19 July 2009

19 July 2009

I am back in Togo. I’ve spent the past twenty-four hours sleeping and cleaning my house. The kids who took care of my cat also swept and cleaned my living room, which was really nice. Although I’m slightly confused about how they could have missed the spider webbing wrapped around the picture rail. By the time I finished gathering all those webs, my broom resembled a gray and dusty version of a stick of cotton candy. Ew.
My bedroom and kitchen were even worse- I kept those rooms locked separately; not because I don’t trust my cat-sitters, just because I believe in avoiding temptation. Being locked away for five weeks, even from the cat, meant that vermin and mold had a brilliant opportunity to go forth and multiply. Ew. I’m still mid-battle.
Almost none of my clothes are wearable – with the advent of the rainy season, my clothes have become active moisture-holders and mold-growers. My next step is to buy lots of sopa and bring a bundle of laundry over to my “laundry girl.” Overall, despite the little things, coming back has not been as hard as I’d feared.
Getting onto the plane in California and then again in Paris was difficult, but I didn’t cry myself to sleep on arrival like I’d expected. It helped that I was able to immerse myself in volunteer life before going back to village. I went to the training site for new volunteers – I was supposed to have been training them this week – to say hello and hand out Starburst. Then I spent the night at L & I’s and just chilled out with a silly movie (Dorkness Rising) and some wine.