Journey Impressions: Lomé

Lomé: approx. 0.67 m inhabitants (2002)
Togo: approx. 6.5 m inhabitants
Population growth (2008): 2.6%
People per km²: 114
Gross national income per person in 2008 PPP: 820 USD


11.02.2011 Lomé: As usual, the drive between the airport and hotel was chaotic and took us through narrow, sandy alleyways, passing small metal and wooden huts on the way. But eventually we reached a hotel which was Lanzarote standard, with palm trees and a beach on the Atlantic Ocean outside the hotel grounds. Shortly before supper, we decided to spend the next day here on the complex and catch up on all the reports at last. Above all we wanted to have a proper sleep again.

But that didn't prevent us from wandering briefly to the beach in search of fresh ocean breezes and a sandy paradise. But reality had a few surprises in store for us: scattered on the beach were about 50 trucks which were quickly being filled with sand by young African men carrying shovels. After few minutes, a monster emitting exhaust fumes and loaded with sand thundered past us. We were witnessing sand being carted off for road and building construction. So there was no trace of any idyllic beach paradise. Have an income and earning your crust are clearly more important than environmental or beach protection. Women had made little camps to offer the workers something to eat.

Nobody noticed us at first until three boys about 12 years old came and sat unnervingly close to us and started to chat. I couldn't rid myself of the impression that sexual services were being offered for money here. We then retreated rapidly.

We returned to the hotel and were accompanied relentlessly to start with. Then they started begging. We gave them three dollars and quickly said goodbye.

Martin wanted to dine in the hotel's elegant inside restaurant. And this is where we encountered something of an exotic speciality: Africa's most unfriendly server. She was 25 to 30, black, very slim and arrogant to the bone. Her face was absolutely expressionless and in contrast to the other staff she was totally unwilling to speak even one word of English. She was perfectly capable, but didn't want to. The food was thrown onto the table, the candle reluctantly lit and the two bills at the end virtually sailed onto the table. That's of course one way of ensuring that even the most good-natured guest doesn't give a tip. But she really was the exception because everyone else in the hotel was very amicable towards us.

12.02.2011 Lomé: On 12 February, we just did our reports, swum a length of the pool, had a meal in the second restaurant outside at the pool and psyched ourselves up for the trip to Ouagadougou.