July 7
Walking in the woods, in the shade of the palm trees, along the edge of the village with an old friend of mine.
“What happened to Kofi, my helper?”
Kofi was one of my language consultants in 1990s. He was a great person to talk to. Very funny, very smart. He never seemed to lose his temper. He was a teacher at a primary school for a long time.
“His face is ruined.”
“What does that mean?”
“He went crazy.”
“What?”
“He went crazy. He doesn’t make sense when he talks. He can no longer work.”
“Did he have a wife and kids?”
“Yes, he has two kids, but his wife left him.”
“Are they taking care of him?”
“Oh-hoo.” (expression of ignorance)
“Where is he now?”
“Over there, near Notse. I forget the name of the town.”
“If he is sick, why doesn’t he come back to the village?”
“Oh-hoo.”
“I am so sad about this. He was my friend.”
“Yes, of all those people, he was the most friendly. He always gave me mille franc when he came to visit.”
“Don’t you feel sorry for him?”
“No, I don’t. He did it to himself.”
“What do you mean?”
“He was chasing another man’s wife. Chasing another man’s wife is very dangerous.”
“But a lot of men chase women.”
“Yes, chasing women is fine, but not another man’s wife.”
“Whose wife?”
“Somebody over there, in Benin.”
“So what happened?”
“The man took revenge. People from Benin are strong, they do not forgive.”
“How did he take revenge?”
“He used witchcraft.”
“Can’t he get better? Maybe he can go to the hospital and get some medication.”
Shaking his head sadly:
“There is no way for him to get better.”
July 6
My nephew has a large palm farm (degble) and is a palm tapper. His main product is sodabe which is a hard liquor distilled from palm wine. He sells the sodabe in the village and as far as Lome.
I told him that I love palm wine (deha), so he brought over a fresh bottle yesterday morning for me to taste. We sat around for a couple of hours just enjoying the palm wine and talking. He also offered to bring me to the farm to see how the palm wine is tapped and how the sodabe is distilled. I will probably go over there some afternoon next week after my lexicon work.
Another traditional beverage is tchoukoutou, which is a kind of beer brewed from sorghum. It is popular in the north, but you can also find it on market day in the villages of the south. It has a brownish color and a sour taste. Just like palm wine, people usually drink it in a calabash. But it does not really appeal to me nearly as much as palm wine.
Palm wine has a wonderfully sweet taste. Maybe the closest thing to it in the US is a bottle of orange Fanta, but it has a much richer natural taste. There are no additives or chemicals or processed sugar. Although palm wine is not carbonated, it has a slight fiz, from the fermentation. If you drink it right after it is tapped, the alcohol level is very low, which is the kind I like to drink.
My nephew took the first sip, then I had two cups. After finishing the cup, you are supposed to hold a little in your mouth. You pour what is left in the cup on the ground, and then spit the palm wine remaining in your mouth onto the ground. The rest of the group says Do afe loo (arrive home!). It is kind of a male activity.
Palm wine has a traditional ceremonial value in Togo. When one gets married, one has to give palm wine to the woman’s father, as well as other alcoholic beverages such as sodabi and gin. It plays a role in other ceremonies as well, such as funerals.
After I drank two cups, I got a little drowsy, and I had to take a morning nap. Even for the fresh palm wine, the alcohol level is definitely not zero. It turns out that fresh palm wine is also a natural laxative. Soon after I drank my palm wine, I felt a huge urge to use the toilette. It cleaned out my entire system, like a powerful laxative.
July 3
My first day of work with the men’s team. I broke up the consultants into two teams, a women’s team and a men’s team. Actually, there is no reason to break apart men and women like this, it just turned out that way this time. In Botswana, the norm was to have husband-wife teams.
The team concept allows people to consult with each other on responses, and helps the consultants think about tricky issues. Having two separate teams allows me to compare the results of one team with the results of the other, increasing my confidence in the data.
The men are more educated, in terms of the formal school system, than the women. One of the women had three years of school, the other eight years. The men on the other hand, both have high school educations. Concretely this means that the men know more French than the women, which is definitely useful for me.
But the women have their own skills. For example, the two women know a lot of traditional songs, which are going to be very interesting to record. The women have also spent more time in the village, and less time in Lome, which generally appeals to me. Each individual has their own strengths, and each team has its own strengths. The challenge is to find those strengths, and to take advantage of them.
Both teams are eager to give me more words. Every word, brings up a host of new words: homonyms, tonal minimal pairs, and morphologically related words. The consultants barely need any prompting at all. As we go along, the words pour in, and I just try to keep up with recording and transcription.
The men brought in a little nut/fruit (called eve L.LH) that boys use to play a game with. So far, we have been unable to get the French, English or scientific names for it. So I only have the Ewe word. But they both know the game, and I told them we would make a video of them playing. One of the men owns palm trees (edegble), and he produces sodabe (hard traditional liquor) to sell. He promised to take me there to taste the fresh palm wine (with very little alcohol). That will be a great opportunity for photos and more words.
We finished the session with a long talk about traditional religion, witchcraft and evil spirits (gbOgbO baDa). For example, we talked about the question of whether you can blame the witch for doing witchcraft. My thesis, which people did not really agree with, is that one cannot blame the witch, because the witch is also under the influence of evil spirits. I did not really do any recording, since we became absorbed in the debate, all of which was in Kpelegbe. The topic picked up everybody’s general energy level for the last half hour of the morning.
July 2
The morning is lovely and cool. There is a kind fog all over everything, so I cannot see the hills in the distance. I sit on my porch, with the breeze hitting my back, waiting for my consultants to show up.
The clock strikes 8:00am, and nobody is here. 8:10 and nobody is here. I send a small child to go check on my consultants. Ten minutes later, a consultant rushes to my house saying that her child is ill with malaria. He threw up when he tried to eat this morning, so they have to send him to the hospital in the next village over. But once he is sent there, she will come.
I know that this child has been sick with malaria for about three days already. I see him every day. They tried to wait it out, figuring eventually the malaria would go away. But in this case, it got much worse. So now, they are justifiably panicking.
Of course, I understand, the health of the child is way more important than the work. So I just take it in stride. But I ask, where is her work partner. The teams have two people, in this case two women. She says that the partner will stop by her house and they will come over together. I just take that in stride too. Finally, around 8:40 they arrive ready to work. Given the circumstances, I am amazed that we are able to work at all today.
I start with recording words in Kpelegbe. Surprisingly, I have never recorded these words. When I first started fieldwork, I did not realize the importance of recording. We go from word to word, getting recordings and working on translations. I get a new French word that I did not know before, varan ‘monitor lizard’ in English.
A novelty: I have never worked in the field with the use of the internet. Since 1990, I have been going to the field, and I have never had the internet. Today, I did. I used Chatgpt to help me with translations into French. I probably need to check all of these with a good French dictionary later on. Let me see what else I can do with the internet, now that I have it.
Then, I bring up the topic of songs. I sing them a song in Ewe, which I butcher in various ways, so they sing it for me. It turns out, they love to sing. Then a whole flood of new songs comes out, one after the other. These are not church songs. They are traditional Kpelegbe songs. I tell them Friday to dress up a bit, and I will get videos of the songs.
It is wonderful to be working on Kpelegbe again. The consultants are trying their best. They bring me kola nuts and other things to show me, so we can record the Ewe words. I forgot to bring the ‘dead cat’ for the mic, and one of the consultants suggested I throw a small towel over it. Actually, that works. It dampens out the air bursts pretty well.
So we are overcoming all the obstacles one by one.
We stop the session early, so the consultant can go check on her child. Afterwards, she returns to tell us that her child is back from the hospital. He did indeed have malaria, and he got a shot. She is visible relieved. I thank God for helping her.
That was my first day back on the job.
July 1
Tomorrow, I start some consultant work. I have lined up two teams, two women and two men, neither too young nor too old. We have settled on times and days and remuneration. Everything is ready to go. How did I find the teams? In these first few days, lots of people are coming by to greet me. They all know me and my wife. So they stop by the house to chat with me a bit. From those people, I just picked the ones that I thought had a good grasp of Kpelegbe, and who did not seem to be mixing with Gengbe too much. I said, “I am doing a project on Kpelegbe, would you like to help me?”. At this stage, all conversation with everybody is in Kpelegbe. I claim that I do not know any French, which blocks any attempt to communicate with me in French.
I have a very rough dictionary of Kpelegbe which I started in 1990 (less than a thousand words), but I have no recordings of the words or sentences. Except for some oral texts, I have no recordings of Kpelegbe at all. Very bad. My whole fieldwork routine, involving the recording of words and sentences evolved over time. During my first major projects on Kpelegbe and =Hoan, I recorded oral texts, but I did not really record elicitation sessions. That was a huge mistake! By recording individual words and sentences, one has a ready-made database that one can check back on at any time. For a syntactician it is super convenient. I do not really have this resource right now for either Kpelegbe or for =Hoan, but for later languages (like Sasi and Kua), I have thousands of recordings. I constantly refer back to these files. At this point in my career, I record everything.
My goal for this month goal is to (a) record the words in the existing dictionary, (b) transfer the dictionary from handwritten notes to Word, (c) check the meanings of the words, (d) check the transcriptions of the words, (e) add English translations, (f) add a few example sentences, (g) add additional words when they come up. If I can get a solid e-version of the dictionary with at least 1,000 words by the end of the month, I will be super happy. I also want to record some oral texts with some elderly people who I have met in the village. Can I record at least five oral texts by the end of the month?
The workers are still filing in and out of the house installing the toilette and shower. The work is supposed to end today, which means tomorrow I can start taking showers in the new bathroom and using the toilette. In the meantime, when the need arises, I have arranged to use the toilette of a relative in town. It is only about a five-minute walk, so not too bad. The only drawback is that on the way the neighbors are all greeting me and trying to engage me in conversation. Normally, I would really like that. But when mother nature calls, you have got to heed her.
June 29
In the village, with an internet connection, which I just got today. Actually, I have both an internet connection on my computer (Wifi called A Cesar), and I have a smart phone for Whatsapp (with Togo Cel). The miracle of the internet in the village!
We arrived yesterday from Lome, after a three-hour trip. It takes about an hour and half to reach Kpalime from Lome, and then another hour from Kpalime to the village. So with stops and such, it is a three hour trip. It is a bit like going to Diphuduhudu in Botswana, which is just over three hours. Surprisingly, the road from Lome to Kpalime is beautiful. No holes. No sand. Just a very nice paved road (angemO).
My house in the village was not really ready for me. The house is becoming a headache. The workers were filing in and out of the bathroom all day yesterday, working on the toilette and shower. With the workers came throngs of children wanting to watch the workers, but who had no really business being in the house. To make matters worse, nobody had lived in the house for a while (years?), so there was a thick layer of dust over everything, and construction materials lying about, even in one of the bedrooms. Starting with the kitchen, I paid a couple of kids to clean it up with water and sweeping. But the rest of the house is still pretty dirty. There is even a lot of dust in the bedroom.
Any qualms I had about sand and dust in the Kalahari desert are completely dwarved by the dusty nightmare of the house. I am not exaggerating. The whole of the Kalahari desert is less of a problem that the dust in this house. But I only have a month here, so I am trying to stay in good spirits regardless.
I had some great talks today with people. I am locating my research teams, two ladies and two men. I want to work with several teams, to get a feel for the kinds of consultants I can find. I talked with some old people about getting oral texts. It occurs to me that thirty years of work on language documentation in Botswana has really given me such confident direction. I know what I have to do at each step-in order to produce what I want to produce.
I have not been to the village in about 15 years, and there have been some fairly huge changes. For one thing, there is running water everywhere. In the past, all the water came from the stream (tOme). That was not so long ago. Also, many of the houses are electrified, with lights. In the past, the 1990s, people still used kerosene lamps (kaDigbe). I remember that very well. Another change: many people have smart phones, so you can call them by Whatsapp, and leave messages. I am communicating with a lot people in Togo by Whatsapp now. Also, there are more shops in the village now. More is available just on the street (including wifi).
But still the village is much calmer than Lome. No thick throngs of zemidjan. It is a completely different environment, much more suitable to my tastes.
On the schedule for tomorrow: (a) visit the chief, (b) visit a relative in distant part of village, (c) let workers finish the toilette and shower, (d) go biking as far as I can on Kpalime road.
Hopefully by Wednesday or Thursday I will be working with teams! Wish me luck. And the main project there is to verify the dictionary that I have already written, and to start to add to it. I think it should be fairly easy to get 2,000-3,000 words in Kpelegbe (but not during this trip). I also want to make some video recordings of oral texts. If I were able to make 5-10 of these in the next month, I would be very happy.
June 25
There is a well in our compound (vudo) from which we get all of our water. It round and built with cement, and has the date 16-02-99 scrawled on the side. But I think it is older than that, since I saw it there in the 90s.
The well has a small bucket attached to a blue rope, which is attached to a board laying across the top. To get water, you just drop the bucket down, and then after a moment, pull it up. It takes me exactly 13 pulls to get the bucket up from the water. So the water starts at around 13 meters. I don’t know how deep it is.
It is lucky for us to have a well in the compound. Most compounds in Lome do not have such a well. Either you pay to get running water installed, or you go and buy water from somebody who has running water (25 CFA for a large bucket full) or you get it from a friend. Since we have boarders in the compound, people are going back and forth all day long drawing water for showers and cooking.
When the water comes up, it is cool and fresh, and looks clear and uncontaminated, but who knows what is in it. Who knows what kinds of things get into the ground water. So I am still drinking bottled water, because I am afraid of getting diarrhea. But I use the well water for everything else (e.g., showers).
I like to draw the water myself, since it is a kind of exercise, good for the arms. It takes me 13 pulls to get the water up, and I need to draw water 5 times to fill the shower bucket. So that is 75 pulls. It is a nice little exercise set. If I take several showers, and also use water to flush the toilette, I get some good strength training in, like lifting light weights.
But my hosts are horrified to see me drawing water. In part, it is because I am their guest (amedzro), and they do not want me to do any work at all. They want me to be as comfortable as possible. In part it is because I am Yovo (‘what man’), and they all firmly believe that I am not able to do such things because of my inherent physical weakness as Yovo. If they see me at the well, they drop everything they are doing and rush over to make sure I don’t draw water on my own. Even a sick person, with malaria or other serious health problems, would rather draw water for me instead of seeing me draw it on my own. Protests do no good. There is no compromise or bargaining. I simply am not allowed to draw water. So I need to be a bit sneaky about it, waiting until everybody is occupied with some other task, or sitting outside under the tree (agbodzi). Then I rush over and draw a few buckets.
The temperature in Lome is not really that elevated, between 80 and 85 Fahrenheit. But since the humidity saturates the air (around 90 percent), it is nice to take at least two showers a day. I go biking in the morning, and then rinse off (kpala ngti). At night before going to sleep, I take my shower. If I go anywhere during the day, when I get back I rinse off right away, since I will be hot and sweaty. All of this is in the service of keeping cool, making sure my body temperature does not go too high.
In comparison, in Botswana I never really felt a pressing need to take showers. The air there is really dry and is much more comfortable, even at temperatures over 80 Fahrenheit. It is not even really necessary to take a daily shower. But in Togo, not taking a daily shower seems unthinkable.
June 22
In my quest to understand the differences between Botswana and Togo, I put together this earlier blog post:
https://ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com/2020/02/ten-cultural-differences-between-togo.html
In this post, I extend the picture with some general statistics comparing Togo and Botswana. I got these the lazy way through Chatgpt, without verifying sources.
A few of the things that stand out differentiating Botswana from Togo: (a) lower population density, (b) higher per capita income, (c) less humidity, (d) no malaria. I am deeply embarrassed to think that these factors might have played a role in drawing me to Botswana throughout the years.
Population
Botswana is roughly 10 times as big as Togo, but with a quarter of the population. This means the population density in Togo is over 40 times that of Botswana.
Population of Togo: 9.62 million (January 2025)
Population of Botswana: 2.54 million (January 2025)
Area of Togo: 56,785 km2
Area of Botswana: 581,730 km2
Population density of Togo: 169 people/km2
Population density of Botswana: 4 people/km2
Population of Lome: 1.5 million (city), 2.19 million in broader metropolitain area. (2022)
Population of Gaborone: 246,000 (city), 535,000 in metropolitain area (2022)
Note: The population of Lome is at least four times the population of Gaborone.
Income
Powered by diamonds and a stable political system, Botswana is a relatively wealthy country. Botswana, especially Gaborone, has a sizable middle-class. Whereas the middle-class in Togo is far less developed. But it is important to not be misled by the statistics: there is a sizable population of very poor people in Botswana, especially in remote rural areas and in many urban areas.
Income per capita of Togo: 1,030 dollars (2023)
Income per capita of Botswana: 7,620 dollars (2023)
Togo ranking by per capita income in Africa: 41st
Botswana ranking by per capita income in Africa: 4th
Togo’s corruption ranking in Africa: 27th least corrupt
Botswana’s corruption ranking in Africa: 3rd least corrupt
Infant mortality in Togo: 43/1000 (2023)
Infant mortality in Botswana: 27/1000 (2023)
Climate
Togo is a tropical country (except for the north), with high humidity and rainfall and higher average temperatures. Botswana is mostly located in the Kalahari desert (except for the north). As a result, the malaria rate is much higher in Togo than Botswana.
Average Humidity of Lome: 83-85%
Average Humidity of Gaborone: 55-60%
Average rainfall in Lome: 35 inches per year
Average rainfall in Gaborone: 20 inches per year
Togo incidence of malaria: 1.89 million cases, 3,600 deaths (2020)
Botswana incidence of malaria: 1,100 cases, 0 deaths (2020)
Gaborone coldest month: July, 39-45 Fahrenheit at night.
Lome coldest month: August, 72-73 Fahrenheit at night.
June 19
What a rush! What a wonderful feeling! I just took my first bike ride in Lome.
The bike ride has two parts. First, to get to the paved road (ange mO), I need to ride on a sandy road filled with potholes for about 10-15 minutes. I got stuck in the sand a few times, and hit a few big potholes, but came through in pretty good shape.
I went behind Cite Mokpokpo (one of the few middle class residential areas in Lome), and it took me directly to the main road (Kpalime mO dzi). Alongside of the main road, which is basically a four-lane highway, there is a small service road. People do use the service road, but it is far less congested than the highway, and the traffic is much slower. So, in what I consider to be a minor miracle, I have a reasonable place to ride my bike in the morning.
As I said, the gears are a bit rickety, so I just tried to stay in one gear. This meant that riding uphill was great aerobics, and riding downhill was just coasting. Fortunately, there are not many hills, and they all have a very gradual slope.
I was surprised to see a few middle-class walkers in the morning, something which I saw every day in Gaborone. I saw a couple (man and woman about 40 years old), and one more man. They stick out clearly from the rest of the crowd in that they are dressed in nice sports clothing, and look like they are engaged in physical exercise, instead of hustling to do something or the other.
I only biked about 40 minutes, which was enough for a first ride. I came home, and took a cold shower (kpala ngti). I am finally caving in to the two shower a day idea, which I resisted for a while.
My next task is to find a mechanic, in case problems come up.
June 18
My main form of exercise in life is bike riding. In NYC, I am completely setup. I have a street bike and a stationary bike for snowy days. I have the pump, water bottle, helmet, spare tubes, and tire irons. I have my favorite bike shop a few blocks away, where everybody knows my name. Everything I need for day-to-day biking.
When I travel, and biking is not possible, I have a little series of stretches and aerobics in the morning, which substitutes for biking. But aerobics are not really my thing, I enjoy biking much more. I get much more of rush from biking than from aerobics. It makes me relaxed and clears my mind. So I decided to buy a bike in Togo. This is the first time I have done so.
I woke up this morning with the plan to go to the Lome port to buy the bike. For some reason, I cannot locate any real bike stores in Lome. Maybe they exist, but I don’t know of them. There was an excellent bike store in Gaborone, called Ultimate Cycle Base (Sebele Mall, Gaborone). In Botswana, I bought my bike there and had it serviced there all the time. They were really excellent, very professional and not too expensive. They made owning a bike in Gaborone a real pleasure. But as far as I know, there is no equivalent in all of Togo.
In fact, as far as I can see there is not much biking going on in Togo. Some people take their bikes to work in the morning, but you rarely see them on the street. There is no pleasure or sports biking at all.
Around 8:30am, I took a zemidjan from Adidogome to Ecobank, not so far away (300CFA), and found a long line under the burning sun waiting to use the ATM. They person at the ATM was involved in some lengthy and complex ATM interaction, so the line did not budge for a while. One notable detail: there were two armed guards in soldier uniforms holding machine guns. So that is different from Botswana too, where there are no armed guards in front of ATMs. Generally, in Botswana, there is a person assigned to watch over the functioning of an ATM, usually a woman (but not always). But no soldiers and no machine guns. I have to find out whether such security is only for Ecobank or for all ATMs.
After waiting for about 20 minutes, and breaking a sweat, I finally got to the head of the line and took out 200,000 CFA for the bike expenses. Then I called a Gozem from Ecobank, which took about 20 minutes to come. I probably wasted about an hour all together at Ecobank.
The port is far, you need to go to the eastern part of Lome, down near the ocean. And when you get in, the port itself is huge. I was told to go to area ATI 1, which is an area for selling cars. When we arrived, the driver did not know the location, so I called IB who is my brother-in-law (my wife’s sister’s husband) to give us directions.
IB graciously agreed to help me buy the bike. He works as a car seller at the port, so he knows the ins and outs. He sent his assistant, OS, to guide me through the process. OS took me by car to the bike selling area, which was basically a sidewalk next to a busy street. To try out the bikes, I had to ride along side of the flood of honking zemidjans on the street. That in itself was nerve racking.
Where I went, there were no new bikes. All of them were second hand. I do not know if there is an area in the port where I can buy a new bike. I did not even ask. The first three bikes they brought me to try were way too small. I am 6’ 4’’ over 300 pounds, so most bikes are too small. Then the next bike had huge tires, perhaps five inches in diameter. I think it was some kind of cross-country off road bike. I was not interested in that, to the great surprise of the bike sellers. Finally, after trying four different bikes, they bought me one I liked more or less. Mostly importantly it is big enough for me use. I asked them to change the seat from a narrow seat to a wide seat, and they complied with no extra cost.
The bike is a 300 TFS Crossway Merida. If you buy it new (as I found online), it costs 860 Euro, which is almost 1000 dollars. That is about the same quality as the bike I have in the US. It has an aluminum frame so it is lightweight. The pedals work well, supporting my weight with no problem. The wheels do not wobble. The frame is not bent. On the other hand, the gears are a little rickety, taking a lot of pressure to change, and not changing all the way. My strategy for now is just to find a decent gear setting, and leave it there. Also, there is an annoying squeak coming from somewhere on the bike.
The bike seller said the price was 120,000 CFA because of the gear system, which he called ‘hydraulique’. I was skeptical, but I did not want to spend the day bargaining. So I got him down to 115,000. I also bought a pump (7,000 CFA) and two spare tubes (2,000 CFA each). They charged me total of 125,000 CFA. That is around 210 US dollars. So that is quite reasonable for a second-hand bike. If I were Togolese, perhaps I could have gotten them down another 10,000-20,000 CFA. But for a Yovo (white person), the seller really sees an opportunity of a cash boost, and will not go that low
Like butterflies, little children (under 10 years old?) descended upon us. Each was holding a little accessory for the bike, a water bottle, reflectors, a little bell. They each had their own little product to sell. I did not want any of the products, so I waved them away. But I felt guilty about it, since they all seemed so earnest.
After I paid, they needed to give me 5,000 CFA in change. But apparently, the bike sellers expected a tip (‘cadeau’), so we started to negotiate for that as well. As usually, there was lots of pleading and explanation on both sides. A typical Togolese commercial encounter. I said 5,000 CFA was too much for ‘cadeau’ and demanded to get my change. Finally, after three or four requests, and a direct appear to my helper OS, they gave it to me. In return, I gave them 1,000 CFA for ‘cadeau’. They did help me buy the bike after all. Some seemed happy, but others were disappointed that selling a bike to a Yovo (‘what person’) did not pay bigger cash dividends.
Finally, I called a Gozem (not Eco size, but Taxi size, because of the bike) and got a lift home. I arrived home about 1:00pm, and took a cold shower (kpala ngti), and then drank some little bags of cold water (tsi fafe), to cool off my body from the intensely hot Togolese sun.
Tomorrow morning, I will ride it for the first time. I am very excited.
June 15
Today, I went to a more traditional church, the Eglise Evangelique Presbyterienne Du Togo, located not far from where I am staying in Adidogome Wessome (Paroisse Aflao Avedzi). This church is sometimes called EPP Church by the anglophones.
The church hall is large, two stories high, with a very high roof of corrugated steel. By my estimation there were probably 1,000 people in that hall. The pulpit was a semicircular raised structure on the front wall, above where the church members were sitting. The pastor had a mic, so that everybody could hear. The service was only in Ewe, no English, no French. But the sound was a bit distorted, so I could not catch everything.
The serviced with songs from the EPP church hadzigbale (songbook), and there were songs by different choral groups throughout the service. This led into aseyetsotso (celebration) where everybody gets up and dances in a kind of line dance around the benches in the church. Then there was gbefaDeDe (which is basically news about the church), after that the pastor launched into the sermon. Even though the pastor cited passages from the Bible, there was not a separate reading of those passages.
After the sermon, there was gadzOdzO (collecting money), and an auction. For the collection, they do not pass around a plate. Rather everybody goes to the front, dancing a little jig, and drops in their money. For the auction, People brought in things to sell to raise money. This time there were things like: oranges, pineapple, palm oil, a chicken, fonio (a grain), and a sugary milk drink called dEgE (which I had never heard of before). Apparently, they have the auction every week to raise money.
Then, they gave a final benediction, and the service was over. The whole thing took only two hours from 9:00am to 11:00am.
The spirit of the service was different from the spiritual church that I described last week (remember gbOgbOmetsOtsi). It was more subdued, and organized around the sermon, prayer and traditional Ewe singing. It was not focused so much on receiving the holy spirit. There was no rock band at the center of it all. I did not see any electric guitars this week, and the drumming was all by Ewe traditional drummers (not a modern drum kit). There were no electronic screens projecting scripture. Nobody started screaming, nobody fell to the ground, there was no speaking in tongues. Of course, there are different kinds of spiritual church, so others might be a bit different.
The topic of spiritual churches is something I want to look into further. I believe that they are kind of hybrid between the Christian church and traditional African religions, which may account for their huge popularity in Africa.
EPP church fits my personality better than the spiritual church, which I find exhausting.
June 14
This last week (Tuesday-Saturday), I taught introduction to syntax to a group of nine English master’s students at the University of Lome. Two of the students were female, seven of them male. The participants also included Professor Essizewa, professor of English linguistics, and M., his assistant. Most of the time, there were 11 people present.
Prof. Essizewa was my student and collaborator at NYU. I wrote to him several years ago, and told him I would like to teach a short course at the university, but I had to delay several times. Finally, everything came together this summer. Without Professor Essizewa, it would not have been possible to organize this course.
I taught from 9am to 12noon, with a break from 10:30am to 11:00am. Then I met with one or two students each day for about half an hour after the course. During the meetings, I talked to them about their master’s projects, and also about studying in the United States. After that, Prof. and I went to the faculty cafeteria to eat. That meal cost exactly 3,500 CFA each day, which is less than seven dollars. This is where I learned of the fufu pounding machine. Then, on most days, I called Gozem to pick me up, arriving home by around 2:30pm.
One of the wonderful things about the course was the variety of languages present: We had Ewe (four speakers), Mina (related to Ewe, one speaker), Moba (three speakers, including M.), Kabiye (two speakers, including Prof.), and Fulfulde (one speaker). These languages came up in various ways during the course. In just a short period of time, I learned many things (including about Ewe).
My idea was to teach them introduction to syntax, using the minimalist framework, in particular the operation Merge, as a pedagogical tool. The basic schedule went as follows:
Day 1: What is syntax? UG, I-language.
Day 2: Merge and constituent structure tests.
Day 3: TP, CP, DP.
Day 4: practice tree drawing (the whole day).
Day 5: Internal Merge and then optional presentations.
There were three presentations: one on focus in Moba, one on VP-fronting in Ewe, and one on postpositions in Kabiye.
The students had a high level of English, but were a bit shy. So I learned all of their names and started calling on them by name. That helped. It also helped that they had some background in syntax, including some basic knowledge of generative grammar and some knowledge of Role and Reference Grammar.
I tried to focus on basic skills. For example, one basic skill is to have them look at a tree, and tell me what does not work in that tree (e.g., is the constituent structure correct, is the labeling correct, etc.). So everybody in the class had lots of opportunity to draw trees on the board, then we as a class would discuss them, and try to improve upon them. Instead of embarrassing the students, this exercise had the effect of empowering them. I told them that the only way to learn a topic well, is to make mistakes, and understand how to fix them.
On the last day, the students presented me with a beautiful piece of cloth that they had bought at the grand marche (asigame). It meant that they appreciated my effort, and that they wanted to show me their appreciation. I love that piece of cloth so much. I am going to have nice African style outfit made, and then I will wear it at NYU when I teach.
I want to run the school again next year. I already have ideas to make it better for the students: 1. I think it should be two weeks, instead of one. That way, we could go fairly deeply into a few topics, and consider them at leisurely pace. In a one-week course, it is very tempting to rush through material. 2. I will try to come up with stipends for next time. Even a small stipend would help the students with expenses associated with the school, such as food and transportation. 3. If I have two weeks, I can require a small project proposal in syntax by the end of the two weeks. Each student would write a three-page proposal on some topic in syntax. Then perhaps, some of them will pursue those projects for their master’s project.
June 14
On the zemijan, the wind rushing past us, I clasp the driver’s shoulders. He doesn’t object, even if it is unusual. The Togolese do not grab hold of anything while riding on the back of a zemijan. Their hands just dangle to side, or maybe hold a purse held in their lap.
I feel clearly that there is only a thin porous membrane between the reality where I live and the reality where I fall off the zemijan and hit my head on the pavement. As we drive, I can picture it. Just one bump, and I go down on the ground. So I am terrified.
Of course, we have helmets. If you are caught without a helmet, the charge is 5,000 CFA, for which you will not receive a receipt. So everybody, with rare exceptions, wears a helmet. But the helmet I have been given is too small for me. It barely fits on my head, and the strap does not reach around my chin. If I fell, it would just pop off, and I would be a dead man. But the driver says that even if the strap is not fastened, the soldiers are satisfied. So I jump on, and off we go.
June 14
Tragedy strikes. My cell phone fell into a bucket of water. No Gozem today. No Whatsapp. I am on my own with the zemidjan to get to school. I have no way to contact people. I am all of the sudden back in 1985, and in the Peace Corps. Roughing it.
I went to bathe last night around 6:30pm, by which time it is already getting dark out. The bathroom is nice, with a toilette and a shower stall, but there is no lighting there. Also, there is no running water. So I turned the light of my cell phone on, and perched it on the sink to take a bucket shower. Piece of advice: never perch your cell phone above the water bucket when you are taking a bucket shower.
I started digging around in my toiletry bag for my razor, and the bag bumped up against my cell phone, which then fell into the watery abyss. I snatched it our right away, and the light was still on, but it started to ficker, so I turned it off. My niece rushed the phone to the “depanneur”, who now has it. We will hear the verdict today at 3:00pm. Can it be repaired, or is it dead? If dead, then I need to buy a new phone.
Overall, I am proud of my response. When it happened, I said “shit!”, but felt no emotion at all. No anger, or frustration, or depression, or regret. It was as if my life was a train and it branched off on another set of tracks. I just felt, “OK, what now?”. Then I started to think of the next steps. I wish I could apply this model more generally.
June 11
Off to teach at the University of Lome. My mode of transportation is Gozem, which is a version of Uber used by the Togolese. It has the advantage of being able to locate your coordinates precisely, so the driver can find you. There are generally no street signs in Togo, and people do not know the names of streets. Within neighborhoods, there are thousands of nameless small streets and passageways, all of them are dirt roads filled with potholes. But if you call the taxi on Gozem, it generally arrives within 10-15 minutes, and you are off. Another benefit is that Gozem calculates the fare, in terms of distance travelled. So there is no haggling over price. Of course, the alternative is the ever present zemijan, which I described in an earlier post. But you risk head injuries with that, so the taxi is preferable whenever possible.
For all of my adult life, I have taken a stance against smart phones, never buying and never using them. I feared the presence of more technology in my pocket, drawing me in, like social media and the internet can draw one in. I have seen so many students obsessively attached to their smart phones, and I did not want that for myself. But Togo has finally broken me. Because of Gozem and Whatsapp, I need to have a smart phone in Togo. I guess it is the beginning of the end for my private individual mental life.
My taxi trip goes from Adidogme Wessome to the University of Lome, near the mosque found on campus. I have a very nice airconditioned classroom in a newly built building, with a whiteboard and markers. I am teaching a small set of master’s students in the English linguistics program. Evidently the notice was also sent to the French linguistics program, but none of their students showed up. My lectures are all in English, and the question are all in English too. Since the students are master’s students, their level of English is high, but they don’t get much of a chance to practice speaking English, since Togo is a francophone country. Also, the students seem a bit shy to me, but I am calling on them by name, so that brings them out of their shells.
I am teaching certain parts of my undergraduate linguistics course (we call it “Grammatical Analysis I”). I assembled the notes, and had them sent by e-mail to the students. I call it “A Minimalist Introduction to Syntactic Theory”, mostly because I make heavy use of Merge in introducing phrase structure and movement. But it is not meant to be a comprehensive introduction to minimalism, since I do not get into issues like Agree. The students mostly just read the notes from their phones or computers. I did not make any paper copies at all. There is no need to.
The students have learned syntax in their program, but it is Role and Reference grammar. I actually know nothing about that framework. It strikes me that it is not very widely used in the United States. Mentally, I associate it with Robert Van Valin and Buffalo University. Maybe it is more widely used in typology literature. I make a mental note to do some research on it later.
On the ride home from the university today, I got a Gozem and was charged 4,125 CFA (which is 7 dollars and 19 cents). Even though it is a ridiculously low price in the American system, it is just about double the usual price for my route. I told the driver that it was double the usual price, and he told me it was because it was raining, and there was a “marjoration”. I think he cheated me, but I cannot quite figure out how.
June 8
Yesterday, I went to church, Eglise de la Percee Divine, located just down the block from where I am staying (cartier Adidigome Wessome). The name translates to “Church of the Divine Breakthrough.” I cannot find very much information about them online, but apparently, they came to Togo just a few years ago.
They are what the Togolese Ewe call gbOgbOme tsOtsi (O = open “o”). Literally, this means “breathing church” (to indicate a "spiritual church"). It now covers the wide array of non-Catholic churches that all seem to be in the Pentecostal tradition. There is a lot of emphasis on the holy spirt, receiving the holy spirt (gbOgbO kOkOE), intense praying, people falling into trances, etc. There are many such little splinter churches.
This church in particular seemed to be organized around a kind of rock band, including two electric guitars, a modern drum kit, an electric piano and a trumpet. Singers used mics that were connected to two massive speakers off to the side. Most of the church involved that band playing music in some way or the other. Even when the sermon was being delivered, they played along as background music. The prayers seemed to be accompanied by even louder background music. Since the room was not that big, the sound resonated loudly everywhere. When I left the building, I felt like I was going deaf.
Off to the side, there were some traditional Ewe drums, but they were only used once when the traditional choir sang, otherwise, it was just the rock band that provided music. That is unfortunate, since I love the sound of traditional Ewe drums, which are played quite a bit in the EPP church that I go to in the US.
At other times, there were singers holding mics, leading the church in song. The songs got the whole congregation (around 200 people) dancing energetically. Finally, one large lady just in front of us raised her hands and started screaming and spinning. As she fell to the ground, she hit several rows of plastic chairs which were all quickly cleared away. Once on the ground she continued shaking and screaming. Eventually, after around 5 minutes, they whisked her off somewhere to the side. I did not see where they took her.
The room had fans everywhere, on the ceiling and on the sides, trying to diminish the Togolese humidity and heat. But for me, the fans added another source of noise, making it hard to hear the sermon. The sermon itself was delivered in English, French and Ewe. I think that they were speaking English because that day they had some American visitors. Once something is said in one language, it is immediately translated to another. Usually, the pastor will say something in Ewe, and it will be immediately translated to French. You might think this would be a great way to pick up Ewe and French, but the sound was distorted, and there was lots of other noise in the room (including the fan, and the band’s background music). So I hardly heard anything. Even when they spoke English, I barely understood it.
They had three large electronic screens hanging from the ceiling. When the sermon started, they projected a Bible verse onto the screens in French, which formed the basis of the sermon. Somebody would read what was projected, then the pastor would take over commenting on it. The verse was about feeding children before feeding dogs, and how dogs will still eat the crumbs that fall from the table. When the screens were not projecting verse, there was a picture of what seemed to be wheat fields, with clouds rolling over them.
The church started early the morning (around half past seven?) and ended after one in the afternoon. Apparently, it went on a bit long because of the visitors. I arrived at 9:00am and left at around 12:00noon, since I had a previous lunch appointment with a colleague. The length of the service may have also had something to do with the fact that today is Lundi de Pentecote, which is a national day off (jour ferrier) in Togo. Apparently nobody is going to work day.
That was my Sunday morning at church.
June 7
I took my first ride on a zemijan today. It is a motorcycle you pay to go places. I needed to buy some shampoo, so I took the zemijan from my residence in Adidogome, to the Champion in Adidogome. When I was in the Peace Corps, we did not have zemijan, nor did we have Champion. As for the latter, there was an SGGG in the heart of Lome that we as volunteers used to go to from time to time. It was basically a small modern supermarket, it is now been replaced by Champion and a few other chains (Ramco).
I seem to recall that public transportation in that epoch was arranged around taxis and small transportation vans. Am I misremembering? I don't recall ever taking a zemijan, so it is something relatively recent. I believe the term zemijan itself comes from Fongbe, and that the Togolese borrowed the concept and the term from Benin. It is basically a way for the many unemployed to make a little money, transporting people around on the back of a motorcycle. It is by far the main form of public transportation now, with Gozem (a form of Uber) coming in second.
I hopped on the back, and put my feet on the little foot stands. I am 6'4'', over 300lbs, so I am a bit big for a comfortable ride. I kept thinking I would pop off the back and hit the street. As a result, I clasped onto the driver's shoulders, which Togolese never do: they ride without holding anything, just putting their hands to the side. The helmets that they have do not fit me, so I used my own biking helmet. It worked just as well.
The driver was chatty so he was asking me how I learned Ewe. Since the wind was blowing, and we were in traffic, I could barely hear him. As we were driving he said, "Should I run fast" in Ewe, since he wanted to accelerate. I told him "Don't run fast, please".
As with all purchases, the usual bargaining starts from Yovo prices. Yovo is "white person" in Ewe. The driver wanted 1000 CFA (two dollars), which I knew was not the price. So it took a few back and forths, and pleading on both sides, before I got him to a reasonable approximation of the right price 500 CFA. It does not bother me, I just count it as practice in Ewe.
That was my first ride.
June 7
When I was in Botswana, I lived in Block 6, which is a middle class neighborhood of Gaborone. It is no different from many other such neighborhoods. In fact, I would say that more than half of Gaborone looks like Block 6. Every house in Block 6 has the following items: AC, TV, wifi, geyser (water heater), running water, security fence, security door. Inside the house, there will be a kitchen and a nice bathroom (with a porcelain toilette and shower stall). People do not take bucket showers in those houses. Many of them have garages or places to park the car, and a large number have beautiful rock and tree gardens.
These houses belong to professionals of various kinds, including government workers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, business people. The neighborhoods often contain a mix of Batswana and other nationalities, especially Indians. Everybody seems to get along fine.
But then, there id a street that dividesBlock 6 from Mogoditshane (a town on the outskirts of Gaborone). On one side of the street there is a nice middle class neighborhood, and on the other there are the lower income households of Mogoditshane.
The point of this message is that in Lome, it is very rare to find neighborhoods like Block 6. Rather, most of Lome (with a few exceptions) is like Mogoditshane. To me, this suggests that the middle class in Lome is not very big, as compared with Gaborone. I am not talking about absolutes -- there are wealthy people in Lome and poor people in Gaborone. Rather, I am talking about statistics. A significant fraction of the people in Gaborone live a middle class life, whereas the vast majority of the people in Lome are struggling to get by day by day, week by week. I definitely could be off in this assessment, but that is the impression I have.
Bottom line: Botswana is a relatively wealthy country in Africa, and Togo is a relatively poor one. Living in one is a completely different experience from living in the other. In some ways, living in Botswana is a lot like living in the US. To get food, one goes to a supermarket and buys food. In fact, most of the Botswana shop in places like Choppies in Gaborone. But very few Togolese shop in supermarkets in Lome (even though they are becoming more and more common). Rather, they buy their food in open markets and from vendors and small shops dotting the city.
June 7
After the Togolese have welcomed me this last week with open arms and their characteristic sense of humor, to learn of this travel ban is a shame for me. I am ashamed of my government.
June 5
The biggest problem I encountered arriving in Togo was the loss of my luggage. I left the US on May 31 and arrived in Abidjan on Sunday June 1st. Then I left Abidjan June 1st to go to Lome. As I mentioned previously, my flight in Abidjan was delayed twice, so we left at around 11:00pm, and arrived after midnight. To my horror, my luggage did not arrive with me, and so I left the airport with the clothes on my back. Monday, I went back to the airport to check, but I forgot to bring the "declaration" of loss with me, and so they would not let me into the airport. I told the man: "Ca, ce n'est pas bon.", and he responded: "Donc, il faut aller fair ce qui est bon." On Tuesday, I went back with the declaration in hand, driving back and forth to the airport in an Uber, at least an hour each way. Still no luggage. Finally, I just called them up on Wednesday, and they said my luggage was back. So I collected it. I feel that what I have learned in Togo so far is the skill of retrieving lost luggage from the Lome airport.
June 5
In Togo with an internet connection! Everything is a lesson now. Everything is new again. First impressions of Lome, before I forget. Once you get on to the streets, it is swarming with people. The country is small, but the population per area is large (compared to Botswana, for example). So Lome is packed. What magnifies the impression is the terrible presence of the zemijan. Most people get around nowadays by hiring a motorcycle. You ride on the back, and it takes you wherever you want to go for a small fee. Unlike Botswana and Ghana, there do not seem to be any combis or trotro (small vans that transport people to different locations). The public transportation section is basically the zemijan. So the streets are a total mess. There are some cars and taxis driving around, but they are surrounded by a throng of zemijan. And this means there are lots and lots of accidents, as I know from personal experience now. Driving from the market to my relative's house, a motorcycle hit the back of our taxi, smashing the window and blowing it out. THUMP! There was glass all over the place. Luckily none of us got hurt, nor did the motorcycle driver. But it just shows how congested things have become.
June 1
Saving grace, silver lining, hidden gem: The airport at Abidjan has a shower! I just took a shower. This nearly makes up for everything, including the double delay and 10 hour layover. What a refreshing treat. The air conditioning is weak. The storm clouds are overhead. The tropics press against the windows, and I have had a nice shower.
I am supposed to leave at 10:00pm and arrive at 11:30pm. But they have changed times twice already. The people picking me up have had to be notified twice, and they are now skeptical themselves. They are asking questions.
The journey enters its final stage.
June 1
I am in the business class lounge in Abidjan. The flight went without problems, and I even got some sleep in. Believe it or not, even business class feels a little tight for me, since I am tall and heavy at the same time. When I tried to change money in the airport, they directed me to the pharmacy, which is where you change money in the airport. In my broken French, I tried to express to the pharmacist that the usual situation involves a special store/shop whose function it is to change money. She was completely unimpressed, and just said something about being able to change "en bas" if I had a police escort. Now, I am here until 10:00pm at night. So I just need to pass the day in the lounge.
June 1
Guess what! I am flying business class. Part of the reason is that it is a bit cheaper on Air Ethiopia, so I can afford it. I believe this is the first time I have purchased a business class ticket, instead of being given an upgrade for one reason or the other. What do you get for it? First, check-in is shorter. You have your own line, and nobody is in that line. So instead of waiting an hour, it is instantaneous. That is a perk, right? Then there is the lounge, which is fully stocked, dinner, snacks, wine, beer, comfortable chairs, wifi, just a level of comfort up. BTW, these people in the lounge they look like regular people to me. So we are all just here, having found some way or the other to creep onto business class. Then on the plane, the business class cabin has fewer people and is spacious, with its own restroom. The seats are wider and bigger, and lie flat at night for a nap. So the sharp edges of long distance travel are dulled just a bit with business class.
May 31
I am having problems with my computer, so I will keep this short. I am in the T7 Horizon Lounge at JFK, awaiting my Air Ethiopia flight at 10:00pm. Check-in was a breeze, but security took half an hour in a slow line. Now, I rest up a bit in the lounge. Air Ethiopia has created a network all over Africa. They fly to all the countries, and are cheaper than their American and European competitors. I know they fly to West Africa quite a bit, and they were also in Botswana. So they are kind of like the combi/trotro service for all of Africa. I fly into Abidjan after a 10 hour flight (compared the usual 16 hour flights to SA), then I have a long layover of about 10 hours in Abidjan. AIr Cote-d'Ivoire has already changed by flight time twice. The original layover was a reasonable 2 hours, not it is 10. From what I have heard, this kind of delay is common for them. But there is no other way I am getting to Lome, so I must abide.
May 30
My last full day on US soil, until tomorrow I am on the road again. "On the road", the great American novel, captured the spirit in-detail, but add to that a sense of scientific discovery, and it is really a heady trip. To go to a foreign land, and by doing so, to learn something about yourself that you could have never known otherwise.
My only goal: Set things up for an Ewe research project lasting the next three to five years. Keep my expectations low, and then I will be sure to meet them. Enjoy the moment, enjoy the process. Live on the road and let beautiful wondrous things happen to me.
