Its been a few days since my last entry but internet access in Togo is very slow and seemingly unreliable. Has now been a week since I left Edinburgh and I think I have everything in place. Have a few venues in both Accra and Lome to watch the footy.
Togo was an experience never to forget. After passing through the border, looking at armed soldiers menacingly staring back at you, taxi drivers pounce, many trying to persuade you to get into their car. The pace of life in Lome seems more frantic than Accra, especially on the crowded streets around the Grand Marche.
Saying that, they did have the best way of getting around. Moped taxis are the transport of choice and for about CFA200 (25p ish), they'll take you to most places in the downtown area. Got some great video clips of travelling on one.
The language barrier proved very tricky. It was harder to approach people and talk to them about football and their country but with a combination of my (very) broken French couple with broken English on the part of the Togolese, I did get something out of the trip. The mindless optimism of the Ghanaians pales in comparison to the Togolese. At least Ghana convincingly won their last two warm up matches with Togo only managing to beat the mighty Liechtenstein 1-0. Most people I spoke to believed that Togo would win the World Cup, only a handful believed that they would get knocked out in the 2nd round but no-one thought that they wouldn't progress past the group stage. One man predicted a Togo-Germany final (idiot). When their belief was challenged (after all, I pointed out, Togo was the lowest ranked country in their group, they had an abysmal African Nations and a coach who hardly knew the team), I was told that in the past, African teams had surprised everyone and this year would be Togo's time. The fighting spirit of the team was strong and there was great motivation when playing France. One person told me that their colonial history meant that Togo had the opportunity to reverse the situation (as with Senegal last time).
What did surprise me was that from all the national football shirts I saw people wore yesterday, 21 were English, only 3 were French and 4 Togolese. When I approached a few of the English shirt wearers, I was told that although they weren't English, they liked/ admired the team, especially Rooney, Owen, Lampard, Beckham and Gerrard. Numerous Premiership shirts were worn as well, Chelsea with essien on the back were seemingly the most popular although there were some Arsenal shirts (I asked them why and all said because of Adebayor). Saw a Crystal Palace shirt as well as an Airdrie one!
Like Accra, there was little in the way of decoration for the World Cup and like Accra, I was told that it was down to a lack of organisation.
Everything seems set for a good 2 weeks of solid footy watching. I wish it would never end.
