Premier Mai

Christophe DJIKOUTIKE, my Togolese counterpart, is one of the few people I’ve met in Dapaong who just gets it. He fully understands Peace Corps Volunteers are not sent to cities and villages to give sizeable donations, to give cadeaux similar to those millions have received on The Oprah Show, etc. He gets that we are here to educate, to exchange cultural ideas and ideals, and to hopefully improve life in Togo.

At 7:54am, I received a text from Christophe. He officially invited Katy and I to celebrate le Premier Mai with he and his wife Martine—a woman half his age and twice his size. Niiiiiiiiice, Christophe. Nice.

At first I was hesitant to accept. Katy and I had already accepted two other invitations and we knew very well that such invitations would include food, drinks and dancing. Accepting the invitation was an absolute confirmation that our stomachs would despise us by the end of the day. End of the day??? No. That’s not correct. By the end of the afternoon!!!!

So what did we do? We accepted. Boom.

Thank goodness I ate a hand full of mixed nuts and a mango for breakfast!!

ROUND ONE:

Katy and I arrived at Christophe’s house shortly after 11. Christophe was out in search of la soupe de bon mil (a.k.a. good tchakpa), so Katy and I sat outside, stared off into space and occasionally came back to reality to admire the art of pounding yams. Fufu was on the menu. Score!

So…yes, we ate fufu with a tomato sauce and beef. I often enjoy dining chez Christophe because in addition to everything else he gets, he is fully aware of our disgust to stomach lining. Or is that just me?

I had nearly finished my plate when Christophe said, “Oh, il faut ajouter.” (Oh, it’s important to add.) Ummm…Christophe. I did tell you we had another lunch scheduled with Katy’s homologue. Did he listen? Nope!  Fortunately, he gets a kick out of my sassy personality. So when I took the serving spoon from his hand and cut Katy’s second helping of fufu in half to split between us he just smiled.

Of course we couldn’t leave his house without taking a pitcher of tchakpa!!! I guess we were just hoping we could.

ROUND TWO:

We wanted to walk off some of our food before our second date, with Katy’s homologue. That, however, did not happen. First, we were so full we could barely breathe let alone walk a mile. Second, we were running a little late. Pfpfpfpf…l’heure africaine…we’re never late.

So we took motos. Before mounting the moto, my friend Robert walked up to say and confirm our date later. We confirmed and then told him we left tchakpa on Katy’s porch and he was welcome to take it and share with others. Little did we know…

Katy and I arrived at our second destination with no desire to continue consuming liquids and food. But what were we to do? Say no. Yeah, that would have gone over well!

We ate soup—but really it was tomato sauce—spaghetti and enough meat to fulfill my protein intake for the week. We struggled. I finished slightly more than half my plate but wanted to vomit. That was it. I was done. At least for an hour.

 Before Round Three, we decided to walk (instead of taking motos) back to Katy’s house. No doubt I was waddling either like a penguin or a pregnant woman in her third trimester.

The hour we had to rinse off and GO HORIZONTAL (i.e. lie on a mat) was sufficient enough. Well, kind of.

ROUND THREE:

Since our rendezvous was scheduled for 16h, we figured food might not be involved. Damn it. We were so wrong.

We met our favorite seamstress at Bar Obama. That’s right. Obama!

As soon as we walked up to the table, it was unmistakable…plates, cutlery and giant cooler. They waited to eat with us. Balls!

Couscous, chicken and beer. Need I write more? No.

Following the day’s pattern, we ate and we drank, but this time we danced. Togolese always get a kick out of foreigners doing the Moba dance. Of course, I didn’t expect everyone at the bar to stare at me while I danced. And somewhere in the middle of all the dancing I got a marriage proposal from a man whose wife sat right next to him and she accepted me too. Yikes!

I could write more, but just enjoy the photos below (Give me a couple of days. Internet is pretty terrible today.). It was a good day. We had some laughs, we ate lot, and we drank a lot. Reminded me of Thanksgiving.

Until next time…J