Lomé, May 20 2008
The rainy season recently started in the southern regions of Togo. It’s been three weeks since I’ve arrived in Lomé and began to discover the ways of the Togolese people.
I’ve rarely felt as welcome as I do here and this gives a special warm feeling to my experience. Kindness and politeness are values deeply rooted in the local costumes.
The weather in Lomé is warm and extremely humid. The proximity of the ocean adds an occasional breeze that refreshes the atmosphere of a busy city, full of colors, smells, vehicles and motorbikes. Luckily, this is the mango and avocado season and I recently tried “fufu”, a local delicacy made from manioc.
In certain areas of the city, you can find beautiful and gracefully organized plantations of fruits and vegetables to be sold in the local market ‘le Grand Marché’. People in the fields work very hard every day to earn their daily bread.
The political situation of the country is more or less stable but poverty, like malaria, is endemic in this West-African country. As a consequence, criminality and banditry are common in the streets of Lomé after the sun sets down.
Tomorrow will be another day. By the end of my mission, I will have spent eight months in Togo. My colleagues say that, by that time, I will have become a Togolese, one of them. I find this to be a really sweet wish because it means we are accepted the way we are, regardless of our cultural differences. I am a Colombian citizen living in Canada and working abroad. Rather than pertaining to a particular place I feel like a citizen of the world and, aren’t we all…
Posted for: Nathalia Guerrero
I’ve rarely felt as welcome as I do here and this gives a special warm feeling to my experience. Kindness and politeness are values deeply rooted in the local costumes.
The weather in Lomé is warm and extremely humid. The proximity of the ocean adds an occasional breeze that refreshes the atmosphere of a busy city, full of colors, smells, vehicles and motorbikes. Luckily, this is the mango and avocado season and I recently tried “fufu”, a local delicacy made from manioc.
In certain areas of the city, you can find beautiful and gracefully organized plantations of fruits and vegetables to be sold in the local market ‘le Grand Marché’. People in the fields work very hard every day to earn their daily bread.
The political situation of the country is more or less stable but poverty, like malaria, is endemic in this West-African country. As a consequence, criminality and banditry are common in the streets of Lomé after the sun sets down.
Tomorrow will be another day. By the end of my mission, I will have spent eight months in Togo. My colleagues say that, by that time, I will have become a Togolese, one of them. I find this to be a really sweet wish because it means we are accepted the way we are, regardless of our cultural differences. I am a Colombian citizen living in Canada and working abroad. Rather than pertaining to a particular place I feel like a citizen of the world and, aren’t we all…
Posted for: Nathalia Guerrero
posted by Alison Frehlich at 1:46 PM
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