Lome, Togo

So we left Kpalime and headed south to the capital, Lome. It's the only country to have it's capital on it's border (or so I was told). In Lome, you could see the influence of Togo's previous french and german owners. Majestic buildings that had definately seen better days still stood. You could see how grand it must have been during the coloialism. The city is falling to waste. No one has money to take care of it, let alone barely enough to survive. Ana told us later about a conversation she'd had with the tro tro mate. He had said that they suffer here. He didn't say it to get money, he just looked out the window and quietly said we suffer here (in french of course). Many of the hotels and restaurants have closed in Lome. Our guide book was only a year and a half old and so many places had closed since. It was still peaceful and beautiful in it's own way and we loved it there. The people were much less harassing. Not very many shouted out to us and there weren't nearly as many who honked at us. It was pleasant and yes, there are more taxis (cars) in the capital. But we still took motos whenever possible.

In Lome, we relaxed. We went to the Grand Marche (Grand Market) to see cloth, wood, souvenires that we can see in Ghana, but just wanted to walk and look around. I actually liked the carvings and cloth better. There were just slightly different, more organized, and more talented. That, or they just actually put more time into their projects. We went to the cloth section of the market and inside a building where we were told we could find Ewe kente. (A special cloth that is very expensive and used for special occasions and chiefs would where it too. I talked a little bit about kente from the Christmas trip in the Kumasi section. That kente is Ashanti kente. Different groups of people, different kente. The Ashanti speak twi and the Ewe speak Ewe.) This little girl was there and her mother wanted Spencer to come and see her and said that he could marry her. I know she was kidding, but would have probably accepted if I'd offered!

Rachel helped a lady organize her shop. The lady put this hat and shirt on her and Rachel just sat there and folded cloth and clothes. We ended up buying kente from her. She was nice and told Rachel she could stay there and work for her and Rachel gladly accepted. Unfortunately, we had to break the news that she had to come with us and that she couldn't live here and work for her. Rachel was actually upset and started crying because she wanted to stay. Hmmmmm.
This is what we saw inside the building. Rows and rows of cloth in rows and rows of shops. It was huge. This isn't kente cloth. We had to go to specific people for that.
Just a view of the city and part of the market. Do you see the umbrellas down there?
There really aren't a whole lot of cars. The main mode of transportation is motorcycles in Togo, even in the capital. Obviously they are more affordable for them. You just had to be VERY careful as a pedestrian because they'd run you down if you weren't watching! This is just one stop light. Man, look at them all!!!