sweet shirts and ice cream

Rainy season is coming to an end. It hasn’t rained for probably a couple of weeks. Here in the south there is two rainy seasons. Where it’s drier up north there is only one, but here they benefit from a fair amount of rain. As we would think of it back home the rainy seasons come during our spring and fall. Then there is a short dry stretch that lasts for a month or two during July and August. Obviously things work a little different up north (I’ll figure it out soon enough), but throughout the country work is generally a function of the rainy seasons that bring crops and most people’s livelihoods.

Nonetheless, the end of rainy season signals the approach of what they call the “Harmattan” winds here. Basically as autumn back home comes to a close winds coming off of the Sahara start to make their way off the desert and reach countries like Togo. This kicks up a lot of dust, cools things off and dries things out. The Harmattan winds have not yet fully reached us here in the south, but when we were up north you could already start to see the effect. Up there the whole countryside is fully vegetated (a scattering of trees, but grass basically everywhere), yet as you look out across the rolling landscape you can see the dust that’s getting picked up. In another week I’ll be up in the thick of it again and likely will be able to tell about it in more detail. For now, it just means that although it’s still quite hot during the day, by the time morning rolls around it can be relatively chilly following the night. A couple of times I’ve even been tempted to put on a long sleeve shirt.

Normally, the thought of a long sleeve shirt is preposterous! Im constantly thinking of ways to stay cool. I’ve been assembling a wardrobe of the most lightweight clothes possible and although I usually feel obliged to wear pants, all my chemises are short sleeved. Unfortunately, most of the clothes I brought from home are just too hot. Most of all the clothes here are made from thin, cotton fabric that dries extremely quickly, especially if left in the sun during repos (which is the universal 2 ½ hr break in the middle of the day…basically because it’s too hot to do anything while the sun is high, plus lunch is the biggest meal of the day). Essentially, you set out in the market and hunt down a piece of fabric that sports a design that you like and buy sections of a couple meters or so depending on how much you need for your chemise or complet (pants + chemise in the same fabric). After you’ve found a fabric you like and bargained a decent price (usually no more than 1500 CFA) you take the fabric to any of the many tailors/couturiers that are found basically anywhere in the country. Then you can either draw them a picture or bring a sample to demonstrate the style and he or she will have your stuff custom made within the week (sometimes the next day even). So by now I’ve already got a handful of shirts that help keep me cool.

While I’m in town for the day I’ll no doubt be taking advantage of my new life saver, “FanMilk”. My sweet tooth hasn’t gotten any better here in Africa. There’s not too much for ice cream here in Togo but there is this one company that does their best to fill the void. Most all of the large towns have a FanMilk distributor. Although there is usually a store you can buy the ice cream from, you usually buy FanMilk from men who ride around with portable coolers attached to their bikes and sell along the roads. The ice cream comes in little sacs the size of a Reese’s packs and flavors like vanilla (when it’s melting quick in the heat it tastes just like a milk shake), chocolate, punch and pineapple. On a hot day when your thirst is dying for something cold to quench it, the sound of a FanMilk man’s noisemaker (basically like a horn a clown might use) can make your day if you have 100 CFA to spare.

I have to say that I did miss everyone back home on Thanksgiving. I hope it went well for everyone!

Back from the north

Sorry it’s been a little while since I’ve been on. But as my mom reiterated in her last letter I guess it’s just par for the course that these posts stay intermittent. Spent the last week or so traveling the country. The transformation of the landscape as you go north in the country is astounding. Up north it’s a completely different setting. Through the course of an 11+ hour bush taxi ride the climate goes from tropic to savannah where the sun is hotter, the humidity is less, the trees are fewer and the farm animals multiply. I made it all the way up to the northern limits of the country. I basically made it into the upper left hand corner of Togo next to Ghana and Burkina Faso. In fact, I was so close to the border with Ghana that virtually everyone in the area, although fluent in the local language of Moba and sometimes French, regularly used to the words “buh-bye” to send people off. Lots to tell about the area and the trip up but I plan to describe it better later on when I make my next trip up. I think there could be some quite interesting bush taxi stories to come so don’t feel like you’re missing out now.

I have to start off by giving my dad something to be proud about. I was as shocked as anyone else when this happened, but one day as I was eating my lunch I happened to notice a collared shirt turned inside out that was hanging off the kitchen hut across from where I was eating. It was old and worn but the style was definitely American. Nonetheless, what caught my eye was the label on the collar. Wouldn’t you believe it but it read “L.L. Bean, Freeport, Maine”. Who would have thought I’d be in the middle of Africa and catch my African brother wearing a shirt made by the American company my dad works for! Maybe dad can get to the bottom of how that could have possibly wound up in the middle of Togo, West Africa. Cheers to globalization I guess.

The same day I happened across the L.L. Bean shirt we had a fairly serious game of soccer. We lined up a match of locals versus our group of volunteers and put Coke’s for the winning team on the line (though we all knew one way or the other it was going to be us buying the Cokes). Though it got fairly serious at points, smiles prevailed in the end (we lost pretty badly, 6-2). I guess I will attribute the loss to the heat. It’s amazing that these kids have no problem playing through such heat without breaks or a water bottle. Not too mention they’re footwear. Generally it’s hit or miss whether kids have shoes to play in or not. Often they play in bare feet, but sometimes you get a couple players with spikes (spikes worn down to modest nubs that is). So even though I felt hindered by my inability to move sharply without my cleats, I couldn’t complain seeing what some of the other kids were working with. The field was something else too. It’s the end of rainy season so the grass is very long and green. Lumps and ruts in the field are everywhere and needless to say it’s difficult to maintain any kind of ball control. Usually there is some sort of referee keeping things under control and some assortment of spectators watching from the sidelines (figuratively speaking anways). Goals are made of a wooden frame (not cut wood though, the beams are made from smaller sized trees) that is normal regulation size, but has no net. And then, if there are fewer kids they just take a brick, prop it up and mark goals by hitting it with the ball. Anyway, although you may see a basketball hoop here or there, soccer is clearly the dominant sport and most kids will take part if given the opportunity. In fact, it does get fairly competitive and organized. At the same time we were playing there was a serious match down the road between two local towns.

In case you’re concerned I shaved the moustache and my “deforested head” (as my mom referred to it) is starting to reestablish itself. Think I might leave the picture up anyway though. I like the thought of people picturing me cruising Africa with a bald head and a moustache.

Make sure everyone keeps sending me updates on what they’re doing. You know my email and you can always just post something here.

Comme toujours, a la prochaine!