More on Transportation

I've probably told some of you about the "nice bus" that runs from my town to the capital of Lome twice a week, which I now schedule my trips to Lome around so I can avoid bush taxis. But even the bus has a Togolese twist, which on my trip this morning included a caged pig in the luggage hold. Which they put my bag on top of -- I'm sure my clothes benefited from 6 hours in a baking compartment along with pig fumes. Here's a picture of the bus station and the pig.

My Carrot Lady

Actually this is more a photo of her kid, who still seems to be afraid of white people even though I have been buying carrots, green peppers, green beans and the like from his mom for almost a year. He seemed to get used to me for awhile but the last couple of times I went to the market, he was scared again, especially after I took his photo (I don't think he'd seen a camera before). There's a twice weekly market near my house (in addition to the larger one downtown, which runs every day) and I always go to this woman to get what are the most nutritious vegetables available in my town -- carrots, peppers, green beans and beets, along with lettuce. For some reason these items are always sold together. So there are women who sell onions or tomatoes, or both, but not tomatoes and carrots. The carrots always go with the beets, peppers and green beans. In any event, it's always fun to head over to her little area -- she's always in the same spot, next to her friend, who sells me tomato paste and pasta, another grouping of items that always go together -- to see whether her son is going to wave hello to me or run away in fear...

The Moba Caves

A few weeks ago I went with some friends to Togo's northernmost regional capital, Dapaong, in part to see a nearby touristy site known as the Moba caves (named after the tribe that built them). They're built into the side of a cliff and were used by the Moba people in the 19th century to avoid attacks and raids by another tribe. There's a view of the caves, a view from the mountaintop right above them and a shot of my friend Helen (who is posted in Dapaong) emerging victorious after climbing the somewhat scary ladder that allows access to the site.

The Road to Kara

This is a view from the national highway, between where I live and Kara, the regional capital to the north of me. I was waiting for a bush taxi to get more gas, after we had run out in the middle of nowhere, when I noticed how beautiful the landscape was -- a good way to get over the annoyance of yet another travel mishap with the highly unreliable bush taxi system.

The Local Gas Station

Although there are chain gas stores throughout Togo, including Shell and Total, bush taxi drivers often buy gas at the side of the road, sold in old plastic bottled water bottles or old Pastis bottles (an anise-flavored liqueur). Note the one driver using a twig to keep the opening to the fuel tank open. We were stopped in the middle of nowhere along the national highway because the car ran out of gas. Fortunately a motorcycle taxi driver came by and we were able to get him to buy gas for us so we could refuel and get going again.

Bush Taxis

In my emails I've complained a lot about the predominant mode of transportation here, bush taxis. They consist of either large VW-style vans, known as 15-placers, smaller vans known as 9-placers, or station wagons or sedans known as 5-placers, for the number of people that are supposed to be seated in them. So for instance in a 5-placer, 3 or 4 people would sit in the back seat and one or 2 in the front. In practice tho it doesn't really work that way, as no one "respects the places" as they say in French. So that means in a 5-placer you can get someone sharing the front seat with the driver (!!), people in the trunk, 6 or more people across a row in a van. The other interesting thing about the taxis is how much stuff people try to cram onto them or to bring with inside the car. So animals often ride on top of the car or inside of it with you. Or people buy tons of large yams or firewood and try to tie as much on to the top of the car as possible (Or, in the picture here, about 20 1970s-era typewriters, which added to a bed frame and all of the baggage for the 19 or so passengers in the 15-placer). In addition to being trying because of the uncomfortable seating arrangements, the trips are often incredibly slow for a variety of reasons, including vehicle breakdowns (often multiple times in one trip), the driver slowing down in the hopes of finding more passengers along the road and police checkpoints.

Yams

When you think of yams in the US, you generally think of sweet potatoes and Thanksgiving, and a slightly sweet and highly nutritious vegetable. But here in Togo yams are large white repositories of pure starch. They are pounded into a sort of thick paste called fufu, which is then eaten with different sauces -- peanut, okra, fish, or red sauce. It's the foundation of the Togolese diet, along with another pounded starch called pate, usually made of corn or millet. Here are photos of a roadside stand where yams are sold and some kids pounding fufu.

The Cutest Kid in Togo

So there are tons of cute kids in Togo but I think Prince, the son of the woman who cleans my house is the absolute cutest. (Yes, I know, I know, I have someone clean my house. But in a country without many salaried jobs I'm happy to use my PC salary to help a few Togolese send themselves or their kids to school. And that's not a rationalization....)

My Well

So last year a Togolese partner who runs her own NGO and I got funding to build a well in a small village about 45 km from Sokode. Here are some pictures of the village and the opening ceremony for the well.

Benin -- Parc Pendjari

Here are a few of the animals I saw in Benin's Parc Pendjari, one of the larger animal reserves in West Africa. Unlike eastern or South Africa, there aren't a lot of animals left in West Africa and just a few national parks. So I was pleasantly surprised at the number and variety of animals I saw quite easily here. At this park you had to stay on the park roads and hope to see animals in the bush to the side, whereas in larger parks in eastern and South Africa I think you can generally approach the animals quite closely in 4wd vehicles. Pictured here are a warthog, baboon and an elephant. I also saw several varieties of antelope-like creatures, monkeys, hippos and crocodiles.

Benin -- Cotonou

In case you wondered what a large West African city looks like, here's Cotonou, the largest city in Benin (the capital, more of a town than a city called Porto Novo, is about 30 km away). I've mentioned my visits to Lome, which is Togo's biggest city and its capital as well, and in comparison I would say Cotonou is more developed and more organized. There are more paved roads, street signs and amenities there. But since it's a bit bigger (I would guess about 2 million people to Lome's 1 million), it's also more crowded and polluted -- as you can see -- tho cleaner when it comes to garbage, which in Togo tends to be disposed of in large piles on the side of the road. The primary mode of transportation in Cotonou is motorcycle taxis, and there are literally tens of thousands of them weaving in and out of traffic at a frantic clip. You can see the roofs of the stalls at Cotonou's main market on the right.

Benin -- Abomey

This is a photo of one of the palaces you can visit in Abomey, Benin, which used to be the seat of a large West African empire until its last king was defeated by the French and then deported to Morocco. The largest palace, which has been thoroughly restored, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and throughout the city you can see other, smaller palaces from the empire that are in various states of restoration (one of which is pictured here as photos at the UNESCO site are verboten). The palaces are most famous for the bas-relief designs that you can see on the outside walls, some of which feature a weapon, animal or other object, which served as the symbol of the king who lived in the palace (when each king reached a certain age, he had to leave his father's palace and build his own). Other designs show battle and other scenes. One of the most vivid at the UNESCO site depicted a soldier being attacked with another, obviously dead, soldier's leg.

Benin -- Ouidah

This is a monument called the Point of No Return, which marks a departure point for slave ships that headed to the US and mostly Brazil from Ouidah, Benin during the peak of the slave trade. Ouidah was a hub of slaving and is also known as a hotbed of voodoo -- shortly after I returned to Togo, Ouidah had its big annual voodoo festival. I spent New Years at a beachfront hotel near the monument with another volunteer, Amy, which given Ouidah's history seems like an odd place to celebrate. But today Ouidah just seems like a rather pretty beach town with some museums and monuments commemorating its darker past.

Benin -- Ganvie

This is Ganvie, a fairly famous attraction right outside of Cotonou, Benin, the biggest city in the country. It's a village comprised of stilt houses built on a lagoon that was originally constructed by a tribe seeking to escape from a warring tribe. That happened about 200 years ago I think but the tribe has stayed ever since, living off fishing and now tourism. Ganvie was described as horribly touristy in my guidebooks but I didn't find the impact from tourism that striking -- as you can see from the photo the place is not swarmed with visitors or filled with tacky souvenir shops. But since tourism in West Africa is not of the magnitude found in the US or Europe, perhaps the relative number of visitors compared with other parts of Benin made it seem touristy.

Benin -- Lake Aheme

Benin -- Lake Aheme

This the view from the hotel I stayed at in Possotome, Benin, which is a resort town on a large lake in southwestern Benin called Lake Aheme. The views weren't that great owing to the seasonal harmattan wind, which brings in a several months-long dusty haze from the Sahara, but it was still really beautiful and relaxing. The next post will be photos taken on a pirogue trip on the lake.

Benin -- Grand Popo

So here's a photo of the beach at Grand Popo in Benin, a really nice beach resort I went to as part of a 2-week vacation all over the country, which is to the west of Togo. This will be the first in a string of photos from my trip, which will probably look a lot different than my Togo photos because they were mostly taken at tourist attractions, whereas my Togo photos show more everyday stuff.