At first glace, walking down the street in Togo isn't that different from any other third-world nation. You've got livestock. There are a lot of people just chillin. You can get amazing fruit.
But stop and just receive it all, and you come away with some interesting things.
1) The Togolese love Bruce Willis.
I learned that Togolese people literally think Bruce Willis is a superhero. The knock-off video stores are filled with Bruce Willis movies. It's like Plato's Allegory of the Cave: if all you've ever seen of Bruce Willis is him jumping off tall things and killing people you'd think he was a superhero, too. Maybe he is.
2) The Togolese love to ride bikes.
Upon French colonization, motorbikes were introduced instead of cars. Wherever you are in Togo you are just as likely to take a cheap Korean-made moto as you are to take a taxi for transportation. It's cheaper, more fun, and you're more likely to get killed.
3) The Togolese love to ride bikes while listening to songs about riding bikes.
You are now officially up on some serious West African hip-hop. Also, they speak French there. Also, most of their music sounds like this. Also, Togolese people hate French people.
4) You can cook a goat's head.
I don't have a picture, but it's for real. I've seen it.
5) There are few things like FanMilk.
This is more of a relative lesson. If you're like me, you grew up eating sugar and other simple carbs on the average of about 10g an hour. But in Togo (or anywhere in West Africa) going for days, perhaps weeks, without sugar is common. That means, that when my American tastebuds were reunited with sugar in the form of FanMilk, the reaction was an insulin orgasm.
Holla at Fan-man.
