Village Savings and Loan

When I first arrived at my post, my official Togolese counterpart was an officer for one of the local microfinance institutions (MFI). I quickly identified opportunities to improve their performance. However, I soon learned that this region-wide MFI was about to be restructured. During this process, the director from the capital decided to consolidate the MFI's resources and shut down the smaller branches surrounding Kaboli.

As these branches closed, the citizens of these smaller villages were further discouraged from participating in a more formal banking system. Many villagers already find it difficult to justify spending 2500 CFA (approximately $5) to open a savings account. So in order to encourage local savings and credit options among sceptical villagers, I introduced the idea of a Village Savings and Loan Association.

At weekly or monthly meetings, a group of 10 to 30 members meet to save money. The group they uses these pooled funds to offer short-term loans to its members at small monthly fee. The system increases the members' access to credit and introduces them to a more formalized system of financial management.

The system applies the principles of trust and memorization. The members are usually already familiar with each other, which encourages a strong foundation for the group. For instance, the first group that I worked with was a group of women that had been buying and re-selling okra together for several years. The system, therefore, allowed them to build a better structure for managing their money. Further, they already had strong financial ties and were comfortable loaning money to each other.When introducing a group to the system, some potential members are nervous about being illiterate. However, the system is based on collective memory instead of written documents. At the beginning of each meeting, all members announce how much money they believe is in their lock-box based on the previous meeting's count. The treasurer then confirms this amount. After concluding financial transaction for that meeting, the new total is announced.While the meetings require a lot of time and patience, the members really appreciate hearing their weekly or monthly savings rise. Also, we try to end each meeting with a snack or tchouk (the local brew) or even some dancing ..

Labor Day “En Form”

May 1st is Labor Day in Togo. This national holiday is only outperformed by the week-long New Year's celebration. The Labor Day festivities begin with a parade. All the unions march together according to their trade and in matching outfits. Then, akin to our own labor day celebrations in America, the parade is followed by grilled meat and beer.

My counterpart, Foumilayo, invited me to join her family and friends for the holiday by dressing “en form” and sharing a roasted chicken. To dress “en form” each member of a group agree to buy a particular pattern of pagne (a square of fabric) and then have it tailored. Often, you choose to buy two or three pagne to make a full complet (a traditional outfit). If money is tight, though, one pagne will make do for a skirt or button-down shirt for a man. I splurged for two pagne and so far it is my favorite among the my six complets.

I wouldn't normally be so inclined to dress the same as my friends in the United States. However, it is the cool thing in Togo. Every special occasion calls for the selection of matching pagne—weddings, funerals, graduations, welcome home parties, etc.

Yet—as my Togolese friends do not usually think it is necessary to explain the details of any plans—I was caught off guard when my adoptive grandmother and fou fou lady, Adissetou, made me a second, purple complet for the same Labor Day celebration. So I compromised. I wore her purple complet in the morning when I went to her restaurant to have brunch. Then I paraded around the village center to show off a bit. In the afternoon, I changed into my other complet for the party at the village outskirts. When I ran into Adissetou's daughter, however, she was a bit upset not to see me in the purple complet that would have matched her own. I tried to explain the misunderstanding, but ...

Later I learned that two other Togolese friends were offended that I had not invited them to participate in the same form with Foumilayo. These social misteps began to remind me of a middle school dance. But after my first beer, Foumilayo served some delicious roasted chicken and I soon forgot my troubles. More of my Togolese friends arrived at the festivities and I continued buying rounds of drinks until well after sunset.

A Typical Day

I wake up around sunrise. My first goal is to get to the well first. During the dry season, the well water becomes extremely murky approximately an hour after sunrise and is almost dry about an hour later. I only need 2 buckets, one for bathing and one for drinking, cooking and cleaning. On laundry days I fetch a third bucket. During the rainy season, I can sleep in because the buckets placed strategically under the gutters of my gazebo catch the rain run-off.

After filtering my drinking water, I boil some water with lemon grass and cook my breakfast. I eat oatmeal with re-constituted powdered milk and a sliced banana. Oatmeal is not sold in Kaboli, but I can find it in Tchamba, 40 km away. I stock up once a month. Nescafe or Lipton tea, which is cheaper but not always available, provides my daily caffeine fix.

Most mornings I'll go for a run on the dirt road behind my house that goes to Balanka. Sometimes I'm too lazy though and I read the latest American or British magazine that I am lucky enough to get my hands on.

Around 8am, it is time to get out of the house and perform my morning greetings. I usually begin this ritual by having a second breakfast of kom (a patty of fermented corn meal) and fried fish, which is served by Peace Corps counterpart, Foumilayo. She makes the best sauce. We chat about work or village gossip. Then I head to the small market in the center of town to buy supplies for lunch and practice my Ana (the local language) with all the vendors : Kabo ! Edjié ! Did you sleep well? Very well. How are the people at your house? They are there and well. And the children? They are there and well. And the work? It's going. May God be with us today! Amen! Send my greetings to your people. They will understand.

If have no other meetings in town, I go back to my house, study, work on the computer, and have lunch. While I'm doing my dishes, the kids are usually on their way back to school. They check if I have any empty tuna cans, which they use to make toys. Most days I do not, and they just like to say hi. I ask them how school is going, to which they always reply “très bien”—very good. After any afternoon meetings, it is time to buy my cat some fish and perform afternoon greetings with the same market vendors. But instead of Edjié (Good Morning), I begin with Aléni (Good Evening).

The greeting is key to maintaining your network in Togolese society. Even if have no work-related reason to visit colleagues at a particular microfinance institution or NGO, I like to stop by once a week or once every two weeks just to say hi and see what's up. Thanks to the miracle of telecommunications, aquaintences will often call me just to say and hang-up after an eight-second conversation.

Every other day, I visit my fou fou lady, Da Da Adissetou. Fou fou is yams pounded into a sticky mass. You eat it by clumping balls of it between your fingers and then dunking it into a bowl of sauce. But when fresh yams are out of season (from May to August), the alternative is pâtt, a thick corn meal porridge eaten in the same manner as fou fou. I enjoy fou fou as it vaguely reminds me of mashed potatoes, but I can only tolerate so much pâtt. But even if I am not eating, I am required to stop by and greet Adissetou as she considers herself my grandmother away from home. Nevertheless, she always complements my outfit and tells me that I am beautiful. Then some days her sister is selling wagash (cheese made by the Foulani tribe)—a nice bonus.

My evenings are quiet. I usually have a light dinner, study French or for the GMATs. Then I brush my teeth and read myself to sleep around 9pm.

My days aren't always so uniform. For instance, I am looking forward to hosting an evening radio program at the end of the month. The weekends are the best in Kaboli : I go to the market on Saturday afternoon. Sundays, I go to church in the morning and then drink tchouk (the local brew) and eat grilled pork with some friends under a grove of mango trees.