Le 21st Avril, 2009
Bonjour
Memories, images, experiences jostle with each other to be expressed as a sit to write this. Its on few occasions of my life that im ever at a loss for words, this moment happens to be one of them. I am unaware of the correct word which might explain my experiences in Benin over the past weekend. Maybe i can call my trip: crazy, incredulous, breathtaking, fascinating, an eye opener or just downright memorable!
We took a taxi from the market of Lome to Cotonou which is the main administrative center of Benin and its commercial capital as well. The thing with the taxis here in Togo and Benin as well especially the ones which ply across the countries is that they stuff people inside them. So in the front seat instead of two people including the driver, 3 people sit and on the back seats instead of 3,4 people are made to sit. This small addition of 2 people certainly isnt very helpful for the comforts of ones back or his bottom which get entangled in weird angles and positions.
The border of Benin was a two hour drive from the city and after doing with our immigration i was finally stamped out of Togo, not sure as to how would i return because i had with me only a single entry visa which means that you can enter and leave that particular country only once. I had entered on the 29th of March and now i was stamped out. Trying hard not to think about this absolutely ludicrous decision of mine to take such kind of a risk in a foreign land, i encountered pretty unfriendly sights while crossing the border by foot. The locals of Togo do not need a visa as Benin and Togo along with other West African nations are a part of ECOWAS(Economic community of West African nations), something like the EU, still one really fat Togolese soldier who can at best could be described as a mix between Yokozuna and a rhino pushed a man so hard that as a resultant effect of his push some 5 people after him too fell backwards on the ground centimeters ahead of me. Being with two white girls definitely has its advantages as he let us pass without even raising an eyebrow and soon enough we had walked past Togo and entered Benin.
Of course the feeling this time just wasn't the same sa last time when i had crossed the border on road between India and Pakistan but still it does give a person a sense of wonder to see that a gate separates land, humanity, air which essentially is the same everywhere!
Soon enough we were at the Benin's side of immigration and here i encountered another scary omen, a huge African guy nearby started shouting at the top of his voice and suddenly there was army all around him who pinned him, caught his hands and took him into a room just behind the guy who was stamping our visas and 8 army people surrounded this guy and took things like wooden rods, belts, whips inside with them. Spine chilling to say the least. I hope that the guy is doing well now.
After this rather eventful border crossing we continued in the same taxi and reached Cotonou soon enough. The town of Cotonou is maddening to say the least! At 10:30 in the night it was full of traffic, honking cars and zipping motorcycle taxis (called zemie johns according to Lonely planet). There were no traffic lights where we got off but there were neon lights so in the traditional sense one may refer to Cotonou as more developed than Lome if more cars, traffic, pollution, noise, neon lights can be a pointer in that direction. My host Sam has an uncle in Cotonou and so to meet him we took a 'zemie john' to his place. I have to admit the ride was by far THE most scariest, hair raising thing i had ever experienced. The moto taxi driver was cutting all kinds of heavy vehicles, passing between places so narrow that i could actually feel the my jeans brushing past other vehicles. Finally we reached the place (alive!!!), it was in the middle of nowhere if it can be called that because we crossed so many watery puddles formed on mud roads, taken many winding and hairpin turns and had left the main road far behind when we finally reached there. There were no other form of human movements there except the 4 of us and were put up at a motel close by.
After a rather uncomfortable night due to the fact that the pillows were really not cosy and also because we discovered that the bathroom did not have a door and it directly faced the bed,we woke up next morning, kicked to check out this promising country!
First up we went to Ganvie, which is reached after traveling 12 km in a boat through a lake Nakoue. It is essentially a cluster of villages built in the sea and it often referred to sa the Venice of West Africa because the huts, restaurants, bars, shops are all surrounded by the lake and one can commute only through a boat. This place was absolutely fantastic. The people here do have queer habits. THe women are especially averse to getting their pictures clicked. Infact if you notice the 1st picture of the previous post then you will see that the girl is hiding her face to prevent getting clicked. Also the locals here call a white person 'Yovo' and being a brown skinned, it did sound odd but i too was being referred as a Yovo. All the children here, some even as young as 2 years of age would surround us and shout Yovo Yovo cadeau (gift in french). Wherever we went these chants in their sing song fashion continued. SO much so that now when i am back in Togo i actually miss people shouting Yovo Yovo cadeau at me!! This has also become our way of greeting each other these days!! Truly hilarious.
Another thing which was pretty funny was that at one of the bars where we had stopped our boat to buy some souvenirs and get a drink, we came across a pretty looking brown skinned girl which my host and the 2 dutch girls decided was Indian and as a result should hook me up with her. As it turned out she lived in a hotel opposite the bar in the middle of the lake. So these two extremely crazy Dutch girls go and just enter her room where there were two other local boys. They sweet talked them to get inside, woke up the Indian girl who was sleeping and had a nice chat with her and another American girl who was with the group too. I have taught them to say in hindi, 'mujhe tumse pyaar hai'. Now for some reason the girl thought that it was incorrect and the dutch girls replied to that our friend from India has taught me that. To their super excitement she replied back saying that in that case she would like to meet this 'Indian friend' of theirs. Thus i got hauled up by the their super excitement and came face to face with her. Apparently her dad was a Xavierite and had shifted to the States. All of us had a nice long conversation about everything and nothing. After this rather random meeting we went back to the shore on the boat again. After this rather enjoyable boat ride due to a nice cool breeze, warm and a bright azure blue sky, it almost gave a feeling of being a vagabond.
Soon enough it ended as all great things do and we were off to the capital of Benin Porto Novo. The mini van which we took was an extremely crowded one with people stuffed in like hens in a poultry van. Though it did give a chance to see things and people way more closer than a normal tourist ever would. The chants and the scramble of the vendors trying desperately to seal their wares to people inside. The sights, noises of the city of Cotonou, the way of dressing of people of Benin were all rather vividly noticeable and apparent throughout that journey.
Porto Novo as a city is completely different from Lome and Cotonou. Whereas Lome is bustling dotted with bars which occupy every nook and corner of the city playing loud music, Cotonou was simply maddening with its sea of humanity coming from anywhere and everywhere. Porto Novo though was a very relaxed city, the kind where one would assume that life would take its own course, the bars were missing and the roads were winding with a cluster of houses lined up. It was an absolutely delightful place to relax and just observe the diversity of the Western part of this beautiful continent. The motel this time too was extremely weird to say the least as the bathrooms again did not have a door, there was a large horizontal mirror placed parallel to the bed, there was a red night lamp and the tv showed porn movie (for those of you wondering what kind then it was ebony porn but not that it interested me), pretty creepy to say the least but then i guess thats the pitfalls which comes with a budget tour of a place.
We hit the bar around town after resting for some time where for the want of any other vegetarian option i had spaghetti again!! Here i tasted beef again after the day we ate dutch food and i must say that im not a fan of it or anything but its pretty decent!
In the mood to dance, we decided to go to a bar with music as the bar in which we were in showed only a TV channel which had pictures of all the people who had died! Disturbing and not the kind of place where one would ideally like to be after a bottle of beer. Anyway the bar where we finally went turned out to be even more disastrous as there were only 4 girls in there including the 2 with us and it was full of men. Now this kind of a gay bar isn't exactly the one where one would be tempted to dance anyway. SO a couple of drinks later we were out of that place and crashed in our rooms of that extremely suggestive motel where we were put up.
The next day we decided that due to lack of any 'tourist' attractions at the city we will go to Abomey which was 150 kms north of Cotonou as there the Dahomey dynasty which according to lonely planet was very gory and had acquired wealth by indulging in slave trading with the French had a palace which was also a UNESCO world heritage site.
After checking out the GRAND MARCHE which was tres petit and very very quiet as compared to the city of Cotonou and the GRAND MARCHE OF Lome as well, we headed to Cotonou to catch a connecting taxi to Abomey. The taxi ride as again was uncomfortable for a persons essential body parts due to the tendency here to stuff people inside but anyway we did successfully reach in a single piece to Cotonou and caught a connecting taxi to Abomey.
The countryside was stunning to say the least with lush green trees, plantations, mountains in the background. Picturesque!
The drive was a long one for about 4 and a half hours. Finally we were at Abomey and maybe to welcome us the skies opened up and it poured to quite a while like cats and dogs. As a result, puddles of waters, running lakes on the streets were formed la our very own Mumbai and i couldn't help but just smile at the similarity of the situation. But all the similarities ended here because the town was a quaint one with small streets and by lanes, even more relaxed and slow than Porto Novo itself. A beautiful place!
It was already night and was pouring, as a result we decided to stay indoors and check out the city the next day. Finally the next day we set out to get a glimpse into the graphic past of Benin and a large chink of West Africa. The museum, which essentially was a restored palace was a World heritage site as well. Graphic and gory images and colourful carvings of sadism, heads being chopped off, brutal killings, lions and other animals adorned the walls of the palace. This palace was nothing like the majestic ones back in India but infact had thatched huts which one would normally associate with houses in rural India but to our horror we realized that many of these huts were built from mud and blood of enemy soldiers who had been killed in battles. There were other things like skulls kept inside a shaft made out of horse hair meant to ward off mosquitoes but the throne which was mounted on 4 human skulls was downright spine chilling. People talk about the gory and primitive or if i may use the word unevolved past of the continent but here i had the first hand chance to see the brutal deaths depicted by pictures, paintings, gory deaths and processions in which the women were hacking men to death.
The tour also made me come across some rather strange facts, one was the that in the Dahomey dynasty, women were better soldiers then men so often in a battle an army of women would be sent. I obviously did not believe it initially but on later i could completely understand it after seeing the images in which women displayed their raw brutality in killing men. In one of the pictures, one guy was being burnt in flames tied to a tree while two women were simultaneously shooting them and one of then was hacking him with a sword!! The Dahomey dynasty also acquired modern weapons from the Portuguese, Dutch, French and the Germans who trade them in exchange of 15 women with perk breasts (yes thats right!!!) or 20 able bodies slaves. Also one of the kings here had 4000 wives! Yes sir, four thousand wives!
Unnatural as it might sound but as i interact with more and more people this fact becomes digestible because the last president of Togo had 106 children only officially, locals say the number could be close to 300 or something, fathered from uncountable number of women. The current President too has around 70 wives and many many more to come according to people here and pologamy is legally allowed and freely practiced in Ghana, Benin and Togo.
After this rather insightful tour, the pictures of which i could not take because photography was prohibited, we had a much needed lunch served to us by rather unfriendly waitress. We got a taxi back to Cotonou from where we took a taxi to Lome. The immigration was a breeze on the Benin side as the officials seemed way to happy to host two beautiful dutch girls ( i have to admit that their presence is a blessing because then everything becomes pretty simple and officials dont seem keen to harass you, maybe i should send this point to lonely planet as well!). The shock came on the Togo side of the border.
As explained before i had a single entry visa and instead of harassing me, taking bribes from me or issuing a new visa the official at the border simply stamped my visa again and then in no time i was inisde togo on the same visa! Dont know how he made that mistake but surely it was a blessing for me as i did not have to pay anything or wait for a new visa though i hope that it does not give me problems when im flying back to India!!
So this was my trip, crazy because of my decision to go on a single entry visa, incredulous because i actually came back on the same visa, memorable because of the sights and sounds like Yovo Yovo cadeau!! and the Dahomey dynasty and Porto Novo where we went to a gay bar (well almost!!) Still cant choose between any of the words to ill settle for a cliche UNFORGETTABLE!!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Benin: Undiscovered beauty!
Le 20th Avril 2009
Bonjour!!
Over the weekend i visited along with 2 dutch girls and my host Sam, neighboring country of Togo, Benin, the country where the religion Voodooism was founded. Along with this it was also home to the gory and extremely ruthless Dahomey dynasty which got rich by indulging in slave trade with the French.
Some times words fail to emote effectively what a person feels, and as of now im in that state, so no words, only pictures for now!!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Togolais Diaries...fear gripping the town
Le 16th Avril, 2009
Bonjour
THe last few days have been a little scary due to the possibility of civil unrest which might grip the nation. In continuing with the true spirit of disrespecting democracy however flawed it might be in the continent, the brother of the current President whose father was the longest serving dictator in the history of Africa (he ruled Togo for 38 yrs!!), apparently hatched a conspiracy to assassinate his President brother who was 'democratically' elected in a flawed, violent and an oppressive election (any local will vouch for that) in the year 2005 after the death of this dictator father. As a result of his extreme audacity, there were stuff like gunshots not far away from where i live and his brother went and hid inside the US embassy for 2 days and was arrested yesterday morning as he was trying to escape. As to how did he reach the US embassy and how was he allowed to get inside, ask the air headed Americans themselves because nobody seems to know.
Due to this my hosts mother has been unusually scared about me and Sam, returning home late at night, also there has been a general increase in the presence of military around the city.
This coincided with another scary incident after Babs birthday celebrations. It was around 12 at night and i was with all the guys and of course Babs unaware of these scary developments which had taken place a day before. As me and SAM went away, we got the news that Babs who was going home with another boy were stopped by the police in the middle of the night because that boys bike did not have the necessary papers. They were apparently surrounded by 8 policemen who later we came to know were not on duty but merely wanted some bribe. So we decided to go and see what was happening, on the way we saw them coming and we too started following them, then from nowhere two police bikes speeded up from behind us and it almost looked like a chase, what was the reason i still do not know but my heart was in my mouth for sure!! Phew and then they sped past us and disappeared into the darkness of the night.
So the incidents of the past two days have been scary and would freak anyone out so it came as a huge relief that we finally decided to go to Benin with my host and the two dutch girls, i was anyway glad to be out of the city for some time till the mess gets hopefully sorted.
So today evening, at around 4 after receiving the visa, i would be leaving for Benin which i have heard from Babs who has been there before that its a beautiful country!
P.S. Since i only have single entry visa with me for Togo, ill need to buy the visa for Togo at the border of Benin again and i hope that it does not turn out to be a problem because then otherwise ill be in soup and may even get deported once my visa of Benin expires. Though i have heard and assured by many people that its never a problem to buy a visa at the border. ALso i hope that the political situation sorts itself out because for the sake of my own safety and for the sake of this country itself, it cannot afford to get itself into another political mess especially after it has been coming out of political wilderness throughout the 90's decade! Another political setback would effectively signal death knell for the development of the country and its people for many more years to come. The world survives on hope and i hope that this country never has to experience what it has done in the past and that normalcy returns as soon as possible!
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLD623140?rpc=60
Bonjour
THe last few days have been a little scary due to the possibility of civil unrest which might grip the nation. In continuing with the true spirit of disrespecting democracy however flawed it might be in the continent, the brother of the current President whose father was the longest serving dictator in the history of Africa (he ruled Togo for 38 yrs!!), apparently hatched a conspiracy to assassinate his President brother who was 'democratically' elected in a flawed, violent and an oppressive election (any local will vouch for that) in the year 2005 after the death of this dictator father. As a result of his extreme audacity, there were stuff like gunshots not far away from where i live and his brother went and hid inside the US embassy for 2 days and was arrested yesterday morning as he was trying to escape. As to how did he reach the US embassy and how was he allowed to get inside, ask the air headed Americans themselves because nobody seems to know.
Due to this my hosts mother has been unusually scared about me and Sam, returning home late at night, also there has been a general increase in the presence of military around the city.
This coincided with another scary incident after Babs birthday celebrations. It was around 12 at night and i was with all the guys and of course Babs unaware of these scary developments which had taken place a day before. As me and SAM went away, we got the news that Babs who was going home with another boy were stopped by the police in the middle of the night because that boys bike did not have the necessary papers. They were apparently surrounded by 8 policemen who later we came to know were not on duty but merely wanted some bribe. So we decided to go and see what was happening, on the way we saw them coming and we too started following them, then from nowhere two police bikes speeded up from behind us and it almost looked like a chase, what was the reason i still do not know but my heart was in my mouth for sure!! Phew and then they sped past us and disappeared into the darkness of the night.
So the incidents of the past two days have been scary and would freak anyone out so it came as a huge relief that we finally decided to go to Benin with my host and the two dutch girls, i was anyway glad to be out of the city for some time till the mess gets hopefully sorted.
So today evening, at around 4 after receiving the visa, i would be leaving for Benin which i have heard from Babs who has been there before that its a beautiful country!
P.S. Since i only have single entry visa with me for Togo, ill need to buy the visa for Togo at the border of Benin again and i hope that it does not turn out to be a problem because then otherwise ill be in soup and may even get deported once my visa of Benin expires. Though i have heard and assured by many people that its never a problem to buy a visa at the border. ALso i hope that the political situation sorts itself out because for the sake of my own safety and for the sake of this country itself, it cannot afford to get itself into another political mess especially after it has been coming out of political wilderness throughout the 90's decade! Another political setback would effectively signal death knell for the development of the country and its people for many more years to come. The world survives on hope and i hope that this country never has to experience what it has done in the past and that normalcy returns as soon as possible!
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLD623140?rpc=60
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Togolais Diaries...an update
Le 14th Avril 2009
Bonjour
Apologies for this major delay in posting, my lethargic attitude accentuated bu the lethargic attitude of the people who run the computer lab in general has resulted in this delay. Sample this, the lab is open only on weekdays that is Monday to Friday from 8 in the morning to 4 in the evening, out of which its closed on Wednesday after 12 in the noon due to some godforsaken reason which im still to comprehend and last Friday when i came here at 12, there were tables with food kept inside the computer lab, apparently because there was some sort of lunch which was going to happen inside the computer lab!! Ridiculous as it might sound, this kind of unprofessional ism can be called one of the banes plaguing an otherwise beautiful land. The question to ponder still would be that why is it that poorer the country is more unprofessional it is? Many of us think this about India and pray that it would become more professional in its approach as well as the 'chalta hai' attitude which plagues our system would disappear. Slowly though surely, we find winds of change blowing across our own country. Increased competition, more corporatization has had its effects and its becoming more and more professional. This makes me conclude that in essence its the lack of any perceived loss which makes an organization less accountable and more unprofessional. This can certainly be held true in case of Togo. Due to extreme powers which certain privileges bring here, people tend to exploit it. For example, this is the only university of the country and this is the only computer lab in the university so they know that students have nowhere else to go and they have to adapt to the whims and fancies of the authorities here because of due to lack of general wellbeing they would not afford going outside to a computer cafe so the authorities can grandly decide to hold lunch parties in the only computer lab of only university of the country because people have no other option. Adam Smith would have surely cringed to see this lack of competition and the lack of free market structure operating in the country.
Anyway the last few days have been productive, not as much in terms of work as i would have ideally liked but in other terms, definitely yes! I paid a visit to the Indian consulate here in Lome and unlike the consulates of USA or embassies of Benin an other godforsaken countries, our great nation does not even have a building! Believe it or not, its situated inside a hotel. This hotel is Indian and serves some pretty pathetic and exorbitantly priced food in its restaurant. So i went to the consulate with hopes of meeting some Indian officials but all i do after entering this hotel is that i go to small cramped room where a Togolaise woman is sitting and after waiting for like half an hour, she calls some Indian official who in a rather uninterested and cold voice tells me that if i want to get myself registered i need to bring like some hundreds of documents and photos and thats it!! Yes, thats it!! No meeting, nothing. Talk about hospitality of India! The locales here appear to be much more interested in meeting me than the people from my own consulate!
The next day we went there for dinner and were served stale lassi which both the dutch girls really loved back in Netherlands really wanted to have. So they were really disappointed with it, then came the food which was at best eatable and we ran up a bill of like 2000 Indian rupees for having practically nothing. So as a result, im not too fond of things Indian here in Togo, would rather prefer local stuff!
Another of the highlights has been that, it was my hosts birthday last Sunday and we had an absolute ball the whole day, going to the beach where the waves were the strongest i have ever experienced. They really really pulled us in. After that it was time for party at our house and a lot of people came over. It was great fun dancing to AIESEC songs and yes especially tunak tunak by sada Daler paaji! He truly rocks, never knew that his appeal is so global!! For dinner we had a Togolese dish which is made out of mashed yams and then everyone eats it in one plate with their hands dipping it in some fish curry. You really have to overlook the fact that everyone is licking their hands and then putting it in the same plate from which everyone is eating. Once this 'small' factor is overlooked, one might as well enjoy the dish as everyone was doing at the party!
Another major highlight this past week has been that, we cooked some Dutch food at Babs place and yes this was the first time that i actually entered a kitchen with a view of not passing expert comments and actually cooking. SO however incredulous that sounds i actually cut the cabbage, mashed potatoes, helped in boiling water and other painful stuff. Proud of being a boy since i believe and very rightfully so that men have a natural thing for cooking, i was utterly traumatized by this event and have from henceforth taken a resolution of appreciating every woman who ever cooks for me! The dish was made out of potatoes, purple cabbages, cinnamon, butter and beef and stuff and was pretty delectable though its pretty funny that the other Dutch girl Dodo fell ill after eating Dutch food and i didn't, i really hope it had nothing to do with me or my extra sincere efforts to do something productive in the kitchen apart from grabbing midnight snacks while watching friends!
Today is also Babs birthday so on Friday me and Dodo paid a visit to the market with extremely pushy shopkeepers who are ever so keen to sell you everything under the sun from porn moviers to Adebayors jerseys, to Togo belts to handicrafts and needless to say we were completely ripped off!! The worst feeling is when you know that you are a foreigner and you are being absolutely ripped off at the local market by the local people and you try your best to bargain but they know that you need this stuff and have nowhere else to go! Then you become a person walking into a booby trap knowing rather well of your extremely stupid actions and the resultant pain which will follow. Also this pain was even more accentuated because being an Indian, i have seen so many foreigners getting ripped off back home, trust me its painful to be on the receiving end of it. Anyways we hope that she likes what we got and if she doesn't at least she doesn't tell us! Phew
As of this weekend, planning to visit the neighboring countries, Benin or Ghana though visa could be a lil problematic because like a complete fool i have taken only the Single entry visa with me, ill have to buy the Togolese visa at the border of Benin; though for some reason if they refuse, i guess ill be trapped there!! lol
P.S. In spite of the extreme confidence shown by my host's mother that after 2 months ill eat, sleep, breathe and even talk French, i need to do something more to get the hang of this goddamn language! Seriously god was not being serious when he allowed these obnoxious french people to spread this language!! Help me!!!
Bonjour
Apologies for this major delay in posting, my lethargic attitude accentuated bu the lethargic attitude of the people who run the computer lab in general has resulted in this delay. Sample this, the lab is open only on weekdays that is Monday to Friday from 8 in the morning to 4 in the evening, out of which its closed on Wednesday after 12 in the noon due to some godforsaken reason which im still to comprehend and last Friday when i came here at 12, there were tables with food kept inside the computer lab, apparently because there was some sort of lunch which was going to happen inside the computer lab!! Ridiculous as it might sound, this kind of unprofessional ism can be called one of the banes plaguing an otherwise beautiful land. The question to ponder still would be that why is it that poorer the country is more unprofessional it is? Many of us think this about India and pray that it would become more professional in its approach as well as the 'chalta hai' attitude which plagues our system would disappear. Slowly though surely, we find winds of change blowing across our own country. Increased competition, more corporatization has had its effects and its becoming more and more professional. This makes me conclude that in essence its the lack of any perceived loss which makes an organization less accountable and more unprofessional. This can certainly be held true in case of Togo. Due to extreme powers which certain privileges bring here, people tend to exploit it. For example, this is the only university of the country and this is the only computer lab in the university so they know that students have nowhere else to go and they have to adapt to the whims and fancies of the authorities here because of due to lack of general wellbeing they would not afford going outside to a computer cafe so the authorities can grandly decide to hold lunch parties in the only computer lab of only university of the country because people have no other option. Adam Smith would have surely cringed to see this lack of competition and the lack of free market structure operating in the country.
Anyway the last few days have been productive, not as much in terms of work as i would have ideally liked but in other terms, definitely yes! I paid a visit to the Indian consulate here in Lome and unlike the consulates of USA or embassies of Benin an other godforsaken countries, our great nation does not even have a building! Believe it or not, its situated inside a hotel. This hotel is Indian and serves some pretty pathetic and exorbitantly priced food in its restaurant. So i went to the consulate with hopes of meeting some Indian officials but all i do after entering this hotel is that i go to small cramped room where a Togolaise woman is sitting and after waiting for like half an hour, she calls some Indian official who in a rather uninterested and cold voice tells me that if i want to get myself registered i need to bring like some hundreds of documents and photos and thats it!! Yes, thats it!! No meeting, nothing. Talk about hospitality of India! The locales here appear to be much more interested in meeting me than the people from my own consulate!
The next day we went there for dinner and were served stale lassi which both the dutch girls really loved back in Netherlands really wanted to have. So they were really disappointed with it, then came the food which was at best eatable and we ran up a bill of like 2000 Indian rupees for having practically nothing. So as a result, im not too fond of things Indian here in Togo, would rather prefer local stuff!
Another of the highlights has been that, it was my hosts birthday last Sunday and we had an absolute ball the whole day, going to the beach where the waves were the strongest i have ever experienced. They really really pulled us in. After that it was time for party at our house and a lot of people came over. It was great fun dancing to AIESEC songs and yes especially tunak tunak by sada Daler paaji! He truly rocks, never knew that his appeal is so global!! For dinner we had a Togolese dish which is made out of mashed yams and then everyone eats it in one plate with their hands dipping it in some fish curry. You really have to overlook the fact that everyone is licking their hands and then putting it in the same plate from which everyone is eating. Once this 'small' factor is overlooked, one might as well enjoy the dish as everyone was doing at the party!
Another major highlight this past week has been that, we cooked some Dutch food at Babs place and yes this was the first time that i actually entered a kitchen with a view of not passing expert comments and actually cooking. SO however incredulous that sounds i actually cut the cabbage, mashed potatoes, helped in boiling water and other painful stuff. Proud of being a boy since i believe and very rightfully so that men have a natural thing for cooking, i was utterly traumatized by this event and have from henceforth taken a resolution of appreciating every woman who ever cooks for me! The dish was made out of potatoes, purple cabbages, cinnamon, butter and beef and stuff and was pretty delectable though its pretty funny that the other Dutch girl Dodo fell ill after eating Dutch food and i didn't, i really hope it had nothing to do with me or my extra sincere efforts to do something productive in the kitchen apart from grabbing midnight snacks while watching friends!
Today is also Babs birthday so on Friday me and Dodo paid a visit to the market with extremely pushy shopkeepers who are ever so keen to sell you everything under the sun from porn moviers to Adebayors jerseys, to Togo belts to handicrafts and needless to say we were completely ripped off!! The worst feeling is when you know that you are a foreigner and you are being absolutely ripped off at the local market by the local people and you try your best to bargain but they know that you need this stuff and have nowhere else to go! Then you become a person walking into a booby trap knowing rather well of your extremely stupid actions and the resultant pain which will follow. Also this pain was even more accentuated because being an Indian, i have seen so many foreigners getting ripped off back home, trust me its painful to be on the receiving end of it. Anyways we hope that she likes what we got and if she doesn't at least she doesn't tell us! Phew
As of this weekend, planning to visit the neighboring countries, Benin or Ghana though visa could be a lil problematic because like a complete fool i have taken only the Single entry visa with me, ill have to buy the Togolese visa at the border of Benin; though for some reason if they refuse, i guess ill be trapped there!! lol
P.S. In spite of the extreme confidence shown by my host's mother that after 2 months ill eat, sleep, breathe and even talk French, i need to do something more to get the hang of this goddamn language! Seriously god was not being serious when he allowed these obnoxious french people to spread this language!! Help me!!!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Togolais Diaries....contd
Le 4th Avril 2009
Bonjour
After a late night, I had a headache and due to lack of eating much last night, was extremely hungry and after sleeping in a wrong position, had pulled the muscles of my neck this I woke up at 7:30 after just 4 and a half hours of sleep to not a very pleasant morning. Though the prospect of discussing work with Ismael did excite me and I had a meeting with him at 9 for which I did make it on time inspite of my moto taxi breaking down in the middle of the road. After some fruitful discussion with Ismael and lounging about for an hour and a half, it was time to visit the market along with Babs and Dorienke to buy a present for Samuel. There was a minor mishap on the way as Babs’ moto taxi banged against a guy as a result, she fell of her moto taxi, injuring her legs in the process. Thankfully it was not very serious though and we did manage to reach the market soon enough. The market of Lome is an assault on one’s senses not in a positive nor in negative way but for the want of a better word, lets just say in a ‘different’ way and the definition of this different I guess will be fully framed after a couple of more visit’s to the place. Narrow, intersecting one-lane streets and even mud lanes swarmed by stalls covered by colourful umbrellas or having a tin roof over them, selling everything under the sun, from African handicrafts (presumably rather over priced for foreigners like us), to movies (from hindi, to English to porn), clothes (football jerseys were clearly the ones dominating among those in men and among women as usual I wasn’t much interested: D), run over by vehicles and motorcycles and people in an indistinguishable mix, dotted with rather pursuant shopkeepers and mobile vendors (on foot) and even theatres showing porn movies in good measure.
Finally due to the lack of any feasible option, we finally resorted to buying him a shirt from Wrangler. After finishing this off, we grabbed some drinks at the same boulevard which we visited last night, of course there were no 'anti-social' elements in the evening. Also met up with Dorienla's host family whom we commonly joke is stricter than Adolf Hitler's regime in Germany coz she has all kinds of restrictions and rules to follow! As usual, they were extremely extremely sweet and greeted all of us very nicely! So finally after a quick dinner, i headed home, for the first time alone at night and t'was no problem as such. Tired after an extremely exhausting day, as usual i crashed!!!
Bonjour
After a late night, I had a headache and due to lack of eating much last night, was extremely hungry and after sleeping in a wrong position, had pulled the muscles of my neck this I woke up at 7:30 after just 4 and a half hours of sleep to not a very pleasant morning. Though the prospect of discussing work with Ismael did excite me and I had a meeting with him at 9 for which I did make it on time inspite of my moto taxi breaking down in the middle of the road. After some fruitful discussion with Ismael and lounging about for an hour and a half, it was time to visit the market along with Babs and Dorienke to buy a present for Samuel. There was a minor mishap on the way as Babs’ moto taxi banged against a guy as a result, she fell of her moto taxi, injuring her legs in the process. Thankfully it was not very serious though and we did manage to reach the market soon enough. The market of Lome is an assault on one’s senses not in a positive nor in negative way but for the want of a better word, lets just say in a ‘different’ way and the definition of this different I guess will be fully framed after a couple of more visit’s to the place. Narrow, intersecting one-lane streets and even mud lanes swarmed by stalls covered by colourful umbrellas or having a tin roof over them, selling everything under the sun, from African handicrafts (presumably rather over priced for foreigners like us), to movies (from hindi, to English to porn), clothes (football jerseys were clearly the ones dominating among those in men and among women as usual I wasn’t much interested: D), run over by vehicles and motorcycles and people in an indistinguishable mix, dotted with rather pursuant shopkeepers and mobile vendors (on foot) and even theatres showing porn movies in good measure.
Finally due to the lack of any feasible option, we finally resorted to buying him a shirt from Wrangler. After finishing this off, we grabbed some drinks at the same boulevard which we visited last night, of course there were no 'anti-social' elements in the evening. Also met up with Dorienla's host family whom we commonly joke is stricter than Adolf Hitler's regime in Germany coz she has all kinds of restrictions and rules to follow! As usual, they were extremely extremely sweet and greeted all of us very nicely! So finally after a quick dinner, i headed home, for the first time alone at night and t'was no problem as such. Tired after an extremely exhausting day, as usual i crashed!!!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Togolaise Diaries...contd
Le 3th Avril 2009
Bonjour
The day began with me hearing the strains of Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy with Farhan Akhtar crooning Sindbad the Sailor. That was certainly a pleasant beginning to the day. At the campus, after researching for some time with no real work to do, me, Samuel, Bans et Dorienks (Dodo) took off for the piscine (swimming pool) en face de university. Apres taking membership pour une mois, I had a great time swimming after ages! Even though I lost in all races to Babs and Dorienka who I must admit were rather good, it was great fun to finally get back in the water. Lunch was some bread avec frmage, which we picked up at the Indian supermart where everone who remembered from yesterday greeted me, rather warmly.
After resting at our homes for some time, me, Samuel, Alain, Dodo et babs were ready to hit the streets to discover the shady/fun life at night. It was truly shady to say the least, open air cafes lined up on the streets, full of people with some peppy hip-hop music in the background with a DJ and bouncers standing on the road, drinking and drinking and drinking some more and the place was completely swarmed with prostitutes in all shapes and sizes and I mean that literally! Though difficult to not see them as they were everywhere, it was great time with drinks (Red bull for me as usual, I m definitely a red bullholic!!) and some nice conversations. Then it was time to hit the floor and I have to say that I had this much fun dancing after ages!! Alain and me get along like a house on fire on the dance floor and apparently according to Babs and Dorienke, its just too amazing to watch both of us coz its as if both of us are in competition with each other with our moves and its great fun. I agree with them, it is actually great fun dancing avec Alain pare que il est tres bien belly dancer! :DD
We were there till nearly 2 in the morning and finally went home exhausted still after completely enjoying myself! Great stuff.
Bonjour
The day began with me hearing the strains of Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy with Farhan Akhtar crooning Sindbad the Sailor. That was certainly a pleasant beginning to the day. At the campus, after researching for some time with no real work to do, me, Samuel, Bans et Dorienks (Dodo) took off for the piscine (swimming pool) en face de university. Apres taking membership pour une mois, I had a great time swimming after ages! Even though I lost in all races to Babs and Dorienka who I must admit were rather good, it was great fun to finally get back in the water. Lunch was some bread avec frmage, which we picked up at the Indian supermart where everone who remembered from yesterday greeted me, rather warmly.
After resting at our homes for some time, me, Samuel, Alain, Dodo et babs were ready to hit the streets to discover the shady/fun life at night. It was truly shady to say the least, open air cafes lined up on the streets, full of people with some peppy hip-hop music in the background with a DJ and bouncers standing on the road, drinking and drinking and drinking some more and the place was completely swarmed with prostitutes in all shapes and sizes and I mean that literally! Though difficult to not see them as they were everywhere, it was great time with drinks (Red bull for me as usual, I m definitely a red bullholic!!) and some nice conversations. Then it was time to hit the floor and I have to say that I had this much fun dancing after ages!! Alain and me get along like a house on fire on the dance floor and apparently according to Babs and Dorienke, its just too amazing to watch both of us coz its as if both of us are in competition with each other with our moves and its great fun. I agree with them, it is actually great fun dancing avec Alain pare que il est tres bien belly dancer! :DD
We were there till nearly 2 in the morning and finally went home exhausted still after completely enjoying myself! Great stuff.
Togolais Diaries...contd
Le 2nd Avril 2009
Bonjour!
The last day basically involved attending a lecture by a professor from the university of Lome who had studied at Harvard and had taught at Princeton. The topic was ‘History of West Africa and origins of Togo.’ Though pretty informative, some extremely outlandish statements were made by him like these,
All the religions of the world have been invented in Africa and yes even Christianity as Palestine is like down the road from Egypt!!
The biggest fear of the Queen of England was that one day Prince Charles would have a black child at she was related to some Ethiopian queen
And this one was the mother of all statements,
USA is getting into satanic things such as homosexuality, that’s why as punishment god was sending stuff such as Hurricanes, fires and murders there!!(NO, im not kidding at all!!) but God is great, now he has sent our own man Barack Obama there to correct things out! A conversation followed later with him and turned out that like others in Togo he too really appreciated India’s ascent to power and wished me luck!
Rest of the day involved, researching over the internet and seeing off Floor, the Dutch intern here since 3 months and also meeting the new Dutch intern, Dorienka who had arrived a day before. Floor had been rather friendly so was Babs and to continue this Dutch tradition if it can be called that, Dorienka too was extremely friendly and easy to get along with. It was her first time outside Europe and so like me she was in for a bug shock when she arrived in the country, I guess the shock would have been far greater than my own though. Finally Floor left and then everyone called it a night.
The next day was mostly about India, the day was spent researching in the computer lab and in the evening I chanced to come across a huge supermart and guess what it was Indian!! So the customary greetings followed and I must add the conversations were only in Hindi. Its pretty funny that back home to prove the decency of the education one has received the person tries to speak only in English, avoiding Hindi on purpose but then here one longs to speak in his own mother tongue and suddenly the thought off showing off one’s command over English doesn’t even occur. I guess that’s what is meant by love of your motherland. Its too powerful to deny as hard as you may want to try.
Also at night when Alain, Dorienka and me were just chatting, we chanced to meet Sammuel and Babs who had just come after swimming. Then suddenly out of a brainwave I invited all of them for an Indian dinner. Anyways I had so much food which I just don’t eat so I guess that would have been a good start to attain the purpose of finishing the suitcase full of food so that I can throw in my clothes there. So me and Sammuel laid out a spread of Indian namkeen, pickles, khakras, Dal makhani, bhaji, alu mutar, paneer matar. Everyone seemed to love the food though they did find it very spicy which was no surprise as Indian food is famous or notorious (depends whether one likes spices or not) for being spicy. To go along with it, we even played Indian songs and the 1st song which was played was none other than Sutta!! Yes, its not exactly an Indian song but so what Pakistan is our brother nation too, followed by the likes of Sindbad the Sailor (which Sam particularly loves), Bachnaa e Haseeno ( which had everyone grooving, especially Alain who by the way is amazing at belly dance) and even Emossanal Atyachar. It was a lot of fun explaining the meanings of the songs as everyone was pretty amused as to how every Indian song talks about love. So this party was a lotta fun with some great cross continental and cultural understanding. Thus now we have planned a Dutch party too and then maybe a dutch and an Indian party toether as anyway there is so much food that al these parties would be required to finish the thing off.
So great fun and tomorrow we plan to see the city by night, check out its sounds and smell and also maybe go clubbing on Saturday. On Sunday it is my host’s Sam’s birthday so that promises to be another rather hectic day with the day at the beach and at night a party at our house so great fin and with such friendly people around it even better. Though im missing India a lot and especially my sis, parents and my friends. But hopefully I shall make great friends here too!!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Togolais Diaries...Contd
Le 31st Mars 2009
Bonjour!
The most fun filled day till now! The day began a little late with a finally spicy taste of Maggi instant noodles for breakfast. The Togolais people don’t have the kind of spices Indians too so one does miss them in normal food as there is a limit to bland food one can continuously consume. As they say, you can take an Indian out of India but you cant take India out of an Indian. This was followed to the trip to the cyber lab as my membership was finally activated today. So had a great time blogging and catching up with people over the net and even over the phone. Thank you Rajat and adi for giving me a call, even though the call rates were so exorbitant! It made my day!!
Sat in lab till the time it closed that was 4 pm and saved a lot of stuff on the M.D.G’s in my pen drive. Will read them tomorrow. At this time met a Dutch intern Barbara aka Babs who very kindly invited me for a pizza treat to be given by another Dutch intern Flo who is leaving country tomorrow after staying in the country for 3 months, later in the day.
So at like 6:30 met these two Dutch girls and a couple of local boys Lolo and Justin who turned out to be walking talking entertainment packages. Justin as I came to know later had a major thing for Indian girls as he found them extremely pretty though I did make it a point to tell him that I found Pakistani girls prettier! Apart from this he adds a lot of Indians randomly from the friend list of his existing friends on facebook who are Indian. As a result, he knows quite a lot about India and constantly kept asking me questions about the country as he even wants to come here for an internship. He would definitely make everyone have a whale of time if he did land up coz his spirits can actually make everyone high! I was also pleasantly surprised to see my host Sam also joining in and boy this guy did have a way with the girls and was simultaneously flirting blatantly with both the Dutch girls. This was the first time that I had seen a person hitting on 2 women at the same time in front of each other and being quite successful at it too! Great stuff to watch. : DD
We went to this pizza place which wasn’t exactly a restaurant as the there were only 2 tables to be precise and were laid out in the open next to the road still this one was one of the best pizza places in the town. There was a smallish room where they made pizzas which had no electricity at the time when we went so they made it in dark with only the embers of the mud oven tandoori like thing with coal and all where the pizzas were being made illuminating the place! Just didn’t matter though as these kind of things are becoming a normal sight as I spend more and more time discovering the city and the lifestyle of the city. The food was entirely paid for by Flo as her farewell treat and maybe it’s the Marwari in me speaking but yeah the food was pretty edible though the quality of pizzas being a no match to the ones at Pizzeria, Pizza hut or even Dominoes but then compared to here they are just indulgent luxuries, so everything cool and didn’t miss them!!
The conversations was the wackiest I have had thus far in Togo from topics ranging to anal sex which was described rather vividly by Lolo as ‘Chi Chi’ as he called it to hilarious effect, to me teaching them Hindi cuss words and boy they did pick them up fast! To the caste system in India, equality of women, to relationships, to how men are always running after girls, to specialities of Holland, to another Dutch girl who would be arriving tonight close to midnight, to pulling each other legs about their respective. boyfriends / girlfriends to relationships again and then to some French cuss words which as usual I was pathetic to pick up as it was ‘FRENCH’ and so and so forth.
Lolo and Justin were hilarious all through out and I got to really admire Justin for his empathy in the way he spoke about Pakistan, India and stuff in general and his cheerful spirit. Sat there till 10 in the night in an alien land next to the road lost in conversations and drinks (limited to Red bull and Coke for me, not necessarily so for others). It was a great feeling to actually find so much in common with complete ‘strangers’ as I might refer to them. I didn’t even know Lolo and Justin till the evening today and had met Babs in the morning and Flo only for some time on the beach on my 1st day. To think of it, we were people with three different colours, with all three different native tongues, out of which two were in a foreign land yet no one could say that somebody was an outsider. It’s the great ability of humans to connect across language barriers, nationality and ethnicity just that I guess barriers in mind need to be eradicated and only then one can realize that no other barriers actually exist.
P.S. I had met this extremely friendly person Joseph on my fist day here on the beach at LC picnic and we had hit off rather well. He came all the way to meet me and to take my number when he realized that I was in the computer lab in the university. He has made an excellent offer, an invitation to go on a Red Cross camp to be held over this weekend in the countryside! Looks like a great opportunity and if things work out then ill get my first chance to make a trip to the countryside!! Woohoo!!
Bonjour!
The most fun filled day till now! The day began a little late with a finally spicy taste of Maggi instant noodles for breakfast. The Togolais people don’t have the kind of spices Indians too so one does miss them in normal food as there is a limit to bland food one can continuously consume. As they say, you can take an Indian out of India but you cant take India out of an Indian. This was followed to the trip to the cyber lab as my membership was finally activated today. So had a great time blogging and catching up with people over the net and even over the phone. Thank you Rajat and adi for giving me a call, even though the call rates were so exorbitant! It made my day!!
Sat in lab till the time it closed that was 4 pm and saved a lot of stuff on the M.D.G’s in my pen drive. Will read them tomorrow. At this time met a Dutch intern Barbara aka Babs who very kindly invited me for a pizza treat to be given by another Dutch intern Flo who is leaving country tomorrow after staying in the country for 3 months, later in the day.
So at like 6:30 met these two Dutch girls and a couple of local boys Lolo and Justin who turned out to be walking talking entertainment packages. Justin as I came to know later had a major thing for Indian girls as he found them extremely pretty though I did make it a point to tell him that I found Pakistani girls prettier! Apart from this he adds a lot of Indians randomly from the friend list of his existing friends on facebook who are Indian. As a result, he knows quite a lot about India and constantly kept asking me questions about the country as he even wants to come here for an internship. He would definitely make everyone have a whale of time if he did land up coz his spirits can actually make everyone high! I was also pleasantly surprised to see my host Sam also joining in and boy this guy did have a way with the girls and was simultaneously flirting blatantly with both the Dutch girls. This was the first time that I had seen a person hitting on 2 women at the same time in front of each other and being quite successful at it too! Great stuff to watch. : DD
We went to this pizza place which wasn’t exactly a restaurant as the there were only 2 tables to be precise and were laid out in the open next to the road still this one was one of the best pizza places in the town. There was a smallish room where they made pizzas which had no electricity at the time when we went so they made it in dark with only the embers of the mud oven tandoori like thing with coal and all where the pizzas were being made illuminating the place! Just didn’t matter though as these kind of things are becoming a normal sight as I spend more and more time discovering the city and the lifestyle of the city. The food was entirely paid for by Flo as her farewell treat and maybe it’s the Marwari in me speaking but yeah the food was pretty edible though the quality of pizzas being a no match to the ones at Pizzeria, Pizza hut or even Dominoes but then compared to here they are just indulgent luxuries, so everything cool and didn’t miss them!!
The conversations was the wackiest I have had thus far in Togo from topics ranging to anal sex which was described rather vividly by Lolo as ‘Chi Chi’ as he called it to hilarious effect, to me teaching them Hindi cuss words and boy they did pick them up fast! To the caste system in India, equality of women, to relationships, to how men are always running after girls, to specialities of Holland, to another Dutch girl who would be arriving tonight close to midnight, to pulling each other legs about their respective. boyfriends / girlfriends to relationships again and then to some French cuss words which as usual I was pathetic to pick up as it was ‘FRENCH’ and so and so forth.
Lolo and Justin were hilarious all through out and I got to really admire Justin for his empathy in the way he spoke about Pakistan, India and stuff in general and his cheerful spirit. Sat there till 10 in the night in an alien land next to the road lost in conversations and drinks (limited to Red bull and Coke for me, not necessarily so for others). It was a great feeling to actually find so much in common with complete ‘strangers’ as I might refer to them. I didn’t even know Lolo and Justin till the evening today and had met Babs in the morning and Flo only for some time on the beach on my 1st day. To think of it, we were people with three different colours, with all three different native tongues, out of which two were in a foreign land yet no one could say that somebody was an outsider. It’s the great ability of humans to connect across language barriers, nationality and ethnicity just that I guess barriers in mind need to be eradicated and only then one can realize that no other barriers actually exist.
P.S. I had met this extremely friendly person Joseph on my fist day here on the beach at LC picnic and we had hit off rather well. He came all the way to meet me and to take my number when he realized that I was in the computer lab in the university. He has made an excellent offer, an invitation to go on a Red Cross camp to be held over this weekend in the countryside! Looks like a great opportunity and if things work out then ill get my first chance to make a trip to the countryside!! Woohoo!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)