Togo and Benin

Part of our intense ten days of training in January was a weekend in Togo and Benin.  The church is very young in these countries.  We have one stake in Lome, Togo and one district in Cotonou, Benin. Both countries speak French and they make up the Benin Cotonou Coordinating Council.  The AAA for this council is Clement Quenum and he is one of our newest AAAs.  We were happy to go help with the training of the new stake and district presidencies in his area.

Brother Clement Quenum

Clement is a retired school teacher.  He has been a member of the church for four years.  His wife passed away four years ago and he has four children and two grandchildren.  He lives in Cotonou but met us in Togo for the training. 

On the road to Lome, Togo

The scenery was quite different on the way to Togo.  Usually we see green hills and not much empty space.  We went through a lot of open territory that looked like these two pictures.

On the way

We took our car this time but Arnold, who drove us to the Kumasi training, drove again. His wife came with us and we dropped her off at her mother's home so she could visit over the weekend.  We left Friday afternoon, January 24th, about 4:00 pm.  This was later than we had hoped, but when you travel with others you are not always in control.





We arrived at the border after dark and passed through an hour's worth of bureaucratic hassle without serious incident, arriving at our hotel about nine o'clock.  Robert and Arnold went out to get something to eat, I was ready for bed.

Sancta Maria Hotel

 We stayed at the Sancta Maria Hotel which was quite lovely and right on the beach.  We enjoyed a delicious breakfast in the morning and admired the art and the fresh flowers in the hotel lobby.

Visiting by the baptismal font in the Church courtyard

The training was held at the "old building", one of the first buildings rented by the church in Lome.  They have a beautiful new stake center now.  The Lome Togo Stake, the first stake in Togo, was just created in December and we were training the new stake presidency. The building to the left is a small building housing offices and classrooms.  We met there for the training.  Several of the chapels we have been to have outdoor baptismal fonts like this one in the picture.

The "Old Building"

This is the main building of the church.  When we arrived there on Friday evening, they were holding high council meeting on the upper balcony where it was cooler.  The doors on the lower level go into the chapel.  The benches under the metal roof are the "overflow".

Clement, Arnold, Jean-Bertin and Robert

Jean-Bertin Cwakou is a church employee in Cote 'd Ivoire.  He flew into Lome for this training.  He also translated our portion of the training into French.  It would have been nice to know French.  We appreciated his help.  We ate lunch at this restaurant that was not far from our hotel.






By the time we had finished training, eaten lunch and exchanged some money, we were leaving for Benin quite late.  We arrived at the border when it was still light and Jean and Clement were helpful in getting us through the border.  Border officials have a reputation of expecting a little dash (bribe) to expedite crossing the border.

The Border from Togo to Benin

The borders were very busy and provided an opportunity for "people watching".  Many people crossed carrying all sorts of things on their heads, some going one direction, some going the other.  Although the frontier looks simple and welcoming in this picture, there are at least 4 stops on each side, not physically in the correct sequential order, where we had to park the car just right while Robert got the details of our passports, visas, vaccination certificates, car registration, insurance and border permits carefully scrutinized by many officials, most in military uniforms, hoping to find something wrong so they could require facilitating payments.  Every detail of our documents was copied by hand into several ledgers on each side of the border.  There are no signs giving any hints as to the required crossing procedures, but aggressive entrepreneurs were always at your elbows wanting to "help" you for a fee.  We were glad to be crossing at first with experienced Africans so we could manage it all in reverse by ourselves on the way home.

Waiting to Cross the Border

These aren't wonderful pictures but when a border official saw me taking pictures, he insisted I delete the photos.  I took these from inside the car.  The man in the center is wearing pants and shirt made from the same printed fabric.  We saw a lot of men wearing this type of clothing, some of which is quite colorful. 

Loaded up with Something

The road to Cotonou was mostly two-way traffic on a two lane road.  This part looks great, Robert got pretty good at dodging the pot holes on parts of it.  You see all kinds of vehicles.  This one is loaded up with some sort of grass or brush. 

Going to Cotonou

 The road often went close to the ocean in all three countries--Ghana, Togo and Benin, so we had beach views.










Before we got to Cotonou it was dark.  It had rained hard that morning, the road was under construction and the traffic was bumper to bumper for many miles.  I cannot adequately describe the crazy ride into the city.  We were grateful to be driving an SUV with 4-wheel drive and Robert did an excellent job of getting us there safely.  I took pictures Monday on the way out trying to show what we had gone through. The puddles had mostly dried up.

Mud and Large Puddles

We saw many people selling fuel from bottles on the side of the road.  It wasn't always obvious whether it was gasoline, diesel, kerosene or palm oil.

You feel like you're driving in a trough, because you are!

This will be a wonderful road when it is finished.  It will be a divided highway with at least two lanes on each side and then to each side of this is a frontage road for the motorcycles.  It works beautifully on the parts that are finished.

You can see the tire tracks in the mud.

Four wheel drive was a blessing

Sorry for the rear view mirror that is in the way, but there were several places like this where we were going up and over large mounds of wet dirt.  Some cars got stuck.  People helped push them up the hills and out of the mud.

Lots of motorcycles in Cotonou

The District Center

We did the training at this rented chapel.  Someone (not LDS) held a funeral in the street the night before so the colorful shade canopies were still up.  We attended church here in the morning and enjoyed it very much.  The speakers for sacrament meeting were a young sister preparing for a mission and a former Muslim man who had converted to the church.  Both did an excellent job.

Children are so precious.

I couldn't resist taking this cute little boy's picture.

Some older children

The Chapel

Robert played the keyboard while we were waiting for our meeting.

 

Motorcycles in the foyer

 The members who come to church on motorcycles park them in the foyer.  I could see about six motorcycles from my seat in sacrament meeting.






 

Relief Society Sisters

 I don't usually get to go to Relief Society.  These sisters were so beautiful in their colorful dresses so I asked if I could take their picture.  They are very happy smiley ladies but you wouldn't know it from this photo!

Irene and Nick Eastmond

We met Elder and Sister Eastmond at church.  They are serving a CES mission in Cotonou.  They kindly invited us to their flat for lunch.  It was delicious and so enjoyable visiting with them.  They teach classes at two universities and also some institute classes.  What a surprise to find out that they are good friends of our Boise friends, the Hambeltons.

Best Western Hotel

We stayed at the Best Western Hotel while in Cotonou.  I just had to take this picture in their lobby because it is so typical of the many businesses that leave their decorations up long past Christmas.  It was a very nice hotel.  We are grateful the hotels provide nice breakfasts too!

Motorcycle Taxi

Many of the motorcycles are taxis.  The women do pretty well getting on and off them in their dresses. 

Lots of Motorcycles

We were told that the motorcycles have the right of way.  Don't hit one because it will be your fault!  Sometimes we felt surrounded by motorcycles.

More Motorcycles

Lots of Motorcycles in the far left lane

This shows the portion of the road that is finished.  It is so nice to have the motorcycles separated from the cars.








Robert got pretty good at navigating the city.  I am so grateful for his sense of direction.  He also did a good job of training the stake and district presidencies.  It is a long way to go for a few hours of training a few people.  This shows how important the Church leaders feel it is to get this information to the Priesthood leaders so they can do their jobs of overseeing the sacred funds of the church. We are continually impressed with the leaders in these stakes and districts.  They are capable and want to do things the correct way.

Thatched home

On the way home we passed through many villages.  Some of the houses have thatched roofs and are quite picturesque.  

Clay Brick Home

Others are made of cement or clay bricks.








We passed over the Volta River in Ghana on our way back home.  This trip was a very fast one.  We arrived home Monday about 5 o'clock pm, tired but happy.  Life is good.  West Africa is a facinating place.

Volta River