Tuesday afternoon was the weekly Projects Abroad meeting - this week at the beach! Was very lovely, although discovered that it is possible to be cold here which I never thought I'd say. Hasn't been very sunny so far, but has been very heavy and so very hot because of that. The orange dust is also a total plague - it gets everywhere and you have to wipe chairs down before you can sit on them etc. Even the propellers (right word?) of my fan are covered in it! Apparently this is because of the harmattan winds that come from the Sahara in the night and so cool things down as well as stirring up a lot of dust. However don't count on this because you all know my excellence in (or lack of ) geographical knowledge so is very likely it's not quite right!
The sun did come out yesterday morning though and was fantastic. Went down to the Grand Marché to just have a wander and went into a massive building in the centre which is a kind of indoor market. There are three storeys to it, the ground floor being food and spices etc, then the middle floor was fabric and the top floor was hair. I went with Aaron, another volunteer who's doing a Teaching project, and his reaction to the top floor was very amusing! It is true that when you're greeted by a sign saying 100% human hair you do have to do a slight double take... He also suggested that if I'm ever short on money I should just sell my hair, as it would probably fetch a high price being blonde... Interesting idea... Can tell that it comes from a boy!
The market itself, like most of Lomé, is just chaotic. The streets are packed with people and stalls and as most of the people walking are also either selling something or have something balanced on their heads it's very difficult to hurry anywhere. Add motos and the not-unfrequent car to this and hopefully you'll gain some idea of the way it works! Yet, or perhaps because of this chaos, everywhere is just so vital. The energy among the crowds is a million worlds apart from the energy among the crowds at home, even in somewhere like London. Noone hurries here, because you can't. And so everyone has time for everyone else; it's a part of this incredibly warm and welcoming culture. (Admittedly it can get annoying as a yovo because you're always picked on to go here or there or see this or that, but most of the time you can laugh them off. Someone tried to sell me a woolly hat the other day and I just laughed at him and so he joined in too because he knew it was ridiculous when it's at least 35°C outside!) Some of the greetings they have here just don't exist in other languages - for example, when you get up the first question is 'bien reveillé?', which is literally, 'did you wake up well?'. I have never said that to another person before in my life! And never thought about saying it either, which probably says something more. And even in the official Ewé greeting, which now you'd only really use with an older person as it involves a long kind of pre-formulated conversation, this warmth is there. A translation of the conversation is sort of this:
Good morning
Good morning.
Are you well?
Yes I am well.
Did you wake up well?
Yes thank you.
And your house and the people who live with you, are they well?
Yes thank you.
And the children?
Well, thank you.
I can't remember the Ewé at the moment and forgot to bring my book here but that's an approximation of how the conversation goes, and then at the end I think the second person goes on to ask about the person so both parties participate. Of course, you wouldn't say no to these questions, but in a way that's not the point.That is the thing that just keeps on striking me here, the warmth that is extended to everyone is unlike that of any Western country and I think it is something we are seriously lacking. Here, there is a sense of trust - although you know there are people who will steal etc, people go to sleep in the afternoon behind their stalls and it would be so easy to just take their goods, yet I have never seen it happen or even heard it talked about.
Another thing I'm really benefitting from here is the opportunity to discover the kind of person I am. Because situations arise that have never arisen before (and are likely never to again!) you react to them instinctively and afterwards can stand back and ask why did I react like that? And what is it about the other person's reaction that makes me think I don't want to react like that? We've been cultured to produce certain reactions to certain situations at home, when among a certain group of people and here all that is gone - the people are unfamiliar, the situations are unfamiliar and so the reactions too are unfamiliar and uncultured, therefore natural reactions. Meeting all sorts of different people also allows you to compare yourself and ask what I would do in that circumstance and why. Very very interesting.
Haven't done much with my days of freedom except market, did some sunbathing yesterday afternoon (I have a watchmark already and am beginning to get a wedding ring mark - awkward when I return!) then this morning came here and this afternoon have an Ewé lesson. On Wednesday thought I'd lost my wallet - hadn't thankfully - went to the Post Office to post a letter and went to the PA office with Virginie. Last night, went out for a meal with 'the English group' as there are about 7 or 8 of us who have English as a common language - we're actually international as there are 2 Norweigian girls, an Irish boy, an American boy, an Australian boy, a Dutch girl and me! Great to meet so many nice new people and finding out they share a lot of my priorities in coming here too. So all in all just having a brill time really!
Going out again with PA tonight to some bar somewhere I think, not sure where, and then tomorrow morning we're helping out in a big hospital in the Tokoin quartier here. Not sure what we're doing, I think cleaning and helping out like that, but will be such an opportunity to see the inside of a Togolese hospital as really hope I won't be frequenting them in my stay here. Also an opportunity to see the Togolese press and what that's like as we've been told that the 'media' will be there... How exciting!
Last funny thing, coming home last night we took a line taxi as the 6 of us that were there all sort of live in a line along the main road, no idea how the Africans fit 9 larger ladies in a taxi as we were all sitting on top of one another and it was cosy to say the least!
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