Just past 4 weeks...

So, I'm in the office on a Sunday evening trying to call loved ones and no one's answering the phone!  Oh well...That's one really good thing about this position - I can make free phone calls to the States.  But I do have a time difference here so it's challenging to find times to call that aren't my working hours or someone else's.  I had hoped to Skype but the computer at work has no camera and is very slow and I have no internet for my laptop.
My colleague, Aurelia, and I took 2 days this past week and made site visits to volunteers in villages north of Lome.  It was great to be able to see some of Togo that's not this city.  The villages we saw were on the larger side and consisted of many clay and cinderblock houses clustered on dirt roads.  It was very hot and dry and you could see that the residents had to spend a lot of time collecting water from rivers or spigots.  Many people walking around with large metal bowls and huge plastic containers on their heads - both women and children.  The volunteers we saw had it pretty good - cement houses with multiple rooms, nice wooden furniture and even electricity and flush toilets sometimes but they will all have to deal with water issues, too, as the dry season progresses for the next few months.  It was great to meet more volunteers and get to know them a bit.  I also had a chance to sample some Togolese food with Aurelia explaining it all to me - we had some bean beignets (like clam fritters in shape and texture but a different taste) which are called gao in the local language (which I believe was Ewe where we were - there are about 40 local languages in Togo with Ewe being the most common in the south of the country).  For the volunteers the local language becomes increasing important the further they are from Lome.  This coming week I'm taking a  week-long trip to various places ending up in Kara in the northern part of country (where I hear it is mountainous and more scenic - it's very flat down here).  I'm going with the country director who is also making site visits.
I feel like the French is going pretty well considering I haven't had any call to use it in close to 40 years!  Can't speak it too well at this point but I'm understanding more and reading to improve my vocabulary.  I certainly will have time to work on it...
I had bought some fabric at the Grand Marche (the huge outdoor marketplace in Lome) a few weeks ago and one of my coworkers took me to a local tailor to get a dress made - you generally bring a dress you have and they copy it.  Total cost:  $7 for the fabric and $6 for the tailoring (and it only took 2 days)!  I'll post of picture of me in it next time.