International Work

The past couple of years after my return from Togo have been very enlightening. Living abroad while working on a participatory media project has changed my career path and how I view my place in the world. This transformation has really enabled me to root myself in an art practice that is not just for me, but for community development and social action. Here is a link to a speech I made upon my return: In Togo




Some Emails Home:

Oct.17, 2005

I'm in Africa!

Just a short note to say that I arrived safely in Togo last evening.
I was greeted by Simplice and 1000 other people who attempted to take my bag
and insist I needed something from them.
A firm no and persistent attitude quickly sent them away... the beginning of
lots of fun and learning. Please excuse my typing. I have to get used to the
keyboards here. I will send another more detailed email soon.

Nov.16, 2005

Good Morning

Sorry I can't seem to find an internet connection that is fast enough to email you all individually, so I will send another bulk. Hope all is well and the cold isn't causing you too much trouble back home. Get out there and enjoy it for me okay!!! Last week my counter-part (Olivier) and I went to Kpalimé for a final training on participatory media. The training was taken with two other CCI partner organizations from Ghanna and Mali. Best part of the trip was receiving the amazing care package sent from my family with Andrée-Anne (CCI program officer overseeing the project). We had a blast! Canadians and West Africans alike. Kpalimé is beautiful. Lovely mountains that are covered with natural forest (rare in Togo because most has been turned into farm land). On a walk one day I bump into this woman. Like everyone who saw me taking a walk that day, she wanted to know where I was going. I explained that I just wanted to look at the landscape. She explained that she was doing that exact same thing and that we should meet the next day for a walk together. Okay, we decided to meet the day after at 6. Well the night before was a go out and drink and dance kinda night, so six ended up being 6:30. By the time we got going I realize by the way she was talking that she wanted to go up the mountain. I explained I had a training and not a lot of time...so she grabs a cab. We drive through the forest to a water fall (that is gorgeous, but a bit dried out because hamatan-dry season- is on its way). We continue. On our way she explains that she is involved with an NGO that gives educational workshops on how to preserve the forest. Awesome. We exchange a few words, she pays for the cab and buys me some banana's at the top of the mountain...and I'm thinking, wow, what generosity...I hope she wasn't hitting on me and I did not realize...wait, I'm in Togo...that business is illegal. Weird how I have to associate generosity with someone wanting something back. Unreal!! So that was the highlight of the trip. It was also a great time sharing and laughing with the other Canadian volunteers about the many hilarious situations we have all gotten ourselves into! So now I'm back with my family in Vogan, appreciating the place more and more. I don't know where I am on that culture shock graph, but I feel as though hearing roosters in the morning, biking to work, eating pasty stuff with lots and lots of fish has become an expectation, and anything else is just not normal. Strange concept, but i feel much more comfortable in Vogan than I do anywhere else right now. And, my host father, well, I've decided to let go of the fact that he always needs to know where I am and what I'm doing. It might help me to know that a father can care that much...and plus its cultural to want to ensure my safety...his reputation with the town depends on it after all.

So I think that's what I sardined into a bush taxi (7 adults in a car the size of an 80 civic, all men accept me. when I say sardined I mean it!) to share with you all.

Happy belated Birthday to all the Scorpios (especially Justine, they have karioké here too, but its just not the same, 80's is nothing special...its what we listen to regularly!).

Love you all! Miss you like crazy!

Take Care,

Kim

Nov.23, 2005

Silent Night and the Dry Season

Hi everyone,

Lots to talk about this week was filled with new learning experiences. To begin with, Vogan is the town of focus for this year's World AIDS day in Togo which means the president may be visiting. I told the guys I work with not to assign me there cause I may say something stupid, they laughed...but I was serious. So turns out Togo's move toward democracy will have lots to do with the world cup. The national team qualified for the first time in history and the world cup association is possibly going to exclude them for political reasons. Holy crap! Who knew the national sports team would cause such a huff. Awesome, the pressure is now on for some reform. I was told that a news show broadcast the president making some promises to discuss with the opposition (who has been fighting for' a real democratic system for years) about certain policies. Everyone is hoping that this will really happen and that some change will spring out of this.

So, you Christmas carolers will be happy to know that silent night has been translated into Ewé and I plan to learn the words. Zanweelo means good night. The Catholics were out in abundance last Sunday to celebrate lent (I think) in true African style. They sang and danced and drummed through Vogan's main artery. Beautiful. I think the only other town I've seen more Churches per capita is Stanstead. And even then, they hold a strong fight, cause people actually go to them here!

The dry season is hot. My tolerance is low for heat as most of you know, but the sun is crazy. I officially only drive my bike to work in the morning and evening. My African dad brings me home for sieste. Dry season has also brought a lot of creatures into my room. So far I have housed two lizards, a mouse and about 15 huge spiders.

Highlight of the past week was going to Aného with two of my host brothers. They are both in there 20s and have never set foot in the ocean....until I brought them to the beach on Saturday. It was like seeing two grown kids. Most people here are afraid of water (the undertow is quite strong we couldn't go far at all), so don't learn how to swim. So we dipped. Pretty cool, and refreshing. I got sun burnt of course.

I also got an ear infection...one of those, it must be something else till it really started to hurt. I was in and out of the doctors in ten minuted he looked and said yes thats an infection. I got served for free because, he said, you are doing so much for us here. Again with the generosity. Can't get over it....there is only private and semi private systems for health care here. So.. WOW

I'm out of time for now. Phil don't stress too much about the shoot, Jason...a cowboy hat...well it had to happen....Matt so jealous...I need films!!!

Love,

Kim


Boobs

Hi everyone, if you'll permit me to, I need a moment to talk about boobs. First off, we are hung up on the whole nude boob in Canada...they are so over sexualized that mothers often feel awkward breastfeeding in public. The complete opposite is true here. Boobs aren't sexualized in this culture at all, in fact if I don't see a topless woman on my way to work in the morning its because its chilly and they've got a shall wrapped around them. So I think this is kinda cool right...a liberation of the boob, great. However, the other day I was talking to a few people at work while one co-worker was breast feeding her little cutie. So I say hi, everyone says hi back. The mother looks at her child and says 'aren't you going to offer Kim some?' So it might have been 'make the whitie blush day' but I suspect there might be some kind of cultural thing going on I will just never get. So I was very Canadian and polite expressing to her 'no thanks' by lightly smiling and shaking my head. Inside I was saying: thats just gross... so there we have it. boobs. Somtimes they can provide the unexpected culture-shock experience you never wanted or thought of.

I also wanted to write to tell you how things are going with the project. Last I wrote that there were some issues with my counterpart not being around, and I was under the impression that it was just me...well it got worse, and his cancelling appointments and not answering his phone left me a bit dry and taking all the work on my shoulders...which is not good. So I spoke to the director and he decided to add someone to the project which has provided a lot of relief. Our last meeting with the comité lutte contre le SIDA in Zooti-Glopé (made up of 8 participants-4 men, 4 women, within that there is a school teacher, farmers, a woman who sells at the markets, a seamstress and a young seamstress in training...so a good mix of educated/no-educated, young and old, and we couldn't ask for a better motivated team...this excites me) we confirmed that we'd be presenting ideas about HIV related stigma and discrimination through a group of youth in the village who will invent a few sketch scenarios to be presented, recorded and later aired on the radio (this also exites me). The hard part is that not everyone is on the same page concerning there knowledge of HIV. So yesturday we began a training with the comité. A great experience, we got to understand where they are in the HIV awareness scale. Turns out most people knew about the whole sex and condoms thing (it tends to be shoved down peoples throats here), but had questions like: can HIV be transmitted through miskitos? Which is of course a form of stigma. No you can't, Great...lets learn where they are so we help them to better help others and in the end help some kids make kick ass sketches. It was a great first session and I feel lucky to have the support now that I need. Next meeting we'll show proper condom use. Everyone knows they should use them, no one knows how to...

So apart from that, I got a package in the mail from my family for Christmas and I loved it....so great, really made my day. My sister got me some fly swatters, and Isabelle geve me a little stocking with a bike tire repaire kit...cause my bike tire was having some issues with the heat that caused it to deflate all the time. HA! Thank you again...So lovely, it made me laugh and cry all at once.... miss you.

Everyone, please take care and have a lovely holiday season. Happy winter solstice for the hippies in BC and Montreal, Merry Christmas to my family and all who celebrate it, and well, because I forgot to wish you happy new year before I left...and I know it isn't that big a celebration, but it is around now...happy Chaunika (if I spelt that right its a wonder). Only two months till I see you all, I love you!

Kim

Well...

Hi again every body,

Hope all is well out there. Things are going okay here. Getting overly anxious about heading home though, and it makes the time go a bit slower. I miss my honey! I love the people here, and feel that I’m doing a good job – learning lots, but I’d like to stop pretending now… you know I’m not as religious as people here, I’m not straight, I’m not a conformist, and I don’t obey very well when I get ordered around…I don’t think I’m the only Canadian like that right? …well… NO ONE here is like that…I’ve made up so many lies about my husband and life at home in order to protect myself that I can’t seem to find a way to really be myself… so I’m finding it a bit lonely right now and miss being able to shoot my mouth off…just so you understand a bit about how contrary the lifestyle is here to ours at home, I’ll give an example of what its like to be a woman in the area that I live in.

In our home we have a maid (her name is Abla). Its common enough to have one I guess, though I believe we are the only family in the area that does. She is sixteen and was hired about 5 weeks ago (the other one left for untold reasons). Abla’s father took her out of school to send her away so she can make money, or marry her off (in her village families get money for giving brides away, not all places in Togo are like that). So she ended up at our place doing the dishes and helping to sell pork at the side of the road (I think I mentioned my host family is in the pork business). A couple of days ago Abla decided she wanted to leave. When she expressed this, my host father and mother went to her village to speak with her parents. They made there way to our place and they all sat down and had a meeting. Although I had left the situation, I asked later how it went (Abla was still there so I assumed it was a safe question). Turns out being a maid and making money is her only option right now, and she got 4 hits with a stick to make sure she would obey her father’s final word.

Now I can’t say much about this except that it really must suck for this girl. I try to imagine how trapped my soul would feel without a choice about my future…about my life, and I’m always struck when I see how few rights women and children have here.

So you can imagine how hard it must be to convince people that gender is an important issue to discuss in project proposals if you want international funding right? Try to convince a group of mostly men that this is true when the value of women in society is really low… well Meaghan (other CCI volunteer) and I tried just that in a training in Lomé last week. It was tough, and the bottom line is that many women here can’t read or write and are viewed as worthless because of that. Furthermore, our discussions led us to understand that women in this cultural context are expected to be timid and obey etc. So, if that is the case, how can women ever have the rights they need to control their future… and how much of that depends on how much money there family has? Lots of questions, few answers, but we did get people thinking about the different needs of women and men have depending on the situation. An example of the development project where women were not consulted before the NGO went in and created pumps closer to each home so women didn’t have to walk so far to the well was considered. When it was all done the women still went to the well to get water. Why? it was the only place women could socialise with other women in that particular community…so that got people thinking…wait, getting women’s opinions and involvement might help save time and money…so yes okay we can place value on that. It was frustrating to see how much concern was missing for the rights of women during that whole discussion, but I kept reminding myself that we are all doing the best we can with what we know at the time.

My frustration level has remained a bit high recently because when I came back to Vogan I met with Olivier. Fogan and I told him what the training was about and he said: ‘well, women are useless, but we have to include them in our projects anyway.’ Now I can usually laugh at that stuff if some one makes a joke (Terryll or Clint trying to bug me for example), but he wasn’t joking or teasing, he meant it. Damn, I feel lucky to be who I am, grown up in a culture that values my opinion (sometimes) and my right to speak up… and apart from that another frustrating event was that Togo lost their first soccer game against Congo in the African Cup. I watched it on a giant screen in a contained room with about 80 other men. My host brother almost cried…

And that was all the negative stuff (figured it had to come out sometime). The project is going super well. More importantly the HIV testing date has been confirmed, the head doctor has agreed to come and do a pre-counselling then the test. She will also be involved in a second counselling when the results are in. This has sprung a lot of ideas over here at REAILD and a proposal will be set up to possibly involve the hospital in more village tours, bringing the tests to the people… great. I feel it will all fall into place, and by the time I’m gone a series of visits will be anticipated in the surrounding villages. The spread of HIV happens when people don’t know there status. Many have no money to get to the Vogan Hospital to get tested…well now more people will know their status and that can hopefully stunt the spread. An awesome initiative by the village committee - amazing what can come out of the participatory process (thanks Sarah C).

And we got a good deal to broadcast the sketches on another radio station, that way the audience has been broadened. The sketches are on there way to being completed. When they are ready, I’ll send a summary of the content.

A lot to do this coming month. Hope you are all keeping healthy and happy. I love you all.
Miss you,

Kim

PS a small mouse found its way through my bug net over my sheets and into my bed the other night. I tried not to freak out, but I did. I jumped outside and over toward the mango tree to find the cat. No luck. I called my host brother to wake him and help me…he does and we are both in my room trying to get the stupid mouse out of my bed (at this point he is a bit caught in the netting and the cat is wondering: how can I rip this stupid mesh up). After some seriously skilled hiding, we remove everything from around the bed and the cat pounces before we even see the rodent surface. That cat is my hero! PSS HARPER? In Québec? What the hell happened while I was away?

Feb.24, 2006

Elmina - a final message

Hi,
I have taken a couple of days off to come back to Ghana and visit the Elmina and Cape Coast castles (sponsored by my mom). Now, the castles that were built here were originally made by the Portuguese (first Europeans to walk on African soil in the 1400's). The castles were originally built to function as gold trading points. Ghana is known for its plentiful resources in gold and diamonds, when other European nations caught wind they tried to take over and did, adding parts to the castles each time. The Elmina castle has been changed over once by the Dutch, then by the British, and presently by Ghana. Gold wasn't all the traders wanted to trade. As you know millions of slaves were captured by African slave rangers in exchange for guns and gun powder and given to the Europeans for trade. These castles are the remnance of the dungeons where slaves were held captive before being shiped off to other lands, and where the various solders and governors lived for the duration of the slave trade...over 400 years. Haunting as it was to walk where others had suffered in conditions that were torturous, it was an experience that cannot be missed. As our guide said, it was an era of unimaginable cruelty that is no longer and we can observe the passage of no return, but we will most definitely return.The woman's dungon was particularly difficult to be in, as it was situated right under the governors bedroom, where he would look down and pick which woman he chose to rape, bathing and feeding her to be 'prepared', as bathing and feeding were not a priority for the 'traders', there job was merely to make sure they did not escape before the ship arrived. I teared throughout almost the whole tour, and in my hotel I bawled. It is so horrible! So, needed to share the experience.

Elmina itself is a beautiful fisherman's village, and the national park Kakum is a beautifully preserved rainforest where there is a treetop bridge built for visitors (by Canadians...project funded by the US...figures!). There are elephants in the forest but only come out at night :0( I'm home next Wednesday. See you all very soon!
Love,
Kim

March, 2006

Being Back

Hi everyone,

I know that you were used to hearing from me while I was away, but I felt the need to write a little something about being back in Montreal, seeing as how writing while I was away was so therapeutic.

Its been a month now since I landed. CCI has sent Anya (the volunteer who went to Mali to do this same project) and I on a public engagement tour around the Montreal area to talk about our project with a variety of people, and we are now coming to the end of that tour. I realize that some of you couldn't come to the 'welcome back-lets drink and dance till we pass out' party, and may be wondering how things are. How's the adjustment? is something I often hear over the phone, and I feel a bit of pressure to get it over in approximately two minutes so I can get passed it and ask you about your winter experience, 'cause my story is a bit over done at this point. So...here is how its

going:

I was just on my balcony. Its around 5 or so and this lovely spring day's sun is low in the sky. I'm watching the cars park and the children play on the street. The man on the next balcony looks over at me. He and his adolescent son are wrestling with a small Christmas tree. He looks at me and puts his finger to his lips: shh he whispers. I look back confused. He motions that he would like to throw the tree off the balcony on the lawn in front. Feel free I motion back and he throws it down. Clunk. I laugh out loud. One of the few neighborly contacts I've had so far (except Kiki downstairs who is a gem). Kids on the paved street are gliding on boards with wheels, the blond ladies are walking their dogs to the Dairy Queen, and a man is running by in long tights with no destination. What do I think of all this? Well, I've landed in the right place. I'm home. As alien as it all seems.

It's all so amazing, being able to examine your own culture this way. Its hard sometimes, and what I miss most is having supper with other human beings around me chatting. It seems so difficult sometimes to do what was so natural over there. Some things were just so simple in Togo, and that's what is hardest now: re-learning how to live with a community that is busy and distracted with babies and jobs and TV and weddings and home renovations and groceries and beer and did you see that (insert strange event) in the news...well, you know how we are.

So...adjustment sucks...but not all the time. I'm caught up on the L Word, playing guitar, listening to three cds at the same time, emailing you from home...and sleeping next to the love of my life every night! It is all so wonderfully strange.

Thanks for reading my therapeutic note. Send me an email when you have time.

Love,

Kim