First Impressions: Lomé (June 3, 2011)

When we arrived, around 7pm, in the capital it was already dark.  That didn’t keep it from being ridiculously hot.  Coming from the weather of Upstate New York where it hasn’t gotten over 75 degrees, 95 with humidity roughly equivalent to being in a swimming pool feels only slightly oppressive.

From the stairs off the plane we were shepherded through the presidential entrance, surely a place that the majority of people passing through the airport.  From there we were piled into trucks and brought to a hotel where we were sat down in the near darkness of a bamboo courtyard of sand and the Peace Corps nurse went down the row handing each a pill.  This may have been the beginning of our anti-malarial prophylaxis but then again if the pill had been blue instead of beige it may have been the beginning of the matrix.  We took the pill and soon enough we’d wake up to a world outside the Matrix of fast-food restaurants, hybrid cars, and Super Walmarts.

After my assumptions about what a third world country would be, I was pleasantly surprised by my room in the hotel.  I had my own bathroom and pretty close to a normal bed.  While I can’t say exactly what I was expecting; maybe a latrine outside? No running water?  Not electricity and a fan in my room…  One thing I did expect though was the mosquito net I’ll be sleeping under for the next two years.  I can’t help but be reminded of those tent forts you put up over your bed as a kid. 

At 2 am it was still over 90 degrees in my room and even with a fan I spent the night perspiring.  If I thought I had melted as much as I possibly could, I was wrong, when I stepped out into the sun.  During the five minute walk to the Peace Corps bureau, I’m pretty sure I that I started burning after the first two minutes.

The part of the city I got to see on the short walk to the bureau was sandy streets and cement walls.  On first look it was hard to see the difference between commercial establishments and personal homes.  There are a few stands set up selling local foods and some small items.  There are kids everywhere roaming the streets without shoes.

Over the next four days we once again received a few shots in each arm and I continued to melt.  We spent the days learning about Togo and the PC policies, most of all we were cautioned not to go near the beach, which was just a block from the PC main office.  The beach is a hotspot for crime in the city and it is not only at night that people are mugged.  From afar the beach looks like a picturesque tropical paradise, but with a closer look you can see the pipe of raw sewage streaming into the waves.  There won’t be any beach vacationing in Togo for me…