In this interview, you’ll hear from Samuel Branch, a Peace Corps Agriculture volunteer in Togo. Samuel shares what daily life looks like, the work being done, and how service has shaped their personal and professional growth. You’ll learn about housing, cultural differences, project work, language learning, and what it’s like to live and work in a new country. This interview offers a real look into Peace Corps service and what future volunteers can expect.
Table of Contents
- Volunteer Experience and Motivation
- Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
- Surprises and Challenges
- Advice and Support
- Practical Tips and Language Learning
- Social Identity
- Final Thoughts
Volunteer Experience and Motivation
1. What do you do as a Peace Corps Agriculture volunteer in Togo?
As an agriculture volunteer in Togo, my work days consist of caring for my chickens, which means changing bedding, collecting eggs, changing water, and feeding or making feed, as well as communicating and telling people about the practices I do and how easy it is to improve their own chickens.
But I also was decently involved in the schools in my village. Every school day from Monday to Thursday, I would go and provide English lessons for the equivalent of kindergarten, first, and second grade. I also would stay around after school with one of my good friends who was a teacher at the school, and he held tutoring sessions where I would help the students with Math and some basic French.
I wouldn’t go to the farms too often, about once a week, but when I would, it would be in a large group of friends, and we would weed, water, fertilize, or harvest whatever was in season and all eat together in the fields.
Outside of work, I got to rediscover my love of reading, and for the first time in my life I wrote in a daily journal. I found that this was a good way to calm down at the end of the day and reflect on everything. I also found myself having a very large amount of free time; I would spend it either playing marbles or soccer with children or going for long walks by myself.
2. Why did you decide to join the Peace Corps and serve in Togo?
I got the idea to apply to the Peace Corps when a recruiter visited one of my classes during my senior year of university. The only idea I had about what I wanted of a career was that I knew I wanted to be proud of what I did. I applied after the visit after talking to the recruiter a little more and was assigned to Togo.
Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
3. What is your housing like in Togo?
I live in a compound that houses me, my host family, and three rooms that are for rent. It’s always pretty busy in my compound, and I’m never alone, which is something I’m pretty comfortable with, so it worked out well. My village is the capital of the canton, which is much like the government seat of a county in the States, so it’s quite a large village of about 10 thousand people.
4. What moments or interactions stand out during your service?
At the end of the school year, I was invited to the celebration of the kindergarten classes, and seeing the class that I volunteered with and 3 other classes all together was very heartwarming. It was 5 hours of dancing and eating. Cleaning up afterwards was what stuck with me, talking to the teachers and asking them about why they wanted to be kindergarten teachers and what their favorite part of their job has been.
Treat everything like a learning opportunity, and if you are unfazed about things not going how you imagined, you will be a successful volunteer.
Surprises and Challenges
5. What has surprised you most about living or working in Togo?
The most surprising thing was the sense of community. Even living in a somewhat larger village, everyone knows each other, and they are all as helpful as they possibly could be. Whenever a neighbor is sick, people lend a helping hand to prepare them food or help them out with small chores like fetching firewood or water.
Also, the culture of eating. When I first arrived at my site, I would try to go around and meet as many people and families as I could, and at almost every house I would get invited to a meal. I quickly learned that it was somewhat of an offense to decline, so I planned accordingly and came hungry.
Advice and Support
6. What advice would you give to future Agriculture volunteers in Togo?
Get involved in co-operatives as soon as you can. Working with a larger group that already has an established leadership structure is much more efficient than working one-on-one with individual families.
Also, try to find something that you want to focus on rather than trying to do a little bit of everything. There were lots of objectives (agroforestry, soil amelioration, post-harvest transformation, etc.), and I recommend choosing one or two based on the needs and wishes of your host community and then going from there.
For example, in my region, pineapple and avocado are large cash crops. There is already a common practice of planting pineapples with young avocado trees, as the pineapples like more shade and they help prevent soil erosion around the roots of the avocado tree during the rainy season. There were lots of other already established practices like this, so for me there wasn’t much of a need to improve agroforestry practices.
Also, I learned countless more things than I could ever have in a classroom, so even if you have a strong agricultural background, always be open to learning. Most of the time, there is a very clever reason why things are done the way they are.
7. How did Peace Corps training prepare you for service?
In Togo, we do what’s called village-based training. What that means is that our training center is close to a number of small villages, so instead of living at the training center for most of the time, we lived in the villages with host families for PST (Pre-Service Training), which helped all of us tremendously both with integration and also with language.
Practical Tips and Language Learning
8. What would you tell future volunteers to pack—or leave behind?
I remember when I got my medical and background checks cleared, what to pack seemed like the biggest source of stress. My advice would be to leave lots of clothes behind. Only pack lots of quality underwear and socks and minimal pants and shirts. You will have clothes made for you here out of local materials, and most of them fit me better than anything I had from the States.
Prioritize stuff that will give you comfort, like musical instruments, photos, and decorations for your house that will make it feel like home.
If you’re coming to Togo specifically, I recommend investing in some good portable batteries. Don’t worry too much about stuff like cookware or bedding or anything like that. Most everything you want and need can be found in the country.
9. How has language learning been for you in Togo?
Language learning has been a long experience for me. In PST, we learned French, and while that is a super helpful language and one that the majority of the country can speak, I have never heard French spoken as the primary language around the house. Togo has around 47 different languages (I have heard the number be as high as 116 from old men). French is very much just a connector language for school and for when you are visiting someone in a different region where they speak a different language. Because of this, I found it hard to practice my French listening skills, and after getting down a basic vocabulary, I felt as if I sort of plateaued.
But I also learned a small amount of Ewe, the predominant language in my village and region at large. Just learning basic nouns and the greetings takes you so far in terms of integration and welcoming within your community. It has been tough to balance learning two languages at once, but I believe that everyone is capable, whether they think they are or not.
Social Identity
10. How has your personal identity shaped your service experience?
As a younger white man and a foreigner in general, there are certain assumptions made about you. Some of these included that I had to have been a doctor, or that I was very wealthy; people assumed that I was from a large city, and almost everyone thought I was from Europe. But I would also say that these assumptions were not held by everyone.
The main thing, though, was that I have never been more aware of my skin color than I am here. Calling people by their physical characteristics is something that is seen as very rude in the U.S. (you wouldn’t call an elderly woman an old woman to her face), but here it is seen as honest.
11. Did your identity lead to specific challenges or situations?
In Togo, almost everywhere, there is a name in the local language that means foreigner or white person. I have been called ‘yovo’ at least once every day since I have been at site. The way I typically handle it is to correct children, ignore men and women who call me that, and accept it from elders in the community.
I also felt like I was a novelty of some sort. I have been approached for pictures and for my phone number solely because I am white; I usually make people explain why they would want my number or photo before agreeing. At first I just said yes to everyone to not be rude, but the longer that went on, the more frustrating it became.
Also, as a man, I get asked constantly if I have found a wife. Some people found it bizarre when I explained that I do my laundry by myself and cook my own meals.
12. What advice do you have for volunteers who share your identity?
Do not worry too much about trying to fit in. No matter what you do, you will be the center of attention. Also, don’t worry about being rude by setting boundaries that make you feel comfortable. But also be understanding about your presence from the perspective of others.
Final Thoughts
13. What final advice would you share with future volunteers?
I would say the best piece of advice that I have is to stay flexible – with everything! The best plan to have is to change your plan. Even if it is outside your comfort zone, get in the headspace of being ok when things go wrong, like your car breaking down on the side of the road, or nobody showing up to a meeting. However, I don’t mean don’t care. So maybe rescheduling or asking people when they are more available for meetings, or asking the driver of your broken-down car if he’s got a plan. Treat everything like a learning opportunity, and if you are unfazed about things not going how you imagined, you will be a successful volunteer.
Are you thinking about joining the Peace Corps? If you’re curious about service and ready for something new, apply today. Like Samuel, you can live abroad, work with communities, and grow in ways you didn’t expect. Apply to the Peace Corps and take the next step.
The content of this post does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or Togo Government.
