The first time we hiked up to the village of Kuwdé, the village elders held a welcoming ceremony, which involved the drinking of sorghum beer and the sacrifice of a chicken.
This guy is sacrificing a chicken for the upcoming initiation of his nephew, Olivier.
A monkey trap in someone's field! It's really nothing but a super-sized mousetrap. The cultivator told me to stick my hand on it. "No, thanks," I replied.
This lady is cool. She's from the mountain village of Kuwdé. She didn't speak a word of French, so she communicated her happy sentiments to us by dancing. It was awesome interacting with people with whom I didn't share a common language; facial expressions, gestures, and actions become the sole means of communication. It's like being at a loud concert or in a night club.
Of all the plants I saw in Togo, this one is my favorite because of the adorable white and pink polka dots on the leaves. I don't know the name of the plant, but I know it's in the family of Araceae (thanks, Plant Systematics). Our guide, Jesper, said that it wards off snakes.
Chameleon! Walking back from the market, I saw this chameleon strolling across the road. Wanting to take it back to my homestead to snap some photos, I commenced to pick it up. It clearly didn't appreciate this: it hissed and threatened to bite me. I decided that a chameleon bite was not a cool enough way to lose a finger, so I backed off, disappointed that I would return to the USA with zero chameleon photos. To my pleasant surprise, however, a kid who had witnessed the ordeal brought the chameleon to my homestead on this stick. Voilà, la photo.
Super-duper thumbs up. This picture shows my Togolese manicure and pedicure. I went to the market in Lomé and inquired about where I could obtain a manicure and pedicure. The people I asked went out of their way to find their friend who does nails. Eventually they found her, and she was an amazing sight; a market nail salon is a lady carrying a heavy case of nail polish on her head. The lady approached me, removed the heavy case from her head, and began cleaning the 5 pounds of gunk from the crevices of my fingers and toes. She did this using scissors; it was totally uncomfortable and highly reminiscent of the way dentists clean your teeth with those sharp picks. Next, she removed the chipped nail polish that was already on my fingers. She clipped my nails with scissors, filed vigorously, applied this lovely purple color, and added a protective coat of clear nail polish. The bill? Sixty cents. When I left her two dollars instead of sixty cents, her face lit up with joy. How much would the same manicure and pedicure have cost in the USA?
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