September 8: Photographs, please
Tuesday, October 10th, 2006This was a fairly uneventful day. The morning seminars went well, but ran long—we were supposed to have lunch at 1:00 but we didn’t go out until 2:00 pm. We went to our usual place. This time I wanted to take pictures of the place.
Many people in Africa get angry if you try to take their photograph, or demand a cadeau (payment) for it. To avoid that problem, Jean asked Jacques to take pictures for me and of me, so it would be less conspicuous. For the first time that week, I was allowed to go to the kitchen area and watch the woman pounding out the fou fou, with a toddler strapped to her back. She let Jacques take pictures easily.
After lunch, we went back to the seminars. I finally decided to brave the bathrooms there. I was shocked to find out that the bathrooms in Togo are generally unisex stalls with a common sink and towels. It was a little sad to me that SIL had to put a sign on the door in French that said “don’t urinate in the showers”.
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