1. Transportation
The above story is not an exaggeration, but the norm for travel in this country. “Bush taxis” are small cars or 15 passenger busses that must be older than I am. They are not “full” until there are multiple people sitting on each other’s laps, chickens squawking about and a roof stacked so high with baggage it rivals the Beverley Hillbillies. Travel takes about twice as long as it should as a result of stopping about every 10k to load and unload passengers, or sometimes just for the driver to chat with his friends. One time my bush taxi stopped in a town for an hour because the previous day the driver had hit a child on the road there and he was negotiating paying for the child’s broken bones.
2. Time
It is completely acceptable to arrive up to an hour late for a scheduled appointment, or in some cases, not to arrive at all.
3. Requests
If you see anyone who possesses anything you want, you may ask for it. This includes dogs, women, shoes (even if the person wearing the shoes is smaller and a different sex than you) and hair. I’ve had people ask for me to cut off my hair and give it to them. Most appropriate responses are to either hand over the object/person or simply say “prochainement” (next time). This works both ways, I have a PC friend who buys vintage Chicago sports jerseys off of Togolese people’s backs.
4. Night Time Parties
Many parties and events are scheduled for the entire night and there are no “Disturbing the Peace” violations in Togo.
5. Farm Animals
Free-range advocates would love this place – pigs, goats, chickens,
duck and sheep roam freely. This is hazardous to bike riders because the animals are always on the path and often in front of tires. Somehow people know who's animals are whose and stealing animals can be deadly (I’m not kidding).
6. Animism
People say Togo is 50% Muslim, 50% Christian and 100% Animist. While most of my friends here are more enthusiastic about sharing their Christianity with me than Animist beliefs, it still is not unusual to hear about it now and then. A young man across the street from me died, and when I asked his neighbors about the cause of death, they said he was a sorcerer and his sorcerer friends put a spell on him to kill him.
In other news, March was quite an eventful month starting off with the presidential elections on March 4. In light of violence surrounding past elections in Togo, we were told to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Leading up to the elections, campaigning in my town brought many events and anticipation. One of these events was a visit from President Faure, who was campaigning for re-election, which prompted teachers to cancel class, everyone to sport their favorite Faure paraphernalia and organize groups to sing, dance and play instruments to greet him. It appeared as though roughly half the town, or 10,000 people, attended the event. In the end, the elections were overall extremely peaceful.
Towards the end of March was “Semaine Culturel” (cultural week), when there are no classes for a week - only games, picnics, music and dances. I expected this to be focused on more traditional culture and was surprised to see the influence of modern hip-hop culture on the event – the high school-ers were booty dancing to modern African rap and hip-hop blaring from large speakers. After Semaine Culturel, the students had a week of vacation for Paque (Easter). There weren’t many apparent celebrations for Paque; however, many people of all ages get baptized during the holiday. Now, work is picking up again but I’m taking off for my first vacation during Peace Corps to Ghana (The Land of Plenty)! À Bientôt!
