Togo Tales: Training, Travels, & Travails - Life on the job in Togo

Bonjour à tous!

I hope this message finds you all in good spirits, and enjoying the holiday season.  You’ll have to enjoy it for me, as I’m finding that life in a tropical climate with marginal fluctuation in seasonal weather (the “hot” seasons, then the “more hot” seasons”) does little to reign in the Christmas spirit… though I have taken to listening to my Manheim Steamroller Christmas album.
For this update I decided to address more of the “what”, as in the “what-the-heck I’m actually doing here for my work”.  Evidently I hadn't clarified this enough for people on my e-mail list, so by popular demand…voila!  This is just as well, because since my last update my life has been mostly filled with work projects that have allowed me to experience the sticky and swampy lagoons of southern Togo to the arid mountains of the north.

TEACHER TRAINING
So to describe what I do…  The short end of it is that in Togo I’m not really doing as much teaching of English, but rather teacher training of Togolese English teachers in secondary schools.  The long end is that in reality I’m doing a million different projects all surrounding that theme.  Like I mentioned, I’m based in the national teacher training office, called the “Direction des Formations”, which is a branch of the Ministry of Education.  I’m on a team of 4 Togolese English teacher trainers, and together we put on weekly workshops for the local English teachers.  We focus on training the teachers in more current pedagogic strategies, such as interactive, student-centered learning, critical thinking, large class management, pair/group work, as well as many other tools to make the classroom a more dynamic place then the rote-learning, authoritarian experience they currently are.  It's a real flashbacks to more archaic, Catholic boarding school-style teaching methods.  In some classes, of which I have yet to observe but have heard about from Peace Corps volunteers, teachers respond to wrong answers and misbehavior with smacking/beating with sticks, or made to stand on their knees outside.  As you can see, there's work to be done.  Few Togolese teachers are able to get any (and I mean ANY) training in teaching.  Most of the English teachers may have studied English at university, and were subsequently thrown into the fire.  With little pedagogic knowledge, and a WIDE disparity in English skills, teachers here are super appreciative of any kind of training available.  Also they have so little to work with.  Some teachers are lucky to have classrooms, but many are in bamboo hut-like contraptions built on the school grounds.  Powerpoint/overhead projects?  Forget about it.  Photocopies for students?  Not a chance.  Class sizes?  80-120ish. Just the fact that this is the reality of everyday work for these teachers makes them all heroes in my mind.

BUREAUCRATIC BURDENS
This has also come with its frustrations, because in doing so I’ve been given the crash course of West African bureaucracy.  Somewhere down the line, some guy with an inferiority complex (I blame the former French colonial officers) decided it would be a brilliant idea to install an ultra-hierarchical system for logistics where you couldn't ever talk to someone without first meeting and talking to all the people of lower ranks.  Even more, this same insecure, possibly French colonial officer also thought that the best way to do any kind of logistical planning was to mandate that before you do or plan or talk to anyone/thing you had to send a letter ahead of time.  But of course not to the direct person, you send it directly to the head guy, and that trickles down to the person you actually want to talk to.  Confused yet?  Let me give you an example.  To do our trainings in Lomé, we had to first send a letter to the minister of education, with hopes that he would then forward that letter to all the inspectors (kind of like the superintendents here), who would then forward that letter to all the school headmasters (principals), who would then notify teachers there was a training.  Of course that has as much chance of succeeding as sea lion in the middle of an Orca pod (Alaskan reference… means “unlikely”), so at the same time you do that you have to talk to the teachers, who talk to their headmasters.  Then you also send another letter to the inspectors, who again talk to the headmasters.  After all of that, you eventually end up with about a 50% turnout rate to a workshop in one of Lomé’s districts (which still equals about 50 teachers, so great!).

My favorite part is the ritual of every time you go to a school, or district, you have to visit the headmaster of whoever is the highest ranking person of the area, and then request a meeting.  He will usually make you wait about 10-15 minutes later then your scheduled meeting because I don’t know, it gives him some kind of power trip.  Then you go in, and ever-so-graciously thank him for meeting you and humbly make your request to give his teachers a free training (insert irony here). He of course is not looking at you during this process, but instead is furrowing his brow as if he is actually in serious contemplation about the benefits of “granting” you permission to do your work.  Of course he’s always planning on saying yes because no one in their right mind here would turn down free assistance, but why say that right away when he can pull a power trip on you and make you think that HE just granted YOU a favor?  Anyways it’s been a real trial in patience.

TRAVELS AFAR
Other than that, I’ve also been lucky enough to travel around the country a bit with the US embassy, doing the same kind of pedagogical trainings in different regions.  If Lomé’s teachers don’t receive much training, the outer regions are in even worse shape.  The other funny thing is hearing the inspectors (aka superintendent-like people) who were trained in what seems like the 1800s, impart their sage advice on teachers.  Certain gems like, “you should not vary your teaching methods; we do ‘systematic teaching’ here, which means that you need to do the exact same thing in class every day”.  Or the other logic of “we are francophones, and because of this we shouldn't give examples for language rules in class; once you hear a definition you should just remember it”.  My personal favorite was  when one of the inspectors was giving feedback to a teacher he just observed, he started with “well there’s no reason to tell you what you did good, because what you did good is already good, so I’m just going to tell you what you did bad.”

On the other extreme, I’ve also observed many teachers who are practically magicians in the classroom.  They seem to effortlessly guide 120 twelve-year-olds through dynamic activities that are both fun and also leave them with stronger English skills (and for all of you who have ever been a middle-schooler, you know that’s no easy task).  In particular, the Togolese on my teacher training team are real superstars, and I feel so lucky because every day I learn new things from them.  So it’s a place of extremes, but that is Africa in a nutshell.  Other small projects: I’ve been doing some work with Peace Corps, most recently a couple weeks ago when I did a few trainings on large class management, and promoting gender equality through teaching.  I also am doing a huge country-wide evaluation of a teacher training program funded by the US embassy, which has been a big reason I’ve been able to observe teachers all over the country.  Finally I also serve as an advisor for the Togolese English Teachers Association.  I help with the planning of their meetings, where sometimes I conduct mini-workshops on teaching.  Oh and I do the same kind of thing for a University English Club/Leadership club.

All in all pretty cool stuff.  Actually more than cool, this is probably one of the best jobs I’ve ever had.  Sometimes I need to pinch myself, because I’m getting to do the exact kind of stuff I’ve always wanted to do: travel around a country in African working on educational development projects.  It allows me the opportunity to see education in Togo from many different angles, and to interact with all the players of the game, from students to teachers to administrators to government folks.  So really I’m ecstatic.

OTHER FUN STUFF: Went on a day fishing trip with the Ambassador and Embassy security officers, where I "may or may not" have gotten sick all over the side of the boat...  however completely unbeknownst to the rest of my party as, in my determination to not toss cookies in front of the ambassador (and thus appear feeble), I chose an opportune moment to do so while they were distracted by a bird... Mission accomplished!  Also went out dancing on the town, only to have the nightclub DJ fall asleep in the middle of the night, and need to be woken up by a patron to put on another song.  Also experienced a fireworks show of a lightening storm in a small mountains town of Atakpame.  Here's my sappy post I put on facebook: "Totally had a 'moment' the other day: sitting in a palm-covered rooftop bar lost in some small mountain town in Africa, soccer playing on the tv, red and orange sunset bleeding across the sky, the dark curtain of nighttime falling, thundering rainstorm and lightning flashing all around me for hours, illuminating the entire valley... One of those moments where the fast-forward button on life momentarily stops and you find yourself aware, if ever so briefly, of how completely alive you are in this moment in time."

But this message is already a book so I’ll wrap it up.  I hope all of you are doing well and getting ready for holiday festivities, and know that I’m thinking of all of you from my hot and humid, sometimes sticky apartment…

Much love,
Phil Dierking

PS check out my most recent facebook photo album of me on the job! http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100367339899950.2415874.25902960&type=1&l=80c43c38cc

Togo Tales: Land of the Early Risers

A Togo fable, as told by my colleague Akwuete:

Akwuete: "you know why the banana is curved?"
Phil: "no not really"
Akwete:  "the banana is curved because it used to be friends with the plantain.  Then one day a disagreement arose between them and they couldn't settle it, not even the king.  So the plantain took a stick and whacked the banana in the stomach. That's why its curved" 
Phil: "oh I see.... but isn't the plantain curved too?"
Akuwete: "Oh yeah! it is... umm, maybe it was the sugar cane... yeah,
I think it was the sugar cane that hit the banana!"

Hello all,

Life has been buzzing along pleasantly here in Togo.  I've been settling in, figuring out the town, taxis, and local food.   It surprisingly did not take much time before I started feeling comfortable, and I can definitely say with sincerity that... I love it here :)  I love waking up every day excited about the work I'm doing. I love that something basic like going to the market to get groceries is usually an adventure, or that walking back to my apartment takes 20 minutes longer  than it should because every person on my street wants to ask me about my day, teach me a new word in Ewe, or offer me some random home-made beverage.  I love how bats randomly fly into the gym I work out in, or people drive scooters while carrying goats and chickens.  I love getting to speak French every day (and Ewe, a new addition to my linguistic repertoire). And oddly I even love being that one random white guy that everyone stares at because really, why the heck is there some white guy walking around a local neighborhood or riding his bike around town or having a drink at a shack miles from any tourist resort?  In short: it's going great.

The past month has seen some wonderfully fun little adventures that I've partaken in, and I thought I'd share a few of them.  As the chronology of it all isn't important I'll just list them below: 

OUTSIDE LOME
I've started to travel around the region a bit, the most significance being a couple weekends ago.  We had Friday off for the Muslim holiday Tabaskii (usually referred to as Eid in most places), so I headed off with a Togolese friend, Charles, to the southwestern part of the country.  This area also happens to be the Voodoo stronghold of the region.  Our travels were complete with the 5 to 6 to 7 people piled into one taxi, as well as the intermittent taxi breakdowns in the middle of the highway.  On our way Charles asked me if I wanted to meet "the King of Aneho", to which I responded "oh course!" Apparently every town and village has a king.  So in Aneho I met my first king!  the best part?  He does in fact wear a crown!  We were invited to his "palace" (really a large home, but nice by the standards of the town) and met with him in his living room, where he sat in a highly decorated couch with a white robe and silver crown, and posters of himself everywhere.  He really was a great guy though, very clever and open-minded. He had established a medical clinic and youth center in the town, so it was clear he was trying to do great things in his area.

Afterwards we went to a small town called Vogan, famous for its huge market.  One section said market was filled with Voodoo fetishes, which are basically animal parts (or skulls) that you can buy to use in ceremonies where you can receive blessings or apparently cast spells.  Evidently while most people in Togo identify themselves as  either Christian or Muslim, Voodoo (in essence "traditional beliefs") is also widely practiced as well. People basically pick and choose whatever parts of the religions they want to practice.  A note about religion here: Togolese appear to be incredibly tolerant people religiously.  They are fervent believers in their creed, but they also adamantly support their fellow countermen's faith.  Everyone in the country celebrates both Christian and Muslim holidays.  People are friends with people from both faiths.  I was told about one instance
when a church needed more people to attend a service, and folks from the mosque came and sat in.  It is incredibly refreshing to see such a wonderful example of religious tolerance and coexistence.  It is also great to see people who can follow their beliefs with a strong conviction, yet be perfectly able to respect other people's difference of opinion.  I imagine that everything is probably not completely as rosy as I'm painting it, but for now I feel like a lot of places could learn lessons from Togo's example.

NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM
One of my favorite events of the past month was going with a group of Togolese friends to see Togo's national soccer team play against Gabon to qualify for the upcoming African Cup.  Soccer is popular throughout the continent, but West Africa in particular is a pretty competitive region.  Needless to say people go crazy for it here.  Hoards of people crammed the roads as they headed to the stadium, blowing horns and whistles on the way.  At the stadium, standing in line basically consisted of a huge crowd forcefully pushing through a narrow space while police officers tried in vain to have any control.  The game itself was a rambunctious event, with people sitting nervously in their seats only to jump up and explode in cheers, yelling, and more horn blowing after each goal.  One guy behind me had a tendency to pick me up and shake me around each time Togo scored a goal.  Togo did win, which prompted nearly the entire stadium rushing the field in raucous celebration.  Afterwards people drove all around town still blowing their horns.  At a little outdoor bar in town, where my friends and I were celebrating with a the victory drink, people in the bar spontaneously just started blowing their horns and whistles, while other patrons from across the space would answer back with their own calls.  It was nuts, it was great, it was Togo at its best.

ELECTIONS
One of the most special moments for me was election night.  The embassy hosted an all-night viewing (10 pm to 6 am) and invited everyone from expats to Togolese teachers, students, politicians, businessmen, and others to share in the festivities.  Live feeds from CNN and France 24 (a French news station) were shown, and various
activities, like a mock vote, were done.  Besides my enjoyment at witnessing the US diplomats pained efforts to maintain their diplomatic personas while fighting sleep deprivation and punch-drunkenness, the real joy was the Togolese themselves.  To repeat what I said on my facebook post, If there's ever any proof of the importance of American elections to the rest of the world, I witnessed it watching the hundreds of Togolese who stayed up all night on a weekday to cram the embassy and follow the elections.  They watched it like they did a soccer game: tense and quietly, constantly asking nervous questions about what results meant, erupting in applause or moans as certain states went this way or that. They were truly more jazzed about it then many of the Westerners there.  It really is true however, that whatever political direction the US may vacillate between, the reality is that the rest of the world knows that our future will effect their future. This should not be lost on us.

THE TOGOLESE
This seems like an appropriate place to mention something about the Togolese themselves.  I've found that Togolese are wonderful people who go about their life with fun.  There's sort of a curiosity surrounding western foreigners here, probably because Togo doesn't receive nearly as many tourists or aid workers as neighboring Ghana or Benin.  So I often get approached by people who generally just want to meet me and find out why I'm here... I've very rarely had people hassle me or be rude. It also feels as if 90% of the people here are extreme extroverts like me and love talking, so its pretty easy to meet people.  Its a lot like the first couple weeks of college where you can just go up to anyone, introduce yourself, and start talking.  One other thing I love is the playfulness of the people.  The work day is almost always full of jokes.  In fact, in any conversation people
try and turn it into a joke.  I've found that its really helped my temperament whenever I am in stressful or frustrating situations. I've realized that the more I can turn something into a joke, the better things go.  This has been incredibly helpful in the few situations where I have had to deal with hassle and whatnot.  I'm not really sure when they sleep though, because on weekends they go out until 6 am, but then get up around the same time to go running in the morning.  I've been told that some go out all night, then go running, then sleep after.  Its impressive

One other peculiarity is the, shall I say, awkward honesty of the Togolese.  Case in point: I was getting my haircut, and I asked my hair-cutter what Togolese like to do on weekends.  His response: "well you know for me on Sundays I always like to hang out with my mistress".  He was speaking in English so I gave him the benefit of
the doubt that he didn't quite understand that word's particular nuance.  However he quickly made sure to remove any doubt by adding: "you know I am married, but I also just like to have a mistress to hang out with as well".  I have more examples of hearing even more inappropriate things said, but I'm sure you get the idea.  At any rate
when you never know what people are going to say, it always makes for entertaining conversation.

I'll wrap things up from here.  I did not go into my work so much, but this month has been pretty interesting with stuff so I'll makes sure to elaborate more on what I'm doing here in the next message.  However until then you now have a little glimpse into Togolese living and my day-to-day existence here.  Anyways stay safe and stay happy wherever you are on the globe, and if you ever get a spare moment, do let me know how you are doing!

Merci, Akpe, and Eizande (not sure how thats spelled but its my best guess)

Phil D

PS and check out my new photos on facebook if you havent already! http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100333214073380.2410239.25902960&type=1&l=1ee3c77d35

Want to go to Togo?

I’m back….

Back to warm muggy air, to temperamental electricity, to sweaty nights under bug nets, to haggling for every last penny, to disarmingly affable and outgoing people, to tantalizingly delicious food, and ultimately, back to adventure.  Yes, after a two-year hiatus and one master’s degree later, I am back in Africa!

I’ll quickly catch you all up on my life the last two years.  After my unexpectedly hasty and jarring departure from Djibouti I returned to the states, Seattle specifically, where I hunkered down behind a pile of textbooks, only to emerge two years later with an official Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language.  Academia life was great and incredibly stimulating, and the ability to reconnecting with many of my old friends truly nourishing for the soul.  However anyone who knows me well also knows that I have a hard time sitting still and soon enough adventure came a ’knocking, this time to carry me off to the land of Togo.

So what am I doing and through whom?  I’m spending the next 10 months in yet-again a tiny francophone African nation, but this time over on the western coast of Africa.  For anyone who doesn’t know where Togo is (which to my experience has been a lot of people), it is located right next to Ghana, on the southern end of the part of African bulging out into the Atlantic.  I am here as an English Language Fellow, which is a state department-sponsored fellowship program (affectionately referred to as the “ELF”) to promote diplomacy, English language, and educational development abroad.  I’m working on several teacher training projects, primarily with the national teacher training office in Togo.  I’ll be working with that team to put on many different forms of in-service training workshops for Togolese English teachers all over Togo.  I’ll also be traveling around the country with the Embassy putting on similar workshops in different towns and villages, doing some programing with teacher associations, and finally conducting some evaluations of embassy education programs.  In short, I’ll be busy.

Returning to Africa has been an extraordinary feeling.  Although I always knew I wanted to come back, I was never really sure it would become a reality until I stepped off the plane.  It feels both jarring, and strangely like returning home.  Actually, in another sense it feels like I’ve returned to another side of my life that I’ve left dormant for far too long.  Now that I am about a week in however, I have truly come to terms with that fact that I am back in African for a while… and I couldn’t be more excited to be hereJ.

Togo is quite different than Djibouti.  It has none of the Middle Eastern influence that characterized Djibouti, and although there is a bit of a Muslim population here, the dominant religion is Christianity, with even a small bit of Voodoo (all of which are influenced by traditional beliefs).  Also, while it is pretty hot here, it has yet to get even remotely as stifling as Djibouti.  It’s much greener, wetter, and humid though.  In terms of development, it has been interesting to note that while some things were more developed in Djibouti (like internet, public transportation, less crime), there are some things that Togo has going on that are much further along that Djibouti (actual traffic lights that people abide by, better buildings, and so far [knock on wood] more reliable electricity).  Also there are different ethnic groups represented: a very large Lebanese community, as well as Chinese and other West Africans.  The European and American presence is considerably smaller.

Also the people are much more outwardly social.  I have been taking some walks around the neighborhood I live in, and a quick pop into the local pub resulted in about 10 new friends, lively discussion about soccer, the US, Alaska (of course), local language lessons (as in being given them right there on the sport), and several offers to become “best friends”.

Fun experiences:

-On the plane here I sat next to this rather ambitious guy from Benin who apparently lives and travels throughout Europe, Africa and Israel doing “things for the government”.  When we got off the plane, he handed me $50 worth in Israeli shekels and told me to visit him in Israel.  Odd thing to do to a stranger…

-People balance EVERYTHING on their head here!  I’ve seen large baskets full of food and merchandise, to a 20 ft long straw basket holding a huge pile of wood (on top of an old lady’s head no less!).

-I got invited to go running by a Togolese friend on Saturday.  This involved waking up at 6 am to go meet at the university campus, where almost a thousand people were running in different groups.  It gets better: in each group they were singing and chanting while they ran, and usually had someone playing drums and shaking bells while they ran too.  I guess they do this every Saturday “just for fun”

Well already this e-mail is too long.  I haven’t really started work yet so I’ll give more updates on that in later dispatches.  However I was eager to send off one e-mail to you all simply to say that a new and adventurous chapter has begun for me in life… and you are all invited to share the ride if you want.  So until the next e-mail, I bid you all a warm “bonsoiré, et à la prochaine!” from my humble home in the warm jungles of Togo.

Kind regards,

Phil Dierking

“Beyond this place there be dragons...”

“When death finds you, may it find you alive”

PS, I have photos uploaded on facebook of Togo!  Check them out here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100316163033800.2407172.25902960&type=1&l=67894ad275