Hotel Cocobeach Lome

... has any information on towns in Togo outside of Lome and Togoville---or the first blog where Togo is the destination, not just a point between two points of interest.

and to be honest, i dont know why people wouldn't visit here as much or more than ghana or other countries of west africa.

all the warnings i ...

... We decided the night before that it might be a better idea (based on how we were feeling) to split this day’s distance into 2 days: thus we would only walk about 20k instead of the expected 40 or so (Friday was intended to be our longest day of the trip originally). Kayleigh, Matt, and Leslie all seemed to feel pretty bad still in the morning: all of them had blisters on their feet and were aching pretty bad. I had some pain in my right ...

... off the side of the road that had not been peeled and we didn't know what they were washed with (the whole idea being to avoid dirty water). we figured we were already out after dark in a town we didn't know, where we didn't speak the language, and asking for directions from complete strangers--we might as well not worry about the food we ate.

The salad had lettuce (not cabbage-the only version of "lettuce" you find in ghana), tomatoes, onions, eggs, rice, mayo, and ...

... for something that (distance-wise) probably shouldve been 75p.

but, we got there. All 4 of us shared 1 room and 1 bed because it was a very expensive hotel. none of us ate dinner that night because of the long tro tro ride without stops so we were all tired enough to just get in bed and sleep no matter what the circumstances were, anyway.

We planned to start our walk as early as the sun was up the next morning-so we set the alarm for 4:45am

... end of the first lesson, it was clear how great the next few weeks will be. Kwasi is an amazing teacher and drummer. Because he has been teaching for so long (for over 15 years in Canada), he has developed a wonderful teaching style. He understands, and can overcome, the confusion between Western and African music learning styles. I am so excited to study privately with this master for the next two weeks. The next day, we went to Kwasi's daughter's ...

... the sea breeze. We would love to go back tomorrow.

We plan to go for supper at 9:00 PM. Sanga and Van Damme have just gone for tea, their daily ritual and we are still working on the blog! There was a huge spider in the cyber room at the hotel. (About the size of a toonie.) The hotel security guard came up with a can of insecticide and a long stick. He destroyed the bug for us. Ann was much relieved.

... here, when one of the kids in the house was sent to get me to bring me back to meet Mama’s brother, Pascal. So I went, grudgingly, and stayed for about 2 minutes in which I said hello and agreed that my ‘sister’ could pass on my phone number, as Mama wanted him to give me a tour of Lomé. Ok, fine, I went back to my friends. Then Yawo called, asking where I was, so I told him... and then half an hour later said child was sent again, to tell me Yawo ...

... nothing happened. Argh it annoyed me. The meetings as a general rule degenerate into rants from the President on his subject of choice that day... and tend to go on to till about 10 am. Every. Single. Day. And it wasn't just the morning meetings! There are weekly 'conversations formative', fortnightly staff meetings, other meetings that I forget the names/point of... Generally, the first half an hour of these meetings is spent discussing the ...

... a cash machine...) to the Social Centre. He wanted the 100 000 CFA 'compulsary donation' immediately, so I gave it to him. Then he told me that I wouldn't be staying in the centre with the other international volunteer who is still there (though they have about 5 spare rooms...), I was going to a host family, and off we went.

My first night spent with the host family was.. terrible. Firstly, let me describe the situation - I have my own room, but this means that the ...

... involved kamfer and shea butter. I had to leave it in my hair for three hours. It burned. Sunday was just a weird day for me. Everything I did, something bad would happen. So I just relaxed.

On Monday, we went to Art Center. It was my fourth time there, and by then everybody knew me. Kwame saw me and greeted me. Some of the other drummers and dancers greeted me. It was kinda creepy. Everytime I was walking down one of the aisles, I’d see one of the guys ...