Benin and Togo part 5: A last jaunt through the Tatas

For our last jaunt we went up to Natti, a town where there is a house for Peace Corps volunteers. We stayed there and enjoyed the company of the local volunteers before jumping in yet another cramped car to head toward the Tatas.

The car traversed the beautiful hills of Benin. Down through a town that was a series of mini-fortresses made from mud (the Tatas). We wound up in a larger town to discover we had already passed the town that we wanted to visit. With some patience and an odd French man we found a taxi-motorcycles that drove us across the border into Togo and through another series of Tatas.

The Tatas themselves resemble the courtyards that we live in here in Burkina. However, the buildings are in closer proximity and the walls were 2 to 3 times taller. They were clearly meant to protect whoever lived inside. I kept saying that when I get back to village I would build a majestic Tata of my own. I am not sure what my village would think of that.

The trip took us to a town in the top third of Togo. We were planning on staying, but the police station couldn't help us with our Visas (I was the only one that had a multi-country Visa). So, we ventured northward. It was rough getting a car for a reasonable price until one that was passing by stopped and gave us a good price. We couldn't take that car because we were still waiting for our friends to get back from visiting the police station.

Once we got into a car we discovered that the road was terrible. It was less than a single lane and falling apart. Huge semi-trucks would be coming toward us head-on and our tiny car would be forced to off-road for a bit. At some point we passed the car that had originally given us a good price completely totaled on the side of the road. It was not a fun ride.

We stayed in a town that I think is called Dapaong. Unfortunately, we didn't do any of the sight-seeing in Togo that we had planned aside from the Tatas. The town we stayed in was cute and compact. We were next to the marche and sampled some of their local cheese. People in Togo seemed markedly less nice than our Burkinabe brethren, but after all we were on the final stretch of our journey.

The next morning we took a taxi to the border town and walked across the border without any problems. On the other side we met some Lutheran missionary students. It was funny to see the looks on their faces when I told them we were there for the voodoo festival.

On the Burkina side of the border we immediately felt at home. The people on the car back to Ouaga were very nice. We were able to talk in local languages. All was right in the world again.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Airtel Burkina Faso.