Togolais Diaries: Dodo and the village!

Maison de Adebayor!




The village! Stunning isn't it??




Le 9th Mai 2009
Dusk envelopes the azure blue sky and the splatter of rain falling on the lush green leaves and trees with some smatterings of thunder providing an ominous warning for the time about to come is all I can hear as I write this somewhere in the middle of the way to reach the peak of Mt. Agu, Togo’s highest point at 949 mts inside a makeshift open hut of thatched bamboos and hay surrounded by the greenest setting one could possible imagine. Lush green vegetation, red parched earth now smelling of sweet rain with hazy mist gently enveloping the place almost makes me wonder that if there is actually heaven could it be possible better than this?

I am at Kpalime to work in a village to develop tourism in that place by conceptualizing and building the necessary supporting infrastructure for the same. For the past day I have stayed in a village based on this hill and the experience has been to put it rather crudely has been magical. Mud houses, red bricked houses with tin sheds, upheaval stone stairs meant to traverse the rocky terrain on the place which overlooks the greenest valley surrounded by hills. This is the setting of the one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life and I count myself lucky for this opportunity. Due to the often-false existing prejudices in the minds of most people, not a lot of people would visit this place in their lifetime anyway and it is a real pity because they would certainly miss a part of the world completely unexplored but which at the same time is enchantingly beautiful.

For the past two days I have been here, just soaking in the beauty of the place and on the few occasions when I am not overwhelmed I visit the sites of the village in order to understand the social conditions prevalent here and to visit various locations in order to see which of the could be possibly developed in order to ensure that few other lucky souls who come here have the requisite infrastructure to fully soak in the beauty of this place. I have had varied experiences in the past two days like staying in the village, experiencing their life, meeting the chief of the village who very kindly welcomed us with a bottle of his prized Gin (by the way he had Martini as well!), eating at his house, seeing the festivities of the village by night like playing with fire accompanied by typical rhythmic African chants, seeing first hand a general body meeting of the village which was frequently interrupted by songs and dance in which the women like everywhere else in Togo shook their bottoms rather vigorously. The place too has a rather upheaval terrain thus its pretty exhausting to go up and down to visit various places in the village but it is really rewarding with extremely beautiful sights greeting you wherever you may go.

The last few days have been a roller coaster ride with the extreme fun, which I have had while visiting the Voodoo fetish market in Lome, which was run by Beninese people as Voodoo originally is from Benin. The market was one of the most mind numbingly chilling/ disgusting which I have been to EVER. It had the skulls of every animal possibly imaginable like crocs, dogs, hyenas, leopard, antelope etc. etc., skins of snake, leopards, horns of antelopes, buffaloes, dead lizards, rotting mice, all for ‘medicinal’ purpose of course as claimed by our over enthusiastic guide who kept on claiming that we should listen to him because it was ‘very interesting’ to listen to him. After that he took us to visit the room of the Voodoo chief who turned out to be a guy in his late 20’s clad in a tee and jeans. We were told later that he was the ‘son’ of the Voodoo chief as the chief was very famous and was away on an assignment to Benin. We were introduced to small objects which bring luck and protection in various places like travelling (phone fetish), love (he claimed that we could land up with more than 300 people at the same time with it, the potentially scary thought didn’t tempt me much and the fetish object was way to small and obscure anyway), teak wood which he called ‘natural Viagra’ and would give a man ‘buffalo power’ to make love (Yes, he thought that this would induce me to buy it! Yes, me because I was the only man as the others were Dorienke, Babs and her mom who had come the night before). Refusing to give into this pretty pathetic sales pitch and also very well aware of the fact that this place was a perfect tourist trap, I refused to buy anything. This kind of cheesed off the guy who expected everyone to pick up stuff so he very bluntly told me to get out of the place as the room was a ‘holy place’, fit enough for only those who wanted to buy things. I gladly obliged. This gave me the opportunity to check out the compound while the other three tried their luck. The place as I described earlier was extremely disgusting and a good half an hour later, we finally left. Even though the place was anything but appealing, it did give an insight into a new culture albeit in a highly commercialized way. Still was good to check it out.

After this we went to another mind numbing place, the grand market of Lome. This place is always an exhausting destination, simply because one has to bargain for each and everything and every shopkeeper personally wants to be your friend and then he’ll show his ‘own work’ in his shop and will very innocently whisper in the ear that since he was a friend, he would give a very good price which would be pretty exorbitant anyway and you are supposed to bargain at 1/3rd of that price. So much for friendship! This story is repeated in shop after shop and lane after lane. To emerge from the market after buying what you intended to/ or did not even dream in your wildest dreams is like emerging from a battlefield, exhausted, irritated, drained out and frustrated. Anyway this day was special, apart from the fact that Dorienke was leaving, we bought two jerseys of god of Togo, Emmanuel Adebayor, one national and one Arsenal and in the most touristy decision ever, went to check and gape at his house in the town. In no time we were there and a grand house under construction with a circular top floor, with a white statue of liberty on top of it with a football on top of the torch greeted us. Ridiculous as it might sound, we put on the jerseys of Adebayor turn-by-turn and shouted out his name and posed for pictures against the backdrop of his house. No surprises then that in no time we were the ones who became the ‘attraction’ as the people around had a good laugh at this extremely immature behaviour by 4 ‘Yovos’ but what the heck, it was awesome fun and something I am going to remember for a long time to come.

After this it was time for Dorienke to pack up finally and catch her flight which was due in 4 hours so after changing the 4 of us met for our last evening together, very fittingly at bar ‘3K’ which has been my favourite hangout joint here with the spaghetti salad to kill for. It was pretty emotional to just sit there and reflect on all the great times that we had and in a few hours the 4 of us would never ever come back together again and in a few days Babs was leaving as well. The occasion made me extremely sad to be honest but a man must do what he gotta do so that was to keep his chin up in such times to pretend that everything is normal and fine and smile even though nothing is. Sometimes really tough to be a guy, that was one such occasion. As it happens the time one dreads always comes way sooner than one expects and in no time it was time for Dorienke to leave and this time it was really tough to hold my emotions as I saw her leave through the glass pane when she waved at the three of us. All the memories just came flashing by, Benin, graduation party, Kpalime, Porn motel, Pool, NLDS, cooking spaghetti, Indian food and so many others. Don’t know when was the last time I felt this emotional. I do sincerely hope that I do get to meet her again. Some bonds just overgrow the actual time spent together and maybe this was just was one of them for me. Looking forward to meet her and Babs at some point in my life again.

P.S. Applied for the visa of Ghana so should be there next week, though I do have to overcome some challenges there and I am also confused about which place to visit but I am sure that it will get sorted out.
The work too looks promising after a lull in between. I have completed my policy document, which appears to be promising according to the initial feedback and now I am waiting for a meeting to be granted with my N.G.O. so that I can duly present it to them. The meetings with prospective partners should follow soon.
Also ate at the Lebanese rip off of McDonalds here in Lome, the place was called ALDONALDS!The name was accompanied by half the signature M of Mac! Though my burger had no meat as i am a vegetarian, it had only omlette with extra cheese and mayo and salad. It was pure gastronomic pleasure to get American junk after ages! mouth smacking delicious!!
26 days left and I almost don’t feel like returning just because of the sheer amount which I have learned here, the absolutely wonderful people I have met, the love which I have received from people, the beautiful places I have visited and so many more which I still want to visit but all good things must come to an end and as my other friends leave I do realize that my time here is coming to an end as well. One thing is definitely for sure that this is not my first and last trip to West Africa, the visit to Mali is due, right Do? :)

Togolais Diaries: Ewilooo 09

Le 6th May, 2009
Bonjour!

It seems almost unbelievable as I sit dsown to write this. It has been a month since I arrived here in Togo and the time seems to have passed in a flash. I doubt that there has been another month like this which has opened my eyes to so many things and made me realize so many things and made me discover a facet of life which I didn’t even know existed.
At this point last year, I was still confused about the college, which I wanted to go to though my eyes were set on Stephens. There was still confusion within my mind whether I would do C.A. or take a ‘risk’ and do economics. One year hence I almost feel proud of choosing the subject which I wanted to take and at the same time experiencing so many different things like going to Pakistan, travelling to Chennai, Delhi, meeting different kinds of people but still all of those pale in comparison to my experiences here in Togo.
It was a kind of a dream to come and work here on a micro finance internship through AIESEC and many people merely scoffed when I told them that I was planning to do something like this. Honestly I wasn’t sure myself if I would seriously follow up on something so ‘ridiculous’ and actually go to Africa but then as time passed the resolve only grew stronger and finally this dream was realized on 29th of March when I finally landed at Lome international airport.
Tough at least initially, Africa and Togo grew on me. The hardships so visible initially, now inspire me to continue working here so as to make a difference in the lives of some people. The fact which I have realized that there is absolutely no purpose served in criticising the attitude of people here because their attitude has been shaped and moulded by the conditions both social as well as economic prevalent here. The biggest impediment to development here has been nothing else but the Government itself with its bureaucratic nature with a despotic head. As such people see no opportunities here with few openings in the Government sector and few opportunities in the private sector as well which, the government suppress through exorbitant tax rates, unfriendly business environment. So how can people be blamed if outsiders find their attitude unprofessional because the conditions prevalent here don’t necessitate a person to be professional and people in power are only to keen to make good use of their position.
One thing though I really feel that people like us need to watch out for is cynicism because it is just too easy to dismiss the country and its prospects for a better future but a change can be achieved only when it is actually aspired for so with hope in my heart and optimism in my thoughts I have set out to do something worthwhile with my life so as to make the lives of some people worthwhile.
Till now I have loved my stay here, have had a chance to travel a bit and see first hand the diversity of West Africa and appreciate its beauty. Its an absolute pity that this place and this continent in general has been so undiscovered. This fact has of course been compounded due the political problems here along with a non-existent infrastructure for tourism. Still nothing takes away the virgin beauty of the place. This is exactly what makes the place so heartbreakingly beautiful as well as completely enchanting.
On one hand I completely miss home and my city Mumbai with its bustling pace but at the same time somewhere deep down I am actually sad this great sojourn of mine is passing so rapidly and is soon going to end. The sights and sounds, the people I have interacted with, the talks on political problems of Togo, coping up with French, the excessively complicated named yet absolutely delicious local food, the music, the infectious spirit and energy are things which I am definitely definitely going to miss. But this feeling also coincides with an understanding, an understanding that I belong here and this is the work, which I would like to do all my life and would love to discover hidden treasures such as West Africa. Looking forward to my next month here and my life discovering unknown lands!!

P.S. Just returned from Ewilooo 2009, the NLDS of AIESEC in Togo. A rocking conference with an inspirational chair who was the President of AIESEC in Nigeria. People from 9 countries including ones from Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Netherlands and of course me from India were present apart from the AIESECers from Togo. To describe it as an absolute fantastic experience would be an understatement. Met such different kinds of people from different nations, cultures, languages and even races but what the heck one thing which I realized that more different these factors are the more similar are the people. Sure there are cultural differences all right but then what comes through is the common human spirit to actually strive for excellence and work for a better future. It was fantastic to dance late into the night (A hallmark of every AIESEC conference), learn new roll calls, make people dance to tunak tunak which just keeps on growing in popularity, teach them our very own malhar shout (Dhaka laga laga laga!! Hoo Haa Hoo Haa!!! Yes!! No kidding ). The amount of love and support, which I received from people, was overwhelming to say the least. They openly thanked me fro being so nice; the messages, which I got at the end of the conference, are something, which I am going to treasure for my entire life. Made dozens of new friends for life, got invitations to attend countries like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Burkina Faso and today if I visit these countries I know for sure that there will be people who will willingly host me and make sure that I am taken care of. Truly the power of AIESEC in absolutely fantastic, this I have realized after attending places like Pakistan, Togo and honestly has made me fall in love with the organization all over again.

The coming week though doesn’t look very promising as the two Dutch interns in whom I found great company and fantastic friends are leaving for their country and thus I will be the only foreign intern left here in Togo. Not a very comforting thought as I am definitely going to miss them and the whale of a time we had travelling to Benin, Kpalime, roaming on the streets of Lome, sitting at random bars and having what else but spaghetti, shopping for African stuff, trying to cook eatable food (which did turn out to be pretty awesome), throwing random surprises and just talking and being for one another in this new land. Though one thing is for sure that now I definitely have to make a trip to Netherlands as well to meet two of the nicest and fun loving people I have met in a long long time and I think I have been able to convince them to come to India as well. So should be cool. Rest is pretty normal as such if anything here can be referred to as normal here. Have eaten more beef and even chicken though the thought of eating fish still absolutely disgusts me. But then I don’t want to turn into a non-vegetarian so planning to give up non-veg voluntarily to preserve the integrity of all the animals including the very delicious cows as well!

One month left for my trip to end. Looking forward to travel more, to Ghana and maybe to the north or if I am extremely fortunate to the place where I want to go the most, Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Lets see how it shapes up.

Benin: Contd......

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!!

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!!

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

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!!!

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!!!