Togo, the journey begins

Bonjour Mes Amis,

I am sitting in a internet place in Togo, struggling to grasp the French keyboard which has all the letters in different places, so this entry will be shorter than it would be if I had an English keyboard, lol.

First I spent three days in Kpalime, Togo. Kpalime is a naturally beautiful village with dozons of NGOs and therefore a multitude of Yovos, or white people in the local language of Ewe. Within 5 minutes of arriving at my hotel I met two European girls who I met up with later that night to play Uno, a game apparently played outside of the US as well. I met a nice guide named Yanique who only spoke French. At first it was quite difficult to communicate, but I am getting the hang of speaking in French, so it got better over the next couple days. On Tuesday I hiked Mt. Agou, the tallest Mountain in Togo.

We started by taking taxi motos from Kpalime and up the Mountain, when I realized that we seemed to be going all the way to the peak on a moto, I somehow communicated to my driver to stop and my interest in hiking to the top with Yanique. I thought Yunique said "Doux kilometres" to the top, but it was actually douze, meaning 12. So it was a long walk! Halfway I got really tired because it was all up hill, but I was somehow able to reconcentrate my energy by singing in my head so I was not tired. It was really strange because I don't much believe in the power of focusing energy, but I guess now I do because somehow I hiked other 4 kilometres before taking a break. We reached a village about 2 km from the top that was nestled into the side of the Mountain and had a gorgeous view of most of Southern Togo. After a stair master like trek through the village, I was forced to take a break. Nonetheless, the view from the top was magnificent minus the 1000 CFA I had to pay the gaurd to be allowed entry. On the way back I sang simple songs in French with Yanique like the French version of she's comin' round the mountain.

That afternoon, after a short break we headed to Kpime falls, which was very picturesque. Nonetheless, as we stood by the Falls, the thunder first and then a hard rain came. We gunned it out of the Mountainous area around the falls and took shelter with some nice old men in the Hydroeletric Center. The next day I went to Kloutu, a local village in the Mountains well known for butterfly walks. I arrived at Auberge Du Papillons and shortly afterwards hiked through the forest towards a small waterfall with two Danish girls and our guide. On the way I caught three butterflies myself with the guide's net, which for me was quite exciting.

Yesterday I took a bush taxi to Lome. There are multiple types of bush taxis, the one I took at that point was like a minivan with several extra seats on cushions in the spare space. The one I took today was a regular taxi where they pack 2 people into the front seat and 4 into the back. Now, we complain about the b**** seat in the US, but that's nothing like siting on the gear shift in the front seat. Not knowing what to expect I sat in the front, and was blessed with the most "comfortable" seat on top of the gear shift.

Anyway, so coming to Lome was interesting... At first we were driving around with this one man in a green shirt. We stopped at places all over town picking up passengers. Then we stopped at the gas station and the driver got down, and two men ran into the car and one got in the front, started the car and gunned it off. He was shouting something in Ewe, said something about "No Go Pay" and the other passengers were laughing. Several minutes later he got a call from someone, who I assume was the original driver to which he shouted a string of words in Ewe and hung up. I think the car might have been stolen by a friend of the driver but I have no idea. My friend Kevin who was traveling with me turns to me and says, "As long as we get to Lome I don't really care".

We arrived in Lome fine and so I spent the day exploring the town. I visited the Grand Marche, the beach and then headed to the national museum. The museum was closed because of V day but there was a long line in front of the nearby building so I went to investigate. Apparently, there was a concert going on and from my basic level of French I gathered it was religious. So in response to will you buy a ticket, I told her "why not" and got in line.

I don't think I've ever felt so out of place. There I was surrounded by nicely dressed people in colorful African attire as if going to church. I was the only white person in a line of 1,000 people and I was wearing a dirty white t shirt, shorts, and flip flops with sand still obviously on my legs from the beach. On top of it, I was waiting to enter a Protestant Concert while wearing my Chabad shirt with states clearly on the back "Center for Jewish Life on campus". After a long two hours of waiting in line, I went in and took a seat. At that point it didn't really matter any more because I wasn't the center of attention anymore but was still the only white person in the theater of some 4,000 people. There was a small stage in the front where after about 15 minutes an announcer came up and introduced the group. Subsequently groups of 1 to 3 persons would come on stage and sing a religious song of some sort. People were in the aisles dancing, shaking their hands, eyes closed in prayer-it was quite an interesting but fun experience. I, of course, was dancing as well, much to the amusement of my non-Yovo neighbors. Definitely an interesting experience to say the least.

Today I went to Togoville and the market in Vogan, but nothing particularly interesting to report there besides a nice church and the beginnings of fetish markets, a phenomenon I'll surely explain after visiting Benin.

Next stop Benin starting tommorow in Ouida.

Au Revoir,
Ben