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Arrival in Togo
There were at most 50 people on my flight from Casablanca to Lome, and about 30 of them disembarked in Lome, the rest continuing on the short hop to Coutonou, Benin. We landed at about 11:30 pm, and my worst fear was that Ortencia had been detained and could not make it to the airport. With apprehension and excitement, I entered the arrivals hall, filled out the necessary forms, and was the first one to the immigration window. Luckily, having obtained a Togolese visa prior to arrival, I had no troubles and promptly passed through to the small (one-belt) baggage claim area. To my surprise, Ortencia and Mass were in the baggage area awaiting my arrival! My fears were laid to rest! Mass had unexpectedly run into an old classmate who works as an airport guard, and they were able to get passes to wait for me inside. They had also arranged for a taxi to take us to the hotel for the night, thank goodness, as the LomeAirport at nearly midnight is not a place where you can find taxis readily waiting. As it was dark when left the airport, I did not see much of the city. I was in for a big surprise in the morning.
Lome in 4 words: busy, crowded, sandy, motos. We emerged from the small guesthouse onto a dirt road in the middle of the city. In fact, all of the roads in this neighborhood were dirt, lined with piles of red sand and spotted (sometimes covered) with litter (black sachet bags, empty Pure Water bags, discarded wrappers, you name it). Chickens ran freely along the side streets, and people moved here and there on foot, on bike, and on motos. After an egg sandwich breakfast, we set out to find an internet café (cyber) in order to quickly inform family and friends that I'd arrived. While cybers are easy enough to find in Lome, a fast connection is NOT. It took nearly 15 minutes just to load up the gmail page, not to mention logging in and then composing a message. Thus, why it's taken 3 weeks to even put up a blog post!
The next order of business was to exchange money. I'd come with US Dollars, since I'd been unsuccessful trying to change money into CFA prior to my arrival. There are two ways to exchange money in Lome - at the bank or at stands right at the Ghanaian border. From Ortencia's experience, the stands are the best bet because the banks take a huge service fee. When in Togo, I guess… Luckily, Mass was able to be there so that we didn't get ripped off. Only two challenges arose: 1 - I'd only brought $20s, and the man wanted larger bills (mine were "small-small"). So, he gave me a slightly lower exchange rate. 2 - He only gave me large bills in return (10,000 CFA - equivalent to about $20ish, but a FORTUNE here). The bills are not practical to use, especially outside of a city, because no one has change for them! A bottle of coke, for example, is about 350 CFA We buy piles of tomatoes at the market for 100 CFA. We've made it work, so far, by having me pay for the both of us, and Ortencia giving me small bills in return. I was also able to make it to a bank in Atakpame (the regional capital nearest to Ortencia's village) and change some of those 10,000 bills into smaller ones.
After money and internet were settled, we were off to run a few errands before heading to the bush taxi station to go up to Ortencia's village. We crossed town in a taxi (Peace Corps volunteers are forbidden to ride motosin Lome, thank goodness), and ended up near the Grand Marche. A quick stop at a grocery store to pick up baking soda for one of Ortencia's friends in village, then a stroll around the outskirts of the marche. The streets were so crowded with people, cars, and motos. It was incredibly hot - all I could do was sweat! We decided not to go into the marche, as I was in no mood to deal with crowds and pushy vendors in that hot weather. Instead, we stopped for a cold drink before heading back to the hotel. A successful search for carrots for Ortencia's neighbor and a shower were the last orders of business for the day.
At about 2:30, we set off for the bush taxi station.
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