Living in Dapaong, Togo compared to Milwaukee, WI
1. Often electricity goes out a few times a day (or more).
2. 100 degrees Fahrenheit in February.
2. 100 degrees Fahrenheit in February.
3. You don’t stop to kill every bug you see, just the creepiest ones.
4. It’s always hot. Even in the mornings when the guards are wearing their long sleeves and it feels nice to us, it’s still actually hot.
5. 1 month (or more) of dust in Milwaukee = 1 day of dust in Dapaong.
6. You have to clean every day, not only because of the dust, but all the dead bugs that didn’t make it through the night.
7. Things break way too easily.
8. Occasionally the water goes out for a few hours (or more).
9. Often people don’t drive the right direction.
10. People - even children! - can walk, ride bikes, herd cattle, sell stuff, and take naps on the national highway.
This video was taken in August during the rainy season. Not much has changed, except for the lack of puddles, the craziness is very much normal.
I had to trim down the video a lot to upload it to my blog, this is probably 1/3 of the road through Dapaong. Dapaong is known as a market town. You can see a lot of little shops along the road where people try to sell things that they've bought off of semis traveling through Dapaong from the port in Lomé to Burkina Faso. Imagine a town wide garage sale and that's pretty much Dapaong every day of the year. Many clothes and shoes that are donated to Africa from Goodwill or other donors can be found here for very cheap.
