By Trudy Zou.
De-boarding the plane in Lome, being hit by a wall of tropical heat in a landscape of palm trees and dusty roads—until that moment, DukeEngage Togo hadn’t felt real. To slowly ease into the experience, we stayed at a boarding house in the capitol of Togo before heading to the villages in the North we would be working in. I took my first bucket shower and had my first traditional Togolese meal: Fufu, a yam based dough type dish that you pinch off a small bit, dip it into a variety of aromatic sauces and then swallow whole while a bit hot. This method of consumption apparently opens up the taste glands in your throat. From Lome, it was just a day’s bus ride to our final destination in the North.
We arrived at Koukoude, a village on the mountain where three of us DukeEngage students are staying, when night was falling. So, my immediate impressions relied on taste and sound. I tasted the local sorghum beer: warm, sour-sweet broth, that is truly the lifeblood of the community. The pasta and red sauces were all spicy and delicious as well as beans, rice, chicken. These, along with an egg or omelette, have become staples of all the meals my family cooks. Greeting, laughter, handshakes constantly weaving around me said that this is a very vibrant, lively, loud culture. Now, a month in, this has rang true. Everyone greets eachother as they walk by on the path, asking if you are in good health. With every greeting, a new relationship is started, and relationships between people form the core of the culture.
In the morning, I was able to fill in the rest of the picture. My homestead is a collection of circular mud huts and small rectangular buildings with tin roofs. There is an open space in the middle and no lock on the gate that serves as the front door, an illustration of the closeness of the people here. There is practically no separation between the living room of a homes and the outside world. Life intermingles so much more: not only between people who use word of mouth as email and telephones, but also between people and the many chickens, goats, guinea fowl, dogs, and cats drifting around the homestead. There are always cultivators dropping by for beer, just sitting and chatting at night, children running errands or just running around. It speaks to the safety of the village that children shorter than my knee are free to roam wherever. It also speaks to the sense of community as the whole village seems to know and care for children that are not their own, and older children are in charge of teaching and engaging with young ones.
My host family has been incredibly welcoming. My host mother does not know French, and my host father barely, so my brothers have served as translators. The youngest one, Essonani, has been constantly present and always hanging around and sitting to talk with me. The other two, Tcha-esso and Malaissa, drift in and out of University and lycee respectively but are also very friendly. We love making bracelets with thread, origami, and throwing a Frisbee. Often, the nights morph into heated games of cards with their friends, boys of all ages. Overall, this experience has been completely out of my comfort zone but welcomed in every aspect. Looking forward to the weeks to come!