When I first landed in Zambia to volunteer with the Peace Corps, my impressions were not at all in line with my expectations. For example, I expected to see lions romping through the bush. Didn't happen. I expected I'd be celebrated as the Bringer Of All Good Things and Haver of So Many Unbelievably Wise Ideas. Yeah...that wasn't so spot on, either. I also expected to be very active in the promulgating the so-called third goal of the Peace Corps: talking about your experience and bringing a little of your PC-life back home. I guess I do a measure of that here on Gadling, but nothing like Aaron.

You see, Aaron's currently serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo. In addition to his work at the local school, he maintains a blog about his experience, and in this way he's satisfying the third goal before he even returns home. Of all the third-goaling Aaron does, I particularly enjoyed reading about The Market (and watching the video); learning about the ritual of Greetings; hearing about Clean (?) Underwear; and, of course, learning about eating dog and cat. If you want to know what the "real Togo" is like, this is it. It don't get no realer, folks.

Not too knock Aaron, but he seems to be living large, with a multi-room, cinderblock house, a sink, a propane stove, and more. That said, imagine trying to forge ahead with a computer center project for this school:

Filed under: Activism, Arts and Culture, Learning, Stories, Africa, Togo, Video