Temple of the Python (Ouidah, Benin):

How do I explain this place…it was very simple and understated (not what you would imagine a temple to look like). There was a tree at the entrance of the temple that was over 400 years old and massive. The temple consisted of about 3 thatched roofed buildings what were used for prayers to pythons and were sacred, so entrance was not permitted and a python cemetery. The main building of this temple was a larger thatched roofed building that housed over 50 pythons…WOW!!!! It seems that the pythons are pretty inactive during the day and at night the door is left open and the pythons are allowed to roam around the city. The local people return the snakes in the morning!!! I will answer the question before you even ask…NO I did not touch or carry the pythons. I did, however, step into the pit…PROGRESS.

The most interesting part was the building directly across the street that towers far above the small temple and can be seen from the temple…the Catholic Church. According to the guide (who spoke English), the Python Temple was built in 1663 and the Catholic Church in 1909. The local people pray at the Catholic Church during the day and worship at the Python Temple at night. This was amazing to me: the co-existence of two religions among the same people. In a place where successful kingdoms existed for centuries, the slave trade suffocated the people for centuries, and colonial rule replaced African kingdoms and empires until the 1960s…I guess God is needed in massive doses from all sources to keep the spirits of the people above water.

Portuguese Fort (Ouidah, Benin):

This tour was given in French, so I had to rely solely on my limited French vocabulary and translations. The slaves who left this Portuguese Fort were sent to Brazil and took with them the religion of Voodoo, which can be found and practiced in present day Brazil. Many Brazilians can trace their ancestry back to Benin. This fort was a functioning post in the African Slave Trade until 1737…over 300 years. The fort has been restored into a museum. There are 13 rooms filled with artifacts found on the beaches or in the forest. There is an outdoor section of the fort that was used to store slaves for 15 days in heat, rain, and minimum food; if the slaves survived these 15 days it was determined they were healthy enough to make the journey.

After surviving the 15 days the slaves were chained together and marched to the “Point of No Return,” which is about 3 km. The “Point of No Return,” is where the slaves were told to forget their former lives and anything related to the past. I actually got the opportunity to walk the last 300 meters of the slaves’ journey…I was speechless and still am. Irony: This is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen and in this beauty so many souls were tormented and abandoned…in such beauty lies immense ugliness.

In 2001, a “Door of Return” was built for people returning back to their ancestry. I RETURNED!!!!!!! It is a feeling that I wish my ancestors could have experienced.

What is in a name???

Sunny Lady...Pretty Girl...??? I give you unitl the count of five to guess what these names are for...5...4...3...2..1...0...WRONG!!! These are names of sanitary napkins!! I was sitting in the van at the market waiting and I just happened to see a stand where the lady was selling feminine products. What baffles me is why in the world would someone or something give sanitary napkins such names...I know I am not only speaking for myself when I say, "I DO NOT feel sunny or preety during that time of the month!" So cut the crap and give them names that accurately describe how women feel...Pain Pads...Bloated Butt...Cranky Girl...just to name a few!
If you come up with a good one please share:)

Perspective

This morning I was included in a conversation with a parent and the dicrector of the school...in French of course...so the director did some translating for me. The parent was discussing the conditions of one of the local public schools. From what I could gather...in one class of students ranging from ages 5 or so to 10 there were 150 STUDENTS, 1 TEACHER, 1 CHALKBOARD, and 0 SUPPLIES (no books, pencils, chalk, etc). The government told the school that it did not have the funds to fund it...so there is no money. Normally the families are required to pay a yearly fee to send students to public schools, but I guess not in this case. Some of the high school students at my school will be going to do service work at there and will let me tag along...I have found my life's work!!!

I title this perspective because I constantly remember myself, as a teacher, complaining and moaning about school facilities, decreasing personal supply budget, and so on... Or watching the news and seeing that classrooms are overcrowded with 36 students, not enough books for each child, under qualified teachers, lack of attendence, and so on...

And here is a school with one very underqualified teacher, NO books or supplies (by the way there are no textbooks in the local schools...all notes from the blackboard), no bathroom facilities, 150 sets of parents who send their 150 students to this school, and the students are sent daily without complaint because they recognize that without EDUCATION there is NO PROGRESS...So you make the best out of what you have.

I shall say that we as Americans need to take some perspective, stop complaining, and recognize!

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!!!!

Going to the Bank--Only in Togo!!

Yesterday was the day I decided to conquer the bank on my own. I was armed with a French to English dictionary and my account information, and not to mention my very LIMITED French vocabulary. I had two reasons for going to the bank; #1. Deposit my pay check and #2. Transfer funds from my Togo account to my Bank of America account in the US. The first goal was acheived with minimul effort and a whole lot of pointing and gesturing. In order to achieve the second goal, however, I had to go to the main bank on the other side of town and meet with the ONLY lady who could help me. So today I go and meet with the lady who can transfer the money for me and it went well, despite the language barrier. Once again, a lot of pointing and gesturing. So far this sounds like just your average Togo bank visit...do not make that assumption so quickly. While I was sitting in the office with the ONLY lady in the entire bank who can help me, in walks a woman with a huge bag... To my surprise her bag was full of bootleg designer purses that she was attempting to sell to the bank lady (whose name I will not use for confidentiality reasons:-). These two women proceed to have a 10 minute exchange about the purses and their costs. Well...being the retail expert that I am I had to had my input, in French of course. So here I am at the main branch of a Togo bank, in the office of the woman in charge of international transfers and I am haggling the price down for this purse:-) Only in Togo.

2 Doctors in 2 Months

So here it is almost the end of my second month in Togo, an I was off again to see the doctor. The first time I saw the doctor he made a house call to the school... it turns out I had malaria. Before I continue, let me clarify soemthing for those of you who know me very well...YES !!I was taking my malaria medication, but I got sick anyway. It turns out that malaria is treatable and the drugs are very inexpensive (keep in mind that the average monthly take home for a teaching assitant is less than $200 US dollars). Where it may be afforable for me...it is not necessarily affordable for the average Togolese. Malaria only becomes life threatening when left untreated.

So today I was off to see a doctor in a clinic around the corner for doctor visit number 2. During the visit the doctor did what doctor's usually do: temperature, ENT check, and blood pressure...the normal routine...except she speaks French and I speak English. What a visit!!! Between our limited vocabularies I was able to understand what medications she prescribed and the dosages. So now I am on some medication and feeling much better.

Let's get down to the real question: How much did this cost, since I do not have health insurance... the fisrt visit (house call...yes there are doctors that still make those) cost me 13000 francs, which is about $28 US (this included a blood test for malaria). The second trip cost me 5000 francs, which is about $11 US. Crazy huh???? US health care is through the roof and you get the same treatment and medications (I m referring to primary healthcare). Last but not least, the prescriptions today cost about $15 US dollars. Total I spent $26 dollars to have this sinus infection diagnosed and medicated...I love Africa!!! I can afford Africa!!!

My Babies and Me

So these are my babies. Please do not tell them I refer to them as babies...they would be so offended. Being a baby is so not COOL!!! Right now I have nine students, that range from the ages 2-4. These children are from all parts of the world: Togo, Nigeria, India, and America. The interseting thing about them is they see no racial or cultural differences between them. The differences they see are height, weight, hand size, etc. When do we condition kids to recognize cultural and racial differences??? I have a little red head girl from America, who has come to Africa and obtained two husbands (aren't kids funny...they immulate whatever they see at home) one husband is Indian and the other is Togolese. If only we could be children and see deeper than race, religion, and culture...maybe LOVE WOULD CONQUER ALL. And this is why I love children.

Outside My Bedroom Window

When you look out your bedroom window what do you see???
I see:
A boy retrieving water from a well
A mother bathing her daughter in a metal bowl
A woman chasing chickens to preapre for dinner
A clothes line covered in freshly washed clothes

What do you hear outside your bedroom window???
I hear:
A father speaking with his son
An Alicia Keyes song blaring on the radio
A group of kids laughing and playing
A rooster that crows from 4:30 AM to 8:00 AM (Mother natures most reliable alarm clock)

Things We Take For Granted

Imagine this...You just get out of bed and you have 45 minutes until you have to be at work. You stagger to the shower with your eyes half shut and get into the shower. Mid way through the shower just when you are good and lathered...the water stops flowing through the spout. You start turning knobs, but nothing seems to work. What do you do next???? This is my life in Togo. It is very common for the running water not to run at any point during the day or night. It is also common for the electricity to stop electrifing (I know this is not a word, but it works here). You are sitting at the table enjoying a nice meal and the next thing you know... pitch black.

Rolling blackouts and limited water are very common here. I realized how much I took running water and electricty for granted (as long as a paid my bills). Very few things in life are guaranteed; water and electricty are not on that list (at least here in Africa).

Public Transportation... or NOT!

Well, my time here in Lome has surpassed a month and guess what... I am still here and loving it. But in true Shelley style I have had a few close calls. My biggest issue has been with the public transportation system here, or shall I say lack there of. There are 4 modes of transportation here in Togo: by foot, by personal vehicle, by taxi, or by moto-taxi (motorcycle). This my seem very normal to the average person, but Lome has forever changed me. I have no desire to EVER own or drive a personal vehicle here (and I consider myself a pretty good driver) because traffic signals and signs are of mere inconvience here. The way in which people drive here is so amazing it is a wonder there are not more accidents. I would say traffic laws are obeyed about 50 percent of the time. The only reason they are obeyed the other 50 percent is because the police are in the area. But do not be alarmed... if you get pulled over by the police very rarely will you receive a traffic violation because in true Togo style you can buy your way out of it for a whopping 500 CFA, which is a mere 1.20 or so :-) Only in Africa... I love it. My personal perference for public transportation is the moto-taxi!!! The cost for transportation is very inexpensive. For example to catch a taxi to the US Embassy from where I live is about 2000 CFA (about 4.50) and to catch a moto-taxi it is about 500 CFA (about 1.20). These prices inclde the general price inflation for Americans with little to no French vocabulary.