But let me back up a bit. School was quite exciting last week. Monday was the only semi-normal day. Classes proceeded as usual but I just finished up my prose section with the 8th grade class, so we spent half of class just chatting. People here are always curious about the United States and my life and I love to answer questions.
Tuesday, the fun began. The first day of the 'inter-house competition' was all about sports. The students played football (soccer), volleyball, ping pong, ampe (a clapping and jumping game for girls), ludo (a board game sort of structured like Sorry) and another board game that was like Mancala. The little kids also had two competitions: one was running with a lime balanced on a spoon, the other was filling a water bottle from a basin (using a cupped hand to transfer water). House 4, Team Yaa Asantewaa performed well all day. We won girl's ping-pong, ludo, and 1 round of water-bottle filling. We did respectably in football, volleyball and ampe. At the end of the day, we were barely leading by 2 points.
Wednesday, however, we fell behind. It was all academic competitions for this day. Each house nominated 3 students to represent the team. Then questions were posed to each panel. When a question wasn't answered correctly, or time ran out, the next house in line had a chance for bonus points. First, the students did the Spelling Bee and then moved on to subject-related questions. They had to answer questions on French, Social Studies, Math, Science and Ga. It was a spirited competition but house 4 got third place behind house 3 and house 2. There was a brief awards ceremony.
My kids tried hard but they need to study hard for the next competition. I congratulated them and then headed home to pack. This long weekend was a much-needed break from the daily grind at school. It was great to get away and spend some time exploring a new place.
Thursday morning started at 4 am and it took me about 7 hours to get to Togo. The border is only about 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Accra. So, first, I grabbed a tro-tro into Accra and then found a bus to Aflao (town at the border post). From there, I walked to the border post, situated practically in town, and bought my 15,000 CFA (about 30 dollars) Togolese visa. I had no problem getting out of or back into Ghana. Borders have generally been pretty low-stress affairs in Africa. Lome is only another 2 kilometers east, so I decided to politely decline all the various offers of transit and walk into town.
Togo is very big into motorcycle taxis. They are everywhere, swarming the streets (and sometimes the sidewalks) like a pack of bees. I very quickly got sick of saying "Je veux marcher" (I want to walk) and just started ignoring all motorcyles. Lome has about 700,000 inhabitants so it is a sizeable town, but it was totally walkable. I wandered down the beautiful beach-side boulevard the rings the south side of town and found a nice hostel close to the beach. After settling in, it was still early, so I took one of those detestable motorcycles (sorry Mom) out to the east side of town. I had heard about an impressive juju market and wanted to check it out. Unfortuntately, the 'owners' of the market wanted to charge me just to enter and look around. After a heated argument with them (my French came back quickly) I decided it wasn't worth it. So instead, I explored Lome. The town is ringed by one big C-shaped boulevard (Boulevard 13 Janvier) and in 4 days, I walked prety much the whole thing, and most of the town (contained inside the "D" made by that boulevard and the one along the beach).
It was surprisingly sunny in Lome the whole time I was there. I had become accustomed to Accra's perpetual grey-ness so I actually needed to buy a cheap pair of sunglasses in town. I was quite sweaty from my wanderings so I decided to cool off in the ocean with a late afternoon swim. The beach is long and beautiful but it slopes down sharply at the waterside and the waves were a bit large. I found some people to swim with and had a good time.
Friday I decided to check out Lake Togo. I had heard that there were watersports available but I found the lake to be pretty dead except for some fishermen and some lazy pirogues (wooden canoes). So I spent the day reading and relaxing, had a swim, got some sun and ate some cheap street food. I certainly missed being able to find a filling meal for under a dollar. I also found out that Togo's southern coast is only about 52 kilometers (32 miles) wide. So when I went to the lake, I was basically at the border with Benin.
Saturday I wandered around town some more. I checked out the governmental district, the Place d'Independence and found a really cool artesinal market. I always like supporting artists directly, so I got some souvenirs there. I spent the afternoon at the beach and did some more reading. After all, that's what a vacation is all about, right? I even had to go to a bookstore in town to get more reading material. I scoured their used books section and found possibly the only 2 English novels in the whole place.
Sunday, just as I had become accustomed to speaking French again, it was time to leave. I walked back to the border. I was staying on the east side of town, so it was about a 4 kilometer walk. I got a baguette before I left Togo, because I miss that style of bread. Another smooth trip across a border and I realized that my passport is pretty much full. I have a couple of spots left for my stamps into Senegal and back to the States, but I will soon need to apply for extra pages. Considering how empty it was upon arriving in Africa, I'd say I have a very impressive collection of visas and stamps. The trip back to Accra was uneventful. I found a tro-tro to Accra and then another to Teshie-Nungua.
It's been a great long weekend! Back to the grind tomorrow. I'm about 2/3 of the way through my stay in Ghana. Another month and it's off to Senegal and then back home.
Happy Halloween everyone! As far as I can tell, it's not celebrated here, so no costume for me this year.
Cheers.
Me at the beach by my hostel.
The shoreline of Lake Togo.
Chilling beside the Lake. 
