Vogan and Aného

Went travelling again this weekend, after a long week of exams, plus an extra day off which was appreciated! Left Friday afternoon to see the market at Vogan. Did have rather a lot of difficulty finding a taxi, but ended up having the most luxurious ride I've had since being here - the two yovos in the front of a van by themselves! It was just heavenly in comparison although (Mummy close your eyes) seatbelts are just non-existent here and am going to have to think hard when I get back home after 7 months of just hopping into cars/vans/taxis/motos/etc... Arrived at Vogan mid-afternoon and despite not really seeing very much except a lot of cars, as soon as we got out and turned around the most enormous market every sprang up right in front of us. It was literally enormous. And everything was there! Raw food, cooked food, drinks, fabrics, clothes, fetish stuff, (which included snakes, crocodile skulls, feathers, shells and all sorts of random-looking things!) animals (alive and dead), medication, toiletries, things like nail varnish, household items, pottery, baskets, stationery, books - literally everything you could ever want in your whole life was there. It was just amazing!
And while we were gaping in awe at this, we spotted some kind of voodoo ceremony going on nearby, so we went to look. First we stood a little way back, near the market, but then a man traditionally dressed told us (in Ewé, which he continued to speak throughout despite us only replying in French...) that we could go closer, so we did. Then a totally scary, totally African, seemingly totally mad woman came out of the dancers and marched towards us blowing her whistle and shouting in Ewé. Unsurprisingly, we followed the example of all the little children around us and just RAN! It turned out she wanted money, and for me to put my camera away (so said the helpful man in Ewé) which we weren't about to pay so we just stayed well back. It looked sort of like a voodoo dance off - there were two groups, one of which arrived a little after the other, both doing the same dance as far as we could make out. But the bizarre thing was that the first group finished, and then  had a little rest, then half the group migrated over to the second group who were still dancing, having started later than the first. Then, the second dance came to an end and the first group started again,with apparently about double the number of people than it started with (we still don't really know where they all came from) and then the second group started again! It was really really cool to watch, but when we asked what it was for, nobody really seemed to know sadly.

So we then left the market for Aného, and it was a good thing we knew the name of the hotel we wanted to stay in because by the time we reached there it was dark, as here it starts to get dark at 6 and by 6.30 it's pretty much totally black. Got to Hotel Oasis and OMG - it's right by the lagoon, beautiful at night, and totally deserted! Asked for a room, were given one, had a shower in the ENORMOUS bathroom (comparatively), had supper and went to sleep - just so so easy.
In the morning we wandered round Aného a little, saw the old colonial buildings, and found the beach where we could swim. Was majorly hot, but by the sea with the wind it was just perfect. Then we got a taxi back to Lomé and all was just fine. Did have a slight surprise when I arrived home though; between 12 and 3pm everyone just goes to sleep here (as I do whenever I can!) and so I sent towards my bedroom to go and shower and get sorted, and there was a man just asleep in front of my bedroom door...! Don't think I've seem much so far that was so unexpected as that... It turned out just fine because he's Mama's nephew who has come to help his aunt (Mama's younger sister) who is not very well at all at the moment sadly but the jokes about my reaction to the 'gros monsieur togolais devant ma porte' will continue for a while I think...