Robbed Again....

Me: "What just happened?"
April: "ummm....We just got robbed AGAIN...AMANDA!!!"

Hahaha...i have to laugh because this dialog between April and me happened several times this weekend...and it pretty much sums up our adventure in Togo! That sounds really awful, but besides losing a bunch of money and having to cut our trip short, we had so much fun! I love it there.....

The second we stepped off the Tro-Tro at the Ghana/Togo Border we were greeted by two extremely (overly) nice men- a Togolese who spoke French and English (very helpful) and a Ghanaian. They warned about all the corruption that at the border...."people exchanging your money will try to steal from you...you will get charged more for a visa as an American....if you don't take a car out of the border they will take your passport and make you pay money to get it back"....blah blah blah.... all of these warnings and more. They offered to stay with us while we went through the process to make sure no one took advantage of us or stole from us....stupidly we agreed..and were actually grateful!

Sure enough, the guy on the street that exchanged our money tried to steal from us several times...he was so SNEAKY!!!!! He would count out the money if front of us, but when he handed it to us he would somehow take a bunch without us noticing. Once we counted the money and realized that it was the wrong amount, he would put some bills on top of the pile...and once again, very inconspicuously, he would take even more money out of the pile! It took a long time, and a lot of concentration and careful watching to finally get all of our money exchanged.

When we got our visas....sure enough, they charged us almost twice as much! Our "helpful friends" tried to help us get the price down, but it didn't work. The visa should cost about $20, and despite the fact that we said we were "poor college students that were working with a church group in Togo" we ended up paying about $40. Once that was over, all we had to do was get out of the border without or visas getting "confiscated"....our "friends" convinced us that the only way to do that was to get a car out...so they found us a taxi...how nice of them!

We found a hotel in our guide book that "was within walking distance" from the border, but because we were afraid of our passports being taken we decided to take a taxi there. The taxi wanted the equivalent of 12 dollars to drive us "half a mile"-we might be a little naive, but we aren't stupid (or I guess you can decide that later..) so we talked him down to about 3 bucks. Him and our "friends" took a around about way to the hotel...and in the car our Ghanaian friend told us that we needed to be careful with our money in Togo..he told us to put single cedis (Ghanaian currency) around our cifa (Togolese currency) to protect it- and he even exchanged our 5 for some single cedis! Then he showed us "the best way" to do that...while the money was IN MY HANDS!!!! I kept telling him I could to it but he insisted...I watched him so carefully and never actually saw him take any money...but i knew something was fishy, and I actually whispered to April that he was robbing me! Before I could count my money, we were at the hotel, forced out of the car, and our "friend" and the taxi were gone. I counted my money...and sure enough...people do in fact rob you in Togo...he stole $100 from me and $30 from April.... Did i mention that you can't get money in Togo?...no ATM'S! All the money we needed to stay for the weekend we had to exchange before entering Togo! We realized that we were literally 1 block from the border (and we paid a taxi 3 bucks to take us there!!), so we ran back there to try and find our little thief of a friend...and we were unsuccessful..."oh well" we decided...you live and you learn...at least Jesse and April still had their money to get us through the weekend.

So...we ate dinner and had a beer..and at the bar we met a guy named Francis. He was a student and a very kind person. Feeling sorry about our situation, he asked if we wanted to stay at his mothers house...feeling a little worried about money, we decided to take him up on the offer. Before we went to his house though, we decided to get April a birthday cake (it was her 21st birthday)....and by birthday cake, I mean a cookie and some FanIce (fake ice cream) from the Shell station...classy 21st for April!!!

Staying with Francis's family was so fun...and such a wonderful experience. They were so happy to have us stay in there house! We sang happy birthday to April about a hundred times....and just sat in each others presence- the language barrier made our conversations funny and confusing. By the end of the night, they thought that we were going to take them all back to America! After a night of tough sleeping, Francis made us a delicious Tololese breakfast....bread caked with mayonnaise! yummm....

After leaving Francis' house we took motor taxi's (yeah...motorcycles!!!!) through Lome to the tro tro station. Motor taxi's are soooooo fun! and dangerous....but i am alive! There are so many of them weaving in and out of traffic! Once we got there we were robbed...again. The taxi drivers left without giving us change- no biggy. We bought our tro-tro tickets...and once again they tried keep our change..."no change!!!" Did i mention that somewhere throught our journey to Francis' house April's $100 disappeared?? So yeah...at this point we had lost over $200, and we were being a bit demanding about getting our change...We finally got our money, and we headed to Poleme (i don't know how to spell it!)..

We walked through the market in Poleme then took motor taxi to a village called Kluto on top of a big mountain. It was so beautiful! We met a German man who was married to a Togolese women, and we went to a party they had...played drums and sang! The next morning we took a walk through the rain forest and up a mountain. It was amazing and very educational. Our guide, Apo, knew so much about all the plants....it was really great!

Since we lost so much money in the first 30 minutes, we had to leave the Togo early..what a shame. It was so wonderful- very clean...and it simply had a good feel to it. Hopefully i can go again before I leave. I am back in Legon now trying to finish school, so i can continue my journey through west africa! Only 3 more weeks then finals!!!!!!!!!! So happy....

Peace