Flight and First Impressions

5/15 Lome, Togo

Wow! I can’t even begin to process what just happened in the last day.  Detroit to Paris was about 8 hrs.  We left at 9:50pm our time and got to Paris about 11:30 their time.  There was only a slight misadventure leaving Detroit.  As I checked my carry on for some gum, I realized my laptop didn’t get put back in.  So, I went into instant panic mode, but we eventually found it.  The flight wasn't too bad, but there was some turbulence towards the end and we all felt a little queasy.  But wait!  Let me tell you about the crazy lady I got stuck next to-Theresa.  She was, no joke, just like a brunette Kim from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.  She was a nervous wreck, but I think I did a pretty good job of distracting her.

We finally got to Paris, landing in the Charles de Gaulle airport which you have to shuttle around to go to the different terminals.  We only stayed a couple hours and were off again around 1:30pm and got to Lome at about 7pm Togo time.  I’m not even going to explain the time changes, but all you need to know is Togo is 4 hrs ahead of Detroit.  On the Paris to Lome flight, I sat next to Emmanuel, a Togolese who was coming back from Illinois, where he was getting his masters.  He was very informative about his country, but also praised the U.S.

We eventually arrived in Lome and got to walk down the steps out of the plane-so Pan Am!  We then rushed on a bus to take us inside where we were introduced to Celestine (Dr. Adewui's former student who now owns her own pharmacy) who gave us the VIP security/luggage check free pass and led us out the back to a Land Cruiser that took us to our hotel where we had dinner (fried chicken, baguette, pasta, salad, and pineapple) and settled in for the night.  Togo gets dark around 6 so we will usually be in by 8. 

As we were driving from the airport to the hotel, the girls and I were culture shocked like deer in headlights as we obvserved the Lome streets at night.  We knew we were going to Africa, but this was AFRICA, the unedited, national geographic, travel channel, real life version.  

There are few paved roads, lines, signs, and lights-so driving is crazy.  Mostly, everyone has motorcycles.  Lining the streets are people everywhere eating, talking, carrying things on their heads, and selling.  The hotel we are staying in, Amy’s hotel, is directly in Lome, the capital city.  Electricity and water is limited here because of so many people in one area.  The lights take a while and flicker before going on and the shower may or may not turn on...