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!!!