Post Visit Part 1

Well I'm sitting in my new house where I will be living for the next two years. It's post visit and I'm spending a week in Nampoch. Saturday we all departed from Tsevie. There are four of us from stage in the same regional cluster, western Kara: Jaqui (GEE) is living in Bassar, Adam (NRM) is in Bikotiba (right outside of Bassar), Karen (GEE) is posted in Guerin-Kouka, and I (NRM) am posted in Nampoch. Guerin-Kouka is only 11km away (a short bike ride) so Karen is my closest neighbor. I think we have a great group of people in our cluster and I'm really glad they're all nearby. The four of us with our homologues left Tsevie at 7:30 Saturday morning. Well I should probably tell you about my homologue. His name is Kodjo Bolpi and at first he was relatively shy but I'm looking forward to working with him. He has three identical short razor blade cuts on his cheek, all Bassar/Konkomba men do. More on him later.
The drive was beautiful as we traversed the rough roads through Togo's hilly countryside. We made it to Bassar surprisingly fast. There we dropped Jacqui off at her grand maison, with electricity and running water. After leaving Jacqui's the rain began to pour. Karen mentioned the road hadn't been so bad and her homologue responded that from here on it was unpaved. Just out of Bassar we took a right down a muddy dirt road that led us to Bikotiba. As the road threw the car up and down, the rain worked its way through the holes in the roof and before I knew it my shirt was soaked. We dropped Adam off at his tiny maison then headed back to Bassar to take the road to Guerin-Kouka. We rambled along bump after bump, the car tilting this way then that until the back right wheel caught and there was a tremendous screeching. I wasn't sure what had happened. I'd hoped it was a flat, something easy to fix but that was not the case. Part of whatever the thing is that supports the wheel to the axel had broke. We took refuge from the rain under the overhang of a small shack on the side of the road while the driver and his assitant tried to remove the tire. Eventually the driver took a moto into Bassar to get the mechanic. The mechanic was two young boys who worked at a fervorous pace, their clothes caked in mud. While they worked Karen, my homologue and I walked into Bassar and browsed the bustling market. I began counting the number of Michael Jordan related shirts I saw and there were at least 12. There's a huge, magnificent Baobab tree in the middle of Bassar and there is a seperate market that just sells yams. I'm amazed that the young mechanics were able to fix the car as fast as they were. Because we weren't supposed to travel at night (which considering the road we were headed down was probably a good thing) Karen and I stayed the night with Jacqui. It was nice spending time with Jacqui and we got a couple beers and drank some Pastis in her spacious home.
The drive through the mud to Guerin-Kouka the next day was an adventure but finally we arrived. Karen is replacing another volunteer so she basically inherits his house which has a sick set up. He was great showing us around all week. After leaving Chez Karen it was 11 km to Nampoch. I arrived to wide eyes and silent faces. It was awkward which is understandable. I have a tiny little house with two rooms, part of a compound. My house is the only concrete building in my compound, the rest are mostly mud built with straw huts. I'm out there alright. Definitely no cell phone reception but that's what I signed up for.