University of Mississippi Office of Communications student intern Sudu Upadhyay, right, films Ole Miss Engineers Without Borders working in Hedome, Togo.
HEDOME, Togo, — If you were to take out a globe and tell an average American to point out the country of Togo, they probably couldn’t. I certainly didn’t know where it was until I went there during Winter Intersession in January.
As the 2013 fall semester ended, my journalism adviser told me to come see her for a “great opportunity.” Now, me being a broadcast journalism major and a Newswatch sports anchor, I assumed she found me a winter internship at ESPN or something similar. Instead, I got to do something cooler. I got to follow and document the University of Mississippi’s Engineers Without Borders students as they built a school for children of the Hedome village in Togo.
Togo, a narrow slither of terrain along Africa’s west coast between Ghana and Benin, is very small and struggles without much foreign aid. The country has long been criticized for its human rights record and also for the failures of its government. The country where life expectancy is only fifty-seven years, is slightly smaller than the state of West Virginia, but has the population three times the size of the state. Contraception is not as prevalent and little children run wild almost everywhere. For such a large population of children, the country does not provide an adequate education for all of them. Those who are lucky enough to be born in the capital city or to wealthy parents get a good or decent education, but those born in villages like Hedome are lucky if they get one.
While in Hedome I got a chance to interview a teacher who helped put into perspective how significant the work of the Ole Miss team was. The teacher told me,
“Many people today think Togo is independent but it’s not. This independence is only on paper not in reality. That’s why we hope this school will help the educated make Togo truly independent.”
We spent a total of 10 days in Togo and every day was pretty much the same. We would wake up at 7 a.m., eat breakfast on the balcony, load up in a big van and drive to the work site, which was only a 10-minute ride away. As we approached the job site every morning, we were greeted by many kids running beside our vehicle and waving their hands. At the work site, the engineers would get out and start working alongside some of the villagers, while I would hover around them with my camera, capturing and documenting their every move like Big Brother. If you’re wondering, yes, I do have footage of some embarrassing things. I still can’t believe I didn’t get punched or worse, get my camera broken, but I guess I’m just lucky.
At 10 a.m. each day, we sat under a tree on benches that made up our classroom, and ate lunches our cooks had specially packed for us. After lunch, the work continued until 5 p.m. when we packed up all of our stuff, loaded the van and drove back to the hotel as the local kids ran after us waving. Once we got back to the hotel, we’d enjoy a nice dinner on the balcony and then head off to bed. We kept up the same monotonous routine for 10 days, but I enjoyed every minute of it. It’s been a month since the trip, but I still miss spending time with my fellow Ole Miss peers who were there and I also miss the villagers.
This trip has made me realize what family really means at Ole Miss. During my freshman orientation, UM Chancellor Dan Jones talked about family and I didn’t really understand what he meant until I went to Togo with a team of Ole Miss folks. The way all of the students on the trip and I bonded is an example of the family vibe Jones mentioned. Another example is the way we bonded with the people in the village. These people were complete strangers to us, yet there wasn’t a person I met that I didn’t feel comfortable around. I think my experiences as an Ole Miss student helped with that.
Sudu Upadhyay, left, in Hedome, Togo, with the Ole Miss Engineers Without Borders in January 2014.