I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years. December was a busy month for me. After the soccer tournament was over I was looking forward to some relaxation time and enjoying the holidays. Unfortunately, a foot wound I got while distributing free condoms at one of the soccer games ( I was trampled by a mob) became infected and I had to spend 10 days in the Peace Corps hospital. The nurse took a culture of the wound and discovered I had a staph infection, not MRSA but still resistant to the three antibiotics I was currently on. The PC nurse switched me to a more effective antibiotic and I am now in good health. For 10 days I had delicious meals, hot showers, and air-conditioning, but I have to admit the pain of the staph infection was not worth it. I would have much rather been eating pate and sweating bullets in Koudassi without a staph infection. Now I constantly have my mothers voice in my head saying 'wear closed-toed shoes whenever you leave the house.' I am trying to do a better job of listening to her advice but it is just so hot and my feet feel trapped in my running shoes.



New Years is the biggest holiday in my village ane we had a lot of fun celebrating this year. We brought in the New Year with lots of food to eat (mainly rice and macaroni with a red sauce and chicken), fireworks, sodabi drinking, dancing, and carnival events (well, Togo's version of carnival events). For one of the events you had to kick a soccer ball through the middle of an old car tire. I was the only female in village to score, I won a warm Fanta! Two observations I would like to make about the New Year festivities is that children should not drink alcohol and whistles should be illegal. Here it is normal for young children to take a shot or more of sodabi before they eat and I actually saw a drunk 2-year old. I tried to explain to them the dangers of alcohol, especially for small children, but they stuck to their claim that sodabi gives them 'the force.' Also I am pretty sure every single kid in Koudassi bought a whistle for the festivities and they all insisted on blowing on them all day long, right outside my house. I actually stole a couple of whistles from some of the kids who were being particularly annoying and I still haven't given them back, nor do I have any intention of returning them.



Last Sunday a Catholic Priest from one of the larger towns in my region came to Koudassi to hold a church service. He brought 2 alter boys with him who were about 12 years old. Their job was to set everything up and prepare the euchirist and wine for the service. As the token white person in the village I had the very front and center seat and could therefore see everything they were doing. Well, as they were preparing the euchirist they didn't think anyone was watching and they kept taking handfulls of the little peices of bread and stuffing them in their pockets. Then, throughout the entire service I watched them munch on the stash they had collected. After the service there was an auction to raise money for the church. I bought 4 yams, 2 pineapple, and a bunch of bananas for about twice the price I would have paid in the market, but it was worth it and I had a lot of fun. The funny thing is, whenever I bid on an item everyone else automatical gave up. I think they realized that no matter how hard they tried, I would always be able to top them.



I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but my village is very big into practicing Animism. The man who owns my house is the leader of the whole movement for my village and surrouding villages which means he is constantly performing ceremonies and rituals right outside my front door. A couple of months ago he built an entire house strictly dedicated to conducting ceremonies and worshiping their idols. There is a life size sculpture of their main idol protecting the house. He carries a coffin on his head that has an evil spirit trapped inside of it and he wears a belt that has about 20 knifes in it. Inside the house are three smaller idols, one each for health, work, and marriage. Each morning people come to pray to these idols and wash themselves with special water. They are also constantly doing animal sacrafices (chickens, goats, or cats) to the idols and the spirits they represent. The practice of Animisn is very interesting to observe, but it has also caused me a lot of problems as far as work and health education goes. It is difficult to influence behavior change when people believe that evil spirits are the cause of their childs illness when really they are sick with malaria or ill from drinking contaminated water. They are also very reluctant to trust Western medicine and therefore rely on natural herbs and offering sacrafices to the spirits of health when they are sick or injured.



Some sad news about my chickens, one of Sarah's chicks was eatten by a hawk and four more of her chicks were eatten by this huge black rat that stocks my house by night. She now only has one chick left thet she is gaurding with her life. Samantha's four children are now old enough to be on their own and she has started giving eggs again (yuuummm). So I lost a lot of my chickens in the past week, but I did find my cat. I thought Mawuna had run away or died in the bush but it turns out he was catnapped by someone who lives on the other side of the village. One of my neighbors found him and returned him to me. He was really skinny and skittish at first, but I have fattened him up and he is happy to be home.



The presidential elections will begin mid-february and continue until mid-march. During that time all volunteers will be on standfast which means we can't leave our villages. This is to make it easy for Peace Corps to locate us in case we need to be evacuated. During this time I will not have access to the internet or my mail so it may be a while before you hear from me again. If you want to check up on me you can always call me but I should mention that we have been warned there is a possibilities the phone service providers could be shut down around election time. If that should happen just know that I am perfectly safe in my little village and also very close to the Ghana border. Anyways, I have a lot of pictures to load to go along with this blog but I do not have the time to do it right now. I promise I will get them posted in March. I miss you all lots and I am very excited that it is only about 7 months now until I will be home :) Let the countdown begin!!!!