After my last blog was a bit of a downer, I figured I better report on the wonderful ‘vacation’ Rebekah and I had last week and the high points of this week. So when we got back from Kara (the town an hour north of Sokode with the amazing pool) I stayed with Rebekah in Sokokde and we convinced Vanessa to stay too… slumber party lives on! We had such a good time – again, just really learning the value of being –just being- with people you love and enjoy. We ventured around Sokode – hopping from one treat to the next (lunch, to ‘ice cream store,’ to cookie store) all while sweating our butts off and picking up some nasty tan lines.
On Tuesday (9/20) Rebekah and I took the bus from the Post Office in Sokode three hours south to Atakpame. Even though travel seems to always be a crapshoot in this country, we were pleasantly surprised when a new, Nissan type mini-van pulled up and 8 other civilized, quiet, and clean people got in with us – and we left on time! From Atakpame we took motorcycles to the ‘bus station’ where we found a van to take us to Kpalime, the final leg of our 6-hour journey. We had heard that the road to Kpalime was bad, but as the drivers waited for enough people (22) to fill the 12 passenger, old, rusty, not-sure-if-it-will-make-the-trip bus, Rebekah (who was inside waiting and I was standing outside) whispered, “check the tire treads,” –"right Bek, cause that’s gonna save us from this nightmare of a vehicle." Long story short, it was horrible. One of the worst trips of my life. Three hours turned into four- and that was with the bus working and not breaking down at all! You see, the problem is that the road looks like a minefield… or like you’re walking on the moon. The van can only go about 20mph and swerves from one side of the road to the other in order to try and avoid as many craters as possible. It was long, HOT, sweaty, smelly, packed on top of each other and we were immobile the entire time. What’s worse- when we were getting close to Kpalime and a few people got out, no one around us felt the need to MOVE and so we didn’t have to sit on top of each other, because in their words, “why? We’re almost there!” AH! So, not hesitating, I willed my numb legs to hop over to the EMPTY bench in front of us. And yeah, we arrived literally five minutes later, but geesh people, it’s the principal of the thing! Bek kept a pretty good attitude for the first half while I was peeved from the beginning (although I was the one sitting next to the really stinky woman but Bek kept hitting her head on the roof of the van and had half of her bottom on the rusty seat). We took it one hour at a time and about halfway in I gave in and got my Ipod out and escaped. I told Bek I considered jumping out the window, but we weren’t going fast enough for it to do any good.
Anyway, we finally arrived and the lower half of our bodies still worked and we found motorcycles to get to Ashley’s (the PCV in Kpalime) house. Luckily, she had a feast prepared for us: fresh tortillas, cheesy beans, Spanish rice, guacamole, salsa and COLD Sangria. Amazing. Even more, Ashley’s house is big, light, and beautiful. Bek and I enjoyed our guest bedroom and FULL bathroom. Running water, flushing toilet, sink to wash your hands in. Wow. The next morning Ashley made us coffee, grown in the mountains of Kpalime. Kpalime is absolutely gorgeous. Surrounded by mountains, covered in lush forest, the air is cooler, crisper and I swear there isn’t a drop of humidity. Known as the tourist section of Togo, the people there are quieter and used to seeing foreigners and therefore more polite (we didn’t get called ‘white person’ once- quite the accomplishment considering little kids constantly shout that every day)! We ate well there too. Great little restaurant run by Belgians. The first day I had a salad (lettuce, cabbage, a hardboiled egg, and vinaigrette) and the next night I enjoyed a real cheeseburger and fries. The owner makes her own mayonnaise each day and it was quite tasty. Looking back, those two days in Kpalime were a true vacation; we never felt like we were in Togo. We weren’t sweating constantly, enjoying running water, eating great food and watching an established volunteer carry out her work. It was great and we didn’t want to leave. However, Ashley provided a better way out of Kpalime and the three of us headed south to Lome on Friday morning via a much, much better road! Although we were still packed in a bus, it was a quick two hour trip and nice to be with Ashley who could show us how to get around in the big, bustling capital city.
Friday and Saturday we pulled out all the stops to enjoy all this surprise trip to Lome had to offer. Bek and I got a room at a hotel (more like a hostel- but still with running water) and then we picked up falafel wraps from a Lebanese restaurant and walked to the PC office where enjoyed the afternoon in the PCV lounge, equipped with air-conditioning, cold water and wireless (what more do you need?). Our friend Lucian who lives about an hour from Lome joined us and we treated ourselves to an amazing dinner at an Italian restaurant. I had the lasagna and the others had pizza. Delicious. When Lucian and Bek ordered dessert, I ordered another glass of red wine.
I wanted to see the ‘grand marche’ (the big market) of Lome that we’ve heard so much about and so Lucian led us there first thing Saturday morning. Walking parallel to the beach, this farm girl begged the West Coasters to walk on the sand. It was marvelous and I was in awe of the huge crashing waves. Then we came upon some fisherman pulling in a giant net. They were chanting and tugging in unison and the rope was buried too far out in the ocean to be able to see it. One of my favorite things of Lome was discovering the coffee carts. The Togolese version of Starbucks, if you will. Men pushing carts with thermoses of hot water and you can order a coffee or tea (automatically come with LOTS of sugar and condensed milk) and the man mixes it in his plastic mug and fills up a tiny Dixie cup for you to drink. So in the blaring sun (easily 90 degrees by 8 a.m. that day) we licked our lips and savored every sweet drop of java!
The marche was something else. Packed street upon packed street, filled with random, packaged, plastic things from China. Yes, there were sections with fruits and vegetables, electronics, clothing, and even baby things. In the meat section there was a semi with its doors open and you could see row upon row of cow carcasses hanging from the ceiling. Men carried freshly skinned and killed goats piled in basins atop their heads. Tons of people.Lots of yelling and hawking to get you to buy things. And hot hot sun. It was wild.
Escaped the marche and headed to the grocery store. Cooling off in the air conditioning we walked very slowly up and down each isle, gawking at all of the wonderful things to buy. More Lebanese food for lunch, air conditioning and wireless at the PC office for the afternoon. Dinner was at a Vietnamese restaurant where we split egg rolls and I enjoyed some Pho (shout out to my friends at YESS!). The restaurant had a TV playing 80’s slow love jams and I was eating that up too – much to Lucian and Bek’s disdain. It was a perfect ending to a perfect week.
Sunday morning we were up at 4 a.m. so we could catch the bus from the Post Office at 6. A nice, new charter bus (no AC, but did have complimentary water!) took us the seven hour trip back to Sokode. Whew.
Bek has been an amazing travel companion. I’m more of the navigator –paying attention to street signs and landmarks (yes mom/dad/Maddie, it is possible) and she is more of the people person; being nice to everyone and letting me play the mean cop when mean moto drivers try to take advantage of us. We laugh a lot. You have to. Noticing that we are doing things a bit differently (again, have to) we started making a list – a natural thing for Rebekah as she writes EVERYTHING down (yes, friends even more than me- you should see her notebooks!). Anyway, I’ll leave you with our current list.
The ways I’ve changed; the things we do here:
Ration our supplies. Rebekah has been splitting baby cotton balls into two and I used one band-aid for an entire week in Kpalime.
Garbage envy (I hated throwing things out in the States, but here, everything can be reused for something – right?) I, however haven’t gotten so bad as Bek who I had to hold back from digging through Ashley’s trash bag.
Bathroom privacy.Using the restroom in a hotel with only a thin plastic curtain separating the toilet from the rest of the room (more of a thing for Bek).
Smell test. Our trip to Kpalime gave me a whole new perspective on re-wearing dirty clothes as we were gone three additional days than originally planned.
Used treasure. Volunteers getting ready to leave country dump their used clothing and any other random things they don’t want in the PC lounge. Bek and I enjoyed a ‘shopping-spree’ of sorts as we dug through the bins where I found a new pair of pants, a couple of old tshirts I’m going to have made into a skirt, half-used face wash, sunscreen, baby powder, a whole wad of ziplock bags and some stickers. Amazing huh—things I would give to Goodwill in the States I now cherish.
Ants.Lots of ants here. Last week, we ate Bek’s ant-ridden Oreo’s because… they’re OREO’S!
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