Follow-up

Last post was a little, uh, heavy so I'll start with a little about my daily life and work here which is kind of great because it's so relaxing and laid-back.

Well first I wake up at the God-awful hour of 7 am and go fetch some water from the well for my bath.  It's actually nice because the water is really fresh and not that cold so my morning bath is one of my favorite parts of the day.  I feel like the term "well" evokes some images of like, people in huts with one community well, but it's not really like that at all.  My house has its own well and people use it to get their own water since there's no running water (which I didn't even realize until someone asked me if it did a couple of days ago).

After that, my host sister comes in with my breakfast which is usually this oatmeal thing or maybe a loaf of bread with "butter," which is not real butter since they don't have a fridge, or mayonnaise.  That's a big thing here, bread with nothing but mayonnaise.  Anyway I always accompany that with a small cup of coffee or tea and some reading from my book (which is currently The Great Gatsby, which I love for all the Yale references).

At around 8, I'll gather my stuff and go to the office...it's super close so I walk there.  I've gotten used to all the stares of people bewildered by probably the only non-black or non-white person they've ever seen in their lives.

When I'm at the office, I have a set schedule for myself:

• 8:00-9:30 (today it's probably going to last till 10:30), check email, Facebook, NYT, Washington Post, friends' blogs, other news-y blogs and things, and generally look things up online that I've written down from the night or weekend before since I don't have internet at home. 
• 9:30-12:30, work on UN project. My focus has changed a little since I last mentioned it.  I'm currently working to develop the NGO's platform on climate change and its views on what it thinks the role of the UN and other international organizations are on climate change and how to fix it.  It's really really great stuff because it allows me to narrow down my own views. 
• 12:30-2:00, Lunch. I love lunch time. There are a group of four international interns here at the organization and we always meet up with some guys from an environmental NGO across the street who are also here for the summer and we go to our favorite place for lunch.  It serves spaghetti and couscous and that's it. I think the food is good but the others have grown jaded by it, I think. I might too after being here for 2 months. Anyway, it's a very international group.  Two French, a German, a Dutch, and two Americans. One time this British old man joins us from the other organization. Our lingua franca is probably 60% English, 40% French since everyone can speak both languages reasonably well. Sometimes we'll venture out to new places but our favorite so far has been our beloved spaghetti/couscous place. 
• 2:00-5:30, Work on my other project.  This project involves forming a network here in Togo of lawyers that deal with international issues.  The idea is that these lawyers would protect certain environmental laws that are mandated by Togolese regulations and even the constitution.  And also the victims of environmental exploitation.  It's a very cool idea. There are similar networks in other African countries so I'm hoping to model ours after theirs. Somewhat amusing is that the director of the NGO here wants it to be called Avocats Verts, "Green Lawyers". However, this can also be translated as "Green Avocados" so whenever I google Avocats Verts, I often get sites related to recipes on how to make good salads from nice, green avocados. 

Then I leave work at 5:30 and go home and spend the rest of the night conversing with my host family.  They'll give me dinner around 7 which, as I've mentioned before, has been really hit or miss.  Sometimes we'll walk around the neighborhood, but usually I'll spend the night reading or reading papers and articles I had downloaded at work. Sometimes the interns at the office will meet up to play cards or hang out at a bar and that's usually very relaxing.  I'll sleep at 10 or at 12 on the days that I decide to go out with the interns.

So I'm actually really enjoying my time here. That said, some of the cultural differences have made me really frustrated at times, but I'll save that for a future blogpost.

PS -- For anyone looking to procrastinate at their internships or from schoolwork, the Washington Post is starting this really, really interesting series today about the "hidden world" of government secrets and things that occurred as a result of September 11.  It's certain to generate a looooot of buzz in Washington over the next couple of days.  http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/