A day around Lomé

I woke up with a slight headache but with no fever. I thought maybe it’s because of the AC but even with the AC set to a higher temperature my body still felt normal.

I left around 8am. First I needed to get some CFA, I only had the little I changed yesterday plus some remains from Ivory Coast. I asked the men in the guesthouse about a bank and a clinic. About the clinic they had no idea, they had to call their boss. There was one nearby.

I wanted to change money in the bank, not to withdraw them from ATM. As I walked towards the bank, Isaac, the young man I met the day before on the border stopped next to me. Apparently he had been to the guesthouse where they’d told him where I’d gone. He didn’t sound happy that I didn’t call him but again Isaac, I don’t have a local phone number so what did you expect? He said he’d take me to a bank and a clinic and I sat on his bike.

And it seemed we drove to a completely different part of the town. We drove and drove and even though I told him not to take me to Ecobank (I already lost hope of changing the money and I resigned to ATM) because Ecobank in some countries (Ghana, Nigeria) charges for withdrawals, we stopped at Ecobank. I told him to take me to another bank. We stopped at Bank of Africa and I took money. Then we stopped where SIM cards were sold but the boys there demanded 5000cfa for a SIM card. We went on. And again, we rode and we rode and we passed so many clinics on my way and I told Isaac to stop but he insisted that he’d take me to a private clinic, his uncle was working there, that these clinics we passed are government-owned.

Long time after we arrived at a Martin Luther King Clinic. I asked Isaac how much I owe him, he said 1500cfa. Fine. They had a portrait of Barack Obama on the wall. Consultation – 5000cfa. Before consultation the nurses took my blood pressure, it was good (13/5, not sure what it means), temperature (37C), weight (can’t recall what it was) and I was sent to doctor’s office.

In doctor’s office the man looked first at my eyes, immediately asked if I coughed. Yes I do cough but strangely I cough around this time of year in Poland too and it seems it may be some allergy to I don’t know what. Then he listened to lungs, kept pressing around my stomach looking for signs of pain. All in order. At the end he scheduled a blood test (“here, in Africa, we always do the blood test”).

The blood test cost 7000cfa. A nurse took the blood and the results would be out at 4pm.

Isaac was waiting for me, he even wanted to introduce me to his uncle but the uncle was busy. We left. He took me to the Togocell agency to buy the SIM card – 500cfa. Then we went to eat, we ate on the street – the restaurants were not yet ready for food – and the food was good ans cheap, 425cfa, I also bought Isaac a plate.

Then I asked him to take me where I could get a car to Agbodrafo. I still had a headache but I wasn’t feeling bad so I thought I could as well use the day. We went on. At the end he asked for 5000cfa which is way too much. But I did give it to him and I promised to myself not to use any “helpers” again. Motos are plentiful in Lomé.

The car to Agbodrafo is 1000cfa and possibly it goes all the way to the border with Benin. These are private quite unregulated cars that put 2 people in front and possibly 4 in the back. The journey is less than an hour long.

I got dropped in Agbodrafo among palm trees. I wanted to take a pirogue to Togoville and have a walk around the fetishes that are there. Togoville is also said to be the oldest town in Togo.

I was there in 2010 and I took a “public” pirogue. This time immediately a piroguer materialised. He’d take me there. How much? 8000cfa. What???!! I’d still have to the “organisation of guides” in Togoville for visiting the town. I said 3000cfa. We ended up at 4000cfa and we went to the lake.

It is a had labour, being a piroguer, he was using a stick to push the boat off the ground. The lake seemed very shallow, there were young boys swimming far from shore and the water covered them up to their waist only. The water was very warm, it was extremely hot but there was a slight breeze that saved us. Well, the breeze creates the waves and the waves even being small, swayed the pirogue left and right.

It took us almost an hour to cross the lake. Once on the ground a guide approached me and took me to their organisation’s site. The price they told me is €10. 6500cfa. Oufff. Negotiations started and I held my ground at €5, 3000cfa and they agreed but they also said that if I found the service of the guide good, “I should give him something”. Oh well.

First I was shown a cheesy monument showing a father talking the wisdoms of life to his son. Then I was taken to a big church. Togoville was visited by the pope, Jean Paul II and the church is showing it. Inside unfortunately the last supper painting is all white men but on sides there are African saints. Togo has no saint.

We walked through the village but it was empty, people won’t go out in this heat, and the market day is Wednesday. I was shown a monument of German-Togolese friendship and I incorrectly guessed which of the women is Togolese.

It’s all in the nose.

The first fetish I was shown was a very scary-looking one in the market. You ask it for all market-related favours. Despite the church and the pope Togoville still practices animism a lot. There are flags around houses marking the presence of voodoo priests. In Lomé there is a big fetish market.

Next fetish was a tree, you ask it for rain. They haven’t asked for rain this year yet, the rainy season starts in May.

The next fetish were two trees, you ask it for twins, if you want to have twins.

The next, and last, fetish, was a fertility fetish for men. You ask it for child. There is a fetish for women but there was a ceremony going on so I wasn’t allowed to visit it.

And that was it for the trip.

Back in the guide organisation site I gave my guide – his name Cousin – 600cfa, signed the guest book and came back to the boat.

In the boat, the small waves were getting a bit less small and water was splashing all over the boat. I was getting wet and it’s not a bad thing but I had my passport in the shorts. Halfway the piroguer decided it’s better we stop and walk back to the main road on dry ground. He said he’d escort me – though the road was straight and easy – but soon he’d found a pair of children walking there and told them to lead me.

In Agbodrafo plenty of stalls full of mangoes, there was even palm wine. I planned to buy some but soon a car showed up and I jumped in and I regretted it immediately. I thought I could just sir the while day in this palm-fringed village and eat nothing but the mangoes. I wonder how long I’d manage that.

In less than an hour we passed three accidents. A car hit a motorbike. A weird heavy machine flipped on side and hit a car standing next to it. On a police checkpoint a car tried to sneak in before a heavy lorry managed to navigate the zigzag created by the sets of tires lying on the road to slow down the vehicles and it didn’t manage to sneak in and the lorry scratched the side of the car.

I was alone in the car, the fare still 1000cfa. In town when I asked to be dropped off at the road leading up to university, the car driver said he doesn’t want me to go there by moto, that it’s far, so he could take me there and I’d pay him whatever I think. No more pay me whatever you think. I said 700cfa coz that would be moto price and he agreed.

In the clinic the results were ready. The general test is all good except the white cell count which is high. The malaria test is negative.

But the doctor said I do have malaria (the French would even have a different word for malaria: palu for paludisme) but “here, if there is a few parasites, the blood test won’t detect it, we still prescribe drugs”.

And I got a malaria drug, an antibiotic, a sirup for the cough and a heavy paracetamol (1000mg) for the headache that accompanies malaria. The headache persisted through the day but it was light and I generally felt well. I paid 12000cfa for the drugs.

Nearby, a woman was selling bissap juice. She also had lemon juice, it was delicious. I also saw a street cafeteria. I went there, saw black coffee on the menu, my heart beat faster and I did ask if it was nescafé but the woman said so. But the woman had no change. So I went to the pharmacy first in hope I would have change for coffee (150cfa). Back to the cafeteria, she saw my drugs. “Oh, you are ill? Is it malaria? One of our mosquitoes bit you?” Conversations at coffee. Then she brought out… A can of instant coffee. Argh! I excuses myself.

I took a moto back (600cfa) to the guesthouse. I bought mangoes on my way, 250cfa for a big red and green one and 100cfa (!) for four smaller yellow ones. The smaller ones are very ripe, almost like a pulp and they have a lot of strings that stay between teeth. The bigger one is better. I took the malaria pills, the drug made in China, 3 pills at once every day for three days.

In the evening I walked to Fifty Fifty and had a salad. Back in the guesthouse I took the antibiotic and before 10pm I fell asleep. I slept for 10 hours.