire, which means “people who stack rocks”. Its very rocky.) After a month of riding helmetless, however, I have a helmet! It came up with a car of people coming from Lome today. (along with my swimsuit and a cord so that I can try to upload some pictures).

In other news, I thought I might share with you all my culinary experiences here. At home, I love fufu. I was disappointed when I realized that it is not fufu season in Kara. At least I caught the end of mango season! Mangoes here are enormous and sweet and currently 40 cents each (they were 20 when I arrived, but now they are going out of season and have to be brought in from Benin, which is really close but still doubles the cost).

As it is not fufu season, it is pate/moto/mutu season. You can pretty accurately translate pate to the english word “paste.” It is literally flour and water mixed together. If youre lucky, the flour comes from corn. Mine doesn’t. Then you dip the paste in one of many sauces. I get it all the time for meals here. I was sick last week and was unable to eat very much for a few days, so they have started trying other things on me because they think I don’t like eating pate all the time. I only get it about once a day now. And I do LOVE the other food they are trying on me. For those of you who havent been to west africa, the couscous here is finer than what you find in north africa, and I’m pretty sure it comes from millet. Its delicious with spicy red sauce (tomato based, that’s all I know). You can also get it in sour yogurt and add sugar for a dessert called degue here, thiakri if you are in Senegal, and maybe other things in other places? It is also pretty delicious. Some nights, like last night, we get rice and beans! Those are good nights. Snack food here is interesting. I liked these spicy crunchy peanut butter sticks until I got sick and now I cant bring myself to eat them. I do still like their version of peanut brittle though, which is much nicer on your teeth than our version. More peanuts, less sugar (but still really sweet). There is tofu! Eaten as a snack, not as part of a meal. I eat it in the city, but was warned not to at market day in the village. It is really hard for me to turn down tofu, and the market tofu looked so good soooo…then I was sick, maybe it really was the tofu.

There is a local beer here made from sorghum that EVERYONE drinks. Even the children. Women make it at home and then sell it. If the husband wants some, he must pay for it. Its free for cermonies (which happen all the time) and at the end of a day of working in the field in the village. All of the men work one field together and then the household that they have worked for provides that evening’s beer. It doesn’t cause hangovers. A great way to drink it is to take a bite of a hot pepper, a chunk of salt, and a sip of beer. This is common in the village. Margarita anyone?

As for what I’m doing here-still working in the clinic (and actually working with things to do at this point!), playing in an orphanage (or teaching english? depends on what you want to call it), taking Wednesday afternoons off to hang out with some americans by the pool and speak english for a few hours (it is still summer vacation, right?) hitting up the mountains on the weekends, and balancing between being served by my host siblings and being friends with them on a day to day basis. Kara is still lovely.