Heather Linnenkohl/The Falcon Jennifer Samnick, president of Seattle Area Peace Corps Association, shares her Peace Corps experience with the crowd in Upper Gwinn. From 2002 to 2004, Samnick served in Togo, Africa, as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Jennifer Samnick grew up in Long Island, New York, but was destined to wake up to the sounds of goats bleating, roosters crowing and children playing outside of her cement hut.

Samnick, president of SEA-PAX, which put on the Peace Corps expo in Gwinn, spent two years in Togo, West Africa. Though she thought Peace Corps' training sessions had prepared her for her new life, Samnick admitted she was not ready for the culture shock.

Samnick lived in a village called Koughnohou in the Akebou region, whose accommodations included one paved road and two dirt roads that met in a triangle, no running water, electricity from a generator strictly from the hours of 6 p.m. to midnight, a town crier who delivered news, and one village van for communal use.

"I know math has never been my strong point," Samnick wrote in her online journal, "but in Togo, they've defied the laws of physics. Every bush taxi is like a circus clown car. A nine-passenger van means you can fit 15 to 17 adults, plus a mountain of baggage, including huge sacks of corn, charcoal, bananas, dried kernels and live goats or chickens."

Cultural differences also quickly surfaced. Samnick felt confident that her years of studying French in school and intense Peace Corps lessons would help ease miscommunications, but her first year was largely spent trying to learn from cultural mistakes.

"I learned a lot of weird words in Togo, like 'masonry,' that you wouldn't have been taught to know in English or actual France. And then there were words that people in Togo didn't know how to say, like 'escalator,' because they didn't have it," Samnick said.

Certain practices also challenged Samnick. Polygamy is culturally accepted in Togo, with a man typically having anywhere between two and four wives. Gender roles were also strongly enforced. Women were expected to do all the cooking and cleaning. It was only acceptable for young girls or boys to carry water up from the river. Public speaking was reserved for men.

If a female Peace Corps volunteer tried to put on an educational forum about AIDS, it was unlikely that any villagers would ask her questions. Instead, they would direct questions toward male colleagues.

Such realities were hard to cope with, and Samnick remembers days when she was discouraged. However, being able to work on improvements for the village helped ease her mind.

During her second year, Samnick worked with and advised a coordinator to help build six stall latrines for public use near the river, which helped decrease the number of typhoid cases, she said. She also helped coordinate a project which trained masons to build cisterns, which helped prevent the spread of diseases.

Samnick currently works at the Gates Foundation. She no longer "hears the sound of baby goats and their mothers as they search for each other around the family compound." She no longer rises to the "steady thunking rhythm of fufu being pounded for dinner by two people alternating their beats." But she said she will always remember her time in Africa.

"I think that sometimes it's true that you get more out of something than you can ever possibly give back," Samnick said. "I'm thankful to my village community and for the opportunity that they gave me to become part of their lives."