Short- Random obervations
Trip Start
Jun 30, 2004
1
5
18
Trip End
Sep 15, 2004
Lomé,
Togo
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Have begun to notice that a surprisingly large number of my friends are getting malaria, so my bedroom is now a fortress, Feel like a true expat!!! I was doing all the recommended things like spraying, using the Air conditioner and the pluggy in thing; But decided to get the mosquito net, once I eventually found the "United nations World health office/shop..." they sold me one for about 2quid, got home very excited unpacked it hung it up on the hooks carefully positioned above my bed just before I went to sleep......Its hangs about a metre above my bed!!!Great
My highly important and comfortable sandals bought in the UK cost 25 Pounds.
- This 25 pounds could buy 100 pairs of flip-flops here that have the advantage of not smelling like **** due to humidity
- Or it could pay for about 120 BIG bottles of coke
- Or about 60 BIG bottles of beer
- Or 10 meals for 2 with loads a beer
- A maid for 2 & 1/2 months....she'll clean cook, do my washing (I'm so tempted!!)
- Or one years Education in good sized classes for 1 Child on my SOS Village
Also you know that MasterCard add "for everything else there's MasterCard" that is absolute *"*"*"*"*" since is seems there's isn't a shop/bank/atm in west Africa that accept MasterCard, if your coming to West Africa bring visa!!
Oh and last night got caught without my passport by my friends the soldiers... was vaguely worried by there guns and racked by brains for something to distract them as I couldn't bribe them as I only had large notes on me.....I managed to weave into the conversation I used to live in Manchester (a slight lie) and once met David Beckham (a blatant lie) and then chatted football for about 10 minutes (very hard work for me as I'm pretty uninterested by footy) and then said bon nuit and walked away....Pure Genius!!hehehe
And one day Ill write about the security/political life here but basically most people agree there will be another coup here some time in the future, In which case I'm told not to worry and I know where to go to,
But I was thinking the other night, to begin with since my immediate neighbour is the Big Chief Army General, The president lives very close to me and the military guards my "quartier" I figured Ill be fine&safe...but then it occurred to me although I'm not much of an expert on coups, aren't the president and the head of the military normally the first one's to go!! Oh well, it wont happen soon I'm assured!!
And I also want to clarify something I wrote in the last entry,
Although I think it is tough for the children to go home to there villages over the summer, it is the right thing to do and as quite rightly pointed out by my sister, without SOS Children's Villages they could be dead,
