Togo Togo Togo

I’m back from Togo! And not yet departed for the Cassamance, so here’s the update . . .

Cody, Lucy, Ellen, and I went to Lome, Togo for a week to take in the Rotary District Conference (and we figured since we had already paid for the flight there we might as well stick around and see the country for a few days).

The conference itself was held over the Friday and Saturday. The program on Friday was a lot of introductions and short speeches during the day, with a “home hospitality” evening. The highlight of Friday for me was probably when I had to stand up in front of several hundred Rotarians and introduce myself in French (and yes, I did make several stupid errors because I was nervous). But no moment was more surreal than when we went to the home that was welcoming 200 Rotarian guests for dinner and drinks as part of the home hospitality program. We rounded the corner to the backyard and found: palm trees, a swimming pool surrounded by candle lanterns, a LAWN (I hadn’t seen that much grass growing anywhere in months), and several shrubs that had been sculpted into animals (yes, I too thought these only existed in the movie “Edward Scissorhands”). And, as any self-respecting Rotary Scholars would do, we danced the night away, even when everyone else quit dancing with us.

Saturday was only a half-day program, focusing mainly on updates about what is going on in Rotary International and the Rotary Foundation, especially the large changes going on in the Foundation to streamline its grants program and raise public awareness of its existence. So, anyone out there looking for funding for international charity projects or study abroad opportunities, check out the Rotary Foundation website and see if they’ve got something for you! And spread the word! One more shameless plug: Rotary International is doing another big push for polio vaccination this year. The goal is to raise $200 million, which is projected to be enough to eliminate the disease entirely. Given my microbiology nerdiness, this program is close to my heart and I think we have what it takes to make polio a thing of history, much like smallpox (and it remains my dream that we’ll see AIDS someday in the same category). If you’re interested in making a contribution or organizing some fundraising, go to www.rotary.org/endpolio or talk to your local Rotary club (each club is expected to contribute to the program, largely through local fundraising efforts that will also raise awareness . . . let’s get this thing going)! Ok, I realize that became a little too motivational but I couldn’t help myself.

Now, the rest of the week we spent visiting Togo, spending most of our time at a monastery which is near the northern city of Kara. The monastery was peaceful, located near the mountains (actually a little bit terrifying driving to Kara in a bus as we passed several large trucks on narrow mountain roads because they were overheating and barely moving, but we got there. And back. And Celine Dion music videos were playing on the bus so that distracted Lucy and I as we sang along. Celine Dion is practically worshipped in Western Africa, even by otherwise macho young men). Staying with the monks there we were well-taken care of: each a private room complete with mosquito-netted bed and balcony area, all meals prepared for us and encouraged to eat until we thought we would burst, and the Brother in charge of visitors took us on a tour to surrounding village homes where villagers were eager to greet us, some generously offering us pentad eggs (which were later cooked into our lunch) or palm wine. We were likewise warmly welcomed in Lome by a local Rotary president who picked us up from the airport and arranged for us to get to and from the conference every day. Hospitality again abounded our last night in Kara when we stayed in the city and the local Rotary club organized a meeting solely for the purpose of meeting and visiting with us, and then one of the Rotarians got up at the crack of dawn the next day to drive us from our hotel to the bus station. If one day I make it back to Togo, I’ll look forward to checking in with all of our newfound friends.

Now for some random notes about how things are different in Lome and Dakar:
-taxis in Lome are almost exclusively motorcycles, whereas Dakar has cars
-when flying out of Lome at night, it looks like a network of little blue lights, whereas Dakar clearly takes the form of a large city with orange-lighted freeways
-the vegetation is greener and more plentiful in Lome, whereas in Dakar’s current dry season the sand is more plentiful than anything else
-traffic lights work and are obeyed by drivers in Lome, whereas in Dakar traffic lights exist but rarely function (I know of only one that does) and driving turns into a free-for-all
-the starch base of a dish in Lome is often a ball of cooked corn mush, whereas rice or millet are the staples in Dakar
-there’s not much garbage on the streets of Lome and garbage cans are available on the beach, whereas in Dakar garbage in the streets is a much bigger problem, in part due to the lack of garbage cans in public places
-you don’t hear the call to prayer in Lome where the Muslim portion is only 15%, whereas it’s heard every day in Dakar (and more than once I’ve been asked during a Skype convo, “where is that music coming from”?)

So, in closing, Togo was excellent. And although I’ll be off to the Cassamance in two days, I’m looking forward to spending my last two months exclusively in Dakar. This morning I visited an orphanage where I’ll be working a few times a week for the rest of my stay and I’m very excited about it (with 88 babies all under 1 year old, the Sisters who run it are always in need of some extra hands). That’s all until I get back from the Cassamance!