Place: Kpalime
Kpalime used to be and I think remains the richest region of Togo thanks to its land and climat favorable for growing coffee and cocoa. It is also a fantastic hiking destination, so we headed there after lake Togo and a night in Lome by 7-seater bush taxi, which in experience on its own, as it’s a normal car where you cram 4 people behind and 2 infront.
Back in Togoville we met 4 French scouts who told us about this NGO association in Kpalime called Aves, that apart from all their volunteering projects management also organise local visits and excursions.
Since we didn’t have a better plan how to get a guide in Kpalime we got in touch with AVES (Association des Volontaires pour l Environnement Sain) on arrival.
Now that I’m looking back at the time we spent with these guys I realise how incredibly lucky it was and what a massive role they played in my personal discovery of Togo and its people.
We spend 2 gorgeous days hiking beautiful jungly mountains, waterfalls, visiting local farms and villages. The nature is stunning, but more importantly, visiting small villages and talking to locals, we realisedhow much Togolese people are honest, welcoming, happy to help, and in general do not see Yovos (white people) as money bags, bargaining is modest, everyone is very polite and considerate in what\how they say to you, they do not expect you to give them money just because and I’ve seen no begging. Majority are educated in strong Christian tradition and know only to take what’s yours. It is truly amazing to see this level of selfconduct here, where unfortunately due to political issues people struggle to make their living much more compared to the neighboring Ghana and Benin.
I must admit, in my first few days I was very overwhelmed. (Africa is fierce in everything, so are its people). The way people speak, joke, laugh, dance, sing – is very expressive and full of energy and all this seemed over the top to me and I didn’t know what to expect and was constantly on my guard.
Selom, the head of AVES, and his cheerful team helped me to scratch the surface and see not just the beauty of their land but also understand better the people of Togo. Sincere gratitude to Selom and AVES team. It helped me to find my ease and enjoy the country without unnecessary worries. In fact on our last 2 days in Togo we felt ok to leave our backpacks with our moto-taxi drivers and go explore the area.
Another good example of fairness and honesty, to exlore Tamberma land between Togo and Benin we hired 2 guys on motobikes for 2 days for an agreed fee to take us from Kara to Natitingou with an intention to spend a night in the heart of Tamberma in a traditional tata house (there is a dedicated post about that). It was not a particularly lucky 2 days as for different reasons we had to change motos and drivers twice. On the last day when crossing the border from Togo to Benin, there was a problem with one of the motorbikes we hired and we had to get an extra moto in order to continue. Our current driver was completely owning the search. It was not easy to sort it out, and at some point we wanted to offer some additional money just to make it simpler. But the guy refused saying “if anyone will be paying additional expences, it will be me, the price for you was agreed and I will not take more.
The church goers & music
Another surprise for us was the number of packed churches.
In Kpalime how do you know that you are close to a church? The music!! During a mass the priest sends a word of wisdom and then, led by hand drums, song starts. Every person in the church is in absolute ecstasy singing and dancing with a blissful smile, open heart and fire in the eyes. This can continue for hours, it seemed that one of the most important masses is the one of Friday evening – it lasts all night. At times the drums will speed up and overtake the stage and then it really sounds like a techno party.
We also were lucky to catch an open air celebration in a small town that involved costumes, singing and dancing. Hard to tell for sure, but from the usage of horse tails as one of dance attributes it is safe to assume it was animist festivity. Seb got invited for dance and I think impressed everyone. [proud]
In resume: it was my first time in this part of the world and it took time to understand the local ways, of course not completely, but enough to be able to find my position and appreciate better what we came here for. At the end of my stay i am more comfortable here than i was in Sri Lanka for example, as people are not spoiled by mass tourisme and are generally well intentioned.
