Sunday 12 June 2011

Togo

Yee bay roh (Good Morning)
Making it to Lome Togo a week ago, this was my to do list:  hit the Voodoo market, make motorcycle repairs & service, and wait for the carnet ( a passport, but for the motorcycle) to come by courier from Ottawa.
The local bike shop did an oil change, recommended a can of fork oil for seals that leak, & new rear tire  - second one since March 4th.
 OOPS .. Driving his scooter with one hand and the other hand  holding onto my wheel to go have the old tire swapped out for the new one, the kid looses a bushing off the wheel. The missing bushing keeps vital metal parts from rubbing together that are not ment to be.  I figured out what happened after a few miles of riding and my ABS light went on. Rear brake pads are now shot as well as the ABS sensor. I have a bushing again, but am left to my own resources to deal with ABS / rear brakes.
  July 10th  I will continue on from Accra, Ghana with a fellow rider from Slovenia. We will spend a few days with 15 million other people in Lagos, Nigeria.  There I hope to get a visa for Cameroon and head east (see map) before taking an extended break again in East Africa.
When taking back roads, I sheltered at a village school to get out of the rain and that helped save the day. The evening gave me opportunity to learn a bit of the local language.
  Other languages so far include: Goonisee, Eve, Aeposso, Kotokoli, Amoussa, Kabye, Bambara, & Arabic. ( bad spelling I know, its my Saskatchewan education. lol)
These trips through some of the more remote areas can start with meeting a guy saying: " hey white man" and my reply : "yee bay roh"  usually ending a few minutes or days later with : goodby my friend !

I am staying next door to the : International Christian school of Lome.
Listening to children singing in choir often throughout the day !!

3 comments:

  1. I've been trying for an hour to post a comment ...it wasn't working so I googled the problem and someone suggested using Firefox for web browser, I hope it works.

    Thanks for the updates and pics .... looks like fun. I google mapped Lome Togo. Looks like a large coastal city. Far from Canada!

    Did you hear Vancouver lost to Boston in the Stanley Cup final .... 4-0 grrrr.

    Safe travels to you.

    Love the Harneds

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  2. Yup, Firefox did the trick!
    I emailed you a link earlier today. David and Kaylee created a short music clip. If it was too big to download my apologies.
    If you want to hear them sing just go to youtube and enter in Thendstudio and then look for their Bruno Mars Song; Grenade. David wrote his own song ... not titled as of yet ... same place on youtube; Thendstudio.

    Anyhow, good to hear from you.

    Donna

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  3. ok
    googled kabye "white man" and found your blog
    i am living in Kara, Togo and will spend some time checking out your posts later this weekend.
    have only been to ghana and togo but....... maybe.
    http://jademarine-jademarine.blogspot.com

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