HOT!!!

Where do I begin to attempt to explain the intensity of the heat in Lome this time of the year. The weather is currently in the dry season and man it is hot. The mornings and evenings are cool (80 degrees F or so) and all the time in between is well over 100 degrees F. Even the water at the pool is consistantly warm... When I walk to work I feel as if I am walking in the misdt of fire sometimes. I start the trek to school with huge smile plastered across my face...7 minutes later that smile is turned upside down and I am suffering from heat stroke. For those of you who now me very well get a hold of this...I sweated through a shirt. I mean dripping wet...like I just stepped out of the shower. Now I know why some people here change clothes two to three times a day (unfortunately I do have this luxuary as I only brought enought clothes for 10 days):-)

Outside My Window Part Duex

As I rise from my daily nap, I hear the most bizarre noise. The sound was a mix between a rooster crowing and a baby crying...so being the "curious" person I am I peep out the window to check out the situation. I will give you one guess about what I saw when I went to the window. You have until 5: 1...2...3...4...5. Okay here it goes... two men were tying together the legs of a goat and the goat was crying out in agony. It took about two minutes for me to register why they would be tying up the goat in such a manner...well it soon became very appartent what was happening before my very eyes. If you already have not figured it out...after tying up the goat, the two men proceeded to cut the goat's throat and drian out the blood.

At first I was a bit disgusted by this whole scene, but then I had to remember the journey the beef cubes had to take to get in the rice I ate for lunch. This is a part of the process I stayed voluntarily ignorant to until now. Reality: In order for me to live something had die!!! The circle of LIFE!

Saturday at the Market

6 plates = 800 CFA
24 rolls of pink two-ply toilet paper = 3600 CFA
4 dishwasing sponges = 900 CFA
1 block of dark chocolate infused with coffee beans = 1200 CFA
4 advacados = 350 CFA
1 sweat soaked shirt after spending 5 hours in 100+ degree heat shopping = PRICELESS

Note: About 430 CFA equals 1.00 USD...YOU DO THE MATH

The Birthday Fund

As you all well know...my 28th birthday is fastly approaching and I am super excited. Every year my sisters (Courtney, Priya, and Adora) and I celebrate each others birthday by either purchasing or assisting in the purchase of a gift that we would normally never purchase for ourselves...i pods, Tiffany's jewelry, Ugh boots, and cell phones just to name a few... But this year year we have a taken a new step in the Birthday tradition. This year I have asked my sister not for a tangible gift, but rather CASH MONEY... This money will go towards funding the education of local children in Lome, Togo. Parents have to pay a yearly fee to send their students to public school, which are commonly overcrowded, under funded, under trained, under staffed and so on. The fees range from 10.000 CFA to about 25.000 CFA a year, which converts to about $20.00 USD to $50.00 USD per year. While this may seem like an insignificant amount of money, ponder this thought... most people here live on less than $1.00 USD a day. School is a luxuary not a neccessity! So the BIRTHDAY FUND has been created...This fund will provide school fees for as many students as possible here in Lome and in local villages. The fund will send students to school for the remainder of this year and next year. After pooling the birthday money together we have about $350, which will allow us to fund about 20 children or so( I know it is not much, but we have to start somewhere). We are always looking for more money, so if you would like to contribute to the BIRTHDAY FUND...let me know and I will tell you where to send the funds. I will keep you updated on the progress of the BIRTHDAY FUND. Thanks for your support.

Obama Just May Rule the World

Moment of Reflection... I went over to my friend, Juliette's, Aunt's house on Sunday. Juliette is Ghanain and her Aunt is from Togo. I spent about 4 hours there talking and learning!!! One of most interesting things I learned is the love for Barack Obama across the world. These women spoke of Barack Obama with such enthusiam, passion, and hope that I forgot they would not be voting in the election today. Despite this fact they have taken a vested interest in the outcome of this election...as they told me...Africa loves Obama!!!! I was told that Kenya (the country in Africa, not the girl next door:-) had a mock election today and Obama won by a land slide. America is on the world stage today and I hope we have a performance that will change the state of the country as well as the world!!!

Note: It is about 10:40 PM and Juliette just called me screaming with excitement. As I was riding to my friend's house tonight I saw four seperate TV stands (4 TVs per stand) on the streets with people gathered around waiting for the news. THE WORLD IS WATCHING!!!!