June 28th letter

It's 7:55 pm and I am in bed and was trying to sleep, but the singing evangelical miller who lives behind me is really going at it tonight. I swear to you his voice is just like Harry Belafonte's. It's lovely and the miller is so nice, I feel guilty putting my ear plugs in. Plus it is a bit early I suppose. A minute ago, I swear to you he was singing the Ewe version of the song that is something like "if you want to be happy for the rest of your life make an ugly woman your wife". It is cracking me up because the tune is the same (interspersed with breaks for evangelical shouting/praying/sermonizing- I know this because though I may not speak Ewe yet, beyond the basics, "Amen" and "Hallelujah" are universal) but sung in Ewe about being born again.

There are so many things here that tickle my funny bone and I think will sustain me while I am here. I have two more examples as well: I went to a wake the other night for someone in my family (extended- they live in the village, but not in my courtyard). Wakes are a really big deal here (aside - everyone gets their village name and their name tattooed to their forearm so if they die somewhere else they can be brought home for a proper burial. The girl that died had been in the hospital in Lome, so she was apparently brought back in a refrigerator in a pick up truck. Think about it- how else it going to happen? Thank god they had enough money for that). Anyway, the wake is supposed to be a joyous affair. We walk over at night, around 8. A rarity, it was my first time here out after dark. We come to a huge tree in the village with fluorescent lights hung from the branches, over 100 chairs set out, a big drumming and other percussion circle with singers, dancers, etc. There were a few speeches, but mainly songs sung by a group of special women, with men drumming. Then women from the audience would get up and dance in a circle around the drummers. All under a huge tree. Pretty freakin cool. Then they pass around plates for offering,then hand out candy. Or what I thought was candy until I put it in my mouth. COUGH DROPS.....Freaking cough drops?!?! Ahh, stuff like that takes you from be in sappily blissed out in your National Geographic moment to silently giggling at the incongruity of it all. I love this place.

The other funny thing is - you know the crazy colorful awesome African cloth I said everyone wears? Often it is abstract or pictorial in a way that you would imagine like flowers, or birds, or elephants. Well sometimes they depict other things like: drumsticks (as in chicken), sometimes the whole roast, sometimes TVs, toasters, cell phones. I saw a crisply pressed suit this morning with giant taxi stands on it. I'm talking street lamp, cobblestone, guy leaning against street lamp- all in fluorescent yellow, electric blue, vibrant orange etc. An entire suit! I bought one that looks like the inside of an ornate French cathedral, but I heard a rumor there exists ones with Saddam Hussein. I am SO on the lookout for that. Are you kidding me? A flirty dress copied from an Anthropologie catalog covered with Saddam Hussein with drumstick trim??? Seriously, I even have spies on the look out in Lome for especially weird ones.

So we got descriptions of the 19 posts the SED (small enterprise development) volunteers will be gong to at the end of training. I found one that my heart is set on- it is in the north (think hot, dry, dusty, but with baobab trees). There is a really traditional ethnic group called Tamberma who live in these amazing fortress crazy house/ hut things. UNESCO just dubbed it a world heritage site. It might be the only one in West Africa aside from Timbuktu. Google it for me. It is really remote for a SED post, but that's what I want. They are really independent and don't bother with the "Christian/Muslim during the day and traditional beliefs at night" idea the rest of the country has. They straight up have skulls hanging all over the place. You have to go 24K down an unpaved road to get there. I will work in trying to create tourism, support entrepreneurs, and work with micro- finance institutions. I hope I get it. I am already a "kiss-ass", but I am sucking up big time to be sure. By the time you get this, I'll already know. Got to go, it is late and mail pick-up is tomorrow. Write letters, send stuff don't forget me. Don't forget I love you.

Love Always,

Heather