Ca va aller.

June 12, 2014

“Ca va aller.”

It will go--

A phrase I’ve heard quite often during my last year in Togo (TODAY’S A YEAR!!).

Usually only expressed when things are looking like they’re going to go horribly awry.

I heard it during my World Malaria Day event when 30 minutes after it was supposed to start, still no one had showed up.

Ca va aller. = It might suck, but it will be over soon.

I hear it when I’m stressed out because of the general acceptance of lack of planning for anything here.

“Major, j’ai besoin de avoir une reunion avec tous les ASCs avant je vais partir aux Etats Unis pour disctuer la selection des femmes lumieres.”

“Ce n’est pas possible. Mais ca va aller.”

(“Major, I need to have a meeting with all the community health workers before I go home to the States to discuss the selection of Femme Lumieres.”

“This is not possible. But it will go.”)

= I’m not going to tell you how it will get done. Or when. Or by who. But somehow things will just work out.

Naturally, when my anxiety level here in Togo was hitting an all time high in planning for my 103 person HIV/AIDs formation that was also meant to establish a four tier structure for getting a health education to over 700 househoulds, “Ca va aller” did not bring me a lot of comfort…

I took it more as,

Ca va aller = Your expectations for this are way too high. It’s impossible for them to be met and you’re going to learn the hard way…

That assumption was completely incorrect..

I don’t think a single other day in my Peace Corps service, past or future, can top this one.

Today was Day 1 of my Care Group formation and the “do or die” moment for the vision I’ve been harboring for the remainder of my time here in Togo.

I’ll cut the suspense -- It DID.

As you can probably tell from my general interpretation of “Ca va aller”, I’m guilty of not having given my village and homologues enough credit. I’ve had this fear of utter failure looming above my head for the last month as I finalized the plans for this formation. Between the complaints about the long hours and lack of money, compiled with the reality that my village was not the “driving force” behind this project, I was convinced it would all fall apart.

When first planning my Care Group, based on the number of ménages (households) in my village, it was intended to consist of 73 femme lumieres (1 for each 10 households of 734) and 15 animatrices and 15 animateurs (1 male and female representative from each neighborhood/surrounding village).

The number of names turned into me after selecting the group members accounted for 67 femme lumieres, 14 animateurs, and 14 animatrices.

For the formation, I prepared the materials for the 28 leaders and 60 of the femme lumieres, assuiming even that was too many. Of the 95 names I was given, I expected maybe 50 to show.

97 people registered for the formation this morning.

72 femme lumieres came. Not only more than I’d prepared for, but more than I’d accounted for in the final tabulation of group numbers. It was only 1 shy of the original number I needed! And it turned out she only just couldn’t come to the first day. She planned on attending the rest of the formation.

14 animateurs also came, along with 13 animatrices. Again. The one who was absent had an excuse and had every intention of attending the next two days.

That’s essentially perfect attendance. That exceeds perfect attendance if you go by my original number. 

Not to mention half these woman had to bring their still-breastfeeding children and a quarter of them had to walk over 3 miles.

Ignoring my insufficient materials, I assembled red folders with handouts for all of the femme lumieres, green folders for the animateurs, and blue folders for the animatrices. Each including a notebook and pen.

Our day was scheduled to start with a game or ice-breaker. I had a game in mind that we played successfully, but that wasn’t what got the formation off to a good start.

Raisha, one of my best friends in village that attended a Peace Corps national women’s conference in February, was supposed to do a “Confiance en Soi” (Self-Confidence) presentation with the women on Day 2. She showed up early this morning ready to work, confused about the dates. Turns out she had written an entire song for the group about the light of the Femme Lumiere. It’s beautiful. And catchy. And very African-woman spirit-like (I don’t know how to explain that any other way.. you’d have to live here).

She started teaching it to everyone and my entire being just overwhelmed with pride.

I felt like bottled sunshine. Her energy and spirit absolutely amaze me.

All the women started catching on and soon, we are running in a Congo line, clapping and chanting.

The rest of the morning’s sessions were cake with the energy that provided.

We covered the description and goals of the project – for the Care Group in general and the formation specifically, the roles of responsibilities of each person, and the steps in behavior change. We broke for lunch and picked up in the afternoon with how future monthly meetings will work.

Just the animateurs and animatrices remained. The group of 27 was much less overwhelming than the one of 97 from the morning sessions.

We did our first group health session afterwards by using 2 hours to cover HIV/AIDS:

We played the elephant and lions games I explained in a previous health club blog.

Did a Vrai ou Faux (True or False) activity about the transmission of HIV.

Had the participants categorize different behaviors as “Pas de risque” (No risk), “Risque faible” (Weak risk), et “Risque élévé” (High risk). Here we used examples like ”holding hands” and “eating with a person with HIV” to address some of the discrimination that exists here against people living with HIV/AIDS.

Did a proper condom demonstration.

And covered the services available to the people of my village concerning HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

Tomorrow, the animatrices and animateurs will be responsible for sharing this information with the 73 femme lumieres. Who will then take it to the 734 households.

WE ARE GETTING THIS INFORMATION TO 736 HOUSEHOLDS.

Just a side note:

Imagine the potential this form of information sharing has?!?!

I can’t take credit for the Care Group structure. It was created by the something or other in Mozambique and I’m one of several volunteers to start one here in Togo.

As far as I know, though, Kemerda’s is now the biggest in Togo.

More on it’s future (hopefully) success stories to come.

Back to today’s events.

I had to leave the formation 15 minutes early to make it to he next village to print all the materials I was short of for tomorrow. The women who work at the two different printing boutiques have become great friends of mine through all the preparation it has taken me (and all the business I have given them) for this formation. One even told me she was buying me a present for all of my work.

When I returned to village all my neighbor kids helped carry my things and went with me to the pump to get water for my much-needed shower. One girl carried it back for me on her head (she makes it look so much easier than it really is), and I skipped back, hand-in-hand with 2 of the other children.

Currently, I’m writing this, eating an Italian grilled fish concoction that will rock your socks, and drinking and well-deserved glass of red wine.

Again, I can’t picture a more perfect day to embody all the best moments of being a Peace Corps volunteer. Between satisfying work, village relationships, and knowing how to make the most of your alone time, it can’t get much better than this.

Remember this is following a month long rut of self-doubt and doom. And it’s inevitable there will be more. Hell, it could happen tomorrow (this thing’s got two more days..). But for now, I’ll take pleasure in reminding myself that this is why I’m here. And this will be what I remember when I leave.

That.. plus all the great footage I’ve been able to get of this project. Since the formation has to be in Kabiye (75% of the women don’t speak French), I planned everything to where I trained all the facilitators last week in French. Now I get to sit back with my camera while my incredibly motivated homologues kick some ass in Kabiye.

Now that most of my enthusiasm has spilled out on the page (web?), I expect my follow-ups throughout this formation to be rather short and sweet.

(I’m sure you’re hoping so. I can’t pretend I’m unaware of the discouraging length of most of my blogs..)

I’ll continue this post after tomorrow’s activities….

Now, more optimistically, I’ll take this haunting phrase as

“Just have faith and it will all be fine. Sometime it will even be surprisingly great.”

Ca va aller,

Kumealo