Back from the north

 The river in Pagala.  It looks inviting but you don't want to go in due to schistosomiasis danger.

 Loaded down bush taxi - the yellow plastic jerry cans are often used for water.  Not sure why there were so many on top here.

 Road near Kuwde.

 Looking the other direction on the road near Kuwde.

I returned back from my whirlwind trip up and down the country to visit volunteers with the country director and to attend some trainings and meetings the volunteers were attending.  I went to see 19 volunteers at their sites (about 1/5 of everyone in the country).  It was great to meet them and to see where and how they're living.  The trip was exhausting on the whole as there were wide spaces (and often pretty bad roads) to cover.  I did learn quite a bit about Togo, though.
 The main road of Togo (the Rue Nationale) is a 2 lane paved road but, in many places, severely pitted down to the dirt so you have to go slow.  We had a driver and a really good SUV so we could go relatively fast compared with the large trucks, motos and bush taxis like the one in the second photo.  There isn't really any public transportation in Togo - it's all motos, taxis (in cities) and bush taxis (which are the size of the old VW vans).  When you pass a bush taxi on the road you will see that it is jam packed with people and frequently what is piled on the top will be equal to the height of the van itself or even higher.  I saw a standing goat tied to the top and when I mentioned this to some volunteers they reminisced about their rides with goats and other animals inside the van.  One spoke of taking along ride with a goat around her neck.
  There's a major training center in a town called Pagala - you'll have to get out your map of Togo - where the volunteers go to have trainings.  We stopped there our first night out and I sleep in a room that backed onto the river in the top picture (though I didn't realize it till the next morning as we arrived in the dark).  The creature sounds were incredible.   I live near a wetland in New York and am used to hearing peepers and other frogs but these were way beyond that.  I heard sounds that were like someone snoring and all kinds of things.  In the morning I found a lot of activity around the river - people often get water directly from the rivers and in the top photo you can see the mud bricks drying which are used for many buildings.
  In the middle part of our trip we encountered a hillier landscape which was more interesting than the Lome and southern area.  It seemed especially nice around Atakpame which was popular with the Germans when they were involved with Togo.
 The bottom 2 photos were taken at one the volunteers' sites - this is looking up and down the road that passed her village.  A fairly typical village but with bigger, greener trees than most.  At this village, the volunteer's host family offered us some tchook which is a local brew made from millet which you drink out of a calabash, a bowl made from a gourd.  We felt it would be rude to refuse so we had a small bowlful.  It looks like apple cider but it's warm (as there is no refrigeration usually) and is made by cooking the fermenting liquid a few times over the course of a week.  The taste is hard to describe - not sweet but not too bitter either.  I kept thinking it would be better with some ice but that is rare here in Togo (plus you really shouldn't use it unless you know the water is okay.)
  We went as far as Kara - a city about 3/5s of the way up the country.  We had hoped to stay in Hotel Kara (which has a pool) but that had been booked by the Togolese government which was having an event in honor of the president.  Staying at our hotel was the Chief of the Chiefs (or Chef des Chefs en francais) whom we met.  Each village has a Chief who is kind of like a mayor but it's a hereditary position.  I don't know if he was the Chief of the Chiefs of the whole country but he was dressed very elegantly in a 2 piece white eyelet outfit and gold sandals.
  While we were in one of the villages in the middle of the country the sky got very dark and it began to rain (even though it's not the rainy season yet).  It turned into a torrent and made the roads a muddy mess - a preview, I believe.  It actually rained here briefly in Lome last night which thankfully just wetted down the roads but didn't make them muddy.  My feet were actually clean for a change when I got to work today - usually they're all dusty.
  Although it's hot in the north it's a dry heat compared with Lome I realized when I got back.  We opened the car door and the humidity hit us in the face.  At least we have better food here - a much greater variety of fruits and vegetables.  Many of the volunteers up north can only get tomatoes, onions and an occasional banana at this dry time of year.  I had some foufou and patte - foufou is yam (it's a white root that isn't like what we know as yam in the US) or cassava pounded into a glutinous mass that looks like gluey mashed potatoes and patte is a glutinous cornmeal served in a mound on a plate.  Both are really just vehicles for the sauces they're served with and have no flavor at all on their own.  They are staples of the diet in Togo and other parts of West Africa.  For the northern volunteers the diet is very heavy on carbs at this time of year.