September 11: Journey to Tove and first day in Kpalime
I read in my guidebook that in Togo, the worst thing you can do is be in a rush to get somewhere. Even on a car here in French I saw written “those who are in a hurry will arrive late.” These principles were proven true today. The driver was supposed to pick me up at 7:00 a.m. to get to Tove (a town outside of Kpalime where my next seminars were being held) by 9:00 am. When 7:05 came and he wasn’t there, I decided to have a quick breakfast; as a result, we left 15 minutes late. Then we had to stop at Mary’s house to pick up some things. Then the driver couldn’t find Jean’s house. We didn’t start leaving Lome until 8:00. Then we hit traffic in Lome. Jean said it was because it was the first day of school.
We arrived in Tove at 9:30. I felt terrible. The schedule the rest of the day was completely off. At the break, I apologized to one of the DIFOP trainers, saying we had some trouble getting out of Lome. He asked in a worried tone what happened, but when I told him, he said, “oh, that’s not trouble.”
At lunch time, we went to the Hotel Royal in Kpalime to check in. It was a small hotel on the edge of the city. It only had 12 rooms. It was clean and peaceful. When I saw the Van Gogh reprints on the wall, including the less commonly known “Starry Night” which I have a copy of, I felt at home immediately.
The owner, Jul, was there to greet us. He was born in Togo, but had lived in Georgia for a couple of years and then in Austria for 25 years. His English had a slight southern accent. He showed me around the hotel, and told me about the choice to come to Togo and of building a hotel in Kpalime instead of settling in Lome. He showed me the papaya tree in the backyard; I said I’d never had fresh papaya before so he offered me some of his. He said he eats it every day for his health. It wasn’t as sweet as I imagined it would be, but still delicious.
I had to get back to Tove for the seminars, so I scarfed down a tomato salad and promised to chat more in the evening. When I returned for dinner I had wienerschnitzel and fries, which were pretty good. Jul’s wife, Karoline, arrived shortly after dinner. She had spent the day shopping in Lome. She spoke some English and French, but most of our conversation over the course of the evening was in German. I was amazed how much of what she said I was able to understand, and how easy it was to speak German to her. She said she had experience talking in German to foreigners.
She also told me about the choice to come to Togo. She said she and her husband had met at the American Embassy in Vienna. After they married, they had run a restaurant outside of Vienna for 18 years. Then her husband suggested they move to Togo. She came without ever laying eyes on the country. But now she says she would never go back to Austria except to visit.
Tags: Africa, driving, Togo, Travel
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