The first morning of our technician training was the most difficult. It is an extremely delicate balance for Ron, full of challenges. Our training takes place on the roof of Petite Suisse without a projector, instead we have our 3 laptops set up at intervals of a long table and an enormous easel with paper, on which I write important notes in French from Ron’s English powerpoint slides and explanations. I have learned so much…series connections, short circuit voltages (or, now I know, the lack thereof), Ohm’s Law, system sizing…and I have to understand it in order to explain it in another language from Ron’s sometimes overcomplicated (for those of you who know him and his detail-oriented brilliance…) descriptions. My patience here in Togo continues to stun me, as usual – I really wish I could take some of it back with me to the US but it never happens…
To his chagrin, I am constantly slowing Ron down, re-explaining a sample calculation in response to many blank stares, which only I can understand because I too am seeing a lot of this for the first time! However Ron’s experience with training is invaluable, and he teaches me that there are always different levels of competence in a class, and to allow the best to bore is just as bad as allowing the slowest to fall behind. Ron and I find our balance between covering all the material and allowing our group to copy my French notes and translations and, for many of them, everything that is on the screen, even though it is in English and completely unnecessary and they don’t even understand what it means…more lovely remnants of the French colonial education system: recite, repeat, regurgitate. I understand however, why one would want to write everything down, if one has never been given a printout of things presented…
By the second day we had convinced them not to copy everything down off the slide, just the important notes from the easel, as listening and comprehension (if Joy from Rotary is reading this I hope you will be proud!) I also swell with admiration for my sister, a high school math teacher in Brooklyn who works with a difficult population.
The 3rd day of training is fantastic as well, and Jon excels at one of his best traits: teaching practicality and construction. He explained racking and module mounting, not losing one shred of attention even when explaining how to square an array with a 3-4-5 triangle. Our team is engaged, enthusiastic and talented. I cannot even begin to explain my excitement. I am so full of affection for our technicians and what we are doing here! I am getting attached to each of them, getting to know their existing friendships and the new bonds they are forming with eachother. It is amazing to see those that have just met working side by side, heads bent over an Ohms Law equation or giggling over something the silly yovo just mistranslated. Over 2 years of passion, tears and frustration, fundraising, sweat (literally) and strength are coming together...if only we could do more! I feel as though this will become the next theme in my life…
But still we have no container…4 days ago the Togolese government raised the price of a liter gas from 500CFA to 600CFA, a difference of less than a dollar, but for the majority of the Togolese population that live on less than that dollar per day, the increase is devastating…as a result of some global economic dynamic that I am presently unaware of due to my disconnection to the outside world, gas prices have risen internationally, and the impact has now arrived in Togo. Not only those that own motos and cars are affected, it is those that do not have those means of transportation who must now pay a higher fare. If they can.
Lomé has been nearly impassable for days. The Togolese are rioting. You cannot get in and out of the capital, as groups of furious and frustrated citizens have set up roadblocks of rocks and burning tires (and anything else they can find to burn.) I am sure that to most outsiders, seeing the images of shouting young men wielding sticks and machetes in front of plumes of black smoke flash across slideshows of photos on bbc.com appear almost clichéd…this is Africa. But it is so much more complex…first, to most Togolese, the logical, rational explanation that an external factor (such as the Gulf oil spill, which I am assuming is the impetus of all this) has given the Togolese government no choice but to raise the price at which petrol is sold, is not understandable. Since when has this government ever taken care of them? Second, in many respects they are correct! Rather than squander the nominal wealth accrued by the Togolese government on lavish ministerial lifestyles…Third, there is an explanation that most here will never comprehend: corporate greed. I tend to believe, and in speaking with Jon and Ron about this over a delicious lunch of cassava and poisson, we all agree that the filthy, slimy, gluttonous and indecently insatiable international oil companies are exploiting this potential for speculation…and while it takes a little longer, it trickles all the way down to the streets of Lomé, now on fire.
Therefore, in addition to the delays at customs, which, inshallah, should be resolved by the end of the afternoon TODAY, we may not be able to get a truck out of Lomé…but we have a plan…between myself, Novinyo, Claude and our solar team, we are determined to drag our Titan to Kpalimé as soon as it is full (we will pay extra for gas!) The streets generally clear at night, except for the obstinate and truly foolish…so we have devised a plan to travel to Lomé in the night, and slip through the window of darkness. Of course, a Togolese Titan is about as silent and discreet as an elephant walking across a pool table.
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