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
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