Togo

An experience I'll never forget

We walked into the clinic in the morning and it was already hot, humid and stuffy as it always seems to be here. The reception room doubled as the initial diagnosis room so it had 2 beds in it, one of which was occupied by a local African woman moaning and looking very uncomfortable. I was attending with our tour leader Ishi who appeared to be getting better from her fever but was getting a check-up to keep the office happy who were insisting she gets ticked off before carrying on with the next leg of the trip. We had just been to another section of the clinic 500 metres away which was a room no bigger than a cupboard to get a blood test and had walked back with the results in hand to be translated by the clinic staff. The 3 nurses were spending most of their time attending to the other lady who was still groaning every few minutes and I overheard them mentioning Typhoid, not a good prognosis for the poor local. Soon after they walk over to Ishi and hook her up with a IV drip which we think is strange as she had 2 the day before. "Why another drip" we ask as they fumble around with Ishi's wrist and miss her vein a couple of times. "You have Typhoid" was the unexpected reply as they eventually find their mark and the treatment starts flowing down into her bloodstream. After the shock and a few questions we sit back and wait for the vaccine to do its work but the poor lady in the other corner seems to be getting a bit worse. A few family members of hers are sitting nearby, comforting her and a Christian reverend has just turned up, not a entirely strange event as the Ghanaian people are extremely religious. However what starts to happen is not what I would call a typical Christian ceremony. The reverend begins with a few words as more family and friends pile into the small reception room and they all say a few words themselves in-between the ranting of the priest. It gets louder and louder until they are all singing, clapping and chanting. The nurses begin to join in as well, making sure they keep one eye on the Ghana version of Days of our Lives which is blasting in the background. It then moves almost into an exorcism as the reverend starts pulling the woman up as she screams in pain. Every single person is then chanting their own prayer as he slams the woman up and down on her bed repeatedly and the fervour of the group increases and soon they are all now screaming their prayers, clapping their hands and slamming their feet into the ground. One of the doctors came and ushered Ishi and myself into the next room but all that divided the 2 was a flyscreen window. The whole process took about 20 minutes and every now and then they would wrench the lady up again as she wailed and screamed. The reverend finished with sweat dripping off him as most of the group filtered out the front door and peace returned. It was one of the most surreal events I've ever experienced. After speaking to the doctor it turned out she had been having convulsions, most likely from Typhoid or Malaria but they will still awaiting her blood test to return. Soon after Ishi's IV finished and they loaded her up with drugs and sent us on our way.

Big Millys Campsite



Big Millys



Akasombo Dam on Lake Volta

 

Mat Cummins

 

 



As for our trip we have moved about 100km east in the last 2 weeks. Having finished up with our 4 visas in Accra we have crossed the border and now found ourselves in Lome, the capital of Togo. Here we have spent the working week applying for our Gabon and Nigeria visas and we look to have been successful, we should be picking our passports up tomorrow and making our way into Benin. Lome is a fairly modern city for Africa with its wide avenues and developed infrastructure and its almost got a Asian feel to it with motorbikes outnumbering cars by about 5 to 1. Most taxis are motorbikes so whenever we want to get anywhere without the truck its a nice procession of white tourists hanging on for dear life nipping in-between trucks and cars. I got to visit the fetish market as well which was the first touristy thing I've done since Mole National Park and it was a good excuse to pull my camera back out which I must admit I've really slacked off on. West Africa is difficult when it comes to taking pictures as there are only so many photos you can take of marketplaces, dirt roads and sunsets. Taking pictures of people directly is considered extremely rude and even from a distance they will shy away or yell abuse at you. I'll just have to learn to be a bit more sneaky.

Goods at the fetish market









Cant wait to get back on the road, we have been stagnant getting visas for close to 3 weeks now but the end is near. 1 more visa to get for Cameroon when we are in Nigeria and we will be right all the way down to Cape Town.




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