Hi all. First and foremost, my apologies for the very late update - will not get in to detail other than to state access to dependable net access is THE golden gem here. Doing the best we can :-) As they say here , , , "Remember TIA - This is Africa!" Which I subsequently found out was mentioned several times in the movie Blood Diamonds.
Toronto to Lome
Made it to Lome Togo as planned and on time (9:30pm) yesterday - including baggage! While in Brussels I was planning to head downtown for about 1.5 hours for some sights and a Belgian beer but the train folks were on strike so x-nay on that. Had the beer though at 10:00am in the airport :-o and was not alone in having one as the terminal we were waiting is the Belgian International hub with folks from North America, China, etc taking off or arriving. On such a long day of travel, time of day was hard to follow and actually a bit of a mere concept. Had 5 hours between flights so, after pulling an all nighter winging across the pond, caught about 90 min snooze on a couch at the very modern airport. Felt great. So in all by end of day, about 15 hours in the air excluding a quick stop over in Cote d'Ivoire.
Lome
After walking across the tarmac (jet bridge? I think not, got blasted by the temperature and humidity at 9:30pm) in Lome a bus took us to nearby customs which took about 30 minutes to clear following which our Togolese hosts met us and brought us to the apt building (Casa Blanca). After intros, they fed us and that was it for the day other than a wonderful shower at the end which removed the scum and grime associated with long air travel.
Tomorrow it’s off to visit a school that SCAW's sister organization built followed by a tour of with our hosts in Lome for some grocery shopping, etc. The local support staff is great. We have been assigned a driver (Messah) for our van as well as a cook (Bill - yes that is is official Togolese given name) and 3 university students to act as interpreters and general friends and helpers. They are: Dosseh, Segnon, and Messanh. All boys - related cousins - that are between 20 and 23 I would say. Superb young men - so helping and willing to go out of their way.
It is indeed f@cking humid! 85 degrees upon arrival at night, add in humidex, , , 157 degrees. Thank god for the ac in the room!
Closing thought at end of day? The world seems to be huge, intriguing and very diverse in many ways but we all appear to share many things in common. Joy, concerns, laughter, at times sadness, and love of family and friends.
Pics
My chariot from Toronto to Brussels (jet Airways A330-300) as well as from Brussels to Lome via Cote d'Ivoire)
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