Final Installment

Good evening all,

9:00 PM here, and we’ve just finished a great 2nd anniversary dinner with Dustin and Julianna. Two years ago today, in Seattle, was their big day, and it was really fun to celebrate with them then, as it has been today, in a little different setting. The picture is of the dinner table that Cate so thoughtfully prepared, with candles, etc. We sang to them when they walked in, and Wayne had even fixed up some “mood lighting that you can see in the corner behind them. The flash takes much of the special lighting affects out, but it really was nice. And dinner was great too. We had a special left-over of a great meal from a couple of days ago—a dish called founyo, much like cous-cous. Also had some fresh zucchini with spices C & W bought in Morocco. And fresh salad with tomatoes, carrots, onions, and clean lettuce. It must really be clean too, as we have had a lot of it here, at their home, and none of us still have been sick. Interesting that we have met almost 50 other PCV’s, and their first question is how sick we’ve been. Our answers always seem to surprise them, so something we’ve been doing has been working right. Maybe there are no bad types of bacteria in nuts from Costco and dark chocolate, or something. We HAVE been careful, but have enjoyed when we’ve been out too. Happy Anniversary to Dustin and Julianna!!!!

The other picture we’re going to send tonight, our last night here in Atakpame, is from a visit to Akpene’s (the domestique) grandmother’s little area where she lives. It was quite obvious that this was an important visit for her, and it became one for us as well. The little family compound was one that we had not seen, so it gave us a real view of living conditions, and homes, etc. We have some video of being around these wonderful, happy people, but you’ll have to wait to see that. What fun we had!!!! We watched them play around with each other, show love to each other, and the respect that Akpene has for her grandparents was soooo evident. She was very proud to introduce us to them. She and Julianna have a very special relationship too. They walked back together, while the rest of us went on to some different errands, and it was interesting hearing about that. One example maybe. They were walking along talking about what was around them, with chickens running all over the street, etc and Julianna was trying to find out what Akpene knew about where J lives. She said that there were no chickens running around the streets where she lives. J said that Akpene looked at her with amazement, and disbelief, and then started laughing, as it seemed so funny. She was wondering how in the world we got the chicken and eggs, etc. It was fun hearing about the communication, and also startling in some ways at how little she knew about what it is like. We thought that it is also good that she doesn’t know all the details.

That caused a great discussion at dinner about how what we have seen in the last two weeks, has impacted us, if any (oh, skip the “if any”). I don’t think I could do a good job of encapsulating the discussion, but just to say that we have certainly been impacted, and we’d all love to find ways to help, and feel frustrated in determining the right ways. We also felt somewhat helpless in what we could do. It is obviously is a gov’t to gov’t situation also, and we need to find ways to help others see the needs for education, health care, roads, communication, etc. I made the suggestion that we eliminate much of our gov’t by just having a election, then see who the majority party is, then have them elect just a small number of their representatives (maybe 25) and send the rest of their party, and the entire other party home. We then eliminate all the staffs of those hundreds of elected officials too. There is no need to have them all sit in Wash, DC and spend time arguing, etc and then, whoever the majority party is at the time, makes the decision anyway, and they are required to vote the way of their party, or go find another party anyway. Think of the billions that we could save, and then we could take country by country and spend the money, and direct the help to them, one by one, and end up having a real impact on ending poverty over time. I guess you could imagine that not everyone agreed that this was a great proposal, but I tried. We DID agree however, on the needs for education, health care, roads and communication. The picture we are sending is of the group of kids I had around me in Akpene’s home area. You can probably tell that I was enjoying the kids at that point!!

This afternoon, we did some packing, getting ready for tomorrow. We will be leaving here at 7:00-7:30 and have a taxi hired (same driver/chauffeur) that we had on our trip up north last week. He is going to be with us all day, and even got special license/permission to take us to Accra, Ghana. Evidently we will have to take our luggage out of the car, stand in the lines, and drag the bags across the dirt and rocks, get passports looked at, and then meet him again on the other side of the border, for the final 3 hours to Accra. We think we have the timing worked out so that we can go check in to C, W, J, and D’s hotel, and let me take a shower and change part of my clothing for the long trip home. I leave at 9 PM tomorrow night (Tuesday) and arrive home in LA at the same time on Wednesday night, after spending 6 ½ hours in the Amsterdam airport, and 2 hours in the Memphis airport. So it will be 31 hours of traveling. Nada is going to pick me up at the airport and take me home, and then stay in Camarillo. Not sure whether I’m going to be awake or not, but it will be fun to start the discussion about the visit to Africa, which N & N will be taking in November.

The weather has been absolutely terrible, as we had heard, and for which we prepared. One day it was over 80 degrees. I think we were so lucky/blessed with the weather, it is unbelievable. Today was probably the most mild all day. Very comfortable. That does not mean, however, that we don’t sweat when we walk around, as it is quite muggy all the time.

One other thing from today. We visited Kreje, the NGO that C & W work with, and heard from the people that work there about what they do, and what good they think they are doing. It was all about AIDS education and testing. They go to the jr. hi, and hi schools, and “auntie Kreje,” who has lived with the effect of being HIV positive for a number of years, tells them the stories of how she is coping, and how others can also. She stresses the importance of testing, which they do for free for them at this place. They do it in a little room (4 X 4), and they evidently get a lot of them to come in. The only people that will come in are those who are just about already dead, and the hospital has told them to get tested, or they are young school kids, who are being educated in the importance. There is such a stigma, and misunderstanding of the effects, that if someone finds out they are HIV positive, their family and friends are so afraid of being around them, and possibly eating or drinking with them, or touching them, etc that the family kicks them out of their homes, etc. Think that might have a negative effect of having someone go in for testing? Sure, that keeps them away. . .. big time. . . so only when they are going to die do they come in. So really the only hope is through the education of the next generation, which they are feeling some encouraging signs. This story is to tell you that we all feel Cate and Wayne are involved in important work!!!!!!

Time to finish up the packing, but wanted to get my last email in the air somewhere (or however this works), and hopefully Wayne will be able to make a good connection and get the pictures included. Reliability of connection is not a word that can be used here. Think of that as you are reading this on our DSL or cable lines. We’ve had a great trip, and C, W, D, and J are continuing on the Egypt on Thursday after a couple more days in Accra. I have had a wonderful trip, and I it has also been great to be with the 5 of us (from MY perspective). It’s fun to broaden my own education by talking with people who are involved, and care about others the way they do. Now I will go back to our beautiful home, and we will continue to build our more beautiful, and bigger home, and I’ll go back to my great job, and continue to look at my pictures, which will remind me of what a real experience I’ve had/seen, and hopefully they will be boosters to help me to be aware of opportunities available to have an impact on much of the world that is more similar to what I’ve just seen, than what I’m going back to.

Love to you all. Bye from West Africa.