The heat is back

May 19 2007

It’s been looking like rain the past few days, but instead of being relieved, we’ve had more sun and very humid heat since yesterday. Yesterday Joseph drove me to Tsevie, a nearby city, to visit their office and clients there. It was such a small town compared to Lome, very calm and everything close-by, so I got to meet 5 clients in just a couple of hours, if that. Also, it was hard to get the conversations going and I think it was mostly because I didn’t really know the field officer who was taking me around as much and maybe people here are also less talkative, but I don’t know. So I basically got through my questions, took pictures and moved on to the next client. Then in the afternoon I went to visit one more client before heading to the market. It was definitely the highlight of the day (although I was really dreaming of hoping in the pool at the hotel where we had a very dissatisfying lunch. It was run by a French woman and the sauce was canned tomato sauce which came with defrosted and tasteless fish.)

Going back to the market, you can see the picture here. Since it’s a smaller city the main market day is only on Fridays and so it was filled with merchants and customers from the city and the surrounding areas. There were tons of dried chilies, but we went through quickly and people were not too happy about the camera, so I didn’t get many shots in.

I did get a picture of some of Microfund’s clients (non-Kiva clients) and the picture here is of a client who sells fried fish at the market. I also really liked the house where their office is located here, and apparently the rent is less than $100 a month….

Today, since Joseph’s car is having problems, we didn’t go to the north, but rather closer by to the East to visit a phosphorous mine. The best part was the drive out there with great greenery and

small villages all along. We tried to buy palm wine on the side of the road, but after testing it decided it wasn’t very good (sometimes they mix it with water and sugar). When we got to the mine, after tracking down the guy who would give us permission to go in, we saw the impressive excavation that’s also ruining the land there. The manager of the site who took us in said they could go on mining there for another 20 years.

Just a few days left. I’m happy to be going home, but I know I’ll miss it (though not the heat). Next week I’ll be traveling some more and next weekend we are definitely going to visit the mountains in the North either in the car or in a taxi (I’m really excited).

D