I haven't seen much yet of Togo. The beach in Lomé was already an attraction for me. Then of course there are the cities Lomé and Sokodé, although Sokodé cannot really be called a city. It's more like a big village.
On our first weekend in Sokodé we were lucky, as a big festival was scheduled for that weekend, thus on Saturday after 3pm we sat off to the city. The streets in town were already full of people. We walked to the stadium (which is rather a big court yard than a stadium as we know it), which meant to be the place of the main event.
Though apart from the fact that there were a huge number of people and with them a lot of extra dust in the air, one couldn't really tell that a festival was taking place (i.e. no decorations etc). Shortly after our arrival though, we were stopped by a group of scarcely-dressed men, which made us watch their sword-dance. It's really impressive. Throughout the afternoon, we had more of these private performances 'forced' upon us, whereby I tried to limit them as much as possible, as I hadn't brought any coins (our hosts forgot to mention before going to this festival, that its handy to have some change, as at the end of these little private performances one is expected to pay a little money). Sometimes though I also didn't want to watch, especially when children were involved or the cutting (symbolically) included eyes or the mouth.
On the Sunday then, we were invited by the priest, who also works at the orphanage, to his church. From the outside looking more like a barn, once inside one could tell that this building serves as a church. Plastic chairs were aligned on both sides of the aisle (women left, men right - and the kids on chairs outside the main door under a sunscreen). In front of the rows with plastic chairs there were some benches. Then the podium next to which there were the plastic chairs on which we were seated, as special guests. Actually I expected a pretty normal church service. However this wasn't going to happen, as next to us more special guests were invited - the members of ca. 4 of the surrounding churches (whereby all priests and their wives were seated on the podium behind the altar). If I understood correctly, the special occasion was the change of the year. There was a lot of passionate singing and dancing and praying going on, whereby each person seemed to say their own prayer aloud with a rather passionate mimic and gesture. At the end there was a little auction of goods that were brought along (mainly food items, including living poultry) ... After church we were invited to the priest's house for lunch together with the other priests and their wives. We ate a corn mash with fish and a rather spicy sauce, of course all eaten with the hands...
The second weekend was much calmer and less touristy. Only on Sunday late afternoon we sat off direction north, in order to admire a rock along the street to Kara, which was split by the Germans (Faille d'Alejo) some time ago. From the top of the rock one also had a nice view over the forestry hills. Afterwards we went to another place, which actually looked kind of like a construction site of a social housing estate. Apparently, the day before there had been some big religious event there, where a lot of Christians had pilgered to. Though there wasn't really anything left that reminded of the event and otherwise there wasn't much else interesting to see there either.
This weekend I will try to visit the market in Tchamba. There should also be some stuff to see on the way up to there...
On our first weekend in Sokodé we were lucky, as a big festival was scheduled for that weekend, thus on Saturday after 3pm we sat off to the city. The streets in town were already full of people. We walked to the stadium (which is rather a big court yard than a stadium as we know it), which meant to be the place of the main event. 
Though apart from the fact that there were a huge number of people and with them a lot of extra dust in the air, one couldn't really tell that a festival was taking place (i.e. no decorations etc). Shortly after our arrival though, we were stopped by a group of scarcely-dressed men, which made us watch their sword-dance. It's really impressive. Throughout the afternoon, we had more of these private performances 'forced' upon us, whereby I tried to limit them as much as possible, as I hadn't brought any coins (our hosts forgot to mention before going to this festival, that its handy to have some change, as at the end of these little private performances one is expected to pay a little money). Sometimes though I also didn't want to watch, especially when children were involved or the cutting (symbolically) included eyes or the mouth.
On the Sunday then, we were invited by the priest, who also works at the orphanage, to his church. From the outside looking more like a barn, once inside one could tell that this building serves as a church. Plastic chairs were aligned on both sides of the aisle (women left, men right - and the kids on chairs outside the main door under a sunscreen). In front of the rows with plastic chairs there were some benches. Then the podium next to which there were the plastic chairs on which we were seated, as special guests. Actually I expected a pretty normal church service. However this wasn't going to happen, as next to us more special guests were invited - the members of ca. 4 of the surrounding churches (whereby all priests and their wives were seated on the podium behind the altar). If I understood correctly, the special occasion was the change of the year. There was a lot of passionate singing and dancing and praying going on, whereby each person seemed to say their own prayer aloud with a rather passionate mimic and gesture. At the end there was a little auction of goods that were brought along (mainly food items, including living poultry) ... After church we were invited to the priest's house for lunch together with the other priests and their wives. We ate a corn mash with fish and a rather spicy sauce, of course all eaten with the hands...
The second weekend was much calmer and less touristy. Only on Sunday late afternoon we sat off direction north, in order to admire a rock along the street to Kara, which was split by the Germans (Faille d'Alejo) some time ago. From the top of the rock one also had a nice view over the forestry hills. Afterwards we went to another place, which actually looked kind of like a construction site of a social housing estate. Apparently, the day before there had been some big religious event there, where a lot of Christians had pilgered to. Though there wasn't really anything left that reminded of the event and otherwise there wasn't much else interesting to see there either.
This weekend I will try to visit the market in Tchamba. There should also be some stuff to see on the way up to there...
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