We have been in Togo for six months now. We arrived in June and began our three month pre-service training (PST). We first flew into Philadelphia where we spent two days meeting the rest of our cohort and getting some basic Peace Corps orientation before leaving for Togo.
After a 10 hour flight we made it to Togo and were met at the airport by the country director, some staff members and a few current volunteers. We then headed to a hotel in Lome for a few more days of orientation and getting to know each other.
Our next stop was the Peace Corps Training Center in Pagala. We drove 5 hours up the national highway to get there and were greeted with dancing and lunch from the staff members that worked with us during PST. After getting settled in we got to work learning about language, intercultural competency, diversity and inclusion and health and safety.
After a week of training at the center we divided up by sector and went to training host villages. There are three sectors in Togo: Education, Health and Agriculture. Paul is in the agriculture sector called PAGES which stands for Promoting Agriculture Education for Sustainability. I am in the health sector called CHESS which stands for Community Health Education and System Strengthening. Everyone was placed in host families in nearby villages. I was placed in a village called Tchifama along with three other CHESS volunteers and Paul was placed in a village called Dguinea with theee other PAGES volunteers.
We would spend 5 or 6 days in the villages and return to Pagala sometimes for certain trainings. The next few weeks were a whirlwind of traveling back and forth from the training center to village host families. When we first arrived in Togo neither of us had any French skills so the first few weeks with our host families were spent miming and using offline google translate.
After about a month we started getting more sector specific technical training and improving our French skills.
After 5 weeks of training it was time to visit our permanent sites for the first time. Our permanent site is a small village called Babade in Centrale région. We spent two weeks living in our new home, meeting the community, village chiefs and leaders, our counterparts and learning as much as we could about the community.
When we got back to Pagala we continued more sector specific training and did some practicums in our host villages. Throughout training we had language tests called LPIs to track our progress. In order to swear in as a Peace Corps volunteer you have to test into an intermediate mid level of French proficiency.
As we approached the end of PST I was anxious about my French skills. I had tested at intermediate low and Paul had already tested at intermediate high. The last week of PST was going to be spent in Lome where we would swear in at the end of the week. Just before leaving for Lome I got the results from our last LPI and found out that I had tested into intermediate mid and would be swearing in! After saying goodbye to our host families we left for Lome. We spent the last week of PST in Lome finishing all our training and getting ready for the swear in ceremony.
On September 1, 2023 we officially swore in as peace corps volunteers! We said our goodbyes and all went to our permanent site locations on the 2nd.
We’ve been at site for three months now getting to know our community and improving our language skills. On Monday we will go back to Pagala for our first in-service training. We’re excited to se everyone again and share stories and project ideas.
This is my personal blog and the views expressed here are my own and do not reflect the opinion of the U.S. Government or the Government of Togo.
The Adventures of Paul and Sue 