SUNDAY, APR 25TH--LOME, TOGO

We were awakened just before 7am to the sound of someone playing a trumpet out on the pier. It didn’t last very long as the ship’s security people probably ask him to stop playing. A while later a local drum band and several dancers began performing at the gangway as passengers were leaving the ship for their tours. Our tour was not until 1:50 in the afternoon so we decided to take a shuttle bus from ship into the town of Lome to see the markets. We only lasted about 40 minutes as we were followed and hounded constantly by several of the locals hawking their wares. For some reason the shuttle bus guide accompanied us through the market and helped us. It was a huge market with thousands of “stalls” where the man or woman displayed their souvenirs. Most of their stuff was made of wood and quite nice. There was also lots of hand made necklaces, bracelets, earrings, leather bags, clothes, etc. Rebecca found some more necklaces she bought. I would have liked to looked around longer but these people would not stop bugging me and I became uncomfortable with them so close. It was also very hot and humid so we headed back to the bus. After lunch we headed out for our “Voodoo Ceremony in Sanguera” tour. Sanguera was a small village about a 45 minute drive north of Lome. The country of Togo was pretty much as I had pictured it. It has 5 ½ million inhabitants and on Tuesday it will be celebrating its 50th year of being independent. It’s a very Third World country and not modern at all. As we drove along the big and nice looking beach there were women washing clothes in big tubs and then spreading the clothes over the beach to dry. The people looked clean and seemed to be happy. The country is the largest exporter of phosphates in the world and further inland has lots of agriculture. Instead of rice as a stable of their diet they use corn meal to make a paste like food. Soups are also big in their diet. We finally arrived at a primitive village where we witnessed a traditional voodoo ceremony that lasted about an hour and was quite interesting to say the least. I have pictures of it and a video but will not upload them until after tomorrow’s stop in Ghana. We arrived back late to the ship at 5:30 and sailed shortly after 6pm. We are just going about 200 miles west up the coast and will arrive at Takoradi in Ghana tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, getting back to ship late meant we missed our church service. I talked with my mother this morning and Rebecca called her brother also. The phone connection was better than usual today. Show tonight is featuring the singing of Carly Casey, one of the ship’s talented, young singers.