Seminars and PO in Lomé

  Lomé, Togo
Wednesday, April 8, 2009

We again left the hotel this morning shortly after 8:00. First we drove to the Ghanaian border which is on the outskirts of Lomé. It's a good place to change money trustworthy fellows who pay much higher rates that what one can get at a bank.  We got 508 Francs to the dollar, while Western Union and banks are only paying about 460, so that's around a ten percent bonus. Of course some care must be exercised in such transactions, but Mr. Fiaboé knows his way around the area and found a safe agent. On the way back into town, I noticed several fishing crews pulling by hand huge fishing nets. It can take a team of 10 or 15 an hour or more to pull in one net. A very hard way to make a small living, but there are quite a number who live from it.

net crew pulling in a heavy fishing net

 
From the border we drove to the Air Ivoire office so I could reconfirm my ticket. I've had problems with them before. Several times by reservations had mysteriously disappeared from their system, even though my ticket bore a seat number and the mentioned confirmed. Somehow or other it usually ends up being my fault (in their judgment) so they bore no responsibility. About two years ago, I was stranded in Abidjan for three days trying to get on the daily flight to Lomé, and finally just had to skip that leg of my trip altogether.

As we arrived in the business area where most airlines have their city offices, it wasn't clearly indicated where the Air Ivoire bureau was located in the maze. As we stepped through the door into the office building, looking around for a sign or an arrow, a fellow with a bad leg jumped up awkwardly and asked right away if we wanted the Air Ivoire Office. When we said yes, he said "this way", and hobbled as quickly as he could down the hall to show us. Of course he hoped for a coin or two in return, but didn't try to force the issue. We really wouldn't have had much trouble finding the place, it wasn't that large a building, but he was doing what he could to try to be useful in a way that might earn him a little money, so we let him show us the way.
 
This time I was reconfirmed in no time, everything is supposed to be on time Friday at 2:45 pm. We'll see. Mr. Fiaboé beat me to giving the guide a coin. The fellow was obviously very happy with this small mercy.
 
Then we drove straight to the Church hall where we started right in with our schedule.

Guy gives the update on Togo

First we had reports from four men from different areas: Guy Alliagbedzi gave an account of the situation in Togo: two congregations - one in Lomé and one in Momé Hagou (plus a member which his 4 children in Kpalimé), total average attendance 65, one baptism in the year and 2 births. Michel Ogoudélé talked about the situation in Benin: one congregation in Cotonou, attendance 22, one recent baptism.

Michel Ogoudélé give the report for Benin

Paul Tia talked about La Mé and Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire with a total of about 25 people, and Seussié Bleu talked about the situation in Man which I had recently visited. Regular attendance there is about 10. He also talked about how it had been during the war, how the city changed hands several times and how some rebel leaders who started as "comzones" (Zone-commanders) under the administration set up by the rebel forces, are still in place in a sort of leftover live-and-let-live peace-arrangement: "You leave me with my lucrative position and I won't trouble the central government." It sounded complicated and rather disheartening - having to still submit to the authority of men who picked your city clean, but apparently they've learned to cope.
 
We then had two sessions going over fundamental beliefs, before lunch which was once again prepared by the ladies. Just before eating we took several group photos to immortalize the occasion.

Group shot of conference participants

We had tilapia again. I was served rice, which they know I prefer, while the other men had corn-meal dumplings, which they enjoy. Finely ground corn meal is a staple in many parts of Africa; it's cheap and filling. To drink we had bottled (in my case - that's the safest) or "bagged" purified water, sealed in plastic pouches.

The drinking water supply

That's a common way to be careful about what one drinks. Mr. Fiaboé had laid in quite a supply for the men attending the conference. One really wouldn't want to chance drinking tap water, that a sure way to get dysentery or typhoid fever, or sometimes even cholera.

African dishwashing technique

We finished lunch fairly quickly and started one more class in the early afternoon; it was the beginning of a discussion of temperament types and how to better understand both ourselves and others. This will be a first for these men, and I'm curious to see what they think. I made some introductory comments, we looked at some Biblical examples and then I handed out a temperament evaluation that I had translated from English. The 45 questions took a while because French is not the first language for some of them, so I had to explain some vocabulary as we went along. We ended at 2:30, not everyone had yet finished, but I told them to finish it either in the afternoon or later tonight. I wanted everyone to have several hours in which to prepare before the Passover service. Mr. Fiaboé drove me back to the hotel so I could prepare also.

We drove back to the hall at 5:00 pm and made the final preparations. One of the local ladies had baked some unleavened bread and they had procured a bottle of Claret to use for the service. We started promptly at 6:00. We were 25 participating plus a few people observing. As I spoke we had several translations going on at the rear of the hall, which made for some extra noise. We also had a generator running in the background since when darkness falls there are frequent power outages as the pull on the system increases. To avoid a blackout, even temporary, when meeting in the evening, the group here unplugs from the grid and plugs into a small diesel powered generator they have - just powerful enough to keep the lights and ceiling fans working.
 
The service went until about 7:15 after which we cleaned up and reset the hall for tomorrow. Then we drove back to the Ibis, which didn't appear to be serving dinner at all tonight, so I took a taxi to the Hotel Sarakawa down the costal road a ways, and had a pizza in their very pleasant outdoor restaurant. From it, one can hear the heavy surf pounding through the night. I had one mosquito bite during dinner on a spot on one ankle that must have been missed by the bug spray. One pays attention to such things in malarial areas. I'll keep tabs on things over the next few days just to be sure.
 
Tomorrow will be another day of seminars, followed by a church get-together in the evening.