Prepping... Prepping... Prepping...

10 days until I roll out!

I've been doing what I can to prep in terms of acquiring necessary material objects, learning about the people I'll be staying with, and improving my French. Here's a description of my prep in bullet-list-style:

• Buying stuff. I filled my malaria and traveler's diarrhea prescriptions today. I will take 1 malaria pill each day starting 1 day before I leave and continuing until 7 days after I return. My plan is to never need those traveler's diarrhea pills, but.... the doctor's word is that this plan will go astray. Other than medicine, I got a money belt in which I can put my passport and.. well.. money. Next, I plan to buy a shortwave radio - so that I can stay up to date on world news in the midst of no internet access. Also, it will be super-cool to listen to francophone African stations and the music aired.
• Reading books. I just finished Village of Waiting by George Packer, which is about Packer's experience in southern Togo with the Peace Corps in the 80's. I was warned that this book is really cynical, and indeed, it is. It paints a rather bleak picture of a poor Togolese village, of the struggles an everyday Togolese person faces, and of corruption in African bureaucracy. Packer points out aspects of African life that would make a Westerner uncomfortable, but he does so in a way that forces the reader to understand rather than say something like, "Those savages need to get their act together." For this reason, it was very worth reading. Now I'm working on Waiting for the Vote of the Wild Animals by Ahmadou Kourouma, which is a fictionalized account of the life of Gnassingbé Eyadema, the Togolese dictator reigning from 1967 to 2005. The account takes the form of a transcript of a praise-singer, who sings praises to the fictionalized Eyadema. Lastly, there's Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa by Charles Piot. Dr. Piot is the professor who's taking us to Togo and who has been doing research in the North since the 80's. His book is a source of information on the Kabiye people with whom I'll be staying.
• Practicing French. Communication is pretty darned important, so considering that Togolese speak local languages and French, it's vital that I maintain my French. To do this, I've found some French-speaking people to talk to on Skype. How? I googled "chat français" and found Tchatche. From there, it's easy to find Skypers, so I've been able to speak French rather frequently - without even stepping outside of my anglophone home. Technology blows my mind. In any case, talking with people on Skype in French is really, really helpful. I'm improving my vocabulary, fluency, and, most importantly, my confidence.

Voilà! I think I will be quite ready by the time it's T-minus zero days - ready to have the most interesting summer of my life.