Patty's Weblog

I admit it, I collect chickens. (Is it because I am a chicken at heart? Is it because my mother collected owls?)

Well, not real chickens, at least I don't think so. I'm talking about decorative chickens, all over my kitchen.

So here I am with plenty of time on my hands so I decide to clean the soffit area in our kitchen. I take down the ceramic chickens that reside up there - some of them inherited from my mother - and dig into the difficult task of cleaning all the greasy grime from their myriad surfaces. The job is so tough that I clean one and then take a long break before I attempt another one. Slowly, clean and shiny chickens join each other on the opposite counter top.

I come to a point when I am almost done. Turning slightly, I glimpse something disturbing. There is a mob of chickens clustered on the counter . . . are they ganging up . . . is that a sinister look on the old rooster in front? . . . is he guarding his clutch? . . . why is that one hen so surprised?

. . . maybe it's time to put them back up on the soffit. Separated.



Click on this link for a past blog entry on my obsessive chicken collection and the Chicken God.

For a photo of the chickens back up on the soffit and a little techie photo talk, click on "read more" below.
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A few updates of interest:

When we toured the village, we said “this is so interesting, it should be an ecotour!” Well, Tammy has done just that: arranged several ecotours. This brings one more small business into the Tsevie area.

Becky decided not to bring her dog back to the US, but the carrier was used by some other PC volunteer.

Tammy’s bunnies had bunnies!



Tammy got a kitty, too. She said “it was stuffed into this cage with all these ducks, and I just had to bring it home.”

John and I realize that not only are we richer for the travel experience, we are stronger. We can travel to a place that is out of our comfort zone. We also realize how much we missed seeing the wildlife of Africa, like elephants and lions and monkeys. This isn’t Tammy’s fault, she offered us the option of going to Mole National Park in Ghana and we declined. But when we got home, a flyer offering a certain tour, arranged through the CU Alumni Foundation, came in the mail. We both looked at it at separate times, and then one evening looked at each other and said: “Let’s go!!!” So next May we are off to Africa, this time on . . .

Safari!

First post in the African trip series.

Africa. Before we traveled to Ghana and Togo, I thought of it as a large dark continent, full of unknowns, unknowns that could be dangerous. Now I can put a name on the dangers, like unsafe transportation, diseases, poor health care support, poisonous snakes and ants, but I also know that west Africa is peopled with kind, helpful, hardworking, and fun-loving people. The interesting people we met made the travel worthwhile. In general, the people are laid-back and friendly, and have a nice slow pace to life, similar to other cultures in tropical climates, such as Hawaii. We never felt threatened, we did not find the locals to be angry or mad or violent. Quite the contrary.

We just scratched the surface of learning about the culture of west Africans, and we liked it. I am so proud of my daughter for immersing her life amongst theirs, learning so much about their ways, and sharing with them some American ways, and helping them learn methods to improve their lives.

I could delve into the issue of the abject poverty that we saw. Are they happy living in the conditions? Yes, mostly, it seems; at least they were not angry. But they have few opportunities to change how they live. Could they, should they? We have such a wealth of ways in which we can spend our days, spend our lives. If we get sick, we can get medical attention. We have freedom of choice and lots of choices. We may get angry at our government, but at least it is not corrupt at every level. I don’t necessarily wish on the rich African culture the hectic, busy, consumer-goods-obsessed ways of Americans, but to me, never to have had the chance to study science, nor have a plethora of foods to choose from, nor be able to travel, nor have a daughter who can devote her life to whatever she chooses, nor have my son cured of cancer . . . I know where my heart is.

I used to think it would be easy to help pull Africa out of poverty. Just start opening factories there, why not? There are a lot of people there who need work. Well, the infrastructure is just not there. Roads, power, stable governments, sewage and trash systems; the issues are mindboggling. When we first got back from our trip, people asked us what we thought of Africa, and John and I both said “It’s complicated.”

And to those who say “the US is becoming a third world country” we say “uh uh, no way near it”. If that’s what you think, travel to one, and you will know.

We are glad we traveled to one, and especially that we traveled to west Africa. Our lives are a lot richer for the experience.

Epilogue.


First post in the African trip series.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel: good omelets, and some croissants that Tammy got from a place down the street, real coffee. While in the hotel restaurant, we saw Chris and Rachel, PC volunteers who are stationed north of Tsevie. (We had met Chris before at the marathon.) Freshly showered, Chris and Rachel would soon leave for the long trip up north to the villages that they are stationed in.

The hotel was close to the Togo-Ghana border, so we rolled our bags along the sidewalk next to the beach. At the border, we got through the typical passport/visa border rituals, and then walked to the tro-tro station.

This time, we found an actual bus to take us to Accra. It was large, pretty new, clean, had good shocks, had seat belts, and even a DVD screen. It sat probably 20 people. It took awhile to fill this bus - probably 45 minutes - before we could leave. During this time, of course the vendors are trying to sell us stuff.

One woman gets on the bus and in her bag is a chicken. Could that really be what I saw? Why yes, it soon squawked, proving it was there. What’s a trip to Africa without a chicken on a bus?

A little later we hear the apprentice arguing with one of the women on the bus. It went on for awhile. Finally they stopped arguing, and started stuffing a large matress onto the bus. Most of the people on the bus started laughing! This was rare, usually everyone just sat and endured whatever was happening.

So they get the mattress on, and it’s right in front of John, kind of vertical. For a long time, the driver played the same irritating music tape over and over. Then he put on a DVD, on a screen that John couldn’t see because of the mattress (no loss). The movie was locally produced and about a village and killings and witchcraft. Tammy says that this type of melodramatic film is quite popular.

The driver didn’t drive too fast, amazing. But the bus kept getting stopped by the Ghana police, who repeatedly pulled this one guy off the bus for questioning. The police carried guns, by the way. AK47s. Each time, the police checked this guy’s papers and then his bags in the back of the bus. Probably, each time the guy had to pay a bribe. Tammy said he was either Nigerian or a rastafarian.

One time the bus stopped, and everyone started getting off. Finally I figured that this is a “rest” stop. So I followed Tammy to the “restroom”. So far on the trip, when out in public I had always used a restaurant or bar’s toilet facility. And except for once, that meant an actual toilet. Only once was it a “urinal”, and that time, it was a private urinal. A woman’s urinal room is a tiled room, and along one side there is a trough. You are supposed to pull down your pants, squat down, and direct your pee into the trough. This time, I follow Tammy into the restroom facility, and plunk down a coin and am directed to a room that was a urinal. There are about 10 women there peeing. They are all wearing dresses. I start to pull down my pants and then just can’t do it. I went back out and paid more money and was directed to a real toilet. (Men in west Africa often just pee in the street, in the open.)

We hit traffic about 10 miles out of Accra. One time, there was an accident causing the traffic, other times it was just volume. Our flight doesn’t leave until 11 pm, so we aren’t in a big hurry for that, but Tammy had an errand to run for her PC site mate, Becky. Becky supposedly has a pet carrier waiting for her at a certain pet store in Accra and supposedly the pet store closes at 3 pm. (Becky has a dog that she wants to bring home with her to America in a few weeks.)

Tammy looked at a map and figured the general area of Accra the pet store must be in, and asked others in the bus where to get off. Before we are in the heart of Accra, the bus stops, and someone on the bus told her that this is our stop. People in Ghana are really helpful. We found a taxi, and the driver helped us find the pet store, even calling the pet store on his phone and asking strangers inside a local business. Again, helpful people.

We arrived at the pet store at about 2:30 pm. But they didn’t have a pet carrier. The salesgirl called her boss. Finally by about 5:30 pm, the boss came. In the meantime, we had drinks at a bar and then dinner across the street from the pet store. The time was well spent, as we were all together, enjoying food, drink, and conversation.

When the boss came with the pet carrier, he told us that he didn’t take Tammy’s Visa card (the whole point was that he was supposed to take Visa while Becky had been there and they didn’t take Mastercard). The guy was really nice, though, and offered to take us to an ATM so she could withdraw cash. Then, he drove us directly to the airport. That was awfully nice. We all got out and went inside the terminal.

Tearfully, we said good bye to Tammy.

John and I went to catch our plane for Dulles. Our plane left at 11:15 pm. As the plane rose off the runway, I gazed down at nighttime Africa, pale orange lights spotted through the city, and then just large areas of darkness.

Next: Africa, last impressions.

We left Tsevie in the early afternoon on Friday, right after the great tuna lunch at Tammy’s friend’s house. A taxi picked us up at Tammy’s house and took us all the way to the Hotel Phoenicia in Lome. No more bush taxis for us!

After we settled into our hotel room, we walked a couple blocks to the beach, and sat at a “bar” that was sheltered tables and chairs on the sand. As we sat and talked and ate a few snacks, hawkers kept coming by to sell us stuff. Tammy bought some DVDs. One guy was selling cigarettes and viagra. Yup, viagra.

Later, we walked to a restaurant for pizza. We felt kind of guilty for abandoning the food of the local culture, but we were hungry for something other than rice and sauce. We wanted cheese! We had to ask the restaurant workers to turn down the music. I forgot to mention this before, but the Ghanaese like to play loud reggae music through bad speakers. I like music, but it’s hard to hear over it when what you really want is good conversation.

The Hotel Phoenicia had TVs, hot showers, and even wi-fi. They also had a restaurant and bar. Our last night in Togo began a slow transition back to the creature comforts that John and I are so used to. We snuggled into the crisp sheets, cooled by a noisy but effective air conditioner. It's bittersweet, though. We know that tomorrow we have to say good-bye to Tammy.

Next: To the airport.

Tammy gave us a choice of several outings from Tsevie. We could have gone to a touristy spot to see waterfalls, and I think there was a place to see wild monkeys, but those both required longish tro-tro rides. So, we chose instead to visit a local village, just a couple miles away.

As a PC volunteer, Tammy works with the women in several villages to help build their pottery businesses into profitable enterprises. She has taken groups of these women to Ghana to learn pottery techniques. She also teaches them better business practices, such as how to keep track of costs and income. She is encouraging the village women to increase their efficiency by renting a cart to carry the pots to market in one trip instead of taking several trips, carrying them on their heads.

On Thursday, Tammy’s friend came with us on the excursion to the village. She served as an interpreter, since not all the villagers speak French. We took a taxi to the village, although Tammy usually rides her bike. (The PC provides her with a bike, bike helmet, and a motorcycle helmet, since she is allowed to ride on motos in Tsevie.) The taxi’s windshield was a mess of cracks.


taxi

From the taxi, we saw women carrying large loads of pots on their heads, on their way to Tsevie. We stopped and Tammy said hi.

We arrived at the village and were greeted by the pottery women. They brought out benches for us to sit on, we made introductions, and Tammy gave them gifts (mostly candy). One woman (sorry, I was unable to get the names!) stood out. She was tall and seemed quite smart and capable and was wearing an attractive red and black top. She took charge and led us through the village and demonstrated how the pots were made.


Tammy, her friend, and John walking through the village.


at the village


at the village

(This blog entry has lots of photos and more commentary - click on "read more".)
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The party at Tammy’s led to several lunch and dinner invitations, as each family at the party wanted us to come over to their homes. So Thursday mid-day, Thursday evening, and Friday mid-day we were lucky to enjoy home-cooked meals. We learned that it is customary to take gifts when you visit. We had brought packages of candy and some T-shirts from the US (under Tammy’s advice) and we gave them to our lunch and dinner hosts.

Lunch at Tammy’s host family’s home

On Thursday, lunch was at her host family’s. (Her “host family” is where she stayed during her first two months in Togo.) It was “fatty rice” - rice with some veggies and a lot of palm oil; it’s another of Tammy’s favorites. It was good. The family served us the meal, then left the room. This Togoese custom shows respect for your guests, according to Tammy. We did not stay long - another custom, she said, is not to linger after a meal. Often, people in Togo rest or sleep in the early afternoon when it is very hot.


Two piles of corn drying in the courtyard of the host family. One pile is corn still on the cob, one is corn off the cob.


A lizard on the corn.


More lizards!
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Our time in Tsevie was greatly enhanced by good, home-cooked meals. Tammy has been able to make friends with quite a few locals - partly because she speaks French so well - and her friendships enabled us to visit the homes of several local families. We learned the local cuisines and also some of the local culture.

Wednesday was a slow day for me, because I woke up with some stomach issues, and slight fever and chills. That day, I hung out at Tammy’s while John and Tammy made forays into town for various food stuffs and house repair items. Thursday, John woke up with the same issues I had, so we both started taking the antibiotic for dysentery that the doctor in the US had given us, and we felt better almost right away.

But other than that, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were adventures into the local culture. This post and the next will focus on the food, and the one after that will focus on our trip to a local village.

Tammy cooks us meals

Tammy made us a couple fish and vegetable dishes, served with either rice or “pot”. She would tell us “it’s a simple meal to make” but each time, it seemed like she spent hours in preparation. The fish was smoked fish; smoking is a good way to preserve fish when you don’t have refrigeration. The spice base for most of the dishes she prepared is a mixture of fresh garlic, ginger, and local chiles, put into a mortar and ground to a homogeneous mush. The vegetables are greens, local small eggplants, onions, and tomatoes. To make the “pot”, we took the dried corn we had bought at the market to a local stall and they ground it in a big machine. She mixed the ground corn with water and cooked it, then put pieces of it in the vegetable/fish sauce. It’s very good - we both liked it.

Party at Tammy’s

On Wednesday, about ten friends of Tammy’s came over for a dinner party. The group of friends included both locals and Becky, another PC volunteer. The main food item was Tammy’s favorite local dish, called “fufu”.

The fufu was made from plantains and yams, although other combinations of starches can be used. The yams are huge, root-like vegetables that we saw sold all over Ghana and Togo. For fufu, these are peeled and then boiled. Then, they are put in a huge wooden bowl and pounded with a large mallet for about an hour. The whole process a couple hours. Traditionally, the men take turns doing the pounding, and the women move the mixture around under the mallet between pounds. When the pounding is finished, the fufu has a consistency of sticky mashed potatoes.


Making fufu.


Making fufu.


Group photo - Tammy’s party.

The fufu was served in a sauce-soup-like mixture consisting of chicken, tomatoes, and other vegetables; it was seasoned with the same garlic-ginger-chile mixture Tammy used before. As was the “pot”, people eat fufu with their hands, using it to scoop up the sauce mixture. Fufu isn’t supposed to be eaten too late in the day, as it’s considered “too heavy” for the digestive system. In fact, by soon after 6 pm, most families are home and have finished their evening meal.

Just about everyone at the party had some sotobe, a distilled palm liquor. (I looked this up online, and according to Wikipedia, it’s spelled “sodabe”.) It’s similar in taste to tequila, so John taught them to drink it as shots with lime and salt. During so much of the time spent with locals, John and I were left out of the conversation, since we don’t speak French. But the sotobe made the language issue less of a problem!

Remember that I mentioned that we left some material at the tailor’s to be made into outfits? Well, near the end of the party, the tailor came by and delivered a skirt for me and a shirt for John. He had them done in one day, and the total charge, including the material, for both outfits was less than $15 US! He did a great job!


John in his shirt.


Patty in her skirt.

Next: Home-cooked meals part 2.

Tammy rents a house, or more like a “complex”, in Tsevie. Apparently, a member of the Peace Corps (PC) has rented this same complex for some time - it changes hands as the volunteers start and finish their service. Since her place is so large, it is kind of a “home base” for other PC volunteers if they travel to Tsevie. A lot of the Togo PC volunteers are stationed in villages, and sometimes need to come to the city, and they stay with her. Tammy’s PC assignment is called: “Small Enterprise Development Program”. She helps get local people set up small businesses, for instance, selling pottery.

Her place is enclosed in a wall. Inside the enclosure is the main house, a courtyard, and a long narrow building that has several rooms (including a toilet) and one covered but open area (for eating outside). The rooms are used for storage and one is used for her bunnies! She has the cutest bunnies.


Her wall and gate.


The hammock in the courtyard. The window next to it is the kitchen window. You can see the faucet in the planter next to the wall. Note the huge basil plant!


John sitting next to the door to the house. The hammock is to his left.


Two of Tammy’s bunnies. The black one is the male. The third bunny is shy and didn’t come out as much.


That’s me in with the bunnies. Behind me is the little room where they hide, sleep, and nest.


John built this wire gate for the bunnies. When we got there, Tammy was keeping them locked in the little room, sometimes letting them run loose in the courtyard. But they ate all the plants she tried to grow, and made messes. So the gate allows them to get out in the fresh air so we could watch them run and play, and allows Tammy to have her basil and other plants.

Lot's more! Be sure to click on "read more" below.
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We were kind of loaded down, and the heat makes you extra worn out (at least that’s our excuse). So the journey back from the market to Tammy’s complex took awhile.


Tammy and John walking back to her house, through a park. Note the huge sack on Tammy’s head.


This cute little girl wanted her picture taken, and I was glad to oblige!

Tammy said “Let’s stop at the bar for a beer.” We of course agreed! It’s hot, and we are tired and thirsty. We sat in a shady area that is her favorite bar. The bar girl would come walking all the way out to us with our beers, usually “Flag” beer.


Tammy and Patty at the bar. Note the bell on the table (it looks like an upside copper funnel). You use it to summon the bar girl for your next drink.


This photo is taken from the table we were sitting at, looking towards the bar on the corner. Yes, those are chickens.


Tammy and Patty.


Bar fowl.
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