Travelling 9 days through the whole country was an interesting experience. During that time we visited 7 schools and had to realize that in Togo are way more interested students than adequate schools. It will be a challenge to build new schools but the plan is to construct one or two new 3 classroom buildings with office and storage space at each location. Hopefully those new buildings will be constructed within the next year. I hope those new school buildings will give the students the opportunity for a better future. Thank you all for your warm welcome.  

Market in Kara

Kara is a city in northern Togo, situated in Kara Region, 413 km north of the capital Lomé. Kara is the capital of the Kara region and, according to the 2010 census, had a population of 94,878. The Kara River flows through the city and is its main resource of water. Originally known as Lama-Kara, the city developed from the village of this name that still exists into an administrative centre. Etienne Eyadéma was born in the nearby village of Piya.

Kara includes a busy market place, numerous hotels, banks, the Prefecture, a brewery and the Congress Hall which was the seat of the Rally of the Togolese People Party before the advent of democracy. Niamtougou International Airport is located 40 kilometers north of Kara.

Fetish (Vodoo) Market in Lome

Voodoo is an animist religion indigenous to West Africa that spread across the Atlantic to Haiti and Brazil with the slave trade. There are over 40 different gods, or fetiches, in the voodoo religion, and each god selects his feticheur, or fetish priest with whom he will communicate through dreams, broken shells, and other means. The conversations between the gods and the fetish priests take place in the priests’ hut or shacks, where they usually construct small statues to act as channels for communication.

Got a big test coming up? Powdered chameleon will help you pass with flying colors. Training for a marathon? Rather than protein powder, try horse’s skull. Or, is unrequited love getting you down? A simple wayinoue, or love charm, should convince your future partner of your true worth. Whatever your ailment is, the traditional healers at the Akodessewa Fetish Market in Lome, Togo have a solution. From buffalo skull to antelope horn, desiccated cobra to bear skin, the healers, or fetish priests, in West Africa’s largest “Marché des Fetiches” have a world of decaying animals at their fingertips, ready to be ground up, burned, imbibed, or whatever else the gods may decry. Sitting under a shady tree in the center of an open plaza, Elias Guedenon, the son of one of the market’s fetish priests, describes Akodessewa as something of a pharmacy for practitioners of the voodoo religion. But this market has one striking difference from the others dotted across Togo and its eastern neighbor, Benin, where leopard heads and dog skulls and secret herbs can be purchased to cure everyday maladies. At the Fetish Market in Togo’s capital, voodoo practitioners and tourists alike can, with the help of a fetish priest, consult the gods directly to discuss whatever is ailing them.