Halfway point

Over half way done with my Africa trip..crazy !

Soccer field is pretty much finished, and now we are working on ideas for the goal posts. Some of the brothers want to make them out of iron but its so expensive. Dom and I proposed to use a larger pvc pipe and fill it with concrete with one rebar in it for support, but one of the brothers kept insisting it wouldn’t work. We stopped by the local construction company that helped us with the field and they backed us up which was reassuring, so hopefully we will be able to show them it will work.

The field didn’t turn out as we wanted, but the village is thrilled so I guess that’s all that really matters. We were able to slope it and put in ditches for rainwater runoff control but we could not find an appropriate grass to make up the field so it is just dirt. That’s how all the fields are around here but we had hoped we could make ours a bit nicer. When we go home we are going to try and see if we can order some kind of seed that grows well in places like texas or southwest America that has a similar climate.

The guy in charge of the construction place is taking us to Cecoday, a city about an hour north, to show us their bridge project this Saturday. Excited to see how construction works here…annnnd he is driving us in his air conditioned bmw, so equally as excited about that.

We are off to Kara next week. Much bigger city and we will talk to university students there and ask what type of engineering projects we can work on in upcoming years. We were thinking of handwashing stations, and our peace corps friend is going to try to build some in his term here, so I really hope we can stay in touch and he can let us know how it goes. Another peace corps friend is working on microlending with young girls which jose is interested in, and he plans to talk to her more so business students from ethos next year can follow her lead. There is also an NGO called PLAN that does a lot for Togo and we are meeting with them next week hopefully.

Basically, we came here with no technical support whatsoever, and we are trying hard to network so next years group can accomplish more. We have already done more than last years group, but there is much room for improvement. Many other ETHOS groups work with NGOs so we are really trying to find a program we can attach to and help out with engineering skills. Between PLAN, Cecodri (the construction company that helped with the field), and the peace corps network, I think we’ve done a good job. Lets hope we can stay in contact.

Everything else is going well. Hot as can be, but getting very accustomed to it. I think I will turn into an icicle the first time I step into an air conditioned room when I get back to the states.

Green mambas in our complex still scare the living daylights out of me.

I am going to cry when I have to leave these mangos behind.

Working on making homemade peanut butter. So much stinkin work. If it were homemade in the states itd cost as much as gold.

We discovered an egg sandwich ‘restaurant’ (it’s a mud hut with a tin door) and ooooh wow, we’ve gone every day it is to die for. Big egg sandwiches on fresh bread with onions, peimont (a local pepper) and mayonnaise. New favourite food.

Got African clothes made. Soooo awesome. Also bought an African CD of this rap group from Ghana and it’s the best. Ghana is English speaking so we can actually understand it and the drums and the beats are just too cool. Really hoped there would be good African jewelry but they try so much to be like Europe everything is crappy cheap imported plastic jewelry. Maybe in a bigger city like Kara we will find something.

When we get to Kara I will be able to post pictures, so Im excited to show some of the neat pictures I have taken.

Really going to miss the mountains and all the greenery.

Off to boil in the sun. Happy Wednesday everyone.