Togo

Sorry no post for a little while....seems like I have no time.

So weekend before last I was away for 4 days over the weekend with work. Our company held a retreat for one of our clients and so I got to stay in a hotel in Akosombo (the place where they built the dam to make the Volta Lake, biggest man made lake in the world or something like that), anyway so it was a bit of Westernisation with a big bed, shower with hot water, and buffet food.

The last weekend, I went to Togo. Had a bit of a mission, as my passport and residence permit were still not back from Immigration Services so I went there on Friday to try beg for it, managed to get them to give it to me, but there was no one there to sign the permit, but they said it would be ok to travel.....

And it was, I got out and back in again, although lucky for me I didn't get fined for overstaying because the guy checking wasn't paying attention.

So Togo was very nice, its about 3-4 hours by road from Accra, and you then have to get out and walk across the border which was kinda cool, never done that before. Especially as the border is right on the beach and fisherman literally cross between the two countries and they move their nets...

So Togo is very different and very similar to Ghana. Firstly, there are far far less people, and the streets of Lome( the capital) seem practically deserted which is kinda nice after the chaos of Accra. There are also lots of trees and plants around in Togo, what seems like more in the city than Accra.

We went in the centre of Lome on Saturday and walked around the city, its looks a lot more European in some ways than Accra, the French influence must have affected some of the buildings.

Then the next day we headed further east along the coast to Aneho, which is like 2km from the Benin border although we didn't go have a look, as no doubt very similar to the Togo-Ghana border.

We visited a site of 'traditional religion', which I think was voodoo-ish, unfortunately the market is big on Tuesdays and that's when they have voodoo things to sell.

We also got a lot of local food made for us by the AIESEC people who showed us round(needed as the French was spoken way too fast for me to follow) and so we got to compare Ghanaian and Togolese food, which same ingredients, but did seem kinda different.

Then back along to Lake Togo, which is salty, and had a swim. And then time to head back to the border, just in case it toook us time to get through....luckily not and the stamps came pretty fast.

So good weekend, this week is a short week, as its Ghana's Independance Day on friday, so might head into the city centre and see how they celebrate....then don't know yet what I'm doing for the rest of the weekend, will have to wait and see...


Photo above is of Akosombo Dam, pictures of Togo are at the link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/emmajaynedavidson/Togo#