Lomé Is Really Nice

I woke up early and headed out. Since my plan was that would be only full day in Lomé and Togo, goal #1 is to get postcards to the nieces so they have a complete set. The post office is pretty easy to find and it didn't take long to get there. I peeked inside. Some post offices sell postcards inside; some don't. This one didn't. There was a postcard vendor right across the street. So I got a couple of postcards. Now, to fill them out. I had seen the previous night a cool looking place on the Boulevard close to the intersection where I turned to get the post office. It is called Case du Café, Route des Vins or something like that. I figured I'd go there and have a coffee and a croissant and fill in the post cards.

I entered. It was not quite what I expected. It was very swanky. I was greeted by a woman wearing the shortest shirt I've seen since arriving in Africa. The place is not big at all and they had no pastries. I sat down. They have coffees. In fact, you can choose the country whose beans you want. I got Colombian beans for an espresso. There were a couple of Frenchmen who I suspect were the owners. They have various wines and apertifs and Belgian beers. All priced for the swanky set. A place for people who know their liquids and care. My espresso was good. They have a big screen TV and turned on the French news. The other girl (the one not in the microskirt) asked me "Êtes-vous français?" "Non, je suis Americain." "So you speak English?" "Yes." "I thought you weren't French from your accent"--and, I'm sure, by the fact that I can barely speak it especially after 2 weeks in Ghana. She said it was good that I make an effort. We chatted a bit. I decided I'd go back later in the evening for a nice relaxing glass of wine. While they don't have food, they do have cheese plates. Nice. I also decided that I like Lomé and considered the logistics of getting myself to Niamey by the election. I decided I can stay one more day and make a 13-15 hour trip from Cotonou directly to Niamey rather than break it into 2 trips. My postcards done, I paid CFA 900 for the CFA 800 (US$1.60) cup of coffee and went back to the post office.

The post office in Lomé is a bit chaotic. I didn't get the window system. I stood in one line, but it seemed to be for banking services. Then I saw a description of window #8, the other window. It had "Bienvenue à Guichet No 8" on a sheet of paper taped to the inside of the glass and among the services listed was "Vente: timbres". That's the window I want. I stood in the chaotic crowd in front of the window. Finally the guy pointed at me and I worked my way through the crowd and showed him my postcards. He asked if I wanted stamps. "Oui." He pointed to another window in the Western Union money transfer section of the office and told me to go there. I pointed at the "Vente: timbres" thing on the paper with a confused look, but the other people in the crowd understanding my confusion told me too that I had to go to the other window. So I went to that window and got stamps. Gee. I got them sent, though.

Next I walked down the rest of the radius to the center of Lomé and the beach. I turned east and went back to the semi-circle that is the Boulevard. I was getting hot and went into an ice-cream parlor, La Festival des Glaces or something like that. It was refreshingly air-conditioned. I got a large coffee, orange juice, and chausson aux pommes. It was good. The place has a security guard. The guard actually frisked one guy on the way out. When I left he didn't frisk me, though. I walked the semi-circle stopping into 3 internet cafés until I found one that had seats. Then I surfed the web for 2 hours. Status quo in the election. Good news. Sarah Palin making off-message and unauthorized comments on her wardrobe keeping it in the news for another precious news-cycle. I guess she doesn't understand how the news system works. It's not intuitive at all. I didn't understand it until I read the fascinating collaboration of James Carville and Mary Matalin, Alls Fair, one of the most interesting books on political campaigning. Anyone who doesn't understand the importance of message discipline needs to read that book. Sarah Palin hasn't read it, I guess. Either she doesn't care about message discipline or she has given up on the election and is trying to salvage her own image at the expense of McCain's campaign. Either way, I'm happy to see it.

Next, I was a bit hungry so I went to a place called Brochettes sur la Capital. I ordered a Star which turned out to be ice cold (much appreciated) and after some effort, since they don't have menus, a brochette sandwich. Brochettes are pieces of meat on sticks cooked over fire. Like yakitori but without the sauce. Brochettes sur la Capital is an outdoor place and it one of those places that doesn't mind if the ambulant merchants come in and sell to customers. I wasn't interested in much, but then a guy showed me Shrek 3. Interested. I took a look at it. It was a French edition. I looked at the back. They listed French as the language and French subtitles. But no English. I told him I couldn't buy it if it didn't actually say English. He argued that the movie was in English and French was on option. But I wasn't willing to buy unless it explicitly said English. We opened it to see if it was written on the DVD. Nope. Then I looked at the back. Actually, the language wasn't French, rather the lanugage was French. And it wasn't subtitled in French but rather subitled in French. Hmmm.... This smacks of pirated copy. I don't think the actual makers of the real Shrek DVD have misspellings on their packages. I'll never understand why spammers and pirates don't run the grammar and spelling by a native speaker. But they don't and I'm happy. The poor guy had to go away without making a sale. He sent in another DVD vendor most likely telling him I required that the existence of an English soundtrack be written on the box. I looked through his stuff. Half of his stuff was hardcore porn which he tried to promote a bit--probably suspecting I wouldn't care what language that was in. But I didn't want it. In the end he had nothing I wanted either. I paid my bill and headed off to the Musée National.

The Musée National has an entrance fee of CFA 1000 (US$2). I gave them a CFA 5000 note and they said they'd give me change later. I had them write the credit on the ticket--something I started doing since my stay at the Date Hotel in Accra. I did it too at the Busy Internet cafe in Accra and the Hôtel du Boulevard in Lomé. When you ask for that, they take it seriously. The Hôtel du Boulevard and the Musée National both got me change quickly and canceled out the written credit on the paper I they had given me.

The woman asked if I needed a guide and I told her I didn't-I could speak a little French but I read it pretty well. The exhibit descriptions are all in French. It starts with a description of Togolese iron age metallurgy. Nice! It might the Museum of Natural History, but I think it is the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art that has a nice exhibit on African Iron Age metallurgy. The Met exhibit is a bit more extensive and gives more of an overview while the Togolese exhibit goes more into the regional differences in the bellows which is the most important part of the forge. The Met exhibit focused more on iron wire as an end product while the Togolese exhibit focused more on hammered metal objects. So the two exhibits complement each other beautifully. Of course I'm biased. My first summer job obtained by sending out fifty resumes after my sophomore year got me one offer--from a steel mill writing lockout-tagout procedures for mechanical systems. So I got an intimate look at the fascinating steel industry. So my interest in metal is a bit more intense than that of most people. The rest of the exhibit was about pottery, musical instruments, and items used for rituals. Then downstairs was a smaller exhibit room with a little section on slavery and a little section with the leaders of Togo from teh first Germans before WWI to the British between WWI and WWII and the French after WWII until 1960 when the locals took over. A very nice and interesting museum. Worth every CFA--as long as you can read French.

Monday, October 27, 2008 17:43 Togo local time