As promised, I'll finish my explaination of the initiations. As i said before, the dances in the village shows everyone that the young men have matured. It si like a debutante ball, but for guys.
Besides the initiations, there is a large wrestling match every year in the Lama-Kara region called Evala. This ceremony is for young men, 18-20, to show their strength to the public and the fact taht they are mature ane ready for marriage. This is a huge ceremony that people from around the world fly in to watch. The president takes a week off just to attend the matches. Rumors have it that the president invites the winners into his army.
I went to watch a wrestling match in Kouméa with Alex, Madeline, Jeff and Jesper. With our cameras held tightly in our hands, and money around our necks, we came upon a field of hundreds of people. There were wrestlers flexing their their muscles, red-cross personnels walking around, vendors and beer-sellers milling around, and a huge group of women [in matching pagnés (skirts from a piece of cloth) and T-shirts that has a photo of the president in the front (he is up for reelection next year) and the words, 'Kouméa supports you!' in the back] singing and dancing together to the rythym of the drums. Besides the civilians, there were lots of military personnel aith their green berets, black vests and serious machine guns hung around their necks. Military trucks and machine guns were all prepped for the safety of the president.
There were two teams, red and white. Each round of wrestling consisted of 5 men from each side. Which team wins the most matches for the round wins the round. On each side, there's also a "cheerleading" team of 10 or so men dressed in feathers and fur, dancing to the beats of traditional music of drums and shakers. I heard from the people around me that each time a team wins a round; the "cheerleading" team shouts out some smart insult at the other team like in a rap show-down.
A friend of Jesper, a wrestling coach, told us the wrestling matches represents how one lives in life. Unlike when you are younger, you can no longer turn away from a fight. Like in life, you must fight.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Initiations
In the region of Kabiyé, you have to prove that you are ready for adulthood and marriage. This means that both men and women go through initiations as a sign of their maturity. Men have to go through 5 initiations while women only have one. As a sign of how this community has changed with the times, these initiations are completely voluntary.
Last Monday, right after I left the market in Kara, I went directly to an initiation ceremony. Like all "scheduled" meetings or events in Africa, this didn't start on time (more on the concept of African time later). The initiation was held in the homestead of the first chief of Conton (like a county) in the region. One of the grandsons of the family, Henri, is a director for the PeaceCorps in Togo, and he knows basically everyone who is anyone in Togo. Everyone who is even slightly related to the 4 initiates were invited to attend the ceremony.
As I waited with Madeline, Alex, and Jesper, Jesper explained about what these initiates had to do the night before the initiation. It turned out that each initiate had to do "kidnap" a child, half their age, whom they believe to resemble them. I am not all sure why they needed to kidnap the child, but I know that this is one way for the people here to build relationships with those who are younger than them. These young children become life-long friends with the initiates who chose them. The initiates take care of the kid like their own sibling.
After making our rounds of typical greetings, and photo taking, the initiation finally starts. First, we see a man leading the initiate and the young child to the center of the courtyard, all with their head ducked (not exactly sure why, but it could be for respect for something). They stop in the middle of the yard, and both the initiate and the child crouches in waiting for the initiation. Then, we see a woman of the initiate's family rubbing red palm oil on the initiate and the child. Afterwards, an uncle, or the father of the initiate makes a big speech to the entire town announcing that the boy has become a man. Now he is capable of building his household, and he is now ready to marry. Then, the same woman from the household offers the initiate a calabash of beer. But the initiate has to refuse because it is to show that he can resist something so good as a calabash of beer. Afterwards, the initiate runs away with the child behind him.
This repeated for each initiate. Later that week, I witnessed a traditional dance in the market by younger initiates. While the traditional music played, young men, shirtless, wore skins of dead animals around their necks stumped around the market. Unfortunately, I am running out of time and have to explain this later.
Last Monday, right after I left the market in Kara, I went directly to an initiation ceremony. Like all "scheduled" meetings or events in Africa, this didn't start on time (more on the concept of African time later). The initiation was held in the homestead of the first chief of Conton (like a county) in the region. One of the grandsons of the family, Henri, is a director for the PeaceCorps in Togo, and he knows basically everyone who is anyone in Togo. Everyone who is even slightly related to the 4 initiates were invited to attend the ceremony.
As I waited with Madeline, Alex, and Jesper, Jesper explained about what these initiates had to do the night before the initiation. It turned out that each initiate had to do "kidnap" a child, half their age, whom they believe to resemble them. I am not all sure why they needed to kidnap the child, but I know that this is one way for the people here to build relationships with those who are younger than them. These young children become life-long friends with the initiates who chose them. The initiates take care of the kid like their own sibling.
After making our rounds of typical greetings, and photo taking, the initiation finally starts. First, we see a man leading the initiate and the young child to the center of the courtyard, all with their head ducked (not exactly sure why, but it could be for respect for something). They stop in the middle of the yard, and both the initiate and the child crouches in waiting for the initiation. Then, we see a woman of the initiate's family rubbing red palm oil on the initiate and the child. Afterwards, an uncle, or the father of the initiate makes a big speech to the entire town announcing that the boy has become a man. Now he is capable of building his household, and he is now ready to marry. Then, the same woman from the household offers the initiate a calabash of beer. But the initiate has to refuse because it is to show that he can resist something so good as a calabash of beer. Afterwards, the initiate runs away with the child behind him.
This repeated for each initiate. Later that week, I witnessed a traditional dance in the market by younger initiates. While the traditional music played, young men, shirtless, wore skins of dead animals around their necks stumped around the market. Unfortunately, I am running out of time and have to explain this later.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Brief intercession
I have to say that every time I am in Kara alone, I end up finding friends and Chinese people. First, I saw Laby, who is a master in linguistics from my village. He helped me out, but had to leave with his girlfriend to go back home. Right now, I am actually in the house of some Chinese people who were sent by the government to aid Togo. Howdid that happen? Well, I was buying bananas when two chinese men approached me and said, "Ni Hao." I was so taken aback by correct Chinese that I immediately responded in Chinese as well. It turned out that there was a van full of Chinese people from Sheng Yang who worked with the Chinese hospital here in Kara. They were so surprised to find a Chinese in Togo that they immediately took me to their house for lunch. There a lady who is the head of the team. There are 4 other men, and a young translator. All of them thought that I was too young to a college student. Some of them said that their daughters are older than me. Well, I can't help it. Because all Chinese people are endearing to each other outside of China, they stuffed my bag with gifts of food and drink. They felt sorry that I have to live in a village with no electricity or running water. I am grateful to them, but I told them that life in the village was fine.
Onto more productive topics. I am working with the insurance system more and more. The plan is to go over Tara's budget for the cas de Sante. Kalina, Charlie's daughter, and her boyfriend are both here to work with the medical system with me. I am really excited because Jeff is supposed to be a medical management major, so his expertise would be greatly appreciated in this project. Presently, I am working on writing up forms and future evaluations. I am trying to work out all sort of kinks. I will talk to many of the people who participated in the insurance system last year and have their inputs. Hopefully, everything will work out.
Now I feel obliged to talk to the Chinese before I have to leave for Farende. Watch out for next week's blog though, because there are lot of initiations that will go on this week.
Onto more productive topics. I am working with the insurance system more and more. The plan is to go over Tara's budget for the cas de Sante. Kalina, Charlie's daughter, and her boyfriend are both here to work with the medical system with me. I am really excited because Jeff is supposed to be a medical management major, so his expertise would be greatly appreciated in this project. Presently, I am working on writing up forms and future evaluations. I am trying to work out all sort of kinks. I will talk to many of the people who participated in the insurance system last year and have their inputs. Hopefully, everything will work out.
Now I feel obliged to talk to the Chinese before I have to leave for Farende. Watch out for next week's blog though, because there are lot of initiations that will go on this week.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
What does a chemistry major do in Togo?
On the way up to my host family in northern Togo, Dr. Piot asked all of us students to tell him of our majors. Madeline: cultural antrhopology, Alex: Political science/government. So far, so good. Dr. Piot nodded his head as he could see why these humanity majors would come to Togo to work on their respective projects. Then it my turn. "Chemistry," I said. He literally turned around and said "WHAT are you doing in Africa?"
So I am here trying to answer that question. As I have already said in my profile, I want to learn about how doctors heal patients in an environment where health is understood as a physical and spiritual matter. I am also here to give my service to best help the need of the organzation. My time here in split between working in a decent size clinic in the bigger village of Farendé, interviewing local healers, and developing a feasible action plan for the local insurance system that they want to implement in a small village up the moutain, called Kuwdé.
The clinic in Farendé is called Centre Medicale Sociale, or CMS for short. It is a part of the Evangelic Church, but it serves as the local health institute. It is responsible for everything ranging from primary care and birthing to vaccination and public health education. However, like many of the health institutions in Togo, they are understaffed and underfunded. For example, there are three nurses and one l'assistant mediacal (almost, but not quite a doctor) who have to manage consultation room, injection room, wound dressing room and the two hospital rooms. The nurses each take a 24 hour rotation to take care of the patients, so there's actually only one to two people who can monitor the entire facility at one time. In addition, out of 10 people who comes to the clinic, about only 4 can actually pay for their medecine and consultation fees. Sometimes, I wonder how this instituion is even able to stay in business at all with their limited revenue. There is no government aid or any outside help except for the once-a-year medicine donation from Doctor without boarders. In order to help the clinic, they have used all extra space at the center to plant peanuts to support the staff. Right now, my goal is to work with the education programs that they have at the center to better the curriculum and to find people to teach them about how to prevent infectious diseases.
My other big project is working with the assurance system for the little village of Kuwdé. Tara, a student who came up with this idea last year, wanted to start an insurance system so that the people in the region do not have to pay very much when they come to the clinic. The problem in this village is that people cannot pay in full for their medicines. This is partly due to the poverty in this region as well as the way of life here. Most people do not practice saving money because they have never experienced what it means to have a steady income. The only way of life that they understand is the subsistance living where they toil all day to make just enough for that day. Thus, there is never the occasion to save, and they hardly ever have a sum of money set aside for rainy days. When they have to come up with a large sum of money for pay for things like medical expenses, their instinct is to sell something in their house, like a goat, chicken, or grains, to pay for the expenses. This practice, however, puts people at the mercy of the market. They can only make however much the market dictates. Thus, these people can never be sure of whether they can pay for the medicine or not. This chain of events ultimately affects the health insititute because the health worker cannot turn a sick person away due to his/her ability to pay. Thus, it is the health institution that ends up going into debt, and the personnels are not paid. This insurance system is here to provide some security.
So I am here trying to answer that question. As I have already said in my profile, I want to learn about how doctors heal patients in an environment where health is understood as a physical and spiritual matter. I am also here to give my service to best help the need of the organzation. My time here in split between working in a decent size clinic in the bigger village of Farendé, interviewing local healers, and developing a feasible action plan for the local insurance system that they want to implement in a small village up the moutain, called Kuwdé.
The clinic in Farendé is called Centre Medicale Sociale, or CMS for short. It is a part of the Evangelic Church, but it serves as the local health institute. It is responsible for everything ranging from primary care and birthing to vaccination and public health education. However, like many of the health institutions in Togo, they are understaffed and underfunded. For example, there are three nurses and one l'assistant mediacal (almost, but not quite a doctor) who have to manage consultation room, injection room, wound dressing room and the two hospital rooms. The nurses each take a 24 hour rotation to take care of the patients, so there's actually only one to two people who can monitor the entire facility at one time. In addition, out of 10 people who comes to the clinic, about only 4 can actually pay for their medecine and consultation fees. Sometimes, I wonder how this instituion is even able to stay in business at all with their limited revenue. There is no government aid or any outside help except for the once-a-year medicine donation from Doctor without boarders. In order to help the clinic, they have used all extra space at the center to plant peanuts to support the staff. Right now, my goal is to work with the education programs that they have at the center to better the curriculum and to find people to teach them about how to prevent infectious diseases.
My other big project is working with the assurance system for the little village of Kuwdé. Tara, a student who came up with this idea last year, wanted to start an insurance system so that the people in the region do not have to pay very much when they come to the clinic. The problem in this village is that people cannot pay in full for their medicines. This is partly due to the poverty in this region as well as the way of life here. Most people do not practice saving money because they have never experienced what it means to have a steady income. The only way of life that they understand is the subsistance living where they toil all day to make just enough for that day. Thus, there is never the occasion to save, and they hardly ever have a sum of money set aside for rainy days. When they have to come up with a large sum of money for pay for things like medical expenses, their instinct is to sell something in their house, like a goat, chicken, or grains, to pay for the expenses. This practice, however, puts people at the mercy of the market. They can only make however much the market dictates. Thus, these people can never be sure of whether they can pay for the medicine or not. This chain of events ultimately affects the health insititute because the health worker cannot turn a sick person away due to his/her ability to pay. Thus, it is the health institution that ends up going into debt, and the personnels are not paid. This insurance system is here to provide some security.
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