Transit took 2 days. We had a 13 hour stopover in Casablanca, Morocco during the daytime, which gave the 3 other girls on the same flight and me a chance to see it. Although on the coast, Casablanca was very dry. Everything was printed in Arabic, and much was printed doubly in Arabic and French. 80 to 90 percent of the ladies were wearing at least hidjab. It doesn't seem strict, however; those who weren't covered exposed the same amount skin that I would. Lots and lots of unwanted attention from men, even though all of us were dressed conservatively by US standards. We walked through a labyrinth-like market, where sellers were very interactive and persuasive, and we visited the enormous Hassan II mosque, the 3rd largest mosque in the world. A breathtaking sight.
After Casablanca, we made our way to Lomé, which is right on Togo's coast. We went to an Ibo Pentecostal church service, which was 2 hours in duration, and thus the shortest around. Compared to the Baptist church services I've seen, the Ibo service was very much like a dance party. Ladies were dressed in bright, colorful outfits with regal-looking headwraps, and music was accompanied by drums and a bass guitar.
To describe Lomé briefly, I would use the word underdeveloped. Even though it's the capital and most populous city, the majority of the roads are unpaved. Puddles collect in the roads, so the cars sometimes swim rather than drive.
The view just behind our hotel.
There are chickens, roosters, and goats everywhere. Street vendors and lone sellers carrying trays of goods on their heads can be found on each road. "The market is brought to you," as Dr. Piot put it.
This is a view of the pagne area of the Lomé market. Pagnes are beautiful pieces of cloth of about 1 by 2 meters. They can be used as bedsheets, wrapped around to make skirts, sewn up into outfits, and tied up to make pouches.
The main mode of transportation here is the motorcycle taxi. They are very cheap and tons of fun to ride on, and it's neat how there are so many other motorcycle taxiers with whom to chat at stoplights.
Houses? The urban homestead I saw was a concrete or plaster compound with 3 to 4 bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, and a paved courtyard. A suburban one had 4 animal pens containing goats and chickens. Outside the pens was a large garden or small farm of okra, corn, and mango trees.
Finally, a bit about the foods I've eaten. Fufu is like mashed potatoes that you eat with your hands and dip into a meat sauce (I had it with guinea hen and peanut sauce). Very filling and delicious. Sorghum beer, which I drank from a calabash (a dried out half-melon shell), has a nice punch in its flavor and leaves a bready aftertaste. I also had bean fritters, which are some sort of legume mashed into balls, fried, and then dipped in a spicy sauce. Finally, I had a Togolese salad. Togolese salads are eaten with mayonnaise as dressing.
Guinea hen on the left, fufu on the right. The yellow piece of plastic on the drink keeps flies out of the cup... It is very necessary.
On Wednesday, 3 others and I head to the North, where we will be living and working in small villages. Next time I write, I will be able to talk about these. À la prochaine!
I'll spend the first few days of the trip in Lomé, the capital, where there's going to be an orientation for the volunteers. After that, I'll head north to a village not far from Kara. This is where I'll spend the majority of the 8 weeks. I'll be going to Kara each Wednesday, when there's a weekly market, and it's on these Wednesdays that I'll have internet access. Finally, I'll spend 3 days or so in Ghana at the end of the trip as a sort of vacation.