Two More Days In Lomé

On Monday evening, I went out to the Case du Café, Route des Vins. I had 2 glasses of wine--a Bordeaux and a Brouilly--and a wedge of Roquefort cheese with little pieces of bread. I just sat there writing and eventually reading. When I arrived I was the only one there, but then a few other people but they all seem to know each other. So I guess Monday night is when regulars come in. There were about 4 women working there though. I bit overkill for the number of customers. I got good service though.

After that, I went down to a hotel at the west end of the semi-circular Boulevard. They serve pizza. I had a nice pizza. There were a few other large tables of white people--all speaking French. I left at about 11. I don't like being out this late, but I figured it was pretty safe. There was a stretch near the railroad tracks that was pretty dark. I kept alert and was prepared to run if I had to. A few people just sitting around asked me "ça va?" as I was walking, but I answered them without slowing down. I don't want to stop. There are muggings in Lomé and I don't know what the muggers' tricks are. I made it home safely feeling relieved.

The next day, Tuesday, I first went to the internet café. I spent about 2 hours browsing, making sure McCain wasn't getting good news cycles. Let's see: Ted Stevens guilty on all counts and 2 white supremacists planning to shoot 88 black kids and behead another 14 and then go for Obama--just like McCain's hero John Lewis was afraid of. So it looks like another news cycle that isn't going to be good for McCain. The poor guy just can't catch a break.

I went all along the Boulevard back to where Al Donalds is. They have a single Golden Arch on their logo. I got a hamburger and fries. I'm surprised it still exists. So many places in the Lonely Planet in Lomé are gone. But the one place that rips off a company with teams of lawyers protecting its name still exists. The burger was interesting. Two patties with cole slaw on the burger as a topping. The fries weren't quite done as well as they could be.

After that I wanted to try again to find the Gare Cotonou where bus taxis to Cotonou leave from. No luck. I looked for the American Cultural Center which was supposed to be around there and eventually found what used to the American Cultural Center but is now just a school for teaching English. I looked for the tourists information office, but it was noon so there were only a couple people there and they didn't know where to get bush taxis to Cotonou. Finally I just wandered around. I'd see taxis and look to see if they were bush taxis. I asked a guy at a bus station that has buses to Abidjan and he directed me to a girl who called over another guy. This guy took me to a bus station that goes to Cotonou. I didn't really want a bus, but it was becoming apparent that there weren't bush taxis of the type I know where the bush taxi fills up and leaves and another empty one takes its place. So I got a reservation for a bus that leaves at 10.

Since I was near the Nopegali Plage bar and it was very hot and I remembered them having very cold beer, I headed over there. I got a bottle water and a Flag. As soon as I sat down, a guy sat at my table at the other corner. But he was just waiting for friends and by the time they arrived there were some empty tables and they all went to one of those. Then a Nigerian guy came and sat across from me. He told me he was going to the United States in January. I asked what city. He didn't know. Then, he said he wants my help getting a visa to come to the United States. He asked for a letter of invitation. Maybe from my company, maybe from a friend's company. I told him that it would have to come with a job offer and the process of getting an H-1B visa is very complicated and expensive and it was the worst way to try to get to the United States unless he actually had a job offer. I explained the Green Card lottery which is going on right now. Just about every internet cafe in Africa has a banner saying you can apply at that café. Eventually we exchanged email addresses and he went off with his friends.

After resting for a while at the hotel, I got up to go the Relais de la Poste, a seafood restaurant near the post office. I was the only customer the whole night. I had a shrimp cocktail which is shrimp in a sort of cocktail sauce on a bed of lettuce. It was OK, but I can't wait to have shrimp cocktail in America. Then I got Poisson à la Creme with Pommes de Terre Purées. Fish in cream sauce with mashed potatoes. The fish was an ocean white fish. No fishy taste at all. In fact, if I were blindfolded and fed this meal, I would be pretty sure that I was eating Original Recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken with their mashed potatoes and gravy. It tasted exactly like that. I'm not sure if its a rousing endorsement of Relais de la Poste, but I do like KFC. And anyone traveling in Lomé who hasn't had a Colonel Sanders fix in a while would be well served by ordering this meal.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008 7:14 Togo local time