Arrival in Togo

  Lomé, Togo
Saturday, August 16, 2008

Thursday early afternoon, we met Daniel and Cindy at the gate right at boarding time. They had come from their home in Normandy the day before and spent the night near the airport. We were very happy to meet up and were all anticipating the opportunity to work with our young people in French Africa. It's been a longtime dream for the Harpers to travel to Africa. Now they are able to fulfill that dream, have some very authentic off-the-beaten track experiences, and serve in a very useful and important way at the same time.
 
There was some mechanical concern on the "equipment" (airline lingo for plane), so we sat on the tarmac for about an hour before pushing back from the gate. The flight was very full, with more than the usual share of crying babies - they seemed to encourage each other to see who could be loudest, but other than that the flight passed without incident.
 
We had some good views of the Sahara as we flew over; that is always an impressive sight. It is beautifully textured from the air with striking colors if the light is right, and it is so immense. It is one of nature's works that give fulfill the true meaning to the word sublime.
 
We arrived around 6:30, just after dark. We had the usual Lomé experience of having to wait for the shuttle bus to drive us 50 years to the arrival area. It would be must quicker just to walk it, as one does in most airports in the region, but for some reason the airport authorities here insist that we wait for the next bus, cram into it, and drive about 20 seconds to enter the arrival hall.
 
One of the young adults in the Church here is in training to work in the arrival area at the airport. She recognized me and helped us get our paperwork filled out and guided us through the process.
We didn't have visas, which made the process longer. I didn't have time to get one after my most recent trip and Mr. Fiaboé had told me we could get them at the airport.  We did get them at the airport, but it took about 2 hours to do so! Even through we weren't at the back of the line, we were the last to receive our passports back.
 
Mr. Fiaboé met us in the luggage carousel area. It was very good to see him and introduce him to the Harpers. Mr. Hongerloot he knew from previous leadership training conferences we've had in Benin. Pierre Kloutsé was waiting for us just outside, another good friend to greet.
 
We agreed to meet  at 10:00 this morning and took the hotel shuttle to the Ibis, the former Hotel du Benin. I stayed at the old version of the hotel in its former manifestation just before it went under. It's now very clean and has been nicely updated. Ibis is a French hotel chain something like a Days Inn in the US; they're clean and safe and not too expensive, so I often use them in Africa when one is available.
 
We dropped our luggage in the room, put on some insect repellant, and walked out to the outdoor grill. We could hear the Bight of Benin surf pounding on the beach across the road. Over dinner we chatted about what we'd be doing for the next two weeks or so, and we gave the Harpers some advice on working in Africa. They'd already done lots of reading, so they were pretty well prepared in any event.
 
This morning (Friday) we were all ready to go at 10:00
 
We drove to the Church hall through empty streets. The 15th of August is a holiday here, one of the things the French left behind them when they pulled out of this former colony. All official businesses are open, although many small stands of the private sector were open, as the "little people" struggle to put food on the table.
 
After arrival Mr. Fiaboé gave us a tour of the facilities.  We enjoyed the view from the roof, which we hope one day will be the floor of the next story. We met with Mr. Fiaboé, Pierre Kloutsé and Jacob Djromadzi who will be very involved with the camp. We went over the schedule, the locations of different activities and the list of materials we had, would need and might need.

Preparing for camp

We tweaked different things and those new to Togo had the chance to make the acquaintance of the local people. After an hour and half or so, we drove over to Mr. Fiaboés house, where again he gave us a tour, this time of his place. His family was preparing lunch, and fufu was on the menu. Two girls began pounding the dough. Cindy Harper wanted to give it a try and took one of the girl's place for a minute to see if she could get the hang of the technique, which she did. Then Daniel tried it, and finally Mr. Hongerloot.

Bernard Hongerloot pounds fufu

He was so enthusiastic that he didn't leave time for the other "pounder" to pound. He mashed away so fast he was doing the work of two. Everyone had a laugh.
 
We then drove on back to the hotel where we had lunch, then prepared for the evening Bible Study or for activities to come in the following days.
 
Pierre picked us up again at 4:00 and drove us to the hall once again. We started the evening Bible Study a little after 4:30. All the young people from Togo had arrived; with some coming from the village of Momé Hagou about 90 minutes' drive away to the north and east; and others coming from Kpalimé, about 100 miles to the north and west.  There has been a great deal of flooding in the last months, and several key bridges had been washed out. The north of the country is mostly cut off from the south, so north-south travel is difficult and time-consuming at the moment.  Still everyone had arrived except the two young people from Benin and the young adult accompanying them. They would arrive later on.
 
I gave a Bible Study on the topic of "Why the Church sponsors Summer Camps."

Preparing for the Bible Study

  The young people were very attentive, but I noticed that most of them didn't have Bibles. In such poor countries, where families have a very hard time just feeding everyone and paying school fees (not everyone manages that - so not all children go to school), $10 to buy a Bible can seem like a luxury. Many in Africa live on less than a dollar day, so the price of a Bible can be the equivalent of more than one person's weekly income....
 
In any event, I decided we'd provide a Bible to every youth that didn't have one, and hand them out before the next morning on Sabbath morning.
 
We wrapped up about 6:00 pm and worked out instructions for the next day's Sabbath schedule. Then Pierre drove the four of us back to the Ibis. We dropped out affairs and caught a taxi over to the Mercure, a slightly nicer hotel on the beach a few miles up the coast. They have a pleasant restaurant by their pool and near the beach, and very good food. This would be our last chance to dine "out" and experience a little bit more of Lomé; the rest of our lunches and dinners will be taken with the campers.
We noticed we were sitting at the table next to the Air France crew from the flight that brought us from Paris. They were quite friendly and waved at us as we sat down. It's a small world for expats in West Africa....
 
We had a hard time leaving the Mercure, not because we wanted to stay longer, but because our credit cards wouldn't clear. Even in a nice hotel like the Mercure, one cannot pay with a credit card at the table. A waiter had to accompany us past the pool into the hotel to the main desk where the credit card apparatus is located.
 
First Daniel tried his French card to cover his and Cindy's meal and it was refused. I tried one of mine and it also was refused. So I tried my ATM card in the hotel ATM machine to get some cash: refused. Pushing away visions of arrest for vagrancy or hours spent washing dishes (many hours; at a dollar a day, we'd be working several months to pay off our meal...), I tried my most trustworthy credit card (I don't know why but some work better than others over here). It cleared right away, phew! The Mercure has a pleasant enough lobby, but I was quite ready to leave it by the time we could go.