Last post - goodbye Togo

Aurelia and Carolina at my goodbye/birthday party in the med unit November 30, 2012 (it would be nice if I could rotate this but I can't figure out how to do it!)

Me and Pat at the same event.  Rose, our med unit cook/housekeeper made a delicious meal of fish, rice, salad, banana cake and pineapple (so unbelievable wonderful here - I've never even really like it before and now I won't be able to enjoy it until I come back to West Africa).

I know why I couldn't keep this blog up well during my time here - the internet connection is just so slow.  I've become a lot more patient with delays and slow technology since coming to Togo but not that patient.  In any event, I'm leaving early Saturday morning and I've been saying goodbye to everyone I see here.  It's been a great experience for me - I'm sure I've gotten far more out of being here than I could possibly have hoped to give but I hope I've been helpful where I could be.  Our things were packed out yesterday by an efficient moving company (coming and going with all my stuff has been surprisingly easy in both directions).  We're cleaning the numerous papers and magazines to put out into the trash and giving lots of stuff to our cook/housekeeper who said he'd take anything we didn't want.  Not much goes to waste here in Togo although they do use a lot of plastic bags that they just discard.  It will take me a while to fully process my experience here so I won't try to do that right now.  I'm looking forward to being back in the US, back in a culture I more fully understand.  I've spent 2 years marveling at how different things are here and mostly finding that the US holds up well in comparison in my mind but I'm sure it's just my cultural bend - I get the US and I'll never get a lot about Togo.  It's been interesting kind of resting on the surface of things here - observing, pondering, wondering but often, not understanding.  My main guides to my experience here have been my immediate co-workers:  Aurelia most of all but also Diana the medical secretary and Rose the cook.  I've learned a lot from my replacement in the past few weeks, a Beninese physician who has lived in West Africa her whole life.  Pat and I had a fufu dinner with one the associate country directors, Alex, the other week and talked about the politics in Togo in greater depth than ever before and also learned a lot.  I came here very ignorant about many things, I realize.  I knew very very little about Africa and, while I have much to learn still, I do know so much more and will be forever grateful that I was given this opportunity.  I hope very much to come back someday as I will profoundly miss many things, people and places but at least I had the chance to live and work here for 2 years.
I've spent the last few months thinking about what I'll miss about Togo and what I won't:
Will miss:  Walking 3 minutes to get to work, the local dogs that Toby and I see on our morning walk/run, the croissants and pan au chocolat we can get just down the street for 60 and 65 cents that are as good as any I've ever had, the lunches I've had in my backyard with Pat when it's incredibly hot on our street but somehow pleasant sitting at our table with the umbrella, the amazing tropical fruits here: mangos, pineapples, little pink-inside papayas, the thin-crust pizzas from the Annex, the adorable children who go to school around here in lavender shirts and khaki pants/skirts, the bright colors that people wear, the lazy weekends with no housework or yardwork to do, the lizards, the strange bird next door that we've never seen but that makes a lot of interesting sounds, the chickens and goats, Kundalini yoga (a new discovery and a lifesaver for me here), teaching yoga to my coworkers, how people here rarely get angry or out-of-sorts, the nighttime wildlife noises at the Pagala training site (I can't imagine the creatures that make those sounds), the lovely weather of July - the nicest month in Lome (and the worst one in NY), swimming in the ambassador's pool - it'll never be that nice again.
Won't miss:  The heat from early morning to late afternoon (it's particularly bad right now), the sandy roads that are like walking on the beach, the motos and other bad drivers in Togo, the crummy roads (they're getting better but they have along way to go), the humid yet dry climate (although I haven't had to use a moisturizer for 2 years which is good but all the folliage in my yard is dying right now which is not good), the crapshoot that ordering chicken or any other kind of meat can be here (will it be edible or will it be like leather?), the unfestiveness of the Christmas season (it's just impossible for me here...), the sloooowwww internet at work - also impossible to live with, and the power outages, the water outages the internet outages - all par for the course here (it's how I've learned to be more patient...lol).
GOODBYE TOGO!