“Karalin, you have a big problem.”

My heart sank as I turned towards my oldest host brother. It had been a really rough week. I could not fathom, nor did I wish to, what else could have gone wrong.

“What is it now?”

“Well, the United States are playing Ghana tonight. I know you are American, but you are African now, too. Who are you going to support?”

The relief at the absence of a serious problem in conjunction with the earnestly concerned expression on his face made it difficult not to laugh. He had a good point, though, one reiterated by everyone I saw in village that day. I told them, quite truthfully, that I support my natal country, but that a Ghanaian victory would be wonderful for Africa. This magnanimous attitude became increasingly difficult to maintain as I sat in the video shack (a wall-less, tin-roofed structure housing a 12-inch television, a generator, and a few crudely-constructed, plank benches) and endured the celebration of the 40+ ecstatic, Togolese men by whom I was surrounded. There is something about living abroad that brings out the closet nationalist in me. But the bitterness has subsided, and I was generally distraught when Ghana lost the other night.

While the World Cup fever has been an undeniable presence in every facet of life for the past month, including having to plan meetings around game-viewing schedules, I am sure you are more interested in the status of my projects than my feelings towards international soccer.

Well, the school year is over. By the official calendar, the last day in 9 July, but no one has bothered to show up since exams ended in May. Welcome to Togo.

My English club and Girls’ Club have ended until September. I tried to prolong the English club and continued biking out to the high school each week, but as the director explained to me, no one comes because they can’t make them.

As for the girls, I have still been spending time with a lot of them. We had a rematch against the girls from Warangi, the planning of which contributed to the aforementioned rough week. It was just one of those things where nothing goes according to plan. Organized to commemorate La Journee International Des Enfants (International Children’s Day), the girls performed a halftime sketch on the dangers of child trafficking, a common practice in West Africa. The game ended 0-0, which was a nice way to end the last game between myself and my friend who will be leaving in September. She is being replaced in November, so hopefully I can work out a similar arrangement with the new volunteer.

I have also been working with some of the girls on a “Petite Entreprise” course to learn the basics of commerce and marketing as well as several specific income-generating activities. My favorite part of Peace Corps service is adding to the list of things I do for which I am completely unqualified. I learned so much about business while preparing the lessons. But it has gone extremely well. So far we have made liquid soap, popcorn, hand/body lotion and peanut candy. Popcorn, previously unknown in Tchifama, is now regularly available, and a few of my more motivated girls have already made a decent profit. It has been really nice to see something tangible come from one of my lessons. The course was a last-minute decision, made only to keep some contact with the girls during the vacation, but it has turned out to be one of my favorite projects. Tomorrow, we have our last meeting, and all the girls have invited their mothers. They will teach them, in local language, everything they have learned.

In other work news, I still work at CPC, the weekly baby-weighing and vaccinations. I have started to give short presentations while the women wait. The first, on which I collaborated with my neighboring CHAP volunteer, was on dehydration and how to create a rehydration solution at home.

Take Our Daughters to Work has proved to be far more work than I ever thought possible, but now, with it just two weeks away, I am so excited. I have selected the two students from Tchifama, two girls who have never seen electricity, never been to a city, never travelled further than the next village. The 16 participants will get to meet female role models including a school director, high school teacher, NGO employee, university student, mid-wife, parajurist (I don’t know the word for that in English, but they work as a liaison between individuals and the criminal justice system) and librarian. They will have the opportunity to give a short presentation on a local radio station, and they will get a brief introduction to computer literacy at a nearby computer center. There are still a lot of details to work out, but I think it will be an amazing experience for these girls.

I just finished training as a counselor for Camp Espoir, the camp for children infected with and affect by HIV/AIDS. Camp begins next week. I will let you know how it goes!

The garden has been a bit of a struggle. Now that school is over, no one has been showing up to weed. Luckily, watering is completely unnecessary as we are now in rainy season. I am thinking of paying one of my siblings to keep it up during the summer and then taking a different approach in the fall. What I had originally envisioned was assigning teams of girls to specific rows and seeds and giving them the responsibility of doing all the work, from planting through selling the produce. My homologue decided she wanted to involve all 100 of the girls, but she has now seen that it is difficult to keep them all interested in the work and invested in the outcome.

And finally… SCIENCE CAMP! We were able to find some funding. It actually came from GAD, the Gender and Development Committee, on which I serve as the fund-raising coordinator. However, the proposals were evaluated anonymously, so I believe it was selected on the merit of the project J We have also received materials from various friends and family in the states (THANK YOU!). I know some people have said that they would still like to contribute. I will be compiling a list of materials that we could use for the science club that will begin in the fall. Also, I am thinking of organizing a regional science camp next summer. If this happens, I would be applying through Peace Corps Partnership for funding, and anyone interested in donating money could do so electronically. I will keep you updated.

It is now just five weeks until my family arrives! I will not even deign to attempt to put my excitement into words. I am also thrilled to be taking my first vacation, especially as it comes after back-to-back weeks of Camp Espoir, Take Our Daughters to Work, Science Camp and an auction I am organizing for GAD. I will be ready for a break. And on the topic of vacation, I have my second planned as well. I will return to the states 17 December – 3 January. Well, that was the plan, but apparently, my flight was cancelled, so it might be the 18^th. I cannot even grasp the idea right now, but as I will have been gone for 15 months at that point, I will be more than ready for a visit.

Happy Independence Day!

Congratulations, Cait and Ryan!