Meeting Nico

What was I excited when I sat off to Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) to meet Nico…

I left the house at 7:30 in search for a minibus that goes up north. Within an hour I had found a bus and personally was more than ready to leave, but well … here in Africa the bus leaves only when it’s fuller than full and this was only the case at 10:30. Though, even then my bus was not able to depart, as one lady passenger had decided to go to the market while waiting for departure and so we had to find her first. The ride was long with many stops on the way to unload and upload passengers, eat and pray. There was one part of the road north of Kara in a rather good condition and many other parts with amazing arrays of holes. Lovers of slalom would have had a great time; people suffering from motion sickness perhaps not. It was only about 18:00 when we arrived in Dapoang, my stop for the night.

At 6:15 the next morning the journey continued ... first an overcrowded taxi to Sinkasse (the border town) and then a moped taking me to the different control posts and the bus station. There I found rather quickly a minibus (the bigger quicker busses I had just missed, as the Burkina official took ages to process my visa request … ) and like usual I had to wait a while till departure. While waiting I was entertained by a drunk local, who just wouldn’t want to leave my side despite many attempts by employees of the bus station to convince him to go elsewhere. Eventually, the busses departure at 9:00 am saved me. The bus ride was a bit more comfortable than the day before, but also very long with many annoying stops…

At 16:00 I finally arrived at the Ouagadougou airport. Normally Nico’s plane was supposed to land at 15:40, so I would have been perfectly on time, but well the plane was late … and I had to wait an annoying 5 hours before Nico finally appeared…

The man with the 99 wives

A few weeks ago I went to Kparato, a small village between Sokodé and Tchamba. In this village the famous king is buried, which is said to have had 99 wives. Many of his descendants are still living in the village today and so I was lucky enough to be shown around by one of his great-grandsons. He showed me all the important places: I saw the old baobab tree on the central village square and the oracle just next to the tree. The oracle is a place, where a woman was apparently buried alive a long time ago and where even today people still go to be advised by her on important questions or life choices. This is, so to speak, a place where the local Muslims (Islam is the main religion in this region of Togo) practice their traditional believes.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t visit the grave of the famous king or his possessions, as the house was locked and his successor, who guards the key, was out working on the field. I have tried to visit the place a couple more times since then, though this gentleman is only not working on Tuesdays and Fridays and then I tend to work. Nevertheless I have seen two graves of successors of this great king. This was already pretty impressive. Each of these two gentlemen was buried in rather ordinary houses right alongside the houses of the living population.

Back to Lomé

Tuesday the 26th of May I was meant to return to Lomé to get my Visa renewed. Early in the morning we sat off, though already after only 1h at 6:30am a problem with the bus … waiting and waiting … every now and then a little spark of hope … after 3h at the side of the road we hitchhiked to the next village Tchebebe as lunch was approaching … and really there was plenty of time for a refreshing ice cream, a relaxing lunch meal and another ice cream … even a short little walk was possible … and for the religious travellers a prayer at the local mosque … and then finally after 7.5h at 2pm the bus was fixed and the ride continued. Needless to say, I arrived rather late in Lomé, though I also met some nice people during the trip … all in all a nice little day out.

Sunday excursion to the Church

The past Sunday we took all the kids (except for the babies) to church. It was the first time for them and they were certainly very excited...

P.S.: No, I am not religios these days ... I am still happily without religion. Though the teacher is very religios and really wanted to take the children to church. Alone with 16 kids was however a bit too big challenge, therefore I volunteered to go along.

The children seemed a bit shocked by the passionate praying in the church, as some of the regular church goers were rather emotional and gesticulating wildly, even crying. Though after all it was a day out and being away from the orphanage, the children usually really appreciate.

I was ill…

Well, I really like to taste the local food. Naturally the consequence is a bit of diarrhoea. No problem, I thought, it will pass. When then the diarrhoea really started I took the medication that I had brought along and paid a bit more attention to eating well. Obviously, I wasn’t careful enough. On Saturday the diarrhoea got worse. I dehydrated a little too much and ended up passing out during the night. Thanks to Nico’s persistence I went to see a doctor on Sunday. I stayed at the medical centre for the whole day from 11am to 7pm receiving medication to help me rehydrate and fight the diarrhoea. All intravenously. For the following days the doctor prescribed me medication, which was to be taken every morning and evening. Unfortunately the side effects surfaced rather soon: especially the vertigo. On Tuesday I returned to the medical centre, where I saw another more senior doctor (the doctor from Sunday was also present during the consultation). The medication was adjusted. In the evening just before taking the new cocktail of medication, I decided to ask Nico to check on the internet the desired und undesired effects of the medication. To my surprise I learned that one of the medications is for the treatment of malaria – I certainly did not have malaria – and another one for treating stomach cramps – when the doctor asked me if I had pains I did negate this. Weird! Surely, those medications I decided not to take. What I was left with were two antibiotics. I have been taking them as prescribed and I’m doing a lot better with my health.
Note: I asked the doctor for nutritional advice in order to help me recover from the diarrhoea quicker. With a big smile he announced ‘you can eat everything you want’…

24 Children and 4 Adults

I never thought it’s possible to fit 24 children and 4 adults into one car. But yes, we managed. Thursday, the 16th of April we went with most of the kids of the orphanage to a medical centre for getting them vaccinated. On the way up to the medical centre there were ‘only’ 18 kids between the ages of 6 months and 4 years in the car with us 4 adults. The seven smallest babies arrived later with the other tata’s (that’s how the kids call the ladies that work at the orphanage; it basically means ‘auntie’). For the return though it was too late to ask the taxi driver to do two rounds (the other tata’s had already left and taken one of the little girls with them)…

Well, we put the big ones in the back. I took two of the small babies and the teacher too. Between us sat two of the older babies. And at the other side of the teacher were one small baby in a proper baby carrier and an older baby sat on the floor. The third tata, which was sitting next two the driver on the passenger seat, had two small babies in her arms and two of the older ones between her legs on the floor. It was really impressive.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know in advance that on this day we were going to go for the vaccinations and had of course not brought my camera.

My house mates

Even though I am the only human being living in my flat at the moment, I am not alone. There are a few little friends that have joined me. The flies, mosquitoes and ants were not really a surprise. Also the spiders I expected. Actually, normally I am afraid of spiders, but it’s difficult to avoid them here and as they are not dangerous, I have got used to them (for the nights I have my mosquito net to protect me ;-) ). Well, I have also found cockroaches in my room and toads, latter I managed to catch and throw out of the window. The newest house mates are some little mice and they certainly are quick … way too quick to catch, but also very cute.

The raining season

It has started, the raining season. It was the 17th of March when it rained for the first time since my arrival in Togo. Since then it has rained many more times and in the rivers there is already some water flowing again. Normally it rains rather heavily for an hour or two and then it stops again. Though the Easter Monday was different … actually I wanted to work on Ester Monday. After all, the kids are at the orphanage every day regardless of whether there is a bank holiday or not. I got up in time and got ready for work. However, when I was just about to leave I noticed the sky was totally covered in heavy black clouds. And really, ten minutes later it started raining. It rained very heavily for quite some time and continued up to about 2pm. For me this ended up to be a rather boring day at home (reading, sleeping, waiting…).

The stars

In Africa there are less artificial lights brightening up the houses and streets during the night. Fortunately, I would say, because the sky is so much more beautiful with plenty of stars. Actually, one can see more stars here than in Europe and they are shining a lot more brightly. It’s a pity that it’s not possible to capture that with my camera.

Mangos

Well, I managed to arrive just in time for Mango season. Really yummy. (By the way, the Mango trees were brought to Togo by the Germans.) There are two types: the big ones, which one can also buy easily in Europe, and then a smaller yellow coloured sort. At the moment both are rather cheap, especially the little ones (for 12 I paid less than 10 Eurocent). At the orphanage they have as well Mango trees, so that I can get there lots for free. And they are so yummmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyy…

The concert

Yesterday I went to a concert here. It was pretty interesting. At the beginning we were just sitting around for ages waiting that at least something started. That is, there were two DJs from Lomé that tried to entertain at least a little. The stage was completely empty and rather small. We sat on plastic chairs. Then it finally started, however initially only with some (I believe local) artists and that really reminded me of the mini-playback show that I used to watch on TV, as it was really not much more than playback performed in a rather poor manner. However, the artists were mostly still pretty young. In-between some games were played, where merchandise could be won (a mobile phone or t-shirt). After a long wait, than finally the main attraction: [oops, I forgot the name, I could though sing something]. He’s from Benin and at the moment very popular in Togo and apparently also internationally well known (at least in Africa). And he was really good, though compared to concerts in Europe everything was rather basic: no stage deco, no light effects, hardly any security staff … anyway, after all we came for the music and that was great…

P.S.: I know now what he is called. It's Petit Miguelito.

The life without the French girls

...is actually not that bad. In my little two-room flat I’ve got now quite a bit of extra space and have also made it a bit more comfortable there. The atmosphere in the yard is also a lot more relaxed. The neighbours are more likely to talk to me and are also with each other livelier. Georgette – the girl that lives with the landlady (Matya) – is laughing a lot more often and is doing crazy stuff (especially when Matya isn’t at home).The food is still largely the same; just that now it’s cooked by Georgette and not anymore by a member of the association. Of course I am helping. Every now and then there is also something special offered. Yesterday evening, for example, we had corn mash with a spicy sauce, which was rather yummy though. Today we had fish. The other day I had the opportunity to taste soja cheese (which is pretty much what we call tofu) and then also tasted the local nougat. Once we had something similar to a pumpkin (looks pretty much like it, is also big and orange inside, just that there are no seeds and it has a lot more fibres). It’s eaten hot and testes rather sweet. It was though rather difficult to serve due to the fibres. Over here they tend to just bite bits off or rib them off, as cutting is almost impossible. I was lacking experience however, so that Georgette had to help me out a lot. It was really delicious.

I’ve also got to know a few more people now, so that I can go out every now and then, instead of hanging just around the house after work … in general I must say there are quite a few people who asked me to become their pen pal (even complete strangers that just approached me on the street; though very nicely); but they are so many I could not possibly write to all of them. If there is someone out there, who really likes writing letters or e-mails, there are a lot of people here who would be more than happy to get to know you, just let me know…

National Park of Fazao-Malfakassa

Yesterday I visited the National Park of Fazao-Malfakassa. Unfortunately there are hardly any animals left in the park. Most of the animals have been killed or are still being killed by the local population.

I was happy though to still manage to see some monkeys, a crocodile (of a rather small species) and some form of (I believe they are) antelopes … obviously also birds (some pretty blue metallic ones and a bright orange one), butterflies and plenty of termite mounds.

The park in itself is really pretty. There are some nice little mountain ranges and lots of forest.

Tourism

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...

The Orphanage

Well, that's where I work throughout the week. It consists of three buildings (a fourth building is under construction). The buildings (and also the garden, yard and chicken ...) are generously surrounded by a wall. In one of the buildings there are offices and a little medical practice, whereby there is actually no doctor working there. In fact, doctors are north of the capital rather seldom.The main reason for this is not only the general lack of doctors in Togo, but also the much lower salary that can be expected in the north. In the orphanage consultations are held by the nurse. He asks a few questions and maybe measures the blood pressure (... usually on both arms?!?) and then prescribes the medication depending on his diagnosis. In case the medication does not help, the patient comes back for further tests. These are done in the 'lab' by the priest, as no doctor is present. In general one tries to avoid expensive testing. In case though someone is really severely ill, there is still the possibility of the local hospital...

In the other two buildings there are the kids. One of the buildings has the bedrooms, toilets and showers. In the other one there is the kitchen and a dinning room, which also functions as class room for the older kids that do not go to school yet. There are hardly any toys to be found around.

The kids are mostly abandoned by their parents. In some cases the parents have also died. Shortly before our arrival four more babies were welcomed in the orphanage (including also some twins), some of which were just left outside the gate. The babies are absolutely tiny. Though at least in the orphanage one will take care of their basic needs.

During the first week, the French girls and I had helped in turns by the babies, the older kids and the medical practice in order to get an overview of all work areas. Nowadays we can pretty much chose ourselves, where we want to help out. Personally I prefer the older kids, as one can do more activities with them. The working day normally starts for us at 8am, then there is a lunch break from 12pm till 3:30pm and then it continues till 5:30pm. During the lunch break we either go directly back to our house (a 15 to 20 minutes walk under the bright midday sun) or we take a taxi-moto to the internet café in town and then later another one back to the house. Lunch is served at home usually prepared by someone from the organisation that I'm travelling with. The evenings are similar.

The older kids are taken care off by a teacher, who tries to teach them songs, how to draw and write. If the kids are not doing as told, the teacher at times hits them with a stick or other object. We already mentioned that this isn’t acceptable in Europe (and actually it’s also illegal here) and we tried to show her alternative ways of disciplining the kids…

One thing that one notices here is, that there are hardly any toys visible for the children to play with. Even the toys that the French girls had brought along, had largely disappeard from view after only a few days. That means of cours also that the kids do not really know how to play with toys and how to take care of them. For example, the little cars were quickly taken apart and had also plenty of dents; the little dolls were soon missing arms, legs and heads, not talking about the clothes). With the puzzles we tried to be more careful to avoid them being destroyed to quickly ... by the way, not even the older kids were able to master rather simple puzzles...

The Food

All in all, the food tastes pretty good. Mostly we eat pasta, rice, beans or couscous with a vegetable sauce (which does taste nice, but its kind of always the same sauce: chopped tomatoes, sometimes some chopped peppers or onions, chopped carottes all fried in a lot of oil with tomato puree and some seasoning). Often there are also eggs with it from the chicken that run through our yard and also chicken wings or legs (whereby they eat the bones here too at times!)…

… I also have tasted meanwhile the famous Fufu. I always wondered what it tastes like and even had the opportunity to watch our landlady’s daughter prepare it (… looks like really hard work…). Then one morning at 11am --- I have no idea why at this time --- I was called to the table in order to share a plate of Fufu with Kamar (president of AVECSTOGO) and Aude. Of course, eaten with the hand, as this is how food is normally eaten in this country. A little bowl with water to wash our hands was already on the table and then we got started. In general, it’s a mash made of yam. The taste is good, though it doesn’t actually have a strong own taste. The sauce that was served with it was therefore extra spicy. Unfortunately, I did not make any pictures. I’ll though will make up for it at the next opportunity and then also make more pictures of other meals…

… oh, and I almost forgot, we also often eat fried banana and fried yam. Tastes both ok, are though rather fatty like most other food too. Throughout the week our hosts use ca. 1 litre of oil! Breakfast isn’t overly important here (in fact, often the associations members forget to bring the breakfast items, so that I repeatedly have to ask for the delivery). Anyway, we have bought some cereals and chocolate spread and soft cheese for the bread. Like this we at least get something in our stomach.

Our New Home

From Lomé to Sokodé we took the bus. The ride was long, though was much more comfortable than expected. The bus was big enough and we all had a seat. From the window I could already see a bit of the country life; little houses and every now and then a little village. Half way – it had already gone dark outside - we made a stop. We used the opportunity to get off the bus for a few minutes and buy some bananas. And then sometimes during the night we finally arrived in Sokodé. Our stuff was transferred to a Minibus and off we went to our new home…

… and there it was. The yard looked rather ok, though the little flat… two small empty rooms. Well, a little cupboard stood there, but otherwise absolutely nothing. And the little cupboard lost its door, when I tried to open it.The toilet is in another corner of the yard and already when approaching one is hit by a terrible stench.

Well, on the pictures one can see the type of toilette… right next to it is the shower (sure one needs to bring the bucket and water themselves; water can be collected in the well). Oh yeah, and the big spiders and cockroaches are included gratis.

I guess, the French girls were even more shocked than me and one of them asked me completely terrified: Are you sure you want to stay here 3 months? …

Meanwhile we’ve got used to everything and also have found a second shower cabin, which smells a bit less and is in another corner of the yard, but under open sky. Also we’ve got now our own two buckets, so that we no longer have to try to catch the landlady day-by-day to ask for hers.

The flight and Lomé

Finally on the 28th of February I sat off. First a shorter flight from Amsterdam to Paris, where I had to rush from one terminal to the next in order to just make it in time for boarding.

And then a second flight from Paris to Lomé, which was long, but thanks to AirFrance also very comfortable (own little TV, computer games, blanket, cushion and nice food). When I left the plane I was welcomed by a nice warm prise of air and in the transfer bus by my first two mosquitoes…

When it came to the airport formalities, I had my first taste of the Togolese hospitality. My air plane seat neighbour helped me kindly in a speedy fashion through passport/visa control with his airport contacts … that was nice and quick, though unfortunately followed by a long wait for my luggage. Then customs… which were naturally most interested in my boxes, though after a description of their content they let me pass without much difficulties.

Once outside the airport – which is rather small - I was relieved that at least my hosts knew how I look like, as I could not remember at all the faces on the photos … so far so good. Well, and then the shock: my hosts started talking to me and I understood practically nothing, that is with a lot of effort, concentration and repetition it was ok, but certainly that wasn’t the French I am normally used to from France … now, the people that know me, know that I am not necessarily the most talkative person in the world, though this language barrier really didn’t give me an easy start on a social level.

The first 1.5 days we stayed in Lomé. I stayed at Kamar’s place (the president of the AVECSTOGO) and the two French girls at Jonas’ place (the vice president).

The Sunday was simply boring, as we practically did nothing … which is understandable considering that it was hot, that the French girls had arrived in the middle of the night and that is was Sunday and therefore anyway nothing opened … though I am not used to not being able to do at least something.

Well, the Monday was a lot more exciting. I got introduced to the taxi-moto as a means of transport and I absolutely loved it: cheap and really refreshing :-) We also went to the German embassy (… the German lady at the counter was rather unfriendly, though the embassy is situated at the beach, which was just lovely…) and then we went to withdraw some money, so that I can hold my first Togolese francs.

Later that afternoon – again after a long boring break for relaxation – we sat off to Sokodé.