Greetings from Togo

Bonsoir from Togo! This is my first post and I will try and keep it short but there's so much to say. After orientation in Philadelphia (what a fitting place to last see America) our 33 person group traveled to Togo and experienced serious jet lag after a 8 hour flight through the night to Paris, a 4 hour layover, followed by a 7 hour flight to Lomé. It was cool looking out the window of the plane and seeing the Sahara. That's when it really hit me, I'm in Africa. I was pretty nervous throughout the whole traveling ordeal but once we landed in Lomé I felt this great sense of relief and I knew that this is where I wanted to be. Going to Africa has been a lifelong dream for me and now I'm actually there.
Just a couple things to tell you about Togo so far. Lomé is an interesting city, there are only a couple of paved roads which is different just because it's the capitol and most populated city in the country. We haven't really seen much of the city so far, other than walking back and forth to the Peace Corps bureau to get shots and other training. Obviously I have a long way to go learning the language but someone said that understanding African French is easier than France French because they speak it slower. Also I'll have to learn a completely new language once I'm at my placement site wherever that may be. As far as the Togolese people go, so far everyone has been very nice and warm. The native garb are very flashy colorful shirts and pants. Eventually I'll have my own outfit although it will probably look totally ridiculous on me. Often you see women carrying huge baskets on their heads. We went to the beach the other day for about an hour and had a beer. The beach is beautiful but swimming is not advised because of the sewage and strong riptides. Also it's one of the most dangerous places in the city especially at night.
I probably should have brought a gift for my host family from Paris like a bottle of liquor as that was recommended as a good gift but I'm thinking about buying them a goat or a chicken, although goats are expensive. A lot of Peace Corps volunteers have pets so I'm considering getting a dog because I've always wanted a canine companion, but we'll see about that. I don't know that I could part with my dog after two years. Many PCV's have cats although there have been plenty recent stories about cats being eaten. One current volunteer told us that his cat disappeared and then it turned out he ended up eating it. Hopefully that wouldn't happen to me if I had a dog even though dog is a pretty common meat. I think I'll try it if I get the opportunity. I am up for trying new things be they radically different or not. Anyways things are wonderful here so far, the weather is cool in the morning when we wake up at 6, then fairly hot in the afternoon although there is a great breeze, and then moderately temperate at night.
Hmmm what else can I say. There's a lot and I'm sure I'll tell you more as things progress. We were issued our bikes and we've been cleared to ride on motorcycles as a taxi when we leave our villages which means we'll be receiving motorcycle helmets. I want to put up pictures sometime but again I don't know when that will be.
Today we leave for our 3 months training. Of the 33 of us 20 are in Girls Education and Empowerment and 13 are in Natural Resource Management. Everyone's really cool and it's been fun hanging out with them but now we will be split up for training in different villages. I will be in Gbatopé which doesn't have running water or electricity which should be an experience, they went over with us how to shower with a bucket and purify our water. I'm nervous about meeting my host family just because my French is so weak but I'll get by. It's been fun and we've been spoiled here in Lomé but now the real challenge begins.