So, some of you might know (because I wouldn’t shut up about it), that I went to Africa for two weeks. And some said they wanted to see pictures once I'm back... well I'm back now and I brought pictures, but first let me tell you a bit about why I went and what I did ;)
I was volunteering at a tiny village in Togo. We had no electricity (awesome when it’s pitch black at 7pm), no running water (cool when you have to walk 15min to fetch it for showers and cooking) and no proper toilets (but who needs them when you can share a corn field with some chicken?) I was looking for an adventure for a long time and oh boy, was this trip an adventure.
I went so I could practice my French and I thought – what better way to practice French than to spend time with people who speak French. Then I thought: well, going to France is boring (remember, I wanted an adventure) and this is how I ended up in Togo.
We had to get up at 6.30am every day in order to be at the school at 8am. We taught French and maths to the kids of the village (or rather, the French and Togolese volunteers did, while I sat around, watched and tried to get the kids to pay attention haha)
The language turned out to be a huge problem for me. While I could understand most of the conversation it was hard for me to actively participate in it. I had to concentrate to understand, then it takes a while for me to form a sentence and by the time I was done, the topic was already closed and they were talking about something else. Also, the other volunteers all knew each other already from last year. Safe to say that I got quite lonely at times. But I pushed through and all in all I can’t complain. I had a pretty good time and it was definitely an experience.
We cooked on open fire, drank (f-cking disgusting) Togo Gin and took Taxi –Motos freaking everywhere (which I do not recommend if you don’t have a death wish – which we obviously had, seeing as we rode them to the waterfalls. Worst hour of my life. I’m used to a lot of crazy driving from Asia but this was so much worse!) We danced and partied into the night, met other volunteers, clapped and sang to the sounds of traditional Togolese drums and yeah… like I said before, it was an experience.
But because I’m not that good with words, because I’m chaotic and rant way too much, I probably should let pictures do the talking.
I've already uploaded a lot of pictures to my blog, the posts can be found here:
MORE
I'm uploading more soon but tumblr keeps f-cking with the pictures and I don't have much patience today.
I'll post some more pictures inside to show you how we lived :)
Just a few words to the topic of volunteering, because I know that it can be a touchy subject. This was my 2nd time volunteering (I went to Thailand for 5 weeks 2 years ago) but I don't do this to save the world. Frankly, if you do it for this reason you are very misguided. I also don't do it so I can tell everyone what a good person I am, because to be honest, I rather not tell anyone that it was volunteering. The point is, you don't save the world. You maybe give back a bit and do your part but - I repeat: you're not saving the world. For me it is simply an opportunity to see a country I wouldn't have otherwise, experience in a way that you can never as a tourist and - in this case - learn a language.
Not very exciting, I know.
edit #32348734: What was your most exciting/craziest holiday? What's the worst thing that happened to you while on vacation? Come share with me crazy holiday stories - I'm curious :)