Lome!

Lome, Togo's capital and largest city, is unlike any other African capital I've been to. It is very poor and lacking even the very beginnings of a tourist trade. Yet it also has the charmingly unpolished nature about it. That is - and this is going to sound harsh - but when you're in a place that is trying so hard to pretty up things for western tourists (e.g Cape Town, South Africa), the pot-holes and shanty towns hit you hard: you realize the stark contrast between the haves and have-nots.

Lome, on the other hand, has few pretenses (or more like the ability to maintain pretenses) about being a tourism hot spot. There are a couple nice hotels and fancier restaurants, but they are poorly kept up and are not much to look at. Lome does not have the fancy well-kept districts you see elsewhere. And it's a good thing because there are very few ex-pats here and even fewer tourists to go there. I certainly felt out of place as a white person elsewhere in Africa, but seldom have I been so scarce. Oddly, this gives the city a type of charm: people are living their lives not for this lack of tourist economy but completely in spite of it. I don't know if this is a good thing for me to feel, but the fact that there isn't a whole lot of outside wealth coming in and surrounding the poverty actually let's me forget my white/liberal/western guilt just a little bit more.

The culture of street vendors seems to also reflect the lack of outside money. In the Cape Towns and Rabats of the world, the street vendors eye-in on the tourists to sell their various trinkets and souvenirs. In Lome, the vendors don't sell Togolese masks or carvings, but simple commodities. Whether you are stopped at a traffic light, walking into the supermarket or just strolling around the market, you will see scores of people selling everything from boxes of kleenex to Chinese made belts to mangoes (yes, delicious!). It becomes clear that none of these men or woman is trying to climb the economic ladder and start a business. They are simply trying to make ends meet. And while I am singled out as a "Yovo" or white person quite readily in these situations, it is usually not to try to sell me something or even if it is to sell me a phone card or something else, they do this just as they would sell it to a Togolais.

The way food is ordered at local restaurants is another particularity of Lome, one that seems to borrows from this type of subsistence history. At most places around the world, you order the quantity of food you want - a medium fry, a 1/4 chicken etc. - and you pay the price associated with that amount. However, the local restaurants here flip that around: you tell them how much money's worth of something you want and they give you whatever quantity that is. True, prices don't change too much and people tend to know how much 500 CFAs of something is, however the idea of having a fixed income and letting your appetite be satisfied is certainly not something I am used to. I can't imagine going to an Italian place and asing for $5.64 worth of pasta.

With these examples, I don't want to paint too dire a picture of Lome. It has beautiful beaches. The people are super friendly. The food is delicious. bOne of the great things about not having many tourists is that it is very safe, even downtown in the big market. But, I can't help think the most striking part is that the capital - the largest and supposedly most developed part of tihs country - is stuck in the past. . Looking across the dusty, pot-hole-ridden streets and being amazed by friendliness of those who come off them, I wonder what the prospects are for Togo.

Tomorrow I head back up north to Farende, finally. I should have a good chance to explore this next week and will get back to y'all with my take in a week.

Until then!
Alex