Getting to be Christmas time

Its Christmas time! What does that mean here for Sotouboua? So far, not too much. I hear people talking about how they will ‘faire la fête’ on the 25^th, but you don’t see any build up like how I’m sure it is now back home. The only Christmas tree around here is the small plastic one in my house. It was left here by a previous volunteer and now is resting on a table in the middle of my room. The weather has changed though. Now we’re in a season called Harmatten. It gets really dry and dusty. The early evening is when there is the most dust in the air. You can’t even see past 50 yards down the road which my house is on. And I’m in the Centrale Region, which isn’t even supposed to be affected that badly by it. I can’t even image how those people are doing who live farther up north. It also gets cold at night! I actual have to have a sheet over me now!

I hung out with a group of Falani the other day. The Fulani are an ethnic group which is known for being very nomadic, staying separate from the rest of the groups here in Togo. When someone describes them here, they say two things: “One day they’ll be living in one village, the next they will have picked up and moved to a completely different place” or “They are the ones who make the cheese, Wagashi”. Both are true, and that cheese is delicious, but I’ve heard that some are starting to settle down. Some have moved into towns like Sotouboua, and are sending their kids to school.

The group that I met live, for now, in a very small village about an hour north of my post. I was on my way through with another volunteer when the guy driving us said, “Hey, I know a group of Fulani that are living just here. Want to say hi?” Of course we did. So we walked a little bit out into the bush, passing huts and houses and saying our salutations in Kabiye (the major language around there). Then we made it up the compound of mud brick houses. We met a few of the residents. The others were out herding their cattle. Sidenote – Fulani are known to be nomadic cattle herders. They cultivate this really delicious cheese called wagshi. It is made even more delicious by the fact that cheese is very rare to find outside of Lomé here. – The guy who brought us there was speaking a different language with those at the compound. I know it wasn’t Kabiye, it might have been Fulani, not 100% sure though.

Well, eventually one older man went into his house and came out with a stringed instrument. It only had one string. Ok, how to describe this. The base was made out of a bowl which had animal skin pulled over it. So it looked like half a sphere. There was a foot long stick coming out of the bowl. From the tip of the stick was tied a string, which had the other end of it tied to the other side of the bowl. A little piece of wood was put between the string and the animal skin to create a bridge. The man then began to play this with a bow similar to what you use for a violin. He would hold his fingers against the string at different lengths to create different notes. Although I couldn’t see any indicators on the instrument, he knew exactly when to touch on the string to get the notes he wanted. It was pretty amazing to see the precision. The music actually reminded me of Gaelic music. I think because it is sort of like a fiddle.

Eventually some more people returned to the compound. One man brought out a sort of flute instrument, another put on a few metal rings and began playing on a metal basin. Then a few of the others there started to dance. Our little visit had turned into a Fulani dance party. I even jumped in a little to show off my moves (or maybe lack of). Eventually we had to head out. I told them we would make it back out there again, which I definitely want to! I really want one of those fiddle type instruments.

I’ve been up to a few different projects too. I just recently finished with a cool little community dance competition for World AIDS Day. It was a little stressful organizing, but I was so relieved when it actually happened. We ended up bring out around 200 people, watching some talented people dance, and talking to the crowd about universal access and basic human rights related in HIV/AIDS.